英文名著经典段落

01 Life is a chess-board The chess-board is the world: the pieces are the phenomena of the universe; the rules of the game are what we call the laws of nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. By Thomas Henry Huxley 参考译文 棋盘宛如世界：一个个棋子仿佛世间的种种现象：游戏规则就是我们所称的自然法则。竞争对手藏于暗处，不为我们所见。我们知晓，这位对手向来处事公平，正义凛然，极富耐心。然而，我们也明白，这位对手从不忽视任何错误，或者因为我们的无知而做出一丝让步，所以我们也必须为此付出代价。 02 Best of times It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity; it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us; we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way. Excerpt from A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens 参考译文 这是一个最好的时代，也是一个最坏的时代；这是明智的年代，这是愚昧的年代；这是信任的纪元，这是怀疑的纪元；这是光明的季节，这是黑暗的季节；这是希望的春日，这是失望的冬日；我们面前应有尽有，我们面前一无所有；我们都将直下地狱…… 3​ Equality and Greatness Between persons of equal income there is no social distinction except the distinction of merit. Money is nothing; character, conduct and capacity are everything. Instead of all the workers being leveled down to low wage standards and all the rich leveled up to fashionbale income standards,everybody under a system of equal incomes would find his or her own natural level.There would be great people and ordinary people and little peolpe,but the great would always be those who had done great things,and never the idiot whose mother had spoiled them and whose father had left a hunred thousand a year;and the little would be persons of small minds and mean characters,and not poor persons who had never had a chance.That is why idiots are always in favour of inequality of income(their only chance of eminence),and the really great in favour of equality. 收入相当的人除了品性迥异以外没有社会差别。金钱不能什么；性格，行为，能力才代一切。在收入平等下，每个人将会找到他或她正常的地位，而不是所有的工人被划到应拿低工资阶层，所有的富人被划到应得高收入的阶层。人有卓著伟人，平庸之辈和碌碌小人之别，然伟人总是那些有所建树之人，而非从小深受母亲溺爱，父亲每年留下一大笔钱之人；碌碌小人总是那些心胸狭窄，品德卑劣之人，而不是那些从未获取机会的穷人。愚蠢之众总是赞成收入不平等（他们职能凭借这种机会才能为人所知），而真正伟大之人则主张平等相待，原因就在于此。 04 Great Expectations As the night was fast falling,and as the moon,being past the full,would not rise early,we held a little council:a short one,for clearly our course was to lie by at the first lonely tavern we could find.So,they plied their oars once more,and I looked out for anything like a house.Thus we held on,speaking little,for four or five dull miles.It was very cold,and,a collier coming by us,with her gallery-fire smoking and flaring,looked like a comfortable home.The night was as dark by this time as it would be until morning;and what light we had,seemed to come more from the river than the sky,as the oars in their dipping stuck at a few reflected stars. 天黑得很快，偏巧这天又是下弦月，月亮不会很早升起。我们就稍稍商量了一下，可是也用不着多讨论，因为情况是明摆着的，再划下去我们一遇到冷落的酒店就得投宿。于是他们又使劲打起浆来，我则用心寻找岸上是否隐隐约约有什么房屋的模样。这样又赶了四五英里路，一路上好不气闷，大家简直不说一句话。天气非常冷，一艘煤船从我们近旁驶过，船上厨房里生着火，炊烟缕缕，火光荧荧，在我们看来简直就是个安乐家了。这时夜已透黑，看来就要这样一直黑到天明，我们仅有的一点光亮似乎不是来自天空，而是来自河上，一浆又一浆的，搅动着那寥寥几颗倒映在水里的寒星。 05 The doer of Deeds It is not the critic who counts,not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles,the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arens,whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood;who stives valiantly;who errs,and comes short again and again;because there is not effort without error and shortcoming;but who does actually strive to do the deeds;who knows the great enthusiasms,the great devotions;who spends himself in a worthy cause,who at the best knows in the end the triumphs of high achievement and who at the worst,if he fails,at least fails whiledaring greatly,so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat. 真正令人尊敬的并非那些评论家和那些指出强者是如何跌倒，实干家本该做得更好的人。 荣誉属于那些亲临竞技场，满脸污泥，汗水和鲜血的人。他们不懈努力，他们曾犯过过错，并一再失败。因为付出即意味着犯错和失败。他们满怀激情地努力做事，执着不懈，将生命奉献于崇高的事业。他们为经过艰辛努力最终取得的伟大成就而自豪，如果失败，他们夜败的荣耀。因而，这样的人永远不应与那些不知道胜利，也从未失败过的冷淡而胆怯的灵魂相提并论。 06 American dream To Americans, industriousness, thrift and ambition are possitive values. We encourage our children to be competitive, to get ahead, to make money, to acquire possassion. In games and in business alike, the aim is to win the game, the trorphy, the contract. We go in for laboursaving devices, gadgets, speed and shortcuts. We think every young couple should set up a home of their own. And we pity the couple who must share their home with their parent, let alone with other relatives. Actually, of course, not all Americans hold all these values. And those who do may hold other, and at times controdictary values that affect their ways of behaving. In the main, however,the collective expectation of our society is that these are desirable goals, and the individual, whatever his personal inclination, is under considerable pressure to conform. 07.Shakespeare is above all writers, at least above all modern writers, the poet of nature; the poet that holds up to his readers a faithful mirror of manners and of life. His characters are not modified by the customs of particular places, unpractised by the rest of the world; by the peculiarities of studies or professions, which can operate but upon small numbers; or by the accidents of transient fashions or temporary opinions: they are the genuine progeny of common humanity, such as the world will always supply, and observation will always find. His persons act and speak by the influnce of those general passions and principles by which all minds are agitated, and the whole system of life is continued in motion. In the writings of other poets a character is too often an individual; in those of Shakespeare it is commonly a species. Except from The Major Works by Sammuel Johnson 参考译文 莎士比亚的才华高于一切作家，至少高于当今的所有作家。他是一位自然的诗人，他的作品将人间百态真实地展现在读者眼前。他的人物塑造并不拘泥于只为一部分人所遵循的某个特定地区的习俗，也不局限于一小部分人所从事的特定的研究或职业，也不追随短暂的潮流或暂时的思想观点：他们据有人们一贯具备的、普遍的人性特点。就像世界能永不竭地供应，眼睛能永不停地发现。他笔下人物的一言一行都受那些能够触动所有人的大众化的情感和能使整个生命体系得以延续的普遍原则所影响。在其他诗人的作品中，一个人物往往就是一个个体，而莎翁笔下的人物通常代表着一类人。 08 Heart of a stranger The most loved place, for me, in this country has in fact been many places. It has changed throughout the years, as I and my circumstances have changed. I haven't really lost any of the best places from the past, though. I may no longer inhabit them, but they inhabit me, portions of memory, presences in the mind...My best place at the moment is very different, although I guess it has some of the attributes of that long-ago place. It is a small cedar cabin on the Otonabee river in southern Ontario. I've lived three summers there, writing, birdwatching, riverwatching. I sometimes feel sorry for the people in speedboats who spend their weekends zinging up and down the river at about a million miles an hour. For all they're able to see, the riverbanks might just as well be green concrete and the river itself flowing with molten plastic. By Margaret Laurence 参考译文 在这个国家里我最喜欢的地方其实一直有很多。这些年来，由于我们自己和情况的变迁，我最爱的地方也随着改变。虽然如此，过去我喜爱过的任何一个地方我并没有真正地失去它们。我或许不再居住在那儿，但它们却存在于我的心里，成为我记忆中的片段，时常浮现在脑海中……此刻我最喜爱的地方相当不同，但我想它仍具有和老早的那个地方（即明湖，Clear Lake）相同的某些特质。这个地方是安大略省南方奥托拿比河边的一间松木小屋。我在那儿居住了三个夏天：写作、赏鸟、观河。有时候我为那些来此地度周末，却驾着快艇以极速在河上往来呼啸的人感到难过，因为这些人看见的河岸只不过是绿色的混凝土岸，而河流本身也仿佛只是条闪亮的流动塑料。 09 Thoughts in a grave yard When I look upon the tombs of the great, every emotion of envy dies in me; when I read the epitaphs of the beautiful, even inordinate desire goes out; when I meet with the grief of parents upon a tombstone, my heart melts with compassion; when I see the tomb of the parents of themselves, I consider the vanity of grieving for those who deposed them, when I consider rival wits placed side by side, or the holy men that divided the world with their contests and disputes, I reflect with sorrow and astonishment on the little competitions, factions, and debates of mankind. When I read the several dates of the tombs, of some that died yesterday, and some six hunderd years ago, I consider that great when we shall all of us be contemporaries, and make our appearance together. Excerpt from Westminster Abbey by Joseph Addison 参考译文 当我瞻仰伟人的坟墓，心中所有的嫉妒顿时烟消云散；当我读到伟人的悼文，所有的非分之想顷刻消失殆尽；当我遇见在墓碑旁悲痛欲绝的父母亲，我的心中也满怀同情；当我看到那些父母亲自己的坟墓，我不禁感慨：既然我们很快都要追随逝者的脚步，悲伤又有何用。当我看到国王与那些将他们废黜的人躺在一起，当我想到那些争斗一生的智者，或是那些通过竞争和争执将世界分裂的圣人们被后人并排葬在一起，我对人类的那些微不足道的竞争、内讧和争论感到震惊和悲伤。当我看到一些坟墓上的日期，有的死于昨日，而有的死于六百年前，我不禁想到，有那么一天我们都会在同一个时代同时出现在世人眼前。 10 I have as much soul as you "I tell you I must go!" I retorted, roused to something like passion. "Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you? Do you think I am an automaton?--a machine without feelings? and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched from my lips, and my drop of living water dashed from my cup? Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, and little, I am souless and heartless? You think wrong!--I have as much soul as you,--and full as much heart! And if God had gifted me with some beauty and much wealth, I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, as it is now for me to leave you. I am not talking to you now through the medium of custom, conventionalities, nor evern of mortal flesh;--it is my spirit that adresses your spirit; just as if both has passed through the grave, and we stood at God's feet, equal,--as we are!" Excerpt from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte 参考译文 “我告诉你我非走不可！”我回驳着，感情很有些冲动。“你难道认为，我会留下来甘愿做一个对你来说无足轻重的人？你以为我是一架机器——一架没有感情的机器？能够容忍别人把一口面包从我嘴里抢走，把一滴生命之水从我杯子里泼掉？难道就因为我一贫如洗、默默无闻、长相平庸、个子瘦小，就没有灵魂和心肠了？你想错了！我的心灵跟你一样丰富，我的心胸跟你一样充实！要是上帝赐予我一点姿色和财富，我会使你难以离开我，就像现在我很难离开你一样。我不是根据习俗、常规，甚至也不是血肉之躯同你说话，而是我的灵魂同你的灵魂在对话，就仿佛我们两人穿过坟墓，站在上帝脚下，彼此平等，本来就如此！” 11 Frankness You must study to be frank with the world:frankness is the child of honesty and courage. Say just what you mean to do, on every occasion. If a friend asks a favor, you should grant it, if it is reasonable; if not, tell him plainly why you cannot. You would wrong him and wrong yourself by equivocation of any kind. Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or keep one. The man who requires you to do so is dearly purchased at a sacrifice. Deal kindly but firmly with all your classmates. You will find it the policy which wears best. Above all, do not appear to others what you are not. If you have any fault to find with any one, tell him, not others, of what you complain. There is no more dangerous experiment than that of undertaking to do one thing before a man's face and another behind his back. We should say and do nothing to the injury of any one. It is not only a matter of principle, but also the path of peace and hornor. By Robert E. Lee 参考译文 在世间必须学会以真诚示人：率真乃是诚实与勇敢之子。无论在何种场合，都应该道出自己的真实想法。如果朋友对你有所求，对于合情合理之请，应该欣然同意；不然，应该明明白白地告诉朋友拒绝的理由。任何模棱两可的话语将会让别人误解，也会使自己蒙受冤屈。 千万不要为了结交朋友或者挽留友情而做错一事。对你有这种要求的人也会付出沉重的代价。与同学真心相对，绝不背叛。你将发现这是最有效用的准则。总之，要以真实面目示人。 如果发现某人身有瑕疵，直接告诉他你的意见，而不是诉之他人。人前一套，背后又是一套，没有什么比这更加危机四伏。任何有损他人的言语或者事情我们都应该避免。这不仅是一种做人的原则，而且也是通向平和的人际关系、获得他人尊敬之道。 12 Letter to a Young Friend Letter to a Young Friend Benjamin Franklin My dear friend I know of no Medicine fit to diminish the violent natural inclination you mention; and if I did, I think I should not communicate it to you. Marriage is the proper Remedy. It is the most natural State of man, and therefore the state in which you will find solid Happiness.Your Reason against entering into it at present appears to be not well founded. The Circumstantial Advantages you have in view by Postponing it, are not only uncertain, but they are small in comparison with the Thing itself, the being married and settled. It is the Man and Woman united that makes the complete human Being, Separate she wants his force of Body and Strength of Reason; he her Softness, Sensibility and acute Discernment. Together they are most likely to succeed in the World. A single man has not nearly the value he would have in that State of Union. He is an incomplete Animal.He resembles the odd Half of a Pair of Scissors. If you get a prudent, health wife, your Industry in your Profession, with her good Economy, will be a Fortune sufficient. Your Affectionate Friend 参考译文 给年轻朋友的一封信 本杰明·富兰克林 我知道没有药物能够消除你们所提到的那种疯狂的自然倾向;即使我知道,我想我也不该告诉你.婚姻是适当的药物。它是人类最本能的状态, 因此是一种最幸福的生活状态。你拒绝现在进入婚姻殿堂的理由显的不够充分.你认为推迟婚姻可能存在好处,不仅不一定实现，而且,那些利益跟婚姻本身以及婚后的安定相比起来就微不足道了。男人和女人只有联合起来才能组成完整的人.女人缺乏男人的力量和周密的推理,而男人缺乏女人的温柔、感性和敏锐的洞察力。因此当男人和女人联合起来。就能够无往不胜。单身和离婚生活的男男女女不可能具有婚姻生活中的价值，是一种不完善的动物。他简直好比半把剪刀--孤掌难鸣。 如果你拥有一位健康而谨慎的妻子，你的辛勤工作，加上她的勤俭节约，必定会创造充足的财富。 您真挚的朋友 13 The meaning of life Life is never just being.It is becoming a relentless, flowing on.Our parents live on through us,and we will live on through our children.The institutions we build endure,and we will endure through them.The beauty we fashion cannot be dimmed by death.Our flesh may perish,our hands will wither,but that which they creat in beauty and goodness and truth lives on for all time to come. Don't spend and waste your lives accumulating objects that will only turn to dust and ashes.Pusue not so much the material as the ideal,for ideals alone invest life with meaning and are of enduring worth. Add love to a house and you have a home.Add righteousness to a city and you have a community.Add truth to a pile of red brick and you have a school.Add religion to the hublest of edifices and you have a sanctuary.Add justice to the far-flung round of human endeavor and you have civilization.Put them all together,exalt them above their present imperfections, add to them the vision of humankind redeemed,forever free of need and strife and you have a future lighted with the radiant colors of hope. 14 Love your life Henry David Thoreau/享利.大卫.梭罗 However mean your life is,meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names.It is not so bad as you are.It looks poorest when you are richest.The fault-finder will find faults in paradise.Love your life,poor as it is.You may perhaps have some pleasant,thrilling,glorious hourss,even in a poor-house.The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode;the snow melts before its door as early in the spring.I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there,and have as cheering thoughts,as in a palace.The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any.May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving.Most think that they are above being supported by the town;but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means.which should be more disreputable.Cultivate poverty like a garden herb,like sage.Do not trouble yourself much to get new things,whether clothes or friends,Turn the old,return to them.Things do not change;we change.Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. 不论你的生活如何卑贱，你要面对它生活，不要躲避它，更别用恶言咒骂它。它不像你那样坏。你最富有的时候，倒是看似最穷。爱找缺点的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺点。你要爱你的生活，尽管它贫穷。甚至在一个济贫院里，你也还有愉快、高兴、光荣的时候。夕阳反射在济贫院的窗上，像身在富户人家窗上一样光亮；在那门前，积雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一个从容的人，在哪里也像在皇宫中一样，生活得心满意足而富有愉快的思想。城镇中的穷人，我看，倒往往是过着最独立不羁的生活。也许因为他们很伟大，所以受之无愧。大多数人以为他们是超然的，不靠城镇来支援他们；可是事实上他们是往往利用了不正当的手段来对付生活，他们是毫不超脱的，毋宁是不体面的。视贫穷如园中之花而像圣人一样耕植它吧！不要找新的花样，无论是新的朋友或新的衣服，来麻烦你自己。找旧的，回到那里去。万物不变，是我们在变。你的衣服可以卖掉，但要保留你的思想。 15 Build Me a Son General Douglas A. MacArthur Build me a son, Lord, who will be strong enough to know when he is weak, and brave enough to face himself when he is afraid; one who will be proud and unbending in honest defeat, and humble and gentle in victory. 啊，上帝，请请我造就这样一个儿子，他将坚强足以认识自己的弱点，勇敢得足以面对恐惧，在遇到正当的挫折时能够昂首而不卑躬屈膝，在胜利时能谦逊而不趾高气扬。 Build me a son whose wishbone will not be where his backbone should be; a son who will know Thee and that to know himself is the foundation stone of knowledge. 请给我造就这样一个儿子，他不会用愿望代替行动，将牢记你的教诲――认识自己是认识世界的奠基石。 Lead him I pray, not in the path of ease and comfort, but under the stress and spur of difficulties and challenge. Here let him learn to stand up in the storm; here let him learn compassion for those who fail. 我祈求，请不要把他引上平静安逸的道路，而要把他置于困难和挑战的考验和激励之下，让他学会在暴风雨中挺立，让他学会对那些失败者富于怜悯。 ll be clear, whose goal will be high; a son who will master himself before he seeks to master other men; one who will learn to laugh, yet never forget how to weep; one who will reach into the future, yet never forget the past. 请给我造就这样一个儿子，他将心地洁净，目标高尚；他将在征服别人之前先征服自己，他将拥有未来，但永远不忘记过去。 And after all these things are his, add, I pray, enough of a sense of humor, so that he may always be serious, yet never take himself too seriously. Give him humility, so that he may always remember the simplicity of true greatness, the open mind of true wisdom, the meekness of true strength. Then, I, his father, will dare to whisper "I have not lived in vain". 我祈求，除了上述的一切，请赐他足够的幽默感，这样他可以永远庄重，但不至于盛气凌人；赋他以谦卑的品质，这样他可能永远铭记在心：真正的伟人也要真诚率直，真正的贤人也要虚怀若谷，真正的强者也要温文尔雅。那么，作为他父亲的我就将敢于对人低语：“我这一生没有白过。” 16. The pleasant family When in an hour they crowded into a cab to go home， I strolled idly to my club. I was perhaps a little lonely， and it was with a touch of envy that I thought of the pleasant family life of which I had had a glimpse. They seemed devoted to one another. They had little private jokes of their own which， unintelligible to the outsider， amused them enormously. Perhaps Charles Strickland was dull judged by a standard that demanded above all things verbal scintillation； but his intelligence was adequate to his surroundings， and that is a passport， not only to reasonable success， but still more to happiness. Mrs. Strickland was a charming woman， and she loved him. I pictured their lives， troubled by no untoward adventure， honest， decent， and， by reason of those two upstanding， pleasant children， so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station， not without significance. They would grow old insensibly； they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason， marry in due course —— the one a pretty girl， future mother of healthy children； the other a handsome， manly fellow， obviously a soldier； and at last， prosperous in their dignified retirement， beloved by their descendants， after a happy， not unuseful life， in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. ——Excerpt from the Moon and Sixpennce by W. Somerset Maugham 一个钟头以后，这一家挤上一辆马车回家去了，我也一个人懒散地往俱乐部踱去。我也许感到有一点寂寞，回想我刚才瞥见的这种幸福家庭生活，心里不无艳羡之感。这一家人感情似乎非常融洽。他们说一些外人无从理解的小笑话，笑得要命。如果纯粹从善于辞令这一角度衡量一个人的智慧，也许查理斯。思特里克兰德算不得聪明，但是在他自己的那个环境里，他的智慧还是绰绰有余的，这不仅是事业成功的敲门砖，而且是生活幸福的保障。思特里克兰德太太是一个招人喜爱的女人，她很爱她的丈夫。我想象着这一对夫妻的生活，不受任何灾殃祸变的干扰，诚实、体面，两个孩子更是规矩可爱，肯定会继承和发扬这一家人的地位和传统。在不知不觉间，他们俩的年纪越来越老，儿女却逐渐长大成人，到了一定的年龄，就会结婚成家——一个已经出息成美丽的姑娘，将来还会生育活泼健康的孩子；另一个则是仪表堂堂的男子汉，显然会成为一名军人。最后这一对夫妻告老引退，受到子孙敬爱，过着富足、体面的晚年。他们幸福的一生并未虚度，直到年寿已经很高，才告别了人世。 ——摘自《月亮与六便士》威廉•萨默塞特•毛姆 17 Two views of times Imagine that you spent your whole life at a single house.Each day at the same hour you entered an artificially-lit room,undressed and took up the same position in front of a motion picture camera.It photographed one frame of you per day,every day of your life. On your seventy-second birthday,the reel of film was shown.You saw yourself growing and aging over seventy-two years in less than half an hour(27.4minites at sixteen frames per second). Images of this sort ,though terrifying, are helpful in suggesting unfamiliar but useful perspectives of time. They may ,for example ,symbolize the telescoped ,almost momentary charater of the past as seen through the eyes of an anxious or disa-ffected individual. Or they may suggest the remarkable brevity of our lifes in the cosmic scale of time. If the estimated age of the cosmos were shorted to seventy-two years, a human life would take about ten seconds. But look at time the other way. Each day is a minor eternity of over 86000 seconds. During each second, the number of distinct molecular functions going on with the human body is comparable to the mumber of seconds in the estimated age of the cosmos, A few seconds are long enough for a revolutionary idea, a startling communication, a baby's conception, a wounding insult, a sudden death. Depending on how we think of them, our lives can b