The early coming of spring in this happy Devon gladdens my heart. I think with chill discomfort of those parts of England where the primrose shivers beneath a sky of threat rather than of solace. Honest winter, snow-clad and with the frosted beard, I can welcome not uncordially; but that long deferment of the calendar's promise, that weeping gloom of March and April, that bitter blast outraging the honour of May - how often has it robbed me of heart and hope. Here, scarce have I assured myself that the last leaf has fallen, scarce have I watched the glistening of hoar-frost upon the evergreens, when a breath from the west thrills me with anticipation of bud and bloom. Even under this grey-billowing sky, which tells that February is still in rule:
Mild winds shake the elder brake,
And the wandering herdsmen know
That the whitethorn soon will blow.
在这个充满快乐的德文郡，早早到来的春天使我心情愉悦。在英国的某些地方,报春花仍在充满威胁而不是安慰的天空下瑟瑟发抖，一想到这些地方,我的心头就会泛起不安的寒意。我非常热诚地欢迎淳朴的冬天,欢迎它皑皑的霜雪;但那期待已久却迟迟不来的日子,那三四月间阴郁的霏霏细雨,那凌辱了五月荣光的刺骨狂风——多少次使我伤心、失望。然而在这里,当我刚刚看到最后一片凋零的树叶和在常绿植物上闪闪发光的白霜,春风就令人激动地带来了充满希望的嫩芽和花朵。甚至在这表明二月仍未过去的乌云翻滚的天空下:
凤尾蕨在和风中摇曳，
游荡的牧人知道
山楂树很快就要开花了。
I have been thinking of those early years of mine in London, when the seasons passed over me unobserved, when I seldom turned a glance towards the heavens, and felt no hardship in the imprisonment of boundless streets. It is strange now to remember that for some six or seven years I never looked upon a meadow, never travelled even so far as to the tree-bordered suburbs. I was battling for dear life; on most days I could not feel certain that in a week's time I should have food and shelter. It would happen, to be sure, that in hot noons of August my thoughts wandered to the sea; but so impossible was the gratification of such desire that it never greatly troubled me. At times, indeed, I seem all but to have forgotten that people went away for holiday.
我一直想着自己过去在伦敦的生活。那时,岁月悄无声息地从身边溜走，我几乎从未抬眼看过天空,我被囚禁在无边的街道中却不曾感到痛苦。现在回想起来，在大约六七年的时间里，我没有见过一块草地,也没有到树木环绕的郊区去远足过,这真令人不可思议。我一直在为生计努力奋斗,大部分日子里,我都不能肯定在一个星期内自己是否会有食宿之虞。当然,在八月的炎热中午,我偶尔会想到大海;但这种欲望显然不可能得到满足,因此它并没有使我感到特别苦恼。的确,有时我似乎根本就忘记了人们可以离开此地,到别处去度假。
In those poor parts of the town where I dwelt, season made no perceptible difference; there were no luggage-laden cabs to remind me of joyous journeys; the folk about me went daily to their toil as usual, and so did I. I remember afternoons of languor, when books were a weariness, and no thought could be squeezed out of the drowsy brain; then would I betake myself to one of the parks, and find refreshment without any enjoyable sense of change. Heavens, how I laboured in those days! And how far I was from thinking of myself as a subject for compassion! That came later, when my health had begun to suffer from excess of toil, from bad air, bad food, and
many miseries; then awoke the maddening desire for countryside and sea-beach and for other things yet more remote. But in the years when I toiled hardest and underwent what now appear to me hideous privations, of a truth I could not be said to suffer at all. I did not suffer, for I had no sense of weakness. My health was proof against everything, and my energies defied all malice of circumstance.
With however little encouragement, I had infinite hope. Sound sleep (often in places I now dread to think of) sent me fresh to the battle each morning, my breakfast sometimes no more than a slice of bread and a cup of water. As human happiness goes, I am not sure that I was not then happy.
在我居住的那个城市的贫民区中,看不出四季的不同之处;那里没有能使我想起欢乐旅程的装满行李的马车;我周围的人也都像我一样,每天一如既往地辛勤劳动。我记得有些下午我无精打采,对书本也感到厌倦,头脑昏沉,无法思考,便信步来到一个公园,却发现除了可以休息之外,我感觉不到任何乐趣。天哪,那些日子里是多么辛劳啊!真难以想象我竟然会成为被同情的对象!后来,过度的辛劳、污独的空气和营养不良，以及许多不幸的遭遇,使我的健康开始受到损害,于是我突然觉醒,发狂般地想到乡间或海边去,还想到了一些更通远的事情。然而,在那些年里，,我虽然极度劳累,经受着现在看来非常可怕的贫困,但事实上我根本不能说是在受苦。我并没有受苦,因为我没有虚弱的感觉。我健康的身体能够抵抗一切疾病,我充沛的精力也足以藐视周围的一切敌意。
无论得到多么微小的鼓励,都能给我带来无尽的希望。我的睡眠很好(虽然经常睡在现在想起来都觉得可怕的地方)，这使我每天早晨都能精神抖擞地去迎接新的挑战;我的早餐有时候只有一片面包和一杯水。就人类的幸福而论，我相信那时的我是幸福的。
Most men who go through a hard time in their youth are supported by companionship. London has no pays latin, but hungry beginners in literature have generally their suitable comrades, garreteers in the Tottenham Court Road district, or in unredeemed Chelsea; they make their little vie de Boh me, and are consciously proud of it. Of my position, the peculiarity was that I never belonged to any cluster; I shrank from casual acquaintance, and through the grim years, had but one friend with whom I held converse. It was never my instinct to look for help, to seek favour for advancement; whatever step I gained was gained by my own strength. Even as I disregarded favour so did I scorn advice; no counsel would I ever take but that of my own brain and heart. More than once I was driven by necessity to beg from strangers the means of earning bread, and this of all my experiences was the bitterest; yet I think I should have found it worse still to incur a debt to some friend or comrade. The truth is that I have never learned to regard myself as a "member of society." For me there have always been two entities --- myself and the world, and the normal relation between these two has been hostile. Am I not still a lonely man, as far as ever from forming part of the social order?
This, of which I once was scornfully proud, seems to me now, if not a calamity, something I would not choose if life were to live again.
大多数年轻时生活艰苦的人,都曾得到过朋友的支援。伦敦没有“拉丁区”,但在文学上如饥似渴的初学者一般都能找到志同道合的伙伴一一住在托特纳姆法院路或切尔西区阁楼上的穷作家,他们过着波希米亚式的小人物的生活,并以此自豪。我的情形很特别，我不属于任何一个群体,我避免与他人偶然相识。在那些艰苦的岁月里,我只有一个交往的朋友。我天性不喜求助于人,也不愿寻求晋身之阶;每前进一步,我都是靠自己的力量。正如我不愿求人一样,我也不接受他人的劝告,除了我自己想到的主张之外,我从不采纳别人的建议。由于贫困所迫,我曾不止一次向陌生人乞求谋生的手段一一这是我最痛苦的经历。但我认为比这更让我无法忍受的,是向一些朋友或同伴借钱。事实上,我从不把自己看做是“社会中的一员”。对我来说,我自己和这个世界始终是两种不同的存在,这两者之间的正常关系是相互敌对的。我不仍然是一个孤独的人吗?我不会成为社会团体的一分子,这一点和以前一样。
过去我曾为此感到骄傲,现在看起来,它是一种不幸。如果能够重新生活一次，我不会再选择这种方式。
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