讀點好英文:Tulips 郁金香

Tulips 郁金香

Joseph Addison

I chanced to rise very early one particular morning this summer, and took a walk into the country to divert myself among the fields and meadows, while the green was new, and the flowers in their bloom. As at this season of the year every lane is a beautiful walk, and every hedge full of nosegays, I lost myself, with a great deal of pleasure, among several thickets and bushes that were filled with a great variety of birds, and an agreeable confusion of notes, which formed the pleasantest scene in the word to one who had passed a whole winter in noise and smoke. The freshness of the dews that lay upon everything about me, with the cool breath of the morning, which inspired the birds with so many delightful instincts, created in me the same kind of animal pleasure, and made my heart overflow with such secret emotions of joy and satisfaction as are not to be described or accounted for. On this occasion I could not but reflect upon a beautiful simile in Milton:

As one who long in populous city pent

Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air

Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe

?Among the pleasant villages and farms

Adjoin'd from each thing met conceived delight

The smell of grain, or tended grass, or kine

Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound

Those who are conversant in the writings of polite authors receive an additional entertainment from the country, as it revives in their memories those charming descriptions, with which such authors do frequently abound.

I was thinking of the foregoing beautiful simile in Milton, and applying it to myself, when I observed to the windward of me a black cloud, falling to the earth in long trails of rain, which made me betake myself for shelter to a house saw at a little distance from the place where I was walking. As I sat in the porch, I heard the voices of two or three persons, who seemed very earnest in discourse. My curiosity was raised when I heard the names of Alexander the Great and Artaxerxes; and as their talk seemed to run on ancient heroes, I concluded there could not be any secret in it; for which reason thought I might very fairly listen to what they said.

After several parallels between great men, which appeared to me altogether groundless and chimerical, I was surprised to hear one say, that he valued the Black Prince more than the Duke of Venoms. How Duke of Vendos should become a rival of Black Prince, I couldn't conceive; and was more startled when I heard a second affirm, with great vehemence, that if the Emperor of Germany was not going off, he should like him better than either of them. He added, that though the season was so changeable, the Duke of Marlborough was in blooming beauty. I was wondering to myself from whence they had received this odd intelligence: especially when I heard them mention the names of several other great generals, as the Prince of Hess and the King of Sweden, who, they said, were both running away. To which they added, what I entirely agreed with them in, that the Crown of France was very weak, but that the Marshal Villars still kept his colors. At last, one of them told the company, if they would go along with him, he would show them a chimney-sweeper and a painted lady in the same bed, which he was sure would very much please them. The shower which had driven them as well as myself into the house, was now over; and as they were passing by me into the garden, I asked them to let me be one of their company.

The gentleman of the house told me, if I delighted in flowers, it would be worth my while; for that he believed he could show me such a blow of tulips as was not to be matched in the whole country.

I accepted the offer, and immediately found that they had been talking in terms of gardening, and that the kings and generals they had mentioned were only so many tulips, to which the gardeners, according to their usual custom, had given such high titles and appellations of honor.

I was very much pleased and astonished at the glorious show of these gay vegetables, that arose in great profusion on all the banks about us. Sometimes I considered every leaf as an elaborate piece of tissue, in which the threads and fibers were woven together into different configurations, which gave a different coloring to the light as it glanced on the several parts of the surface. Sometimes I considered the whole bed of tulips, according to the notion of the greatest mathematician and philosopher that ever lived, as a multitude of optic instruments, designed for the separating light into all those various colors of which it is composed.

I was awakened out these my philosophical speculations, by observing the company often seemed to laugh at me. I accidentally praised a tulip as one of the finest I ever saw; upon which they told me, it was a common Fool's Coat. Upon that I praised another, which it seems was but another kind of Fool's Coat.

I had the same fate with two or three more, for which reason I desired the owner of the garden to let me know which were the finest of the flower; for that I was so unskillful in the art, that I thought the most beautiful were the most valuable, and that those which had the gayest colours were the most beautiful. The gentleman smiled at my ignorance. He seemed a very plain honest man, and a person of good sense, had not his head been touched with that distemper which Hippocrates calls the Tulippomania; in so much that he would talk very rationally on any subject in the world but a tulip.

He told me, that he valued the bed of flowers which lay before us, and was not above twenty yards in length and two in breadth, more than he would the best hundred acres of land in England, and added, that it would have been worth twice the money it is, if a foolish cook, maid of his had not almost ruined him in the last winter, by mistaking a handful of tulip roots for a heap of onions, and "by that means," said he, "made me a dish of pottage that cost me above thousand pounds sterling." He then showed me what he thought the finest of his tulips, which I found received all their value from their rarity, and oddness, and put me in mind of our great fortunes, which are not always the greatest beauties.

I have often looked upon it as a piece of happiness, that I have never fallen into any of these fantastical tastes, nor esteemed anything the more for its being the uncommon and hard to be met with, For this reason I look upon the whole country in springtime as a spacious garden, and make as many visits to a spot of daisies or a bank of violets, as a florist does to his borders or parterres. There is not a bush in blossom within a mile of me, which I am not acquainted with, nor scarce a daffodil of cowslip that withers away in my neighborhood without my missing it, I walked home in this temper of mind through several fields and meadows with hand unspeakable pleasure, not without reflecting on the bounty of Providence which has made the most pleasing and most beautiful objects the most ordinary and most common.

郁金香

［英］約瑟夫·艾迪生

今年夏天的一個清晨，我碰巧起得很早。于是，便跑去鄉(xiāng)間散步，希望能在綠草叢中和田野間得到一份安逸。夏天，正是綠草芬芳，百花綻放的季節(jié)。每年一到這個時節(jié)，任何一條小路都是一片美妙的景色，任何一道籬笆上都點綴著鮮花。四周滿是叢生的灌木，我快樂地沉浸在鳥兒委婉動聽的歌唱聲中。我已經(jīng)在嘈雜和濃煙中熬過了整整一個冬天，眼前的景色可謂是人間仙境。清新的露水灑落在世間萬物上（包括我），還有那清爽宜人的清晨空氣，周圍的一切不但讓鳥兒煥發(fā)出歡快的本性，也讓我感到絲絲喜悅，內(nèi)心深處充溢著一種神秘的、無以言表的滿足與快樂。在這樣的情景下，我總是不由地想起彌爾頓詩句中那個精妙的比喻：猶如長久禁錮于躁動的市井之人，擇夏日的一個清晨，步出城墻，步出林立的房屋，步出水天污濁，吐納于宜人的田間村舍。鄉(xiāng)間萬物孕育著樂趣，谷物、干草、黃牛、牛乳，每一處農(nóng)家美景，每一處鄉(xiāng)間樂賦。

那些熟悉這些名人佳作的人，在他們的腦海里總能浮現(xiàn)名人筆下反復出現(xiàn)的嬌媚景色，因此他們更能從鄉(xiāng)間美景中獲得一份意外的樂趣。

正當我獨自品味著彌爾頓的詩句時，忽然發(fā)現(xiàn)迎面飄來一團烏云，剎那間綿長的雨絲急墜而下。我趕忙起身，舉目四望，向不遠處的一座農(nóng)舍跑去。當我坐在門廊中時，聽到兩三個人談話的聲音。他們似乎正在十分認真地爭論著什么。聽他們提到亞歷山大大帝和阿塔克西斯的名字，我的好奇心立即被吸引了出來。因為他們爭論的好像是古代英雄和偉人，我想里面應該不會有任何秘密。想到這兒，我想或許可以仔細地聽一下他們的談話。

他們先是比較了幾個偉人。在我看來，這種比較根本毫無根據(jù)，純屬虛構。我十分詫異地聽到其中一個人說，他認為黑色王子遠比旺多姆公爵好得多。旺多姆公爵和黑色王子怎么能作比較呢？我感到非常不解。然后，我又聽到第二個人斬釘截鐵地說，如果德國皇帝不退位的話，那么他就最推崇德國皇帝。聽到這里，我更是驚嘆不已。這個人又補充說，盡管歲月如流水，但馬爾伯勒公爵始終是風流倜儻。他們從哪里知道的這些謬論，我絞盡腦汁也想不明白。還有比這更荒謬的：他們還談到了幾位將軍，其中就有黑森王子和瑞典國王，他們說這兩個人現(xiàn)在正在逃亡中。后來他們所說的，我是完全同意的。他們提到法國國王身體虛弱，維拉爾元帥卻仍舊精神飽滿。最后，他們當中的一個人說，如果大家同意跟他一起去，他會叫他們看到一個掃煙囪的人和一個美麗的少女“同床共枕”。他確信，這樣的場景一定會令大家非常開心。我和他們都是跑到這家農(nóng)舍來避雨的，此時大雨已經(jīng)停了。當他們從我身旁經(jīng)過，朝花園走去的時候，我便要求加入到他們的隊伍之中。

農(nóng)舍的主人對我說，如果我對花感興趣的話，很值得去花園看一看。因為他相信，他讓我看的那片郁金香，在全國都找不出可以與之媲美的。

我接受了他的邀請，也馬上明白剛才那幾個人談論的是園藝。他們所說的國王、將帥全是郁金香的名字。花匠們按照習慣做法賦予那些花頭銜或稱號。

看到花團錦簇的美妙畫面，我真是又驚又喜。一壟一壟的花兒，密密麻麻地將我籠罩。一時間，我覺得每一片葉子都變成一方精美別致的薄紗，經(jīng)緯交錯，形成一幅幅千嬌百媚的畫卷。陽光照在薄紗不同的角落上，葉子便映出五彩斑斕的色彩。有時我覺得，這大片的郁金香，在曾經(jīng)最偉大的數(shù)學家和哲學家看來，就是由眾多的光學儀器把光線分散成為的各種不同的顏色。

意識到大家似乎一直在嘲笑我，我這才從陶醉中清醒過來。我贊美一朵郁金香，認為它是世界上最美麗的花朵。但他們卻出乎意料地告訴我，那僅僅是最普通的“愚人衣”。然后，我又去贊美另一朵，但那朵花好像也屬于“愚人衣”。

贊美其他兩三朵花時，我遇到了相同的情況。于是，我懇求花園的主人告訴我，哪些是最好的花。因為我對花一知半解，一直以為最美的就是最有價值的，最鮮艷的就是最美的?？吹轿疫@樣，主人只是一笑了之。他看上去是位單純老實的人，有較高的品位，頭腦也很理智。除了郁金香，他可以理性地談論世間的任何事物。

他告訴我，他自己特別珍惜我們面前的那個花壇。雖然那個花壇不足20碼長，寬也不足2碼，但是即使有人用英國最肥沃的百畝良田來換，他也堅決不換。他又補充說，去年冬天，要不是他的一個愚蠢的廚娘誤把一堆郁金香球莖當成了洋蔥做了湯，差點要了他的命，否則，這個花壇的價錢至少是現(xiàn)在的兩倍。他說：“廚娘做的那碗湯，花了我整整一千多英鎊?！彼S后又給我看了他心目中最好的郁金香。我覺得那些郁金香珍貴的原因，主要是稀有，形態(tài)也非常奇異。由此我想到，不論我們有多少財富，都沒有什么可珍貴的。

我從來沒有捕風捉影的嗜好，不會因為某樣東西不同尋常、很稀有，便用不同的眼光看待它。我認為這是一件高興的事。因此，我把春日的鄉(xiāng)野看作是一座花園，時常去看看雛菊，看看紫羅蘭，就像花匠照看自己的花壇一樣。周圍綻放的每一朵花兒，都是那么的熟悉，我不會錯過一朵水仙、一簇迎春，即使它們的凋謝我也都知道。帶著這種心情，我穿過幾處農(nóng)田，幾片草地，向家走去。我想，這是普羅維登斯的賞賜，他把那些最令人高興的、最美麗的事物變得那么平凡，那么簡單。

實戰(zhàn)提升

Practising & Exercise

導讀

約瑟夫·艾迪生（Joseph Addison），英國散文家、詩人、劇作家、政治家。艾迪生的名字在文學史上常常與他的好朋友理查德·斯蒂爾一起被提起，兩人最重要的貢獻是創(chuàng)辦了兩份著名的雜志《閑談者》與《旁觀者》。約瑟夫·艾迪生在該文中建議那些躁動的市井之人，應在某個夏日的清晨，走入一幅由花兒組成的絕美景致中，定會有一種無以言表的滿足和快樂。

核心單詞

divert [di?v??t] v. 使轉(zhuǎn)向；使改道

nosegay [?n?uzɡei] n. 花束

dew [dju?] n. 露

instinct [?insti?kt] n. 本能；天性

vehemence [?vi?im?ns] n. 熱烈；強烈

fiber [?faib?] n. 纖維

rarity [?r??riti] n. 稀有，罕見

scarce [sk??s] adj. 缺乏的；不足的

翻譯

Those who are conversant in the writings of polite authors receive an additional entertainment from the country, as it revives in their memories those charming descriptions, with which such authors do frequently abound.

He then showed me what he thought the finest of his tulips, which I found received all their value from their rarity, and oddness, and put me in mind of our great fortunes, which are not always the greatest beauties.