Turning-point of our Life
My father was, I am sure, intended by nature to be a cheerful, kindly man. Until he was thirty-four years old he worked as a farm-hand for a man named Thomas Butterworth whose place lay near the town of Biddable, Ohio. He had then a horse of his own and on Saturday evenings drove into town to spend a few hours in social intercourse with other farm-hands. In town he drank several glasses of beer and stood about in Ben Head's saloon-crowded on Saturday evenings with visiting farm-hands. Songs were sung and glasses thumped on the bar. At ten o'clock my father drove home along a lonely country road, made his horse comfortable for the night and himself went to bed, quite happy in his position in life. He had at that time no notion of trying to rise in the world.
It was in the spring of his thirty-fifth year that father married my mother, then a country schoolteacher, and in the following spring I came wriggling and crying into the world. Something happened to the two people. They became ambitious. The American passion for getting up in the world took possession of them.
It may have been that mother was responsible. Being a schoolteacher she had no doubt read books and magazines. She had, I presume, read of how Garfield, Lincoln, and other Americans rose from poverty to fame and greatness and as I lay beside her---in the days of her lying-in---she may have dreamed that I would some day rule men and cities. At any rate she induced father to give up his place as a farm-hand, sell his horse and embark on an independent enterprise of his own. She was a tall silent woman with a long nose and troubled Grey eyes. For herself she wanted nothing. For father and myself she was incurably ambitious.
【注释】
lying-in:产期，分娩
生活的转折点
舍伍德·安德生
我相信父亲天生就是一个快活、和善的人。他当过农场雇工，在俄亥俄州比德韦尔镇附近为一个名叫托马斯·马特活斯的人干活，一直干到三十四岁。那时他自己有一匹马。星期六晚上，他总要骑着它到镇上去，跟其他雇工们一起聊上几个小时。在镇上，他总泡在本·黑兹酒吧间里，喝上几杯啤酒。每适星期六晚上，酒吧间里总是挤满了前来消遣的雇工，到处是歌声和酒杯碰击酒吧的声音。一到十点，父亲就沿着一条人迹稀少的乡间小道骑马回家。安顿好马以后，自己也就上床睡觉了。他对他所处的地位是相当满意的。那时他还没有要在这个世道上向上爬的念头。
在他三十五岁那年的春天，他和我母亲结婚了。当时母亲是乡村学校的一名教师。第二年春天，我就呱呱坠地了。从那时起，他俩也发生了变化，开始变得雄心勃勃了。美国人的那种要出人头地的强烈欲望占据了他们的心灵。
可能这要怪我母亲。她是一个教师，肯定读过一些书和杂志。我猜想，她读过有关伽菲尔德、林肯和其他一些美国人是怎样从穷苦人变成有声望的伟人的书籍；或许，在她的产期里，她也梦想过躺在她身边的我，有朝一日也会去统治人们和城市。不管怎么说，是她劝说父亲辞掉雇工工作，卖掉那匹马，去从事一项独立的事业。她个子挺高，沉默寡言，长长的鼻子，一双灰眼睛，流露出忧郁的神情。她为她自己并无所求，可为父亲和我，却有着无法遏制的勃勃野心。
【作者简介】
舍伍德·安德生(1876—1941)，美国小说家，著名作品有《俄亥俄州温涅斯堡镇》。本文节选自短篇小说《蛋》。
The Charm
By the time they at last came to speech they were alone in one of the rooms-remarkable for a fine portrait over the chimneyplace-out of which their friends had passed, and the charm of it was that even before they had spoken they had practically arranged with each other to stay behind to talk, The charm, happily, was in other things too-partly in there being scarce a spot at Weathered without something to stay behind for. It was in the way the autumn day looked into the hilt windows as it waned; the way the red light, breaking at the close from under a low somber sky, reached out in a long shaft and played over old wainscots, old tapestry, old gold, old color. It was most of all perhaps in the way she came to him as if ,since she had been turned on to deal with the simpler sort, he might, should he choose to keep the whole thing down, just take her mild attention for a part of her general business. As soon as he heard her voice, however, the gap was filled up and the missing link supplied, the slight irony he divined in her attitude lost its advantage. He almost jumped at it to get there before her. "I met you years and years ago in Rome. I remember all about it." She confessed to disappointment---she had been so sure he didn't; and to prove how well he did he began to pour forth the particular recollections that popped up as he called for them. Her face and her voice, all at his service now, worked the miracle---the impression operating like the torch of a lamplighter who touches into flame, one by one, a long row of gas jets.
妙亨利·詹姆斯
到了他们最后开始对话时，一间屋子里只有他们两个人——壁炉架上着一幅精美的画像，显得很别致——他们的朋友都走出屋子了，妙就妙在他们还没有讲话，实际上双方已约定要留下来谈谈。妙的是妙处不仅于此，部分妙处还在于韦瑟恩德没有一处不是值得留下来的。还妙在秋日西斜，那样照在高高的窗子上；还妙在红霞在低低的、暗淡的上空尽头断裂，化成一长道光泽，在年代悠久的护壁和挂毯上，在陈旧的镶金和色彩上闪动。最最妙的是她向他走来的样子，她既然被用来应付比较简单的游客，如果他想把整个事情遮掩过去，他满可以把她对他的适度的照顾当作她一般职责的一部分。然而，他一听到她的声音，空白就填满了，失去的那一环也补足了，他觉察到她态度中带有的轻微的嘲弄成分也不起作用了。他几乎对她的嘲弄感到欣尉，这样好先开口。“好多好多年前，我在罗马见到过您，这一切我都记得。”她承认她很失望——她一直肯定他不记得了；为了证明他记得清清楚楚，他开始滔滔不绝地讲一桩桩召之即来的具体的回忆。她的脸、她的声音，现在都听从他的使唤，出现了奇迹——其效果就象点灯人所用的火炬，把一长排的煤气喷嘴一个个地点燃了。【作者简介】
亨利·詹姆斯(1843—1916)，美国文学家，后移居伦敦。重要作品有：《美国人》(1877)，《戴西·米勒》(Daisy Miller)等等。本文节先自其小说《丛林中的野兽》。
Nothing but an Assumption
As I walked home in a pensive mood, my vanity got the better of my pity. I could not but highly plume myself on my masterly management in getting rid of Bartleby. Masterly I call it, and such it must appear to any dispassionate thinker. The beauty of my procedure seemed to consist in its perfect quietness. There was no vulgar bullying,no bravado of any sort, no choleric hectoring, and striding to and fro across the apartment, jerking out vehement commands for Bartleby to bundle himself off with his beggarly traps. Nothing of the kind. Without loudly bidding Bartleby depart as an inferior genius might have done I assumed the grown that depart he must; and upon that assumption built all I had to say. The more I thought over my procedure, the more I was charmed with it. Nevertheless, next morning, upon awakening, I had my doubts I had somehow slept off the fumes of vanity. One of the coolest and wisest hours a man has, is just after he awakes
in the morning. My procedure seemed as sagacious as ever but only in theory. How it would prove in practice---there was the rub. It was truly a beautiful thought to have assumed Bartleby's departure; but, after all, that assumption was simply my own, and none of Bartleby's. The great point was, not whether I had assumed that he would quit me, but whether he would repress so to do. He was more a man of preferences than assumptions.
不过是个设想
赫尔曼·梅尔维尔
我走在回家的路上，沉思着，我的虚荣心胜过了怜悯之心。我撵走巴特比，安排得十分高明到家，禁不住自鸣得意起来。我称之为高明到家，任何不带偏见看问题的人也定然抱有同感。整个过程的妙处似乎就在于绝对的心平气和。没有低级庸俗的持强欺弱，没有任何形式的虚张声势，没有怒气冲冲的威胁恐吓，也没有在室内大步踱来踱去，气势汹汹地嚷着，命令巴特比连同他那叫化子般的随身物一同滚蛋。这样的事儿丝毫没有。我没有高声命令巴特比走——才能低下一点的就可能那么干了——我的假设是他非走不可，我讲的每一句话都是以这一假设为依据的。对于这个过程，我越想越觉得陶醉其中了。但是，第二天早晨我一醒就感到怀疑——不知怎的，这一觉睡走了那虚荣心的迷雾。一个人最冷静最明智的时刻就是早晨刚刚醒来以后。我的做法似乎仍象以前一样高超精明——但那只是从理论上讲。实践证明如何呢——定会有冲突。认为巴特比已离去，这确实是一个很美的想法；但这毕竟是我自己的设想，不是巴特比的。根本的问题不在于我是不是假设他愿意离开我，而是他愿不愿这样做。他是一个凭意愿办事的人，而不是一个凭假设办事的人。
【作者简介】
赫尔曼·梅尔维尔(1819—1891)，美国小说家，名作有《莫比—迪克》。本文节选自其小说《缮写员—华尔街的一个故事》。
Under the Power of Nature
During the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung up pressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher . I knew not how it was---but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic , sentiment with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible, I looked upon the scene before me---upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain, upon the bleak walls, upon the vacant eye-like windows, upon a few randy sedges, and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees---with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the afterdream of the reveler upon opium; the bitter lapse into everyday life ,the hideous dropping off of the veil. There was an iciness, a sinking, a sickening of the heart, an unredeemed torture into ought of the sublime. What was it I paused to think what was it that so unnerved me in the contemplation of the House of Usher? It was a mystery all insoluble; nor could I grapple with the shadowy fancies that crowded upon me as I pondered. I was forded to fall back upon the unsatisfactory conclusion, that while, beyond doubt, there are combinations of very simple natural objects which have the power of thus affecting us, still the analysis of this power lies among considerations beyond our depth.
【作者简介】
埃德加·爱伦坡(1809—1849)，美国作家，其诗歌和小说受到推崇。本文节选自其短篇小说《厄谢尔宅第的倒塌》。
在自然威力之下
埃德加·爱伦坡
那年秋天某日，天气阴沉、昏暗而又寂静，云层低压，令人窒息。整整一天，我独自一人策马行进，穿过一条异常沉闷的乡间小路；暮色降临时分，我已经不知不觉来到那幢举目可望的凄凉的厄谢尔宅第这个地方。但是，不知怎的——头一眼望见这幢房子，就被一种令人难以忍受的阴郁窒闷住我的心。我说难以忍受，那是因为即使人们看到最最严峻、荒凉或可怕的自然景象时，头脑里通常还有某种由景象的富有诗意所产生的几分快感，但此情此景却丝毫引不起此种感情。我看着眼前的情景——宅第本身，房子周围单调的景象，光秃秃的墙壁，空空的、眼睛窟窿似的窗户，几丛杂乱的菅茅，几株灰白的枯树——心情十分沮丧，同人世间任何心情相比，把它比作过足鸦片烟瘾的人，从梦幻中醒来，回到现实生活里的痛苦心情，最为适当了。心中一凉，只觉得往下沉，难受极了。还有一种不可驱除的凄凉之感，无论作何设想也不能激起我的兴致。那么，究竟是什么——我停下来考虑——究竟是什么使我在凝望厄谢尔宅第时如此心烦意乱呢?这完全是一个无法解答的谜；在我考虑的时候，我脑海里充满了模模糊糊的想法，却无法弄清是怎么回事。我只好回到那个不能令人满意的结论上来，即：尽管一些非常简单的自然景物结合在一起，也无疑具有影响我们的威力，但要分析这种威力却超过了我们思考的深度。
Accepting The Command of The Army
From A Letter to His Wife, 1775 by George Washington
You may believe me, when I assure you in the most solemn manner that, so far from seeking this employment, I have used every effort in my power to avoid it, not only from my unwillingness to part with you and the family, but from a consciousness of its being a trusty too great for my capacity; and I should enjoy more real happiness in one month with you at home than I have the most distant prespect of finding abroad, if my stay were to be seven times seven years. But as it has been a kind of destiny that has thrown me upon this service, I shall hope that my undertaking it is designed to answer some good purpose...
I shall rely confidently on that Providence which has heretofore preserved and been bountiful to me, not doubting but that I shall return safe to you in the fall. I shall feel no pain from the toil or danger of the campaign; my unhappy pines will flow from the uneasiness I know you will feel from being left alone. I therefore beg that you will summon your whole fortitude, and pass your time as agreeably as possible. Nothing will give me so much sincere satisfaction as to hear this, and to hear it from your own pen.
受命统率全军
乔治·华盛顿
你可以相信我，我极其庄严地向你保证我根本没有追求过这项任命，而是竭尽全力，千方百计地回避它。这不仅是因为我不愿意同你以及全家人分别，而且因为我深知责任重大，非我力所能及。另外，倘若我出门数十载寻求前景非常遥远的幸福，那还比不上在家中与你相聚一个月那样真正幸福。但是，既然命运已赋予我这个使命，我希望，安排我来承担这个任务是为了使我有所建树......
我将信赖一直保佑我和降福于我的上帝，深信到秋天我将平安地回到你身边。对出征所带来的艰辛和危险，我不会感到痛苦；使我难过的是我知道你独自一人留在家中必然感到焦虑不安。因此，我恳求你鼓起全部勇气，尽量愉快地过日子。没有什么比听到你过得愉快的消息——并且是从你的笔下听到这消息，能使我感到更大的欣慰了。
【作者简介】
乔治·华盛顿：出生于1732年2月22日，美国第一届总统（1789年4月－1797年3
月）。
Letter to Lord Chesterfield
February 7,1755 一七五五年二月七日
My Lord:
I have been lately informed, by the proprietor of the World, that two papers, in which my Dictionary is recommended to the Public, were written by your Lordship. To be so distinguished, is an honor, which, being very little accustomed to fervors from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.
When, upon some slight encouragement, I first visited your Lordship, I was overpowered, like the rest of mankind, by the enchantment of your address; and could not forbear to wish that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; －that I might obtain that regard for which I saw the world contending; but I found my attendance so little encouraged, that neither pride nor modesty would suffer me to continue it. When I had once addressed your Lordship in public, I had exhausted all the art of pleasing which a retired and uncourtly scholar can possess.
I had done all that I could; and no man is well pleased to have his all neglected, be it ever so little.
Seven years, my Lord, have now past, since I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulsed from your door; during which time I have been pushing on my work through difficulties, of which it is useless to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of assistance, one word of encouragement, or one smile of fervor. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a Patron before.
The shepherd in Virgule grew at last acquainted with Love, and found him a native of the rocks.
Is not a Patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man struggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my labors, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am solitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want it. I hope it is no very cynical asperity not to confess obligations where no benefit has been received, or to be unwilling that the Public should consider me as owing that to a Patron, which Providence has enabled me to do for myself.
Having carried on my work thus far with so little obligation to any favorer of learning, I shall not be disappointed though I should conclude it, if less be possible, with less; for I have been long wakened from that dream of hope, in which I once boasted myself with so much exultation, my Lord.
Your Lordship's most humble,
most obedient servant,
致切斯特菲尔德伯爵书
塞缪尔·约翰逊
伯爵大人：
"世界杂志"业主最近告诉我，两篇向公众推荐我所编词典的文章是大人的手笔。承蒙如此推崇，不胜荣幸。只是我素来不惯于贵人的恩赐，实在不知该如何领情，或以何言词来答谢。
当初，受到些许鼓励，造访大人时，我一如其余万民百姓，为您富有魅力的谈吐所折服，不禁奢望能自诩"世界征服者的征服者"；——我虽然目睹举世之人为博得大人眷顾，竞相争斗，却仍不免奢望自己或可身受大人关切；不料晋谒之后，竟未得丝毫鼓励，自尊自
惭之心，不容我再次登门。我是个闲散书生，不善奉承，以前当众向大人致意时，实已竭尽了取宠之能事。我已做了所能做的一切；然而倾全力而遭冷遇，世上是决不会有人引以为乐的，即使你所做的微乎其微。
伯爵大人，自我在府上外房恭候，或被拒之门外以来，七年已经逝去；在此期间，我自披斩棘，坚持编纂工作，艰苦备尝，说也无益。而今，词典出版在即，我未领受一次资助，未听到一句鼓励之辞，未看到一丝赞赏的微笑。这类厚赐我本未指望，因为我从不曾有过任何庇护人。
维吉尔笔下的牧童终于认清了爱神，发现他原来是蛮荒野人。
伯爵大人，如果有人在落水者拼死挣扎时袖手旁观，落水者上岸后才给以援手，这样的人可以称为恩人吗?您现在对我的辛勤劳动所表示的关注，倘来得早些，我怎不领情?可惜为时过晚，我已无动于衷，无从消受；我已孓然一身，无法与人共享；况且我已成名，无需大人关注了。我未受恩典，无须承情；上帝助我独立完成工作，我自不愿公众以为有庇护者相助；这总不致被看作刻薄无礼吧!
我未领受任何关怀学术者的恩情，便把工作推进到今日的局面，所以在这项工作行将结束时，自然不会因为丝毫不能得到恩情而感到失望，因为我早已从希望的梦想中清醒过来——在那梦想中我曾一度扬扬自得，自诩为大人您最卑顺的仆人。
塞缪尔·约翰逊
【作者简介】
塞缪尔·约翰逊（1709-1784）：英国散文家、文艺评论家、词典编撰家。