Today as I was reading in the garden a waft of summer perfume --- some hidden link of association in what I read --- I know not what it may have been --- took me back to schoolboy holidays; I recovered with strange intensity that lightsome mood of long release from tasks, of going away to the seaside, which is one of childhood's blessings. I was in the train; no rushing express such as bears you great distances; the sober train which goes to no place of importance, which lets you see the white steam of the engine float and fall upon a meadow ere you pass. Thanks to a good and wise father, we youngsters saw nothing of seaside places where crowds assemble; I am speaking, too, of a time more than forty years ago, when it was still possible to find on the coasts of northern England, east or west, spots known only to those who loved the shore for its beauty and its solitude. At every station the train stopped; little stations, decked with beds of flowers, smelling warn in the sunshine; where countryfolk got in with baskets and talked in an unfamiliar dialect, an English which to us sounded almost like a foreign tongue. Then the first glimpse of the sea; the excitement of noting whether tide was high or low - stretches of sand and weedy pools, or halcyon wavelets frothing at their furthest reach, under the sea-banks starred with convolvulus. Of a sudden, our station!
今天,我在花园里看书时,嗅到了一缕夏日的芬芳——这芬芳与我所读的书之间有一种内在的联系,但我不知道它是什么一一并跟随它回到了学生时代的假日。可以很久不做功课,去海边玩要，这本是童年的一大乐事,而如今,这种轻快的感觉却异常强烈地再次充溢于我的心中。我坐在火车上——不是远程特快列车,而是那种驶往无关紧要之地的慢车一一看着引擎冒出的白色蒸汽飘荡开来,最终落在刚刚行驶过的草原上。感谢善良、明智的父辈，使展现在我们年轻人眼前的海滨宁静无人。我现在所讲的也是四十多年前的情形了,那时无论在英格兰的东海岸或西海岸,都有可能找到只有那些喜爱海滨美景的人才知道的地方。在每一个站点,火车都会停下来;小车站被花坛装饰一新,在阳光下洋溢着温暖的味道;乡下人提着篮子从那里上车,并用我们不熟悉的方言交谈,那种英语对我们来说就像外国话一样。然后,我第一次见到了大海;无论看到潮涨还是潮落,都令人异常兴奋——在点缀着旋花植物的海岸下面,是绵长的沙滩和长满海草的池沼,平静的微波在海的尽头漾起泡沫。突然间，我们到站了!
Ah, that taste of the brine on a child's lips! Nowadays I can take holiday when I will, and go whithersoever it pleases me; but that salt kiss of the sea air I shall never know again. My senses are dulled; I cannot get so near to nature; I have a sorry dread of her clouds, her winds, and must walk with tedious circumspection where once I ran and leaped exultingly. Were it possible but for one half-hour to plunge and bask in the sunny surf, to roll on the silvery sand-hills, to leap from rock to rock on shining seaferns, laughing if I slipped into the shallows among starfish and anemones!I am much older in body than in mind; I can but look at what I once enjoyed.
啊,孩子唇上那咸咸的味道!现在,只要我愿意,我就可以去度假,并且想去哪里就去哪里,但却再也品尝不到海边空气中的那种咸咸的滋味了。我的感觉变得迟钝了,这使我无法再与大自然那般亲近;我对大自然的风云变幻产生了一种可悲的恐惧感,而今只能以一种沉闷的姿态小心翼翼地走过那些曾经兴奋地跑跳过的地方了。如果有可能的话,哪怕只给我半个小时的时间，我也会跳进阳光照耀下的海浪里,去享受那种温暖的感觉;在银色的沙丘上翻滚;在闪闪发亮的海蕨中,从一块岩石跳到另一块岩石上;如果不小心滑倒在到处都是海星和海葵的浅滩上,那就放声欢笑吧!与精神比起来，我的身体已经衰老,因此只能在一旁观看那些曾经享受过的乐趣了。
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