那时的如水月光：英汉对照(txt+pdf+epub+mobi电子书下载)

作者：常青藤语言教学中心

出版社：安徽教育出版社

格式: AZW3, DOCX, EPUB, MOBI, PDF, TXT

那时的如水月光：英汉对照试读：

［德国］塞缪尔·乌尔曼 / Samuel Ullman

塞缪尔·乌尔曼（1840—1920），犹太人，出生于德国，1851年随家人移民到美国密西西比。乌尔曼虽以教育家和社会活动家而闻名于世，但在文学创作方面也很有才华。他的《青春》因为麦克阿瑟将军的推崇而广为传颂。

Youth is not entirely a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.

Youth means the temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, of the appetite of adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than in a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.

Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair—these bow the heart and turn the spirit back to dust.

Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being' s heart the love of wonder, the sweet amazement at the stars and the star like things, the undaunted challenge of events, the unfailing child-like appetite for what-next, and the joy of the game of living.

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station, so long as it receives message of beauty, hope, courage, grandeur and power from the earth, from man and from the Infinite, so long are you young.

When the wires are all down, and all the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then, and only then, are you grown old indeed.

青春不是年华，而是一种心态；不是玫瑰般的脸庞、红润的嘴唇和敏捷的双腿，而是坚韧的意志、丰富的想象力，以及无穷的激情；青春是生命深处的一股清泉。

青春意味着勇气多于怯懦，青春意味着喜欢冒险而讨厌安逸。拥有此种品质的人之中，六十岁的老人往往多于二十岁的年轻人。没有人只因年龄的增长而年老，人们往往因放弃理想而迈入年老。

岁月可使肌肤长满皱纹，但放弃激情则使心灵布满灰尘。焦虑、疑惑、畏缩、恐惧和沮丧都会挫伤心灵，磨损意志。

不管是白发老人还是青春少年，每个人的心里对新奇事物皆充满着喜爱，对星星和类似星星的东西皆有好奇之心，敢于挑战，对未知事物的孩子般的渴求之心，乐于享受生活带来的乐趣。

我们因充满信心而变得年轻，因心存疑虑而变得年老；因自信而年轻，因心存恐惧而年老；因充满希望而年轻，因满怀沮丧而年老。

人人心里都有一座无线电台，只要接收到来自地球、人类和宇宙的美好、希望、勇气、庄严及力量，就会变得年轻。

当心灵的天线倒下，心如大雪般的悲观、如冰块般的愤世嫉俗时，那时，唯有那时，我们将真正老去。

心灵小语

青春是一种品质，每当你睁开双眼，决定以微笑迎接崭新的一天，青春就像小鸟，已经落在你心里了。

词汇笔记

supple ['sʌpəl] adj. （身体）柔软的；灵活的

That which was dead, or so it seemed, has come to life again—the stiff branch, supple; the brown earth, green.

那些死去的生命和看上似乎已经死去的生命，重获生机，僵硬的

树枝柔软了，褐色的土地变绿了。

temperamental [temprə'mentl] adj. 不可靠的；易怒的；易激动的

She was an intelligent, attractive and somewhat temperamental

daughter of a well-to-do doctor.

她的父亲是一位非常富有的医生。她聪明、美丽，但就是有点喜怒无常。

timidity [ti'miditi] n. 胆怯；羞怯

Timidity is the bridge to dejection.

怯弱是通向消沉的桥。

grandeur ['ɡrændʒə] n. 宏伟；壮观；富丽堂皇

For truly he did not foresee the catastrophic ending, and had allowed himself to be blindly compromised under promise of power & grandeur.

他确实没能预见到灾难性的后果，盲目地向权力与名誉的允诺妥协。

小试身手

没有人只因年龄的增长而年老，人们往往因放弃理想而迈入年老。

岁月可使肌肤长满皱纹，但放弃激情则使心灵布满灰尘。

我们因充满信心而变得年轻，因心存疑虑而变得年老。

These bow the heart and turn the spirit back to dust.

turn back：往回走；阻挡；翻回到

When the wires are all down, and all the central places of your heart are covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism.

be covered with：被……盖满；充满着……快乐吧！Be Happy!

［英国］劳埃德·莫里斯 / Lloyd Morris

劳埃德·莫里斯（1613-1680），英国作家，作品富于机智幽默。著有《格言集》等。

本文以演绎的手法论述快乐对人的影响。作者先借梅斯菲尔德的诗引出“快乐”与“智慧”的关系，接着以人在快乐时的种种心理反应，点出快乐无处不在。最后再给予肯定的结论：快乐是智慧的开端。

“The days that make us happy make us wise.”

—John Masefield

When I first read this line by England’s Poet Laureate, it startled me. What did Masefield mean? Without thinking about it much, I had always assumed that the opposite was true. But his sober assurance was arresting. I could not forget it.

Finally, I seemed to grasp his meaning and realized that here was a profound observation. The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception, not fogged by anxiety nor dimmed by despair and boredom, and without the blind spots caused by fear.

Active happiness—not mere satisfaction or contentment—often comes suddenly, like an April shower or the unfolding of a bud. Then you discover what kind of wisdom has accompanied it. The grass is greener, bird songs are sweeter, the shortcomings of your friends are more understandable and more forgivable. Happiness is like a pair of eyeglasses correcting your spiritual vision.

Nor are the insights of happiness limited to what is near around you.Unhappy, with your thoughts turned in upon your emotional woes, your vision is cut short as though by a wall. Happy, the wall crumbles.

The long vista is there for the seeing. The ground at your feet, the world about you—people, thoughts, emotions, pressures—are now fitted into the larger scene. Every thing assumes a fairer proportion. And here is the beginning of wisdom.“快乐的日子，使我们聪明。”

——约翰·梅斯菲尔德

第一次读到英国桂冠诗人梅斯菲尔德这行诗的时候，我非常惊讶，它真正的寓意是什么呢？不仔细考虑的话，我一直认为这句诗倒过来才对。不过他的冷静与自信却俘获了我，所以我一直无法忘记这句诗。

终于，我好像领会了他的意思，意识到其中蕴含着深刻的观察思考。快乐带来的智慧存在于清晰的心灵感觉中，不因忧虑、担心而困惑，不因绝望、厌烦而迟钝，不因惶恐而出现盲点。

跳动的快乐——不仅是满足或惬意——会突然到来，就像四月的春雨或是花蕾的绽放，然后你发觉智慧已随快乐而来。草儿更绿，鸟儿的歌声更加美妙，朋友的缺点也变得更加可以理解、原谅。快乐就像一副眼镜，可以修正你精神的视力。

快乐的视野并不受你周围事物的局限。只不过当你不快乐的时候，思想便转向你感情上的苦恼，眼界也就被心灵之墙隔断了。而当你快乐的时候，这道墙便崩塌了。

你的眼界更宽了。脚下的大地，身旁的世界——人们、思想、情感、压力——现在都溶进了一个更加宏伟的情境中，每件事都恰如其分。这就是智慧的开端。

心灵小语

在千万种品德里，有谁敢说是智慧的开端？只有快乐。它开启眼睛、开启头脑、开启心灵，这不正是智慧吗？

词汇笔记

sober ['səubə] adj. 冷静的；清醒的；严肃的

Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.

在人生的清醒时刻，在哀痛和伤心的阴影之下，人们与真实的自

我最为接近。

perception [pə'sepʃən] n. 感知（能力）；觉察（力）；知觉

Our perception of colours can depend on whether we view them from the left or the right, scientists have found.

科学家们发现：我们对颜色的感知可能依赖于我们是从左边看还

是从右边看。

accompany [ə'kʌmpəni] v. 陪伴；陪同

Earthquakes commonly accompany volcanic activity or movement of magma deep in the earth.

地震通常都伴随着火山活动或地球深处的岩浆运动。

crumble ['krʌmbl] v. （把……）弄碎；（使）碎成细屑

Bad things happen, even to good men. Good men who are

weak often crumble under such pressure.

坏事是会发生的，即便是好人也还是如此。那些心里脆弱的好人在遇到这样的压力时往往会精神崩溃。

小试身手

快乐的日子，使我们聪明。

快乐就像一副眼镜，可以修正你精神的视力。

快乐的视野并不受你周围事物的局限。

短语家族

The wisdom that happiness makes possible lies in clear perception.

lie in：在于……

The ground at your feet, the world about you—people, thoughts, emotions, pressures—are now fitted into the larger scene.

fit into：适合；符合快乐谷The Happy Valley

［英国］塞缪尔·约翰逊 / Samuel Johnson

塞缪尔·约翰逊（1709－1784）,英国词典编纂家、散文家和文学评论家。一生穷困潦倒，直到历时九载编纂完成《英语词典》，才声名大振。他才学广博，言谈睿智。诗歌代表作《人类欲望的虚妄》反映了他对人生的独到见解，传记《英国诗人传》坚持以事实作传，把英语传记文学推向更高的水平。

“What,” said he, “makes the difference between man and all the rest of the animal creation? Every beast that strays beside me has the same corporal necessities with myself, he is hungry, and crops the grass, he is thirsty, and drinks the stream, his thirst and hunger are appeased, he is satisfied and sleeps; he rises again and he is hungry, he is again fed and is at rest. I am hungry and thirsty like him, but when thirst and hunger cease I am not at rest; I am, like him, pained with want, but am not, like him, satisfied with fullness. The intermediate hours are tedious and gloomy; I long again to be hungry that I may again quicken my attention. The birds peck the berries or the corn, and fly away to the groves where they sit in seeming happiness on the branches, and waste their lives in tuning one unvaried series of sounds. I likewise can call the lutanist and the singer, but the sounds that pleased me yesterday weary me today, and will grow yet more wearisome tomorrow. I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel myself delighted. Man has surely some latent sense for which this place affords no gratification, or he has some desires distinct from sense which must be satisfied before he can be happy.”

他说：“人和动物的区别在哪里？在我身旁游走的每个野兽，和我一样都有肉体上的需要：饿了吃草，渴了喝溪水，充饥解渴后将满足地睡去；醒来又饿了，再吃饱休息。我和他一样也会饥渴，但不渴也不饿时，我不休息；我也像他一样因需求匮乏而痛苦，但不像他因需求丰裕而满足。中间这个阶段，冗长而又乏味；我又开始渴望饥饿，好再次加速自己的注意。鸟儿啄食着浆果或谷物，好像非常快乐地飞到树丛中，停靠在树枝上，并且百无聊赖地吟唱着一成不变的曲调。同样地，我也能叫来诗琴弹奏者和歌手，但昨天还能使我愉悦的乐章，今天却令我厌烦，明天变得更令人厌倦。我从自身发现，没有一种感受力不是被适度愉悦充满的，但是我不觉得自己快乐。确实，人类有某种潜在的感觉，会告知自己这个地方不能令人愉悦，或者，在快乐之前，他有一些有别于感觉的渴望，必须先得到满足。”生 命Life

［英国］拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生 / Ralph Waldo Emerson

Life will be imaged, but cannot be divided nor doubled. Any invasion of its unity would be chaos. The soul is not twin-born, but the only begotten, and though revealing itself as child in time, child in appearance, is of a fatal and universal power, admitting no co-life. Every day, every act betrays the ill-concealed deity. We believe in ourselves, as we do not believe in others. We permit all things to ourselves, and that which we call sin in others, is experiment for us. It is an instance of our faith in ourselves, that men never speak of crime as lightly as they think, or, every man thinks a latitude safe for himself, which is nowise to be indulged to another.

The act looks very differently on the inside, and on the outside; in its quality, and its consequences. Murder in the murderer is no such ruinous thought as poets and romancers will have it; it does not unsettle him, or fright him from his ordinary notice of trifles: it is an act quite easy to be contemplated, but in its sequel, it turns out to be a horrible jangle and confounding all relations. Especially the crimes that spring from love, seem right and fair from the actor’s point of view, but, when acted, are found destructive of society. No man at last believes that he can be lost, nor that the crime in him is as black as in the felon. Because the intellect qualifies in our own case the moral judgments. For there is no crime to the intellect. That is antinomian or hypernomian, and judges law as well as fact.

生命可以被想象，但是不能被割裂，也不能被复制。生命的整体一旦被破坏就会引起混乱。灵魂不是孪生儿，而是独生苗。虽然它最终以孩子的面目示人，却有着一种无敌的力量能决定命运，不会接受同一个生命。生命有着一种唯我独尊的神圣，这种神圣无须掩盖，每一天都显露在人们的举手投足之中。我们对自己深信不疑，同时去怀疑他人。我们可以让自己为所欲为，但同样的事，别人做，我们称之为罪孽，我们都有这样的尝试。我们充满自信的一个例子就是：人们从来不像他们想象的那样蔑视罪恶。换句话说，人人都为自己想好一个不受约束的自由，而这个自由是不能让别人来享用的。

行为从内在和外表，从性质和后果去看，各有不同。凶手行凶时所抱的意图绝不像诗人以及传奇作家所描述的那样伤天害理，通常人们也觉察不出他心神不宁或诚惶诚恐的蛛丝马迹。行凶一事并不难谋划，但去考虑后果的话，它却能愈演愈烈，发出一系列叮当作响的恐怖声，把一切的关联都破坏。尤其是爱情所激发的罪行，从施罪者的角度看，似乎一切都理所当然，但一旦发生毕竟贻害社会。然而，还是没有人会最终相信犯罪的人是迷失了自我，也没有人会认为那罪行如同重罪犯的所为那么恶不可赦。这是因为，就我们自身的情形而言，智力修正着道义判断，在智力的眼中，世上万事并无罪过。智力是反律法主义或超律法主义的，它判断着法律就像判断着事实一样。

词汇笔记

stray [strei] v. 走失；离群；迷路

Young children should not be allowed to stray from their parents.

不要让儿童离开父母到处乱跑。

corporal ['kɔ:pərəl] adj. 肉体的

They oppose corporal punishment because they believe that violence breeds violence.

他们反对体罚，因为他们相信暴力衍生出暴力。

intermediate [͵intə'mi:djət] adj. （两地、两物、两种状态等）之间的，中间的

The textbook is for intermediate students who want to write

general English letters.

本书专为想学一般英文书信写作的中级学生设计。

grove [ɡrəuv] n. 树丛；小树林

Gathering pecans in that grove was an autumn chore we always enjoyed.

秋天我们一直很喜欢的活动就是在小树丛里采集山核桃。

小试身手

我也像他一样因需求匮乏而痛苦，但不像他因需求丰裕而满足。

但昨天还能使我愉悦的乐章，今天却令我厌烦，明天变得更令人厌倦。

在快乐之前，他有一些有别于感觉的渴望，必须先得到满足。

短语家族

“What,”said he,“makes the difference between man and all the rest of the animal creation?”

make difference：有所不同；造成差别

I can discover within me no power of perception which is not glutted with its proper pleasure, yet I do not feel myself delighted.

glut with：吃得太饱；喝得过多阳光下的时光Hours in the Sun

［美国］约翰·布莱德利 / John H.Bradley

约翰·布莱德利（1815－1870），19世纪美国著名的专栏作家、评论家、文学家，著有散文集《幸福时光》及新闻专著若干本。

“...I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days.”

——Henry David Thoreau

When Thoreau wrote that line, he was thinking of the Walden. Pond he knew as a boy.

Woodchoppers and the Iron Horse had not yet greatly damaged the beauty of its setting. A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat, lazily drifting from shore to shore while the loons dived and the swallows dipped around him. Thoreau loved to recall such sunny hours and summer days “when idleness was the most attractive and productive business.”

I too was once a boy in love with a pond, rich in sunny hours and summer days. Sun and summer are still what they always were, but the boy and the pond changed. The boy, who is now a man, no longer finds much time for idle drifting. The pond has been annexed by a great city. The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled with houses. The bay where water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for motor boats. In short, everything that the boy loved no longer exists—except in the man’s memory of it.

Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter. But how much poorer we would be if we really lived by that rule! So much of what we do today is frivolous and futile and soon forgotten. So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens.

The past is the bank in which we store our most valuable possession—the memories that give meaning and depth to our lives.

Those who truly treasure the past will not bemoan the passing of the good old days, because days enshrined in memory are never lost. Death itself is powerless to still a remembered voice or erase a remembered smile. And for one boy who is now a man, there is a pond which neither time nor tide can change, where he can still spend a quiet hour in the sun.“虽然我不富甲天下，却拥有无数个艳阳天和夏日。”

——亨利·大卫·梭罗

写这句话时，梭罗想起孩提时代的瓦尔登湖。

当时伐木者和火车尚未严重破坏湖畔的美丽景致。小男孩可以走向湖中，仰卧小舟，自一岸缓缓漂向另一岸，周遭有鸟儿戏水，燕子翻飞。梭罗喜欢回忆这样的艳阳天和夏日，“这时，慵懒是最迷人也是最具生产力的事情！”

我也曾经是热爱湖塘的小男孩，拥有无数艳阳天与夏日。如今阳光、夏日依旧，男孩和湖塘却已改变。那男孩已长大成人，不再有那么多时间泛舟湖上，而湖塘也为大城市所并。曾有苍鹭觅食的沼泽，如今已枯竭殆尽，上面盖满了房舍。睡莲静静漂浮的湖湾，现在成了汽艇的避风港。总之，男孩所爱的一切都已不复存在——只留在人们的回忆中。

有些人坚持认为只有今日和明日才是重要的，可是如果真的照此生活，我们将是何其可怜！许多今日我们做的事是轻率的，徒劳的，很快就会被忘记。许多我们期待明天将要做的事情却从来没有发生过。

过去是一所银行，我们将最可贵的财产——记忆珍藏其中。记忆赐予我们生命的意义和深度。

真正珍惜过去的人，不会悲叹旧日美好时光的逝去，因为藏于记忆中的时光永不流失。死亡本身无法止住一个记忆中的声音，或擦除一个记忆中的微笑。对现已长大成人的那个男孩来说，那儿将有一个池塘不会因时间和潮汐而改变，可以让他继续在阳光下享受安静时光。

词汇笔记

woodchopper ['wudtʃɔpə] n. 伐木者；樵夫

The woodchopper reproched the fox why it did not make any thanks for his help.

樵夫责备狐狸，说自己救了他一命，怎么一点谢意都不表示。

idleness ['aidlnis] n. 懒惰；闲散；安逸

A man, like a sword, rusts in idleness.

刀不用会生锈，人闲着会懒惰。

annex [ə'neks] v. 并吞；强占；合并

The city annexed the area across the river.

该市合并了河对岸的地区。

frivolous ['frivələs] adj. 不重要的；轻率的

After a frivolous guffaw, it is boxing foot next on the body that falls in him, the purple spot on his body lasted all the time a month.

一阵轻薄的狂笑之后，接下来是一顿拳脚落在他的身上，他身上的青紫的瘀斑一直持续了一个月。

小试身手

有些人坚持认为只有今日和明日才是重要的，可是如果真的照此生活，我们将是何其可怜！

过去是一所银行，我们将最可贵的财产——记忆珍藏其中。记忆赐予我们生命的意义和深度。

藏于记忆中的时光永不流失。

短语家族

A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat...

lie on：位于

Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter.

insist that...：坚持说；坚持主张热爱生活Love Your Life

［美国］亨利·大卫·梭罗 / Henry David Thoreau

亨利·大卫·梭罗（1817—1862），散文家、超验主义哲学家。出生于美国以超验主义中心著称的康科德，并在那儿度过了大半生。梭罗毕生以超验主义作为自己的生活原则，并将之发挥到极致；他一生未娶，曾隐居瓦尔登湖两年有余，过着与世隔绝的生活，并在湖边的木屋里写下了著名的《瓦尔登湖》一书。本文即选自此书。

However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault, finder will find faults even in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town’s poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. Maybe they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means, which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; We change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

不管你的生活有多卑微，面对它吧，把生活进行下去，不可逃脱，也不能报以恶言，生活还不及你坏哩。你最富的时候，它反而最贫瘠。人若爱找茬儿，天堂也能被他挑出毛病。哪怕贫穷，你也要热爱生活。快活、激动和光荣的时光甚至在济贫院里也享受的到。反射在那里窗上的落日光芒，和照在有钱人家窗上的阳光是一样的亮堂，门前的积雪也同样都是在早春融化。在我的眼里，一个心态平和的人，他思想乐观，处世泰然，居住在济贫院里就像居住在皇宫里一样。在我看来，镇上的穷人们往往过着最独立自在的生活。他们一定足够伟大，不然岂能欣然接受。大多数人以为自己不依靠城镇养活，认为自己超凡脱俗，但情况往往是，他们利用不正当的手段作为谋生之计，这些让他们更加声名狼藉。像圣人那样，对待贫穷就像对待园子里的草木，耕耘它吧！不要自找麻烦地去寻求新事物、新朋友或者是新衣服。去找旧的，回归旧有之物。万物并没有改变，变的是我们。衣帽可以卖掉，但思想应该保留。

词汇笔记

shun [ʃʌn] v. 避开；回避；避免

She shuns being photographed.

她不愿意别人给她照相。

misgiving [mis'ɡiviŋ] n. 疑虑；担心；恐惧

That be now, however, many persons but wasted big good time

in the regret pastly with the misgiving the future.

那就是现在，然而，许多人却在悔恨过去和担忧未来之中浪费了大好时光。

disreputable [dis'repjətəbəl] adj. 名誉不好的；不体面的

He has been accused of using disreputable methods to get what

he wants.

他被指控采取不正当的手段以谋取私利。

sage [seidʒ] n. 圣人；智者；哲人

A sage once reduced all virtue to the golden mean.

一位圣人曾把所有的美德都归结为中庸之道。

小试身手

人若爱找茬儿，天堂也能被他挑出毛病。

在我的眼里，一个心态平和的人，他思想乐观，处世泰然，居住在济贫院里就像居住在皇宫里一样。

衣帽可以卖掉，但思想应该保留。

短语家族

The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man’s abode.

as...as...：像……一样……

Most think that they are above being supported by the town.

be supported by sb.：受到某人的支持爱是艰难的Love Is Difficult

［奥地利］勒内·马利亚·里尔克 / Rainer Maria Rilke

勒内·马利亚·里尔克（1875—1926），奥地利诗人。大学攻读哲学、艺术与文学史。里尔克的诗歌尽管充满孤独痛苦情绪和悲观虚无思想，但艺术造诣很高。本篇节选自他的书信集《给一位青年诗人的十封信》。

It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and proof, the work for which all other work is merely preparation. That is why young people, who are beginner sin everything, are not yet capable of love: it is something they must learn. With their whole being, with all their forces, gathered around their solitary, anxious, upward-beating heart, they must learn to love. But learning-time is always a long, secluded time ahead and far on into life, is solitude, a heightened and deepened kind of aloneness for the person who loves. Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent). it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances. Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves (“to hearken and to hammer day and night”), may young people use the love that is given to them. Merging and surrendering and every kind of communion is not for them (who must still, for a long, long time, save and gather themselves); it is the ultimate, is perhaps that for which human lives are as yet barely large enough.

爱，很好。因为爱是艰难的。当一个人去爱另一个人，这也许是神给予我们的最艰难、最重大的任务，是最后的考验与测试，是最崇高的工作，别的工作都不过是为此而做的准备。所以那些一切都还刚刚开始的青年们还不能去爱，他们必须要学习。必须用他们整个的生命，用一切的力量，用集聚了他们寂寞、痛苦和荣誉感的心去学习爱。在学习时期这个长久而专注的过程中，爱就会永远地铭刻心扉——深深的寂寞中孤独地等待，是为了所爱的人。爱的要义并不是什么倾心、献身，或二人的结合（那会是怎样的一种结合呢？是一种糊涂的、不负责任的、轻率的结合）。它对于个人是一种崇高的动力，是去成熟并实现自身的圆满，去完成一个世界，是为了另一个人而完成一个自己的世界，这是一个艰巨的、不可妥协的目标，用坚定的信念，向远方召唤。青年们应把爱当做他们的课业、他们工作的意义，并在其中（“昼夜不停地探索、锤炼”）使用那些给予他们的爱。至于倾心、献身以及结合，还不是他们所能做的（他们还需长时间地克制、积累），那是最后的终点，也许是我们现在还几乎不能达到的境界。

心灵小语

人人皆有爱的本能，亦有爱的欲望。和所有的能力一样，爱也需要不断学习和操练。永远有更高的爱的境界等待我们到达。

词汇笔记

entrust [en'trʌst] v. 委托；托付；交托

We will entrust your company as the only business agent of

our company in China.

我们将委托贵公司作为我公司在中国的独家业务代理。

secluded [si'klu:did] adj. 使隔绝的；使引退的；使隐居的

They had a predilection for certain casts of characters and settings,with

the secluded English country house at the top of the list.

这类侦探小说对某类角色和背景有着一种偏好，隐秘的英国乡村

房子就是首选。

merge [mə:dʒ] v. 合并；相融；融入

How do you merge artistry and business to create an empire?

要如何将艺术性与商业融合来打造出一个企业帝国？

incoherent [͵inkəʊ'hiərənt] adj. 思想不连贯的；语无伦次的

Although I speak Chinese fluently, but this is not my mother

tongue after all, speaking is very incoherent.

我虽然汉语说得流利，但这毕竟不是我的母语，说起来还是很拗口。

小试身手

爱是艰难的。

必须用他们整个的生命，用一切的力量，用集聚了他们寂寞、痛苦和荣誉感的心去学习爱。

它对于个人是一种崇高的动力，是去成熟并实现自身的圆满，去完成一个世界，是为了另一个人而完成一个自己的世界。

短语家族

...for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent...

be of：具有……性质；内容

Only in this sense, as the task of working on themselves.

in sense：在某种意义上爱On Love

［黎巴嫩］卡里·纪伯伦 / Kahlil Gibran

卡里·纪伯伦（1883-1931）,黎巴嫩诗人。阿拉伯现代文学复兴运动的先驱之一，阿拉伯现代小说和散文的主要奠基者。他的作品蕴涵了丰富的社会性和深刻的东方精神，不以情节取胜，重在抒发丰富情感。从20世纪20年代起，纪伯伦的创作重心由小说转向散文和散文诗，从用阿拉伯语写作变为用英语写作为主。《先知》是纪伯伦的顶峰之作。本文即选自《先知》。

Then said Almitra, Speak to us of Love.

And he raised his head and looked upon the people, and there fell a stillness upon them. And with a great voice he said:

When love beckons to you, follow him, though his ways are hard and steep.

And when his wings enfold you yield to him, though the sword hidden among his pinions may wound you.

And when he speaks to you believe in him, though his voice may shatter your dreams as the north wind lays waste the garden.

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you. Even as he is for your growth so is he for your pruning.

Even as he ascends to your height and caresses your tenderest branches that quiver in the sun, so shall he descend to your roots and shake them in their clinging to the earth.

Like sheaves of corn he gathers you unto himself.

He threshes you to make you naked.

He sifts you to free you from your husks.

He grinds you to whiteness.

He kneads you until you are pliant;

And then he assigns you to his sacred fire, that you may become sacred bread for God’s sacred feast.

All these things shall love do unto you that you may know the secrets of your heart, and in that knowledge become a fragment of Life’s heart.

But if in your fear you would seek only love' s peace and love’s pleasure, then it is better for you that you cover your nakedness and pass out of love' s threshing-floor, into the seasonless world where you shall laugh, but not all of your laughter, and weep, but not all of your tears.

Love gives naught but itself and takes naught but from itself.

Love possesses not nor would it be possessed, for love is sufficient unto love.

When you love you should not say, “God is in my heart,” but rather, “I am in the Heart of God.” And think not you can direct the course of love, for love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.

Love has no other desire but to fulfill itself.

But if you love and must needs have desires, let these be your desires:

To melt and be like a running brook that sings its melody to the night.

To know the pain of too much tenderness.

To be wounded by your own understanding of love;

And to bleed willingly and joyfully.

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving;

To rest at the noon hour and meditate love’s ecstasy;

To return home at eventide with gratitude;

And then to sleep with a prayer for the beloved in your heart and a song of praise upon your lips.

艾尔梅特拉说，请告诉我们有关爱的事情吧！

他抬头望着众人，四周一片寂静。然后，他用洪亮的声音说道：

当爱召唤你时，跟随他，虽然他的道路艰难而险峻。

当他展翅拥抱你时，依顺他，虽然他羽翼中的利刃会伤害你。

当他开口对你说话时，相信他，虽然他的声音会击碎你的梦，像狂风扫尽园中的花。

爱虽然可以为你加冕，但也能将你钉上十字架；他虽然可以帮助你成长，但也能将你削砍剪刈。

他会攀至你的高处，抚慰着你在阳光下颤动的最柔嫩的枝条，但也会潜至你的根部，动摇你紧紧依附着大地的根须。

爱把你像麦捆般聚拢在身边。

他将你们脱粒，使你们赤裸。

他将你们筛选，使你们摆脱麸糠。

他碾磨你们，直至你们清白。

他揉捏你们，直至你们柔顺。

尔后，爱用神圣的火烘焙你，让你成为上帝圣宴上的圣饼。

这一切都是爱为你们所做，使你们能从中领悟自己内心的秘密，从而成为生命之心的一小部分。

但是，在恐惧中，你若只是追求爱的平安与欢乐，那你倒不如遮盖住自己的赤裸，躲避爱的筛打，躲进那没有季节的世界，在那里，你会开怀，但不是尽情欢笑；你会哭泣，但不是尽抛泪水。

爱，除了自身别无所予，也别无所求。

爱，不占有也不被占有。因为，爱在爱里满足了。

你若付出爱时，不要说“上帝在我心中”，而应说“我在上帝心中”。而且，不要以为你可以为爱指引方向。因为，爱若认为你够资格，它自会为你指引方向。

爱别无他求，只求成全自己。

但如果你爱了，又必定有所渴求，那就让这些成为你的所求吧：

融化自己，使之似潺潺细流，在夜晚吟唱自己的清曲。

体会太多温柔带来的痛苦。

被自己对爱的体会所伤害，

并且心甘情愿地淌血。

清晨，带着一颗雀跃的心醒来，感谢又一个充满爱的日子；

午休，沉思爱的心醉神怡；

黄昏，带着感激之情归家；

睡前，为你心中的挚爱祈祷，唇间吟诵着赞美诗。

词汇笔记

beckon ['bekən] v. （用头或手的动作）示意；召唤

You are silly, because, suffer as you may, you will not beckon it to

approach, nor will you stir one step to meet it where it waits you.

你很傻，因为尽管你很痛苦，你却既不会主动去召唤它靠近你，

也不会跨出一步，到它等候你的地方去迎接它。

yield [ji:ld] v. 屈服；放弃

We shall never yield to a conqueror.

我们永远不会向征服者低头。

crown [kraun] v. 为……加冕

No cross, no crown.

未经苦难，不得冠冕。

crucify ['kru:sə͵fai] v. 把（某人）钉死在十字架上

But they cried out: "Away with him, away with him, crucify him."

他们喊著说：“除掉他、除掉他、钉他在十字架上。”

小试身手

他的声音会击碎你的梦，像狂风扫尽园中的花。

爱虽然可以为你加冕，但也能将你钉上十字架。

爱，不占有也不被占有。

短语家族

For even as love crowns you so shall he crucify you.

even as：正如；正巧在……的时候

To wake at dawn with a winged heart and give thanks for another day of loving.

give thanks for：感谢……孩子On Children

［黎巴嫩］卡里·纪伯伦 / Kahlil Gibran

And a woman who held a babe against her bosom said, speak to us of Children.

And he said:

Your children are not your children.

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

They come through you but not from you, and though they are with you, yet they belong not to you.

You may give them your love but not your thoughts. For they have their own thoughts.

You may house their bodies but not their souls. For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow, which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.

You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth.

The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite, and He bends you with His might that His arrows may go swift and far.

Let your bending in the archer' s hand be for gladness;

For even as he loves the arrow the files, so He loves also the bow that is stable.

一位怀抱婴儿的妇女说，请你给我们讲讲孩子的事情。

他于是说：

孩子其实并不是你们的孩子。

他们是生命为自己所渴求的儿女。

他们借你们而生，却并非从你们而来。尽管他们与你们同在，却并不属于你们。

你们可以把你们的爱给予他们，却不能给予思想，因为他们有自己的思想。

你们可以庇护他们的身体，但不是他们的灵魂。

因为他们的灵魂栖息于明日之屋，那是你们在梦中也无法造访的地方。

你们可以努力地仿效他们，但是，不可企图让他们像你。

因为生命无法倒流，也不会滞留于昨日。

你们是弓，而你们的孩子就像从弦上向前射出的生命之箭。

那射手瞄准无限之旅上的目标，用力将你弯曲，拉满弓，以使手中的箭射得又快又远。

让你欣然在射箭者的手中弯曲吧，

因为他既爱飞驰的箭，也爱手中握着的、稳健的弓。

词汇笔记

dwell [dwel] v. 居住；住

Our lives need to fit into that wisdom so that we are suitable

people to dwell in God's wisely managed world forever.

我们的生活方式需要去适应这样的智慧，以便我们能成为适合在

神以智慧掌控的世界里永远居住的人。

strive [straiv] v. 努力奋斗；力求；力争

If you want to be successful, no excuses, no complaints, but

just strive hard from now on!

如果你想成功，那么不要再找借口和埋怨别人，就从现在开始努

力吧！

archer ['ɑ:tʃə] n. 弓箭手；射箭运动员

A good archer is not known by his arrows but his aim.

神箭手因其射中靶子而非因其箭而闻名。

gladness ['glædnis] n. 欢乐；喜悦；欢喜

Every morning the sun rises, and we walk in its light and

perform our daily duties with gladness.

每当早晨太阳升起，我们行走在他的光中，欢欢喜喜地做各种该

做的事。

小试身手

你们可以把你们的爱给予他们，却不能给予思想。

生命无法倒流。

你们是弓，而你们的孩子就像从弦上向前射出的生命之箭。

短语家族

They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself.

longing for：渴望

You may strive to be like them, but seek not to make them like you.

strive to：追求；力图；争取友 谊On Friendship

［黎巴嫩］卡里·纪伯伦 / Kahlil Gibran

And a youth said, Speak to us of Friendship,

And he answered, saying:

Your friend is you needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay.”

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refeshed.

一个青年接着说，请为我们谈谈友谊。

他回答道：

你的朋友是对你需求的满足。

他是你带着爱播种，带着感恩之心收获的田地。

他也是你的餐桌，你的壁炉。

当你饥饿时会来到他身边，向他寻求安宁。

当你的朋友倾诉他的心声时，你不要害怕说出自己心中的“不”，也不要隐瞒你心中的“是”。

当他默默无语时，你的心仍可倾听他的心。

因为在友谊的不言而喻中，所有的思想、所有的欲望、所有的期盼，都在无可言喻的欢愉中孕育而共享；

当你和朋友分别时，你也不会悲伤。

因为当他不在身边时，他身上最为你所珍爱的东西会显得更加醒目，就像山峰对于平原上的登山者那样显得格外清晰。

不要对你们的友谊别有所图，除了追寻心灵的深耕外。

因为只求表露自我而别无所求的爱，并非真爱，而是撒出的网，捕获的尽是些无益的东西。

奉献你最好的东西，给你的朋友。

若他定要知道你情绪的落潮期，那么，把你的涨潮期一并告诉他。

因为，若只是为了消磨时光才去寻找的朋友，这能算你的朋友吗？

总该邀朋友共享生命才是。

因为朋友会满足你的需要，不是填满你的空虚。

在友谊的滋润下恣意欢笑，同享喜悦吧！

因为在细微事物的露珠中，你的心会找到焕发一新的晨曦。

词汇笔记

fireside ['faiəsaid] n. 炉边

Reading a good book is like having a fireside chat with a close friend.

静静地读一本好书，如同围坐在炉火边与挚友谈心。

save [seiv] prep. 除了；除……外

The shop is open save on Sundays.

那家商店除星期日外都营业。

disclosure [di'skləʊʒə] n. 公开；透露

The disclosure that he had been in prison ruined his chances

for public office.

他曾坐牢一事的公开断送了他谋求在政府机构任职的机会。

ebb [eb] n. 退潮；落潮

Accidents will happen. Every tide has its ebb.

天有不测之风云，人有旦夕之祸福。

小试身手

当他默默无语时，你的心仍可倾听他的心。

当他不在身边时，他身上最为你所珍爱的东西会显得更加醒目，就像山峰对于平原上的登山者那样显得格外清晰。

不要对你们的友谊别有所图，除了追寻心灵的深耕外。

短语家族

When you part from your friend, you grieve not.

part from：向……告别

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth and only the unprofitable is caught.

cast forth：抛出；逐出我爱人人，人人爱我To Love and to Be Loved

［阿尔巴利亚］特雷莎修女 / Mother Teresa

特雷莎修女（1910—1997），生于欧洲的马其顿，18岁进加尔各答修道院。1948年她走出修道院高墙，开始为世界上最贫穷的人服务；1979年获诺贝尔和平奖，1997年9月5日辞世。“特雷莎妈妈”是一个美丽的名字，被世人用不同的语言表达同一个意思即“爱”。她刻苦善良，以身作则，毕生坚持不懈服务全人类，其功绩令世人深受感动和启发。

It is not enough for us to say, “I love God.” But I also have to love my neighbor. St. John says that you are a liar if you say you love God and you don’t love your neighbor. How can you love God whom you do not see, if you do not love your neighbor whom you see, whom you touch, with whom you live? And so it is very important for us to realize that love, to be true, has to hurt. I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them. This requires that I am willing to give until it hurts. Otherwise, there is no true love in me and I bring injustice, not peace, to those around me.

It hurts Jesus to love us. We have been created in his image for greater things, to love and to be loved. We must “put on Christ,” as Scripture tells us. And so we have been created to love as he loves us. Jesus makes himself the hungry one, the naked one, the homeless one, the unwanted one, and he says, “You did it to me.” On the last day he will say to those on his right, “whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me,” and he will also say to those on his left, “whatever you neglected to do for the least of these, you neglected to do it for me.”

When he was dying on the Cross, Jesus said, “I thirst.” Jesus is thirsting for our love, and this is the thirst for everyone, poor and rich alike. We all thirst for the love of others, that they go out of their way to avoid harming us and to do good to us. This is the meaning of true love, to give until it hurts.

仅仅说“我爱上帝”是不够的，我们还必须爱我们的邻居。圣约翰说过，如果你不爱邻居却还说你爱上帝，那你就在撒谎。连耳触目及、伸手可摸的邻居都不爱，你又怎能热爱看不着、听不见的上帝呢？所以，认识到这点十分重要——说句实话，有爱就有伤害。我们应该甘愿倾我所能，以求不伤害他人，事实上这样就是在对他人行善。这也就要求我们心甘情愿地付出，遭受痛苦也在所不惜。否则，我们心中就不会有真爱，我们所带给周围人们的就不是安宁，而是不公正。

因爱着我们，耶稣也是痛苦的。上帝按照自己的形象创造我们，是让我们去成就更伟大的事业，是让我们做到“我爱人人，人人爱我”。正如经文中训导的那样，我们必须“所作所为向基督看齐”。上帝因此创造我们，教我们像他爱我们一样去爱别人。耶稣让自己忍饥挨饿，让自己赤身裸体，让自己无家可归，让自己遭人躲闪。他说：“你是这样对待我的。”到了最后的审判日，他将对在他右边的人说：“你对这些人中最卑微的人所做的事情，就是对我做的事情。”他还将对在他左边的人说：“你忽视了为这些人中最卑微者做的什么，就等于忽视了为我做的事。”

在十字架上生命即逝的时刻，他还说：“我渴望。”耶稣渴望的是我们的爱，是对全天下不分贵贱的苍生的爱。我们每个人都渴望得到别人的爱，渴望别人小心翼翼而不将我们伤害，都渴望自己得到善待。不惜痛苦地去施爱吧，这就是真爱的意义。

心灵小语

爱是一个我们如此频繁谈论的话题，但如果它仅存在于我们的话语之中，就像繁盛一时的鲜花，那么，这不是爱。爱是用我们的双手，让花朵结出果实。

词汇笔记

liar ['laiə] n. 说谎者；撒谎者

A liar will not be believed, even when he speaks the truth.

一个爱说谎的人就是他说的实话也没有人相信。

injustice [in'dʒʌstis] n. 不公平；非正义；待……不公正；冤枉

I shall not submit to injustice from anyone.

我不会屈服于来自任何人的不公正。

scripture ['skriptʃə] n. 经文；圣典

The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.

魔鬼为了自身的目的也会引用《圣经》。

neglect [ni'ɡlekt] v. 疏忽；忽略；遗漏

Many men run after success, and often neglect their wives

and children.

许多男人一心追求成功，而忽略了对妻子、孩子的关心。

小试身手

说句实话，有爱就有伤害。

因爱着我们，耶稣也是痛苦的。

不惜痛苦地去施爱吧，这就是真爱的意义。

短语家族

I must be willing to give whatever it takes not to harm other people and, in fact, to do good to them.

be willing to：乐于

Jesus is thirsting for our love...

thirst for：渴望；热望我的母亲This Was My Mother

［美国］马克·吐温 / Mark Twain

马克·吐温（1835—1910），美国杰出的小说家，美国文学史上最重要的作家之一，也是美国文学史上第一个用口语进行写作的作家，开创了一代文风，被福克纳称为“美国文学之父”。马克·吐温幼年家境贫寒，被迫放弃学业外出谋生。丰富的生活经历对他后期的创作影响很大。19世纪70年代到90年代是他创作的鼎盛时期，其代表作有《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》和它的姊妹篇《汤姆·索亚历险记》等。

She was 82 and living in Keoluk when, unaccountably, she insisted upon attending a convention of old settlers of the Mississippi Valley. All the way there, and it was some distance, she was young again with excitement and eagerness. At the hotel she asked immediately for Dr. Barrett, of St. Louis. He had left for home that morning and would not be back, she was told. She turned away, the fire all gone from her, and asked to go home. Once there she sat silent and thinking for many days, then told us that when she was 18 she had loved a young medical student with all her heart. There was a misunderstanding and he left the country; she had immediately married, to show him that she did not care. She had never seen him since and then she had read in a newspaper that he was going to attend the old settlers’ convention. “Only three hours before we reached that hotel he had been there,” she mourned.

She had kept that pathetic burden in her heart 64 years without any of us suspecting it. Before the year was out, her memory began to fail. She would write letters to school-mates who had been dead 40 years and wonder why they never answered. Four years later she died.

当时她82岁，住在克勒克城，不知为何，她坚持要参加密西西比河谷的老居民大会。路途有点远，但是，一路上兴奋热切的心情仿佛使她又回到年轻时代。她一到旅馆，便立即打听从圣路易来的巴雷特医生的消息。得知他当天早上就回家了，而且不再回来，她兴致全无，调头便要回家。回到家，她默默地坐着，沉思了几天后，才告诉我们，18岁时她曾衷心爱过一位学医的青年学生。不料发生了一次误会，他出国了，而她闪电般地结婚，以示她毫不在乎。从那以后她再也没有见过他，然而，她从报纸上得知他将参加今年的老居民大会。“要是早到三小时，我就能在旅店见到他了。”她叹息道。

她把这份情感的重负藏在心里长达64年之久，始终不让我们任何人猜测到。那年快结束时，她的记忆力开始衰退。她写信给已过世40年的老同学，而不明白她们为什么从不回信。四年之后她就去世了。

词汇笔记

misunderstanding [͵misʌndə'stændiŋ] n. 误解；误会

We try to preclude any possibility of misunderstanding.

我们力图消除任何误解的可能性。

mourn [mɔ:n] v. 为……哀痛；向……致哀

One must mourn not the death of men but their birth.

人要悲伤的并不是人类的死亡而是他们的诞生。

pathetic [pə'θetik] adj. 凄惨的；可怜的；毫无成功希望的

A man emotionally in love can be pathetic.

一个真正陷入爱河的人是很悲惨的。

suspect [sə'spekt] v. 怀疑；不信任

It was then I began to suspect that my father had wanted to

mend the breach as much as I had.

就是从那一刻起，我开始猜想，父亲肯定曾经想过要修复我们的

裂痕，就跟我曾经想过的一样。

小试身手

一路上兴奋热切的心情仿佛使她又回到年轻时代。

她兴致全无，调头便要回家。

她把这份情感的重负藏在心里长达64年之久，始终不让我们任何人猜测到。

短语家族

She turned away, the fire all gone from her, and asked to go home.

turn away：避开；走开；转过脸

Once there she sat silent and thinking for many days, then told us that when she was 18 she had loved a young medical student with all her heart.

with all one’s heart：十分愿意地；全心全意地梦中儿Dream Children

［英国］查尔斯·兰姆/Charles Lamb

查尔斯·兰姆（1775—1834），英国最杰出的小品文作家、散文家。因家境贫寒，15岁便辍学谋生，供职于东印度公司长达32年之久。兰姆十分赞赏浪漫主义思潮中人性主义的主张，并把这些用于自己温情款款的个性化散文创作。同时，他也热爱城市生活，善于用敏锐独特的眼光捕捉市井生活中变幻的都市风情。他对英国文学的真正贡献来自于他后期的《伊里亚随笔》，其丰富的情趣和精妙的表述为兰姆赢得了英国散文创作中首屈一指的地位。

Children love to listen to stories about their elders, when they were children; to stretch their imagination to the conception of a traditionary great-uncle or great-aunt, whom they never saw. It was in this spirit that my little ones crept about me the other evening to hear about their great-grandmother Field, who lived in a great house in Norfolk (a hundred times bigger than that in which they and papa lived) which had been the scene — so at least it was generally believed in that part of the country — of the tragic incidents which they had lately become familiar with from the ballad of the Children in the Wood. Certain it is that the whole story of the children and their cruel uncle was to be seen fairly carved out in wood upon the chimney-piece of the great hall, the whole story down to the Robin Redbreasts; till a foolish rich person pulled it down to set up a marble one of modern invention in its stead, with no story upon it. Here Alice put out one of her dear mother’s looks, too tender to be called upbraiding.

Then I went on to say, how religious and how good their great-grandmother Field was, how beloved and respected by everybody, though she was not indeed the mistress of this greenhouse, but had only the charge of it (and yet in some respects she might be said to be the mistress of it too) committed to her by the owner, who preferred living in a newer and more fashionable mansion which he had purchased somewhere in the adjoining county; but still she lived in it in a manner as if it had been her own, and kept up the dignity of the great house in a sort while she lived, which afterwards came to decay, and was nearly pulled down, and all its old ornaments stripped and carried away to the owner’s other house, where they were set up, and looked as awkward as if some one were to carry away the old tombs they had seen lately at the Abbey, and stick them up in Lady C.’s tawdry gilt drawing-room. Here John smiled, as much as to say, “that would be foolish indeed.” And then I told how, when she came to die, her funeral was attended by a concourse of all the poor, and some of the gentry too, of the neighborhood for many miles round, to show their respect for her memory, because she had been such a good and religious woman’s good indeed that she knew all the Psaltery by heart, aye, and a great part of the Testament besides. Here little Alice spread her hands.

Then I told what a tall, upright, graceful person their great-grandmother Field once was; and how in her youth she was esteemed the best dancer — here Alice’s little right foot played an involuntary movement, till upon my looking grave, it desisted — the best dancer, I was saying, in the county, till a cruel disease, called a cancer, came, and bowed her down with pain; but it could never bend her good spirits, or make them stoop, but they were still upright, because she was so good and religious. Then I told how she was used to sleep by herself in a lone chamber of the great lone house; and how she believed that an apparition of two infants was to be seen at midnight gliding up and down the great staircase near where she slept, but she said “hose innocents would do her no harm;” and how frightened used to be, though in those days I had my maid to sleep with me, because I was never half so good or religious as she — and yet I never saw the infants. Here John expanded all his eyebrows and tried to look courageous.

Then I told how good she was to all her grand-children, having us to the great house in the holidays, where I in particular used to spend many hours by myself, in gazing upon the old busts of the Twelve Caesars, that had been Emperors of Rome, till the old marble heads would seem to live again, or I to be turned into marble with them, how I never could be fired with roaming about that huge mansion, with its vast empty moms, with their worn-out hangings, fluttering tapestry and carved oaken panicle, with the gilding almost rubbed out — sometimes in the spacious old— fashioned gardens, which I had almost to myself, unless when now and then a solitary gardening man would cross me — and how the nectarines and peaches hung upon the walls, without my ever offering to pluck them, because they were forbidden fruit, unless now and then, — and because I had more pleasure in strolling about among the old melancholy-looking yew trees, or the firs, and picking up the red berries, and the firapples, which were good for nothing but to look at — or in lying about upon the fresh grass, with all the fine garden smells around me — or basking in the orangery, till I could almost fancy myself ripening, too; along with the oranges and the limes in that grateful warmth — or in watching the dace that darted to and fro in the fish pond, at the bottom of the graven, with here and there a great sulky pike hanging midway down the water in slient state, as if it mocked at their impertinent frisking, — I had more pleasure in these busy-idle diversions than in all the sweet flavors of peaches, nectarines, oranges, and such like common baits of children. Here John slyly deposited back upon the plate a bunch of grapes, which, not unobserved by Alice, he had meditated dividing with her, and both seemed willing to relinquish them for the present as irrelevant.

Then, in somewhat a more heightened tone, I told how, though their great-grandmother Field loved all her grand-children, yet in an especial manner she might be said to love their uncle, John L.—, because he was so handsome and spirited a youth, and a king to the rest of us; and, instead of moping about in solitary comers, like some of us, he would mount the most mettlesome horse he could get, when but an imp no bigger than themselves, and make it carry him half over the county in a morning, and join the hunters when there were any out — and yet he loved the old great house and gardens too, but had too much spirit to be always pent up within their bounties — and how their uncle grew up to man’s estate as brave as he was handsome, to the admiration of everybody, but of their great-grandmother Field most especially; and how he used to carry me upon his back when I was a lame — footed boy— for he was a good bit older than me — many a mile when I could not walk for pain; — and how in after life he became lame-footed too, and I did not always (I fear) make allowances enough for him when he was impatient and in pain, nor remember sufficiently how considerate he had been to me when I was lame-footed; and how when he died, though he had not been dead an hour, it seemed as if he had died a great while ago, such a distance there is betwixt life and death; and how I bore his death ask thought pretty well at first, but afterwards it haunted and haunted me; and though I did not cry or take it to heart as some do, and as I think he would have done if I had died, yet I missed him all day long, and knew not till then how much I had loved him, I missed his kindness, and I missed his crossness, and wished him to be alive again, to be quarrelling with him (for we quarreled sometimes), rather than not have him again, and was as uneasy without him, as he their poor uncle must have been when the doctor took off his limbo Here the children fell a crying, and asked if their little mourning which they had on was not for uncle John, and they looked up, and prayed me not to go on about their uncle, but to tell them some stories about their pretty dead mother.

Then I told how for seven long years, in hope sometimes, sometimes in despair, yet persisting ever, I courted the fair Alice W. and, as much as children could understand, I explained to them what coyness, and difficulty, and denial meant in madness — when suddenly turning to Alice, the soul of the first Alice looked out at her eyes with such a reality of representment, that I became in doubt which of them stood there before me, or whose that bright hair was; and while stood gazing, both the children gradually grew fainter to my view, receding, and still receding, fill nothing at last but two mournful features were seen in the utter most distance, which, without speech, strangely impressed upon me the effects of speech: “We are not of Alice, nor of thee, nor are we children at all. The children of Alice call Barman father. We are nothing; less than nothing, and dreams. We are only what might have been, and must wait upon the tedious shores of Lethe millions of ages before we have existence, and a name” and immediately awaking, I found myself quietly seated in my bachelor armchair, where I had fallen asleep, with the faithful Bridget unchanged by my side — but John L.(or James Elia) was gone forever.

孩子们都爱听长辈们年少时的故事，他们会对素未谋面的叔公或老祖母展开想象。在一个夜晚，正是带着这种精神，我的孩子们围在我身边，听他们老祖母菲尔德的故事。菲尔德住在诺福克郡的一所大房子里（要比我们现在住的大一百倍）。那是一个发生过悲剧的地方——至少当地人都这样认为。孩子们最近从《林中的孩子》这首民谣中知道了诺福克郡大房子里的故事。实际上，孩子们、凶残叔叔和知更鸟的整个故事，竟然被雕刻在那所房子客厅的壁炉架上，直到一个愚蠢而又富有的人把它变成一块现代的大理石。故事讲到这里时，艾丽丝脸上表现出酷似她亲爱的母亲的神情，温柔得让人不忍心再去责难。

接着，我开始讲他们的老祖母是多么虔诚、多么善良，多么受人爱戴与尊敬，尽管她并不是那所房子的主人，而只是一名管家（然而，从某种意义上讲，她也算是女主人），效忠于她的主人。房子的主人更喜欢住在已经买下的附近的那所房子里，它更新、更时髦。而他们的老祖母仍住在那里，好像那房子已成为她自己的一样。在她的有生之年，她尽量维护着那所老房子的体面，后来房子颓败不堪，几乎要倒塌了，而且房屋中古旧的装饰物都被拆卸下来，装到了主人的另一所房子里。这些装饰物竖在那里，像是有人把最近他们看到的被盗古墓里的东西，堆放在贵妇人华丽的镀金客厅里一样。讲到这里，约翰笑了，似乎在说“那的确够愚蠢”。然后，我告诉他们老祖母是怎样、什么时候去世的，方圆数英里的穷人和一些贵族都参加了她的葬礼，以表达对她的怀念与尊敬之情。因为他们的老祖母是那样一个善良、虔诚的女人，她熟记所有的赞美诗，以及《新约》的大部分内容。这时，艾丽丝不禁伸开双手表示敬仰。

再后来，我告诉他们菲尔德老祖母曾经多么的高挑、美丽，年轻时被公认为是最出色的舞者——这时，艾丽丝的小右脚不由自主地踏起了节奏，直到看到我神情严肃，才停止——我正在说他们的老祖母曾是村里跳舞跳得最好的。后来，她得了一种叫癌症的可怕疾病，疾病的痛苦给了她很大打击，然而，从来没有击倒她的精神，也没有使她屈服。她的精神依旧高昂，因为她是那样的善良和虔诚。我还告诉孩子们，她过去是怎样习惯于一个人睡在那所空荡荡的大房子里的。她相信，午夜的时候能看见两个孩子的灵魂，它们在她房间附近的楼梯上滑上滑下。但是，她说：“那两个天真的幽灵并不会伤害我。”尽管现在女佣会陪我睡，但是我还是常常感到害怕，因为我连她的一半善良和虔诚都没有，从来都是。不过，我也从来没有见过那两个鬼魂。这时，约翰挑起他的眉毛，想要表现得很勇敢。

接着，我谈到菲尔德祖母对孙子、孙女有多好。宗教节日的时候，她总会接我们到那所大院里去。在那里，我尤其喜欢一个人待上几个小时，凝视着那12个古老的恺撒——古罗马皇帝的半身像，直到这些古旧的大理石似乎复活了，或者我也同他们一样变成了大理石。那所巨宅里有大而空的房间、破旧的帷帐、舞动的织锦和雕刻的橡木面板（上面的镀金几乎剥蚀干净了）。我曾不知疲倦地在那里游荡。有时，我也会到古式的大花园里去，那里几乎也只是我一个人，除了偶尔会有一个园丁从我身边经过。那里油桃与蜜桃挂满了围墙，可是我从来没有勇气去采摘，因为那些都是禁果，除非偶尔为之。还因为我更喜欢在古老而略显忧郁的紫杉或冷杉间穿行，摘一些红浆果或冷杉球果。除了欣赏，这些东西什么用处都没有。或者躺在鲜嫩的草地上，让花园中各种美好的气息围绕在我身边；或者在橘园晒太阳，在那暖洋洋的阳光里，我幻想着自己同橘子一起慢慢成熟；或者看雅罗鱼在鱼塘里急速地游来游去，在池底，随处可以看到一只阴沉的梭子鱼傲慢地停在水中央，似乎在嘲笑雅罗鱼的鲁莽行为。比起蜜桃、油桃、橘子，以及其他这类对孩子有诱惑的东西，我更喜欢这忙中有闲的娱乐。这时，约翰把一串葡萄偷偷放回盘中，艾丽丝也一定看到了葡萄，约翰原本是想要和她一起分享的，而此刻两人都若无其事地抛弃了它。

然后，我稍稍提高了声音继续讲下去。我告诉他们，尽管他们的曾祖母非常疼爱所有的孙子孙女，但是她更宠爱他们的伯伯——约翰，因为他是一个非常英俊、非常勇敢的小伙子，也是我们的孩子王。他不像我们闷闷不乐地独自待在凄凉的角落。在像我们这样大的时候，他就会骑上能找到的最狂野的马，早晨驾驭着它跑遍半个村子，在猎人们出发的时候加入他们的队伍。不过，他也喜欢那座古老的房子和花园，只是他的精力过于旺盛，忍受不了那里的束缚。他们的伯伯成年后，依旧那样英俊神武，让每个人都钦慕不已，他们的曾祖母更是引以为荣。当我由于疼痛不能走路，也就是跛脚的时候，年长于我的伯父便常常背着我走上数英里。再后来，他也瘸了腿，而我恐怕在他烦躁、痛苦的时候，不能总是给他足够的照顾，也不能记起在我腿瘸时，他是怎样悉心呵护我的。而当他死的时候，尽管只过了一个小时，我却觉得过了好久，这就是生与死的距离。起初，我还能让自己平静地接受他的离去，但是后来，这种痛苦时时折磨着我。尽管我没有像其他人那样伤心落泪，幻想自己可以代替他去死，但是我整日整夜地思念他，直到那时我才知道我多么爱他。我想念他的善良，想念他的固执，希望他能活过来，再跟他吵吵架（因为我们有时会吵），而不想失去他。失去他，我的不安就像他被大夫手术时一样令人痛苦。——这时，孩子们哭了。他们问他们身上的丧服是否是为约翰伯伯穿的。他们抬着头，请求我不要再讲述有关伯伯的事情，而是谈谈他们已故的漂亮妈妈。

于是，我给孩子们讲道，在追求那个精灵般的女子七年的时间里，我时而充满希望，时而又失望不已，然而始终不渝。我尽量以孩子们能理解的程度，向他们解释少女身上的羞怯、敏感与回绝——当我突然转向艾丽丝时，第一个艾丽丝的灵魂在小艾丽丝的眼里活生生地出现了，以至于我有些怀疑是谁站在我的面前。而当我定睛看去时，两个孩子在我的视野中渐渐地变得模糊，越来越远，直到消失，只在最远的地方剩下哀伤的面孔。尽管她们什么也没说，但我仿佛听到了他们的话：“我们不是艾丽丝的孩子，不是你的孩子，我们也不是孩子。艾丽丝的孩子叫巴尔曼爸爸。我们什么也不是，连梦幻都不是。我们只是可能存在的人物，在真实存在之前，我们必须要遗忘河边苦苦等上数百万年，然后才有一个名字。”——我突然惊醒，发现自己静静地坐在我的轮椅上。原来，我在那里睡着了，忠诚的布里吉特还守在我身边，但是约翰（或者詹姆斯）永远失去了踪影。

词汇笔记

stretch [stretʃ] v. 伸展，张开，延伸

She stretched across the table for the butter.

她探身去取放在餐桌另一边的黄油。

adjoin [ə'dʒɔin] v. 邻接，毗连，邻接

Canada and Mexico adjoin the United States of America.

加拿大和墨西哥毗连美国。

esteem [is'ti:m] v. 尊敬，尊重

He is esteemed for his courage.

他因有勇气而受人尊敬。

tapestry ['tæpistri] n. 挂毯

This tapestry is a work of art.

这张挂毯是件艺术品。

小试身手

这时，艾丽丝不禁伸开双手表示敬仰。

我还告诉孩子们，她过去是怎样习惯于一个人睡在那所空荡荡的大房子里的。

除了欣赏，这些东西什么用处都没有。

短语家族

And carried away to the owner’s...

carry away ：带走（冲走，搬走，冲昏……的头脑）

When he was impatient and in pain.

in pain：在痛苦中，在苦恼中一棵树的启示The Lesson of a Tree

［美国］沃尔特·惠特曼/Walter Whitman

沃尔特·惠特曼（1819-1892），美国19世纪最杰出的诗人，美国浪漫主义文学的大师。

惠特曼一生各个时期的诗作都收录在《草叶集》中。他以豪迈、铿锵有力的诗句讴歌了美国自由资本主义时期蓬勃发展的社会，歌唱民主与自由，歌颂“自我”，歌颂大自然，歌颂劳动，并以火一样的语言抨击资本主义的罪恶与弊端，支持废奴运动。《草叶集》被认为是美国文学史上具有划时代意义的诗作，这不仅在于其内容的人民性和民主与自由思想，而且也在于其形式上的革命，他开创了自由体诗歌的新时代。惠特曼是一个时代的结束，也是美国文学一个新的时代的开始。

I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrate it. Here is one of my favorites now before me, a fine yellow poplar, quite straight, perhaps 90 feet high, and four feet thick at the butt. How strong, vital enduring! How dumbly eloquent! What suggestions of imperturbability and being, as against the human trait of mere seeming. Then the qualities, almost emotional, palpably artistic, heroic, of a tree; so innocent and harmless, yet so savage. It is, yet says nothing. How it rebukes by its tough and equable serenity as weathers, this gusty-temper’s little whiffet, man that runs indoors at a mite of rain or snow. Science (or rather half-way science) scoffs at reminiscence of dryad and hamadryad, and of trees speaking. But, if they don' t, they do as well as most speaking, writing, poetry, sermons or rather they do a great deal better. I should say indeed that those old dryad — reminiscences are quit as true as any, and profounder than most reminiscences we get. (“Cut this out,” as the quack mediciners say, and keep by you.) Go and sit in a grove or woods, with one or more of those voiceless companions, and read the fore going, and think.

One lesson from affiliating a tree — perhaps the greatest moral lesson anyhow from earth, rock, animals, is that same lesson of inherency, of what is, without the least regard to what the looker or (the critic) supposes or says, or whether he likes or dislikes. What worse — what more general malady pervades each and all of us, our literature, education, attitude toward each other, (even toward ourselves,) than a morbid trouble about seems, and no trouble at all, or hardly any, about the sane, slow-growing perennial, real parts of character, books, friendship, marriage — humanity’s invisible foundations and hold together.

我不会选那棵最大或最独特的树来描绘。在我面前，有我最喜欢的一棵树，那是一棵美丽的黄杨树，它很直，可能有九十英尺高，最粗的地方直径达四英尺。它是如此强壮！如此富有生命力！如此挺立在风雨中！又是如此无言而善喻！它所启示的泰然自若和生存的本质，与人生浮华的表象形成了如此鲜明的对比。可以说，一棵树也是有情感的，富有生动的艺术性质，也是英勇无畏的。它是如此天真，不会伤害任何东西，它又是那么原始粗野；它无言地存在着，用自己的坚强、平和，宁静有力地斥责了风雨雷电以及人类——这个一碰到风吹草动就躲进房子里的没用的小东西。科学（或者更准确地说，是不彻底的科学）对有关树精、树仙和会说话的树等想象嗤之以鼻。然而，即使树木不会说话，它们也与大多数语言、文字、诗歌与训诫一样善喻，甚至比它们有过之而无不及。我敢断定，那些古老的有关树精的联想是非常真实的，甚至比我们大多数联想都更为深刻。（“把它砍下来”，骗人的游医这么说，然后留在你身边）请到树丛中或林地间坐下来，与无言的树木做伴，然后再把前面的那些话读一读、想一想。

人们从一棵树那里得到的启示——或者说大地、岩石以及动物赋予人们的最大道德教义，就是它们对于生存的内在本质的提示与观望者（或批评者）的推测和述说完全无关，与他的喜好与憎恶完全无关。一种疾患在我们每个人和我们大家的心间充斥着，渗透于我们的文学、教育以及彼此对待（甚至自我对待）的态度中，这便是对表面现象的喋喋不休，而对于人物、书籍、友谊、婚姻之合理的、逐渐增强的、经常存在的真实，亦即人类无形的本质和基础，不予过问或几乎不加过问。还有什么疾患比这更糟糕、更普遍吗？

词汇笔记

illustrate ['iləstreit] v. 举例说明，作图解

He pointed at the diagram to illustrate his point.

他指着图表来说明他的论点。

eloquent ['eləkwənt] adj. 雄辩的，有口才的，动人的

He is eloquent and humorous as well. What he says never fails

to please us.

他口才好又幽默，他所说的总能使我们高兴。

savage ['sævidŋ] n. 野性的，凶猛的，粗鲁的，荒野的

He likes savage mountain scenery.

他喜欢荒山的景色。

perennial ['tʌsl] adj. 四季不断的，持续多年的

Our perennial problem is not having enough money.

长期困扰我们的问题就是缺钱。

小试身手

我不会选那棵最大或最独特的树来描绘。

可以说，一棵树也是有情感的，富有生动的艺术性质，也是英勇无畏的。

然而，即使树木不会说话，它们也与大多数语言、文字、诗歌与训诫一样善喻，甚至比它们有过之而无不及。

短语家族

I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrate it.

either...or ：或者……或者

But, if they don’t, they do as well as most speaking, writing, poetry,sermons or rather they do a great deal better.

as well as：（除……之外）也，既……又海之滨At the Edge of the Sea

［美国］蕾切尔·卡逊/Rachel Carson

雷切尔·卡逊（1907－1964），美国海洋生物学家，但她是以她的作品《寂静的春天》（Silent Spring）引发了美国以至于全世界的环境保护事业。她因乳腺癌不治于一年后逝世，时年56岁。 在她去世后，1980年美国政府追授她美国对普通公民的最高荣誉——“总统自由奖章”。

The shore is an ancient world, for as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water. Yet it is a world that keeps alive the sense of continuing creation and of the relentless drive of life. Each time that I enter it, I gain some new awareness of its beauty and its deeper meanings, sensing that intricate fabric of life by which one creature is linked with another, and each with its surroundings.

In my thoughts of the shore, one place stands apart for its revelation of exquisite beauty. It is a pool hidden within a cave that one can visit only rarely and briefly when the lowest of the year’s low tides fall below it, and perhaps from that very fact it acquires some of its special beauty. Choosing such a tide, I hoped for a glimpse of the pool. The ebb was to fall early in the morning. I knew that if the wind held from the northwest and no interfering swell ran in from a distant storm the level of the sea should drop below the entrance to the pool. There had been sudden ominous showers in the night, with rain like handfuls of gravel flung on the roof. When I looked out into the early morning the sky was full of a gray dawn light but the sun had not yet risen. Water and air were pallid. Across the bay the moon was a luminous disc in the western sky, suspended above the dim line of distant shore the full August moon, drawing the tide to the low, low levels of the threshold of the alien sea world. As I watched, a gull flew by, above the spruces. Its breast was rosy with the light of the unrisen sun. The day was, after all, to be fair.

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 oarweeds 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.

海岸是一个古老的世界。自从有地球和大海以来，就有这个水陆相接的地方。人们却感觉它是一个总在进行创造、生命力顽强而又充沛的世界。每当我踏入这个世界，感觉到生物之间以及每一生物与它的周围环境之间，通过错综复杂的生命结构彼此相连的时候，我对它的美，对它的深层意蕴，都会产生某种新的认识。

我想起海岸，心中就有一个地方因为它所表现出的独特美景而占有突出的地位。那是一个隐匿于洞中的水潭。平时，这个洞被海水淹没，一年当中只有海潮降落到最低，以至低于水潭时，人们才能在这难得的短时间内看见它。也许正因如此，它获得了某种特殊的美。我选好一个低潮的时机，希望能看一眼水潭。根据推算，潮水将在清晨退下去。我知道，如果不刮西北风，远处的风暴就不再会掀起惊涛骇浪进行干扰，海平面就会落得比水潭的入口还低。夜里突然下了几场预示不祥的阵雨，把碎石般的雨点一把把地抛到屋顶上。清晨，我向外眺望，只见天空笼罩着灰蒙蒙的曙光，只是太阳还没有升起。水和空气一片暗淡。一轮明月挂在海湾对面的西天上，月下灰暗的一线就是远方的海岸——八月的望月把海潮吸得很低，直到那与人世隔离的海的世界的门槛。在我观望的时候，一只海鸥飞过云杉。呼之欲出的太阳把它的腹部照成粉色。天终于晴了。

后来，当我在高于海潮的水潭入口附近驻足时，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。海水拍击着礁石周围，水藻上下左右地漂动，像皮革般滑溜发亮。通往隐藏的小洞和洞中水潭的路径是那些凸现的礁石。间或一阵强于一阵的波涛，悠然地漫过礁石的边缘，并在岩壁上击成水沫。这种波涛间歇的时间足以让我踏上礁石，足以让我探视那仙境般的水潭。它平时不露面，露面也只是一瞬间。

我跪在那海苔藓铺成的湿漉漉的地毯上，向那些黑洞里窥探，就是这些黑洞把水潭环抱成浅盆模样。洞的底部距离顶部只有几英寸，一面天造明镜使得洞顶上的一切生物都倒映在下面纹丝不动的水中。

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，这都是些稍纵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。

词汇笔记

relentless [ri'lentlis] adj. 无情的，残酷的，不间断的

Neither constancy nor relentless change will support a creation.

恒久不变和无情的变化都无益于创造。

intricate ['intrikət] adj. 复杂的，错综的，纠结的

The plot of the novel is intricate and fascinating.

这部小说的情节错综复杂，引人入胜。

ominous ['ɔminəs] adj. 预兆的；不吉利的

That evening has an ominous silence.

那晚有着不祥的寂静。

spruce [spru:s] n. 云杉

Under the canopy of the pioneering trees, oak, maple, linden,

elm and spruce regenerate.

在它们林荫的庇护下，橡树、枫树、菩提树、榆树和云杉都欣欣向荣。

小试身手

夜里突然下了几场预示不祥的阵雨，把碎石般的雨点一把把地抛到屋顶上。

一轮明月挂在海湾对面的西天上，月下灰暗的一线就是远方的海岸。

它平时不露面，露面也只是一瞬间。

短语家族

For as long as there has been an earth and sea there has been this place of the meeting of land and water.

as long as：只要；和……一样长

Occasionally a swell, stronger than the rest, rolled smoothly over the rim and broke in foam against the cliff.

break in：打断；闯入；训练；使逐渐习惯

生活是自己种植的花朵

Life Is a Flower Planted by Yourself艰辛的人生The Strenuous Life

［美国］西奥多·罗斯福 / Theodore Roosevelt

西奥多·罗斯福（1858—1919），美国第26任总统、作家、探险家和军事家，毕业于哈佛大学，曾发表《勤奋地生活》演说，旨在针对19世纪末美国骄奢淫逸、贪图享乐之风盛行，藉此文以遏制当时的腐败现象，这篇《艰辛的人生》也反映了他这种反对怠惰安逸、崇尚奋斗人生的思想。

A life of slothful ease, a life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire or of power to strive after great things, is as little worthy of a nation as an individual.

We do not admire the man of timid peace. We admire the man who embodies victorious efforts, the man who never wrongs his neighbor, who is prompt to help a friend, but who has those virile qualities necessary to win in the stern strife of actual life. It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed. In this life we get nothing save by effort. Freedom from effort in the present merely means that there has been effort stored up in the past. A man can be free from the necessity of work only by the fact that he or his fathers before him have worked to good purpose. If the freedom thus purchased is used aright, and the man still does actual work, though of a different kind, whether as a writer or a general, whether in the field of politics or in the field of exploration and adventure, he shows he deserves his good fortune.

But if he treats this period of freedom from the need of actual labor as a period, not of preparation, but of mere enjoyment, even though perhaps not of vicious enjoyment, he shows that he is simply a cumberer on the earth’s surface; and he surely unfits himself to hold his own place with his fellows, if the need to do so should again arise. A mere life of ease is not in the end a very satisfactory life, and, above all, it is a life which ultimately unfits those who follow it for serious work in the world.

As it is with the individual, so it is with the nation. It is a base untruth to say that happy is the nation that has no history. Thrice happy is the nation that has a glorious history. Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in the gray twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat.

一种怠惰安逸的生活，一种仅仅是由于缺少追寻伟大事物的愿望或能力而导致的悠闲，这对国家与个人都是没有价值的。

我们不欣赏那种怯懦安逸的人。我们钦佩那种表现出奋力向上的人，那种永不冤枉邻人，能随时帮助朋友，但是也具有那些刚健的性质，足以在实际生活的严酷斗争中获取胜利的人。失败是艰难的，但是从不曾努力去争取成功，却更为糟糕。在人的一生中，任何的收获都要通过努力去得到。目前不用作任何的努力，只是意味着在过去有过努力的积蓄。一个人不必工作，除非他或他的祖先曾经努力工作过，并取得了丰厚的收获。如果他能把换取到的此类的自由加以正确地运用，仍然做些实际的工作，尽管那些工作是属于另一类的，不论是作一名作家还是将军，不论是在政界还是在探险和冒险方面做些事情，都表明他没有辜负自己的好运。

但是，如果他将这段不需从事实际工作的自由时期，不用于准备，而仅仅是用于享乐，尽管他所从事的或许并非邪恶的享乐，那就表明了他只是地球表面上的一个赘疣，而且他肯定无法在同僚之中维持自己的地位，如果那种需要再度出现的话。安逸的生活终究不是一种令人很满意的生活，而且，最主要的是，过那种生活的人最终肯定没有能力担当起世上之重任。

于个人如此，对国家也是这样。有人说一个没有历史的国家是得天独厚的，这是卑鄙的谎言。一种得天独厚的优越感来源于一个国家具有光荣的历史。冒险去从事伟大的事业，赢得光荣的胜利，即使其中掺杂着失败，那也远胜于与那些既没有享受多大快乐也没有遭受多大痛苦的平庸之辈为伍，因为他们生活在一个既享受不到胜利也遭遇不到失败的灰暗境界里。

词汇笔记

slothful ['sləuəfəl] adj. 怠惰的；懒惰的

He is a slothful man.

他是一个懒惰的人。

embody [im'bɔdi] v. 体现（想法、感情等）；使（想法、感情等）具体化

To me he embodies all the best qualities of a teacher.

在我看来，他本身体现了教师应有的一切优秀品质。

virile ['virail] adj. 男性的；有男子气概的；刚强的

He was virile in his old age.

他晚年身体硬朗。

strife [straif] n. 争吵

The nation is torn by political strife.

这个国家由于政治纷争而四分五裂。

小试身手

我们不欣赏那种怯懦安逸的人。

在人的一生中，任何的收获都要通过努力去得到。

一种得天独厚的优越感来源于一个国家具有光荣的历史。

短语家族

A life of that peace which springs merely from lack either of desire...

spring from：起源于；发源（于）

...than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much.

take rank with：与……并列；和……并肩真实的高贵True Nobility

［美国］欧内斯特·海明威 / Ernest Hemingway

欧内斯特·海明威（1899—1961），20世纪美国著名小说家，生于伊利诺伊州芝加哥市郊的橡树园附近。他的作品风格独具魅力，在世界范围内产生了广泛影响。1926年发表的《太阳照样升起》是海明威获得声誉的第一部长篇小说，并成为“迷惘的一代”的代表作品。“一战”给海明威留下了难以愈合的心灵创伤，为他创作举世名作《永别了，武器》提供了素材。1952年，中篇小说《老人与海》出版，轰动文坛，并使他获得了诺贝尔文学奖。

In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest—it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closest to their true selves in the sober moments of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss.

In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.

I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.

To regret one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance.

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

风平浪静的大海上，每个人都是领航员。

但是，只有阳光而无阴影，只有欢乐而无痛苦，那就不是人生。以最幸福的人的生活为例——它是一团纠缠在一起的麻线。丧亲之痛和幸福祝愿，彼此相接，使我们一会儿伤心一会儿高兴，甚至死亡本身也会使生命更加可亲。在人生的清醒时刻，在哀痛和伤心的阴影之下，人们与真实的自我最接近。

在人生或者职业的各种事务中，性格的作用比智力大得多，头脑的作用不如心情，天资不如由判断力所掌控的自制、耐心和纪律。

我始终相信，开始在内心生活得更严肃的人，也会在外表上开始生活得更朴素。在一个奢华浪费的年代，我希望能向世界表明，人类真正需要的东西是非常微小的。

悔恨自己的错误，而且力求不再重蹈覆辙，这才是真正的悔悟。优于别人，并不高贵，真正的高贵应该是优于过去的自己。

词汇笔记

pilot ['pailət] n. 引航员；舵手

Mark Twain was once a river pilot on the Mississippi.

马克·吐温曾当过密西西比河上的领航员。

tangled ['tæŋgəld] adj. 纠缠的；紊乱的；混乱的；杂乱的

There are some clusters of thorns and some other tangled

vegetation in the forest.

森林中生长着荆棘丛和其他杂乱的草木。

bereavement [bi'ri:vmənt] n. 亲人丧亡；丧失亲人；丧亲之痛

Bereavement is often a time of great grief.

丧失亲人常常是最悲痛的时刻。

sober ['səubə] adj. 冷静的；清醒的；未醉的

He drinks a lot but always seems sober.

他喝酒喝得很多，但好像总是很清醒。

小试身手

开始在内心生活得更严肃的人，也会在外表上开始生活得更朴素。

我希望能向世界表明，人类真正需要的东西是非常微小的。

真正的高贵应该是优于过去的自己。

短语家族

Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns.

by turns：轮流；交替

There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man.

superior to：优于；比……优越与书为伴Companionship of Books

［苏格兰］塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯 / Samuel Smiles

塞缪尔·斯迈尔斯（1812-1904），苏格兰作家，在1832年取得医师资格，不久便放弃行医，改行新闻工作，1838-1842年任《里兹时报》编辑，1842-1866年从事铁路行政工作。其作品中最杰出的是《自己拯救自己》,《品格的力量》,《金钱与人生》以及《人生的职责》,作品中蕴含维多利亚时代的价值观，与其工作信条相互结合。

A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps, for there is a companionship of books as well as of men, and one should always lived in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness, amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

Men often discover their affinity to each other by the love they have each for a book. The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together and he, in them.

A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.

Books possess an essence of immortality . They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good.

Books introduce us into the best society, they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever live. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

读其书，如同读其人；同样，观其朋友，也如同观其人。书如同人，都可成为伴侣，无论以书为友还是以人为伴，每个人都应有自己的知己。

一本好书可以成为我们最好的朋友。昨天如此，今天亦如此，这一点亘古不变。书是我们最有耐心和最使人愉悦的朋友。无论身处逆境，还是遭遇苦难，它都不会背弃我们。它总是怀着善意接纳我们，年轻时，它给予我们快乐并指引我们；年老时，它给予我们心灵的慰藉并鼓励我们。

因为对一本书的热爱，我们发现彼此之间的亲密无间。书是更为真实和高雅的联系纽带。人们通过自己最喜爱的作者，交流思想，产生心灵的共鸣。他们与作者同在，作者也与他们同在。

一本好书通常是记载生命的最好的瓮，它蕴藏着生命中思想的瑰宝，因为思想占据了生活的大部分。因此，最好的书是词汇之佳句，思想之瑰宝，最值得去怀念，去珍藏，是我们永远的伴侣和慰藉者。

书是永恒不朽的。它是迄今为止人类不懈奋斗的珍宝。庙宇和雕像可以被毁，而书却永存。无论何时，那些伟大的思想，都永远鲜活，如同首次浮上作者的心头。当时的言谈思想，透过书页仍然与我们交谈，而这一切就如同在我们的眼前。劣质的东西将被淘汰,这是时间的唯一功能，因为只有真正优秀的东西，才能在文学中永存。

书指引我们迈入最优秀的领域，它把我们带到历史上所有伟大人物面前。我们倾听他们的言语与举止，看到他们，如同看见一个鲜活的生命。我们与它产生共鸣，与它同享快乐，与它同享悲伤。我们经历它所曾经遭遇的，我们如同演员在它描绘的舞台上演戏。

词汇笔记

adversity [æd'vɜ:siti:] n. 逆境；厄运；灾祸；不幸

Adversity is the first road leading to truth.

逆境是达到真理的第一条道路。

console [kən'səul] v. 安慰；慰问

She consoled him with soft words.

她以温柔的话语安慰他。

urn [ɜ:rn] n. 壶；瓮

“Right here, in this urn,”the peddler replied, so Lu rolled up his

sleeve and stuck his arm into the urn to choose a plump eel.“有，在这个缸里。”小贩回答，于是陆卷起了袖子，伸手到缸

里去挑一些肥鳝鱼。

sympathize ['simpəθaiz] v. 同情；支持

The most fortunate thing in life is being able to forgive and

sympathize with all living beings.

人生最幸福的就是能宽容与悲悯一切众生。

小试身手

读其书，如同读其人；同样，观其朋友，也如同观其人。

书是更为真实和高雅的联系纽带。

思想占据了生活的大部分。

短语家族

Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago.

of no account：不重要的；无价值的

The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good.

sift out：过筛谈怕死On the Fear of Death

［英国］威廉·哈兹里特 / William Hazlitt

威廉·哈兹里特（1778-1830），英国散文家、评论家、画家。他曾从事过绘画，但是在柯尔雷基的鼓励下写出《论人的行为准则》，随后又写了更多的散文作品。1812年在伦敦当记者，并为《爱丁堡评论》撰稿。从其作品来看，他热衷争论，擅长撰写警句，谩骂和讽刺性的文字。他最著名的散文集是《席间闲谈》和《时代精神》。

Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives me no concern.

Why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be? I have no wish to have been alive a hundred years ago, or in the reign of Queen Anne. Why should I regret and lay it so much to heart that I shall not be alive a hundred years hence, in the reign of I cannot tell whom?

To die is only to be as we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea. It is rather a relief and disburthening of the mind; it seems to have been a holiday time with us then; we were not called to appear upon the stage of life, to wear robes or tatters, to laugh or cry, be hooted or applauded; we had lain perdu all this while, snug out of harm’s way; and had slept out our thousands of centuries without wanting to be waked up; at peace and free from care, in a long nonage, in a sleep deeper and calmer than that of infancy, wrapped in the softest and finest dust. And the worst that we dread is, after a short fretful, feverish being, after vain hopes, and idle fears, to sink to final repose again, and forget the troubled dream of life!

也许摆脱死亡恐惧的最佳疗法是思考生命的开始与终结。曾经我们对此没有给予关注。

为什么走到生命的尽头时，这个问题却会困扰我们？我不希望生活在一百年前，或者安妮女王时代，为什么还要为未能生活在一百年前，说不出是谁的统治时代而感到遗憾？

死亡就像我们的出生。思考这一永恒的主题，无人会自责、悔恨，或质疑，相反我们可以释放心灵，缓解忧愁。我们仿佛在度假一般；我们没有被传唤至人生的舞台上，穿着华丽的衣服或破旧的衣衫，大笑不止或痛哭流涕，被人训斥或者赞美，然而对此，我们却隐藏了许久，安详悠闲，而远离伤害。我们仿佛沉睡了千百个世纪而不愿被人唤醒，安逸而无忧虑，总处于孩童时期，而且比婴儿睡得还要深沉，还要平静，被裹挟于最轻柔、最细密的灰尘之中。我们最怕的是经过瞬间的狂热、徒劳的希望、没有缘由的恐惧，又沉浸到熟睡状态，而忘记生命中困扰我们的梦想！

词汇笔记

repugnance [ri'pʌgnəns] n. 厌恶；憎恶；抵触；不一致

The woman tried to fight down a feeling of repugnance to speak

to her ex-husband.

那女人努力抑制反感来跟她前夫说话。

tatter ['tætə] n. 破布；碎纸

Do not toss me your rope made of tatters.

不要将你用碎布搓成的绳子抛给我。

hoot [hu:t] v. 呵斥；轰赶

The audience hooted the actor.

观众向那个演员喝倒彩。

snug [sʌg] adj. 温暖而舒适的

Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress.

自怜在它的早期就像羽绒床垫一样贴身舒适。

小试身手

摆脱死亡恐惧的最佳疗法是思考生命的开始与终结。

死亡就像我们的出生。

我们最怕的是经过瞬间的狂热，徒劳的希望，没有缘由的恐惧，又沉浸到熟睡状态，而忘记生命中困绕我们的梦想！

短语家族

We had lain perdu all this while, snug out of harm’s way.

all this while：这阵子

...at peace and free from care...

free from：免于；解放；使摆脱论出游On Going a Journey

［英国］威廉·哈兹里特 / William Hazlitt

One of the pleasantest things in the world is going a journey; but I like to go by myself. I can enjoy society in a room; but out of doors, nature is company enough for me. I am then never less alone than when alone.

“The fields his study, nature was his book.”

I cannot see the wit of walking and talking at the same time. When I am in the country I wish to vegetate like the country. I am not for criticizing hedge-rows and black cattle. I go out of town in order to forget the town and all that is in it. There are those who for this purpose go to watering-places, and carry the metropolis with them. I like more elbowroom and fewer incumbrance. I like solitude, when I give myself up to it, for the sake of solitude, nor do I ask for “a friend in my retreat, Whom I may whisper solitude is sweet.”

The soul of a journey is liberty, perfect liberty, to think, feel, do, just as one pleases. We go a journey chiefly to be free of all impediments and of all inconveniences; to leave ourselves behind, much more to get rid of others. It is because I want a little breathing-space to muse on indifferent matters, where Contemplation “May plume her feathers and let grow her wings, That in the various bustle of resort Were all too ruffled, and sometimes impaired,” that I absent myself from the town for a while, without feeling at a loss the moment I am left by myself. Instead of a friend in a post-chaise or in a Tilbury, to exchange good things with, and vary the same stale topics over again, for once let me have a truce with impertinence. Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and three hours’ march to dinner—and then to thinking! It is hard if I cannot start some game on these lone heaths. I laugh, I run, I leap, I sing for joy. From the point of yonder rolling cloud I plunge into my past being, and revel there, as the sun-burnt Indian plunges headlong into the wave that wafts him to his native shore. Then long-forgotten things, like “sunken wrack and sunless treasuries,” burst upon my eager sight, and I begin to feel, think, and be myself again. Instead of an awkward silence, broken by attempts at wit or dull common-places mine is that undisturbed silence of the heart which alone is prefect eloquence. No one likes puns, alliterations, antitheses, argument, and analysis better than I do; but I sometimes had rather be without them. “Leave, oh, leave me to my repose!” I have just now other business in hand, which would seem idle to you, but is with me “very stuff of the conscience.” Is not this wild rose sweet without a comment? Does not this daisy leap to my heart set in its coat of emerald? Yet if I were to explain to you the circumstance that has so endeared it to me, you would only smile. Had I not better then keep it to myself, and let it serve me to brood over, from here to yonder craggy point, and from thence onward to the far-distant horizon? I should be but bad company all that way, and therefore prefer being alone. I have heard it said that you may, when the moody fit comes on, walk or ride on by yourself, and indulge your receives. But this looks like a breach of manners, a neglect of others, and you are thinking all the time that you ought to rejoin your party. “Out upon such half-faced fellowship,” say I . I like to be either entirely to myself, or entirely at the disposal of others; to talk or be silent, to walk or sit still, to be sociable or solitary. I was pleased with an observation of Mr.Cobbett’s, that he thought “it a bad French custom to drink our wine with our meals, and that an Englishman ought to do only one thing at a time.” So I cannot talk and think, or indulge in melancholy musing and lively conversation by fits and starts.

“Let me have a companion of my way,” says Sterne, “Were it but to remark how the shadows lengthen as the sun declines.” It is beautifully said; but, in my opinion, this continual comparing of notes interferes with the involuntary impression of things upon the mind, and hurts the sentiment. If you only hint what you feel in a kind of dumb show, it is insipid; if you have to explain it, it is making a toil of a pleasure. You cannot read the book of nature without being perpetually put to the trouble of translating it for the benefit of others. I am for this synthetical method on a journey in preference to the analytical. I am content to lay in a stock of ideas then, and to examine and anatomise them afterwards. I want to see my vague notions float like the down of the thistle before the breeze, and not to have them entangled in the briars and thorns of controversy. For once, I like to have it all my own way; and this is impossible unless you are alone, or in such company as I do not covet. I have no objection to argue a point with any one for twenty miles of measured road, but not for pleasure. If you remark the scent of a bean field crossing the road, perhaps your fellow-traveller has no smell. If you point to a distant object, perhaps he is shortsighted, and has to take out his glass to look at it. There is a feeling in the air, a tone in the color of a cloud, which hits your fancy, but the effect of which you are unable to account for. There is then no sympathy, but an uneasy carving after it, and a dissatisfaction which pursues you on the way, and in the end probably produces ill-humor. Now I never quarrel with myself, and take all my own conclusions for granted till I find it necessary to defend then against objections.

It is not merely that you may not be of accord on the objects and circumstances that present themselves before you—these may recall a number of objects, and lead to associations too delicate and refined to be possibly communicated to others. Yet these I love to cherish, and sometimes still fondly clutch them, when I can escape from the throng to do so. To give way to our feeling before company seems extravagance or affectation; and on the other hand, to have to unravel this mystery of our being at every turn, and to make others take an equal interest in it (otherwise the end is not answered), is a task to which few are competent. We must “give it an understanding, but no tongue.” My old friend Coleridge, however, could do both. He could go on in the most delightful explanatory way over hill and dale a summer’s day and convert a landscape into a didactic poem or a Pindaric ode. “He talked far above singing.” If I could so clothe my ideas in sounding and flowing words, I might perhaps wish to have some one with me to admire the swelling theme; or I could be more content, were it possible for me still to hear his echoing voice in the woods of All-Fox-den. They had “that fine madness in them which our first poets had”; and if they could have been caught by some rare instrument, would have breathed such stains as the following:

“Here be woods as green

As any, air likewise as fresh and sweet

As when smooth Zephyrus plays on the fleet

Face of the curled streams, with flowers' as many

As the young spring gives, and as choice as any;

Here be all new delights, cool stream and wells,

Arbours o’ ergrown with woodbine, caves and dells;

Choose where thou wilt, whilst I sit by and sing,

Or gather rushes to make many a ring,

For the long fingers; tell thee tales of love,

How the pale Phoebe, hunting in a grove,

First saw the boy Endymion, from whose eyes

She took eternal fire that never dies;

How she convey' d him softly in a sleep

His temples bound with poppy, to the steep

Head of old Latmos, where she stoops each night,

Gilding the mountain with her brother’s light,

To kiss her sweetest.”

I have no objection to go to see ruins, aqueducts, pictures, in company with a friend or a party, but rather the contrary, for the former reason reserved. They are intelligible matters, and will bear talking about. The sentiment here is not tacit, but communicable and overt. Salisbury Plain is barren of criticism, but Stonehenge will bear a discussion antiquarian, picturesque, and philosophical. In setting out on a party of pleasure, the first consideration always is where we shall go to, in taking a solitary ramble, the question is what we shall meet with by the way. “The mind is its own place”; nor are we anxious to arrive at the end of our journey. I can myself do the honours indifferently well to works of art and curiosity. I once took a party to Oxford with no mean eclat—showed them that seat of the Muses at a distance, “With glistering spires and pinnacles adorn’d—” descanted on the learned air that breathes from the grassy quadrangles and stone walls of halls and colleges—was at home in the Bodleian; And at Blenheim quite superseded the powdered Cicerone that attended us, and that pointed in vain with his wand to commonplace beauties in matchless pictures. As another exception to the above reasoning, I should not feel confident in venturing on a journey in a foreign country without a companion. I should want at intervals to hear the sound of my own language. There is an involuntary antipathy in the mind of an Englishman to foreign manners and notions that requires the assistance of social sympathy to carry it off. As the distance from home increases, this relief, which was at first a luxury, becomes a passion and an appetite. A person would almost feel stifled to find himself in the deserts of Arabia without friends and countrymen there must be allowed to be something in the view of Athens or old Rome that claims the utterance of speech; and I own that the Pyramids are too mighty for any single contemplation. In such situations, so opposite to all one’s ordinary train of ideas, one seems a species by one’s self, a limb torn off from society, unless one can meet with instant fellowship and support.—Yet I did not feel this want or craving very pressing once, when I first set my foot on the laughing shores of France. Calais was peopled with novelty and delight. The confuse, busy murmur of the place was like oil and wine poured into my ears; nor did the mariners’ hymn, which was sung from the top of an old crazy vessel in the harbour, as the sun went down, send an alien sound into my soul. I only breathed the air of general humanity. I walked over “the vine-covered hills and gay regions of France,” erect and satisfied; for the image of man was not cast down and chained to the foot of arbitrary thrones: I was at no loss for language, for that of all the great schools of painting was open to me. The whole is vanished like a shade. Pictures, heroes, glory, freedoms, all are fled, nothing remains but the Bourbons and the French people! —There is undoubtedly a sensation in travelling into foreign parts that is to be had nowhere else, but it is more pleasing at the time than lasting. It is too remote from our habitual associations to be a common topic of discourse or reference, and, like a dream or another state of existence, does not piece into our daily modes of life. It is an animated but a momentary hallucination. It demands an effort to exchange our actual for our ideal identity; and to feel the pulse of our old transports revive very keenly, we must “jump” all our present comforts and connexions. Our romantic and itinerant character is not to be domesticated. Dr. Johnson remarked how little foreign travel added to the facilities of conversation in those who had been abroad. In fact, the time we have spent there is both delightful, and in one sense instructive; but it appears to be cut out of our substantial downright existence, and never to join kindly on to it. We are not the same, but another, and perhaps more enviable individual, all the time we are out of our own country. We are lost to ourselves, as well as our friend. So the poet somewhat quaintly sings, “Out of my country and myself I go.” Those who wish to forget painful thoughts, do well to absent themselves for a while from the ties and objects that recall them; but we can be said only to fulfill our destiny in the place that gave us birth. I should on this account like well enough to spend the whole of my life in traveling abroad, if I could anywhere borrow another life to spend afterwards at home!

这世上最快乐的事情之一就是旅行，不过我喜欢独自出门。在房间里，我享受的是社会生活，但是在室外，大自然就是我最好的伙伴。虽然我是一个人，但我从不感到孤独。“田野是书房，自然是书籍。”

我不认为边走边谈有多明智。置身于乡村田野，我希望自己像草木一样复得自然。我不是来挑剔灌木丛和黑牛的，我走出城市是为了忘却城市和城市中的一切。有的人或许也是因为这个目的来到海滨，却又随身带去了城市的喧闹。我向往世界有着博大的空间而没有世俗的牵绊。我喜欢独处，身在其中独享其乐，而不会去要求“于僻远处觅友，共话独居之乐”。

旅行的意义在于享受自由，无拘无束的自由。一个人让思想驰骋飞翔，尽情地做让自己愉快的事情。出行的目的就是摆脱困扰和担忧，放松自我，不再因为他人而顾虑重重。我需要放松一下自己，静静地思考一些事情。让思绪“插上健壮的翅膀自由放飞，在嘈杂的人群中，它们曾经受到伤害，变得凌乱”。于是我暂时把我自己从城市中解脱出来，即使独自一人也不觉得失落。比起与那些朋友寒暄，为某些陈旧的话题喋喋不休地谈论，我像这样一个人坐在驿车或轻便的马车里，头顶湛蓝的天空，脚踏翠绿的田野，悠然地行驶在蜿蜒的小路上，真的很愉快。饭前我有三个小时的时间可以散步，顺便思考一些问题！独自享受这些美好的东西，我的心中强烈地涌动着一股喜悦。我情不自禁地大笑，愉快地奔跑，纵情高歌。天边云层翻滚，我陷入对往事的回忆之中，我是多么欣喜呀，就像久经烈日烤晒的印第安人一头扎进浪涛里，让大浪带他回到故乡的海岸。多少尘封往事，犹如“沉没的船只和无数的宝藏”涌现在我热切的眼中。我重温那时的所感所想，似乎回到儿时。我所说的沉默不是死气沉沉，不需要时不时刻意地加点喧闹的气氛，而是一种能抵御外界干扰的内心的安宁。这沉默本身就是最有力的雄辩。没有人比我更喜欢使用双关语、头韵、对仗、辩论和分析，但有时我宁愿撇开它们。“啊，别打扰我，让我独自享受宁静吧！”此时我还有其他事情要做，也许这些事情对你来说无关紧要，但却是我“所期待已久的”。一朵野玫瑰难道只有得到人们的称赞才能证明它有芳香吗？这朵翠绿的雏菊不已经植入我的心底了吗？我对你们解释这些在我看来值得珍惜的事物时，你们可能会笑话我，因此我把这一切掩埋在我心里，供我平日里冥想，让思绪从这里飞到远处的悬崖峭壁，再从那里飞向更遥远的地平线的另一端，不是更美妙吗？也许我不是某种意义上的好旅伴，因此我还是愿意独自旅行。我听说当你闷闷不乐时，也会独自出门或策马前行，沉浸在想象之中。但是你却认为这样做是违背礼节的，很没有礼貌，因此你总在想要不要回到朋友当中，而我却要说：“不要再伪装这种虚假的友谊了。”我喜欢要么完全是自己支配自己，要么完全由别人来支配自己；要么高谈阔论，要么沉默不语；要么散步或静坐，要么活跃或独处。我很同意考柏特先生的见解，他认为“法国人的一个坏习惯是一边吃饭一边喝酒，而英国人则应该在一个时间里专注于做一件事情。”因此我不能边谈话边思考，或因为太放纵自己的情绪导致时而忧心忡忡，时而情绪激昂、滔滔不绝。“让我有个同行的伴，”斯特恩说，“哪怕只是聊聊太阳下山时影子怎么拉长也行。”这是一种很完美的说法，但我的观点是，反复地交换意见会破坏我们对事物最初最本质的印象，从而让思维变得很杂乱，假如你用一种哑语的方式表达自己的感受，那就真的是索然无味；假如你不得不解释一番，那么本要来享受的事物就变成了苦差。在阅读“自然”这本书时，为了使别人能弄明白，你不得不经常翻译它，给自己带来很多麻烦。所以，对于旅行，我倾向于用综合法而不是分析法，我喜欢储存一大堆想法，然后慢慢地解析研究。我希望能看着那些不清晰的想法像花絮一样飞舞在空中，而不是在一群矛盾的荆棘丛中纠缠不清。这一次，我要按照自己的方式做事情。这种情况只有独自一人时才能实现，或者是和我并不奢求在一起的一些人合作。我并不反对与朋友算好二十英里路程，然后边走边聊，但这么做绝不是兴趣所在。你对同伴说路旁的豆田散发着扑鼻的香气，可是他的嗅觉不太灵敏；当你评论远处的美景时，你的朋友或许是个近视眼，他得先戴上眼镜；当你感觉空气中蕴涵着某种情调，云朵的颜色很别致，所有这些让你陶醉，而这种感觉却无法对他言传。因此你们无法产生共鸣，而最后以至于你兴致大跌，只剩下一种幻想达成共鸣的渴望和不满的情绪。我现在已经不再和自己争吵，并且把我所有的结论都看做是理所当然，除非有人提出反对意见，这时我才认为有必要为我的观点辩护。

这不仅仅是因为你们对眼前的事物或环境持有不同的意见，而且是因为它们会引起你对很多往事的回忆，引起一些只能意会无法言传的奇思妙想。然而我却很珍爱它们，当我远离人群时，我甚至会深情地拥抱它们。让我们的感情在老朋友面前放纵显得有些牵强，同时，随时随地向人们披露这一人类的奇异，并引发他人的兴趣（否则就没有达到目的），这项艰巨的工作很难有人能承担。我们应该“领悟它，但是别说出来”。但是，我的老朋友柯勒律治能同时做到这两点。夏天在山林里漫步，他可以一边兴奋地口若悬河，滔滔不绝，一边又能把这种美景写进一篇有教育意义的诗歌中，或者写成一篇朴实无华的颂歌。“他说出来比唱出来都好听。”假如我也能够流利而又有文采地表达自己的想法，只怕我也希望身边也有一个同伴来和我一起颂扬那刚刚展开的话题。又或者说，只要我能听到他那依旧回荡在山林中的声音我就会更加心满意足。这些诗人身上都含有“我们早期的诗人才有的纯朴的狂妄”，如果把他们的诗歌用一种稀有的乐器演奏出来，他们就会吟唱如下的旋律：“愿此处的树林

与别处一般翠绿，空气也是这样甜美，

像是有微风轻抚，微波荡漾；

河面流水匆匆，花开遍野，

犹如初春时那样茂盛艳丽；

这里生机勃勃，流淌着清澈的小溪与山泉，

忍冬花爬满了凉亭，岩洞和山涧；

你可以随处停歇，我就在你身边歌唱，

或者我来采摘灯芯草为你编一枚戒指，

戴在你修长的手指上，为你讲述爱情的传说。

容光淡然的月亮女神在林中狩猎，

一眼瞥见少年恩底弥翁，他的双眼

从此点燃了她心中生生不熄的爱火。

在他熟睡之际，她把罂粟花贴在他的双鬓上，

把它带到古老的阿特莫斯山陡峭的巅峰，

每当夜色降临，她便用太阳的光芒，

装点山脉，然后俯下身来，

亲吻她的心上人。”

我并不反对在参观古迹、地下渠道和欣赏名画时，身边有一个朋友或游伴同行。刚好与前面所说的理由相反，这些事情都与知识和智力有关，有值得深入探讨的价值。这个时候，情感的表达不应该模糊不清，而应该坦荡利落，能够交流。索尔兹伯里平原没有什么值得谈论的，但是人们可以怀念草原上的巨石圈，可以从艺术和哲学的角度研究它。和一群人出去游玩时，首先需要考虑的事情是该到什么地方，而独自一个人出游，想到的问题则是路上会遇见什么人。“人的心灵便是旅程的终点站。”我们不必急于到达目的地，我们可以恰如其分地像当地的主人那样介绍艺术品。我曾经带朋友参观牛津，而且比较成功——远远地，我就把那座艺术的殿堂指给他们看，只见“闪闪发光的顶峰和豪华的塔尖”。我赞颂着，院里绿草茵茵，大厅被石墙包围，一股浓郁的博学气息从学院与大厅之间散发出来。——在鲍得里安楼里畅所欲言；在布伦海姆，我的讲解令我们那位头戴用白粉装饰成假发的导游相形见绌，他用小棍在那些美妙绝伦的图画中只点出来一些平凡无奇的地方。对于上面提到的各种理由有一个例外，那就是在国外旅游时，如果没有人陪同，我会觉得有点不踏实。我需要时不时地听点家乡话，英国人有一种思想，就是不由自主地排斥其他国家的风俗和思想，因此要有人与之共鸣才能克服这种不好的习惯。离家越远，这种慰藉就会由原来的奢求慢慢地变成一种渴求与欲望。独行在阿拉伯沙漠，远离亲人和朋友，人们会感到沉闷窒息，看见雅典和古罗马时，不得不承认心中有很多感慨想倾诉，我也不得不承认金字塔真的是宏伟壮观，一个简洁的概念实在不足以描绘。在这种情况下，一切都好像与人平时的观念背道而驰，自己一个人就似乎是一个种族，就像是从社会的躯体上卸下的一只臂膀，除非这时能获得友情和支持——然而有一次我并没有这种迫切的需求与渴望，那是我第一次来到法国，踏上那到处洋溢着欢笑的海滨。加来这个城市充满了新奇和快乐，连那里乱七八糟混杂在一起的声音都很好听。在夕阳的余晖中，港口停靠着一只破旧的船，听着水手们轻轻地歌唱，我丝毫没有觉得是在异国他乡，我只嗅到了人类共有的气息。我漫步在“法兰西满是葡萄藤的山区和飘荡着笑声的平原”，顿时精神大振，心情爽朗，我没有目睹人民被锁在专制的王家宝座下、遭受压迫的情形，语言的不同也没有令我手足无措，因为我能领悟所有大画派的语言。但是所有这些都像幻影一样化为乌有了，绘画、英雄、荣耀与自由，所有这些都消失了，只剩下波旁王朝统治下的法兰西人民！——在国外旅行，能感受到在别的地方没有的兴奋，这一点是确定无疑的，虽然这种感觉不能持久，但在当时却让人心情愉快。这种情感与我们普通的日常生活截然不同，因此不能作为交谈或讨论的话题，而且就像梦境和其他某种生存状态一样，它也无法融入我们的日常生活。这是一种生动却转眼即逝的幻觉，我们只有通过努力，才能把正处于现实中的自己变成我们理想中的那样，为了再现那些曾经激动人心的时刻，我们就必须“跳出”现在安逸的生活和千丝万缕的各种关系。人类浪迹天涯的浪漫个性是不能被驯化的。约翰逊博士在谈到曾到国外旅行的人的时候说过，出国旅行并没有提高他们的社交能力。事实上，我们在国外确实度过了一些很美好的时光，从某种意义上讲也很能教育人，可是与我们本质的生活状态却背道而驰，这两者永远无法结合。当我出国旅行时，我们就不再是我们自己，而是也许会变成另外一个更让人羡慕的人。我们离开了朋友，离开了自我。于是诗人才吟唱出如此优雅的诗句：“离开祖国，离开自我。”如果想遗忘那些让人痛苦的思索，最好的办法是暂时离开那能触景伤情的事物以及与之相关的联系，然而只有生养我们的故乡才是我们安身立命的地方。因此，如果我可以再活一次，我就要用今生的时间巡游世界，而在来生，我将永远守候在我的故乡！

心灵小语

熟悉的街道、熟悉的伴侣、熟悉的气味……这些令人觉得亲切，同时也带来乏味。跳出现有安逸的生活，放逐自己藏匿已久的个性，是一种离开，也是一种回归。

词汇笔记

vegetate ['vedʒi͵teit] v. 像植物那样生长；过单调乏味的生活

The vegetables in the garden vegetate vigorously.

园子里的植物在茁壮成长。

metropolis [mi'trɔpəlis] n. 大都会；大城市；首都；首府

From Pan Gu epoch-making to modern metropolis, humanity's

destiny is always relying on environment.

从盘古开天辟地到现代的大都市，人类的命运是永远离不开环境

问题的。

impediment [im'pedimənt] n. 妨碍、阻碍某事物进展或活动的人或物

Expectation is the greatest impediment to living. In anticipation

of tomorrow, it loses today.

期望是生存最大的障碍。总是期望着明天，那就丧失了今天。

eloquence ['eləkwəns] n. 口才；雄辩

Sentiment and eloquence only serve to impede the pursuit of truth.

感情用事和夸夸其谈只能阻碍对真理的追求。

小试身手

虽然我是一个人，但我从不感到孤独。

一朵野玫瑰难道只有得到人们的称赞才能证明它有芳香吗？

我们应该“领悟它，但是别说出来”。

短语家族

I like solitude, when I give myself up to it, for the sake of solitude.

for the sake of：为了

From the point of yonder rolling cloud I plunge into my past being, and revel there...

plunge into：陷入；跳入黄金国El Dorado

［英国］罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森 / Robert Louis Stevenson

罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森（1850—1894）,英国小说家、散文家。生于爱丁堡，毕业于爱丁堡大学法律系，一生为肺病所扰，周游各地养病，期间发表大量短篇小说和散文游记。主要作品有小说《金银岛》、《化身博士》、《绑架》等。他的作品情节奇妙浪漫，文笔优美雅致。

It seems as if a great deal were attainable in a world where there are so many marriages and decisive battles, and where we all, at certain hours of the day, and with great gusto and dispatch, stow a portion of victuals finally and irretrievably into the bag which contains us. And it would seem also, on a hasty view, that the attainment of as much as possible was the one goal of man’s contentious life. And yet, as regards the spirit, this is but a semblance. We live in an ascending scale when we live happily, one thing leading to another in an endless series. There is always a new horizon for onward-looking men, and although we dwell on a small planet, immersed in petty business and not enduring beyond a brief period of years, we are so constituted that our hopes are inaccessible, like stars, and the term of hoping is prolonged until the term of life. To be truly happy is a question of how we begin and not of how we end, of what we want and not of what we have. An aspiration is a joy forever, a possession as solid as a landed estate, a fortune which we can never exhaust and which gives us year by year a revenue of pleasurable activity. To have many of these is to be spiritually rich. To those who have neither art nor science, the world is a mere arrangement of colors, or a rough footway where they may very well break their shins. It is in virtue of his own desires and curiosities that any man continues to exist with even patience, that he is charmed by the look of things and people, and that he wakens every morning with a renewed appetite for work and pleasure. Desire and curiosity are the two eyes through which he sees the world in the most enchanted colors: it is they that make women beautiful or fossils interesting: and the man may squander his estate and come to beggary, but if he keeps these two amulets he is still rich in the possibilities of pleasure. Suppose he could take one meal so compact and comprehensive that he should never hunger any more; suppose him, at a glance, to take in all the features of the world and allay the desire for knowledge; suppose him to do the like in any province of experience—would not that man be in a poor way for amusement ever after?

One who goes touring on foot with a single volume in his knapsack reads with circumspection, pausing often to reflect, and often laying the book down to contemplate the landscape or the prints in the inn parlour; for he fears to come to an end of his entertainment, and be left companionless on the last stages of his journey. A young fellow recently finished the works of Thomas Carlyle, winding up, if we remember aright with the ten note-books upon Frederick the Great. “What!” cried the young fellow, in consternation, “Is there not more Carlyle? Am I left to the daily papers?” A more celebrated instance is that of Alexander, who wept bitterly because he had no mere worlds to subdue. And when Gibbon had finished the Decline and Fall, he had only a few moments of joy; and it was with a “sober melancholy” that he parted from his labours.

Happily we all shoot at the moon with ineffectual arrows; our hopes are set on inaccessible El Dorado; we come to an end of nothing here below. Interests are only plucked up to sow themselves again, like mustard. You would think, when the child was born, there would be an end to trouble; and yet it is only the beginning of fresh anxieties; and when you have seen it through its teething and its education, and at last its marriage, alas! It is only to have new fears, new quivering sensibilities, with every day; and the health of your children’s children grows as touching a concern as that of your own. Again, when you have married your wife, you would think you were got upon a hilltop, and might begin to go downward by an easy slope. But you have only ended courting to begin marriage. Falling in love and winning love are often difficult tasks to overbearing and rebellious spirits; but to keep in love is also a business of some importance, to which both man and wife must bring kindness and goodwill. The true love story commences at the altar, when there lies before the married pair a most beautiful contest of wisdom and generosity, and a lifelong struggle towards an unattainable ideal. Unattainable? Ay, surely unattainable, from the very fact that they are two instead of one.

“Of making books there is no end,” complained the Preacher, and did not perceive how highly he was praising letters as an occupation. There is no end. Indeed, to making books or experiments, or to travel, or to gathering wealth. Problem gives rise to problem. We may study forever, and we are never as learned as we would. We have never made a statue worthy of our dreams. And when we have discovered a continent, or crossed a chain of mountains, it is only to find another ocean or another plain upon the further side. In the infinite universe there is room for our swiftest diligence and to spare. It is not like the works of Carlyle, which can be read to an end. Even in a corner of it, in a private park, or in the neighborhood of a single hamlet, the weather and the seasons keep so deftly changing that although we walk there for a lifetime there will be always something new to startle and delight us.

There is only one wish realizable on the earth; only one thing that can be perfectly attained: Death. And from a variety of circumstances we have no one to tell us whether it be worth attaining.

A strange picture we make on our way to our chimaeras, ceaselessly marching, grudging ourselves the time for rest; indefatigable, adventurous pioneers. It is true that we shall never reach the goal; it is even more than probable that there is no such place; and if we lived for centuries and were endowed with the powers of a god, we should find ourselves not much nearer what we wanted at the end. O, toiling hands of mortals! O, unwearied feet, traveling ye know not whither! Soon, soon, it seems to you, you must come forth on some conspicuous hilltop, and but a little way further, against the setting sun, descry the spires of El Dorado. Little do ye know your own blessedness; for to travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive, and the true success is to labour.

人活一世，渴望得到的东西好像很多：不胜枚举的婚姻和决战等，无论身居何方，每天固定的时刻，我们都不可避免地将一份食物津津有味并且迅速地吞入腹中。粗看一下，倾尽所能去获取就是人纷扰一生唯一的目的。然而从精神层面上说，这只是一个假象。如果我们生活幸福，我们就如登梯，步步高升，没有终结。眼光长远的人，天地自然宽。虽然我们蜗居在这颗小行星上，整日为琐事而忙，生命短暂，但我们生来就心比天高，生命不息，奋斗不止。真正的幸福就在于怎样开始而不是怎样结束，是想拥有什么，而不是得到了什么。渴望是一种永恒的幸福，它是一笔财富，犹如房地产一样踏实，用之不竭、年年受益、幸福一生。精神的富有和这些渴望是成正比的。对于既没有艺术细胞也没有科学细胞的人们而言，世界只是颜色的混合体，或者是一条崎岖的小路，一不小心就会摔伤小腿。正是这些渴望和好奇，吸引人们充满耐心地生活着，形形色色的人和物吸引着你我，促使我们每天醒来可以兴致盎然地工作和娱乐。渴望和好奇是人们打量这个五彩世界的一双眼睛：女人因它而美丽，化石因它而有趣。只要有这两道护身符，即使这个人挥霍无度沦为乞丐，他仍能笑口常开。假设一个人一顿饭吃得紧凑而丰盛，他将不会再饿；假设他把这世间万象看了个明明白白，便不再有求知欲；假设他在每个经验领域中都如此——你觉得他的人生还有乐趣吗？

一个徒步旅行的人，随身只带了一本书，他会精心研读，不时地思考一下，还会合上书本凝视风景或者玩赏小酒馆雅间中的画。他害怕书读完了，乐趣也随着消失，剩下的旅程将无以为藉。最近一个年轻人拜读完托马斯·卡莱尔的著作。如果我没记错的话，他把有关腓特列大帝的笔记整整做了十本。“什么？”这个年轻人惊讶地叫道：“卡莱尔的书都看完了？那我只能天天看报纸了？”最典型的例子是亚历山大，因为已无国家供他征服，他号啕大哭。吉本写完《罗马帝国衰亡史》时也只兴奋了一时，他带着一种“清醒而又悲凉的心情”与以往的劳动果实辞别。

我们高兴地把箭射向月亮，却总是毫无效果；我们总是将希望寄托在遥不可及的黄金国上，我们好像什么也没完成。就像芥菜一样，兴趣的收获只是为了下次的耕种。你会想当然地以为孩子出生了，什么麻烦都没了，其实这只是新麻烦的开始。你看着他长大，入学，结婚生子，唉！每天都有新问题、新的感情撞击，你孙儿辈的健康将像你的健康一样牵动着你的心。当你步入婚姻殿堂时，你认为已经到顶了，可以轻松地往下走了。但这只是恋爱的终结，婚姻的开始。对于桀骜不驯或者反叛的人来说，坠入爱河和获得爱情都很困难，但维持爱情也很重要，夫妻之间应该相敬如宾。真正的爱情故事从圣坛开始，在每对夫妇面前都有一场关于智慧和慷慨的壮观竞争，他们要为不可能实现的理想终生奋斗。不可能？啊，当然不可能，因为他们不是一个人，而是两个人。

传道者哀叹“著书无止境”，却没有觉察到它已高度评价了作家这一职业。确实，世界上有很多事是无止境的，例如著书立说、旅行、试验、获取财富等。一个问题会引发另一问题。我们必须活到老学到老，我们的学习永远得不到满足。我们从未雕刻出符合我们梦想的塑像。我们发现一个新大陆，翻过一座山脉时，总会看到远方还有未曾涉足的海洋和大陆。宇宙浩渺，不像卡莱尔的著作可以读完。即使在其一角，一个私人花园，一个农庄附近，尽管在那里生活一辈子，天气和季节的无常变化也令我们有常看常新的感觉。

世界上只有一种愿望可以实现，也仅有一种事物绝对能得到，那就是死亡。死的方式很多，但没有人知道是否能死得其所。

当我们不作休息，不停地走向幻想时，一幅奇异的画面展现出来：不知疲倦、勇于冒险的先锋。是的，我们永远不会达到目标，甚至目的地根本就不存在。即使活上几百年，具有神的力量，我们也会觉得没有接近目标多少。啊，辛苦的双手！啊，不知疲倦的双脚，并不知道走向何方！你总是觉得，一定能登上某个光辉的山顶，在夕阳下，看到不远的前方黄金国那尖尖的塔。你是处于幸福当中却没有察觉，奋斗胜过得到，真正的成功就是奋斗。

心灵小语

未读完的书，未看完的电影，未尝够的美食，未踏遍的地图……“未完成”令生活总有一种向前的引力，使我们饶有兴趣地期盼明天。

词汇笔记

gusto ['gʌstəʊ] n. 热情；乐趣；津津有味

People who are not interested in food always seem rather dry

and unloving and don’t have a real gusto for life.

任何对于饮食不感兴趣的人，他们的生活必定枯燥无味并缺少

爱，也必定无法享受生活中的乐趣。

contentious [kən'tenʃəs] adj. 争论的；好争论的；可能引起争论的

This is a harsh world, abundant with life, but contentious life,

with no mercy for the weak.

这是一个严酷的世界，生命丰富，但好斗成性，毫无怜悯弱小之心。

semblance ['sembləns] n. 外貌；假装；类似

For all this, he still retained the semblance of leadership and

control, even though his wife was straining to revolt.

尽管如此，尽管他的妻子竭力反叛，他仍然保持着一家之主的样子。

circumspection [͵sə:kəm'spekʃən] n. 细心；慎重

He disposed of its contents with much circumspection, holding

it for a long time close to his chin, with his face turned to the

house.

他喝茶的时候小心翼翼，久久地把茶杯端在嘴边，转过脸注视着

那幢房子。

小试身手

真正的幸福就在于怎样开始而不是怎样结束，是想拥有什么，而不是得到了什么。

渴望和好奇是人们打量这个五彩世界的一双眼睛。

最典型的例子是亚历山大，因为已无国家供他征服，他号啕大哭。

短语家族

And yet, as regards the spirit, this is but a semblance.

as regards：至于；关于

It is in virtue of his own desires and curiosities that any man continues to exist with even patience...

in virtue of：凭借；由于我的人生已逝My Life Is Over

［英国］乔治·吉辛 / George Gissing

乔治·吉辛（1857—1903），英国小说家、散文家。出身贫寒，曾在曼彻斯特读书，毕业后去伦敦谋生。1880年后以教书为生，同时编辑撰写小说，内容多是描写下层贫苦群众，是最善于写阴暗面的一个作家。生前赏识他的人不多，直到20世纪，其作品的价值才渐渐为人所发掘。

Nevertheless, my life is over.

What a little thing! I knew how the philosophers had spoken; I repeated their musical phrases about the mortal span—yet never till now believed them. And this is all? A man’s life can be so brief and so vain? Idly would I persuade myself that life, in the true sense, is only now beginning; that the time of sweat and fear was not life at all, and that it now only depends upon my will to lead a worthy existence. That may be a sort of consolation, but it does not obscure the truth that I shall never again see possibilities and promises opening before me. I have “retired,” and for me as truly as for the retired tradesman, life is over. I can look back upon its completed course, and what a little thing! I am tempted to laugh; I hold myself within the limit of a smile.

And that is best, to smile not in scorn, but in all forbearance, without too much self-compassion. After all, that dreadful aspect of the thing never really took hold of me I could put it by without much effort. Life is done—and what matter? Whether it has been, in sum, painful or enjoyable, even now I cannot say—a fact which in itself should prevent me from taking the loss too seriously. What does it matter? Destiny with the hidden face decreed that I should come into being, play my little part, and pass again into silence; is it mine either to approve or to rebel? Let me be grateful that I have suffered no intolerable wrong, no terrible woe of flesh or spirit, such as others—Alas! Alas! —have found in their lot. Is it not much to have accomplished so large a part of the mortal journey with so much ease? If I find myself astonished at its brevity and small significance, why, that is my own fault; the voices of those gone before had sufficiently warned me. Better to see the truth now, and accept it, than to fall into dread surprise on some day of weakness, and foolishly to cry against fate. I will be glad rather than sorry, and think of the thing no more.

然而，我的人生已经逝去。

生命是多么渺小！我知道哲学家们曾说过的话，我曾反复吟诵他们关于人生苦短的如歌语句——但，时至今日我才相信他们的话。这就是一切吗？一个人的生命怎可如此短暂，如此空虚？我徒然说服自己，真正意义上的生活才刚刚起步，汗水和恐惧相随的日子根本不是生活，是否让生活变得很有价值现在仍然取决于我。也许这是自我安慰，但它不能把这样一个事实变得含糊不清，那就是：机会和前途之门将不会再向我敞开。时至当前，我已“退居二线”，实实在在无异于一个退休商人，生命已经结束。我可以回顾已走完的人生历程，感叹它的渺小！我忍不住想要大笑一番，可我控制住自己，只是微微一笑。

微笑，一方面带着竭力的忍耐而不是轻视，另一方面又不可过分地自怨自怜，这样便是最好的。毕竟，我从未真正地被困在事情最糟的境遇里，我尚且可以轻松地脱身在外。生命完结了——那又怎样？它究竟是苦是乐，我现在都得不出个结论。是不是事实本身就不需要我这般患得患失呢？有什么关系呢？命运永远不会显露真面目，它召令我的降生，要我扮演那小小角色，然后一切重归沉寂。对此我是顺从，还是叛逆？我心存感激，感激自己没有像别人一样遭遇不可吞忍的冤屈，还有那肉体或心灵上惨重的创伤——唉！唉！我在他们身上所瞥见的这种种冤屈和创伤！人生大部分旅程都安宁地走过，难道还不能让我知足吗？假使我惊诧于生命的短促和空虚，这错误也是我自己亲手酿就的啊！先逝的人们对我敲响警钟：最好现在就看清并接受真理，不然，日后必将陷入惊恐，但却软弱得束手无策，只能愚蠢地呼天抢地，哀怨连连。我宁愿高兴，而不愿悔恨，我也将不再胡思乱想。

词汇笔记

consolation [͵kɔnsə'leiʃən] n. 安慰；慰问

The Marxist view is that religion is the opium of the people, a

false consolation for life’s miseries.

马克思主义观点是，宗教是人民的鸦片，是对生活不幸的虚假慰藉。

scorn [skɔ:n] n. 鄙视；轻蔑

There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

没什么命运不能被轻蔑所征服。

decree [di'kri:] v. 命令；裁决

Fate decreed that they would not meet again.

他们受命运的安排再也不能相会。

astonished [əs'tɔniʃt] adj. 惊讶的；吃惊的

The unkindness of your own relations has made you astonished

to find friendship anywhere.

你自家骨肉的冷酷，使你在任何地方发现了友情都大为惊诧。

小试身手

汗水和恐惧相随的日子根本不是生活，是否让生活变得很有价值现在仍然取决于我。

我从未真正地被困在事情最糟的境遇里，我尚且可以轻松地脱身在外。

最好现在就看清并接受真理，不然，日后必将陷入惊恐，但却软弱得束手无策，只能愚蠢地呼天抢地，哀怨连连。

短语家族

I am tempted to laugh; I hold myself within the limit of a smile.

be tempted to：受诱惑做某事

Whether it has been, in sum, painful or enjoyable, even now I cannot say...

in sum：总而言之；大体上人的指导者Man’s Guide

［英国］温斯顿·丘吉尔 / Winston Churchill

温斯顿·丘吉尔（1874－1965），英国传记作家、历史学家、政治家。生于牛津附近的布莱尼姆宫。1893年考入桑德斯特陆军军官学校，1895年，以少尉军衔编入皇家第四骑兵团。1945年，在反法西斯胜利前夕，因保守党在大选中失败，丘吉尔失去首相职位。其后，他用六年时间完成了六卷本《第二次世界大战回忆录》。1951年，保守党在选举中获胜，丘吉尔77岁高龄再次出任首相。1955年因年事高辞职退休，专心撰写四卷本《英语民族史》。1965年1月因脑溢血辞世。

Man in this moment of his history has emerged in greater supremacy over the forces of nature than has ever been dreamed of before. There lies before him, if he wishes, a golden age of peace and progress. He has only to conquer his last and worst enemy—himself.

The only guide to a man is his conscience; the only shield to his memory is the rectitude and sincerity of his actions. It is very imprudent to walk through life without this shield, because we are so often mocked by the failure of our hopes, but with this shield, however the Fates may play, we march always in the ranks of honor.

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