I don’t know, my friends. Look at the world! How beautiful it is, the sun, the sky, the stars! But to me, it is empty and dead. What a piece of work is a man! How strong and clever, the greatest of God’s animals! But to me, man is uninteresting – and so is woman.

…

To be or not to be, that is the question: to go on living, fighting against this sea of troubles, or to die and end everything? Why be afraid of death? To die is to sleep, no more. Perhaps to dream? Yes, that’s the problem: in that sleep of death, what dreams will come?

Dorothy lived in a small house in Kansas, with Uncle Henry, Aunt Em, and a little black dog called Toto.

There were no trees and no hills in Kansas, and it was often very windy. Sometimes the wind came very fast and very suddenly. That was a cyclone, and it could blow trees and people and buildings away. There were cellars under all the houses. And when a cyclone came, people went down into their cellars and stayed there.

One day Uncle Henry came out and looked up at the sky. Then he ran quickly back into the house.

‘There’s a cyclone coming,’ he called to Aunt Em and Dorothy.‘We must go down into the cellar!’

They ran to the door of the cellar, but Toto was afraid, and he ran under the bed. Dorothy ran after him.

‘Quick!’ shouted Aunt Em from the cellar. ‘Leave the dog and come down into the cellar!’

By William Ernest Henley

Out of the night that covers me

透过覆盖我的夜色

Black as the pit from pole to pole

我看见黑暗层层叠叠

I thank whatever gods may be

我感谢上天赐予我

For my unconquerable soul

不可征服的灵魂

In the fell clutch of circumstance

就算被地狱紧紧拽住

I have not winced nor cried aloud

我也从未退避哀求

Under the bludgeonings of chance

遭受命运的重重打击

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

我满头鲜血，却头颅昂起

Beyond this place of wrath and tear

在愤怒和悲伤的尘世外

Looms but the Horror of the shade

耸立的不过是恐怖的影子

And yet the menace of the years

面对未来的威胁

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid

我无所畏惧

It matters not how strait the gate

无论命运之门多么狭窄

How charged with punishments the scroll

无论承受怎样的惩罚

I am the master of my fate

我是我命运的主宰

I am the captain of my soul

我是我灵魂的统帅

Sudden Light
偶感
Dante Gabriel Rossetti
但丁·加百利·罗塞蒂

I have been here before,
But when or how I cannot tell:
I know the grass beyond the door,
The sweet, keen smell,
The sight sound, the lights around the shore.
说不清何时何故,
我曾来过这个地方;
只知道门前小草青青,
散发浓烈的芳香;
大海涌动叹息的波涛,
岸边闪烁着一片灯光。

You have been mine before, ─
How long ago I may not know:
But just when at that swallow’s soar
Your neck turned so,
Some veil did fall, ─ I knew it all of yore.
你我曾经相亲相爱,
记忆难耐时间太过久长;
一切都如梦似幻,
只记得你回头探望；
犹如轻沙徐徐落地,
恰似燕子款款飞翔。

Has this been thus before?
And shall not thus time’s eddying flight
Still with our lives our love restore
In death’s despite,
And day and night yield one delight once more?
一切如云似雾,
让我顿生幻想;
时光飞转流逝,
能否把生死搁置一旁?
让我们重温旧爱,
把往昔的欢情再次共享?

‘It’s silly, isn’t it, Ellen,’ he muttered, ‘that I have worked all my life to destroy these two families, the Earnshaws and the Lintons. I’ve got their money and their land. Now I can take my final revenge on the last Earnshaw and the last Linton, I no longer want to! There’s a strange change coming in my life. I’m in its shadow. I’m so little interested in daily events that I even forget to eat and drink. I don’t want to see those two, that’s why I don’t care if they spend time together. She only makes me angry. And he looks so like Catherine! But everything reminds me of Catherine! In every cloud, in every tree I see her face! The whole world reminds me that she was here once, and I have lost her!’ … I can’t continue like this! I have to remind myself to breathe – almost to remind my heart to beat! I have a single wish, for something my whole body and heart and brain have wanted for so long! Oh God! It’s a long fight! I wish it were finished!’

——Heathcliff

The Period It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of

wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was

the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair. We had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going

direct the other way ——

in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest

authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative

degree of comparison only.

那是最美好的时代，那是最糟糕的时代；那是智慧的年头，那是愚昧的年头；那是信仰的时期，那是怀疑的时期；那是光明的季节，那是黑暗的季节；那是希望的春天，那是失望的冬天；我们全都在直奔天堂，我们全都在直奔相反的方向——简而言之，那时跟现在非常相象，某些最喧嚣的权威坚持要用形容词的最高级来形容它。说它好，是最高级的；说它不好，也是最高级的。

I went back twelve times, but soon after my twelfth visit there was another terrible storm. The next morning, when I looked out to sea, there was no ship.

When I saw that, I was very unhappy. ‘Why am I alive, and why are all my friends dead?’ I asked myself. ‘What will happen to me now, alone on this island without friends? How can I ever escape from it?’

Then I told myself that I was lucky – lucky to be alive, lucky to have food and tools, lucky to be young and strong. But I knew that my island was somewhere off the coast of South America. Ships did not often come down this coast, and I said to myself, ‘I’m going to be on this island for a long time.’ So, on a long piece of wood, I cut these words :

I CAME HERE ON 30TH SEPTEMBER 1659

After that, I decided to make a cut for each day.

Clenched Soul 

By Pablo Neruda

We have lost even this twilight.

No one saw us this evening hand in hand

while the blue night dropped on the world.

I have seen from my window

the fiesta of sunset in the distant mountain tops.

Sometimes a piece of sun

burned like a coin in my hand.

I remembered you with my soul clenched

in that sadness of mine that you know.

Where were you then?

Who else was there?

Saying what?

Why will the whole of love come on me suddenly

when I am sad and feel you are far away?

The book fell that always closed at twilight

and my blue sweater rolled like a hurt dog at my feet.

Always, always you recede through the evenings

toward the twilight erasing statues.

抽搐的灵魂——巴勃罗·涅鲁达

我们曾错过这暮光。

当蓝色夜幕笼罩世界

无人知晓你我双手相牵。

我曾望向窗外

远处的山顶，有落日的盛宴。

有时候，一缕阳光

像一枚硬币

灼烧我的手心。

一想到你

我的灵魂就抽搐

回忆起我们熟悉的

那抹哀伤。

你在哪儿呢？

身边是谁呢？

在聊什么呢？

为什么所有的爱都在一瞬间汹涌而来

当我在感伤

当我觉得你在远方。

书总在暮光中滑落闭合

我的蓝毛衣，就像受伤的小狗

蜷缩在我脚旁。

你总是，总是在夜色中远去

背影消逝在暮光中。

When I was young,

my homesickness was a small stamp,

I was here,

my mother was there.

After growing up,

my homesickness was a narrow ticket,

I was here,

my bride was there.

Later,

my homesickness was a little tomb,

I was outside,

my mother was inside.

And now,

my homesickness is a shallow strait,

I am here,

the mainland is there.

小时候，

乡愁是一枚小小的邮票，

我在这头，

母亲在那头。

长大后，

乡愁是一张窄窄的船票，

我在这头，

新娘在那头。

后来啊，

乡愁是一方矮矮的坟墓，

我在外头，

母亲在里头。

而现在，

乡愁是一湾浅浅的海峡，

我在这头，

大陆在那头。

海因里希·海涅（1979-1856），德国著名抒情诗人，被誉为“歌德之后的太阳”。这首诗选自《还乡曲》，是海涅最著名的一首抒情诗，写给曾经爱慕的苔雷赛，后被无数作曲家谱曲，传遍遐迩。这首诗一印象派式的直觉写出了挚爱女子的温柔,纯洁,美丽，也含蓄地吐露出诗人内心的情绪。事实上，诗人的着眼点不是爱人的美丽，而是对这种美丽随着时间流逝而如鲜花凋萎的焦虑。他想留住爱人的美丽，只有用祈祷来实现。

   Oh,you are like a flower,

   So fair and pure and blest;

   I gaze at you,and sadness

   Steals softly into my breast.

   I feel I must lay my hands on

   Your forehead with a prayer

   That God in Heaven should keep you

   So blest and pure and fair.

   哦，花一样的你，

   那么美好，纯洁又幸福；

   我凝视着你，悲伤

   轻柔地潜入我的胸膛。

   我想，我得把双手

   放在你的额上祈祷

   愿天国的主保佑你

   永远幸福,纯洁,美好。