我的故乡蓬莱是个偎山抱海的古城，城不大，风景却别致。特别是城北丹崖山峭壁上那座凌空欲飞的蓬莱阁，更有气势。你倚在阁上，一望那海天茫茫，空明澄碧的景色，真可以把你的五脏六肺洗得干干净净。
Penglai,my hometown,is a town lying near both mountain and sea.The ancient town offers distinctive scenery though it is not a large one indeed.Like a bird taking wing,Penglai Pavilion is an especially overwhelming presence located on the cliff of Danya Mountain.One will feel purged from within as long as he takes a look at the crystal clear sea merging into the lawns of aquamarines,the blue light of the high sky.
这还不足为奇，最奇的是海上偶尔出现的幻景，叫海市。小时候，我也曾见过一回。记得是春天，雾蒙天，我正在蓬莱阁后拾一块被潮水冲的溜光滚圆的玑珠，听见有人喊：“出海市了。”只见海天相连处，原先的岛屿一时不知都藏哪儿去了，海上劈面立起一片从来没见过的山峦，黑苍苍的，像水墨画一样。
But none of these can be mentioned in the same breath with the mirage that occasionally appears beyond the sea.I was lucky enough to have caught a glimpse of it when I am a little boy.It was a misty spring day.I heard someone shouted "It is the mirage!" when I was just to pick up a wave-washed round pebble behind Penglai Pavilion.I looked up and found the islands were nowhere to be found.A hill that I had never seen before,with dark color like what one could find in traditional Chinese ink paintings,popped up above the sea.
满山都是古松古柏，山峦时时变化着，一会儿山头上幻出一座宝塔，一会山洼里又现出一座城市。又过一会儿，山峦城市渐渐消下去，越来越淡，转眼间，天青海碧，什么都不见了，原先的岛屿又在海上重现出来。
The hill was clothed in pine and cypress and everchanging,a tower loomed up on the hill top,and then a city in the valley.Within a while both the hill and the city faded out,too dim to be seen,and became invisible in an instant,There was nothing left but the blue sky and sea decorated by islands there.
这种奇景，古时候看到过的文人墨客，往往忍不住要高声咏叹。且看蓬莱阁上那许多前人刻上的诗词，多半都是题的海市蜃楼，认为那就是古神话里流传的海上仙山。 （选自：海市， 作者：杨朔）
Many ancient poets and scholars could not help singing to this marvellous sight.A glance at the poems and lyrics engraved on the Penglai Pavilion and you will found them are mostly about the mirage.The poets believed it to be the fairy hills mentioned in ancient legends,a place where the immortals dwelled.(From Yang Shuo's "Mirage")