There was once a town in the heart of America where all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings. The town lay in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms, with fields of grain and hillsides of orchards where, in spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of colour that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxes barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the autumn mornings.
【解説】
直読直解の感じで意味の固まりごとに訳をつけていきます。
[1] There was once a town /
かつて街があった
in the heart of America
アメリカの中心部に
［where / all life seemed to live /
（どんな街かというと）
あらゆる生命が生きているように思えた
in harmony with its surroundings］.
環境と調和して
seem to do ～するように思える
in harmony with ～ ～と調和して
surroundings 環境
[2] The townlay /
その街はあった
in the midst of a checkerboard of prosperous farms,/
