作者：[英] 洛根·皮尔索尔·史密斯（Logan Pearsall Smith）
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琐事集(外研社双语读库)试读：
Trivia Book I琐事集 第一卷"How blest my lot, in these sweet fields assign'd“我何其幸运，来到这些上帝赐予的甜美的田野，
Where Peace and Leisure soothe the tuneful mind.”
在这里，宁静和闲适抚慰了和谐的心灵。”
Scott, of Amwell, Moral Eclogues 1773.
——安威尔的斯科特《道德的牧歌》（1773）
Happiness
幸福
Cricketers on village greens, hay-makers in the evening sunshine, small boats that sail before the wind—all these create in me the illusion of Happiness, as if a land of cloudless pleasure, a piece of the old Golden World, were hidden, not (as poets have fancied) in far seas or beyond inaccessible mountains, but here close at hand, if one could find it, in some undiscovered valley. Certain grassy lanes seem to lead through the copses thither; the wild pigeons talk of it behind the woods.
在乡村的草地上打打板球，在傍晚的余晖下翻晒干草，迎着风浪泛一叶扁舟——所有这些都让我有幸福的幻觉，仿佛没有阴云覆盖的快乐之地，古老金色世界的一角，并非（诗人们幻想的那样）隐藏在遥远的海上或者难以企及的山巅，而就在我们伸手可及的地方，在某个无人涉足的山谷，等待我们去发现。某些青草掩映下的小路似乎穿过灌木丛通向那里；野鸽子在树林后谈论着它。
To-Day
今日
I woke this morning out of dreams into what we call Reality, into the daylight, the furniture of my familiar bedroom—in fact into the well- known, often-discussed, but, to my mind, as yet unexplained Universe.
今晨我自梦中醒来，回到我们所谓的现实中，回到晨光中，看到熟悉的卧房里的家具——实际上我回到的是这个尽人皆知、众人常谈的宇宙，但是在我看来，还没人能解释清楚它到底是什么。
Then I, who came out of Eternity and seem to be on my way thither, got up and spent the day as I usually spend it. I read, I pottered, I complained, and took exercise; and I sat punctually down to eat the cooked meals that appeared at regular intervals.
然后我—来自永恒似乎也终将归于永恒—起床，与往常无二般地度过一日。我读书，闲逛，抱怨，锻炼；每隔一定时间，我就准时坐在饭桌前享用准备好的饭食。
The Afternoon Post
午后的邮件
The village Post Office, with its clock and letter-box, its postmistress lost in the heartless seductions of the Aristocracy and tales of coroneted woe, and the sallow-faced grocer watching from his window opposite, is the scene of a daily crisis in my life, when every afternoon I walk there through the country lanes and ask that well-read young lady for my letters. I always expect good news and cheques; and then, of course, there is the magical Fortune which is coming, and word of it may reach me any day. What it is, this strange Felicity, or whence it shall arrive, I have no notion; but I hurry down in the morning to find the news on the breakfast table, open telegrams in delighted panic, and cry "Here it comes!" when in the night-silence I hear wheels approaching along the road. So, happy in the hope of Happiness, and not greatly concerned with any other interest or ambition, I live on in my quiet, ordered house; and so I shall live perhaps until the end. Is it merely the last great summons and revelation for which I am waiting?
乡村的邮局里，挂着的钟表和邮箱，沉湎于贵族的无情诱拐和王子的悲苦故事中的女邮政局长，以及从对面的窗户里向外张望的脸色腊黄的杂货商，构成了我每日生活中最恐慌的画面。每天下午我穿过乡间小路走到邮局，问那位博学的年轻女士要我的信。我总是希望有好消息和支票寄来；当然，还有即将来临的奇妙的幸福，关于它的信息任何一天都可能传到我这儿来。它会是什么，这份奇特的幸福，或者它从哪里来，我一无所知；但是每天早上我都冲下楼去寻找早餐桌上的消息，愉快又紧张地打开电报，晚上万籁俱寂的时候听到沿街驶来的车轮声，便大叫“它来了！”就这样，我因对幸福怀有希望而快乐，不把别的利益或野心放在心上，继续住在我那安静整洁的家里；也许就这样一直住到生命的尽头。我等待的是否只是上帝最后的伟大召唤和启示呢？
The Busy Bees
忙碌的蜜蜂
Sitting for hours idle in the shade of an apple tree, near the garden- hives, and under the aerial thoroughfares of those honey-merchants,—sometimes when the noonday heat is loud with their minute industry, or when they fall in crowds out of the late sun to their night-long labours,—I have sought instruction from the Bees, and tried to appropriate to myself the old industrious lesson.
无所事事地坐在苹果树阴下好几个小时，旁边是花园里的蜂房，那些贩蜜者在我头顶上方的空气通道里飞舞，——有时看到它们在正午的热气中为那小生意吵吵嚷嚷地奔忙，或者在余晖退去时仍然成群结队地彻夜劳动，——我一直试图从蜜蜂身上学到那关于勤劳的古老教义。
And yet, hang it all, who by rights should be the teacher and who the learners? For those peevish, over-toiled, utilitarian insects, was there no lesson to be derived from the spectacle of Me? Gazing out at me with myriad eyes from their joyless factories, might they not learn at last—could I not finally teach them—a wiser and more generous-hearted way to improve the shining hours?
但是，管它呢，谁就一定是老师，谁就一定是学生？那些性格暴躁、操劳过度、急功近利的昆虫们难道就不能从奇妙的我身上学点儿东西吗？从它们了无生趣的工厂里用复眼盯着我，难道这些蜜蜂最后也学不会——我最后也教不会它们——以一种更明智、更放松的方式来更好地度过这美好的时光吗？
The Wheat
小麦
The Vicar, whom I met once or twice in my walks about the fields, told me that he was glad that I was taking an interest in farming. Only my feeling about wheat, he said, puzzled him.
我在田边散步时遇到过牧师先生一两次，他说他很高兴我对农业感兴趣，只是我对小麦的感觉让他不解。
Now the feeling in regard to wheat which I had not been able to make clear to the Vicar, was simply one of amazement. Walking one day into a field that I had watched yellowing beyond the trees, I was dazzled by the glow and great expanse of gold. I bathed myself in the intense yellow under the intense blue sky; how it dimmed the oak trees and copses and all the rest of the English landscape! I had not remembered the glory of the Wheat; nor imagined in my reading that in a country so far from the Sun, there could be anything so rich, so prodigal, so reckless, as this opulence of ruddy gold, bursting out from the cracked earth as from some fiery vein beneath. I remembered how for thousands of years Wheat had been the staple of wealth, the hoarded wealth of famous cities and empires; I thought of the processes of corn-growing, the white oxen ploughing, the great barns, the winnowing fans, the mills with the splash of their wheels, or arms slow-turning in the wind; of cornfields at harvest-time, with shocks and sheaves in the glow of sunset, or under the sickle moon; what beauty it brought into the northern landscape, the antique, passionate, Biblical beauty of the South!
我没能向牧师先生解释清楚，其实这种对小麦的感觉只是一种惊叹而已。树林那边有一片麦田，我亲眼看着那里的庄稼逐渐成熟。有一天我走了进去，那广袤无垠的金色光芒让我目眩神迷。我沐浴在蔚蓝的天空下金灿灿的麦田中；在它面前，橡树林、灌木丛以及英格兰其他所有美景全都黯然失色！我从不记得小麦有如此的光辉；也从没在书中看到过在离太阳如此遥远的国度，竟然会有如此浓烈、蓬勃、无畏的事物，好像这从地缝里喷射出的丰饶的红彤彤的金色是从地表下炙热的大地脉络里喷涌而出一般。我记得几千年来小麦一直是财富的主要形式，著名的城市和王国都囤积了大量的小麦；我想到种植小麦的过程，耕地的白牛、大谷仓、扬谷风扇、还有磨坊，里面有溅着水花的轮子、在风的吹动下缓缓转动的摇杆；我想到收获时节的麦田，日落的余晖中，或一轮弯月下，那一捆捆、一堆堆的小麦。它给北方的景色增添了怎样的美丽，又给南方带去了多少古朴、热情而又圣洁的美景啊！
The Coming Of Fate
命运的来临
When I seek out the sources of my thoughts, I find they had their beginning in fragile Chance; were born of little moments that shine for me curiously in the past. Slight the impulse that made me take this turning at the cross-roads, trivial and fortuitous the meeting, and light as gossamer the thread that first knit me to my friend. These are full of wonder; more mysterious are the moments that must have brushed me with their wings and passed me by: when Fate beckoned and I did not see it, when new Life trembled for a second on the threshold; but the word was not spoken, the hand was not held out, and the Might-have-been shivered and vanished, dim as a dream, into the waste realms of non-existence.
我追寻自己思想的源泉，发现它们始于脆弱易逝的机缘巧合，源于我生命过往中闪耀着奇异光芒的瞬间。左右我在十字路口向左转还是向右转的是小小的冲动，相遇是小小的偶然，第一次将我和我的朋友牵引到一起的是轻如蛛网的细线。一切都充满了神奇；而更神秘的是那些用翅膀触碰到我、与我擦身而过的瞬间：当命运向我招手，我却没有看到，当新生活在门前短暂驻足，我却一无所知；但是话没说出口，手没伸出去，这些可能性一闪即逝，如梦境般模糊不清，终究化为乌有。
So I never lose a sense of the whimsical and perilous charm of daily life, with its meetings and words and accidents. Why, to-day, perhaps, or next week, I may hear a voice, and, packing up my Gladstone bag, follow it to the ends of the world.
所以我从未停止去体会日常生活那反复无常、充满危险的魅力，以及其中的种种邂逅、言谈和意外。也许就在今天，或者下星期，我会听到一个声音，然后就收拾好我的格莱斯顿旅行包，追随它到天涯海角。
My Speech
我的演讲
"Ladies and Gentlemen," I began—“女士们先生们，”我开始演讲——
The Vicar was in the chair; Mrs. La Mountain and her daughters sat facing us; and in the little schoolroom, with its maps and large Scripture prints, its blackboard with the day's sums still visible on it, were assembled the labourers of the village, the old family coachman and his wife, the one-eyed postman, and the gardeners and boys from the Hall. Having culled from the newspapers a few phrases, I had composed a speech which I delivered with a spirit and eloquence surprising even to myself. The Vicar cried "Hear, Hear!" the Vicar's wife pounded her umbrella with such emphasis, and the villagers cheered so heartily, that my heart was warmed. I began to feel the meaning of my own words; I beamed on the audience, felt that they were all my brothers, all wished well to the Republic; and it seemed to me an occasion to divulge my real ideas and hopes for the Commonwealth.
牧师先生坐在椅子上；拉蒙坦夫人和她的女儿们坐在我们对面；这个小教室的墙上挂着地图和大幅的圣经篇章，黑板上还能看见当天的算术题。大家齐聚一堂，村里的工人们、年迈的马车夫和他的妻子、独眼的邮递员、寄宿学校的园丁和男学生们。我从报纸上摘抄了几句话，写了一篇演讲稿，现在我如此激昂、口若悬河地宣讲出来，震惊了在场的每一个人，甚至把我自己都给震住了。牧师先生大声叫着“听啊，听啊！”他的妻子用伞如此用力敲击着地面，村民们如此衷心地喝彩，让我心里升起一股暖意。我开始感觉到了我自己的话语的意义；我朝听众微笑着，觉得他们都是我的兄弟，都愿共和国拥有美好的未来；我觉得似乎在这里我可以吐露我自己对联邦的真实看法和希望。
Brushing therefore to one side, and indeed quite forgetting my safe principles, I began to refashion and new-model the State. Most existing institutions were soon abolished; and then, on their ruins, I proceeded to build up the bright walls and palaces of the City within me—the City I had read of in Plato. With enthusiasm, and, I flatter myself, with eloquence, I described it all—the Warriors, that race of golden youth bred from the State-ordered embraces of the brave and fair; those philosophic Guardians, who, being ever accustomed to the highest and most extensive views, and thence contracting an habitual greatness, possessed the truest fortitude, looking down indeed with a kind of disregard on human life and death. And then, declaring that the pattern of this City was laid up in Heaven, I sat down, amid the cheers of the uncomprehending little audience.
我忘乎所以了，把安全原则完全抛诸脑后，我开始重塑我们的国家。大多数现有的机构不久即被废止；然后在它们的废墟上，我建立起我心目中的城市那明亮围墙和宫殿—我在柏拉图的书中读到的城市。我带着巨大的热情，以我自以为是的口才，滔滔不绝地把它全部描述出来—那些战士们，那群正值黄金年华的青年们是由国家选中的勇士和美女交欢诞下的；那些精通哲学的卫国者们，身居高位，视野广阔，因此养成了一种惯常的伟大气质，他们的意志无比坚毅，居高临下而对人类的生死漠然处之。然后我宣称这座城市的格局是在天堂里构建好的。听众已所剩无几且一头雾水，在他们的欢呼声中我坐了下来。
And afterward, in my rides about the country, when I saw on walls and the doors of barns, among advertisements of sales, or regulations about birds' eggs or the movements of swine, little weather-beaten, old-looking notices on which it was stated that I would address the meeting, I remembered how the walls and towers of the City I built up in that little schoolroom had shone with no heavenly light in the eyes of the Vicar's party.
在那之后，我在乡间骑马时，曾在那些贴在墙上和谷仓门上的促销广告、对鸟蛋的规定、迁移猪的告示中间，看到有几张经过风吹日晒、看起来破旧不堪的小告示，上面写着我将在会上发言。这时，我就会想起我在那间小教室里搭建起的城市的围墙和塔楼在牧师先生等众人的眼中又是怎样丝毫没有闪耀出天堂般的光芒。
Stonehenge1
巨石阵
There they sit for ever around the horizon of my mind, that Stonehenge circle of elderly disapproving Faces—Faces of the Uncles, and Schoolmasters and the Tutors who frowned on my youth.
他们一直端坐在我心的地平线上，围成一个巨石阵,长辈们带着不赞同表情的脸——叔父辈们的、校长们的、老师们的脸，他们都对着年轻的我皱眉头。
In the bright centre and sunlight I leap, I caper, I dance my dance; but when I look up, I see they are not deceived. For nothing ever placates them, nothing ever moves to a look of approval that ring of bleak, old, contemptuous Faces.
在巨石阵光明的中央，在阳光下，我蹦跳，我雀跃，我舞蹈；但当我抬起头，却看到他们并没有受骗。从来没什么能够平息他们的怒气，从来没什么能让他们阴郁苍老、充满不屑的脸上露出赞许的表情。
My Portrait
我的画像
But after all I am no amoeba, no mere sack and stomach; I am capable of discourse, can ride a bicycle, look up trains in Bradshaw, in fact I am and calmly boast myself a Human Being—that Masterpiece of Nature, and noblest fruit of time—I am a rational, polite, meat-eating Man.
但我毕竟不是一条变形虫，只有一个皮囊和一个胃；我能够交谈、会骑自行车、查列车时刻表；实际上我是、并能够厚着脸皮吹嘘我是人类—即自然的杰作，时光最高贵的果实—我是一个有理性、有礼貌、食肉的人。
What stellar collisions and conflagrations, what floods and slaughters and enormous efforts has it not cost the Universe to make me—of what astral periods and cosmic processes am I not the crown, the wonder?
怎样的星体相撞和漫天大火，怎样的洪水泛滥和杀戮，宇宙付出了多么巨大的努力才造就了我—我难道不是星体运行和宇宙过程中的王者和奇迹吗？
Where, then, is the Esplanade or world-dominating Terrace for my sublime Statue; the landscape of palaces and triumphal arches for the background or my Portrait; stairs of marble, flung against the sunset, not too narrow and ignoble for me to pause with ample gesture on their balus-traded flights?
那么，我伟大的雕像应该安放在哪里的海滨广场或者主宰世界的阶地上；哪里的宫殿和凯旋门的景色能作我画像的背景；哪里的大理石台阶向着日出的地方延伸，且足够宽敞高贵，能让我靠着围栏尽情伸展四肢，舒服地休息？
Complex Questions
复杂的问题
The Age, the Vicar would remark, was a serious one; Englishmen were met face to face with complex questions. But the questions that had an interest for me at that time, would no doubt have seemed to the Vicar, many of them, old and imaginary. I was too often occupied, I am afraid, with the complexities of my own thoughts; their odd travels and changes; their way of peopling English forests with wood- nymphs, or transforming English orchards—seen perhaps at dawn or in the late sunshine—into Hesperian gardens. Sometimes it was merely names that filled my mind: "Magalat, Galgalat, Saraim," I syllabled to myself; were these the names of the Magi of the East2; or Atos, Satos, Paratoras? What were the names of the nymphs Actaeon3surprised bathing with Diana? The names of the hounds that hunted to his death that rash intruder; Ladon, Harpyia, Laelaps, Oresitrophos, as some call them; or, as they are given in other authentic books, Boreas, Omelampus, Agreus, Aretusa, Gorgo?
这个时代，牧师先生总是这样评价，形势严峻；英国人正面对着许多复杂的问题。但是许多当时吸引我的问题，在牧师先生看来无疑都是些老生常谈、天马行空的念头。恐怕我太过频繁地陷入自己复杂的想法中；这些想法古怪地发展和变化着；它们怎么想象出英格兰的森林中住着森林仙子，或者如何将英格兰果园—在破晓时，或夕阳中—变成西方之国的花园。有时我脑海中萦绕的不过是一些名字：“玛格拉特、格尔拉特、萨拉依姆，”我暗自念着这几个名字；东方三博士的名字是这样的吗，还是爱托斯、萨托斯、帕拉托拉斯？那些与戴安娜一起沐浴时受到亚克托安惊吓的仙女们叫什么名字？那些追捕亚克托安并最终杀死这个鲁莽的闯入者的猎犬们都叫什么名字？有人叫它们拉冬、哈耳庇厄、雷拉普斯、奥瑞思特洛弗斯；还是，像其他可靠的书籍上写的：玻瑞阿斯、奥莫拉姆普斯、阿格柔斯、阿瑞图撒、戈尔格斯？
Silvia Doria
西尔维娅·多里亚
Beyond the blue hills, within riding distance, there is a country of parks and beeches, with views of the faded, far-off sea. I remember in one of my rides coming on the place which was the scene of the pretty, old-fashioned story of Silvia Doria. Through the gates, with fine gate-posts, on which heraldic beasts, fierce and fastidious, were upholding coroneted shields, I could see, at the end of the avenue, the faeade of the House, with its stone pilasters, and its balustrade on the steep roof.
越过青色群山，骑马能够到达一个满是花园和山毛榉的国度，那里能看到遥远的海消失在天际。我记得一次骑马到那里，看到西尔维娅.多里亚那个美丽古老的故事里的景色。大门两边立着华美的门柱，上面的纹章图像绘着举着贵族盾牌的野兽，凶猛、难以取悦。透过大门我能看到，在大道的尽头，有一幢房子正对着我，房子有石头壁柱，陡峭的屋顶上有栏杆。
More than one hundred years ago, in that Park, with its Italianized house, and level gardens adorned with statues and garden temples, there lived, they say, an old Lord with his two handsome sons. The old Lord had never ceased mourning for his Lady, though she had died a good many years before; there were no neighbours he visited, and few strangers came inside the great Park walls. One day in Spring, however, just when the apple trees had burst into blossom, the gilded gates were thrown open, and a London chariot with prancing horses drove up the Avenue. And in the chariot, smiling and gay, and indeed very beautiful in her dress of yellow silk, and her great Spanish hat with drooping feathers, sat Silvia Doria, come on a visit to her cousin, the old Lord.
这座公园中坐落着一幢意大利风格的房子，还有平整的花园，里面点缀着许多雕像和庭园式寺庙。据说一百多年前，那里住着一位老勋爵和他的两个英俊的儿子。老勋爵的妻子早已过世，但他一直伤心不已；他从不拜访邻居，也极少有陌生人走进这座华美花园的围墙之内。然而，春季里的一天，在苹果花怒放的时节，那扇镀金的大门被推开了，腾跃的大马拉着一辆伦敦的马车沿着大道驶来。马车里坐着一位女子，正愉快地微笑着，她身穿黄色丝绸裙，头戴一顶宽大的西班牙帽，上面垂下几根羽毛，美丽非凡。这就是西尔维娅·多里亚，她来拜访他的表哥—老勋爵。
It was her father who had sent her—that he might be more free, some said, to pursue his own wicked courses,—while others declared that he intended her to marry the old Lord's eldest son.
是她父亲派她来的—有人说这样他就能更自由地进行他那些卑鄙的勾当—也有人说他想让女儿嫁给老勋爵的大儿子。
However this might be, Silvia Doria came like the Spring, like the sunlight, into the lonely place. Even the old Lord felt himself curiously happy when he heard her voice singing about the house; as for Henry and Francis, it was heaven for them just to walk by her side down the garden alleys.
不管他的企图是什么，西尔维娅像春天一样，似阳光一般，来到这个孤独的地方。就连老勋爵，只要一听到她悦耳的声音在房子里响起，也感到莫名的快乐；至于亨利和弗朗西斯，只要与她并肩走在花园小径上，就犹如身在天堂了。
And Silvia Doria, though hitherto she had been but cold toward the London gallants who had courted her, found, little by little, that her heart was not untouched.
虽然迄今为止，西尔维娅一直对伦敦那些向她大献殷勤的追求者不理不睬；但是在这里，她发现自己的心渐渐地不再无动于衷。
But, in spite of her father, and her own girlish love of gold and rank, it was not for Henry that she cared, not for the old Lord, but for Francis, the younger son. Did Francis know of this? They were secretly lovers, the old scandal reported; and the scandal, it may be, had reached her father's ears.
尽管她的父亲热衷于追名逐利，她自己也对金钱和地位有种少女虚荣的喜爱，她的心上人却不是亨利，也不是老勋爵，而是小儿子弗朗西斯。弗朗西斯知道她的心意吗？丑闻传开了，他们是秘密的爱人。这个丑闻可能传到了她父亲的耳朵里。
For one day a coach with foaming horses, and the wicked face of an old man at its window, galloped up the avenue; and soon afterwards, when the coach drove away, Silvia Doria was sitting by the old man's side, sobbing bitterly.
有一天一辆马车沿大道疾驰而来，车前的马匹口吐白沫，窗口露出一张邪恶的老脸；不久马车驶走了，而车厢里那个老头的旁边，坐着西尔维娅，她痛苦地抽泣着。
And after she had gone, a long time, many of the eighteenth-century years went by without change. And then Henry, the elder son, was killed in hunting; and the old Lord dying a few years later, the titles and the great house and all the land and gold came to Francis, the younger son. But after his father's death he was but seldom there; having, as it seemed, no love for the place, and living for the most part abroad and alone, for he never married.
在她离开很久以后，18世纪里的许多岁月逐渐逝去，但是一切都没有变化。后来，大儿子亨利在打猎时丧生了；几年后老勋爵也死了，小儿子弗朗西斯继承了爵位、这所大房子还有所有的土地和财产。但是他父亲死后，弗朗西斯就很少呆在那幢房子里，好像对那个地方完全没有感情。他大多数时间住在国外，独自一人，一直没有结婚。
And again, many years went by. The trees grew taller and darker about the house; the yew hedges, unclipped now, hung their branches over the shadowy paths; ivy almost smothered the statues; and the plaster fell away in great patches from the discoloured garden temples.
又过去了许多年，房子周围的树木愈发高大，郁郁葱葱；无人修剪的紫杉树篱的枝叶已经遮住了小路；常春藤几乎要把那些雕像闷死；大片大片的石膏从花园里那些褪色的寺庙墙壁上剥落。
But at last one day a chariot drove up to the gates; a footman pulled at the crazy bell, telling the gate-keeper that his mistress wished to visit the Park. So the gates creaked open, the chariot glittered up the avenue to the deserted place; and a lady stepped out, went into the garden, and walked among its moss-grown paths and statues. As the chariot drove out again, "Tell your Lord," the lady said, smiling, to the lodge-keeper, "that Silvia Doria came back."
但是最终有一天，一辆马车驶到大门前，一个男仆摇动着那摇摇欲坠的门铃，告诉看门人他的女主人想要看看这个花园。大门吱吱嘎嘎地开了，马车沿着大道驶向那被废弃了的地方，大道上顿时闪耀出金色的光芒。一位女士下了车，走进花园，走过长满苔藓的小径和雕像。当马车驶离时，这位女士微笑着对看门人说：“告诉勋爵，西尔维娅.多里亚回来过。”
Bligh House
布莱的房子
To the West, in riding past the walls of Bligh, I remembered an incident in the well-known siege of that house, during the Civil Wars: How, among Waller's invading Roundhead troops, there happened to be a young scholar, a poet, and lover of the Muses, fighting for the cause, as he thought, of ancient Freedom, who, one day, when the siege was being more hotly urged, pressing forward and climbing a wall, suddenly found himself in a quiet garden by the house. And here, for a time forgetting, as it would seem, the battle, and heedless of the bullets that now and then flew past him like peevish wasps, the young Officer stayed, gathering roses—old-fashioned damask roses, streaked with red and white—which, for the sake of a Court Beauty, there besieged with her father, he carried to the house; falling, however, struck by a chance bullet, or shot perhaps by one of his own party. A few of the young Officer's verses, written in the stilted fashion of the time, and almost unreadable now, have been preserved. The lady's portrait hangs in the white drawing-room at Bligh; a simpering, faded figure, with ringlets and drop-pearls, and a dress of amber-coloured silk.
我骑马西行经过布莱的围墙，想起内战期间，在对那所房子的那次著名围攻中发生的一件事：沃勒的圆颅党军队里有一个年轻的学者，他是诗人，热爱给予诗人灵感的缪斯女神，他认为自己是为了古老的自由而战。围攻愈发激烈，战事愈发紧张，有一天，他快步向前，爬上了墙，忽然发现自己身处房子旁边一座安静的花园里。在这里，他仿佛一时间忘记了战争，全然不顾那些像狂躁的黄蜂一样不时与他擦身而过的子弹。这位年轻的军官停留下来，采摘蔷薇花—老式的大马士革蔷薇，红白相间—想献给一位和她父亲一起被围困的宫廷美人。他拿着花走向房子，然而中途却倒下了，他不巧被流弹击中了，也许是被自己的人射杀了。这位年轻军官的一些诗句被保存下来了，不过那是以当时矫饰的风格写成的，现在的人几乎已经读不懂了。那位女士的画像挂在布莱白色的客厅里。画像已经褪色，画中傻傻笑着的人儿留着卷发，戴着长形珍珠首饰，穿着一件琥珀色的丝绸裙。
The Stars
星星
Battling my way homeward one dark night against the wind and rain, a sudden gust, stronger than the others, drove me back into the shelter of a tree. But soon the Western sky broke open; the illumination of the Stars poured down from behind the dispersing clouds.
一个黑夜，我顶着风雨跌跌撞撞地往家赶，突然一阵狂风袭来，比之前的风势都要强劲，我只好退回到一棵树下躲避。但是不久西方的天空裂开了，群星的光芒自逐渐散去的乌云后倾泻而出。
I was astonished at their brightness, to see how they filled the night with their lustre. So I went my way accompanied by them; Arcturus followed me, and becoming entangled in a leafy tree, shone by glimpses, and then emerged triumphant, Lord of the Western sky. Moving along the road in my waterproof and goloshes, my thoughts were among the Constellations. I too was one of the Princes of the starry Universe; in me also there was something that blazed, that glittered.
看到它们的璀璨，看到它们的光芒映亮了黑夜，我赞叹不已。在星辉的陪伴下，我再度启程。大角星跟随着我，不知怎的跟一棵大树茂密的枝叶纠缠在一起，断断续续地在枝叶的缝隙中探出头来，最后终于以胜利者的姿态出现，它是西方天空中的王者。我继续赶路，身体裹在雨衣和雨鞋里，思绪却停留在星座上。我也是星光灿烂的宇宙中的一位王子，我的身上也有东西在发光，在闪烁。
In Church
教堂礼拜
"For the Pen," said the Vicar, and in the sententious pause which followed I felt that I would offer any gifts of gold to avert or postpone the solemn, inevitable, and yet, as it seemed to me, perfectly appalling statement that "the Pen is mightier than the Sword."“说到笔，”牧师先生说，接下来是警示般的停顿，这时我情愿献上任何黄金的礼物，只要能够阻止或推迟他说出那庄严的、不可避免的、在我看来完全耸人听闻的声明：“笔比剑更有力。”
Parsons
教区牧师
All the same I like Parsons; they think nobly of the Universe, and believe in Souls and Eternal Happiness. And some of them, I am told, believe in Angels—that there are Angels who guide our footsteps, and flit to and fro unseen on errands in the air about us.
我一直喜欢教区牧师；他们视宇宙为高尚的，信仰灵魂和永恒的幸福。据说他们中一些人还相信天使——有天使指引我们的脚步，他们不为肉眼所见，在我们身边的空中飞来飞去，忙忙碌碌。
The Sound Of A Voice
嗓音
As the thoughtful Baronet talked, as his voice went on sawing in my ears, all the light of desire, and of the sun, faded from the Earth; I saw the vast landscape of the world, dim, as in an eclipse; its populations eating their bread with tears, its rich men sitting listless in their palaces, and aged Kings crying "Vanity, Vanity, all is Vanity!" lugubriously from their thrones.
当深思熟虑的准男爵开口说话，当他拉锯一样的声音不断摧残着我的耳朵，所有渴望的光辉、太阳的光芒都从地球上退去；我看到辽阔的世界，暗淡无光，如同日食降临；地球的子民就着泪水吞咽着面包，富人无精打采地坐在宫殿中，年迈的国王们在宝座上大喊着：“浮华，浮华，万事皆浮华！”
What Happens
发生的事情
"Yes," said Sir Thomas, speaking of a modern novel, "it certainly does seem strange; but the novelist was right. Such things do happen."“是的，”托马斯爵士谈到一本现代小说，“的确，小说情节看起来好像很奇怪；但是作者没错。这种事情确实会发生。”
"But, my dear Sir," I burst out, in the rudest manner, "think what life is—just think what really happens! Why people suddenly swell up and turn dark purple; they hang themselves on meat-hooks; they are drowned in horse ponds, are run over by butchers' carts, and are burnt alive—cooked like mutton chops!”“但是，我亲爱的爵士，”我很粗鲁无礼地脱口而出，“想想生活是什么样子吧——只要想想什么会真的发生！人们怎么会突然肿胀起来，变成深紫色；他们怎么会把自己挂在挂肉的钩子上；怎么会淹死在马池里，被屠夫的货车碾过，然后被活活烧死——像羊排骨一样被煮熟！”
Luton4
卢顿
In a field of that distant, half-neglected farm, I found an avenue of great elms leading to nothing. But I could see where the wheat- bearing earth had been levelled into a terrace; and in one corner there were broken, overgrown, gateposts, almost hid among great straggling trees of box.
那片遥远的农场几近荒废。在那儿的一片田野里，我发现一条林阴大道，两边长满高大的榆树，不知通往何方。但我能看到种植小麦的土地变成了平坦的梯田；一个角落里躺着破碎的门柱，上面爬满植物，几棵零零落落的高大的黄杨几乎把它完全遮住。
This, then, was the place I had come to see. Here had stood the great house or palace, with its terraces, and gardens, and artificial waters; this field had once been the favourite resort of Eighteenth-century Fashion; the Duchesses and Beauties had driven hither in their gilt coaches, and the Beaux and Wits of that golden time of English Society. And although the house had long since vanished, and the plough had gone over its pleasant places, yet for a moment I seemed to see this fine company under the green and gold of that great avenue; seemed to hear the gossip of their uncharitable voices as they passed on into the shadows.
这就是我要来看的地方。这里曾经耸立着宏伟的房子或宫殿，周围建有露台、花园、人造池塘；这片田野曾经是18世纪风靡一时的度假胜地；公爵夫人和如云的美女们乘着镀金马车来到这里，同行的还有英国社会黄金时代的花花公子和智慧之士。虽然房子早已被夷为平地，耕犁也耕过了这片可爱的土地，但是一瞬间我仿佛看到那群妙人儿徜徉在这条大道的绿色和金色之下；仿佛听到他们用苛刻的声音窃窃私语着，一直走到阴影里。
A Precaution
预防
The folio gave at length philosophic consolations for all the misadventures said by the author to be inseparable from human existence—Poverty, Shipwrecks, Plagues, Famines, Flights of Locusts, Love-Deceptions, Inundations.
这本书的作者认为所有的不幸都是与人类的存在不可分离的—贫穷、海难、瘟疫、饥荒、蝗灾、爱情欺骗和洪水；他充分地以哲学的观点来安慰读者。
Against these antique Disasters I armed my soul; and I thought it as well to prepare myself against the calamity called "Cornutation," or by other less learned names.
我武装起自己的灵魂，对抗这些古老的灾难；也想到要准备好去应对被称作“妻子出轨”或者其他有着更生僻的名字的灾难。
How Philosophy taught that after all it was but a pain founded on conceit, a blow that hurt not; the reply of the Cynic philosopher to one who reproached him, "Is it my fault or hers?" how Nevisanus advises the sufferer to ask himself if he have not offended; Jerome declares it impossible to prevent; how few or none are safe, and the inhabitants of some countries, especially parts of Africa, consider it the usual and natural thing, how Caesar, Pompey, Augustus, Agamemnon, Menelaus, Marcus Aurelius5, and many other great Kings and Princes had all worn Actaeon's badge; and how Philip6turned it to a jest, Pertinax the Emperor made no reckoning of it; Erasmus declared it was best winked at, there being no remedy but patience, Dies dolorem minuit; Time, Age must mend it; and how, according to the authorities, bars, bolts, oaken doors, and towers of brass, are all in vain. "She is a woman," as the old Pedant wrote to a fellow Philosopher....
哲学教导我们，这终究不过是由自负引起的痛苦，一记不会造成创伤的重击；犬儒主义哲学家这样回答别人的谴责：“错的是我还是她？”奈威萨那斯建议受苦者扪心自问有没有犯过错；哲罗姆宣称这是无法阻止的；极少有人或者根本没人是安全的，某些国家，尤其是非洲某些地区的人们认为这是很正常、自然的事情；恺撒、庞贝、奥古斯都、阿伽门农、梅内莱厄斯、马可.奥勒利乌斯，以及许多其他伟大的国王和王子都戴着阿克特翁的标志；腓力把这变成一个笑话，罗马皇帝佩蒂纳克斯根本没考虑到它；伊拉斯谟说最好假装没看见它，除了耐心等待没有补救方法，像午夜那样黑暗阴森的日子；时间、岁月会修好它；权威观点认为，铁窗、门闩、橡木门还有铜塔，统统没用。“她是个女人。”正像这位年迈的空谈家在写给一位哲学同行的信中所说……
The Great Work
伟大的作品
Sitting, pen in hand, alone in the stillness of the library, with flies droning behind the sunny blinds, I considered in my thoughts what should be the subject of my great Work. Should I complain against the mutability of Fortune, and impugn Fate and the Stars; or should I reprehend the never- satisfied heart of querulous Man, drawing elegant contrasts between the unsullied snow of mountains, the serene shining of the planets, and our hot, feverish lives and foolish repinings? Or should I confine myself to denouncing, like Juvenal7or Jeremiah8, contemporary Vices, crying "Fie!" on the Age with Hamlet, sternly unmasking its hypocrisies, and riddling through and through its too-comfortable Optimisms?
我手里握着笔，独自一人坐在安静的图书馆里，苍蝇在洒满阳光的百叶窗外嗡嗡作响。我在心中考虑应该以什么作为我伟大作品的主题。我应该抱怨命运的无常，抨击造化和星辰？应该谴责易怒的人类永不知足的心，用山间无暇的白雪、行星平和的光辉来优雅地反衬人类炙烈的生活和心中愚蠢的埋怨？应该像尤维纳利斯和耶利米一样，仅仅抨击当下的恶行，随着哈姆雷特一起向着时代大叫一声“咄！”，无情地揭下它虚伪的面具，彻底戳穿它过于舒适的乐观主义？
Or with Job9, should I question the Universe, and puzzle my sad brains about Life—the meaning of Life on this apple-shaped Planet?
或者我应该与约伯一起质疑这个宇宙，苦思冥想在这个苹果状的星球上生活的意义？
My Mission
我的使命
But when in modern books, reviews, and thoughtful magazines I read about the Needs of the Age, its Complex Questions, its Dismays, Doubts, and Spiritual Agonies, I feel an impulse to go out and comfort that bewildered Epoch, to wipe away its tears, still its cries, and speak edifying words of Consolation to it.
当我在现代书籍、评论和有深度的杂志上读到关于这个时代的需求、它的复杂问题、它的沮丧、怀疑和精神上的苦闷时，我感到一股冲动，想要到外面去抚慰这个晕头转向的时代，擦去它的泪水，止住它的喊叫，对它说些有益的话来劝慰它。
The Birds
鸟
But how can one toil at the great task with this hurry and tumult of birds just outside the open window? I hear the Thrush, and the Blackbird, that romantic liar; then the delicate cadence, the wiry descending scale of the Willow-wren, or the Blackcap's stave of mellow music. All these are familiar;—but what is that unknown voice, that thrilling note? I hurry out; the voice flees and I follow; and when I return and sit down again to my task, the Yellow-hammer trills his sleepy song in the noonday heat; the drone of the Greenfinch lulls me into dreamy meditations. Then suddenly from his tree-trunks and forest recesses comes the Green Woodpecker, and mocks at me with an impudent voice full of liberty and laughter.
敞开的窗户外面鸟儿啁啾鸣啼，让我怎能埋头于这项重大的工作？我听到了画眉，还有黑鸟那个浪漫的骗子的叫声；然后是柳莺唱出的婉转旋律，那尖细的下行音阶，或者黑顶莺柔曼的小调。所有这些都很熟悉；——但是那个不知名的声音，那个颤抖的音符是什么？我快步走出去；这声音在逃走，我跟随着它；当我回到房间，重新坐下开始工作，黄在闷热的正午颤抖地唱着昏昏欲睡的歌；金翅鸟低沉枯燥的歌声引我陷入如梦般的冥想。然后突然从树干和树林里的栖息地传来绿色啄木鸟的声音，他用饱含自由和笑声的粗鲁音调嘲笑我。
Why should all the birds of the air conspire against me? My concern is with our own sad Species, with lapsed and erroneous Humanity; not with that inconsiderate, wandering, feather-headed race.
为什么空中所有的飞鸟都要密谋与我作对？我所关心的是我们这个悲伤物种自身，以及堕落错误的人性，而不是那个不顾及别人的、流浪的、头上长羽毛的愚蠢种族。
High Life
高级生活
Although that immense Country House was empty and for sale, and I had got an order to view it, I needed all my courage to walk through the lordly gates, and up the avenue, and then to ring the door-bell. And when I was ushered in, and the shutters were removed to let the daylight into those vast apartments, I sneaked through them, cursing the dishonest curiosity which had brought me into a place where I had no business. But I was treated with such deference, and so plainly regarded as a possible purchaser, that I soon began to believe in the opulence imputed to me. From all the novels describing the mysterious and glittering life of the Great which I had read (and I have read thousands), there came to me the vision of my own existence in this palace. I filled those vast halls with the shine of jewels and stir of voices; I saw a vision of ladies sweeping in their tiaras down the splendid stairs.
虽然那所乡间豪宅已经空了，正在出售，而且我已拿到许可证去看它，但是我还是需要鼓起我所有的勇气才能走进那扇宏伟的大门，沿着大道走到门口，然后按响门铃。我被引进门内，百叶窗收拢起来，好让阳光照进那些大房间，我悄悄地走过它们，咒骂着不诚实的好奇心，是它把我带到这个与我无关的地方。但是我受到如此礼遇，他们显然认为我可能会买下这里，我于是很快就开始相信强加在我身上的这种财富。我从读过的所有描述有钱人神秘光彩的生活的小说中（我读了上千本），幻想自己在这个宫殿中的生活。我让那些宽敞的大厅堆满闪亮的珠宝，充满喧嚣的声响；我看到女士们戴着头冠，曳地长裙擦过华丽的台阶。
But my Soul, in her swell of pride, soon outgrew these paltry limits. Oh no! Never could I box up and house under that roof the Pomp, the Ostentation of which I was capable.
但是我的灵魂，随着骄傲的膨胀，很快超过了那微不足道的界限。哦不！我绝对不能住到那个奢华的别墅里，我会大肆炫耀的。
Then for one thing there was stabling for only forty horses; and this, of course, as I told them, would never do.
于是我借机推托说，有一件事我无法接受，这里的马厩只能养四十匹马；这一点，当然，就像我告诉他们的，绝对不行。
Empty Shells
空壳
They lie like empty sea-shells on the shores of Time, the old worlds which the spirit of man once built for his habitation, and then abandoned. Those little earth-centred, heaven-encrusted universes of the Greeks and Hebrews seem quaint enough to us, who have formed, thought by thought from within, the immense modern Cosmos in which we live—the great Creation of granite, planned in such immeasurable proportions, and moved by so pitiless a mechanism, that it sometimes appals even its own creators. The rush of the great rotating Sun daunts us; to think to the distance of the fixed stars cracks our brains.
它们像空的贝壳一样躺在时间的海滩上。人类的精神曾经为了自己的居所建造了这些古老的世界，然后又把它们抛弃。希腊人和希伯来人心中那些以地球为中心、苍穹为外壳的小宇宙，在我们看来相当古怪有趣。我们经过不断思索，构造出我们居于其中的这个无边无际的现代宇宙体系——这个巨大的花岗岩构成的物体，按照无法衡量的比例构建出来，由如此无情的机制驱动，它有时甚至吓到它的创造者们。巨大太阳的快速旋转震慑住我们；计算恒星间距离的问题令我们绞尽脑汁。
But if the ephemeral Being who has imagined these eternal spheres and spaces must dwell almost as an alien in their icy vastness, yet what a splendour lights up for him and dazzles in those great halls! Anything less limitless would be now a prison; and he even dares to think beyond their boundaries, to surmise that he may one day outgrow this Mausoleum, and cast from him the material Creation
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