I am no botanist, but I have long found pleasure in herb-gathering. I love to come upon a plant which is unknown to me, to identify it with the help of my book, to greet it by name when next it shines beside my path. If the plant be rare, its discovery gives me joy. Nature, the great artist, makes her common flowers in the common view; no word in human language can express the marvel and the loveliness even of what we call the vulgarest weed, but these are fashioned under the gaze of every passerby. The rare flower is shaped apart, in places secret, in the artist's subtler mood; to find it is to enjoy the sense of admission to a holier precinct. Even in my gladness I am awed.
我并非植物学家,但却一直能在采集花草中寻找到乐趣。我喜欢遇到自己从未见过的植物,然后求助于书本,以此来认识它,当下一次看到它在路边摇曳时,我就可以叫着它的名字来问候它了。如果这种植物很罕见,那么这个发现会令我更加愉悦。大自然是个伟大的艺术家,以质朴的美感创造出了这些质朴的花,即使是被我们称为杂草的植物,也没有一种人类的语言能够形容出它们的奇妙与美好。这还只是就路人所常见的那些品种而言;稀有的花草则是这位艺术家以非常精妙的手法另行创造出来的，一般生长在隐秘之处。找到它们,便可享受到进入神圣之地的快感,连这种快感也可以让我心生敬畏。
Today I have walked far, and at the end of my walk I found the little white-flowered woodruff. It grew in a copse of young ash. When I had looked long at the flower, I delighted myself with the grace of the slim trees about it - their shining smoothness, their olive hue. Hard by stood a bush of wych elm; its tettered bark, overlined as if with the character of some unknown tongue, made the young ashes yet
more beautiful.
今天我散步行至很远,在路的尽头,我看到了开着白色小花的车叶草。它们生长在一小片幼嫩的涔树丛中。当我长时间地注视着这些花的时候,感受到了它们那优雅细长的枝叶所带给我的喜悦一一那闪烁着光芒的滑润质感，那橄榄色的光泽。旁边还有几棵无毛榆树,树皮斑驳,枝权交错，像是以某种未知文字胡乱涂写的作品,将幼嫩的涔树衬托得更加美丽。
It matters not how long I wander. There is no task to bring me back; no one will be vexed or uneasy, linger I ever so late. Spring is shining upon these lanes and meadows; I feel as if I must follow every winding track that opens by my way. Spring has restored to me something of the long-forgotten vigour of youth; I walk without weariness; I sing to myself like a boy, and the song is one I knew in boyhood.
That reminds me of an incident. Near a hamlet, in a lonely spot by a woodside, I came upon a little lad of perhaps ten years old, who, his head hidden in his arms against a tree trunk, was crying bitterly. I asked him what was the matter, and after a little trouble --- he was better than a mere bumpkin --- I learned that, having been sent with sixpence to pay a debt, he had lost the money. The poor little fellow was in a state of mind which in a grave man would be called the anguish of despair; he must have been crying for a long time; every muscle in his face quivered as if under torture, his limbs shook; his eyes, his voice, uttered such misery as only the vilest criminal should be made to suffer. And it was because he had lost sixpence!
无论漫步多久,我都无所谓。并没有什么事等着我回去处理,也不会有人为我的迟迟不归而焦急不安。小径通幽,春草萋萎,到处充满了春日的气息，我觉得似乎必须沿着在我眼前铺开的每条蜿蜒小径走上一遍。春天使我恢复了遗忘已久的青春活力,我不知疲倦地走着,像个孩子似的对自己唱着一首童年时学过的歌。
这令我想起了一件事。在一个小村庄附近的树林边缘的偏僻处,我遇到了一个十岁左右的小男孩儿,他正靠着树干,把头埋在臂弯里哭泣。我问他发生了什么事，颇费了一番周折之后一他比一个纯粹的乡下孩子要好一些一一我才明白了是怎么回事:他的家人让他去还六便土士的债,但他却把钱弄丢了。这个可怜的小家伙当时的心情,简直无异于一个稳重的成年人身处绝境时的痛苦。他一定已经哭了很长时间;他脸上的每一块肌肉都扭曲着,仿佛在经受拷打一样;他的四肢抑制不住地颤抖;他的眼睛和声音都表露出那种只有十恶不赦的罪犯才应该遭受的痛苦。而这一切,只是因为他弄丢了六便士!
I could have shed tears with him --- tears of pity and of rage at all this spectacle implied. On a day of indescribable glory, when earth and heaven shed benedictions upon the soul of man, a child, whose nature would have bidden him rejoice as only childhood may, wept his heart out because his hand had dropped a sixpenny piece! The loss was a very serious one, and he knew it; he was less afraid to face his parents, than overcome by misery at the thought of the harm he had done them. Sixpence dropped by the wayside, and a whole family made wretched! What are the due descriptive terns for a state of "civilization" in which such a thing as this is possible?
我几乎要和他一起流泪了一一这是悲悯与激愤的泪水，为此番场景而流。在这样一个无限美好的日子里,当大地和天空赐福于人类的灵魂之际，一个孩子一他的天性本应使他享受到只有孩子才会拥有的快乐一一却因为弄丢了六便士而伤心流泪!他很清楚这是一个巨大的损失,他害怕面对父母，但想到给父母带来的伤害,他更加痛苦万分。只是因为在路上丢了六便士,便令整个家庭陷人困境!我该如何形容一个存在着这样的事情却自诩“文明”的国家呢?
I put my hand into my pocket, and wrought sixpenny-worth of miracle.
It took me half an hour to recover my quiet mind. After all, it is as idle to rage against man's fatuity as to hope that he will ever be less a fool. For me, the great thing was my sixpenny miracle. Why, I have known the day when it would have been beyond my power altogether, or else would have cost me a meal. Wherefore, let me again be glad and thankful.
于是,我把手伸进口袋,创造了一个六便士的奇迹。
我用了半个小时来平复自己的心情。毕竟,为一个人的愚蠢而发怒,或希望他不要如此愚昧,都是毫无用处的。对我来说,那个六便士的奇迹才是件重要的事。唉,我知道有一天我会完全没有这样做的能力,或者为此就要花去一顿饭钱。因此,让我再一次体验这种欣喜和感恩的情怀吧。
责任编辑：admin
上一篇：没有了
下一篇：散文翻译示例——四季随笔（一）
微信公众号搜索“译员”关注我们，每天为您推送翻译理论和技巧，外语学习及翻译招聘信息。