Later, as I stood above the tide near the entrance to the pool, the promise of that rosy light was sustained. From the base of the steep wall of rock on which I stood, a moss covered ledge jutted seaward into deep water. In the surge at the rim of the ledge the dark fronds of oar weeds swayed smooth and gleaming as leather. The projecting ledge was the path to the small hidden cave and its pool. Occasionally a swell, stronger than the rest, rolled smoothly over the rim and broke in foam against the cliff. But the intervals between such swells were long enough to admit me to the ledge and long enough for a glimpse of that fairy pool, so seldom and so briefly exposed.
And so I knelt on the wet carpet of sea moss and looked back into the dark cavern that held the pool in a shallow basin. The floor of the cave was only a few inches below the roof, and a mirror had been created in which all that grew on the ceiling was reflected in the still water below.
Under water that was clear as glass the pool was carpeted with green sponge. Gray patches of sea squirts glistened on the ceiling and colonies of raft coral were a pale apricot color. In the moment when I looked into the cave a little elfin starfish hung down, suspended by the merest thread, perhaps by only a single tube foot. It reached down to touch its own reflection, so perfectly delineated that there might have been, not one starfish, but two. The beauty of the reflected images and of the limpid pool itself was the poignant beauty of things that are ephemeral,existing only until the sea should return to fill the little cave.
中文参考译文
后来，当我在高于海潮的水潭入口处附近站着时，四周已是瑰红色的晨光。从我立足的峭岩底部，一块被青苔覆盖的礁石伸向大海的最深处。海水拍击着礁石四周，水藻上下左右地飘动，像皮面般光滑发亮。通往隐藏的小洞和洞中水潭的路径是那些凸现的礁石。一阵强于一阵的波涛悠然地漫过礁石的边缘并在岩壁上击成水花。这种波涛间歇的时间足以让我踏上礁石，足以让我眺望那仙境般的水潭，那平时不露面、露面也只是一瞬间的水潭。
我跪在那海苔藓铺成的湿漉漉的地面上，向那些黑洞里窥探，就是这些黑洞把水潭环抱成浅盆模样，只见洞的底部距离顶部只有几英寸。真是一面天造明镜。洞顶上的一切生物都倒映在底下纹丝不动的水中。
在清明如镜的水底铺着一层碧绿的海绵。洞顶上一片片灰色的海蛸闪闪发光，一堆堆软珊瑚披着淡淡的杏黄色衣裳。就在我朝洞里探望时，从洞顶上挂下一只小海星，仅仅悬在一条线上，或许就在它的一只管足上。它向下接触到自己的倒影。多么完美的画面！仿佛不是一只海星，而是一对海星。水中倒影的美，清澈的水潭本身的美，这都是些转眼即逝的事物所体现的强烈而动人心扉的美——海水一旦漫过小洞，这种美便不复存在了。