中英对照英国散文欣赏(一)

（编者注：以下中英对照英国散文选段摘自杨自伍编的《英国散文名篇欣赏》，其中有些译文编者根据自己所好重新作了翻译，目的一是让年轻人知道有这么本好书，也许他们会自己找来阅读；二是让成天钻在英语考题中的初三至高三的同学们了解到：英语中原来还有这么美好的东西，远比他们的练习题和考卷有趣。文章后面摘录的英语单词，只须按一下电子辞典就明白了。）

1. I went out in the afternoon. It was too early in the year for a heavy fall of leaves, but nevertheless the garden was covered. They were washed to the sides of the roads, and lay heaped up over the road-gratings, masses of gorgeous harmonies in red, brown, and yellow. The chestnuts and acorns dropped in showers, and the patter on the gravel was a little weird. The chestnut husks split wide open when they came to the ground, revealing the polished brown of the shy fruit.

(nevertheless, gorgeous, harmony, weird, reveal, polish)

这天下午我信步出门。还不到一年中落叶纷飞的季节，花园却已被枯叶覆盖。它们被雨水冲到路边，堆积在阴沟格栅上，红色的，褐色的，黄色的，一堆堆，一丛丛，既绚丽多彩，又和谐悦目。橡实雨点般纷纷坠下，嗒嗒地拍打在鹅卵石上，给人一种神秘感。栗子的外壳在撞击在地面上时完全绽裂开来，露出油光光羞答答的褐色果肉。

2. I went a little further up the hill: a flock of about fifty sheep were crossing from a field on one side of the road to another directly opposite. They were packed close together, and their backs were an undulating continuous surface. The shepherd was pursuing a stray sheep, and they stood still for a minute in the middle of the road. A farmer came up in his gig and was held back. He used impatient language. Oh farmer! Which is of more importance to the heavenly power---that you should not be stopped, or that the sheep should loiter and go into that field at their own pace? All sheep, by the way, look sad. Perhaps they are dimly aware of their destiny.

(from William White’s “An Afternoon Walk in October”)

(undulate, pursue, impatient, loiter, dimly, destiny)

我继续朝山上走了一段路：只见一群绵羊，大约五十多头，正从路边一块田野穿过大路，走向正对面的另一块田野。它们紧紧地挤在一起，背部构成一片绵延起伏的平面。牧羊人去追赶一头离群的羊，羊群一时停在了大路中间。一个农夫这时架着一辆双轮马车走过来，被挡住了去路。他不耐烦地使用了粗暴的语言。啊，农夫！对于万能的上帝，哪件事情更加重要呢——你不应该被挡住去路，还是羊群应该以它们自己的速度慢悠悠地走向对面那块田野？顺便说一句，羊群里的每一头羊，都是满脸的悲哀神色。也许，它们已经隐隐约约知道自己的命运。

（摘自威廉. 怀特的 “十月的下午散步”）

3. One has the leisure of July for perceiving all the differences of the green of leaves. It is no longer a difference in degrees of maturity, for all the trees have darkened to their final tone, and stand in their differences of character and not of mere date. Almost all the green is grave, not sad and not dull. It has a darkened and daily color, in majestic but not obvious harmony with dark grey skies, and might look, to inconstant eyes, as prosaic after spring as eleven o’clock looks after the dawn.

(from Alice Meynell’s “July”)

(perceive, maturity, obvious, prosaic, inconstant)

七月里人们有闲暇去观察绿叶的千差万别。这不再是成熟程度上的差异，因为所有的树木，或转苍翠，或呈墨绿，色调皆已固着定格，从而展现出来的，并非时节上的不同，而是各自品格上的差异。几乎各种绿色，品味凝重，既不流于悒郁，也不失之沉闷。他具有一种深沉，日常的色泽，与灰暗的苍穹浑然一体，构成庄重却非一眼可见的和谐，故而在浏览扫掠的目光看来，可能会有阳春繁景过后的平淡之感，一如黎明之后十一时的光景。

（摘自艾丽丝. 梅内尔的 “七月”）

（待续）