Man errs so long as he strives. (Johann

Wolfgang Goethe)

 

人只要奋斗就会犯错误。（歌德）

丘吉尔（1874-1965），两次担任英国首相。他在文学上造诣很深，1953年获得诺贝尔文学奖。本文是丘吉尔1940年5月13日被任命为首相后在国会上的演说词。

The Flea

BY John Donne

 

Mark but this flea, and mark in

this,   

How little that which thou deniest me

is;   

It sucked me first, and now sucks

thee, 

And in this flea our two bloods mingled

be;   

Thou know’st that this cannot be said 

A sin, nor shame, nor loss of

maidenhead, 

    Yet this enjoys before

it woo, 

    And pampered swells with

one blood made of two, 

    And this, alas, is more

than we would do. 

 

Oh stay, three lives in one flea

spare, 

Where we almost, nay more than married

are.   

This flea is you and I, and this 

Our mariage bed, and marriage temple

is;   

Though parents grudge, and you, w'are

met,   

And cloistered in these living walls of

jet. 

    Though use make you apt

to kill me, 

    Let not to that,

self-murder added be, 

    And sacrilege, three

sins in killing three. 

 

Cruel and sudden, hast thou since 

Purpled thy nail, in blood of

innocence?   

Wherein could this flea guilty be, 

Except in that drop which it sucked from

thee?   

Yet thou triumph’st, and say'st that

thou   

Find’st not thy self, nor me the weaker

now; 

    ’Tis true; then learn

how false, fears be: 

    Just so much honor, when

thou yield’st to me, 

    Will waste, as this

flea’s death took life from thee.

I want to bring out the secrets of nature

and apply them for the happiness of man. I don't know of any better service to

offer for the short time we are in the world. (Thomas Edison)

 

我想揭示大自然的秘密，用来造福人类。我认为，在我们的短暂一生中，最好的贡献莫过于此了。（爱迪生）

瑞纳兹·普赖斯，美国当代著名作家。出生并成长于美国南方，其创作带有明显的南方作家特点，但在写作视野和方法上有很大突破。本文选自其散文集《永恒的谬误》，用质朴生动的语言对人的复杂心理进行了细致入微的探究。

The Landscape Near

an Aerodrome

By Stephen Spender

 

More beautiful and soft than any moth

With burring furred antennae feeling its

huge path

Through dusk, the air-liner with shut-off

engines

Glides over suburbs and the sleeves set

trailing tall

To point the wind. Gently, broadly, she

falls,

Scarcely disturbing charted currents of

air.

 

Lulled by descent, the travellers across

sea

And across feminine land indulging its easy

limbs

In miles of softness, now let their eyes

trained by watching

Penetrate through dusk the outskirts of

this town

Here where industry shows a fraying edge.

Here they may see what is being done.

 

Beyond the winking masthead light

And the landing-ground, they observe the

outposts

Of work: chimneys like lank black fingers

Or figures frightening and mad: and squat

buildings

With their strange air behind trees, like

women's faces

Shattered by grief. Here where few houses

Moan with faint light behind their blinds,

They remark the unhomely sense of

complaint, like a dog

Shut out and shivering at the foreign moon.

 

In the last sweep of love, they pass over

fields

Behind the aerodrome, where boys play all

day

Hacking dead grass: whose cries, like wild

birds

Settle upon the nearest roofs

But soon are hid under the loud city.

 

Then, as they land, they hear the tolling

bell

Reaching across the landscape of hysteria,

To where larger than all the charcoaled

batteries

And imaged towers against that dying sky,

Religion stands, the church blocking the

sun.

For after all, the best thing one can do

when it is raining is let it rain. (Henry Wadsworth Longfellow)

 

毕竟，有时候一个人最能做的事就是随遇而安。（亨利·沃兹沃思·朗费罗）

瑞纳兹·普赖斯，美国当代著名作家。出生并成长于美国南方，其创作带有明显的南方作家特点，但在写作视野和方法上有很大突破。本文选自其散文集《永恒的谬误》，用质朴生动的语言对人的复杂心理进行了细致入微的探究。

Sonnet 54

by Edmund Spenser

 

Of this worlds Theatre in which we stay,

My love lyke the Spectator ydly sits

Beholding me that all the pageants play,

Disguysing diversly my troubled wits.

Sometimes I joy when glad occasion fits,

And mask in myrth lyke to a Comedy:

Soone after when my joy to sorrow flits,

I waile and make my woes a Tragedy.

Yet she, beholding me with constant eye,

Delights not in my merth nor rues my smart:

But when I laugh she mocks, and when I cry

She laughs and hardens evermore her heart.

What then can move her? if nor merth nor

mone,

She is no woman, but a senceless stone.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, and look

to tomorrow. (Charles M. Schulz)

 

学习昨天，活在今天，展望明天。（查尔斯·舒尔茨）