英语·中英美
学习方法
①听录音不看原文（猜测意思）
②听录音看原文（核对自己的猜想）
③最大声、最清晰、最快速疯狂操练
④经常找别人卖弄你的学的英文（能脱口而出）
19、The Rainy Day
雨天
The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;
It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the moldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary.
天冷、阴暗、沉闷；
下着雨，风也刮个不停；
藤还攀附着颓垣残壁，
每来一阵狂风，枯叶附落纷纷，
天真是阴暗而沉闷。
My life is cold and dark and dreary;
It rains and the wind is never weary;
My thought still cling to the moldering past,
But the hopes of youth fall thick in the blast,
And the days are dark and dreary.
我的生活寒冷、阴郁、沉闷；
下着雨，风也刮个不停；
我的思想还纠缠着消逝的往事，
大风里，我的青春希望相继熄灭，
天真是阴暗而沉闷。
Be still, sad heart! And cease repining;
Behind the clouds is the sun still shining;
Thy fate is the common fate of all,
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
安静吧，忧伤的心！别再悔恨；
乌云后面太阳依然辉煌灿烂；
你的命运和大家的一样，
每个人一生都得逢上阴雨，
有些日子必然阴暗而沉闷。
20、Autumn 秋
The melancholy days are come，the saddest of the year,
阴郁的日子将来临，这终年最悲伤的时光，
Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.
狂风怒吼，树林凋敝，牧场焦黄如燃。
Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead;
成堆的枯叶在林间洼地，静卧凋亡，
They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit’s tread.
沙沙作响于狂风的逐旋，兔子的踏践。
The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,
知更鸟和鹪鹩已飞远，阴沉的一整天
And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day.
灌木飞出松鸦，乌鸦在树冠上叫唤。
Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood.
花儿在哪里，年轻美丽的花朵，婷婷玉立于新近的绽放。
In brighter light and softer airs, beauteous sisterhood?
哪里有明媚阳光和柔和气氛里的美丽姐妹情缘？
Alas! They all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers
唉！温顺的花儿，她们现正躺在自己的坟茔，
Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.
带着我们称道的美丽和善良，低卧土床板。
The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain
雨丝落在它们身上，但寒冷的暮秋之雨
Calls not, from out the gloomy earth, the lovely ones again
从阴郁的大地，再也唤不出可爱的红颜
21、Hamlet
哈姆雷特
The seeming inconsistencies in the conduct and character of Hamlet have long exercised the
conjectural ingenuity of critics; and, as we are always loth to suppose that the cause of defective apprehension is in ourselves, the mystery has been too commonly explained by the very easy process of setting it down as in fact inexplicable, and by resolving the phenomenon into a misgrowth or lusus of the capricious and irregular genius of Shakespeare. The shallow and stupid arrogance of these vulgar and indolent decisions I would fain do my best to expose.
哈姆雷特的行动和性格似乎很不一致。长期以来，这已使文艺评论家绞尽脑汁，加以推测；而由于我们总是不愿设想，理解上存在缺陷的原因在于我们自身，所以通常都以一种非常简单的方式来解释这个奥秘，即把它看成实际上是无法说明的现象，并把这一现象归之于莎士比亚的变幻莫测和不同寻常的天才的畸形发展。对于这些卑俗和怠惰导致的结论所表现出来的浅薄而愚昧的狂妄态度，我愿尽力予以揭露。
I believe the character of Hamlet may be traced to Shakespeare’s deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Indeed, that this character must have some connection with the common fundamental laws of our nature may be assumed from the fact, that Hamlet has been the darling of every country in which the literature of England has been fostered. In order to understand him, it is essential that we should reflect on the constitution of our own minds. Man is distinguished from the brute animals in proportion as thought prevails over sense: but in the healthy processes of the mind, a balance is constantly maintained between the impressions from outward objects and the inward operations of the intellect; for if there be an overbalance in the contemplative faculty, man thereby becomes the creature of mere meditation, and loses his natural power of action.
我相信哈姆雷特的性格根植于莎士比亚对心理学准确而深刻的认识。在每个受过英国文学熏陶的国家里，哈姆雷特都是人们心爱的人物；从这个事实我们可以设想：哈姆雷特这个人物和我们性格中的共同基本规律，一定有某种联系。为了理解他，我们必须思考我们自己的心理构造。人和野兽的区别，同思想驾驭感官知觉的程度成正比。可是，在正常的思维活动过程中，外界事物所产生的印象和内心的智力活动之间经常保持平衡；因为，如果思维的机能占了优势，人就会变成思索的中心，而丧失了行动的本能。
Now one of Shakespeare’s modes of creating characters is, to conceive any one intellectual or moral faculty in morbid excess, and then to place himself, Shakespeare, thus mutilated or diseased, under given circumstances. In Hamlet he seems to have wished to exemplify the moral necessity of a due balance between our attention to the objects of our senses, and our meditation on the workings of our minds, -- an equilibrium between the real and the imaginary worlds.
莎士比亚塑造人物的方式之一是：设想任何一种智能或精神官能处于不健康的过度发展状态，接着就把因此变得带有心理伤残或病态的他自己――莎士比亚――至于特定的环境之中。他似乎想以哈姆雷特为例，说明对感觉对象的注意和对心理活动的深思研究之间，也就是现实世界和想象世界之间，保持应有的平衡在精神上的必要性。
In Hamlet this balance is disturbed: his thoughts, and the images of his fancy are far more vivid than his actual perceptions, and his very perceptions, instantly passing through the medium of his contemplations, acquire, as they pass, a form and a colour not naturally their own. Hence we see a great, an almost enormous, intellectual activity, and a proportionate aversion to real action consequent upon it, with all its symptoms and accompanying qualities.
在哈姆雷特身上，这种平衡被破坏了：他的思想，以及他幻想的形象，比他实际感觉到的东西生动得多；而他所感觉到的那些东西本身，因为要立即通过一种媒介，即他的种种沉思，所以在通过的时候便获得了一种非其自身天然具有的形状和色彩。因此，我们见到一种巨大的、甚至是庞大无比的理性活动，我们还见到了随此理性活动产生，并与之成正比例的，对采取具体行动反感，以及此反感的种种表现和固有特点。
This character Shakespeare places in circumstances, under which it is obliged to act on the spur of the moment: -- Hamlet is brave and careless of death; but he vacillates from sensibility, and procrastinates from thought, and loses the power of action in the energy of resolve. Thus it is that this tragedy presents a direct contrast to that of ’Macbeth;’ the one proceeds with the utmost slowness, the other with a crowded and breathless rapidity.
莎士比亚将这个人物置于特定的使他不能不在一时的冲动下行动的环境之中：哈姆雷特是勇敢的，他把生死置于度外，可是他由于过分敏感而动摇，由于思虑太多而拖延，由于致力于下决心而失掉了行动的力量。这就是这个悲剧和麦克佩斯的悲剧形成截然相反对照的缘故：前者的发展过程极其缓慢，而后者则头绪纷繁，并且是以令人透不过气的速度展开的。
22、Random Thoughts
随感录
This matter of other people’s learning and accomplishments has been worrying me for some time. I never read the life of any important person without discovering that he knew more and could do more than I could ever hope to know or to do in half a dozen life-times. To begin with, unless these people chance to be obvious invalids like Stevenson or Tchehov, they are always tremendous athletes with surprising strength, powers of endurance, and so forth.
一直以来，对别人学识渊博及造诣之深，我感到很不理解。只要你随便读一读哪一位重要人物的传记，就总会发现他的学问和才能，就算我活六辈子也休想学到和做到。首先，除了碰到像史蒂文森或契诃夫那样的，有明显残疾的人以外，他们总是成绩顶呱呱的运动员，他们有着惊人的气力、耐力。
They could all walk and run and climb our heads off, even when they were seventy. Then they all have the gift of tongues. You never catch a glimpse of them sitting down to learn a new language, not even running an eye over its irregular verbs, yet it is admitted that they speak any number with an astonishing fluency and purity of accent. They never confine themselves to one science, but are inevitably masters of several. The big book of Nature they know by heart. Only the other day I was reading an account of a great novelist, a most sophisticated and subtle person, and was told that he knew the name and habits and history of every wild flower and plant and tree and bird in the country. Nor is that all. There is not one of these bigwigs who is not (I quote the customary phrases) a sensitive and accomplished musician, or an extraordinarily fine amateur water-colourist, or the possessor of a magnificent prose style. We are always told that, had circumstance been different, their talents were such that they need only have given their serious attention to one or other of these arts to have procured for themselves lasting and perhaps world-wide reputation. So runs the legend of the eulogists.
他们即使年届七旬，在走路，跑步，翻山越岭时我们都赶不上他们。其次，他们大都是语言方面的天才。你从来没有看见他们坐下来学习一种新的语言，甚至连不规则动词表也没有看见他们浏览—下。但是大家都认为他们随便可以讲几种语言，不仅流利，而且发音纯正。他们一般都精通几门，而不会使局限在一门科学里。大自然这部巨著被他们熟记于心。不久以前，我还读到一位杰出的小说家的事迹。他是一位非常老练而又精细的人，据说他熟悉乡村每一种野花野草、树木和禽鸟的名称、习性和生活史。除此之外，请原谅我用一些套语来形容，这些大人物都是富于灵感的音乐大师，或是精妙绝伦的业余水彩画家，或是风格优美的文体家。更使我们感到惊讶的是，要是他们的境遇不同，只要他们认真从事这门或那门艺术，凭着他们的才能，而且日后一定会获得不朽的声誉，再者还会享誉全球。这些对他们的描述真是神乎其神。
I am baffled. How is it done? I ask the question again, my voice rises to a scream of envy and vexation. Consider what is involved in this matter (so lightly touched upon and dismissed) of music or water-colour painting or fine writing, what years of serious application, of drudgery at the keyboard, the easel, or the writing-desk. It is one thing to strum on the piano, as you and I do, faking the left-hand passages as we go along, or to daub a few patchy water colours, or to paste on to clumsy prose some old spangles of rhetoric, and it is quite another thing to be an accomplished musician or artist or writer. If the first were meant, I could understand it; but the second —— and as a mere recreation, too! And then to add the athleticism, the sciences, the tongues, the natural history! I am bewildered and crushed. The very idle rumour of fellow-creatures so wonderfully gifted makes me dwindle in my own estimation to the size of a gnat.
但是我被搞糊涂了。他们凭什么做得到?我再次想问这个问题，甚至忌妒和烦恼得要遥问苍天。我们应该仔细地想一想一首乐曲、一幅水彩画或一篇美妙的文章究竟意味着什么(这一点却被他们轻轻带过或略而不论)，这需要很多年专心致志地在键盘上、在画架上或者在写字台上辛勤操作，这样才能有所成就。而像你我这样，胡乱弹奏钢琴曲，同时还用左手插入即兴的过门，或者不管色彩是否协调，乱涂几笔蘸上水彩，或者在一篇粗制滥造的散文里贴上几句闪闪烁烁的陈词滥调是一回事；而要成为一个有成就的音乐家、画家或作家，却是另一回事。要是那指的是前者，我可以理解；但是如果指的是后者呢?——尚且还不过是作为一种业余的消遣!更不用说他们还要从事体育运动，研究各门科学，学习各种语言，或者博物学!这使我迷惑不解，而且佩服得五体投地。这就是使我自己越看越小，小得像个小蚊虫的原因。他们有如此神奇的天赋!正像传说中讲的那样。
23、Life Is What We Make It
生活靠我们自己创造
Are you dissatisfied with today’s success? It is the harvest from yesterday’s sowing. Do you dream of a golden morrow? You will reap what you are sowing today. We get out of life just what we put into it.
你对今天的成就感到不满意吗？今天的丰收源自昨日的播种。你梦想有一个金色的明天吗？你今天种下了什么，将来就会收获什么。我们从生活中获取我们所投入的。
Nature takes on our moods: she laughs with those who laugh and weeps with those who weep. If we rejoice and are glad, the very birds sing more sweetly, the woods and streams murmur our song. But if we are sad and sorrowful, a sudden gloom falls upon Nature’s face; the sun shines, but not in our hearts; the birds sing, but not to us.
大自然呈现着我们的情绪；你笑她也笑，你哭她就哭。如果我们的心情是喜悦的，鸟儿们的歌声会分外甜美，森林和小溪也会吟唱着我们的歌儿。但如果我们本身充满忧伤，大自然很快就会被一层阴暗的气氛笼罩。太阳虽然灿烂，但照不到我们的心里:鸟儿虽然在歌唱，却不是在为我们歌唱。
The future will be just what we make it. Our purpose will give it its character. One’s resolution is one’s prophecy. Leave all your discouraging pessimism behind. Do not prophesy evil, but good. Men of hope come to the front.
未来是我们自己创造的。我们的人生目标决定着它的性质；我们的决心是一个人的预言。抛开所有令人沮丧的悲观情绪吧！不要预言邪恶，要看到美好的事物。心里充满希望的人总能走在前面。
24、A Moment of Joy
片刻的欢乐
Twenty years ago, I drove acabfor a living. It was a cowboy’s life, a life for someone who wanted no boss.
二十年前，我以开出租车为生。这是一种富有冒险精神的生活，适合那些不想受老板管制的人。
What I didn’t realize was that it was also a ministry. Because I drove the nightshift, mycabbecame a moving confessional. Passengers climbed in, sat behind me in totalanonymity, and told me about their lives. I encountered people whose lives amazed me,ennobled me, made me laugh and weep, but none touched me more than a woman I picked up late one August night.
开始我没有意识到它也是一种牧师职业。由于我上夜班，我的出租车就成为一个流动的忏悔室。乘客们爬进车里，坐在我后面，素不相识，然后给我讲述他们的生活。我遇到过很多人，有些人的生活让我感到惊奇，有些人的生活让我肃然起敬，有些人带给我欢笑和哭泣。然而最使我感动的，是在八月的一个晚上乘车的一位老妇人。
I was responding to a call from a small brickfourplexin a quiet part of town. I assumed I was being sent to pick up some people who had been partying, or someone who had just had a fight with a lover, or a worker heading to an earlyshiftat some factory for the industrial part of town.
我正在接电话，是从一座砖造四套公寓住宅小楼打来的。我想可能是让我去那里接一些参加舞会的人，或者刚与爱人打过架的人，或者要去城镇工业区的某个工厂赶早班的工人。
When I arrived at 2:30 a.m., the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window. Under these circumstances, many drivers would justhonkonce or twice, wait a minute, then drive away. But I had seen too manyimpoverishedpeople who depended on taxis as their only means of transportation. Unless a situation smelled of danger, I always went to the door. This passenger might be someone who needs my assistance, I reasoned to myself. So I walked to the door and knocked.
凌晨两点半我赶到的时候，楼里除了第一层窗户那儿亮着一盏孤灯外，漆黑一片。在这种情况下，很多司机都是按一两下喇叭，等一会儿，然而就开车离开了。但我见过太多穷困的人们，他们把出租车作为唯一的交通工具。除非嗅到危险的气氛，我总是走到门前。这位乘客也许需要我的帮助，我为自己找理由。于是我走到门前，敲门。
’Just a minute,’ answered afrail, elderly voice. I could hear something being dragged across the floor. After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her 80s stood before me. She was wearing aprintdress and apillboxhat with a veil pinned on it, like somebody out of a 1940’s movie. By her side was a small nylon suitcase.
“请等一下。”一个虚弱而苍老的声音答道。我能听到在地板上拖着东西的声音，过了好一会，门开了。一位80多岁的弱小老妇人站在我面前。她穿着印花外套，戴着别有面纱的筒状女帽，就像从20世纪40年代的电影里走出来的人。她身旁是一个小型的尼龙手提箱。
The apartment looked as if no one had lived in it for years. All the furniture was covered withsheets. There were no clocks on the walls, noknickknacks or utensils on the counters. In the comer was a cardboard box filled with photos andglassware.
这座公寓看上去很多年没人住过了，所有的家具都用帆布蒙着，墙上没有挂钟，柜台上也没有任何装饰物或家用器具。墙角放着一个纸箱，里面堆满了照片和玻璃器皿。
’Would you carry my bag out to the car?’ she said.
“你能帮我把包拿到车上吗？”她说。
I took the suitcase to thecab, then returned to assist the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly toward thecab. She kept thanking me for my kindness.
我把箱子放到车上，又回来搀扶老妇人。她挽住我的胳膊，我们慢慢走到车旁。她不停地感谢我的好心。
’It’s nothing, I told her.’ I just try to treat my passengers the way I would want my mother treated.’
“没什么，”我对她说，“我想要别人这样对待我的母亲，我就得尽力这样对待我的乘客。”
’Oh, you’re such a good boy,’ she said.
“哦，你真是个好孩子。”她说。
When we got in thecab, she gave me an address, then asked, ’Could you drive through downtown?’
当我们坐进车里时，她递给我一个地址，然后又问道：“你能从城镇中心穿过去吗？”
’It’s not the shortest way,’ I answered quickly.
“那不是最近的路。”我很快回答。
’Oh, I don’t mind,’ she said. ’I’m in no hurry. I’m on my way to ahospice.’
“哦，没关系，”她说，“我不急着赶路，我就要去临终关怀医院了。”
I looked in therearview mirror. Her eyes wereglistening. ’I don’t have any family left,’ she continued. ’he doctor says I don’t have...’
我从后视镜看了看，她的眼睛闪着光。她继续说着：“我没有任何家人了，医生说我没有…”
I quietly reached over and shut off the meter.
我轻轻地伸手关掉了计量表。
’What route would you like me to take?’ I asked.
“您想让我走哪条路线？”我问。
For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked as an elevator operator. We drove through the neighborhood where she and her husband had lived when they werenewlyweds. She had me pull up in front of a furniture warehouse that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.
接下来的两个小时，我们开车穿过了整个城市。她指给我看当年她做电梯操作負的那座大厦，她和她的丈夫当年新婚时生活过的小区，她让我在一家家具商店前面停车，那儿以前是个舞厅，她还是个小姑娘时常去那儿跳舞。
Sometimes she’d ask me to slow in front of a particular building or corner and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.
有时经过一个特殊的大楼或角落时她会让我放慢车速，她会坐在那里注视着夜空，默默无语。
As the firsthintof sun was creasing the horizon, she suddenly said, ’I’m tired. Let’s go now.’
当第一缕阳光打破了地平线，她突然说：“我累了，咱们现在就走吧。”
We drove in silence to the address she had given me. It was a low building, like a smallconvalescent home, with a driveway that passed under aportico.
我们默默地驱车向她给我的那个地址驶去。那是一座低矮的楼房，就像一个小疗养院，在门廊的下面有一条车道。
Two orderlies came out to thecabas soon as we pulled up. They weresolicitousandintent, watching her every move. They must have been expecting her. I opened thetrunkand took the small suitcase to the door. The woman was already seated in a wheelchair.
我们刚停车，就有两个护理员出来向我们走来。她们关切而热心地注视着她的一举一动，看样子一定是在等着她的到来。我打开车尾的行李箱，把她的小型手提箱提到门口。老妇人已经坐进轮椅里，
’How much do I owe you?’ she asked, reaching into her purse.
“我该给你多少钱？”她边说边把手伸进钱包。
’Nothing.’ I said.
“不用了，”我说。
’You have to make a living.’ she answered.
“你得谋生呢，”她说。
’There are other passengers.’ I responded.
“还有其他的乘客，”我回答。
Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly.
几乎想也没想，我弯下腰拥抱了她一下。她也紧紧地抱着我。
’You gave an old woman a little moment of joy,’ she said. ’Thank you.’
“你给了一个老妇人片刻的欢乐，”她说，“谢谢你。”
Isqueezed her hand, then walked into the dim morning light. Behind me, a door shut. It was the sound of the closing of a life.
我紧紧地握了握她的手，便走进了微弱的晨光中。门在我身后关上了。这也是生命关闭的声音。
I didn’t pick up any more passengers thatshift. I drove aimlessly, lost in thought. For the rest of that day, I could hardly talk. What if that woman had gotten an angry driver, or one who was impatient at the end hisshift? What if I had refused to take the run, or hadhonked once, then driven away? On a quick review, I don’t think that I have done anything more important in my life.
那晚我没有拉其他的乘客。我漫无方向地开着车，陷入沉思中。那天其余的时间，我几乎说不出话。如果那位老妇人碰到一位狂暴的司机，或者急着结束晚班的司机，那会怎么样呢？如果我拒绝跑这趟车，或者只是按一声喇叭，便开车离开，那又会怎么样呢？匆忙回顾了一下，我认为我做了一件生命中再重要不过的事情。
We’re conditioned to think that our livesrevolvearound great moments. But great moments often catch us unaware--beautifully wrapped in what others may consider a small one. People may not remember exactly what you did, or what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel.
我们习惯性地认为我们的生命中有一些重大的时刻，然而重大的时刻往往在不经意时降临到我们身上——也许在别人眼中是小事，但它有着美丽的包装。人们可能不会完全记住你所做的事，或者你所说的话…但他们却会永远记住你带给他们的感觉。
Take a moment to stop and appreciate the memories you have made, the memory making opportunities around you and make someone feel special today.
花上片刻的时间，停下脚步欣赏一下你的回忆，那些为周围的人创造了机会的回忆，那些使他人今天仍然感觉特别的回忆。
25、Sadness of August
八月的忧伤
Lin Huiyin
林徽因
In a yellow pond there are white ducks swimming.
黄水塘里游着白鸭，
Only a little taller than people, sorghums are still green.
高粱梗油青的刚高过头，
Where should I put, in this pounding heart,
这跳动的心怎样安插，
A narrow path in the field, this sadness in August.
田里一窄条路，八月里这忧愁？
Rain washed the sky clean last night, sun shines
天是昨夜雨洗过的，山岗
On hills and leaves some shadows,
照着太阳又留一片影；
Sheep follow the shepherd into the village,
羊跟着放羊的转进村庄，
And shading a well, a big tree looks like a heart.
一大棵树荫下罩着井，又像是心！
No one ever spoke of August, summer is over
从没有人说过八月什么话，
And fall isn’t here. I look onto a farmland
夏天过去了，也不到秋天。
And then at the squashes over the earth wall,
但我望着田垄，土墙上的瓜，
I just don’t understand how life and dream connect.
仍不明白生活同梦怎样的连牵。
26、Random Thoughts
随感录
This matter of other people’s learning and accomplishments has been worrying me for some time. I never read the life of any important person without discovering that he knew more and could do more than I could ever hope to know or to do in half a dozen life-times. To begin with, unless these people chance to be obvious invalids like Stevenson or Tchehov, they are always tremendous athletes with surprising strength, powers of endurance, and so forth.
一直以来，对别人学识渊博及造诣之深，我感到很不理解。只要你随便读一读哪一位重要人物的传记，就总会发现他的学问和才能，就算我活六辈子也休想学到和做到。首先，除了碰到像史蒂文森或契诃夫那样的，有明显残疾的人以外，他们总是成绩顶呱呱的运动员，他们有着惊人的气力、耐力。
They could all walk and run and climb our heads off, even when they were seventy. Then they all have the gift of tongues. You never catch a glimpse of them sitting down to learn a new language, not even running an eye over its irregular verbs, yet it is admitted that they speak any number with an astonishing fluency and purity of accent. They never confine themselves to one science, but are inevitably masters of several. The big book of Nature they know by heart. Only the other day I was reading an account of a great novelist, a most sophisticated and subtle person, and was told that he knew the name and habits and history of every wild flower and plant and tree and bird in the country. Nor is that all. There is not one of these bigwigs who is not (I quote the customary phrases) a sensitive and accomplished musician, or an extraordinarily fine amateur water-colourist, or the possessor of a magnificent prose style. We are always told that, had circumstance been different, their talents were such that they need only have given their serious attention to one or other of these arts to have procured for themselves lasting and perhaps world-wide reputation. So runs the legend of the eulogists.
他们即使年届七旬，在走路，跑步，翻山越岭时我们都赶不上他们。其次，他们大都是语言方面的天才。你从来没有看见他们坐下来学习一种新的语言，甚至连不规则动词表也没有看见他们浏览—下。但是大家都认为他们随便可以讲几种语言，不仅流利，而且发音纯正。他们一般都精通几门，而不会使局限在一门科学里。大自然这部巨著被他们熟记于心。不久以前，我还读到一位杰出的小说家的事迹。他是一位非常老练而又精细的人，据说他熟悉乡村每一种野花野草、树木和禽鸟的名称、习性和生活史。除此之外，请原谅我用一些套语来形容，这些大人物都是富于灵感的音乐大师，或是精妙绝伦的业余水彩画家，或是风格优美的文体家。更使我们感到惊讶的是，要是他们的境遇不同，只要他们认真从事这门或那门艺术，凭着他们的才能，而且日后一定会获得不朽的声誉，再者还会享誉全球。这些对他们的描述真是神乎其神。
I am baffled. How is it done? I ask the question again, my voice rises to a scream of envy and vexation. Consider what is involved in this matter (so lightly touched upon and dismissed) of music or water-colour painting or fine writing, what years of serious application, of drudgery at the keyboard, the easel, or the writing-desk. It is one thing to strum on the piano, as you and I do, faking the left-hand passages as we go along, or to daub a few patchy water colours, or to paste on to clumsy prose some old spangles of rhetoric, and it is quite another thing to be an accomplished musician or artist or writer. If the first were meant, I could understand it; but the second —— and as a mere recreation, too! And then to add the athleticism, the sciences, the tongues, the natural history! I am bewildered and crushed. The very idle rumour of fellow-creatures so wonderfully gifted makes me dwindle in my own estimation to the size of a gnat.
但是我被搞糊涂了。他们凭什么做得到?我再次想问这个问题，甚至忌妒和烦恼得要遥问苍天。我们应该仔细地想一想一首乐曲、一幅水彩画或一篇美妙的文章究竟意味着什么(这一点却被他们轻轻带过或略而不论)，这需要很多年专心致志地在键盘上、在画架上或者在写字台上辛勤操作，这样才能有所成就。而像你我这样，胡乱弹奏钢琴曲，同时还用左手插入即兴的过门，或者不管色彩是否协调，乱涂几笔蘸上水彩，或者在一篇粗制滥造的散文里贴上几句闪闪烁烁的陈词滥调是一回事；而要成为一个有成就的音乐家、画家或作家，却是另一回事。要是那指的是前者，我可以理解；但是如果指的是后者呢?——尚且还不过是作为一种业余的消遣!更不用说他们还要从事体育运动，研究各门科学，学习各种语言，或者博物学!这使我迷惑不解，而且佩服得五体投地。这就是使我自己越看越小，小得像个小蚊虫的原因。他们有如此神奇的天赋!正像传说中讲的那样。
27、Life Is Like a Coffee
生活是杯咖啡
A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -- porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the coffee.
一群毕业生，各自在事业上都已有所建树，相约一起去看望他们年老的大学教授。谈话一会儿就变成了各自对工作和生活压力的抱怨。在用咖啡招待这些客人时，教授去厨房端来一大壶咖啡，并拿出各式各样的咖啡杯——陶瓷的、塑料的、玻璃的、水晶的，有看上去普通的、有价值不菲的、有做工精细的——让他们自己倒咖啡喝。
When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:
当所有学生手中都端了一杯咖啡后，教授发话了 ：
If you noticed, all the nice-looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.
“如果你们注意一下，就会发现所有好看的昂贵的杯子都被挑走了，剩下的只是那些普通的和便宜的。当然，每个人都只想拥有最好的，这很正常，但这也正是你们的问题和压力的根源所在。”
What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other’s cups.
“其实你们真正想要的是咖啡，而不是杯子，但你们却又都下意识去挑选最好的杯子，并观察别人拿到的杯子。”
Now consider this: Life is the coffee and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and do not change the quality of life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided. So, don’t let the cups drive you ... enjoy the coffee instead.
“现在设想一下：如果生活是杯中的咖啡，工作、财富和社会地位就是那些杯子。它们只是维持生活的工具而已，并不改变生活质量。有时候，我们在过于关注杯子的同时却忘了去品 味上帝賜予的咖啡。所以，不要成为杯子的奴隶…好好品味杯中的咖啡。”
28、Every Day Is a Gift
每一天都是特殊的日子
My brother-in-law opened the bottom drawer of my sister’s bureau and lifted out a tissue-wrapped package. ’This,’ he said, ’is not a slip. This is lingerie.’ He discarded the tissue and handed me the slip.
妹夫打开了妹妹衣柜的底层抽屉，拿出一个用纸包装的包裹。“这个，”他说不是件普通村裙内衣，而是一件做工非常精细的内衣。”他把薄纸撕开，递给我那件内衣。
It was exquisite, silk, handmade and trimmed with a cobweb of lace. The price tag with an astronomical figure on it was still attached.
它的确精致无比，丝质、全手工缝制，周围还有一圈网状花边。价签都尚未拆去，上面的数字高得惊人。
Jan bought this the first time we went to New York, at least 8 or 9 years ago. She never wore it. She was saving it for a special occasion.
“这是我们第一次去纽约时简买的，至少已是八九年前的事了。她从没有穿过它。她保留着它，想等一个特殊的日子再穿。”
Well, I guess this is the occasion.
唉，我想现在便是那特殊的日子了。
He took the slip from me and put it on the bed, with the other clothes we were taking to the mortician. His hands lingered on the soft material for a moment, then he slammed the drawer shut and turned to me,’Don’t ever save anything for a special occasion. Every day you’re alive is a special occasion.’
妹夫从我手中拿过内衣放在床上，和其他我们要带给殡仪服务人员的衣服放在一起。他的手在那柔软织物上徘徊了一会儿，随即砰然关上抽屉，转身对我说：“永远不要把任何东西留给什么特殊日子。你活着的每一天就是一个特殊的日子。”
I remembered those words through the funeral and the days that followed when I helped him and my niece attend to all the sad chores that follow an unexpected death. I thought about them on the plane returning to California from the mid-western town where my sister’s family lives. I thought about all the things that she hadn’t seen or heard or done. I thought about the things that she had done without realizing that they were special.
在葬礼上和帮妹夫、侄女处理妹妹意外死亡后的伤心后事的那几天，我一直记着这些话。我乘飞机从位于中西部的妹妹家的小镇上返回加州时，还在想这些话。我想着妹妹没有去看到、去听或去做的事。我想着她虽然做过却没有意识到其特殊性的事。
I’m still thinking about his words, and they’ve changed the weeds in the garden. I’m spending more time with ray family and friends and less time in committee meetings. Whenever possible, life should be a pattern of experience to savour, not endure. I’m trying to recognize these moments now and cherish them.
我至今还在想着妹夫说的话，正是它们改变了我的花园里的杂草。我花更多的时间与家人朋友在一起，而少花时间在那些委员会议上。无论何时，生活应当是一种“品味”而非一种“忍受”。我在试着欣赏每一刻，并珍惜每一刻。
I’m not ’saving’ anything; we use our good china and crystal for every special event such as losing a pound, getting the sink unstopped, the first camellia blossom... I wear my good blazer to the market if I feel like it. My theory is if I look prosperous, I can shell out $28.49 for one small bag of groceries without wincing. I’m not saving my good perfume for special parties; clerks in hardware stores and tellers in banks have noses that function as well as my party-going friends.
我不再去“珍藏”任何东西；只要有一件特别的事情，比如说当体重减了一磅时，当厨房水槽堵塞通了时，当第一朵山茶花这放时…我们就会使用精美的免器和水晶制品。如果我想穿，我就穿上我的品质优良颜色鲜亮的运动衣去市场购物。我的理论是:如果我看上去还富足的话，我可以毫不畏缩地为一袋杂货付28.49美元。我不再为特殊的派对而珍藏我上好的香水；五金店售货员和银行出纳员们的嗅觉，不会比派对上朋友们来得差。
’Someday’ and ’one of these days’ are losing their grip on my vocabulary. If it’s worth seeing or hearing or doing, I want to see and hear and do it now. I’m not sure what my sister would’ve done had she known that she wouldn’t be here for the tomorrow we all take for granted.
“有朝一日”和“终有一天”这样的词正从我的词汇中淡出。如果值得去看、去听或去做，我当即就要去看、去听、去做。我们总是理所当然地以为自己必然有明天，不知假如妹妹知道她将没有明日，她会做些什么。
I think she would have called family members and a few close friends. She might have called a few former friends to apologize, and mend fences for past squabbles. I like to think she would have gone out for a Chinese dinner, her favorite food. I’m guessing. I’ll never know.
我想她会给家人和几位密友打电话。她可能还会给几位昔日朋友打电话主动道歉，摒弃前嫌，重归于好。我想她可能会外出吃顿中餐，那是她最喜欢的。我只是猜想而已。我永远也不会知道。
It’s those little things left undone that would make me angry if I knew that my hours were limited. Angry because I put off seeing good friends whom I was going to get in touch with someday. Angry because I hadn’t written certain letters that I intended to write one of these days. Angry and sorry that I didn’t tell my husband and daughter often enough how much I truly love them.
假如我知道我的时间不多了，那些没来得及做的小事会让我恼火。恼火是因为我一拖再拖没能去看看“有朝一日”会去看的好友们。恼火是因为我还没有写出我“终有一天”要写的信。恼火与遗憾是因为我没能更经常地告诉我的丈夫和女儿：我是多么真切地爱他们。
I’m trying very hard not to put off, hold back, or save anything that would add laughter and luster to our lives. And every morning when I open my eyes, I tell myself that every day, every minute, every breath truly, is... a gift from God.
我正努力不再拖延、保留或珍藏那些能给我们生活带来欢笑和光彩的东西。每天清晨当我睁开双眼，我便告诉自己每一天、每一分钟、每一瞬间都是…上帝赐予的礼物。
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