首届“英文巴士杯”翻译大赛比赛翻译

全国首届《大学英语》杯翻译竞赛原文 Private Eye SueEllicott
【期刊名称】《大学英语》
【年(卷),期】2003(000)004
【摘要】Afer my jewelry was stolen, the policewarned me that I might never get it back. Butthey didn't realize what lengths I'd go to. You wouldn't believe the stolen goods thatgo unclaimed at police dopartments. In the
【总页数】2页(P54-55)
【作者】SueEllicott
【作者单位】无
【正文语种】中文
【中图分类】H315.9
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中西部翻译大赛首届初赛笔译试题及答案(总5页)--本页仅作为文档封面，使用时请直接删除即可----内页可以根据需求调整合适字体及大小--中西部翻译大赛四川赛区首届初赛笔译试题I. Complete the following sentences using the correct form of one the idioms in the column. （2×15=30’）1. 每当我们面临困难的时候，他总是自告奋勇承担风险。

Whenever we are faced with difficulties, he is always the one who offers to _______.2. 明天我要在太岁头上动动土，我要当面质问我的上司为什么不给我增加薪水。

I’m going to ___________ tomorrow, and ask him plainly why he hasn’t increased my salary.3. 有一家航空公司降低票价，其它航空公司通常很快也会步其后尘。

When one airline reduces its ticket prices, the rest usually soon _______4. 当他的生意开始亏损，他就决定溜掉，而不是面对破产。

When his business started to fail, he decided to __________, rather than face financial ruin.5. 你不化妆样子最美，可是你却浓妆艳抹，实在多此一举。

You look at your best without make-up, but you __________ by wearing a lot of cosmetics.6. 失业是我们的主要问题之一，我们需要一个能大胆抓起这个棘手问题的政府。

Unemployment is one of our main problems; we need a government that will __________.7. 你说她怕劳动，确实说到点子上。

The Berenstain Bears and Too Much TVIt was a fine spring day in Bear Country. The blue birds were singing in the sky. The trout were leaping in the river. And except for one small cloud of dust behind the school bus as it came over the hill, the air was very clean.Mama Bear was inside the family’s tree house fixing Brother and Sister Bear’s after-school snack.Brother and Sister Bear got off the school bus and came into the kitchen without even saying hello. Then they did what they did every day: they took their milk and cookies into the living room and switched on the TV.“There’s no question about it,” thought Mama. “Those cubs are watching too much TV!”Later, when Papa Bear came in from his shop and joined Brother and Sister, Mama became even more convinced. “There’s absolutely no question about it. The whole Bear family is watching too much TV!”She wasn’t quite sure how it had happened. Maybe it began when the old unclear black-and-white set broke down and they got a big new colour set. Or maybe it started when Papa put the big antenna up on top of the tree house and brought in pictures from all over Bear Country.But however it had happened, one thing was true – the Bear family was spending more and more time watching television and less and less time with all the other things they might be doing instead.The Bear family had always had lively conversations around the dinner table – but not lately. Lately they just sat around and chewed. The cubs had all kinds of fun playing outdoors. But not anymore. They were too busy watching Nutty Bear and The Bear Stooges.That evening after dinner, when Brother and Sister rushed to turn on the TV, Mama stopped them and said: “We’ve been watching too much television around here!”“But, Mama,” said Brother. “Nutty Bear is coming on and we’ll miss it!”“And The Bear Stooges!” added Sister.“Well, you’ll just have to miss them!” said Mama firmly. “And furthermore,” she added, “you may as well get used to the idea because there’s not going to be any television around here for a whole week!”“No TV for a week?” said the shocked cubs. “But, Mama…”“Never mind the buts,” said Papa. “Your mother is absolutely right. There’s a lot more to life than TV – like homework, for instance. And fresh air and sunshine. And exercise. No TV for a week is an excellent idea…. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a sports show I want to watch.”“Just a moment, Papa,” said Mama. “No TV for a week means you, too.”“What?” said Papa. “You can’t be serious!”But Mama was very serious.“What about the news?” protested Papa. “I won’t know what’s going on in the world if I don’t watch the TV news!”“Here, try this,” said Mama. “It’s called the newspaper.”“And the weather?” continued Papa. “How will we know what the weather will be?”“Try this,” said Mama. “It’s called putting your hand out the window to see if it’s raining.”“What are we supposed to do – just sit around and talk?” asked Brother.“That’ll be fine for starters,” said Mama, settling comfortably into her rocking chair.But it had been so long since the Bear family sat around and talked that they had forgotten how. It really didn’t matter, because pretty soon Papa fell asleep and snored so loudly that they wouldn’t have heard each other anyway.After school the next day, the cubs looked at the TV with longing eyes but Mama told them to go out to play. Brother’s bike had a tire that needed pumping up and Sister’s trike needed a little oil – and while it seemed strange not watching television, it was fun riding bikes and trikes again. Sort of.That evening the cubs worked on their homework. But it wasn’t easy with that blank TV just sitting there. Then Sister noticed an ad in Papa’s newspaper – an ad for a TV special.“Oh, Mama!” she said. “Look! A special!”“No TV for a week means no TV for a week,” answered Mama. “And besides, Mother Nature has a much bigger special waiting for us. We’re going to sit outside and watch the stars come out.”“Watch the stars come out?” complained Sister.“I don’t know if I can stand the excitement,” said Brother.But as they sat out under the great sky, a spell came over the bears. It was all so big and beautiful. The bears stared at the sky. So far, not a single star.“Look!” cried Sister. “Something flying!”“Bats,” said Papa. “Out for their breakfast of insects.”“Breakfast?” asked Brother.“That’s right,” answered Papa.“Bats sleep during the day, so this is their breakfast time.”“I see a star!” cried Sister. She had found the first tiny star.Soon there were others. And after a while the whole sky was full of stars. And it was very special – more special than anything they’d ever seen on TV. It was a sharper picture, too – and a much, much, much bigger screen.The Bear family did all sorts of interesting things over the next few days – so interesting that they hardly thought about TV.They went on a nature walk and watched tadpoles hatch out of eggs. They watched an orb spider spin a magnificent web.They went shopping at the Bear Country Mall. Sister used some of her savings to buy knitting needles and some wool. Brother bought a cube puzzle.They did have to keep an eye on Papa, though. When they were at the mall, the cubs caught Papa in the TV store sneaking a look at a game show. Another time he went downstairs in the middle of the night for a peek at the late-night movie, but Mama and the cubs stopped him just in time.The next evening – it was the last day of their no-TV week – the Bear family was having an exciting conversation at the dinner table. They all agreed that the week had been a success, but Brother had a question.“Mama,” he asked, “what is it you don’t like about TV? What do you have against it?”“Goodness,” said Mama. “I don’t have anything against TV. I like it. What I’m against is the TV habit – sitting in front of it day after day like old stumps waiting for dry rot to set in.”“Well,” said Brother, “tomorrow I’m going to get a whole bunch of snacks and watch TV all day!” “Me, too!” said Sister.“Me, too!” said Papa.But the only one who did watch it all day was Papa. Brother got interested in his cube puzzle and finally solved it. Sister started knitting a scarf.Finally, even Papa had enough. He decided to take out his fishing rod and bait his hook for some of those leaping trout in the river.。

大学英语四级翻译之世界杯球队大巴车身英文标语大学英语四级翻译之世界杯球队大巴车身英文标语，热爱世界杯的球迷们一起来学习一下吧！经过球迷们的踊跃创作和后期投票，国际足联近日公布了巴西世界杯期间32支参赛球队乘坐的大巴车身上将会出现的特色标语(slogans on team buses)。

让我们按照球队的分组来看一看。

Group ABrazil 巴西Brace yourselves! The 6th is coming! 准备好!第六个奖杯来啦!Croatia 克罗地亚With fire in our hearts, for Croatia all as one! 心中烈焰，克罗地亚团结如一!Mexico 墨西哥Always united, always Aztecas 永远团结，永远的阿兹台克Cameroon 喀麦隆A lion remains a lion 雄狮仍是雄狮Group BSpain 西班牙Inside our hearts, the passion of a champion 冠军的激情，深藏我心Netherlands 荷兰Real men wear orange 真正的男人都穿橙色Chile 智利Chi Chi Chi!, Le Le Le! Go Chile 智!智!智!利!利!利!智利加油!Australia 澳大利亚Socceroos: hopping our way into history! 袋鼠国的球员们：让我们跳入史册!Group CColombia 哥伦比亚Here travels a nation, not just a team! 这次来的是一个国家，不止是一支球队!Greece 希腊Heroes play like Greeks 英雄都像希腊人那样踢球Cote d'ivoire 科特迪瓦Elephants charging towards Brazil! 象群，向巴西进发!Japan 日本Samurai, the time has come to fight! 武士们，战斗的时刻到了!Group DUruguay 乌拉圭Three million dreams … let's go Uruguay 三百万人的梦想，乌拉圭加油Costa Rica 哥斯达黎加My passion is football, my strength is my people, my pride is Costa Rica我的激情来自足球，我的力量来自人民，我的荣耀是哥斯达黎加England 英格兰The dream of one team, the heartbeat of millions!! 一队之梦，万人心跳!Italy 意大利Let's paint the Fifa World Cup dream blue 让我们把世界杯的梦想涂成蓝色Group ESwitzerland 瑞士Final stop: 07-13-14 Maracana! 最后一站：2021年7月13日，马拉卡那足球场(决赛所在球场)!Ecuador 厄瓜多尔One commitment, one passion, only one heart, this is for you Ecuador!一份专注，一份热情，只有一个心意，为了厄瓜多尔!France 法国Impossible is not a French word 法语里没有不可能这个词Honduras 洪都拉斯We are one country, one nation, five stars on the heart 一个国家，一个民族，心中五颗星Group FArgentina 阿根廷Not just a team, we are a country 我们不只是一支球队，我们代表一个国家Bosnia and Herzegovina 波黑Dragons in heart, dragons on the field! 龙在心中，龙在场上!Iran 伊朗Honour of Persia 波斯的荣耀Nigeria 尼日利亚Only together we can win 团结才能赢Group GGermany 德国One nation, one team, one dream! 同一个国家，同一支队伍，同一个梦想!Portugal 葡萄牙The past is history, the future is victory 过去已成历史，未来才是胜利Ghana 加纳Black Stars: here to illuminate Brazil 黑星照亮巴西USA 美国United by team, driven by passion 团队携手，热力进发Group HBelgium 比利时Expect the impossible! 期待非凡!Algeria 阿尔及利亚Desert warriors in Brazil 沙漠勇士在巴西Russia 俄罗斯No one can catch us 没人能赶得上我们South Korea 韩国Enjoy it, Reds! 好好享受吧，红魔!。

首届“优萌杯”翻译竞赛试题请将下面文章译成现代英语。

猫说余家苦鼠暴，乞诸人，得一猫，形魁然大，爪牙铦且利。

余私计，鼠暴当不复虑矣。

以其未驯也，絷维以伺，候其驯焉。

群鼠闻其声，相与窥其形，类有能者，恐其噬己也，屏不敢出穴者月余日。

既而以其驯也，遂解其维絷。

适睹出壳鸡雏，鸣啾啾焉，遽起而捕之。

比家人逐得，已下咽矣。

家人欲执而击之，余曰：“勿庸。

物之有能者必有病，噬鸡雏是其病也，独无捕鼠之能乎？”遂释之矣。

已则伈伈（小心恐惧）泯泯（茫茫无知），饥哺饱嬉，一无所为。

群鼠复潜视，以为彼将匿形致己也，犹屏伏不敢出。

既而鼠窥之益熟，觉其无他异，遂历穴相告曰：“彼无为也。

”遂偕其类复出，为暴如故。

余方怪甚，然复有鸡雏过堂下者，又亟往捕之而走，追则啮者过半矣。

余之家人执至前，数之曰：“天之生材不齐，有能者必有病，舍其病，犹可用其能也。

今汝无捕鼠之能，有噬鸡之病，真天下之弃材也哉！”遂笞而放之。

The story of a catMy house is suffering from rampaging rats.Therefore I entreated many people t o get a cat.The cat was in immense shape with sharp paws and teeth.So secretly refle cted I,that no more worriness would the rat rampage entail.Since the cat hath not been tamed,I tied it with a string,fed it,and waited until the day when it would become obedient.Having heard the noise,together the rats pee ped at the cat.Capable the cat seemed like,and on fearing to be swallowed,rats confi ned themselves in the cave for months.After the cat was tamed,I untied its string.The cat happened to see a chirping n ewborn chick all of a sudden,and preyed on it.Not until my servant caught up with th em,already had the cat gulped down the chick.My servant held the cat and was about to slap it.“Do it not,”but I said,“Things with certain talent must own some weak po ints.Hunting chicks is the cat’s weakness.It can’t be just lacking the skill to catch a ra t!”Hence,freed was the cat.Ever since then,cautiously,leisurely,the cat doth nothing but prey when starve d,play when satiated.This time,rats spied on the cat again,believing that it’s only a p retence the cat made to lure them out.So they dare not make a stir or a step out.Befor e long,as rats have got more familiar with the cat,they sensed nothing abnormal.So t hey ran about one cave after another,passing on the message:“The cat is good-for-nothing.”Thereupon,a comeback was summoned in accompany,outrageously like befor e.Just when I felt exceedingly surprised about,a chick passed through the main hall. The cat rapidly ran up to seize the chick and then just left.Only half the chick was re mained when my servant caught up with the cat.He brought the cat to me,resentfully scolding it:“Things are born to have imperfections.Capable beings must hold some d efects.Yet by discarding the weak points,we can still make use of the beneficial ones. Now,thou carry no skill in rat catching,but the proclivity of hunting chicks.Alas!In deed thou art doomed to be abandoned by the world!”The cat was at last whipped and let go.第二届“优萌杯”翻译竞赛将下面两篇短文译成现代英语。

翻译大赛第一届“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛原文及参考译文第一届“《英语世界》杯”翻译大赛原文及参考译文2010年原文Plutoria Avenue By Stephen LeacockThe Mausoleum Club stands on the quietest corner of the best residential street in the city. It is a Grecian building of white stone. Above it are great elm-trees with birds—the most expensive kind of birds—singing in the branches. The street in the softer hours of the morning has an almost reverential quiet. Great motors move drowsily along it, with solitary chauffeurs returning at 10.30 after conveying the earlier of the millionaires to their down-town offices. The sunlight flickers through the elm-trees, illuminating expensive nursemaids wheeling valuable children in little perambulators. Some of the children are worth millions and millions. In Europe, no doubt, you may see in the Unter den Linden Avenue or the Champs Elysées a little prince or princess go past with a chattering military guard to do honour. But that is nothing. It is not half so impressive, in the real sense, as what you may observe every morning on Plutoria Avenue beside the Mausoleum Club in the quietest part of the city. Here you may see a little toddling princess in a rabbit suit who owns fifty distilleries in her own right. There, in a lacquered perambulator, sails past a little hooded head that controls from its cradle an entire New Jersey corporation. The United States attorney-general is suing her as she sits, in a vain attempt to make her dissolve herself into constituent companies. Nearby is a child of four, in a khaki suit, who represents the merger of two trunk line railways. You may meet in the flickered sunlight any number of little princes and princesses for more real than the poor survivals of Europe. Incalculable infants wave their fifty-dollar ivory rattles in an inarticulate greeting to one another. A million dollars of preferred stock laughs merrily in recognition of a majority control going past in a go-cart drawn by an imported nurse. And through it all the sunlight falls through the elm-trees, and the birds sing and the motors hum, so that the whole world as seen from the boulevard of Plutoria Avenue is the very pleasantest place imaginable. Just below Plutoria Avenue, and parallel with it, the trees die out and the brick and stone of the city begins in earnest. Even from the avenue you see the tops of the sky-scraping buildings in the big commercial streets and can hear or almost hear the roar of the elevate railway, earning dividends. And beyond that again the city sinks lower, and is choked and crowded with the tangled streets and little houses of the slums. In fact, if you were to mount to the roof of the Mausoleum Club itself on Plutoris Avenue you could almost see the slums from there. But why should you? And on the other hand, if you never went up on the roof, but only dined inside among the palm-trees, you would never know that the slums existed—which is much better.参考译文普路托利大道李科克著曹明伦译莫索利俱乐部坐落在这座城市最适宜居住的街道最安静的一隅。

江西省首届英语翻译大赛初赛参考译文
江西省首届英语翻译大赛
初步参考译文
一、将下列短文译成汉语（50分）参考译文：
密西西比河上的夏日日出
马克吐温
密西西比河上的夏日日出真的很迷人。

日出之前，一切都很安静，寂静的兴趣笼罩着
四片田野。

远离喧嚣的空灵感不由自主地油然而生。

黎明是宁静的，阴郁的树木是朦胧的；辽阔而松弛的密西西比河依稀可辨；河上的水波静止不动，白雾卷起，挥之不去，令人迷幻；风是悠闲的，树枝是安静的，安静而深沉的，这让人放松而快乐。

在晨曦中，一只鸟
歌唱，一百只鸟和声。

然后，鸟儿发出欢乐的歌声。

听到它的声音，却没有看到它的鸟，
人们似乎在大自然之声的美中徘徊。

等到昕昀烁夜，展现在眼前的便是一幅至柔至美的画卷：身前身后的树木枝繁叶茂，
堆绿叠翠，浓黛浅消。

放眼望去，一英里开外有一个河岬，河岬上的树木淡妆轻抹，仿佛
春天般的娇嫩；远处的和岬则树色隐隐，微茫难辨；地平线尽头的河岬似乎枕在水面上，
像一团迷蒙蒸腾的雾，融入浩渺的水天之中。

广阔的河面好似一面巨大的镜子，淡淡地映
照着丛集的枝叶、曲折的河岸和渐行渐远的河岬，勾勒出一幅生动的画面，轻柔婉转，超
逸绵邈。

太阳慢慢爬上天空，或浅红横涂，或金粉竖抹，或紫霭慢洒，奇异曼妙，难以言传。

这一切，怎能不令人怀想？
一
二、将下列短文译成英语（50分）
翻译：
2。

江西省首届英语翻译大赛决赛试题(2009-9-26)一、将下列短文译成汉语（50分）:A udrey Hepburn, An Elegant SpiritAlthough she was never an ardent follower of any formal religion, my mother’s own faith endured throughout her life: her faith in love, her faith in the miracle of nature, and her faith in the goodness of life. She honored this second chance at life at every opportunity that presented itself and most of all at the end of her life, through her work for UNICEF.Sometimes a near-death experience can free us of the shackles that life slowly trains us to wear. We come to realize what’s worth the sweat and what isn’t. Although she had no memory of her childhood near-death experience, the knowledge of it, coupled with the fertile ground of an already self-effacing nature, were the roots of the humility that graced her entire life.I never heard her say, “I did this,” or “I’ve done that.” Toward the end of her life, throughout the UNICEF years, I would hear her say regularly, as the world listened to her, “I can do very little.” I never heard her say that she liked any of her performances. When people complimented her, she would always shy away and ultimately explain how those who surrounded her were the reason for her success.Bessie Anderson Stanley wrote, “To laugh often and mu ch, to win the respect of intelligent people and affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, this is to have succeeded.”By Ms. Stanley’s standards, my mother’s life was a success: She was graced with good choices. The first choice she made was her career. Then she chose her family. And when we, her children, were grown and had started our lives, she chose the less fortunate children of the world. She chose to give back. In that important choice lay the key to healing and understanding something that had affected her throughout her entire life: the sadness that had always been there.Her choices healed the sadness of a little girl who didn’t know her father for most of her life and yet who yearned and longed for that warm embrace, that reassurance that you are loved and that you matter. When I look back, that is just what she gave to Luca and me: the reassurance that we were loved and that we mattered. This was the most valuable essence, the roots that live and grow forever inside you. She truly was a wonderful mother and friend.二、将下列短文译成英语（50分）:2008年5月12日14时28分，我国发生了震惊世界的四川汶川特大地震，受灾地区人民生命财产和经济社会发展蒙受巨大损失。

At Turtle BayBy E. B. WhiteMosquitoes have arrived with the warm nights, and our bedchamber is their theater under the stars. I have been up and down all night, swinging at them with a face towel dampened at one end to give it authority. This morning I suffer from the lightheadedness that comes from no sleep—a sort of drunkenness, very good for writing because all sense of responsibility for what the words say is gone. Yesterday evening my wife showed up with a few yards of netting, and together we knelt and covered the fireplace with an illusion veil. It looks like a bride. (One of our many theories is that mosquitoes come down chimneys.) I bought a couple of adjustable screens at the hardware store on Third Avenue and they are in place in the windows; but the window sashes in this building are so old and irregular that any mosquito except one suffering from elephantiasis has no difficulty walking into the room through the space between sash and screen. (And then there is the even larger opening between upper sash and lower sash when the lower sash is raised to receive the screen—a space that hardly ever occurs to an apartment dweller but must occur to all mosquitoes.) I also bought a very old air-conditioning machine for twenty-five dollars, a great bargain, and I like this machine.It has almost no effect on the atmosphere of the room, merely chipping the edge off the heat, and it makes a loud grinding noise reminiscent of the subway, so that I can snap off the lights, close my eyes, holding the damp towel at the ready, and imagine, with the first stab, that I am riding in the underground and being pricked by pins wielded by angry girls.Another theory of mine about the Turtle Bay mosquito is that he is swept into one’s bedroom through the air conditioner, riding the cool indraft as an eagle rides a warm updraft. It is a feeble theory, but a man has to entertain theories if he is to while away the hours of sleeplessness. I wanted to buy some old-fashioned bug spray, and went to the store for that purpose, but when I asked the clerk for a Flit gun and some Flit, he gave me a queer look, as though wondering where I had been keeping myself all these years. “We got something a lot stronger than that,” he said, producing a can of stuff that contained chlordane and several other unmentionable chemicals. I told him I couldn’t use it because I was hypersensitive to chlordane. “Gets me right in the liver,” I said, throwing a wild glance at him.The mornings are the pleasantest times in the apartment, exhaustion having set in, the sated mosquitoes at rest on ceiling and walls, sleeping it off, the room a swirl of tortured bedclothes and abandoned garments, the vines in their full leafiness filtering the hard light of day, the air conditionersilent at last, like the mosquitoes. From Third Avenue comes the sound of the mad builders—American cicadas, out in the noonday sun. In the garden the sparrow chants—a desultory second courtship, a subdued passion, in keeping with the great heat, love in summertime, relaxed and languorous. I shall miss this apartment when it is gone; we are quitting it come fall, to turn ourselves out to pasture. Every so often I make an attempt to simplify my life, burning my books behind me, selling the occasional chair, discarding the accumulated miscellany. I have noticed, though, that these purifications of mine—to which my wife submits with cautious grace—have usually led to even greater complexity in the long pull, and I have no doubt this one will, too, for I don’t trust myself in a situation of this sort and suspect that my first act as an old horse will be to set to work improving the pasture. I may even join a pasture-improvement society. The last time I tried to purify myself by fire, I managed to acquire a zoo in the process and am still supporting it and carrying heavy pails of water to the animals, a task that is sometimes beyond my strength.（选自An E. B. White Reader, pp. 198~200, New York Harper & Row, 1966）。

A Garden That Welcomes StrangersBy Allen LacyI do not know what became of her, and I never learned her name. But I feel that I knew her from the garden she had so lovingly made over many decades.The house she lived in lies two miles from mine –a simple, two-story structure with the boxy plan, steeply-pitched roof and unadorned lines that are typical of houses built in the middle of the nineteenth century near the New Jersey shore.Her garden was equally simple. She was not a conventional gardener who did everything by the book, following the common advice to vary her plantings so there would be something in bloom from the first crocus in the spring to the last chrysanthemum in the fall. She had no respect for the rule that says thattall-growing plants belong at the rear of a perennial border, low ones in the front and middle-sized ones in the middle, with occasional exceptions for dramatic accent.In her garden, everything was accent, everything was tall, and the evidence was plain that she loved three kinds of plant and three only: roses, clematisand lilies, intermingled promiscuously to pleasant effect but no apparent design.She grew a dozen sorts of clematis, perhaps 50 plants in all, trained and tied so that they clambered up metal rods, each rod crowned intermittently throughout the summer by a rounded profusion of large blossoms of dark purple, rich crimson, pale lavender, light blue and gleaming white.Her taste in roses was old-fashioned. There wasn’t a single modern hybrid tea rose or floribunda in sight. Instead, she favored the roses of other ages –the York and Lancaster rose, the cabbage rose, the damask and the rugosa rose in several varieties. She propagated her roses herself from cuttings stuck directly in the ground and protected by upended gallon jugs.Lilies, I believe were her greatest love. Except for some Madonna lilies it is impossible to name them, since the wooden flats stood casually here and there in the flower bed, all thickly planted with dark green lily seedlings. The occasional paper tag fluttering from a seed pod with the date and record of a cross showed that she was an amateur hybridizer with some special fondness for lilies of a warm muskmelon shade or a pale lemon yellow.She believed in sharing her garden. By her curb there was a sign: “This is my garden, and you are welcome here. Take whatever you wish with your eyes, but nothing with your hand.”Until five years ago, her garden was always immaculately tended, the lawn kept fertilized and mowed, the flower bed free of weeds, the tall lilies carefully staked. But then something happened. I don’t know what it was, but the lawn was mowed less frequently, then not at all. Tall grass invaded the roses, the clematis, the lilies. The elm tree in her front yard sickened and died, and when a coastal gale struck, the branches that fell were never removed.With every year, the neglect has grown worse. Wild honeysuckle and bittersweet run rampant in the garden. Sumac, ailanthus, poison ivy and other uninvited things threaten the few lilies and clematis and roses that still struggle for survival.Last year the house itself went dead. The front door was padlocked and the windows covered with sheets of plywood. For many months there has been a for sale sign out front, replacing the sign inviting strangers to share her garden.I drive by that house almost daily and have been tempted to load a shovel in my car trunk, stop at her curb and rescue a few lilies from the smotheringthicket of weeds. The laws of trespass and the fact that her house sits across the street from a police station have given me the cowardice to resist temptation. But her garden has reminded me of mortality; gardeners and the gardens they make are fragile things, creatures of time, hostages to chance and to decay.Last week, the for sale sign out front came down and the windows were unboarded. A crew of painters arrived and someone cut down the dead elm tree. This morning there was a moving van in the driveway unloading a swing set, a barbecue grill, a grand piano and a houseful of sensible furniture. A young family is moving into that house.I hope that among their number is a gardener whose special fondness for old roses and clematis and lilies will see to it that all else is put aside until that flower bed is restored to something of its former self.(选自Patterns: A Short Prose Reader, by Mary Lou Conlin, published by Houghton Mifflin Company, 1983.)。