The Sketch Book
The Author's Account of Himself
Washington Irving
见闻札记
作者自叙
夏济安译
I was always fond of visiting new scenes.and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began mny travels , and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city,to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into boyhood ,I extended the range of my observations. My holiday afternoons were spent in ramble about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed,or a ghost seen. I visited the neighboring villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowledge,by noting their habits and customs, and conversing with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long sutmmer's day to the summit of the most distant hill,whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra incognita,and was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabited.
我喜欢游历，见识各地的奇风异俗。我的旅行从童年时候就开始，我本城范围以内的[穷乡僻壤],我很小就去[考察],因此我常常失踪,害得家长很着急，镇上的地保把我找回来了，常常因此受到奖赏。我这个小孩子长成大孩子,观察范围也日益扩大。每逢假日下午,我总到附近乡村去漫游。有些地方是历史名胜,有些地方是有神话传说的,我都亲加勘察，把它们摸熟了。什么地方发生过盗案或者凶杀案的,什么地方有过鬼魂出现的,我都知道。邻近各村我常去观光,当地的耋老硕德我总去踵门求教,因此我的智识也大为增加。有一天——那是漫长的夏天——我爬上了很远很远地方的一个山头，纵目四望，一哩之内的地方我是大多不认识的,我想起我们这个地球是多么的大，心里不免吃惊。
This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion,and in devouring their contents,I neglected the regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would I wander about the pierheads in fine weather,and watch the parting ships bound to distant climes ---with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails,and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!
Furher reading and thinking.though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds,only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of rmy own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt littie desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains,with their bright aerial tints;her valleys, teeming with wild fertility ; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean;her trackless forests,where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sun-shine; no,never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.
岁月增添,游兴更盛。我最爱读的书是游记旅行之类，废寝忘餐读这种闲书,把学校里的正课练习都给耽误了。风和日暖之日，我到码头四周去游荡，看见船只一艘一艘的开向远方，不禁心响往之——船帆渐远渐小,岸上的我，以目远送,我的灵魂已经随着我的幻想到厂地球的不知哪一个角落了。
以后读书更多，思想日开,我这种好玩的性情，自然也渐渐的纳入理性的规范;但是本来只是空泛的憧憬,现在变成确定的心愿了。在自已本国,我也算游历了不少地方;假如我只想欣赏自然风景,那么美国风景之美,品类繁多，我已经目不暇接，无遑他求了。美国有大湖，银波闪翻，浩瀚汪洋;有高山，空灵缥缈，上接苍空;有草木横生鸟兽繁殖的山谷,有在荒山中澎湃直泻的大澡布;有一望无际满目绿色的大平原;美国的大河，身阔水深,庄严的静静的流向海洋;美国的森林,古木參天，绵延千里，至今没有樵径可循;美国的天空,阳光普照，夏云过处，光彩奇丽;举凡天地之美,不论是宏伟的,或是优美的，均尽萃于此,美国有景如斯,美国人实在用不着舍近就远，到外国去游山玩水的了。
But Europe held forth the charms of storied and poetical association, There were to be seen the masterpieces of art, the refinements of highly-cultivated society,the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local custom. My native country was full of youthfu! promise:Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age. Her very ruins told the bistory of times gone by ,and every mouldering stone was a chronicle. I
longed to wander over the scenes of renowned achievement --- to tread,as it were,in the footsteps of antiquity---to loiter about the ruined castle ---to meditate on the falling tower ---to escape,in short,from the common-place realities of the present, and lose myself among the shadowy grandeurs of the past.
但是欧洲也有它的美,欧洲的美较之美国的美更富于历史与诗意的联想。艺术巨著,高尚社会的文雅生活,各地古老相传的奇风异俗,这种种为欧洲所有,而美国所未必有者。美国固然朝气蓬勃，前途无穷，可是欧洲历史久远,历代累积下来的文物之盛,却为美国所不及。你到了欧洲，不必进博物院，就是普通的废墟,就可以激发你怀古的幽情；每一块腐蚀的石头,都好像是一本历史读物。有什么地方,是以纪念古代的丰功伟绩的,我最喜欢在它左右徘徊——那时候我觉得我是[踏在史的脚迹上面]——我看见了一片瓦砾的古堡遗迹,就流连不舍,看见了摇摇将堕的古塔巨楼,就低迥凭品——总而言之,我那时候避开了现实的庸俗,置身于迷离恍惚的古代盛世，我也就忘了我自己了。
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