ome of the rarest days of the year come in the September season-days when it is comfortably cool but pulsing with life, when the sky is clear and clean, the air crisp, the wind free of dust. Meadows still smell of hay and the sweetness of grass. September flowers are less varied than those of May but so abundant that they make September another flowery month. Golden-red comes by mid- August, but rises to a peak of golden abundance in early September. Late thistles make spectacular purple accents. And asters blossom everywhere, along the roadsides, in meadows, on the hilltops, even in city lots, ranging in color from pure white through all degrees of lavender to the loyal New England purple.

九月带来一年中最难得的几天，晴空万里，秋高气爽。秋风阵阵，却不带半点沙尘。天气凉爽，令人舒适，生命的脉搏却依然在跳动。草场上散发着干草的气息和碧草的清香。九月的鲜花不像五月的鲜花那么万紫千红，多彩多姿，却依然开得那么旺盛，使九月成为一年中另一个花季。八月中旬，大地开始变黄，九月初达到顶点——漫山遍野，一片金黄。晚开的蓟花，一片紫色，蔚为壮观。小路边，草场中，山顶上，甚至在城市的空地上，紫苑花随处可见，有的纯白，有的淡紫，有的绛紫，颜色不同，深浅各异。

We think of spring as the miracle time, when opening bud and new leaf proclaim the persistence of life. But September is when the abiding wonder makes itself known in a subtler way. Now growth comes to annual fruition, and preparations are completed for another year, another generation. The acorn ripens and the hickory nut matures. The plant commits its future to the seed and the root. The insect stows tomorrow in the egg and the pupa. The surge is almost over and life begins to relax.

在我们的心目中，春天是一个充满奇迹的季节。绽放的花蕾、新生的嫩叶，歌颂着生命的顽强。但九月却以一种更加奇妙的方式让人们感受到那永恒的奇迹。到了九月，一年一度的生长结成了累累硕果，为下一年，为新一代生长所做的准备已经完成。橡果、山核桃都已成熟，植物把自己的未来寄托在种子和根茎，昆虫则把明天储藏在虫卵或蛹里。蓬蓬勃勃的生长已近尾声，生命开始憩息静养。