As Anman sat brooding and pining for his lost self, one of Swimmer’s creekside stories rushed into his memory with a great urgency and attractiveness. Swimmer claimed that above the blue vault of heaven there was a forest inhabited by a celestial race. Men could not go there to stay and live, but in that high land the dead spirit could be reborn. Swimmer described it as far and inaccessible region, but he said the highest mountains lifted their dark summits into its lower reaches. Signs and wonders both large and small did sometimes make transit from that world to our own. Animals, Swimmer said, were its primary messengers. Inman had pointed out to Swimmer that he had climbed Cold Mountain to its top, and Pisgah and Mount Sterling as well. Mountains did not get much higher than those, and Inman had seen no upper realm from their summits.

英曼坐在那儿沉思，苦想他迷失的自我，突然斯云麦说过的一个河畔故事迫不及待地闪现在他的记忆里，极具诱惑力。斯云麦曾说过蔚蓝的天穹之上有一座森林，那里是神灵的栖息地。凡人无法涉足、存息，但死去的灵魂可以在那片天上净土上获得重生。他把那说成是个遥不可及的地方，可也提过最高的山峦上高耸黑黝的峰顶可以触及神地的底部边缘。大大小小的奇迹异象有时会从神地反映到尘世间来，而山上的动物是其主要的信使。英曼曾告诉过斯云麦，说他曾爬到冷山的顶端，还有毗斯迦山和斯特灵山。这些几乎是最高的山了，可他从来没在这些山的山顶看到过什么神地。

There’s more to it than just the climbing, Swimmer had said. Though Inman could not recall whether Swimmer had told him what else might be involved in reaching that healing realm, Cold Mountain nevertheless soared in his mind as a place where all his scattered forces might gather. Inman did not consider himself to be a superstitious person, but he did believe that there is a world invisible to us. He no longer thought of that world as heaven, nor did he still think that we get to go there when we die. Those teachings had been burned away. But he could not abide by a universe composed only of what he could see, especially when it was so frequently foul. So he held up to the idea of another world, a better place, and he figured he might as well consider Cold Mountain to be the location of it as anywhere.

斯云麦说过登山的意义远远大于登山本身。英曼虽然记不起斯云麦是否说过关于到达那平复伤痛的神地的其他什么意义，但屹立于他心中的冷山的确是可以重新唤起他所有力量的地方。英曼并不认为自己是个迷信的人，但他相信确实存在着人们肉眼无法触及的世界。他不再认为那里是天堂，也不再认为那是我们死后之所归。所有这些说教在他心中已燃烧殆尽。然而他觉得肉眼所见的并不是这个世界的全部，而且肉眼所见的往往是肮脏的。于是他信奉另一个世界，一个更好的世界，而他也大可以把冷山当作这一世界的所在，就像他可以随便想象任何地方一样。