她是我见到过的最善良、慷慨的人之一,爱穿灰色衣服。或许有人会觉得她朴素得像只蛾子,但我知道,灰色外表之下的她,胜过绚烂的七彩虹。
I Still Have My Hand To Play Violin我还有一双可以拉琴的大手
1.If you have ever been to a concert by the violinist Itzhak Perlman, you know that getting on stage is no small achievement for him. He was stricken with polio as a child, and so he has braces on both legs and walks with the aid of two crutches. He walks painfully, yet majestically, until he reaches his chair. Then he sits down, slowly, put his crutches on the floor, undoes the clasps on his legs, tucks one foot back and extends the other foot forward. Then he bends down and picks up his violin, put it under his chin, nods to the conductor and proceeds to play.
2.One day Perlman went on stage to give a concert. The audience sat quietly while he made his way across the stage to his chair. They waited until he was ready to play. But this time something went wrong. Just as he finished the first few bars, one of the strings on his violin broke.
3.People who were there that night thought to themselves: He will either find another violin or else replace the string on this one.
4.But he didn’t. Instead, he waited a moment, closed his eyes then signaled the conductor to begin again. The orchestra began, and he played from where he had left off. He played with overwhelming passion and power and purity.
5.Of course, it is impossible to play a symphonic work with just three strings. But that night Itzhak Perlman refused to know that. You could see him modulating, changing and recomposing the piece in his head. At one point, it sounded like he was de-tuning the strings to get new sounds from them that they had never made before.
6.When he finished, there was an awesome silence in the room. And then people rose and cheered. There was an extraordinary outburst of applause from every corner of the auditorium. He smiled, wiped the sweat from this brow, and then he said, You know, sometimes it is the artists task to find out how much music you can still make with what you have left.
1.如果你曾经参加过小提琴家伊萨克?帕尔曼的音乐会,你就会知道,这对于他而言是一项不小的成就。他从小就受到小儿麻痹症的折磨,所以他的两条腿都戴着假肢,依靠拐杖走路。他走起来非常痛苦,很艰难,走到椅子上以后,他才慢慢地坐下来,把拐杖放到地上,解开腿上的扣子,把一条腿缩回来,再把另一条腿往前伸展,这样才能弯下身子拿起他的小提琴,把它放在下巴下,再向指挥点头示意,开始他的演奏。
2.有一次帕尔曼举行音乐会,当他在舞台上试图走向他的椅子时,舞台下一片寂静。等到他坐到椅子上,观众们才开始有动静。但在演奏中发生了一件意外,帕尔曼刚拉了几下,他琴上的其中一条琴弦断了。
3.那晚,观众们想,他得再找一把小提琴,或者修好他自己的琴。
4.但帕尔曼并没有这么做。他停顿了一会,闭上了眼睛,然后示意指挥继续。乐团开始演奏了,他从之前停下的地方拉起。他的演奏竟具有压倒性的激情、力量和技术。
5.当然,要用三根琴弦弹奏出一首交响乐是不可能的。但那晚的帕尔曼拒绝接受这个事实。人们看见他在头脑中调制、改变、重组了音符。在那一刻,那乐声听起来像是他让琴弦演奏出了人们从未听过的弦律。
6.当他结束演奏的时候,台下是一片充满敬畏的沉默。接着,人们沸腾起来了,狂热地欢呼着。礼堂的每一个角落都传来不平凡的掌手。帕尔曼微笑着,掠去了礼堂的喧嚣,说到:“你们都知道,有时候,在你丢失的音符处继续创造音乐是最好的艺术。”
Beauty 她很美
1.There were sensitivity and a beauty to her that have nothing to do with looks. She was one to be listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart.
2.It is said that the true nature of being is veiled. The labor of words, the expression of art, the seemingly ceaseless buzz that is human thought all have in common the need to get at what really is so. The hope to draw close to and possess the truth of being can be a feverish one. In some cases it can even be fatal, if pleasure is one’s truth and its attainment more important than life itself. In other lives, though, the search for what is truthful gives life.
3.I used to find notes left in the collection basket, beautiful notes about my homilies and about the writer’s thoughts on the daily scriptural readings. The person who penned the notes would add reflections to my thoughts and would always include some quotes from poets and mystics he or she had read and remembered and loved. The notes fascinated me. Here was someone immersed in a search for truth and beauty. Words had been treasured, words that were beautiful. And I felt as if the words somehow delighted in being discovered, for they were obviously very generous to the as yet anonymous writer of the notes. And now this person was in turn learning the secret of sharing them. Beauty so shines when given away. The only truth that exists is, in that sense, free.
4.It was a long time before I met the author of the notes.
5.One Sunday morning, I was told that someone was waiting for me in the office. The young person who answered the rectory door said that it was "the woman who said she left all the notes." When I saw her I was shocked, since I immediately recognized her from church but had no idea that it was she who wrote the notes. She was sitting in a chair in the office with her hands folded in her lap. Her head was bowed and when she raised it to look at me, she could barely smile without pain. Her face was disfigured, and the skin so tight from surgical procedures that smiling or laughing was very difficult for her. She had suffered terribly from treatment to remove the growths that had so marred her face.
6.We chatted for a while that Sunday morning and agreed to meet for lunch later that week.
7.As it turned out we went to lunch several times, and she always wore a hat during the meal. I think that treatments of some sort had caused a lot of her hair to fall out. We shared things about our lives. I told her about my schooling and growing up. She told me that she had worked for years for an insurance company. She never mentioned family, and I did not ask.
8.We spoke of authors we both had read, and it was easy to tell that books are a great love of hers.
9.I have thought about her often over the years and how she struggled in a society that places an incredible premium on looks, class, wealth and all the other fineries of life. She suffered from a disfigurement that cannot be made to look attractive. I know that her condition hurt her deeply.
10.Would her life have been different had she been pretty? Chances are it would have. And yet there were sensitivity and a beauty to her that had nothing to do with looks. She was one to be listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart. Her words came from a wounded but loving heart, very much like all hearts, but she had more of a need to be aware of it, to live with it and learn from it. She possessed a fine-tuned sense of beauty. Her only fear in life was the loss of a friend.
11.How long does it take most of us to reach that level of human growth, if we ever get there? We get so consumed and diminished, worrying about all the things that need improving, we can easily forget to cherish those things that last. Friendship, so rare and so good, just needs our care—maybe even the simple gesture of writing a little note now and then, or the dropping of some beautiful words in a basket, in the hope that such beauty will be shared and taken to heart.
12.The truth of her life was a desire to see beyond the surface for a glimpse of what it is that matters. She found beauty and grace and they befriended her, and showed her what is real.
1.她有着一种与外表无关的灵气和美丽。她的话语轻而易举地征服了人心,她正是我们要聆听的声音。
2.很多人都说人生的真谛是个未知的概念。言词的费力诠释、艺术的着力表现还有人类那似乎永无休止的纷繁思考,三者都苦苦追寻人生的真谛。希望走近以至完全把握存在的真意可以令人十分狂热。有时候,有些人以自己笃信的真理为志趣,追寻真理甚于保全生命,于是就有舍生取义之举。然而,也有另外的一种人生,他们在寻求真谛的过程中灌溉生命。
3.过去,我常常在教堂的心意篮里面发现一些优美的小短文,有些是关于我的布道,有些是作者日常读《圣经》的感想。写这些短文的人不仅对我的一些观点加以反思,同时还会引用一些他/她曾经读过的,令他/她难忘又喜爱的诗人或者神秘主义者的话。我给这些短文迷住了。我看到了一个执着于追寻真与美的人。那珍而重之的字句,优美动人。我还感觉到好像那些字句也乐于让我们发现,它们是那么毫无保留地,慷慨地为这无名氏作者借用,而现在轮到这位无名氏来学习与人分享这些美文的奥秘,分享令美愈加闪耀生辉,在这个意义上说,其实世上唯一的真理是分毫不费的。
4.过了很久我才见到这些短文的作者。
5.一个星期天早上,我被告知有人正在办公室等我。帮我应门的年轻人说是个女人,说留言是她放的。看见她的时候我大吃一惊,因为我马上就认出她是我的教区信徒,只是我一直不知道那些短文是她写的。她坐在办公室的一张椅子上,两手相扣搁在大腿上,低垂着头。在抬头看我的时候,她微笑起来却十分费劲。那是一张破了相的脸,外科手术使她的脸皮绷得紧紧的,笑对她来说也是很困难的。为了去除脸上碍眼的肉瘤她接受了手术治疗,这令她吃尽苦头。
6.那个星期天早上我们聊了一会儿,并决定那个星期再找个时间一起吃顿午饭。
7.后来我们不止吃了一顿午饭,而是好几顿。每次一起吃饭的时候她都戴着帽子。我想可能是她接受的某种治疗使她掉了不少头发。我们分享了各自生活中的点点滴滴。我跟她讲我读书和成长的故事。她告诉我她在一家保险公司里已经工作多年了。她从来没有提过自己的家庭,我也没有问。
8.我们还谈到大家都读过的作家作品,不难发现她非常喜欢看书。
9.这些年我经常想起她,在这个以外表、地位和财富等虚名浮利挂帅的社会中她是怎样一路挺过来的呢?毁掉的容颜使她怎么也无法变得耀眼迷人。我知道这深深地刺痛着她。
10.如果她长得漂亮,她的生命轨迹会不会有所不同呢?有可能。不过她有种独特的灵气和美,与外表完全无关。她的话轻而易举地征服了人心,她正是我们要聆听的声音。她的隽语出于一颗受过伤却充满爱的心,就像所有人的心一样,只不过她比别人更注重对自己心灵的关注、用心去体会生活并从中学习。她拥有一种细腻的美感。她生命里唯一的恐惧就是失去朋友。
11.我们究竟要花多长时间才能达到如此高度的成熟?能否最终达到还是个未知数呢。我们老觉得身心疲惫,怀才不遇,只顾为眼前的不足忧心忡忡,却忘了珍视一些历久常新的东西。友谊珍贵而美好,只需我们用心呵护,有时候简简单单的表示就已经足够了,譬如偶尔写几句话给朋友,或者在篮子里投入一些优美动人的字条,以期大家都能分享,记住美妙的时刻、美好的感觉。
12.她生命的真谛就是要透过事物的表面一睹其真正的本质。她发现了美和上帝的慈爱,而美和慈爱也待她如友,把生命的真谛呈现给她。
Winston Churchill’s Other Life温斯顿?丘吉尔生活侧记
1.My father, Winston Churchill, began his love affair with painting in his 40s, amid disastrous circumstances. As First Lord of the Admiralty in 1915, he was deeply involved in a campaign in the Dardanelles that could have shortened the course of a bloody world war. But when the mission failed, with great loss of life, Churchill paid the price, both publicly and privately. He was removed from the admiralty and effectively sidelined. Overwhelmed by the catastrophe — “I thought he would die of grief,” said his wife, Clementine —he retired with his family to Hoe Farm, a country retreat in Surrey. There, as Churchill later recalled, “The muse of painting came to my rescue!”
2.Wandering in the garden one day, he chanced upon his sister-in-law sketching with watercolors. He watched her for a few minutes, then borrowed her brush and tried his hand. The muse had cast her spell! Churchill soon decided to experiment with oils. Delighted with this distraction from his dark broodings, Clementine rushed off to buy whatever paints she could find.
3.For Churchill, however, the next step seemed difficult as he contemplated with unaccustomed nervousness the blameless whiteness of a new canvas. He started with the sky and later described how “very gingerly I mixed a little blue paint on the palette, and then with infinite precaution made a mark about as big as a bean upon the affronted snow-white shield. At that moment the sound of a motor car was heard in the drive. From this chariot stepped the gifted wife of Sir John Lavery.” “ ‘Painting!’ she declared. ‘But what are you hesitating about? Let me have the brush — the big one.’ Splash into the turpentine, wallop into the blue and the white, frantic flourish on the palette, and then several fierce strokes and slashes of blue on the absolutely cowering canvas.” At that time, John Lavery—a Churchill neighbor and celebrated painter— was tutoring Churchill in his art. Later, Lavery said of his unusual pupil: “Had he chosen painting instead of statesmanship, I believe he would have been a great master with the brush.”
4.In painting, Churchill had discovered a companion with whom he was to walk for the greater part of the years that remained to him. After the war, painting would offer deep solace when, in 1921, the death of the mother was followed two months later by the loss of his and Clementine’s beloved three-year-old daughter, Marigold. Battered by grief, Winston took refuge at the home of friends in Scotland, finding comfort in his painting. He wrote to Clementine: “I went out and painted a beautiful river in the afternoon light with crimson and golden hills in the background. Alas I keep feeling the hurt of the Duckadilly (Marigold’s pet name).”
5.Historians have called the decade after 1929, when the Conservative government fell and Winston was out of office, his wilderness years. Politically he may have been wandering in barren places, a lonely fighter trying to awaken Britain to the menace of Hitler, but artistically that wilderness bore abundant fruit. During these years he often painted in the South of France. Of the 500-odd canvases extant, roughly 250 date from 1930 to 1939. Painting remained a joy to Churchill to the end of his life. “Happy are the painters,” he had written in his book Painting as a Pastime, “for they shall not be lonely. Light and color, peace and hope, will keep them company to the end of the day.”
6.And so it was for my father.
1.我的父亲,温斯顿?丘吉尔,在他四十多岁时开始迷恋上绘画,当时环境异常恶劣。那是在1915年,任海军大臣的他,积极投身于达达尼尔海峡的一场战役中,这场战役本可以缩短那段血雨腥风的世界大战。但由于遭受失败,伤亡惨重,丘吉尔于公于私都付出了代价。他被从海军部调离,实则坐起了冷板凳。 在灾难的折磨下,他的妻子克莱门廷说:“我想他会痛苦而死,”——他携家带口来到萨利郡的一处乡间静居霍?华姆。在那儿,丘吉尔后来回忆道,“是绘画中的冥思拯救了我!”
2.一天他在花园散步时,偶然看到他的弟媳在用水彩作画。他观察了几分钟,然后向她借了画笔并一试身手。他的专注仿佛给他施了魔法!丘吉尔很快就决定试试去画油画。看到他从阴暗的忧郁思中解脱出来,克莱门廷非常开心,她赶忙去买所有能买到的颜料。
3.然而,迈出下一步似乎有些困难,因为丘吉尔看到一块新画布的洁白无暇时感到无所适从和为难。他先从天空画起,非常谨慎地在调色板上加入一点儿蓝色调,然后以万分的小心,在这块被蓄意冒犯的雪白的防护板上点上豌豆大的一笔。这时,传来一阵驾驶机动车的马达声。约翰?拉威利先生才华出众的太太从这辆车中姗然而下。“在画画呀!”她高声说着,“可你还在犹豫什么呢?给我那支笔——那支头号的。”只见松油飞溅,她在蓝白颜料间挥毫泼墨,在调色板上龙飞凤舞,接着在吓得发皱的油画布上用力东戳西捣几下蓝色。那时,约翰?拉威利——丘吉尔的邻居,也是一位有名的画家—正教丘吉尔学画。后来提及他的这位特殊的学生时,拉威利说:“倘若他选择绘画而不是从政,我相信他会是位绘画大师的。”
4.在绘画中,丘吉尔找到了能陪他度过余生大部分时光的知已。战后,在1921年,母亲刚去世两个月,他和克莱门廷就失去了他们深爱着的三岁女儿玛丽戈尔德,这时作画给了他一些安慰。在痛苦的打击下,温斯顿来到苏格兰朋友们的家中以求得安慰,用绘画来解脱自己。他在给克莱门廷的信中说:“我出外画了一条夕阳下美丽的溪流,背后映衬着晚霞的群山。唉,达克迪莉(玛丽戈尔德的昵称)使我的苦痛总是挥之不去。”
5.史学家把1929年后的十年,也就是保守党政府垮台而温斯顿下台的时间,称为他的荒凉岁月。政治上,他一直在举步维艰的处境中徘徊,是一个孤独的勇士在努力唤起受到希特勒威胁的国人,但在艺术上他在那荒凉岁月却硕果累累。这些年他经常在法国南部作画。在现存的500多张油画中,大约250张是1930至1939年间的作品。 绘画给丘吉尔带来了乐趣直到他的人生尽头。在他所著的《画中的消遣》里说:“画家其乐融融,因为他们不会孤独。光与色,和平与希望,会始终伴随他们。”
6.我父亲就是这样一个人。
The Joys Of Writing写作的乐趣
1.The fortunate people in the world—the only really fortunate people in the world,in my mind—are those whose work is also their pleasure. The classis not a large one,not nearly so large as it is often represented to be;and authors are perhaps one of the most important elements in its composition. They enjoy in this respect at least a real harmony of life. To my mind,to be able to make your work your pleasure is the one class distinction in the world worth striving for;and I do not wonder that others are inclined to envy those happy human beings who find their livelihood in the gay effusions of their fancy,to whom every hour of labor is an hour of enjoyment,to whom repose—however necessary—is a tiresome interlude. And even a holiday is almost deprivation. Whether a man writes well or ill,has much to say or little,if he cares about writing at all,he will appreciate the pleasures of composition. To sit at one’s table on a sunny morning,with four clear hours of uninterruptible security,plenty of nice white paper,and a Squeezer pen that is true happiness. The complete absorption of the mind upon an agreeable occupation what more is there than that to desire?What does it matter what happens outside?The House of Commons may do what it likes,and so may the House of Lords. The heathen may rage furiously in every part of the globe. The bottom may be knocked clean out of the American market. Consols may fall and suffragettes may rise. Never mind,for four hours,at any rate,we will draw ourselves from a common,ill-governed,and disorderly world,and with the key of fancy unlock that cupboard where all the good things of the infinite are put away.
2.And speaking of freedom,is not the author free,as few men are free? Is he not secure,as few men are secure? The tools of his industry are so common and so cheap that they have almost ceased to have commercial value. He needs no bulky pile of raw material,no elaborate apparatus,no service of men or animals. He is dependent for his occupation upon no one but himself, and nothing outside him that matters. He is the sovereign of an empire,self-supporting,self-contained. No one can sequestrate his estates. No one can deprive him of his stock in trade;no one can force him to exercise his faculty against his will;no one can prevent him exercising it as he chooses. Thee pen is the great liberator of men and nations. No chains can bind,no poverty can choke,no tariff can re-strict the free play of his mind,and even the “Times” Book Club can only exert a moderately depressing influence upon his rewards. Whether his work is good or bad,so long as he does his best he is happy. I often fortify myself amid the uncertainties and vexations of political life by believing that I possess a line of retreat into a peaceful and fertile country where no rascal can pursue anywhere one need never be dull or idle or even wholly without power. It is then,indeed,that I feel devoutly thankful to have been born fond of writing. It is then,indeed,that I feel grateful to all the brave and generous spirits who,in every age and in every land,have fought to establish the now un-questioned freedom of the pen.
3.And what a noble medium the English language is. It is not possible to write a page without experiencing positive pleasure at the richness and variety,the flexibility and the profoundness of our mother tongue.If an English writer cannot saywhat he has to say in English,and in simple English,depend upon it is probably not worth saying. What a pity it is that English is not more generally studied. I am not going to attack classical education. No one who has the slightest pretension to literary tastes can be insensible to the attraction of Greece and Rome. But I confess our present educational system excites in my mind grave misgivings. I cannot believe that a system is good,or even reasonable,which thrusts upon reluctant and uncomprehending multitudes treasures which can only be appreciated by the privileged and gifted few. To the vast majority of boys who attend our public schools a classical education is from beginning to end one long useless,meaningless rigmarole. If I am told that classes are the best preparation for the study of English,I reply that by far the greater number of students finish their education while this preparatory stage is still incomplete and without deriving any of the benefits which are promised as its result.
4.And even of those who,without being great scholars,attain a certain general acquaintance with the ancient writers,can it really be said that they have also obtained the mastery of English?How many young gentlemen there are from the universities and public schools who can turn a Latin verse with a facility which would make the old Romans squirm in their tombs? How few there are who can construct a few good sentences,or still less a few good paragraphs of plain,correct,and straight forward English. Now,I am a great admirer of the Greeks,although,of course,I have to depend upon what others tell me about them,-and I would like to see our educationists imitate in one respect,at least,the Greek example. How is it that the Greeks made their language the most graceful and compendious mode of expression ever known among men? Did they spend all their time studying the languages which had preceded theirs? Did they explore with tireless persistency the ancient root dialects of the vanished world?Not at all. They only studied Greek. They studied their own language. They loved it,they cherished it,they adorned it,they expanded it,and that is why it survives a model and delight to all posterity. Surely we,whose mother tongue has already won for itself such an unequalled empire over the modern world,can learn this lesson at least from the ancient Greeks and bestow a little care and some proportion of the years of education to the study of a language which is perhaps to play a predominant parting the future progress of mankind.
5.Let us remember the author can always do his best. There is no excuse for him. The great cricketer may be out of form. The general may on the day of decisive battle have a bad toothache or a bad army. The admiral may be seasick as a sufferer I reflect with satisfaction upon that contingency. Caruso may be afflicted with catarrh,or Hacken Schmidt with influenza. As for an orator,it is not enough for him to be able to think well and truly. He must think quickly. Speed is vital to him. Spontaneity is more than ever the hall mark of good speaking. All these varied forces of activity require from the performer the command of the best that is in him at a particular moment which may be fixed by circumstances utterly beyond his control. It is not so with the author. He need never appear in public until he is ready. He can always realise the best that is in him. He is not dependent upon his best moment in any one day. He may group together the best moments of twenty days. There is no excuse for him if he does not do his best. Great is his opportunity;Great also his responsibility. Someone—I forget who—has said: “Words are the only things which last for ever.” That is,to my mind,always a wonderful thought. The most durable structures raised in stone by the strength of man,the mightiest monuments of his power,crumble into dust,while the words spoken with fleeting breath,the passing expression of the unstable fancies of his mind,endure not as echoes of the past,not as mere archaeological curiosities or venerable relics,but with a force and life as new and strong,and sometimes far stronger than when they were first spoken,and leaping across the gulf of three thousand years,they light the world for us today.
1.在我看来,世上幸运的人——世上唯一真正幸运的人,是那些以工作为乐的人。这个阶层的人并不多,还没有人们常说的那样多。也许,作家是其中最重要的组成部分之一。就幸运而言,他们至少享受着生活中真正的和谐美。依我看,能使工作成为乐趣,是世人值得为之奋斗的一种崇高的荣誉;而且,我毫不怀疑别人会羡慕这些幸福的人,因为他们在快乐地喷涌的幻想中找到了生计,对他们来说,每劳动一小时,就是享受一小时,而休息——无论多么有必要——是令人讨厌的插曲,甚至度假也几乎成了一种损失。无论写得好坏,写成多少,只要在意,就可尝到谋章布局的乐趣。在一个阳光明媚的早晨,临桌而坐,整整四个小时不受打扰,有足够数量的雪白稿纸,还有一支“挤压式”妙笔——那才叫真正的幸福。全心全意地投入一项令人愉快的职业——此愿足矣!外面发生什么事又有何妨?下院想干什么就干什么吧,上院也可如此。异教徒可以在全球各地大发作。美国市场可以彻底崩溃。证券可以下跌。女权运动可以兴起。没有关系,不管怎么说,我们有四个小时可以躲开这俗气的、治理不善的、杂乱无章的世界,并且用想象这把钥匙,去开启藏有大千世界一切宝物的小橱。
2.说到自由,既然自由自在的人为数不多,难道作家还不算自由?既然获得安全感的人并不多,难道作家还不算安全?作家作业的工具极为平常,极为便宜,几乎不再有商业价值。他不需要成堆的原材料,不需要精密仪器,不需要有人效犬马之劳。他的职业不靠任何人,只靠自己;除了他自己以外,任何事都无关紧要。他就是一国之君,既自给,又自立。任何人都不能没收他的资产;任何人都不能剥夺他的从业资本;任何人都不能强迫他违心地施展才华;任何人都不能阻止他按自己的选择发挥天赋。他的笔就是人类和各民族的大救星。
他的思想在自由驰骋,任何锁链束缚不住,任何贫困阻挡不住,任何关税限制不住,甚至“泰晤士”图书俱乐部也只能有节制地对他的收获泼一点冷水。无论作品是好是糟,只要已经尽力而为,他就会感到欢快。在变幻无常、扑朔迷离的政坛活动中,我每每以此信念自励:我有一条通向安逸富饶之地的退路,在那里,任何无赖都不能追踪,我永远不必垂头丧气或无可事事,即便没有一丁点权力。确实,在那时,我才为自己生来就爱好写作而真诚地感到欣慰不已;在那时,我才对各个时代、各个国家所有勇敢而慷慨的人充满感激之情,因为他们为确立如今无可争议的写作自由进行了斗争。
3.英语是多么崇高的工具!我们每写下一页,都不可能不对祖国语言的丰富多采、灵巧精深,产生一种实实在在的喜悦。如果一位英国作家不能用英语,不能用简单的英语说出他必须说的话,请诸位相信,那句话也许就不值得说。英语没有更广泛地得到学习是何等的憾事!我不是要攻击古典教育。凡自命对文学有一丁点鉴赏力的人,都不可能对希腊罗马的吸引力无动于衷。但我承认,我国目前的教育制度却使我忧心忡忡。我无法相信这个制度是好的,甚至是合理的,因为它把唯有少数特权人物和天才人物才能欣赏的东西,一古脑儿摆在很不情愿又很不理解的人民大众面前。对公立学校的广大学童来说,古典教育从头至尾都是一些冗长的、毫无用处的和毫无意义的废话。如果有人告诉我,古典课程是学习英语的最好准备,那我就回答说,迄今为止,大批学生已完成了学业,而这个准备阶段却仍然很不完善,未能收到它所保证的任何好处。
4.即使那些无缘成为大学者、但对古代作家有所了解的人,难道可以说他们已经掌握了英语吗?究竟有多少从大学和公学毕业的年轻绅士,能够娴熟地写下一段拉丁诗文,使坟墓中的古罗马人闻之动情?能写出几行佳句的人何其少也!更不要说能用简单的、正确的和练达的英语写出几个精彩段落的人了。不过,我倒是极为仰慕古希腊人——当然我得仰仗别人把他们的情况告诉我——我想见到我们的教育专家至少能在一个方面效法古希腊人。古希腊人是如何使自己的语言,成为人类迄今所知最典雅、最简练的表达方式的呢?他们花毕生时间学习希腊语以前的语言了吗?他们无休无止地坚持探索已消失的世界的原始方言了吗?根本没有!他们只学习希腊语。他们学习自己的语言。他们热爱它,珍惜它,点缀它,发展它,因此,它才能延续下来,成为所有后代人的楷模和乐趣。毫无疑问,对我们来说,既然英语已经为自己在现代世界赢得了如此无与论比的疆域,我们至少能从古希腊人那里学到一条道理,在数年教育中稍微操点心并拨出一些时间,去学习一种也许将在人类未来进步中起到主导作用的语言。
5.让我们都记住,作家永远可以尽最大的努力,他没有任何借口不这样做。板球巨星也许会状态不佳。将军在决战之日也许会牙疼,或者他的部队很糟糕。舰队司令也许会晕船——我作为晕船者满意地想到了那种意外。卡鲁索也许会得黏膜炎,哈肯施米特也许会得流感。至于一位演说家,想得好和想得正确是不够的,他还需想得快。速度至关重要;随机应变越来越成为优秀演说家的标志。所有上述活动都需要行动者在一个特定的时刻倾其所能,而这一时刻也许决定于他完全无法控制的种种事态。作家的情况不一样。不到万事俱备,他永远不必出场。
他永远可以发挥最大的能力。他并不依赖于自己在某一天的最佳一刻,他可以把20天的最佳时刻加起来。他没有理由不尽最大的努力。他的机会很多;他的责任也很重。某人说过——我忘了此君是谁——“话语乃唯一持久不灭之物”。依我看,这永远是绝妙的思想。人类力量的最伟大的杰作,即人类用石块垒起的无比坚固的大厦,也会夷为废墟,而那脱口而出的话语,那思绪起伏时转瞬即逝的表达却延续了下来,但它不是过去的回响,不是纯粹的建筑奇迹或神圣的遗址,它力量依旧,生命依旧,有时候远比初说时更坚强有力,它越过了3000年时光的峡谷,为今天的我们照亮了世界。
I Always Have A Choice我总能选择
1.I believe that I always have a choice. No matter what I’m doing. No matter where I am. No matter what is happening to me. I always have a choice.
2.Today I am sitting at my computer, speaking these words through a microphone. Although I have spent my life typing on a keyboard, I can no longer use my hands. Every day I sit at my computer speaking words instead of typing. In 2003, I was diagnosed with ALS, Lou Gehrig’s Disease. Over time, this disease will weaken and finally destroy every significant muscle in my body. Ultimately, I will be unable to move, to speak, and finally, to breathe. Already, I am largely dependent upon others. So every day I review my choices.
3.Living with ALS seems a bit like going into the witness protection program. Everything I have ever known about myself, how I look, how I act, how I interact with the world, is rapidly and radically changing. And yet, with each change, I still have choice. When I could no longer type with my hands, I knew I could give up writing entirely or go through the arduous process of learning how to use voice recognition software. I’m not a young woman. This took real work. Interestingly, I write more now than ever before.
4.And at an even more practical level, every day I choose not only how I will live, but if I will live. I have no particular religious mandate that forbids contemplating a shorter life, an action that would deny this disease its ultimate expression. But this is where my belief in choice truly finds its power. I can choose to see ALS as nothing more than a death sentence or I can choose to see it as an invitation, an opportunity to learn who I truly am.
5.Even people in the witness protection program must take with them fundamental aspects of themselves which can never change. What are these aspects for me? This is what I learn every day, and so far I have discovered many unique things, but one stands out above the rest. I have discovered in myself an ability to recognize, give, and receive caring in a way far deeper than anything in my life previously. Others have seen this in me as well.
6.I, who have always been an intensely private and independent person, have allowed a wide circle of family and friends into the most intimate parts of my life. Previously, I would have found such a prospect appalling. I might have felt I had no choice but to embrace the assumption that living with ALS means a life of hardship and isolation. Instead, because I believe that I always have a choice, I opened myself to other possibilities. And now the very thing that at first seemed so abhorrent has graced my life with unaccustomed sweetness. It was always there. Only now I have chosen to see it. This sweetness underscores and celebrates my belief that I always have a choice.
1.我相信我总能选择。无论我在做什么,无论我在哪里,无论我发生了什么事情。我总能选择。
2.今天我坐在我的电脑桌边,通过麦克风说了这些话。尽管一直以来我都是用键盘打字,但现在我无法再使用我的手了。现在每天我坐在电脑旁边讲话而不是打字。2003年我被症断患有肌萎缩性侧索硬化症,随着病情的进一步发展,这个病会削弱并破坏我身上的每一块肌肉组织。最终,我将无法行动,说话直至无法呼吸。现在,我的大部分行动都要依靠别人的帮助,因此每天我都在审视我的选择。
3.我被症断患有肌萎缩性侧索硬化症之后的生活,就像受保护的证人一样。我对我自己的一切都很了解,我的样貌,我的行动,我与这个世界的一切互动都发生了巨大的变化,但是,对于这所有的变化,我都有自己的选择权。当我无法再次使用我的双手打字时,我就知道我只能完全放弃手写,要经历艰难的过程去学习如何使用声音辨别软件。我不再是一个年轻的女士了,这对我来说真的要花一番工夫来学习。但有趣的是,现在我比以前写更多的文章了。
4.而且有时间的话,我每天的选择的不仅仅是我将如何生活,而是我是否要活下去。我没有任何的宗教禁忌阻止我思考是否可以提早结束我的生命,这个选择可以使我不必辛苦的撑到病情发展的最后一刻。就在这时,我一直坚信的选择真的起到了十分重要的作用。我可以选择把肌萎缩性侧索硬化症仅仅看作是一个死亡的宣判,我也可以选择将他看作是一个邀请,一个真正认识我自己的机会。
5.即使是每个在证人保护制度下生活的人也都会带着一些他们永不改变的特制。什么东西对我来说是永不改变的呢?这就是我每天学习的东西,到目前为止我已经发现了许多奇特的事情,但最与众不同的事情是我发现自己较之以往更能认识,给予和接受关怀。其他的人也发现我在这方面改变了许多。
6.我以前是一个独来独往,过着十分独立生活的人,更多亲密的亲人和朋友进入我个人最私密的生活圈子会让我感到害怕,得了肌萎缩性侧索硬化症之后,我以为,从此我就只能过着艰难而又与世隔绝的生活。但是,因为我相信我可以选择,我愿意尝试一切可能的生活方式。原先一开始看起来十分可怕的病确使我现在的生活变得异常寻常的幸福。其实幸福的生活一直在我身边,只是我现在才选择去发现它的存在。这种幸福感更加使我坚信:我总能选择。
Broken Wings, Flying Heart翅膀断了,我心飞翔
1.He lost his arms in an accident that claimed his father’s life who was the main source of support for the family. Since then, he has had to depend on the arms of his younger brother. For the sake of taking care of him, his younger brother became his shadow, never leaving him alone for years. Except for writing with his toes, he was completely unable to do anything in his life.
2.One late night, he suffered from diarrhea1 and had to wake up his younger brother. His younger brother accompanied him into the toilet and then went back the dorm to wait. But being so tired, his younger brother fell asleep; leaving him on the toilet for two hours till the teacher on duty discovered him. As the two brothers grew up together, they had their share of problems and they would often quarrel. Then one day, his younger brother wanted to live separate from him, living his own life, as many normal people do. So he was heart-broken and didn’t know what to do.
3.A similar misfortune befell a girl, too. One night her mother, who suffered from chronic2 mental illness disappeared. So her father went out looking for her mother, leaving her alone at home. She tried to prepare meals for her parents, only to overturn the kerosene3 light on the stove, resulting in a fire which took her hands away. Though her elder sister who was studying in another city, showed her willingness to take care of her, she was determined to be completely independent. At school, she always studied hard. Most of all she learned to be self-reliant. Once she wrote the following in her composition: “I am lucky. Though I lost my arms, I still have legs; I am lucky. Though my wings are broken, my heart can still fly.”
4.One day, the boy and the girl were both invited to appear on a television interview program. The boy told the TV host about his uncertain future at being left on his own, whereas the girl was full of enthusiasm for her life. They both were asked to write something on a piece of paper with their toes. The boy wrote: My younger brother’s arms are my arms;while the girl wrote: Broken wings, flying heart.
5.They had both endured the same ordeal4, but their different attitudes determined the nature of their lives. It is true that life is unpredictable5. Disasters can strike at any time. How you handle misfortune when confronted with it, is the true test of your character. If you choose only to complain and escape from the ordeal, it will always follow you wherever you go. But if you decide to be strong, the hardship will turn out to be a fortune on which new hopes will arise.
1.在一次事故中,作为家中顶梁柱的父亲永远地离去了,他也因此失去了双手。从此弟弟的手便成了他的手。为了照顾他,弟弟从小到大总是形影不离地跟在他的身边,他除了学会了用脚趾头写字做作业外,生活上完全不能自理。
2.有一次,他因肠胃不好,半夜起来要上厕所,于是他叫醒了弟弟。弟弟帮着他进了厕所后,就回宿舍躺下了。由于太劳累,弟弟闭上眼就睡着了。结果他在厕所里等了整整两个小时,才被查夜的老师发现。慢慢长大了的两兄弟也有了烦恼和争执,有一天弟弟终于提出要离开他,因为弟弟要和很多正常人一样需要过自己的生活。为此,他很伤心,不知如何是好。
3.无独有偶,另一个女孩也有着同样的遭遇。因为妈妈长期患有精神病,在一天晚上无故出走,爸爸去找妈妈了,家中便只留下她一人。她决定做好饭菜等爸爸妈妈回来吃,却不小心将灶台上的煤油灯打翻,结果双手便被大火夺走了。虽然在外地读书的姐姐愿意照顾她,可倔强的她一定要自己照顾自己。在学校,她不但读书认真,更重要的是她学会了生活自理。她曾在一篇作文里写道:我幸福,虽然断了双手,但我还拥有一双脚;我幸福,虽然翅膀断了,但心也要飞翔……
4.有一天,他们被一家电视台邀请到了演播室。面对主持人,男孩表现出了对前途的迷茫,而女孩则对生活充满了热情。主持人要求他们分别在一张白纸上写一句话。他们分别用脚趾头夹起了笔,男孩写的是:弟弟的手便是我的手。女孩却写下了:翅膀断了,心也要飞翔。
5.他们俩都经受了同样的苦难,但不同的人生态度却决定了其生活的本质。是的,人生多变幻,苦难总是在不知不觉中骤然降临。如何应对苦难,是对你的性格的真正考验。面对苦难,如果选择抱怨与逃避,苦难就永远如影随形;但如果选择坚强,苦难便会化作甘泉,滋润美好的希望。
Colorful Shades Of Gray绚烂的灰色
1.Moths are very ugly creatures. At least that is what I always thought until a reliable source told me otherwise. When I was about five or six years old, my brother Joseph and I stayed overnight at our Aunt Linda’s house, our favorite relative. She spoke to us like adults, and she always had the best stories.
2.Joseph was only four years old, and still afraid of the dark, so Aunt Linda left the door open and the hall light on when she tucked us in to bed. Joe couldn’t sleep, so he just lay there staring at the ceiling. Just as I dozed off to sleep, he woke me up and asked, “Jennie, what are those ugly things near the light?”(I had always liked that he asked me questions because I was older and supposed to know the answers. I didn’t always know the answers, of course, but I could always pretend I did.) He was pointing to the moths fluttering around the hall light. “They’re just moths, go to sleep,” I told him.
3.He wasn’t content with that answer, or the moths near his night light, so the next time my Aunt walked by the door he asked her to make the ugly moths go away. When she asked why, he said simply, “Because they’re ugly and scary, and I don’t like them!” She just laughed, rubbed his head, and said, “Joe just because something is ugly outside doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful inside. Do you know why moths are brown?” Joe just shook his head.
4.“Moths are the most beautiful animals in the animal kingdom. At one time they were more colorful than the butterflies. They have always been helpful, kind, and generous creatures. One day the angels up in heaven were crying. They were sad because it was cloudy and they couldn’t look down upon the people on earth. Their tears fell down to the earth as rain. The sweet little moths hated to see everyone so sad. They decided to make a rainbow. The moths figured that if they asked their cousins, the butterflies, to help, they could all give up just a little bit of their colors and they could make a beautiful rainbow.
5.One of the list moths flew to ask the queen of the butterflies for help. The butterflies were too vain and selfish to give up any of their colors for neither the people nor the angels. So, the moths decided to try to make the rainbow themselves. They beat their wings very hard and the powder on them formed little clouds that the winds smoothed over like glass. Unfortunately, the rainbow wasn’t big enough so the moths kept giving a little more and a little more until the rainbow stretched all the way across the sky. They had given away all their color except brown, which didn’t fit into their beautiful rainbow.
6.Now the once colorful moths were plain and brown. The angels up in heaven saw the rainbow, and became joyous. They smiled and the warmth of their smiles shown down on the earth as sunshine. The warm sunshine made the people on earth happy and they smiled, too. Now every time it rains the baby moths, which still have their colors, spread them across the sky to make more rainbows.”
7.My brother sank off to sleep with that story and hasn’t feared moths since. The story my aunt told us had been gathering dust in the back corners of my brain for years, but recently came back to me.
8.I have a friend named Abigail who always wears gray clothes. She is also one of the most kind and generous people I’ve ever met. When people ask her why she doesn’t wear more colors she just smiles, that smile, and says, “Gray is my color.” She knows herself and she doesn’t compromise that to appease other people. Some may see her as plain like a moth, but I know that underneath the gray, Abigail is every color of the rainbow.
1.飞蛾很难看,这至少是一个可靠的根据告诉我不难看之前的想法。那是我5、6岁的时候。有一次我和和弟弟约瑟夫一起到我们最喜欢的琳达阿姨家玩,并在她家住了一夜。琳达阿姨从不把我们当小孩哄,跟我们说话就像对大人一样。她还总能给我们讲最好听的故事。
2.那年约瑟夫只有4岁,晚上睡觉怕黑,琳达阿姨给我们掖完被子以后,留了一条门缝,让大厅里的灯光能照进房间。约瑟夫睡不着,躺在床上看天花板。我快睡着时他突然推醒我,“珍妮,快看,电灯旁边那些飞来飞去的难看玩意儿是什么呀?”(我一直乐意他问我问题,因为我比他大,当然应该比他懂得多了,即便不懂,也得装模作样地糊弄一番。)他指着围着大厅电灯飞转的蛾子问。“蛾子呗,”我随口敷衍道,“快睡吧。”
3.也许是不满意我的解释,或者是不喜欢围着电灯飞转的那些蛾子,约瑟夫后来在阿姨从房门经过时叫住了她,要她弄走那些难看的蛾子。阿姨问为什么时,他说,“它们好难看,好怕人,我不喜欢它们。”阿姨听后笑着摸着他的头说,“约瑟夫,外表难看的东西内在不一定不美丽哟。你知道蛾子为什么是棕色的吗?” 约瑟夫摇摇头。
4.蛾子是动物王国中最美丽的动物,它们原本比蝴蝶还漂亮呢,它们善良、慷慨、乐于助人。有一天,天堂里的天使哭了。他们很伤心,因为乌云密布,他们看不到地球上的人啦。天使们吧嗒吧嗒落下的眼泪掉到地球上,成了滂沱大雨。善良的蛾子不愿意看到大家这么伤心,决定编织彩虹。它们想,让蝴蝶表哥表姐们也来帮忙,大家同心协力,都来贡献一点自己的颜色,就一定能织出漂亮的彩虹。
5.一只小蛾子飞去向蝴蝶女王求助,可蝴蝶们都很自私,没有一只蝶儿愿意为人类和天使奉献丁点儿颜色。蛾子决定独自编织彩虹,它们拼命扇动、拍打自己的翅膀,五颜六色的粉末飘飞出,形成小小云朵,风儿将它们匀称地吹展成漂亮的弧线。可惜,弧线太小。蛾子们继续扇翅拍打,直至绚烂的彩虹经过天。
6.现在,原本多彩多姿的蛾子素面朝天了,变成棕色了,但天堂里的天使看到彩虹却高兴地笑了,他们温暖的笑容普照大地,变成了阳光。暖融融的阳光让地球人开心,他们也笑了。如今,每当下雨,那刚降生的蛾子依旧绚丽,飞越天空,搭成彩虹。
7.弟弟听着故事,满意地沉沉睡去,从此不再害怕蛾子。阿姨讲的故事早已沉睡于我记忆深处,却被最近的一件事情唤起。
8.我有个朋友叫阿比盖尔,她是我见到过的最善良、慷慨的人之一,爱穿灰色衣服。老有人问她为什么不穿得艳丽些,她总说,“灰色适合我。“她了解自己,她不妥协以取悦他人。或许有人会觉得她朴素得像只蛾子,但我知道,灰色外表之下的阿比盖尔,胜过绚烂的七彩之虹。
Face The Sea, With The Spring Flowers Blossoming.面朝大海,春暖花开
1.From tomorrow on, I will be a happy person;
2.Grooming, chopping, and traveling all over the world.
3.From tomorrow on, I will care foodstuff and vegetables,
4.I have a house, towards the sea, with spring flowers blossoming.
5.From tomorrow on, I will write to each of my dear ones,
6.Telling them of my happiness,
7.What the lightening of blessedness has told me,
8.I will spread it to each of them.
9.And give a warm name for every river and every mountain.
10.Strangers, I will also give you my well-wishing.
11.May you have a brilliant future!
12.May you lovers eventually become spouse!
13.May you enjoy happiness in this earthly world!
14.I only wish to face the sea, with spring flowers blossoming.
1.从明天起,做一个幸福的人
2.喂马,劈柴,周游世界
3.从明天起,关心粮食和蔬菜
4.我有一所房子,面朝大海,春暖花开
5.从明天起,和每一个亲人通信
6.告诉他们我的幸福
7.那幸福的闪电告诉我的
8.我将告诉每一个人
9.给每一条河每一座山取一个温暖的名字
10.陌生人,我也为你祝福
11.愿你有一个灿烂的前程
12.愿你有情人终成眷属
13.愿你在尘世获得幸福
14.我也愿面朝大海,春暖花开
The Closest I’ve Been To Facing Death与死神擦肩
1.When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.
2.Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything—all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure—these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
3.About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.
4.I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.
5.This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept: No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.
6.Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
1.17岁的时候,我读到了一句格言,好像是:“如果你把每一天都当作生命中最后一天去生活的话,肯定有一天你会是正确的。”这句话给我留下了深刻的印象。自那以后,在过去的33年中我每天早晨都会对着镜子问自己:“如果今天是我生命中的最后一天,我会去做今天打算做的那些事吗?”每当答案连续多日都是“不会”的时候,我知道我该做些改变了。
2.提醒自己我即将死去,是帮我做出人生中许多重大抉择的最重要的工具。因为几乎所有的一切——所有他人的期望、荣耀、面子问题和对失败的恐惧——这些在死亡面前都会消失殆尽,留下的是真正重要的东西。提醒自己我将要死去,我认为是避免患得患失的最好办法。你本来就一无所有,没有理由不顺心而为。
3.大约一年前, 我被诊断出得了癌症。我在早晨7点半做了扫描, 扫描结果清楚地显示我的胰腺上长了一个肿瘤。我当时甚至都不知道胰腺是什么东西。医生告诉我,这基本上是一种无法治愈的癌症, 我活在世上的时间不会超过3~6个月。医生劝我回家,安排后事,这是医生让病人等死的婉言。这意味着你要尽量把本来想在未来10年内对孩子们说的话在几个月里说完;意味着你要把一切安排妥当,让你的家人尽可能地轻松一点;意味着你要说“再见”了。
4.诊断结果让我想了一整天。那天晚上晚些时候,我做了活组织切片检查。医生将一个内窥镜从我的喉咙伸进去,通过我的胃, 进入我的肠子, 然后用一根针刺进我的胰腺,在肿瘤上提取了一些细胞。我当时注射了镇定剂,但在场的妻子后来告诉我,医生在显微镜下观察这些细胞的时候,忽然叫了起来, 因为我患的竟然是一种非常罕见的、可以用手术治愈的胰腺癌。我做了手术,现在痊愈了。
5.那是我与死神擦肩而过的一次, 我希望这也是以后几十年最接近死神的一次。以前死亡对于我只是一个有用但抽象的概念,有了这次经历后,我现在可以更加确信地对你们说:没有人愿意死, 即使人们想上天堂, 也不会为了去那里而死。但是死亡是我们每个人共同的归宿,无人幸免。也应该如此,因为死亡很可能是生命惟一最好的发明。它是生命变化更替的推动力。它破旧立新。你们现在是新人,但是不久的将来,你们会慢慢变老,然后被清除掉。我很抱歉这很戏剧性,但事实就是这样。
6.你们的时间很有限, 所以不要把时间浪费在重复他人的生活上。不要受教条的束缚,因为那就意味着你依据别人的思想在生活。不要让他人喋喋不休的意见淹没掉你自己内心的声音。最重要的是, 要勇于听从你内心的直觉。可以说,内心的直觉早已知道你想要成为什么样的人,而其他一切都是次要的。
How Happy Is The Little Stone这颗小石何等幸福
1.How happy is the little Stone
2.How happy is the little Stone
3.That rambles in the Road alone,
4.And doesn’t care about Careers
5.And Exigencies never fears
6.Whose Coat of elemental Brown
7.A passing Universe put on,
8.And independent as the Sun
9.Associates or glows alone
10.Fulfilling absolute Decree
11.In casual simplicity
1.这颗小石何等幸福
2.这颗小石何等幸福
3.独自在路旁漫步
4.它不汲汲于功名
5.也从不为变故担心
6.变幻的宇宙
7.也得被它质朴的棕色外衣
8.它独立不羁如太阳
9.与众辉煌或独自闪光
10.它顺应天意
11.单纯,一味自然
Write Your Life书写你的生命华章
1.Suppose someone gave you a pen—a sealed, solid-colored pen. You couldn’t see how much ink it had. It might run dry after the first few tentative words or last just long enough to create a masterpiece (or several) that would last forever and make a difference in the scheme of things. You don’t know before you begin.
2.Under the rules of the game, you really never know. You have to take a chance! Actually, no rule of the game states you must do anything. Instead of picking up and using the pen, you could leave it on a shelf or in a drawer where it will dry up, unused. But if you do decide to use it, what would you do with it? How would you play the game?
3.Would you plan and plan before you ever wrote a word? Would your plans be so extensive that you never even got to the writing?
4.Or would you take the pen in hand, plunge right in and just do it, struggling to keep up with the twists and turns of the torrents of words that take you where they take you?
5.Would you write cautiously and carefully, as if the pen might run dry the next moment, or would you pretend or believe (or pretend to believe) that the pen will write forever and proceed accordingly?
6.And of what would you write: Of love? Hate? Fun? Misery? Life? Death? Nothing? Everything?
7.Would you write to please just yourself? Or others? Or yourself by writing for others?
8.Would your strokes be tremblingly timid or brilliantly bold? Fancy with a flourish or plain?
9.Would you even write? Once you have the pen, no rule says you have to write. Would you sketch? Scribble? Doodle or draw?
10.Would you stay in or on the lines, or see no lines at all, even if they were there? Or are they? There’s a lot to think about here, isn’t there?
11.Now, suppose someone gave you a life...
1.假如有人给了你一支笔,一支密封的、纯色的水笔,里面有多少墨水你无法看到,很可能刚刚试着写几个字就用干;也可能足以完成一部或几部辉煌之作,流传千古,使世事为之大变。而这一切你在动笔之前无法知晓。
2.根据游戏的规则,你确实永远也不会知道,只能碰碰运气。而事实上,也没有规则阐明你一定要做些什么。你可以不去执笔挥毫,而把笔搁在架子上、放在抽屉里,弃置不用,任墨水蒸发干净。可是,如果你真的决定使用它,你会用来做什么呢?你会怎样来做这个游戏?
3.你会穷思竭虑,计划周全,然后才慢慢下笔吗?你的计划会不会广泛庞杂,根本达不到写作这一步?
4.你会不会提笔在手,迫不及待地投入其中,任由手中的笔、笔下的字引领着你在词海中左突右冲?
5.你会不会小心下笔,似乎生怕墨水随时都有耗尽的危机?会不会假装或相信、或假装相信笔中墨水永不会枯竭,任你神驰?
6.你会写些什么?爱?恨?趣?苦?生?死?虚或实?
7.你是会以写作自娱,还是取悦他人?还是为人写作而愉悦自身?
8.你的一笔一画会颤抖怯懦还是亮丽大胆?花里胡哨还是朴实无华?
9.你确实会去写吗?你一旦有了这支笔,却也没有规则说你一定就要去写。你会粗略描摹?潦潦草草?信手涂鸦?还是认真描画?
10.你会写在线里还是写在线上,或者全然不见?真的有什么线格吗?这其中,有很多东西值得思考,不是吗?
11.那么,假如有人给了你一支生命之笔……
聚合中文网 阅读好时光 www.juhezwn.com
小提示:漏章、缺章、错字过多试试导航栏右上角的源