小说第12章篇首,劳伦斯描写了初夏时的山林景象:
“午饭后,康妮直接去了林子。这真是可爱的一天,第一波蒲公英开着太阳似的花,第一波雏菊是那么的白。榛树丛半开的叶子和最后一波尘土色垂直的柔荑花絮,是一幅蕾丝作品。黄色的小白屈菜扎着堆儿,平平地张开,紧迫地往回压,闪烁着黄色的光芒。这种黄色,是初夏的有力的黄色。报春花盛开,褪去了苍白,浓密大丛的报春花不再害羞。深绿色的风信子郁郁葱葱,如一片苍海,向上举着淡玉米般的花蕾。跑马道上,勿忘我乱蓬蓬长着,耧斗菜展开墨紫色的褶饰,灌木丛下还有一些蓝鸟的蛋壳。处处都是蕾芽和生命的飞跃。
守林人不在小屋里。一切是那么宁静,棕色的小鸡肆意奔跑着。康妮走向小屋,因为她要去会他。
小屋在阳光下,在树林的边缘。小花园里,重瓣的水仙花丛簇拥着,靠近敞开的门,红色的复瓣雏菊长在小径的边界。一声犬吠,弗洛西跑了过来。”
(Connie went to the wood directly after lunch. It was really a lovely day, the first dandelions making suns, the first daisies so white. The hazel thicket was a lace-work, of half-open leaves, and the last dusty perpendicular of the catkins. Yellow celandines now were in crowds, flat open, pressed back in urgency, and the yellow glitter of themselves. It was the yellow, the powerful yellow of early summer. And primroses were broad, and full of pale abandon, thick-clustered primroses no longer shy. The lush, dark green of hyacinths was a sea, with buds rising like pale corn, while in the riding the forget-me-nots were fluffing up, and columbines were unfolding their ink-purple ruches, and there were bits of blue bird's eggshell under a bush. Everywhere the bud-knots and the leap of life!
The keeper was not at the hut. Everything was serene, brown chickens running lustily. Connie walked on towards the cottage, because she wanted to find him.
The cottage stood in the sun, off the wood's edge. In the little garden the double daffodils rose in tufts, near the wide-open door, and red double daisies made a border to the path. There was the bark of a dog, and Flossie came running.)
这初夏的树林,各种野花盛放,不再害羞的报春花象征着康妮饱满澎湃的情欲。她的心已经在森林里,要去找那个如潘神般存在的男人,来满足自己的生理需要。
(白雏菊)
(复瓣红雏菊)
(报春花)
(小白屈菜)
(耧斗菜)
(榛树的柔荑花)
(葡萄风信子)
康妮与梅勒斯私会的那片山林,又被劳伦斯打造成了一片被现代工业文明包围的伊甸园。
小说第13章,康妮和克利福德去林子里散步。作者是这样描画晚春(或初夏)的山林的:
“在他们的前面展开着一条跑马道,两旁是榛树和美丽的灰色树木。轮椅缓缓地喘着粗气前进,在榛树的阴影上立着勿忘我,像牛奶泡沫似的,轮椅从上面经过。克利福德在路中心驾着轮椅,那只轮椅脚在花丛中经过,踩踏成一条小径。走在后面的康妮看着轮子碾过香车叶草和筋骨草,把金钱草的黄色花杯压碎。现在,这轮子唤醒了勿忘我花。
所有的花都在那里,蓝色水池里的第一波蓝铃花,像一潭死水。
‘你说的很对,这儿很美,’克利福德说:‘这太神奇了。有什么东西和英国的春天一样可爱!’
康妮想,他这话说的像春天的花开都是由议院来决定的。英国的春天!为什么不是爱尔兰的春天?或犹太人的春天?轮椅缓慢向前移动,经过一丛丛结实的像小麦一样站立起来的蓝铃花,压在牛蒡的灰色叶子上。当他们来到树木被伐光了的空旷地时,炫目的光线直射他们。满地鲜蓝的蓝铃花,间杂着淡紫色和紫色。在这之间,蕨菜抬起了卷曲的棕色头,就像一群小蛇,向夏娃窃窃私语一个新的秘密。
克利福德驾着轮椅,来到了小山顶上。康妮慢慢地跟在后面。橡树褐色的芽儿柔软地展开着,一切事物都从旧的粗糙中解脱出来,即使是弯曲嶙峋的橡树也发出了最柔软的幼叶,伸展着纤细的褐色的小枝翅,就像是阳光下的小蝙蝠的翅膀。为什么人类的身子里从来没有什么新鲜事物,使他们重返青春?迂腐的人类!”
(In front of them ran the open cleft of the riding, between the hazel walls and the gay grey trees. The chair puffed slowly on, slowly surging into the forget-me-nots that rose up in the drive like milk froth, beyond the hazel shadows. Clifford steered the middle course, where feet passing had kept a channel through the flowers. But Connie, walking behind, had watched the wheels jolt over the wood-ruff and the bugle, and squash the little yellow cups of the creeping-jenny. Now they made a wake through the forget-me-nots.
All the flowers were there, the first bluebells in blue pools, like standing water.
"You are quite right about its being beautiful," said Clifford. "It is so amazingly. What is quite so lovely as an English spring!"
Connie thought it sounded as if even the spring bloomed by act of Parliament. An English spring! Why not an Irish one? or Jewish? The chair moved slowly ahead, past tufts of sturdy bluebells that stood up like wheat and over grey burdock leaves. When they came to the open place where the trees had been felled, the light flooded in rather stark. And the bluebells made sheets of bright blue colour, here and there, sheering off into lilac and purple. And between, the bracken was lifting its brown curled heads, like legions of young snakes with a new secret to whisper to Eve.
Clifford kept the chair going till he came to the brow of the hill; Connie followed slowly behind. The oak-buds were opening soft and brown. Everything came tenderly out of the old hardness. Even the snaggy craggy oak-trees put out the softest young leaves, spreading thin, brown little wings like young bat-wings in the light. Why had men never any newness in them, any freshness to come forth with! Stale men!)
蓝铃花在欧洲古老的森林里很常见,每年四月底五月初,一片片蓝色的花开成了地毯。劳伦斯把数量如此之巨的蓝铃花形容为“蓝色水池”。他把蕨菜棕色的嫩芽头比作一群准备向夏娃倾吐秘密的小蛇,明显是受到圣经的《创世纪》篇的影响。而克利福德的轮椅象征着丑陋无情的工业文明,毫不留情地践踏着这个美好的伊甸园。
(勿忘我)
(蓝铃花)
(金钱草)
(筋骨草)
(牛蒡)
(蕨菜的嫩芽)
(香车叶草)
(英国橡树的嫩芽)
第15章,临去威尼斯前,康妮到林中小屋与梅勒斯会面。梅勒斯对康妮说:“所有现代的人都有一个乐趣,想把人类古老的人性情感都灭掉,把老亚当和老夏娃剁成肉酱。”(All the modern lot get their real kick out of killing the old human feeling out of man, making mincemeat of the old Adam and the old Eve.)— 他在形容现代文明对大自然的威胁时,把自己暂时避居的山林比作了伊甸园。
天色暗了下来,外面下起了暴雨,雷声轰响,康妮觉得呆在小屋里的他俩“仿佛是在洪水中的小方舟里”(It was like being in a little ark in the Flood.)。雨停了,梅勒斯离开小屋,从林子里采了一些植物回来,包括耧斗菜(columbines)、麦瓶草(campions)、新割的干草、橡树枝叶(oak-tufts)、打蕾的忍冬花(honeysuckle in small bud)等。这一对赤裸着身子的男女,用这些野花以及之前采来的勿忘我、蓝铃花和粉色麦瓶草(pink campion )等,来互相装饰对方的身体。文学评论家们认为,这段描写显然受了英国诗人米尔顿(1608-1674)的启发。他的长诗《失乐园》里有一个情景:当夏娃拿着禁果回来与亚当分享时,亚当正在伊甸园里为她编织花环。
(粉色麦瓶草)
(橡树枝叶)
(忍冬花)
亚当和夏娃因偷吃禁果被逐出了伊甸园。而现代人为了躲避工业文明的侵蚀,不得不暂时重返“伊甸园”。如此轮回,是否为一种莫大的讽刺?