Impatient for the light of spring, I have slept lately with my blind drawn up, so that at waking I have the sky in view. This morning I awoke just before sunrise. The air was still; a faint flush of rose to westward told me that the east made fair promise. I could see no cloud, and there before me, dropping to the horizon, glistened the horned moon.
The promise held good. After breakfast I could not sit down by the fireside; indeed, a fire was scarce necessary; the sun drew me forth, and I walked all the morning about the moist lanes, delighting myself with the scent of earth.
我已经等不及去迎接第一缕春光了,由于这个原因,最近睡觉之前我都会把窗帘拉起来,以便一觉醒来就可以看到天空。今天早晨,我在日出之前就醒了。空气中一片静寂。西方天际淡淡的玫瑰色红晕告诉我,东方的天空一定是晴好的。我看不到一丝云彩,呈现在我眼前的景象,是一轮闪耀着光辉的弯月正沉向地平线。
我的希望没有落空。早餐之后,我无法在炉边安坐了;的确,几乎已经用不着炉火了。太阳把我拉出了屋子,整个早晨我都在潮湿的小径上散步,泥土的芳香让我感到欣喜莫名。
So, once more, the year has come full circle. And how quickly; alas, how quickly! Can it be a whole twelve-month since the last spring? Because I am so content with life, must life slip away, as though it grudged me my happiness? Time was when a year drew its slow length of toil and anxiety and ever frustrate waiting. Further away, the year of childhood seemed endless. It is familiarity with life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown, as for children, the days are long with gathering of experience; the week gone by is already far in retrospect of things learned, and that to come, especially if it foretell some joy, lingers in remoteness. Past mid-life, one learns little and expects little. Today is like unto yesterday, and to that which shall be the morrow. Only torment of mind or body serves to delay the indistinguishable hours. Enjoy the day, and behold, it shrinks to a moment.
就这样，一年又完成了一个周期。太快了;唉,太快了!从去年春天到现在,已经整整十二个月了吗?因为我对生活如此满足,生命便要溜走,仿佛不愿赐予我幸福吗?过去,我在辛劳与忧虑中度日如年,期待也总是换来灰心失望。更早的时候，童年时代的每一年似乎也是永无止境的。正是对生活的熟悉,使得时间加快了脚步。对于孩子来说，当每一天都是在未知世界中向前迈进的脚步时，经验越积越多,日子便越变越长;在对已学事物进行回顾时,擦肩而过的一周早已远去,而即将到来的-周,尤其是当它预示了某件乐事时，却总是迟迟不至。人过中年,学的东西少了，期望也就少了。今天与昨天相似，与即将到来的明天也没有什么差别。只有心灵或身体所承受的痛苦,才会使毫无区别的时间变得漫长;而再看那充满乐趣的一天,则缩成了短短的一瞬。
I could wish for many another year; yet, if I knew that not one more awaited me, I should not grumble. When I was ill at ease in the world, it would have been hard to die; I had lived to no purpose that I could discover; the end would have seemed abrupt and meaningless. Now my life is rounded; it began with the natural irreflective happiness of childhood, it will close in the reasoned tranquillity of the mature mind. How many a time after long labour on some piece of writing, brought at length to its conclusion, have I laid down the pen with a sigh of thankfulness; the work was full of faults, but I had wrought sincerely, had done what time and circumstance and my own nature permitted. Even so may it be with me in my last hour. May I look back on life as a long task duly completed -- a piece of biography; faulty enough, but good as I could make it -- and, with no thought but one of contentment, welcome the repose to follow when I have breathed the word "Finis."
我可能还有希望再活许多年;但是,即使我知道自己无法再多活一年,我也不会怨天尤人。如果心神志忑地活在世上,死的时候就会非常痛苦;我毫无意义地度过了一生,连人生的终结也显得突兀且没有价值。现在,我的一生圆满了。它以童年时代自然的无忧无虑的幸福为开端,将在成熟心灵的合理的宁静中结束。有许多次,当我费尽心力，花了很长时间,终于完成了某篇文章时,我总是充满感激地叹息着放下笔;这篇文章虽然有很多不足之处,但我非常真诚地付出了劳动,完成了时间、境遇和我的天性允许我做的事。但愿我在生命的最后时刻仍能如此。我希望,当我回忆这一生的时候,能够将其视为一件已经按时完成的长期工作——一部传记;虽然有很多缺点,但我已竭尽全力使它尽可能令人满意一一而且,当我轻声说出“终结”这个词的时候，我的心中怀着无限的满足,迎接那随之而来的安眠。
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