The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places. It has changed throughout the years, as I and my circumstances have changed. I haven't really lost any of the best places from the past, though. I may no longer inhabit them, but they inhabit me, portions of memory, presences in the mind...My best place at the moment is very different, although I guess it has some of the attributes of that long-ago place. It is a small cedar cabin on the Otonabee river in southern Ontario. I've lived three summers there, writing, birdwatching, riverwatching. I sometimes feel sorry for the people in speedboats who spend their weekends zinging up and down the river at about a million miles an hour. For all they're able to see, the riverbanks might just as well be green concrete and the river itself flowing with molten plastic.
在这个国家里我最喜欢的地方其实一直有很多。这些年来，由于我们自己和情况的变迁，我最爱的地方也随着改变。虽然如此，过去我喜爱过的任何一个地方我并没有真正地失去它们。我或许不再居住在那儿，但它们却存在于我的心里，成为我记忆中的片段，时常浮现在脑海中……此刻我最喜爱的地方相当不同，但我想它仍具有和老早的那个地方（即明湖，Clear Lake）相同的某些特质。这个地方是安大略省南方奥托拿比河边的一间松木小屋。我在那儿居住了三个夏天：写作、赏鸟、观河。有时候我为那些来此地度周末，却驾着快艇以极速在河上往来呼啸的人感到难过，因为这些人看见的河岸只不过是绿色的混凝土岸，而河流本身也仿佛只是条闪亮的流动塑料。