英语散文欣赏.doc

品味生活 Relish MomentTucked away in our subconscious is an idyllic vision. We see ourselves on a long trip that spans the continent. We are traveling by train. Out the windows, we drink in the passing scene of cars on nearby highways, of children waving at a crossing, of cattle grazing on a distant hillside, of smoke pouring from a power plant, of row upon row of corn and wheat, of flatlands and valleys, of mountains and rolling hillsides, of city skylines and village halls.我们的潜意识里藏着一派田园诗般的风光!我们仿佛身处一次横贯大陆的漫漫旅程之中! 乘着火车,我们领略着窗外流动的景色：附近高速公路上奔驰的汽车、十字路口处招手的孩童、远山上吃草的牛群、源源不断地从电厂排放出的烟尘、一片片的玉米和小麦、平原与山谷、群山与绵延的丘陵、天空映衬下城市的轮廓, 以及乡间的庄园宅第!But uppermost in our minds is the final destination. On a certain day at a certain hour, we will pull into the station. Bands will be playing and flags waving. Once we get there, so many wonderful dreams will come true and the pieces of our lives will fit together like a completed jigsaw puzzle. How restlessly we pace the aisles, damning the minutes for loitering -waiting, waiting, waiting for the station.然而我们心里想得最多的却是最终的目的地! 在某一天的某一时刻,我们将会抵达进站! 迎接我们的将是乐队和飘舞的彩旗!一旦到了那儿,多少美梦将成为现实,我们的生活也将变得完整,如同一块理好了的拼图!可是我们现在在过道里不耐烦地踱来踱去,咒骂火车的拖拖拉拉! 我们期待着, 期待着, 期待着火车进站的那一刻!When we reach the station, that will be it! we cry. When Im 18. When I buy a new 450SL Mercedes Benz! When I put the last kid through college. When I have paid off the mortgage!When I get a promotion.When I reach the age of retirement, I shall live happily ever after! 当我们到站的时候,一切就都好了!我们呼喊着!当我18岁的时候!当我有了一辆新450SL奔驰的时候!当我供最小的孩子念完大学的时候!当我偿清贷款的时候!当我官升高任的时候! 当我到了退休的时候, 就可以从此过上幸福的生活啦! Sooner or later, we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip. The station is only a dream. It constantly outdistances us.可是我们终究会认识到人生的旅途中并没有车站,也没有能够一到永逸的地方!生活的真正乐趣在于旅行的过程, 而车站不过是个梦, 它始终遥遥领先于我们!Relish the moment is a good motto, especially when coupled with Psalm 118：24:This is the day which the Lord hath made;we will rejoice and be glad in it. It isnt the burdens of today that drive men mad. It is the regrets over yesterday and the fear of tomorrow. Regret and fear are twin thieves who rob us of today.享受现在是句很好的箴言,尤其是当它与圣经诗篇中第页行的一段话相映衬的时候,更是如此：今日乃主所创造；生活在今日我们将欢欣、高兴!真正令人发疯的不是今日的负担,而是对昨日的悔恨及对明日的恐惧!悔恨与恐惧是一对孪生窃贼,将今天从你我身边偷走!So stop pacing the aisles and counting the miles. In stead, climb more mountains, eat more ice cream, go barefoot more often, swim more rivers, watch more sunsets, laugh more, cry less. Life must be lived as we go along. The station will come soon enough.那么就不要在过道里徘徊吧,别老惦记着你离车站还有多远!何不换一种活法,将更多的高山攀爬,多吃点儿冰淇淋甜甜嘴巴,经常光着脚板儿溜达溜达,在更多的河流里畅游,多看看夕阳西下, 多点欢笑哈哈, 少让泪水滴答! 生活得一边过一边瞧! 车站就会很快到达!阳光下的时光“I was rich, if not in money, in sunny hours and summer days.”- Henry David Thoreau.“我虽然不富甲天下，却拥有无数个艳阳天和夏日。”-亨利大卫梭罗When Thoreau wrote that line, he was thinking of the Walden. Pond he knew as a boy.写这句话时，梭罗想起孩提时代的瓦尔登湖。Woodchoppers and the Iron Horse had not yet greatly damaged the beauty of its setting. A boy could go to the pond and lie on his back against the seat of a boat, lazily drifting from shore to shore while the loons dived and the swallows dipped around him. Thoreau loved to recall such sunny hours and summer days “when idleness was the most attractive and productive business.”当时伐木者和火车尚未严重破坏湖畔的美丽景致。小男孩可以走向湖中，仰卧小舟。自一岸缓缓漂向另一岸，周遭有鸟儿戏水，燕子翻飞。梭罗喜欢回忆这样的艳阳天和夏日，“慵懒是最迷人也是最具生产力的事情！”I too was a boy in love with a pond, rich in sunny hours and summer days. Sun and summer are still what they always were, but the boy and the pond changed. The boy, who is now a man, no longer find much time for idle drifting. The pond has been annexed by a great city. The swamps where herons once hunted are now drained and filled with houses. The bay where water lilies quietly floated is now a harbor for motor boats. In short, everything that the boy loved no longer exists-except in the mans memory of it.我也曾经是热爱湖塘的小男孩，拥有无数个艳阳天与夏日。如今阳光、夏日依旧，男孩和湖塘却已改变。那男孩已长大成人，不再有那么多时间泛舟湖上。而湖塘也为大城市所并。曾有苍鹭觅食的沼泽，如今已枯竭殆尽，上面盖满了房舍。睡莲静静漂浮的湖湾。现在成了汽艇的避风港。总之，男孩所爱的一切已不复存在-只留在人们的回忆中。Some people insist that only today and tomorrow matter. But how much poorer we would be if we really lived by that rule! So much of what we do today is frivolous and futile and soon forgotten. So much of what we hope to do tomorrow never happens.有些人坚持认为只有今日和明日才是重要的，可是如果真的照此生活，我们将是何其可怜！许多今日我们做的事徒劳不足取的，很快就会被忘记。许多我们期待明天将要做的事却从来没有发生过。The past is the bank in which we store our most valuable possession: the memories that give meaning and depth to our lives.过去是一所银行。我们将最可贵的财产-记忆珍藏其中。记忆赐予我们生命的意义和深度。Those who truly treasure the past will not bemoan the passing of the good old days, because days enshrined in memory are never lost. Death itself is powerless to still a remembered voice or erase a remembered smile. And for one boy who is now a man, there is a pond which neither time nor tide can change, where he can still spend a quite hour in the sun.真正珍惜过去的人，不会悲叹旧日美好时光的逝去。因为藏于记忆中的时光永不流失。死亡本身无法止住一个记忆中的声音，或擦除一个记忆中的微笑。对现已长大成人的那个男孩来说，那儿将有一个湖塘不会因时间和潮汐而改变，可以让他继续在阳光下享受安静时光。生存还是毁灭Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: I think, therefore am.“生存还是毁灭。”如果把圣经除外，这六个字便是整个世界文学中最有名的六个字了。这六个字是哈姆雷特一次喃喃自语时说的，而这六个字也就成了莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字了，因为这里哈姆雷特不仅道出了他自己的心声，同时也代表了一切有思想的男男女女。是活还是不活是要生活还是不要生活，是要生活得丰满充实，兴致勃勃，还是只是活得枯燥委琐，贫乏无味。一位哲人一次曾想弄清他自己是否是在活着，这个问题我们每个人也大可不时地问问我们自己。这位哲学家对此的答案是： “我思故我在。” But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: To be is to be in relations. If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned-poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs-you are dead.但是关于生存我所见过的一条最好的定义却是另一位哲学家下的：“生活即是联系。”如果这话不假的话，那么一个有生命者的联系越多，它也就越有生气。所谓要活得丰富充实也即是要扩大和加强我们的各种联系。不幸的是，我们往往会因为天性不够丰厚而容易陷入自己的陈规旧套。试问除去我们的日常工作，我们的真正生活又有多少?如果你只是对你的日常工作才有兴趣，那你的生趣也就很有限了。至于在其它事物方面，比如诗歌、散文、音乐、美术、体育、无私的友谊、政治与国际事务，等等你只是死人一个。 Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest-even more, a new accomplishment-you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.但反过来说，每当你获得一种新的兴趣甚至一项新的造诣你就增长了你的生活本领。一个能对许许多多事物都深感兴趣的人是不可能总不愉快的，真正的悲观者只能是那些丧失兴趣的人。Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China if youre interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.培根曾讲过，一个人失去朋友即是死亡。但是凭着交往，凭着新朋，我们就能获得再生。这条对于活人可谓千真万确的道理在一定程度上也完全适用于人的思想，它们也都是活的。你的思想所在，你的生命便也在那里。如果你的思想不出你的业务范围，不出你的物质利益，不出你所在城镇的狭隘圈子，那么你的一生便也只是多方受着局限的狭隘的一生。但是如果你对当前中国那里所发生的种种感到兴趣，那么你便可说也活在中国；如果你对一本佳妙小说中的人物感到兴趣，你便是活在一批极有趣的人们中间；如果你能全神贯注地听点好的音乐，你就会超脱出你的周围环境而活在一个充满激情与想象的神奇世界之中。To be or not to be-to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let live!生存还是毁灭活得热烈活得丰富，还是只是简单存在，这就全在我们自己。但愿我们都能不断扩展和增强我们的各种联系。只要一天我们活着，就要一天是在活着。生命的沉浮The Ebb and Flow of LifeBy Charlie BadenhopDuring my first year in Japan I took a hitchhiking trip and went to numerous fishing villages on the west coast of Japan.In one village I had the privilege of meeting a very special man. He was in his sixties and walked with a noticeable limp. He told me that as a youth he was very involved in karate, but that at the age of twenty five he was injured while working on his fathers fishing boat, and he had been limping ever since. as he told me about his life. He said once he realized he would no longer be able to actively take part in karate, he made a firm commitment to use his life as a fisherman to further his martial arts studies. He read various martial arts books and then applied what he read to his work life.在日本的第一年，我曾搭便车旅行，到过西海岸的很多渔村。在一个小村子里，我有幸遇见了一个很特别的人。他60多岁，腿瘸得很厉害。他告诉我自己年轻时曾热衷于空手道，但是25岁那年，在父亲的渔船上干活时不慎受伤，从此成了瘸子。一天夜里，我们坐在外面的小木码头上，他向我讲起了自己的人生。他说，当意识到自己再也不能积极参加空手道运动时，他便下定决心，为了进一步研究武术，此生甘愿做个渔民。他阅读了各种各样的武学书籍，并将学到的知识运用到工作生活中。We sat out on a small wooden dock one nightOne of the most important things I have learned, he said, Is to create a rhythm with your presence, movements, and breathing, that matches the rhythm of nature. This is a phrase numerous martial arts masters wrote about in the books I have read.他说：“我学到的最重要的一样东西是创造一种与大自然的节律相谐调的自身存在、运动和呼吸的节律。我读过的书中许多武术大师都提到过节律这个词。”As we sat by the water, he invited me to notice the ebb and flow of the ocean. and the sounds of the tide lapping against the pilings of the pier. You can sense the movement and sounds of the ocean . As you also notice your movements and breathing . And realize how you go IN . and OUT . of rhythm with this flow.我们坐在水边，他邀我关注大海的潮涨潮落聆听潮水拍打木桩的声音。“就像关注你自己的运动和呼吸那样，去感受大海的运动和声音，体会如何与潮汐的节律相谐调。”I began to do as he suggested, and I quickly felt I was being drawn into a parallel world, that I was somehow usually ignoring, or simply not noticing.我开始按他的建议去做，很快感到自己正被引入一个常常忽视或根本没有注意过的相似的世界。Feel the life force of the ocean he said, and breathe with the ocean. Feel the life force of the ocean, and without doing anything, allow yourself to move with the ocean . Breathe, move, and feel your heartbeat .Invite your heartbeat to synchronize with the heartbeat of the ocean.他说：“感受大海的生命力，与大海一起呼吸。感受大海的生命力，不做任何事，让自己与大海一起运动呼吸，运动，感受自己的心跳让自己的心跳与大海的心跳同步。”Now you are becoming one with the water, and the fluid inside your body begins to become a tiny powerful ocean that ebbs and flows throughout your system.Now, like the ocean you can begin to feel the power of flowing without resisting. Flowing without fighting against. 现在你渐渐与海水融为一体，体内的液体开始变成很微小却能量巨大的海洋，起伏遍及你周身的系统。The water surrounds and moves past all obstacles. There is no forcing, and no need for strength. Only flow . The power is IN the flow, and each drop of water is pliant and soft. No one drop of water is powerful on its own. 现在就像大海一样，你能感受到没有抵抗的流动的力量，感受到没有斗争的流动的力量。海水包围并通过了所有障碍。没有靠强力，也无须强力。“只是流动力量就在流动中，每一滴水都是顺从的，柔软的。没有哪滴水自身是强大的。”We sat there together for a while. The man, myself, and the ocean. I felt the power and presence of the ocean, myself, and the fisherman. Not separate, but together. And I knew very clearly that all this power was really One.The one tiny drop of water that you are.我们在一起坐了一会儿。老人、我和大海。我感受到了大海、我自己和老渔夫的力量和存在。我们不是分散开的，而是合而为一。我非常清楚地知道所有的力量实际上都是一体的。你就是那微小的水滴。The ebb and flow of your life mirrors the ebb and flow of all life. When you calm yourself, slow down, and become one with your surroundings, you realize that nature offers you a parallel understanding of life. The tiny drop of water known as me is an integral part of the ocean of life, and your power manifests most gracefully when you join your individual spirit with the spirit of all creation.Breathe deeply, calm yourself, and begin to notice and appreciate the ebb and flow of the world around you . You will discover the power of the universe is the power that feeds your life.你的生命沉浮能反映出所有生命的沉浮。当你平静下来，放慢节奏，与周围环境融为一体的时候，你就会认识到大自然对于生命的看法是相似的。可看作“我”的小水滴是生命海洋中不可缺少的一部分。当个人的精神同宇宙万物的精神结合在一起的时候，你的力量才会最完美地展示出来。深呼吸，平静下来，开始关注并欣赏周围世界的沉浮，你会发现宇宙的力量正是滋养你生命的力量。谈读书Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business.读书足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以长才。其怡情也，最见于独处幽居之时；其傅彩也，最见于高谈阔论之中；其长才也，最见于处世判事之际。For expert and execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best form those that are learned. 练达之士虽能分别处理细事或一一判别枝节，然纵观统筹，全局策划，则舍好学深思者莫属。To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgement wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. 读书费时过多易惰，文采藻饰太盛则矫，全凭条文断事乃学究故态。They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need proyning (pruning) by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in/ by experience. 读书补天然之不足，经验又补读书之不足，盖天生才干犹如自然花草，读书然后知如何修剪移接，而书中所示，如不以经验范之，则又大而无当。Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.有一技之长者鄙读书，无知者羡读书，唯明智之士用读书，然书并不以用处告人，用书之智不在书中，而在书外，全凭观察得之。Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider.读书时不可存心诘难作者，不可尽信书上所言，亦不可只为寻章摘句，而应推敲细思。Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. 书有可浅尝者，有可吞食者，少数则须咀嚼消化。换言之，有只需读其部分者，有只须大体涉猎者，少数则须全读，读时须全神贯注，孜孜不倦。Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.书亦可请人代读，取其所作摘要，但只限题材较次或价值不高者，否则书经提炼犹如水经蒸馏，淡而无味。Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not.读书使人充实，讨论使人机智，笔记使人准确。因此不常做笔记者须记忆力特强，不常讨论者须天生聪颖，不常读书者须欺世有术，始能无知而显有知。Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtile; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in morse. (Studeis go to make up a mans character.)读史使人明智，读诗使人灵秀，数学使人周密，科学使人深刻，伦理学使人庄重，逻辑修辞之学使人善辩；凡有所学，皆成性格。Nay there is no stand or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach ; riding for the head; and the like. 人之才智但有滞碍，无不可读适当之书使之顺畅，一如身体百病，皆可借相宜之运动除之。滚球利睾肾，射箭利胸肺，慢步利肠胃，骑术利头脑，诸如此类。So if a mans wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.如智力不集中，可令读数学，盖演题需全神贯注，稍有分散即须重演；如不能辩异，可令读经院哲学，盖是辈皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物阐证另一物，可令读律师之案卷。如此头脑中凡有缺陷，皆有特效可医。（王佐良 译）散文欣赏-追忆似水年华Can it really be sixty-two years ago that I first saw you?我们初次相遇，