Well, after all, how odd! When one gives to poor people, one wants to give them something useful—a bushel of potatoes, a ham, and such things.
好了,不管怎么說(shuō),你真夠搞怪!如果想送窮人東西,送點(diǎn)實(shí)用的東西總是不錯(cuò),比如,一麻袋土豆,或一條火腿什么的。
Why, certainly, potatoes and ham must be supplied;
天呀!確實(shí),土豆或火腿都是不可少的,
but, having ministered to the first and most craving wants,
那是窮人生存的首選或最渴望得到的東西,
why not add any other little pleasures or gratifications we may have it in our power to bestow?
可是,我們?yōu)槭裁淳筒荒芙o窮人精神上的微薄快樂(lè),使她們內(nèi)心獲得少許喜悅,而這些,對(duì)我們來(lái)說(shuō)不過(guò)舉手之勞?
I know there are many of the poor who have fine feeling and a keen sense of the beautiful,
我知道,許多窮人情感豐富,對(duì)美好事物相當(dāng)敏銳,
which rusts out and dies because they are too hard pressed to procure it any gratification.
可他們活得實(shí)在艱難,也就自然鈍化或磨滅了內(nèi)在美好。
Poor Mrs. Stephens, for example; I know she would enjoy birds, and flowers, and music as much as I do.
否則,就鳥(niǎo)類(lèi)花草或音樂(lè)欣賞能力而言,史蒂芬夫人,雖窮,亦絕不比我少。
I have seen her eye light up as she looked upon these things in our drawing room and yet not one beautiful thing can she command.
我留意到,那次斯蒂芬夫人來(lái)到我們家,仔細(xì)打量客廳里那些藝術(shù)擺件,盡管沒(méi)說(shuō)一句話(huà),可她的眼睛很亮。
From necessity, her room, her clothing,—all she has, must be coarse and plain.
你看看她家的陋屋、那些衣物還有居家必需品,當(dāng)然雜亂不堪。
You should have seen the almost rapture she and Mary felt when I offered them my rose.
你也該看到,當(dāng)我想說(shuō)把香水月季送給她們,她和女兒瑪麗幾乎欣喜若狂。
Dear me! all this may be true, but I never thought of it before.
天呀!這些或許不假,不過(guò),我以前從未想到這些,
I never thought that these hard-working people had any ideas of taste!
這些每天苦力勞作的窮人能有什么欣賞品位。