經(jīng)典英語晨讀美文精選
經(jīng)典英語晨讀美文精選
何謂美文? 這不是文藝學理論上關于文學類別的一個概念,而是一個與審美閱讀效果相關的一種稱謂,說得直白一點,美文者,即寫得漂亮、寫得精彩。下面是學習啦小編帶來的英語晨讀美文,歡迎閱讀!
英語晨讀美文精選
Sunrise at Sea海上日出
Ba Jin
巴金
I would often get up early to watch the sunrise when it was not yet quiet light and all was quiet except for the droning of the ship engine.
為了看日出,我常常早起。那時天還沒有大亮,周圍非常清靜,船上只有機器的響聲。
The sky was pale with a bluish blue. Soon a streak of pink dawn broke over the horizon,expanding gradually and becoming brighter and brighter. Knowing that the sun was about to rise, I had my eyes fixed on the distant edge of the sea.
天空還是一片淺藍,顏色很淺。轉眼間天邊出現(xiàn)了一道紅霞,慢慢地在擴大它的范圍,加強它的亮光。我知道太陽要從天邊升起來了,便不轉眼地望著那里。
As expected, the sun soon appeared revealing half of its face, which was very red but not bright It kept rising laboriously bit by bit as if weighted down with a heavy burden on its back until,after breaking through the rosy clouds;it completely emerged from the sea aglow with a lovely red. Then,before I knew it, the dark red orb began to shine blazingly, dazzling my eyes until they stung and all of a sudden lighting up the surrounding cloud.
果然過了一會兒,在那個地方出現(xiàn)了太陽的小半邊臉,紅是真紅,卻沒有亮光。這個太陽好像負著重荷似的一步一步、慢慢地努力上升,到了最后,終于沖破了云霞,完全跳出了海面,顏色紅得非??蓯?。一剎那間,這個深紅的圓東西,忽然發(fā)出了奪目的亮光,射得人眼睛發(fā)痛,它旁邊的云片也突然有了光彩。
Sometimes,hidden by the clouds, the sun nonetheless shed its rays straight onto the sea water, making it difficult for me to distinguish between the sky and the sea because what I saw in front of me was nothing but a wide expanse of brilliant light.
有時太陽走進了云堆中,它的光線卻從云里射下來,直射到水面上。這時候要分辨出哪里是水,哪里是天,倒也不容易,因為我就只看見一片燦爛的亮光。
Sometimes, with thick layers of dark clouds hanging in the sky, the sun was hardly visible to the naked eye. But its radiance managed to show through the dark clouds to edge them with golden lace. Then, after gradually breaking through the tight encirclement, it came into full view and even dyed the dark clouds purple or scarlet. At the moment, apart from the sun,the clouds and the seawater, I too was luminous.
有時天邊有黑云,而且云片很厚,太陽出來,人眼還看不見。然而太陽在黑云里放射的光芒,透過黑云的重圍,替黑云鑲了一道發(fā)光的金邊。后來太陽才慢慢地沖出重圍,出現(xiàn)在天空,甚至把黑云也染成了紫色或者紅色。這時候發(fā)亮的不僅是太陽、云和海水,連我自己也成了明亮的了。
Wasn't that a marvelous spectacle?
這不是很偉大的奇觀么?
英語晨讀美文閱讀
Flowery Tuscany 如花的托斯卡納
D. H. Lawrence
「英」D·H·勞倫斯
North of the Alps, the everlasting winter is interrupted by summers that struggle and soon yield;south of the Alps,the everlasting summer is interrupted by spasmodic and spiteful winters that never get a real hold, but that are mean and dogged.The in between,in either case,is just as it may be. But the lands of the sun are south of the Alps, forever.
在阿爾卑斯山的北面,持續(xù)的冬天會受到夏季的頑強入侵,但夏天很快屈服了。而其南面,夏季會被間歇性的、充滿敵意的寒冬襲擾,但冬天永遠也不能真正占了上風。在南北兩者之間,任何一種情況都有可能發(fā)生。但是,陽光普照的地方,永遠都是阿爾卑斯山的南面。
In the morning,the sun shines strong on the horizontal green cloud-puffs of the pines,the sky is clear and full of life,the water runs hastily, still browned by the last juice of crushed olives. And there the earth's bowl of crocuses is amazing.You cannot believe that the flowers are really still. They are open with such delight, and their pistil is so red-orange, and they are so many, all reaching out wide and marvellous, that it suggests a perfect ecstasy of radiant, thronging movement, lit-up violet and orange, and surging in some invisible rhythm of concerted,delightful movement. You cannot believe they do not move, and make some sort of crystalline sound of delight. If you sit still and watch,you begin to move with them,like moving with the stars,and you feel the sound of their radiance. All the little cells of the flowers must be leaping with flowery life and utterance.
清晨,陽光強烈地照射在地平線上松樹團團的綠霧上,天空清新,充滿了生機。河水急匆匆地流著,直到被最后一些壓碎的橄欖汁染成棕色。遍地的番紅花更是令人詫異不已。你不會相信這些花是靜止的。它們?nèi)绱藲g快地綻放,雌蕊是那樣的橘紅。不計其數(shù)的花朵,競相開放,爭奇斗艷,讓人如癡如醉?;ǘ鋫凈骠嫫鹞?,那明亮起來的紫色和橙色的色調,合著無形的美妙節(jié)奏歡快地擺動。你不得不相信它們在動,而且發(fā)出了水晶般的歡快聲。如果你是坐著欣賞花朵,你就會不由自主地隨著它們舞動,那樣的情形就好像跟著星星走一樣。當然,你還會聽到花朵們的歡快聲?;ǖ拿恳粋€小細胞都跳躍著絢麗的生命和思想。
And now that it is March, there is a rush of flowers. Down by the other stream,which turns sideways to the sun,and tangles the brier and bramble, down where the hellebore has stood so wan and dignified all winter, there are now white tufts of primroses,suddenly come. Among the tangle and near the water-lip,tufts and bunches of primroses,in abundance. Yet they look more wan,more pallid,more flimsy than English primroses. They lack some of the full wonder of the northern flowers. One tends to overlook them,to turn to the great,solemn-faced purple violets that rear up from the bank, and above all,to the wonderful little towers of the grape hyacinth.
現(xiàn)在正是三月,也是花兒競相開放的時節(jié)。在其他一些朝太陽方向流動的溪流邊,荊棘灌木交錯,莬葵無助而不屈地對抗冬天,一叢叢白色的櫻草花出乎意料地生長著。叢叢的櫻草花占滿了雜亂的灌木叢和溪水的拐角處??伤鼈儽惹|葵無助,更加蒼白,比英格蘭的櫻草花單薄許多。櫻草花不像北面的花朵那樣讓人驚奇。人們往往會注意不到它,而是會被長在河岸邊莊嚴而美麗的紫羅蘭所吸引,會更愿意欣賞那些深紫色的風信子小花塔。
This is the time,in March,when the sloe is white and misty in the hedge-tangle by the stream,and on the slope of land the peach tree stands pink and alone. The almond blossom,silvery pink, is passing,but the peach,deep-toned,bluey,not at all ethereal this reveals itself like flesh,and the trees are like isolated individuals,the peach and the apricot. It is so conspicuous and so individual,that pink among the coming green of spring,because the first flowers that emerge from winter seem always white or yellow or purple. Now the celandines are out, and along the edges of the podere, the big,sturdy, black-purple anemones, with black hearts.
三月,剛好是溪邊灌木亂叢中白色的野李花朦朦朧朧、粉紅的桃樹獨自站立在山坡的時節(jié)。銀粉色的杏花已漸漸褪去,桃樹裹著深深的藍,一點也不飄逸,卻是本來面目,而桃樹與杏樹,看起來就像毫不相干的個體。綠意盎然的春天里,桃樹的粉色是如此別致。因為最先從冬天開出來的花,通??雌饋矶际前咨螯S色的或紫色的。白屈菜也冒出頭來了。在湖邊你可以發(fā)現(xiàn)高大強壯,黑色花蕊的銀蓮花。
The daisies are out too,in sheets,and they too red-mouthed. The first ones are big and handsome. But as March goes on,they dwindle to bright little things,like tiny buttons,clouds of them together. That means summer is nearly here.
雛菊穿著紅色的衣服成群地跑出來,開始的時候,它們長得又大又漂亮??墒菨u漸地,進入三月中下旬,花就變成了光鮮的小東西,像小小的紐扣聚在一起。這預示著夏天的來臨。
In some places there are odd yellow tulips, slender, spiky and Chinese-looking. They are very lovely, pricking out their dulled yellow in slim spikes. But they too soon lean,expand beyond themselves, and are gone like an illusion.And when the tulips are gone, there is a moment's pause, before summer.Summer is the next move.
你還可以在一些地方,看到一些修長、帶穗的黃色郁金香。在細長的穗上嵌著光亮的黃色,十分惹人喜愛。不過,它們也很快變得傾斜,然后虛弱起來,仿佛幻覺一樣消失得無影無蹤。
In the pause towards the end of April,when the flowers seem to hesitate,the leaves make up their minds to come out. For sometime, at the very ends of the bare boughs of fig trees, spurts of pure green have been burning like little cloven tongues of green fire vivid on the tips of the candelabrum. Now these spurts of green spread out, and begin to take the shape of hands, feeling for the air of summer. And tiny green figs are below them, like glands on the throat of a goat.
郁金香離開以后,在夏天前,花兒們都短暫地歇息了一下。夏天即將到來。
Now the aspens on the hill are all remarkable with the translucent membranes of blood-veined leaves. They are gold-brown,but not like autumn, rather like thin wings bats when like birds-call them birds-they wheel in clouds against the setting sun,and the sun glows through the stretched membrane of their wings, as through thin, brown-red stained glass. This is the red sap of summer, not the red dust of autumn.
寂靜的四月底,在花兒們躊躇不定的時候,葉子們一股腦地跑了出來。一時間,純凈的綠色在無花果的樹枝尖冒出,好像燭臺頂那生動的綠色小火舌頭一樣在燃燒。現(xiàn)在,這團綠焰伸展開來,變成小手的樣子,觸摸著夏天的氣息。小小的綠色無花果像一只山羊喉嚨的腺附下面。
The cherry tree is something the same, but more sturdy. Now, in the last week of April,the cherry blossom is still white,but waning and passing away: it is late this year, and the leaves are clustering thick and softly copper in their dark blood-filled glow. It is queer about fruit trees in this district. The pear and the peach were out together. But now the pear tree is a lovely thick softness of new and glossy green, vivid with a tender fullness of apple-green leaves, gleaming among all the other green of the landscape, the half-high wheat, emerald, and the grey olive, half-invisible, the browning green of the dark cypress, the black of tt}e evergreen oak, the rolling of the heavy green puffs of the stone-pines, the flimsy green of small peach and almond trees,the sturdy young green of horse-chestnut. So many greens, all in flakes and shelves and tilted tables and round shoulders and plumes and shaggles and uprisen bushes, of greens and greens, sometimes blindingly brilliant at evening,when the landscape looks as if it were on fire from inside, with greenness and with gold.
現(xiàn)在,山坡上白楊的葉子上有一層半透明薄膜的葉脈,顯得格外引人注目。與秋天不同,葉子是金棕色的,像是薄翼的蝙蝠,如同鳥兒一樣—我們暫時就叫它們鳥吧—在落日的余暉中,葉子在云層里涌動,太陽照射在這薄翼拉緊似的薄膜上,仿佛透過棕紅色的彩繪玻璃。這是夏天里樹葉旺盛時所特有的紅色樹液,并不意味著秋天的紅塵。
In the wood, the scrub-oak is only just coming uncrumpled,and the pines keep their hold on winter. They are wintry things,stone-pines. At Christmas, their heavy green clouds are richly beautiful. When the cypresses rise their tall and naked bodies of dark green, and the osiers are vivid red-orange, on the still blue air, and the land is lavender; then,in mid-winter, the landscape is most beautiful in colour, surging with colour.
櫻桃樹和白楊差不多,只是更加頑強?,F(xiàn)在都已是四月的最后一個星期,白色的櫻桃花依然綻放,可已經(jīng)漸漸虛弱,即將逝去。今年的時節(jié)晚了,樹葉團團緊簇,鮮紅的光亮中揮灑著輕柔的銅色。這個地方的果樹十分不同尋常,梨花和桃花會在同一時節(jié)開放。不過,現(xiàn)在這里有還未伸長的麥子,翠綠色的橄欖,柏樹所特有的棕綠,長青橡樹的黑色,石松濃重的綠色,小桃樹和杏樹脆弱的綠色,七葉樹強壯的新綠。而在這所有的綠色中,梨樹清新光亮的綠色是可愛的、濃密的、輕柔的, 像蘋果綠色葉子柔和的飽滿一樣鮮明。在這綠色的海洋中,綠 色一片一片的,一層一層的,像斜斜的一塊板,像圓圓的肩膀, 又像羽毛,像矮樹叢,像挺直的灌木。有時在夜晚,從外面向 綠色里望去,仿佛綠色帶著綠色、帶著金色在里面燃燒,顯得 光彩奪目。
Not that this week is flowerless. But the flowers are a little lonely things, here and there:the early purple orchid, ruddy and very much alive, you come across occasionally, then the little groups of bee-orchids, with their ragged concerted indifference to their appearance. Also there are the huge bud-spikes of the stout, thickflow-Bring pink orchid,huge buds like fat ears of wheat, hard-purple, and splendid. But already odd grains of the wheat-ear are open,and out of the purple hangs the dell-cate pink rag of floweret. Also mere are very lovely and choice cream-clouted orchids with brown spots on the long and delicate lip. These grow in the more moist places, and have exotic tender spikes,very rare-seeming. Another orchild is a little pretty yellow one.
在森林里,矮灌木即將倒下,而松樹在冬天里則穩(wěn)穩(wěn)地保持自己的站姿。冬天是最適宜石松生長的季節(jié)。一到圣誕節(jié)的時候,石松團團的深綠色更顯得婀娜多姿。當柏樹裸露地顯示出自己高高的、墨綠色的身軀時,柳樹仍然在藍色的空氣中展現(xiàn)著自己活潑的鮮橙色。大地染上淡紫色的時候,濃冬時節(jié)就到了。這兒將成為顏色的世界,顏色才是最美的風景。
By May, the nightingale will sing an unbroken song,and the discreet barely audible Tuscan cuckoo will be a little more audible. Then the lovely pale-lilac irises will come out in all their showering abundance of tender, proud, spiky bloom,till the air will gleam with mauve, and a new crystalline lightness will be everywhei0e.There wilt be tufts of iris everywhere,arising up proud and tender. When the rose-coloured wild gladiolus is mingled in the corn,and the love-in-the-mist opens blue:in May and June, before the corn is cut. But as yet is neither May nor June, but the end of April,the pause between spring and summer,the nightingale singing uninterrupted,the bean-flowers dying in the bean-fields,the bean-perfume passing with spring,the little birds hatching in the nests, the olives pruned,and the vines, the last bit of late ploughing finished,and not much work to hand,now, not until the peas are ready to pick,in another two weeks or so.
當然,這一個星期還會有花的足跡,但這時候的花兒成了孤獨的小東西,四處分散。你會在不經(jīng)意間發(fā)現(xiàn)它們的足跡:提前出來的紫蘭花,紅潤而有生命力;成群結隊的蜜蜂蘭,它們對自身的外表,都顯露出刻意的、不屑的神情。當然,也少不了頂著巨大的花苞穗,長滿茂密花兒的強壯的粉紅蘭花,蘭花那巨大的花苞穗如同飽滿的麥穗一樣,配上耀眼的紫色,讓人覺得完美無缺。但零星的麥穗已經(jīng)開花了,在紫色中旋著一幅由嬌嫩小花編織成的精致花布。還有那些非??蓯鄣?、米色的蘭花,在它們的細長花蕊上有些棕色斑點。蘭花喜歡在較潮濕的地方生長,因此它奇異柔和的穗是不常見的。其他的蘭花都是小小的花形,漂亮的黃色。
So the change,the endless and rapid change. In the sunny countries,the change seems more vivid, and more complete than in the grey countries. In the grey countries,there is a grey or dark permanency, over whose surface passes change ephemeral, leaving no real mark.
五月一到,夜鶯便不間斷地唱著一首歌。這時候,小心翼翼的托斯卡納杜鵑也會唱出平日里聽不到的歌。接著,淺淡紫色的丁香花大量地出現(xiàn),展示著它們?nèi)崮?、穗狀的花,直到空氣中露出紫紅,清澈透明的輕柔四處飄蕩。世界將變成一叢叢蝴蝶花的天下,它們得意而柔嫩地昂起頭。五六月,谷物還沒收割的時候,在野外,玫瑰色的唐首蒲就會混合在谷物中。而黑種草開著藍色的花朵。但現(xiàn)在還沒到五月或六月—只是四月末,春夏之間的間歇。在這個時節(jié)里,夜鶯不停地歌唱;豆地里的豆花正在凋謝;豆的芳香正隨著春天一起逝去;小鳥在巢里成長;橄欖已被修剪;葡萄已經(jīng)過了最后的耕種時間;兩個星期后豌豆成熟之前,沒有多少活要做。
But in the sunny countries,change is the reality and permanence is artificial and a condition of imprisonment. Hence,to the northerner, the phenomenal world is essentially tragical,because it is temporal and must cease to exist. Its very existence implies ceasing to exist, and this is the root of the feeling of tragedy. But to the southerner, the sun is so dominant that shadow, or dark, is only merely relative:merely the result of something getting between one and the sun.
這樣才是變化,永不停息的快速變化。在陽光照耀的地方,變化似乎更顯著,比在昏暗地帶更徹底。而在沒有陽光的地方,是一成不變的灰暗和陰暗。變化只是短暫的事,不會留下任何記號。
In the human race, the one thing chat is always there is the shining sun, and dark shadow is an accident of intervention. For my part, if the sun always shines,and always will shine,in spite of millions of clouds of words. In the sunshine, even death is sunny. And there is no end to the sunshine.
然而,對于生活在陽光地帶的人,卻是不同的概念。變化對他們來說就是現(xiàn)實,永久是人創(chuàng)造的,是一種囚禁。因此,生活在北面的人認為,變化中的世界實際上是悲慘的,因為世界只是短暫的,注定消逝的。世界的存在意味著自己的結束,這就是傷感本身。而生活在南面的人,對他們來說,陽光具有決定性的作用,陰影或黑暗不過是相關聯(lián)的事物—只是在人和太陽之間才會出現(xiàn)的東西。
That is why the rapid change of the Tuscan spring is utterly free, for me, of any senses of tragedy. The sun always shines.It is our fault if we don't think so.
對于人類來說,有一件事是千真萬確的,那就是在這個世界上,僅有一個發(fā)光的太陽,黑色的影子不過是一個干擾的意外罷了。而在我看來,盡管爭議紛紛,但太陽一直光芒四射,也將永遠光芒四射。在陽光下,即便死亡也是充滿陽光的。陽光沒有終點。
托斯卡納的春天飛快地流逝,而我沒有感到一絲的悲慘。這就是原因所在。太陽永遠在照耀。如果不這樣想,那就是我們的責任了。
英語晨讀美文學習
Rafting Down the Neckar 內(nèi)卡河上木筏行
Mark Twain
[美]馬克·吐溫
When the landlord learned that I and my agents were artists,our party rose perceptibly in his esteem;we rose still higher when he learned that we were making a pedestrian tour of Europe.
當旅店老板得知我和我的代理人是藝術家時,我們在他心中的地位就提升了一大截,得知我們正在徒步旅行歐洲后,我們的地位就更高了。
He told us all about the Heidelberg road,and which were the best places to avoid and which the best ones to tarry at;he charged me less than cost for the things I broke in the night;he put up a fine luncheon for us and added to it a quantity of great light-green plums, the pleasantest fruit in Germany;he was so anxious to do us honor that he would not allow us to walk out of Heilbronn,but called up Gotz von Berlichingen's horse and cab and made us ride.
他向我們介紹了海德堡的路線情況,告訴我們最好繞過哪些地方,最好在哪些地方多逗留些時日;對那晚我所使用的物品,他只收取了低于成本的費用;還為我們準備了一桌豐盛的午餐,并送了很多德國人最喜愛的嫩綠洋李。為了給我們賞光,他堅決不答應我們步行離開海爾布隆,于是,叫了葛茲·封·貝利欣根的馬車來載我們離開。
I made a sketch of the turnout,It is not a Work, it is only what artists call a "study"—a thing to make a finished picture from This sketch has several blemishes in it; for instance, the wagon is not traveling as fast as the horse is. This is wrong. Again,the person trying to get out of the way is too small,he is out of perspective, as we say. The two upper lines are not the horse's back, they are the reins; there seems to be a wheel missing-this would be corrected in a finished Work, of course. That thing flying out behind is not a flag, it is a curtain. That other thing up there is the sun,but I didn't get enough distance on it. I do not remember, now, what that thing is that is in front of the man who is running, but I think it is a haystack or a woman. This study was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1879, but did not take any medal;they do not give medals for studies.
我用素描的形式把馬車畫了下來。它算不上是件作品,只是畫家所謂的“習作”—一種能成就完美畫面的東西。這幅素描有幾處敗筆,如:馬車的速度與馬的步伐不一致,這是不正確的。而且,給馬車讓路的人實在太小了,就是我所說的不符合透視畫法。最上邊的兩條線不是馬背的曲線,而是韁繩;似乎還丟了一只車輪—當然完美的畫中,這些敗筆都會被糾正。馬車后面飛舞的不是旗幟,而是車上的蓬簾。畫中還有太陽,不過我沒有空出足夠的空間?,F(xiàn)在,我記不清奔跑的那個人前面是什么東西了,不過我想那可—是堆干草,或者是個女人。1879年的巴黎畫廊上,這幅習作被展覽出來,但是并沒有獲得任何獎項,因為展覽不為習作設獎。
We discharged the carriage at the bridge. The river was full of logs—long, slender, barkless pine logs—and we leaned on the rails of the bridge, and watched the men put them together into rafts. These rafts were of a shape and construction to the.crookedness and extreme narrowness of the Neckar. They were from fifty to one hundred yards long,and they gradually tapered from a nine —log breadth at their sterns,to a "three-log breadth at their bow-ends. The main part of the steering is done at the bow, with a pole;the three-log breadth there furnishes room for only the steersman,for these little logs are not larger around that an average young lady's waist. The connections of the several sections of the raft are slack and pliant, so that the raft may be readily bent into any sort of curve required by the shape of the river.
車到橋頭的時候,我們付了錢打發(fā)馬車回去了。河面上漂滿了原木—細長的、沒有樹皮的松樹圓木—我們倚靠在橋欄上,看著人們把這些木頭捆成木筏。這些木筏的形狀和結構都適用于內(nèi)卡河道彎曲和極狹窄的特點。它們的長度由100碼逐漸縮為50碼,由尾部9根原木的寬度縮小到頭部3根的寬度。主要的舵是一根撐篙,安裝在木筏的前部。3根原木的寬度,只能容納一個舵手,因為這些小木材的粗細也不過一名普通婦女的腰圍大小。木筏幾部分的連接是松散的,靈活性也較強,以便隨時變向來適應河流任何水流形式的需要。
The Neckar is in many places so narrow that a person can throw a dog across it, if he has one;when it is also sharply curved in such places, the raftsman has to do some pretty nice snug piloting to make the turns. The river is not always allowed to spread over its whole bed—which is as much as thirty, and sometimes forty yards wide—but is split into three equal bodies of water, by stone dikes which throw the main volume, depth,and current into the central one. In low water these neat narrow-edged dikes project f?ur or five inches above the surface,like the comb of a submerged roof,but in high water they are overflowed. A hatful of rain makes high water in the Neckar, and a basketful produces an overflow.
內(nèi)卡河的很多地方都非常狹窄,以至于你可以把一只小狗扔到對面。當一些地方水流陡變時,撐筏者就不得不使出幾招絕技,引航變向。河流并不總是淹沒整個河床—河床的寬度達到30碼,有些地方甚至達到40碼—但是石堤把注入其中的水流分隔成三等份,并把主要的水量匯集到中心水道中去。在淺水期,這些整齊的、狹窄的石堤會露出水面四五英寸,就像被淹沒的房屋的屋頂。但在深水期,它們就都會被河水淹沒。在內(nèi)卡河,一帽子的雨水就能使水位上漲,一滿筐的雨水就會使水決堤!
There are dikes abreast the Schloss Hotel,and the current is violently swift at' that point. I used to sit for hours in my glass cage,watching the long, narrow rafts slip along through the central channel,grazing the right-bank dike and aiming carefully for the middle arch of the stone bridge below;I watched them in this way, and lost all this time hoping to see one of them hit the bridge-pier and wreck itself sometime or other, but was always disappointed. One was smashed there one morning,but I had just stepped into my room a moment to light a pipe, so I lost it.
舒勞斯旅館與幾條堤壩走向相同,與它并排的那一段,水流湍急。我時常坐在自己的房間,透過玻璃看那長而狹窄的木筏沿著中心水道,順流而下,擦過堤岸的右側邊緣,小心地對準下游石橋的中孔滑下。我就這樣望著它們,在對什么時候能看到它們撞在橋墩,成為殘骸的憧憬中迷失了自我。然而,我總是失望。一天早晨,有一條木筏粉碎在那里,不過卻是在我剛剛踏進房間去點煙時撞擊的,因此我還是錯過了。
While I was looking down upon the rafts that morning in Heilbronn, the daredevil spirit of adventure came suddenly upon me, and I said to my comrades:
在海爾布隆的那個早晨,當我俯瞰著木筏時,蠻勇的冒險精神突然產(chǎn)生,我對我的同伴們說:“我準備乘木筏去海德堡。你們和我一起去冒險嗎?”
"I am going to Heidelberg on a raft. Will you venture with me?"
他們的臉色嚇得蒼白,不過還是盡可能優(yōu)雅地表示贊同。哈里斯想給他的母親發(fā)一封電報—認為這是他的職責,因為他是母親在這個世界上唯一的親人—因此,他去發(fā)電報了。與此同時,我跑上那條最長、最好的木筏,熱情地向舵手打招呼道:“晦,你們好啊!”這一問候立刻使氣氛活躍起來,接著我們便進入了正題。我說,我們原本是要徒步旅行到海德堡去的,但現(xiàn)在打算乘坐他們的木筏去那里。我的這些話有一部分是通過蔡德先生翻譯的,他的德語說得很好;另一部分則是通過愛克司先生翻譯的,他的德語說得相當?shù)氐?。我能像發(fā)明它的狂人一樣聽明白德語,不過我要通過翻譯才能把它說好。
Their faces paled a little, but they assented with as good a grace as they could. Harris wanted to cable his mother—thought it his duty to do that, as he was all she had in this world—so, while he attended to this, I went down to the longest and finest raft and hailed the captain with a heary "Ahoy, shipmate!” which put us upon pleasant terms at once, and we entered upon business. I said we were on a pedestrian tour to Heidelberg,and would like to take passage with him.l said this partly thorough young Z, who spoke German very well, and partly through Mr. X who spoke it peculiarly. I can understand German as well as the maniac that invented it, but I talk it best through an interpreter.
木筏上的舵手提提褲子,邊嚼著煙草塊,邊思考,正如我所預料的,他說他沒有運送旅客的執(zhí)照,萬一這件事宣揚出去或者出了什么事故,他就會被追查。于是,我租下了這條木筏,雇了他的舵手,一切責任由我承擔。
The captain hitched up his trousers, then shifted his quid thoughtfully. Presently he said just what I was expecting he would say—that he had no license to carry passengers, and therefore was afraid the law would be after him in case the matter got noised about or any accident happened. So I chartered the raft and the crew and took all the responsibilities on myself.
伴著一陣激昂的號子聲,右舷的舵手們開始忙活了起來,他們收起纜索,升起筏錨,我們的木筏便飛速地向前游去。很快,時速就達到了20海里。
With a rattling song the starboard watch bent to their work and hove the cable short, then got the anchor home, and our bark moved off with a stately stride, and soon was bowling along at about two knots an hour.
我們一行人聚集在木筏的中央。起初,大家的談話有些低沉,主要圍繞著短暫且難測的,其間危機重重生命,隨時做好最壞的準備是必需的也是明智的。這種交談漸漸變成低語,內(nèi)容都是些海洋的危險之類的。然而,當灰色的東方出現(xiàn)紅彼,在黎明那神秘的莊嚴和靜寂中傳來小鳥歡快的歌聲時,大家的談話也歡快了許多,我們的情緒也逐漸高昂了起來。
Our party were grouped amidships. At first the talk was a little gloomy, and ran mainly upon the shortness of life,the uncertainty of it, the perils which beset it, and the need and wisdom of being always prepared for the worst;this shaded off into low-voiced references to the dangers of the deep, and kindred matters;but as the gray cast began to redden and the mysterious solemnity and silence of the dawn to give place to the joy-songs of the birds, the talk took a cheerier tone, and our spirits began to rise steadily.
夏日的德國是至善至美的。但是,如果不乘木筏從內(nèi)卡河漂流而下,是不可能理解、感知和享受這種至高的溫柔、平和的美妙的。木筏的漂流是不可或缺的運動,它柔美、順滑、流暢、無聲;它平息一切狂躁的行為;緩和所有不安的倉促和急躁情緒。在其寧靜的影響之下,一切影響情緒的煩惱、悲傷都銷聲匿跡,變成一個夢、一種魅力、一種深深的、寧靜的喜悅。炎熱、辛勞的徒步行走,與塵土飛揚、隆隆行駛的火車,還有在炫目的大道路顛簸的疲憊的馬車,形成了鮮明的對比啊!
Germany, in the summer, is the perfection of the beautiful,but nobody has understood,and realized,and enjoyed the utmost possibilities of this soft and peaceful beauty unless he has voyaged down the Neckar on a raft. The motion of a raft is the needful motion;it is gentle, and gliding, and smooth,and noiseless;it calms down all feverish activities,it soothes to sleep all nervous hurry and impatience; under its restful influence all the troubles and vexations and sorrows that harass the mind vanish away, and existence becomes a dream, a charm, a deep and tranquil ecstasy. How it contrasts with hot and perspiring pedestrianism,and dusty and deafening railroad rush,and tedious jolting behind tired horses over blinding white roads!
帶著不斷高漲的愉悅和滿足感,我們在郁蔥芳香的河岸間靜靜地滑行。有的地方,岸邊倒垂下的濃密柳枝,覆蓋了后面所有的土地;有的地方,河岸一側壯麗的山脈,上面植被豐盈,另一側則是一望無際的平原,開放著鮮艷的嬰粟花,或是靛藍恰人的矢車菊。我們時而漂流在森林的陰影之下,時而沿著天鵝絨般柔軟的草地邊緣滑行。那映入眼簾的草地是那么碧綠清新,灼灼明亮,蘊涵著無限的魅力。還有那隨處可見的鳥兒。它們頻繁地穿梭于兩岸之間,鳴起的歡歌不絕于耳。
We went slipping silently along, between the green and fragrant banks, with a railroad rush, and tedious jolting behind tired horsesover blinding white roads!
看日出能令人百般回味且愉悅人心。太陽冉冉升起,耐心地、溫柔地鋪上一層又一層光彩,撥撤著一片又一片壯麗。直到一個新的早晨完整地筑就起來。在木筏上觀賞日出與等候在火車站的候車室中,嚼著干巴巴的三明治,透過窗戶眺望破落的小村莊的感覺有著天滾之別。
We went slipping silently along,between the green and fragrant banks, with a sense of pleasure and contentment that grew,and grew,all the time. Sometimes the banks were overhung with thick masses of willows that wholly hid the ground behind;sometimes we had noble hills on one hand,clothed densely with foliage to their tops, and on the other hand open levels blazing with poppies, or clothed in the rich blue of the corn-flower; sometimes we drifted in the shadow of forests,and sometimes along the margin of long stretches of velvety grass, fresh and green and bright, a tireless charm to the eye.And the birds!—they were everywhere;they swept back and forth across the river constantly, and their jubilant music was never stilled.
It was a deep and satisfying pleasure to see the sun create the new morning,and gradually, patiently, lovingly, clothe it on with splendor after splendor, and glory after glory, till the miracle was complete. How different is this marvel observed from a raft, from what it is when one observes it through the dingy windows of a railway-station in some wretched village while he munches a petrified sandwich and waits for the train.