《最後一戰》第76期:告別幻影世界(4)

Suddenly they shifted their eyes to another spot, and then Peter and Edmund and Lucy gasped with amazement and shouted out and began waving: for there they saw their own father and mother, waving back at them across the great, deep valley. It was like when you see people waving at you from the deck of a big ship when you are waiting on the quay to meet them.

"How can we get at them?" said Lucy.

"That is easy," said Mr Tumnus. "That country and this country - all the real countries - are only spurs jutting out from the great mountains of Aslan. We have only to walk along the ridge, upward and inward, till it joins on. And listen! There is King Frank's horn: we must all go up."

And soon they found themselves all walking together and a great, bright procession it was - up towards mountains higher than you could see in this world even if they were there to be seen. But there was no snow on those mountains: there were forests and green slopes and sweet orchards and flashing waterfalls, one above the other, going up forever. And the land they were walking on grew narrower all the time, with a deep valley on each side: and across that valley the land which was the real England grew nearer and nearer.

The light ahead was growing stronger. Lucy saw that a great series of many-coloured cliffs led up in front of them like a giant's staircase. And then she forgot everything else, because Aslan himself was coming, leaping down from cliff to cliff like a living cataract of power and beauty.

And the very first person whom Aslan called to him was Puzzle the Donkey. You never saw a donkey look feebler and sillier than Puzzle did as he walked up to Aslan, and he looked, beside Aslan, as small as a kitten looks beside a St Bernard. The Lion bowed down his head and whispered something to Puzzle at which his long ears went down, but then he said something else at which the ears perked up again. The humans couldn't hear what he had said either time. Then Aslan turned to them and said:

"You do not yet look so happy as I mean you to be."

Lucy said, "We're so afraid of being sent away, Aslan. And you have sent us back into our own world so often."

"No fear of that," said Aslan. "Have you not guessed?"

Their hearts leaped and a wild hope rose within them.

"There was a real railway accident," said Aslan softly. "Your father and mother and all of you are - as you used to call it in the Shadowlands - dead. The term is over: the holidays have begun. The dream is ended: this is the morning."

And as He spoke He no longer looked to them like a lion; but the things that began to happen after that were so great and beautiful that I cannot write them. And for us this is the end of all the stories, and we can most truly say that they all lived happily ever after. But for them it was only the beginning of the real story. All their life in this world and all their adventures in Narnia had only been the cover and the title page: now at last they were beginning Chapter One of the Great Story which no one on earth has read: which goes on forever: in which every chapter is better than the one before.

突然，他們把眼睛轉到了另一個地點，彼得、愛德蒙和露茜這就驚訝得連氣也透不過來，他們口中叫了出來，雙手也開始揮動起來，因爲他們看到了他們的父母，父母也隔着那又大又深的溪谷向他們揮手致意。這就像你看到人們在一條大船的甲板上向你揮手致意，而你正在碼頭上迎接他們。

“我們怎麼能和他們團聚呢？”露茜問道。

“那倒容易，”圖姆納斯說道，“那個國家和這個國家——都是真正的國家——都不過是從阿斯蘭的崇山峻嶺上突出來的山鼻子罷了。我們只要沿着山脊走去，向上向內走去，直到兩處連接的地方。聽呀，國王法蘭克的號角響了，我們大家都必須往上走了。”

不久他們就發現大家都走在一起了——好一個偉大而輝煌的行列——都在向上走向比你在這個世界裏能看到的高山還要高的崇山峻嶺，如果看得到高山的話。但這些崇山峻嶺上可沒有積雪：有的是森森林木、蒼翠山坡、芳香果園和閃爍瀑布，一個接着一個，永遠往高處綿延。而他們正在走着的土地始終在愈變愈窄，兩邊各有一個深谷，深谷那一邊的土地，便是真正的英國，愈走愈近啦。

前邊的光芒愈來愈強烈了。露茜看到一系列彩色的懸崖峭壁重重疊疊，像是巨人的磴道。接着她把其他種種都忘掉了，因爲阿斯蘭自己來了，從懸崖峭壁到懸崖峭壁往下奔騰，像是充滿力量和美麗的生動活潑的瀑布。

阿斯蘭首先呼喚的對象是驢子迷惑。驢子向阿斯蘭走去，你從未看見過一頭驢子像迷惑當時那樣虛弱和愚蠢的了：它站在阿斯蘭身邊，看上去小得就像站在聖·貝爾納身邊的小貓一樣。獅王俯下腦袋，在迷惑的耳邊低聲說了些話，聽到這話，迷惑的長耳朵垂下來了；但獅王隨即又說了些別的話，聽到這話，迷惑的耳朵又豎起來了，幾個人都沒法兒聽到獅王先後兩次所說的話。接着，阿斯蘭轉向人們說道：

“看來你們還不像我原來指望的那麼快樂啊。”

露茜說：“阿斯蘭，我們擔心你要把我們送走。你好幾次都把我們送回我們自己的世界去的。”

“不用擔心，”阿斯蘭說道，“你們沒猜到嗎？”

他們的心怦怦直跳，內心裏升起了瘋狂的希望。

“確實發生過一次火車事故，”阿斯蘭低聲說道，“你們的父親和母親以及你們大家都死了——正如你們慣常所說的，到影子國土去了。學期結束了，假期開始了。夢做完了：現在是早晨了。”

阿斯蘭說話時，他不再像一頭獅子那樣對着他們直瞧；但以後開始發生的事情是那麼偉大和美麗，所以我無法描寫。對我們說來，這就是所有故事的結局，我們能最最真實地說，從此以後，他們大家幸福地生活下去了。但對他們說來，這僅僅是真正故事的開端。他們在這個世界裏的一切生活以及他們在納尼亞的一切奇遇，僅僅是一本書的封面和扉頁：現在他們終於把這偉大故事的第一章開了個頭。這偉大的故事，世界上的人不曾讀過，這偉大的故事會永遠繼續下去：每一章都比前一章更精彩。