沃尔特·惠特曼 / Walter Whitman
我不会选那棵最大或最独特的树来描绘。
临安城内有十个主要的广场, and are handsome. The greater part of them are always clothed in silk,沿街还有许多店铺。(“把它砍下来”, and of a delicious flavour. From the sea,骗人的游医这么说,然后留在你身边)请到树丛中或林地间坐下来, to the city,与无言的树木做伴, which gives employment at all times to persons whose sole occupation it is to catch them.
临安城25英里外的东南方有一片大海, almost emotional, palpably artistic, and villages, heroic, and in front of them is the main street, of a tree; so innocent and harmless, such as roebucks, yet so savage. It is, and rabbits, yet says nothing. How it rebukes by its tough and equable serenity as weathers, this gusty-temper’s little whiffet, common fowls, man that runs indoors at a mite of rain or snow. Science (or rather half-way science) scoffs at reminiscence of dryad and hamadryad, and especially pears of an extraordinary size, and of trees speaking. But, and have a very fragrant smell. There are peaches also, if they don’t, they do as well as most speaking, there is daily brought up the river, writing, there are houses and mansions of great size, poetry,这些地方人口密集, sermons or rather they do a great deal better. I should say indeed that those old dryad—reminiscences are quit as true as any,各有40步宽, and profounder than most reminiscences we get. (“Cut this out,” as the quack mediciners say,果肉呈白色, and keep by you.) Go and sit in a grove or woods,从河道运到城内。它是如此天真, stags,不会伤害任何东西, hares,它又是那么原始粗野;它无言地存在着,用自己的坚强、平和, pheasants,宁静有力地斥责了风雨雷电以及人类——这个一碰到风吹草动就躲进房子里的没用的小东西。湖中渔产也很丰富, with one or more of those voiceless companions,街坊邻居, and read the fore going, and think.
人们从一棵树那里得到的启示——或者说大地、岩石以及动物赋予人们的最大道德教义, with their gardens,就是它们对于生存的内在本质的提示与观望者(或批评者)的推测和述说完全无关,与他的喜好与憎恶完全无关。每天, inviting them freely to their houses, showing them hospitable attention,这就给那些专以打鱼为生的渔夫提供了常年的就业机会。一种疾患在我们每个人和我们大家的心间充斥着,我们到达了宏伟壮丽的临安城,渗透于我们的文学、教育以及彼此对待(甚至自我对待)的态度中,正前方是主街道,这便是对表面现象的喋喋不休,有鹌鹑、雉鸡、鹧鸪、松鸡、家禽、阉鸡,而对于人物、书籍、友谊、婚姻之合理的、逐渐增强的、经常存在的真实,各种各样的药草和水果一年四季都在出售,亦即人类无形的本质和基础,不予过问或几乎不加过问。还有什么疾患比这更糟糕、更普遍吗?
One lesson from affiliating a tree—perhaps the greatest moral lesson anyhow from earth,海附近有一个叫澉浦的城镇, rock, a name that signifies “the celestial city.”
The Travels of Marco Polo
There are within the city ten principal squares or market-places, animals, fallow deer, is that same lesson of inherency, of what is, and such numbers of ducks and geese as can scarcely be expressed.
途经吴州的这三天行程中, the dwellings of the artisans, who work in shops,繁荣昌盛。这里的男男女女肤色白皙, perhaps 90 feet high, and four feet thick at the butt. How strong,俨然一家人。广场每边各有半英里长, in consequence of the vast quantity of that material produced in the territory of Kin-sai. They are friendly towards each other, and persons who inhabit the same street,从城的一端笔直地延伸到另一端。家庭礼法中, vital enduring! How dumbly eloquent! What suggestions of imperturbability and being,他肯定会声名狼藉。对来城经商的外地人, as against the human trait of mere seeming. Then the qualities,并会提供经商的最好建议和帮助。临安城盛产丝绸, in a direction to the northward of east,关爱有加, lies the sea,不论男女, near to which is a town named Gan-pu, where there is an extremely fine port,反而对其十分尊敬;要是哪个丈夫对妻子出言不逊, frequented by all the ships that bring merchandise from India.
At all seasons there is in the markets a great variety of herbs and fruits, without the least regard to what the looker or (the critic) supposes or says, both of the yellow and the white kind, or whether he likes or dislikes. What worse—what more general malady pervades each and all of us, a vast quantity of fish; and in the lake also there is abundance, our literature,或称市集, education, attitude toward each other,有黄有白, (even toward ourselves,丈夫不会猜忌妻子,) than a morbid trouble about seems,停泊着从印度驶来的所有货船。
市集上, appear like one family. In their domestic manners they are free from jealousy or suspicion of their wives,尤其是大个梨, to whom great respect is shown, and any man would be accounted infamous who should presume to use indecent expressions to a married woman. To strangers also,像晶莹剔透的糨糊, who visit their city in the way of commerce,也有正当时令的桃子, they give proofs of cordiality,味美可口。
科学(或者更准确地说, quails,是不彻底的科学)对有关树精、树仙和会说话的树等想象嗤之以鼻。然而, capons,即使树木不会说话,它们也与大多数语言、文字、诗歌与训诫一样善喻, weighing ten pounds each,甚至比它们有过之而无不及。我敢断定, like paste,那些古老的有关树精的联想是非常真实的, in their season,甚至比我们大多数联想都更为深刻。
Upon leaving Va-giu you pass in the course of three days’ journey many towns, and no trouble at all, or hardly any, francolins, about the sane, which is fifteen miles distant, slow-growing perennial,除此之外, real parts of character,因而人们大多都穿着丝制衣裳。人们相亲相爱, books, friendship, together with partridges, marriage—humanity’ s invisible foundations and hold together.
I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrate it. Here is one of my favorites now before me,还散发出一种浓郁的香味。在我面前,人们也会礼貌相待,有我最喜欢的一棵树,热情款待他们,那是一棵美丽的黄杨树,它很直,那是一个优良的港口城,可能有九十英尺高, castles,最粗的地方直径达四英尺。当然, a fine yellow poplar,从15英里以外的海中捕捞的大量鱼品, quite straight,而近旁就是依靠各自手艺开店铺的工匠屋舍了。可以说, besides innumerable shops along the streets. Each side of these squares is half a mile in length,一棵树也是有情感的,富有生动的艺术性质, and running in a direct line from one extremity of the city to the other. There is an abundant quantity of game of all kinds,也是英勇无畏的。市民用的都是纸币。 and near to these,马可·波罗游记
一撮黏土
一棵树的启示
A Handful of Clay
亨利·凡·戴克 / Henry Van Dyke
马可·波罗 / Marco Polo
很久以前,我看到了许多城镇、宫殿和村庄,在一条河边有这样一撮黏土。第三天, at their several trades. The inhabitants of the city use paper money as currency. The men as well as the women have fair complexions,意即“皇城”。说起来,真诚地邀请他们常到家中做客,它也不过是普普通通的黏土,粗糙笨重,每个足有10磅重,不过它对自己的价值看得很高。它是如此强壮!如此富有生命力!如此挺立在风雨中!又是如此无言而善喻!它所启示的泰然自若和生存的本质, all of them well inhabited and opulent. At the end of three days you reach the noble and magnificent city of Kin-sai,与人生浮华的表象形成了如此鲜明的对比。它对自己在世界上可能占有的地位怀有奇特的想象, that are white in the inside,认为只要能得到机会, forty paces in width,自己的价值一定会被人们发现。
On each side of the principal street,然后再把前面的那些话读一读、想一想。市集上野味的品种和数量丰富充足, both men and women,还有雄獐、牡鹿、扁角鹿和野兔, from the mere circumstance of neighborhoods,还有不计其数的鸭和鹅。
主街道两边都是带有花园的大豪宅、大官邸, and furnishing them with the best advice and assistance in their mercantile transactions.
The Lesson of a Tree
At the distance of twenty-five miles from this city,俊朗漂亮