背誦名篇~~~通向「流暢英語寫作」的不二法門 [捷徑篇]

Aesthetic  Criticism

     To see the object as in itself it really is , "has been justly said to be the aim of all true criticism whatever; and in aesthetic criticism the first step towards seeing one's object as it really is, is to know one's own impression as it really is, to discriminate it, to realize it distinctly. The objects with which aesthetic criticism deals---music, poetry, artistic and accomplished forms of human life---are indeed receptacles of so many powers or forces: they possess like the products of nature, so many virtues or qualities. What is this song or picture, this engaging  personality presented in life or in a book, to me ? What effect does it really produce on me ? Does it give me pleasure? And if so, what sort or degree of pleasure? How is my nature modified by its presence, and under its influence? The answers to these questions are the original facts with which the aesthetic critic has to do; and ,as in the study of light, of morals, of number, one must realize such primary data for one's self, or not at all. And he who experiences these impressions strongly, and drives directly at  the discrimination and analysis of them, has no need to trouble himself with the abstract question what beauty is in itself, or what its exact relation to truth or experience---metaphysical questions, as unprofitable as metaphysical questions elsewhere. He may pass them all by as being, answerable or not, of no interest to him.[/FONT][/COLOR]

審美批評
      
      「發現某一事物本身的確切內容」，曾被人恰當地說成是一切真正的批評的目標；而在審美批評中，要想發現自己評論對象的確切內容，第一步必須了解個人印象的確切內容，必須對它加以辨別，對它清晰地認識。審美批評所討論的對象――音樂，詩歌，人類生活的種種藝術的、完美的表現形式――實際上都是紛紛紜紜、各種動力和力量的凝聚，它們象大自然的一切產物那樣，具備著各種不同的美質和特性。這麼一首短歌，這麼一幅圖畫，生活中或書本上出現的這麼一個引人喜愛的人物，對我自己來說究竟意味著什麼呢?它究竟在我身上產生了什麼樣的影響?它是否給我提供了樂趣?如果提供了，那麼，又是哪一類和何等程度的樂趣?另外，由於它的出現，並在它影響下，我自己的性情又受到了怎樣的陶冶?――對於這些問題的答案便是審美批評家所要討論的根本事實；而且，正象對於光、對於倫理、對於數字的研究那樣，我們首先必須了解上述那些原始材料，否則，就等於什麼也不了解。一個人只要強烈地感受著這種種印象，並且直截了當地對它們加以辨別和分析，就不必再為了「什麼是美」或者「它與真理或經驗的確切關係如何」這一類抽象的問題而去費神――因為，這些形而上學的問題，如同其他的形而上學問題一樣，都是不實際的。對它們答覆與否無關宏旨，可以統統放過不管。
【作者簡介】
沃爾特•佩特（1839-1894），英國文藝批評家其成名之作《文藝復興史研究》貫穿唯美主義思想。本文便節選自此書。

Change Makes Life Beautiful

      To regard all things and principles of things as inconstant  modes or fashions has more and more become the tendency of modern thought. Let us begin with that which is without-our physical life. Fix upon  it in one of its more exquisite intervals, the moment，for instance, of delicious recoil from the flood of water in summer heat. What is the whole physical life in that moment but a combination of natural elements to which science gives their names? But these elements, phosphorus and lime and delicate fibers, are present not in the human body alone : we detect them in places most remote from it. Our physical life is a perpetual motion of them ---the passage of the blood, the wasting and repairing of the lenses  of the eye , the modification of the tissues of the brain under every ray of light and sound---processes which science reduces to simpler and more elementary forces. Like the elements of which we are composed, the action of these forces extends beyond us: it rusts iron and ripens corn.Far out on every side of us those elements are broadcast, driven in many currents; and birth and gesture and death and the springing of violets from the grave are but a few out of ten thousand resultant combinations. That clear, perpetual outline  of face and limb is but an image of ours, under which we group thema design in a web, the actual threads of which pass out beyond it . This at least of flame---like our life has, that it is but the concurrence, renewed from moment to moment, of forces parting sooner or later on their ways.[/COLOR]
   
生命美於變化

    將一切事物和事物的原則統統看作經常變化著的形態或風尚，日益成為近代思想界的趨勢。讓我們從表面的事情――我們的生理活動說起。譬如說，選取這麼一個微妙的時刻，即在酷暑中猛然浸入滔滔清流的那一剎那和極其愉快的感覺。在那一剎那間的全部生理活動，難道不是具有科學名稱的各種元素的一種化合作用嗎?不過，這些元素，象磷、石灰、微細的纖維質，不僅存在於人體之中，而且在與人體毫不相干的地方也能檢查出它們的存在。我們的生理活動――血液的流通，眼睛中水晶體的消耗和恢復，每一道光波、每一次聲浪對於腦組織所引起的變異――都不外是這些元素的永久的運動，而科學把這些運動過程還原為更為簡單和基本的力量的作用。正象我們身體所賴以構成的元素一樣，這些力量在我們身體以外也同樣發揮著作用――它可以使鐵生鏽，使穀物成熟。這些元素，在種種氣流吹送之下，在我們身外向四面八方傳播：人的誕生，人的姿態，人的死亡，以及在人的墳頭上生長出紫羅蘭――這不過是成千上萬化合結果的點滴例子而己。人類那輪廓分明、長久不變的面顏和肢體，不過是一種表象，在它那框架之內，我們好把種種化合的元素凝聚一團――這好象是蛛網的紋樣，那織網的細絲從網中穿出，又引向他方。在這一點上，我們的生命有些象那火焰―――它也是種種力量會合的結果，這會合雖不斷延續，那些力量卻早晚要各自飄散。
【作者簡介】
沃爾特•佩特（1839-1894），英國文藝批評家，其成名之作《文藝復興史研究》貫穿唯美主義思想。本文便節選自此書。

Breaking Habit

        To burn always with this hard , gem-like flame, to maintain this  ecstasy, is success in life. In a sense it might even be said that our failure is to form habits: for , after all, habit is relative to a stereotyped  world, and meantime it is only the roughness of the dye that makes any two persons, things, situations, seem alike, While all melts under our feet,   we may well grasp at any exquisite passion, or any contribution to knowledge that seems by a lifted horizon to set the spirit free for a moment, or any stirring of the senses, strange dyes, strange colors, and curious odors, or work of the artist's hands, or the face of one's friend. Not to discriminate every moment some passionate attitude in those about us, and in the very brilliancy of their gifts some tragic dividing of forces on their ways, is, on this short day of frost and sun, to sleep before evening. With this sense of the splendor of our experience and of its awful brevity, gathering all we are into one desperate effort to see and touch, we shall hardly have time to make theories about the things we see and touch. What we have to do is to be for ever curiously testing new opinions and courting  new impressions, never acquiescing in a facile orthodoxy of Comet, or of Hegel,  or of our own . Philosophical theories or ideas, as points of view, instruments of criticism, may help us to gather up what might otherwise pass unrecorded by us. "hilosophy is the microscope of thought". [/COLOR]

打破習慣

     閃耀著寶石般的光焰熾烈地燃燒，並且不斷保持著這種精神亢奮的狀態，乃是生命的勝利。在某種意義上，甚至可以說：一旦形成某種習慣，即意味著自己的失敗。因為，歸根結底，習慣總附於一個定了型的事態，而在粗疏的眼光下，兩個人、兩件事、兩種情境常常會被看得彼此相似。只有當一切在我們腳下熔化，我們才能看清種種強烈的激情，種種似乎能提高人的眼界、使人精神豁然開朗的知識進步，種種感官的刺激，例如奇色異彩，奇香異味，以及藝術家的匠藝，或者自己某位朋友的面容。我們與周圍的人們相處，在任何時刻，如果一點看不出某種受激情支配的姿態，從人們的光輝才華中竟然看不出某種力量分配方面的悲劇，那麼，在我們這既有冰霜、又有陽光的短暫時日中，就意味著不待黃昏來臨便昏昏睡去。感到了人生經驗的五色繽紛及倏忽無常，我們拼出全部力氣進行觀察和接觸，哪裡還有時間去為自己觀察和接觸到的事物制訂出一套一套的理論?我們必需做的，是要不斷地檢驗新的意見、博取新的印象，而無論如何不能輕易接受不管是康德、黑格爾或是我們自己的什麼泛泛的正統學說。哲學理論、哲學概念，作為立論觀點、批評工具，可以幫助我們把那些可能習焉不察、輕輕放過的事物進行搜集、納入眼底。因為，「哲學是思想的顯微鏡」。
【作者簡介】
沃爾特•佩特（1839-1894），英國文藝批評家，其成名之作《文藝復興史研究》貫穿唯美主義思想。本文便節選自此書。

Tragedy

       To make a tragedy the artist must isolate a single element out of the totality of human experience and use that exclu sively as his material. Tragedy is something that is separated out from the Whole Truth, distilled from it, so to speek, as an essence is distilled from the living flower. Tragedy is chemically pure. Hence its power to act quickly and intensely on our feelings. All chemically pure art has this power to act upon us quickly and intensely. It is because of its chemical purity that tragedy so effectively performs functions of catharsis. It refines and corrects and gives a   to our emotional life, and does so swiftly, with power. Brought into contact with tragedy, the elements of our being fall, for the moment at any rate, into an ordered and beautiful pattern, as the iron filings  arrange themselves under the influence of the magnet.Through all its individual variations, this pattern is always fundamentally of the same kind. From the reading or the hearing of a tragedy we rise with the feeling that:
        Our friends are exultations, agonies,
        And love, and man's unconquerable mind;
        With the heroic conviction that we too would be unconquerable if subjected to the agonies, that in the midst of the agonies we too should continue to love, might even learn to exult. It is because it does these things to us that tragedy is felt to be so valuable. What are the values of Wholly Truthful art? What does it do to us that seems worth doing? Let us try to discover.[/COLOR]

悲劇

     為了做成一部悲劇，藝術家就得把某種單一的元素從人類經驗的總體中分解出來，並且把它當作獨一無二的材料來使用。悲劇，是從全面的真實中分離出來，或者說，從那裡提煉出來，就象從鮮花中提煉的香精來。悲劇是有化學純度的東西，所以它才能具備那種迅速而強烈地影響我們的力量。一切有化學純度的藝術都具備這種迅速而強烈地影響我們的力量。――正是由於悲劇的這種化學純度，它才非常有效地完成著它那凈化感情的作用。它迅速而有力的澄清著、矯正著我們的感情生活，賦予它以一種正當的模式。一旦與悲劇相接觸，我們生命中的種種因素，至少在這短短時刻，便納入一種井然有序、異常美好的規範之中，正如鐵屑在磁體的吸引下聚攏起來一樣。儘管會有各種特殊變化，這個規範從分配上說總是保持不變的。讀罷或看完一部悲劇，我們心裡恍然大悟，覺得――
      極大的歡欣、強烈的痛苦都變成良友，
      愛情和不可征服的人心也分外親切。
      我們豪邁地相信：一旦自己身遭苦難，同樣也是不可征服的；處在苦難之中，我們仍應胸懷熱情，甚至還要效法前人，意氣昂揚。正因為悲劇能對我們起到這些作用，我們才覺得它非常寶貴。那麼，什麼又是具有全面真實性的藝術的價值呢?它究竟能對我們起到什麼作用，才顯出它的價值呢?讓我們來嘗試著考察一下。
【作者簡介】
奧爾德斯•赫胥黎（1894-1963），英國著名文學家。本文節選自其文章《悲劇與全面的真實性》。

Suit Is Best

      The proper force of words lies not in the words themselves, but in their application. A word may be a fine sounding  word, of an unusual length, and very imposing from its learning and novelty, and yet in the connection in which it is introduced may be quite pointless and irrelevant, It is not pomp or pretension, but the adaptation of  the expression to the idea, that clenches a writer's meaning: as it is not the size or glossiness of the materials, but their being fitted each to its place, that gives strength to the arch; or as the pegs and nails are as necessary to the support of the building as the larger timbers, and more so than the mere showy, unsubstantial ornaments. I hate anything that occupies more space than it is worth. I hate to see a load of bandboxes go along the street, and I hate to see a parcel of big words without anything in them. A person who dews not deliberately dimples of all his thoughts alike in cumbrous draperies and flimsy disguises may strike out twenty varieties of familiar everyday language, each coming somewhat nearer to the feeling he wants to convey, and at last not hit upon that particular and only one which may be said to be identical with the exact impression in his mind. This would seem to show that Mr. Cobalt is hardly right in saying that the first word that occurs is always the best. It may be a very good one ; and yet a better may present itself on reflection or from time to time . It may be suggested naturally, however, and spontaneously, from a fresh and lively conception of the subject .[/COLOR]


適合的才是最好的

    辭彙的力量不在辭彙本身，而在辭彙的應用。一個音節嘹亮的長字，就其本身的學術性和新奇感來說，可能是令人嘆賞的，然而，把它放在某句上下文之中，說不定倒會牛頭不對馬嘴。這是因為要確切表達作者的意思，關鍵並不在文詞是否華麗，堂皇，而在於文詞是否切合內容；正象在建築中，要使拱門堅固，關鍵不在於材料的大小和光澤，而在於它們用在那裡是否恰好嚴絲合縫。因此，在建築物中，砂木釘有時竟與大件木料同等重要，而其支撐作用肯定遠遠勝過那些徒有其表、不切實用的裝飾部件。我討厭那些白佔地方的東西，討厭一大堆空紙盒裝在車上招搖過市，也討厭那些寫在紙面上的大而無實際內容的字眼。一個人寫文章，只要他不是立志要把自己的真意用重重錦繡帳幔、層層多餘偽裝完全遮掩起來，他總會從熟悉的日常用語中想出一二十種說法，一個比一個更接近他所要表達的情感，只怕到了最後，他竟會拿不定主意要用哪一種說法才能恰如其分地表達自己的心意哩！如此說來，考拜特先生所謂最先閃現腦際之詞自然是最好的說法未必可靠。這樣出現的字眼也許很好，然而經過一次又一次推敲，還會發現更好的字眼。這種字眼，要經過圍繞內容進行清醒而活潑的構思，才能夠自自然然的想到。
【作者簡介】
威廉•赫茲里特(1778―1830)，十九世紀初英國著名的浪漫主義散文家。本文節選自其名篇《論平易的文體》。

[I]Ignorance Make One Happy
  
     The average man who uses a telephone could not explain how a telephone works. He takes for granted the telephone, the railway train, the linotype ,the airplane, as our grandfathers took for granted the miracles of the gospels. He neither questions nor understands them. It is as though each of us investigated and made his own only a tiny circle of facts. Knowledge outside the day's work is regarded by most men as a gewgaw. Still we are constantly in reaction against our ignorance. We rouse ourselves at intervals and speculate. We revel in speculations about anything at all---about life after death or about such questions as that which is said to have puzzled Aristotle,"why sneezing from noon to midnight was good, but from night to noon unlucky." One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. One envies so inquisitive  a man as Jewell ,who sat down to the study of physiology in his sixties. Most of us have lost the sense of our ignorance long before that age. We even become vain of our squirrel's hoard of knowledge and regard increasing age itself as a school of omniscience.  We forget that Socrates  was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realized at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing.[/I]

無知常樂

      普通人只會使用電話，卻無法解釋電話的工作原理。他把電話、火車、鑄造排字機、飛機都看作當然之事，就象我們的祖父一代把福音書里的奇迹故事視為理所當然一樣。對於這些事，他既不去懷疑，也不去了解。我們每個人似乎只對很小範圍內的某幾件事才真正下工夫去了解、弄清楚。大部分人把日常工作以外的一切知識統統當作花哨無用的玩意兒。然而，對於我們的無知，我們還是時時抗拒著。我們有時振作起來，進行思索。我們隨便找一個什麼題目，對之思考，甚至入迷――關於死後的生命，或者關於某些據說亞里士多德也感到大惑不解的問題，例如：「打噴嚏，從中午到子夜則吉，從子夜至中午則凶，其故安在?」為求知識而陷入無知，這是人類所欣賞的最大樂事之一。歸根結底，無知的極大樂趣即在於提出問題。一個人，如果失去了這種提問的樂趣，或者把它換成了教條的答案，並且以此為樂，那麼，他的頭腦已經開始僵化了。我們羨慕象裘伊這樣的勤學好問之人，他到了六十多歲居然還能坐下來研究生理學。我們多數人不到他這麼大的歲數就早已喪失了自己無知的感覺了。我們甚至對自己一點點淺薄的知識感到沾沾自喜，而把與日俱增的年齡看作是培養無所不知的天然學堂。我們忘記了：蘇格拉底之所以以智慧名垂後世，並非因為他無所不知，而是因為他到了七十高齡還能明白自己仍然一無所知。
【作者簡介】
羅伯特•林德（1879-1949），英國隨筆作家。本文節選自其名篇《無知常樂》。

The Arts of  Informal Essay Writers

        We may follow any mood, we may look at life in  fifty  different ways---the only thing we must not do is to despise or deride,because of ignorance or prejudice, the influences which affect others; because the essence of all experience is that we should perceive something which we do not begin by knowing, and learn that life has a fullness and a richness in all sorts of diverse ways which we do not at first even dream of suspecting.
        The essayist, then, is in his particular fashion an interpreter of life, a critic of life. He does not see life as the historian, or as the philosopher, or as the poet, or as the novelist, and yet he has a touch of  all these. He is not concerned with discovering a theory of it all, or fitting the various parts of it into each other. He works rather on what is called the analytic method, observing, recording, interpreting, just as things strike him, and letting his fancy play over their beauty and significance;the end of it all being this; that he is deeply concerned with the charm and quality of things, and gentlest light, so that at least he may make others love life a little better, and prepare them for its infinite variety and alike for its joyful and mournful surprises.[/FONT]


隨筆作家的藝術

        我們可以遵循任何一條思緒，也可以從幾十個角度來看待人生――但千萬不可由於無知和偏見而鄙視或嘲笑別人所接受的種種影響；因為，全部人生經驗的精髓即在於：我們要想了解什麼事物，總要從不知道開始 ；而且，還要知道，我們原來從未夢想過的千變萬化的生活方式，恰恰體現了人生的充實和豐滿。
       因此，隨筆作家以其特殊的方式充當了人生的解說員，人生的評論家。他觀察人生，不象歷史家，不象哲學家，不象詩人，也不象小說家，然而這些人的特點他又都有一點兒。他所關切的並非發現全部人生的哲理，或者把人生各個不同的方面湊在一起，進行裝配。他工作時所採用的是所謂分析的方法，即按照事物在自己心裡留下的印象，觀察著，記錄著，解說著。隨著興之所至去體察萬事萬物的美好和意義，而這一切又是為了這樣一個目的：隨筆作家所深切關心的乃是事物的魅力和特性，並想把它呈現在最明凈、最柔和的光亮之下，好使得別人更加熱愛人生，並對於人生當中無窮的變化在思想上有所準備，不管那是意外的歡樂或是意外的悲傷。
【作者簡介】
亞瑟•克里斯托夫•本森（1862-1925），英國作家。本文節選自其散文《隨筆作家的藝術》。

Open Your Eyes

    He who has much looked on at the childish satisfaction of other  people in their hobbies, will regard his own  with only a very ironical indulgence. He will not be heard among the dogmatists. He will have a great and cool allowance for all sorts of people and opinions. If he finds no out -of -the- way truths, he will identify himself with one very burning falsehood.His way takes him along a by-road, not much frequented, but very even and pleasant, which is called Commonplace Lane, and leads to the Belvedere of Common-sense. Thence he shall command an agreeable, if no very noble prospect; and the Sunrise, he will be contentedly aware of a sort of morning hour upon all sublunary things ,with an army of shadows running speedily and in many different directions into the great daylight of eternity. The shadows and the generations, the shrill doctors and the plangent wars, go by into ultimate silence and emptiness; but underneath all this, a man may see, out of the Belvedere windows, much green and peaceful landscape; many fire-lit parlors; good people laughing, drinking , and making love as they did before the Flood or the Errant Revolution; and the old shepherd telling his tale under the hawthorn. [/COLOR]  
   

你能看到一切

    一個人如果常常觀察別人對於個人興趣愛好所流露出的孩子氣般的滿足，那他也會以一種幽默的寬容態度來對待自己的興趣愛好。這樣的人不會變成一個教條主義者。他對於各種人、種種意見都會採取一種寬容大度的體諒態度。儘管他發現不出什麼石破天驚的真理，他也不會去附和什麼荒謬絕倫的錯誤。他的一生走的是一條雖非熙來攘往、但卻平坦愉快的偏僻小路――它叫做平凡無奇之小巷，通向普通常識的望樓。從那裡，他雖看不到什麼宏偉的壯觀，卻能俯瞰一片賞心的小景。當別人都在觀看東方與西方、惡魔之王與黎明之神，他卻怡然自得地注意：當清晨降於大地萬物，大群陰暗的幽靈都向著四面八方倉皇逃入永恆的白晝之中。那些陰暗的幽靈，已逝的世代，尖聲叫喊的博士，轟轟烈烈的戰爭，都匆匆過去，永遠消失。然而，我們從望樓的窗口中，透過這一切還看到了一片青蔥的和平景象，看到燈火輝煌的客廳；看到象在洪水到來之前或是法國革命前夕那樣善良的人們在歡笑、在飲酒、在求愛；也看到了牧羊老人在山楂樹下講述著他自己的故事。
【作者簡介】
羅伯特•路易斯•斯蒂文森（1850-1894），英國著名小說家和詩人。本文節選自其文章《為閑人一辯》。

[INDENT]Sadie And Maud
Gwendolyn Brooks

Maud went to college.
Sadie stayed at home.
Sadie scraped life
with a fine-tooth comb.

She didn't leave a tangle in.
Her comb found every strand.
Sadie was one of the livingest chits  
In all the land.

Sadie bore two babies
Under her maiden name.
Maud and Ma and Papa
Nearly died of shame.

When Sadie said her last so-long
Her girls struck out from home.
(Sadie had left as heritage
Her fine-tooth comb.)

Maud, who went to college.
Is a thin brown mouse.
She is living all alone
In this old house.

沙娣和茉德
格溫多琳•布魯克斯

茉德上大學，
沙娣留在家。
沙娣用細齒梳
把生活來梳扒。

梳理得多光滑，
不留一個疙瘩。
沙娣是這一帶的
最活潑的小毛丫。

她生了兩個孩子，
全都沒有爸。
這可羞死了
茉德和爹媽。

當沙娣說完臨終的話,
她的女兒也離開了家。
(沙娣留下的遺產就是那細齒梳一把。)

上過大學的茉德
現在又黑又乾巴。
她孤零零住在
又老又舊的家。[/INDENT]
【作者簡介】
格溫多琳•布魯克斯，當代傑出的黑人女作家，1917年生於芝加哥威爾遜學院，1950年獲普利策詩歌獎，在美國文壇享有較高的讚譽。[/COLOR]

Kitchenette Building
Grendolyn Brooks

We are things of dry hours and the involuntary plan. Grayed in, and gray." Dream" make a giddy sound, not strong

Like "rent", feeding a wife", "satisfying a man".

But could a dream send up through onion fumes
Its white and violet, fight with fried potatoes
And yesterday's garbage ripening in the hall,
Flutter, of sing an aria down these rooms

Even if we were willing to let it in,
Had time to warm it, keep it very clean,
Anticipate a message, let it begin?

We wonder. But not well! not for a minute!
Since Number Five is out of the bath room now,
We think of lukewarm water, hope to get into it.
   
廉價公寓
格溫多琳•布魯克斯

        我們是一批物品，屬於枯燥鐘點和非自願的計劃，被變成灰色，灰溜溜，"夢"發出暈眩的弱聲，比不上"房錢"，"養活老婆"，"滿足男人慾望"響亮。
        可是，難道夢能夠穿過洋蔥的臭氣
        發出純白和紫色?難道夢斗得過油炸土豆
        以及昨天留在門廳里腐爛發酵的垃圾?
        難道夢能夠在這些房間里飄揚，引吭高唱?
        這都做得到嗎? 即便我們願意放夢進來。
        有足夠時間溫暖著它，使它非常乾淨，
        等待著一個信息，讓夢開始活動嗎?
        我們正在沉思。但是不好了!一分鐘也不能想下去了!
        現在五號房客剛從浴室里出來，
        我們惦記著溫水，希望快進去呢。[/COLOR]

[INDENT]Near The Old People's Home
Howard Nemerov

The people on the avenue at noon,
Sharing the sparrows and the wintry sun,
The turned-off fountain with its basin drained
And cement benches etched with checkerboards,
Are old and poor, most everyone of them
Wearing some decoration of his damage,
Bandage or crutch or cane, and some are blind,
Or nearly, tap-tapping along with white wands,

When they open their mouths, there are no teeth,
All the same, they keep on talking to themselves
Even while bending to hawk up spit or blood
In gutters that will be there when they are gone.
Some have the habit of getting hit by cars
Three times a year; the ambulance comes up
And away they go, mumbling even in shock
The many secret names they have for God.

老人院附近
霍華德•奈美洛夫

中午時大街上的那些人
分享著冬日，陪伴著庥雀，
呆在噴泉已關閉的乾涸的池邊，
坐在刻上了棋盤的水泥凳上。
他們是年老的窮人，差不多
每人都帶著衰病的標誌：
繃帶、撐杖、拐杖；眼瞎了或快瞎了，
靠白色棍子敲著走路。
他們張開嘴時看不見牙齒。
但他們總是不斷自言自語，
同時，彎腰把痰和血吐在溝中，
髒東西在他們死後還留在那裡。
有些人常被汽車撞倒，
一年撞三次，救護車開來，
他們被運走了，在休克中還
嘟囔著呼喚上帝的各種秘密名字。[/INDENT]
【作者簡介】
霍華德•奈美洛夫，1920年生於紐約，畢業於哈佛大學。他的詩風很獨特，往往以哲理見長，擅寫諷刺性和抒情性的詩歌，曾在1988年被推舉為第三位美國桂冠詩人，是一位聲望卓著的詩壇元老式人物。

[INDENT]Two Voices in A Meadow
Ricard Wilbur

A Milkweed
Anonymous as cherubs
Over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating
Out of my burst pod.
What power had I
Before I learn to yield?
Shatter me, great wind:
I shall posses the field.
A Stone
As casual as cow-dung
Under the crib of God,
I lie where chance would have me,
Up to the ears in sod.
Why should I move? To move
Befit a light desire.
The sill of Heaven would founder,
Did such ad I aspire.[/COLOR]

草場上兩個聲音
理查德•威爾伯

野草好似無名小天使
飛翔在上帝的搖籃前，
白色種子
飄出我張開的莢
如果我不會生育
我怎麼會有力量
偉大的風啊，吹我吧，
我將佔有這草場。
石頭
我偶然躺在這裡，
像一堆牛糞；
埋在上帝的牛棚下，
我躺在運氣肩上，
污泥齊我的耳根。
我何必要移動呢?
移動是輕浮的意願，
動搖了天國的棟樑
要引起天塌地陷。[/INDENT]
【作者簡介】
理查德•威爾伯，1921年生於紐約，畢業於阿默斯特學院。在當代詩人當中，他是唯一堅持以傳統形式寫詩而獲得巨大成功的一位。他的詩歌風格以觀察細緻，情調溫文爾雅著稱。

Snowflakes

H.W.Longfellow
Out of the bosom of the Air,
Out of the cloud-folds of her garments shaken,
Over the wood lands brown and bare,
Over the harvest-fields forsaken,
Silent, and soft, and slow
Descends the snow.

Even as our cloudy fancies take
suddenly shape in some divine expression,
Even as the troubled heart doth make
In the white countenance confession,
The troubled sky reveals
The grief it feels.

This is the poem of the air,
Slowly in silent syllables recorded;
This is the secret of despair,
Long in its cloudy bosom hoarded,
Now whispered and revealed
To wood and field.[/FONT]

雪 花
亨利•瓦茲華斯•朗費羅

從太空的胸膛，
從飄動著她的長袍的雲層，
雪花紛紛揚揚，
輕盈、緩慢、悄然無聲，
降落在昏黃、蕭疏的森林，
降落在荒廢的農田。

即使我們飄忽的幻念
突然以神聖的方式中輟，
即使那苦惱的心靈
在蒼白的面目中懺悔，
但苦惱的天空依舊
顯示它感受的憂愁。

這是一首太空的詩歌，
以沉默的音符譜就，
這是一個失望的奧秘，
久久在多雲的胸襟勾留，
如今它低聲細語，
向森林和原野傾訴。[/COLOR]
【作者簡介】
亨利•瓦茲華斯•朗費羅（Henry  WadsworthLongfel1ow，  1807一1882），美國詩人。他的詩音韻優美，雅俗共賞，具有溫和的民主主義者和人道主義者的思想傾向。《雪花》借景抒情，表達作者內心的惆悵與憂悶。

[INDENT]Eldorado
Allan Poe

Gaily bedight,
A gallant knight,
In sunshine and in shadow,
Had journeyed long,
Singing a song,
In search of Eldorado.

But he grew old---
This knight so bold---
And over his heart a shadow
Fell as he found
No spot of ground
That looked like Eldorado.

And, as his strength
Failed him at length,
He met a pilgrim shadow---
「Shadow ,」 said he ,
「Where can it be---
This land of Eldorado"
「Over the Mountains
Of the Moon.
Down the Valley of the Shadow,
Ride, boldly ride , 」
The shade replied, ---
「If you seek for Eldorado !」

黃金之鄉
愛倫•坡 一位勇敢的騎士，
身穿華服，
無論天晴還是下雨，
走在遙遠的路上，
口中歌兒吟唱，
尋找黃金之鄉。

他已經老了――
真勇敢的騎士――
他心頭掠過陰影，
當他發現
沒有一個地方
看上去像黃金之鄉。

日子一久，
他終於筋疲力盡，
這時遇見一位朝聖的幽靈――
「幽靈，」他問，
「請問什麼地方――
才是黃金之鄉？」
「在月宮上，
翻過那裡的高山，
穿過幽靈居住的山谷。
騎下去，勇敢地騎下去，」
幽靈回答他――
「如果你想找到黃金之鄉。」[/COLOR][/INDENT]
【作者簡介】
愛倫•坡（Allan  Poe，1809一1849），美國小說家，詩人，有「鬼才」之稱，他的詩抒發憂鬱、陰暗的心理狀態，追求一種病態的美，對現代派詩歌有很大影響。《黃金之鄉》以童話的描寫手法諷刺了不講實際的空想家。

I Saw in Louisiana A Live-Oak Growing
W. Whitman

I saw in Louisiana a live-oak growing,
All alone stood it and the moss bung down from the branches ,
Without any companion it grew there uttering joyous leaves of dark green,
And its look, rude, unbending, lusty, made me think of myself,
But I wondered how it could utter joyous leaves standing alone there without its
friend near, for I knew I could not,
And I broke off a twig with a certain number
of leaves upon it, and twined around it a  little moss,
And brought it away, and have placed it in sight in my room,
It is not needed to remind me as of my own  dear friends ,
(For I believe lately I think of little else than of them, )
Yet it remains to me a curious token,
it makes  me think of manly love;
For all that, end though the live-oak glistens  
there in Louisians solitary in a wide flat  space,
Uttering joyous leaves all its life without a
friend a lover near,
I know very well I could not.[/COLOR]

我在路易斯安那看見一棵櫟樹在生長
瓦爾特•惠特曼

我在路易斯安那看見一棵櫟樹在生長，
它孑然而立，枝條上掛滿青苔，
它沒有伴侶，深綠色的葉子卻長得歡天喜地，
那狂放、不屈、快活的神情使我想到自己，
但我詫異它孤零零站著，身邊沒有朋友，卻能長
出歡快的葉子，因為我知道我做不到如此，
我攀下一段小枝，上面長著許多葉子，周圍附著
少許青苔，
我把它帶回家，放在房裡顯眼的位置，
我不需要它來提醒我有親密的朋友，
（我相信最近除了他們我很少想到別的事，）
但它對於我仍是個奇妙的象徵，它使我想起高
尚的愛情；
儘管如此，這櫟樹在路易斯安那一片空曠的平
地上孤獨地閃爍，
附近沒有一個朋友和愛人照樣一年年長出歡樂的葉子，
但我知道我做不到。
【作者簡介】
瓦爾特•惠特曼（Walt Whitman，1819一1892），美國著名詩人。他的詩形同歐文，無拘無束，一瀉千里，熱情奔放猶如脫韁的野馬，表現出一種原始而粗獷的美。《我在路易斯安那看見一棵櫟樹在生長》禮讚櫟樹戰勝孤獨，在逆境中奮發向上的精神。《敲吧！鼓！敲吧！》聲音激越高亢，具有極大的蠱惑性。

[INDENT]Beat! Beat! Drums!
W. Whitman

Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow!
Through the windows---through doors---burst
like a ruthless force,
Into the solemn church, and scatter the  congregation,
Into the school where the scholar is studying;
Leave not the bridegroom quiet---no happiness
must he have now with his bride.
Nor the peaceful farmer any peace, ploughing
his field or gathering his grain,
So fierce you whirr and pound you drums---so
shrill your bugles blow.

Beat! Beat! Drums! Blow! Bugles! Blow!
Over the traffic of cities---over the rumble  of
wheels in the streets:
Are beds prepared for sleepers at night in the
Houses? No sleepers must sleep in those beds,
No bargainers' bargains by day---no brokers
or speculators---would they continue?
Would the talkers be talking? Would the singer attempt to sing?
Would the lawyer rise in the court to state his
case before the judge?

Then rattle quicker, heavier drums---you  bugles wilder blow.

Beat！Beat！Drums!---Blow! Bugles! blow！
Make no parley---stop for no expostulation,
Mind not the timid---mind not the weeper or prayer,
Mind not the old man beseeching the young  man,
Let not the child's voice be heard, nor the  mother's entreaties,
Make even the trestles to shake the  dead  where they lie awaiting the hearses,
So strong you thump terrible drums---so loud you bugles blow.[/COLOR]

敲吧！鼓！敲吧！
惠特曼
敲吧! 敲吧！鼓！吹吧！號角！吹吧！
穿過窗戶――穿過房門――像無情的力量爆發，
進入莊嚴的教堂，驅散聚集的人群，
進入學者研讀的學校；
讓新郎不得安寧――此刻決不能讓他和他的新娘享受幸福，
讓喜歡安靜的農夫得不到安靜，無法耕種田地或收穫糧食，
你這鼓就這樣猛烈地敲――你這號角也這樣嘹亮地吹。


敲吧！敲吧！鼓！――吹吧！號角，吹吧！
聲音蓋過城市的車輛――蓋過大街上車輪的轟隆聲；
房屋裡供人睡覺的眠床是否搭起？不能讓睡眠者在床上入睡,
不能讓生意人白天做生意--不該有經紀人或
投機者――他們還想自行其事？
侈談者還想侈談？歌手仍然想歌唱？
法院的律師仍然要站起身子，在法官面前陳述案情？
那麼，把鼓敲得更快，更猛――把號角吹得更尖銳。

敲吧！敲吧！鼓！――吹吧！號角，吹吧！
沒有商量的餘地――用不著停下來規勸，
別在乎膽怯的――別在乎哭泣的或禱告的，
別在乎老年人向年青人求情，
別去聽孩子的聲音，別去聽母親的哀求，
要敲得等待入殮的死人的棺木都震顫起來，
就這樣猛烈地敲，哦，可怕的鼓――就這樣嘹亮地吹，號角！[/INDENT]

[INDENT]Swimming
C. Scollard

When all the days are hot and long
And robin bird has ceased his song,
I go swimming every day
And have the finest kind of play.

I've learned to dive and I can float
As easily as does a boat;
I splash and plunge and laugh and shout
Till daddy tells me to come out.

It's much too soon; I'd like to cry
For I can see the ducks go by,
And Daddy Duck---how I love him
He lets his children swim and swim!

I feel that I would be in luck
If I could only be a duck.[/COLOR]
   
    游泳
    白晝炎熱而漫長，
    知更鳥停止了歌唱，
    我每天出去游泳，   
    將最美好的消遣親躬。
   
    我學會了潛水和浮遊，
    輕鬆自若像一葉小舟；
    我濺水、跳水，又笑又喊，
    直到父親叫我上岸。
   
    為時太早了！我真想哭，
    因為我看見鴨子在身邊暢浮，
    那鴨爸爸――我多麼愛他――
    他讓孩子一直游啊游啊！
   
    如果我能變成一隻鴨子，
    那時我該有多麼幸福！[/INDENT]
【簡介】
柯林頓•斯各勒德（Clinton  Scollard，  1860一1932），美國詩人，漢密爾頓大學教授。他一生詩風多變，有時寫一些極通俗的大眾歌曲，有時也寫具有神秘色彩、宣揚泛神論的詩歌作品。 《游泳》是一首十四行詩，文字淺顯如兒歌，卻討論了一個十分嚴肅的主題：人與自然之間所存在的差異究竟在哪裡？

[INDENT]The Mountains Are A Lonely Folk
H. Garland

The mountains they are silent folk;
They stand a far--alone,
And the clouds that kiss their brows at night
Hear neither sigh nor groan.
Each bears him in his ordered place
As soldiers do, and bold and high
They fold their forests round their feet
And bolster up the sky.

山嶽是沉默的勇士
哈姆林•加蘭

山嶽是沉默的勇士；
他們遠遠站著――孑然一身，
雲霞在夜間跟他們親吻。
從來聽不到嘆息或呻吟。
每座山都堅守自己的崗位，
像士兵一樣勇敢而莊嚴，
他們將森林環抱在腳下，
並高高地撐起蒼穹。[/INDENT]
【簡介】
哈姆林•加蘭（1860-1940），美國小說家，作品多以現實主義手法反映美國中西部農民的生活。《山嶽是沉默的勇士》是對山嶽偉大而沉默精神的禮讚。

Night in The Open World

       From Travels with a Donkey   by Robert Louis Stevenson  Night is a dead and monotonous period under a roof; but in the open world it passes lightly, with its stars and dews and perfumes, and the hours are marked by changes in the face of Nature. What seems a kind of temporal death to people choked between walls and curtains is only a light and living slumber to the man who sleeps afield. All night long he can hear Nature breathing deeply and freely; even as she takes her rest she turns and smiles; and there is one stirring hour, unknown to those who dwell in houses, when a wakeful influence goes abroad over the sleeping hemisphere, and all the outdoor world are on their feet. It is then that the cock first crows, not this time to announce the dawn, but like a cheerful watchman speeding the course of night. Cattle awake on the meadows; sheep break their fast on dewy hill-sides, and change to a new lair among the ferns; and houseless men, who have lain down with the fowls, open their dim eyes and behold the beauty of the night.
【註釋】
under a roof: 在屋頂下，指在室內。
in the open world: 在露天世界，指在室外(野外)。
What seems ... walls and curtains: 主語從句，其中choked between ... 為分詞短語，修飾 the people.
she: 指 Nature.
all the outdoor world are on their feet: all the outdoor world 指室外的萬物，所以動詞用 are, 代詞用their; (be) on one's feet: 站起來。
break their fast: 開齋；吃早飯。

露天世界的夜晚

在室內，夜是死氣沉沉、單調乏味的時刻。但是在露天世界里，有星星，有露珠，還有芬芳的香氣；黑夜輕快地流逝，而大自然的面貌卻在夜裡時刻變化著。禁錮在室內的簾后的人們覺得夜似乎是短暫的死亡；而露宿野外的人卻覺得夜只是一場充滿生機的微睡。他整夜能聽見大自然深沉的、自由自在的呼吸。大自然即使在休息時也在轉動和微笑。當沉睡著的半球出現蘇醒跡象的時候，室外的萬物都起來了，那種忙碌的時刻是居住在室內的人所不知道的。雄雞最先啼鳴，這時不是報曉，而是象歡樂的更夫在催黑夜快走。草地上牛群醒來；露珠晶瑩的山坡上羊群在進早餐，並且在羊齒植物叢中改換新的羊窩；與禽鳥共眠的無家可歸的人們睜開了惺松的雙眼，觀賞美麗的夜色。
【作者簡介】
    羅伯特•路易斯•斯蒂文森（1850-1894）：英國小說家、散文家和詩人。

Happy Life at A Tavern
             We dined at an excellent inn at Chapelhouse, where Dr. Johnson expatiated on the felicity of England in its taverns and inns, and triumphed over the French for not having, in any perfection, the tavern life. "There is no private house," said he, "in which people can enjoy themselves so well as at a capital tavern.」 Let there be ever so great plenty of good things, ever so much grandeur, ever so much elegance, ever so much desire that everybody should be easy, in the nature of things it cannot be: there must always be some degree of care and anxiety. The master of the house is anxious to entertain his guests; the guests are anxious to bearable to him; and no man but a very impudent dog indeed can as freely command what is in another's house as if it were his own. Whereas at a tavern there is a general freedom from anxiety. You are sure you are welcome; the more noise you make, the more trouble you give, the more good things you call for, the more welcome you are. No servants will attend you with the alacrity which waiters do, who are excited with the prospect of an immediate reward in proportion as they please. No, sir; there is nothing which has as yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn."
[RIGHT]From [I]The Life of Samuel Johnson[/I] by James Boswell [/RIGHT]
【註釋】
tavern 英國鄉村中供給酒菜的小客棧
Chapelhouse: 查普爾壕斯，英國倫敦附近的一個小村鎮
expatiate細說;詳述
felicity幸福,得體,巧妙;恰當的語句
triumphed over: 因勝過而表現欣喜  
Let there be ever so ...:此句中 Let 表示假設
alacrity活潑;敏捷;輕快
an immediate reward: 能立即到手的報酬，意即小費
contrive發明;設計

小客棧的樂趣
      我們在查普爾壕斯一家極好的小客棧里吃飯，約翰遜博士在那兒詳細敘述了英格蘭的小客棧和小旅館的妙處，得意洋洋地指出法國人沒有任何這等完美的小客棧生活。"任何私人住宅，"他說，"都不能使人們象在一家頂好的小客棧里那樣舒適愉快。＂儘管那裡好東西應有盡有，儘管屋宇是那樣的宏偉，陳設是那樣的雅緻，儘管主人一心一意要讓每個人都感到自由自在，而實際上這是不可能實現的。相反，那裡總是有著某種程度的顧慮和急切的心情。屋主人要小心地招待客人，客人要留神地迎合主人。除了非常無禮的魯莽傢伙，決沒有人在別人的屋子裡會象在自己家裡那樣可以隨心所欲，頤指氣使。然而在小客棧里就根本沒有這種顧慮了。在這裡，你肯定是受歡迎的，你嗓門越大，你越添麻煩，你要的好東西越多，你就越受歡迎。沒有一個僕人會象受到小費刺激的店倌那樣殷勤地侍候你，因為店倌的侍候越中意，你給小費就越慷慨。沒有的，先生；在人類迄今所創造的一切事物中，沒有什麼能象一家優美的鄉村小客棧或者小旅館那樣給人們提供那麼多的樂趣。"       
【作者簡介】
    詹姆斯•鮑斯韋爾（1740-1795）：蘇格蘭律師和作家。