THE FOREST as large and thickly overgron ith all kinds of leaf-bearing trees. Usually, it is cold this time of year and it even happens that it sno, but this November as relatively arm. You might have thought it as summer except that the hole forest as stren ith fallen leaves－some yello as saffron, some red as ine, some the color of gold and some of mixed color. The leaves had been torn don by the rain, by the ind, some by day, some at night, and they no formed a deep carpet over the forest floor. Although their juices had run dry, the leaves still exuded a pleasant aroma. The sun shone don on them through the living branches, and orms and flies hich had someho survived the autumn storms craled over them. The space beneath the leaves provided hiding places for crickets, field mice and many other creatures ho sought protection in the earth.
At times during cold and stormy nights, Trufa ould plain: “My time had e, Ole, but you hand on!”
“What for?” Ole asked. “Without you, my life is senseless. If you fall, I'll fall ith you.”
“No, Ole, don't do it! So long as a leaf can stay up it mustn't let go.”
“It all depends if you stay ith me,” Ole replied. “By day I look at you and admire your beauty. At night I sense your fragrance. Be the only leaf on a tree? No never!”
“Ole, your ords are so seet but they're not true,” Trufa said. “You kno very ell that I'm no longer pretty. Look ho rinkled I am, ho shriveled I've bee! Only one thing is still left me－my love for you.”
“Isn't that enough? Of all our poers love the highest, the finest,” Ole said. “So long as e love each other e remain here, and no ind, rain or storm can destroy us. I'll tell you something, Trufa－I never loved you as much as I love you no.”
“Why, Ole? Why? I'm all yello.”
“Who says green is pretty and yello is not? All colors are equally handsome.”
And just as Ole spoke these ords, that hich Trufa had feared all these months happened－a ind came up and tore Ole loose from the tig. Trufa began to tremble and flutter until it seemed that she, too, ould soon be torn aay, but she held fast. She sa Ole fall and say in the air, and she called to him in leafy language: “Ole! Come back! Ole! Ole!”
But before she could even finish, Ole vanished from sight. He blended in ith the other leaves on the ground, and Trufa as left all alone on the tree.
So long as it as still day, Trufa managed someho to endure her grief. But hen it gre dark and cold and a piercing rain began to fall, she sank into despair. Someho she felt that the blame for all the leafy misfortunes lay ith the tree, the trunk ith all its mighty limbs. Leaves fell, but the trunk stood tall, thick and firmly rooted in the ground. No ind, rain or hail could upset it. What did it matter to a tree, hich probably lived forever, hat bee of a leaf? To Trufa, the trunk as a kind of god. It covered itself ith leaves for a fe months, then it shook them off. It nourished them ith its sap for as long as it pleased, then it let them die of thirst. Trufa pleaded ith the tree to give her back her Ole, to make it summer again, but the tree didn’t heed her prayers.
Trufa didn't think a night could be so long as this one—so dark, so frosty. She spoke to Ole and hoped for an anser, but Ole as silent and gave no sign of his presence.
Trufa said to the tree: “Since you've taken Ole from me, take me too.”
But even this prayer the tree didn't acknoledge.
After a hile, Trufa dozed off. This asn't sleep but a strange languor. Trufa aoke and to her amazement found that she as no longer handing on the tree. The ind had blon her don hile she as asleep. This as different from the ay she used to feel hen she aoke on the tree ith the sunrise. All her fears and anxieties had no vanished. The aakening also brought ith it an aareness she had never felt before. She kne no that she asn't just a leaf that depended on every him of the ind, but that she as part of the universe. Through some mysterious force, Trufa understood the miracle of her molecules, atoms, protons and electrons－the enormous energy she represented and the divine plan of hich she as a part.
Next to her lay Ole, and they greeted each other ith a love they hadn't been aare of before. This asn't a love that depended on chance or caprice, but a love as mighty and eternal as the universe itself. That hich they had feared all the days and nights beteen April and November turned out to be not death but redemption. A breeze came and lifted Ole and Trufa in the air and they soared ith the bliss knon only by those ho have freed themselves and have joined ith eternity.
词语注释:cral n. 爬行;缓慢的行进 cricket n. 蟋蟀,板球 fragrance n. 芬芳,香味 languor n. 怠惰,疲倦,无气力 leafy adj. 叶茂盛的,多叶的, 叶状的 overgron adj. 长得很快,杂草丛生
