英語美文朗讀 第330期 The Faculty of Delight

Among the mind's powers is one that comes of itself to many children and artists. It need not be lost, to the end of his days, by any one who has ever had it. This is the power of taking delight in a thing, or rather in anything, everything, not as a means to some other end, but just because it is what it is, as the lover dotes on whatever may be the traits of the beloved object.

 

在心智的各種能力中，有一種能力對于許多兒童和藝術家來說是與生倶來的，而且一旦獲得它，就終身不會失去。這種能力就是對一件事物、甚至對每件事物都感到喜悅的能力。之所以感到喜悅，并不是因為那件事物是達到其他目的的手段，只是因為這件事情本身，正如一個情人覺得他所喜愛的對象是十全十美一樣。

 

A child in the full health of his mind wifi put his hand flat on the summer turf, feel it, and give a little shiver of private glee at the elastic firmness of the globe. He is not thinking how well it will do for some game or to feed sheep upon. That would be the way of the wooer whose mind runs on his mistress's money. The child's is sheer affection, the true ecstatic sense of the thing's inherent characteristics.

一個心智健康的兒童也許會把他的手放在夏天的草地上，撫摸著它，他覺得堅實的大地也有點彈性，因而打心眼里感到欣喜。他并不會考慮這草地對于人們玩游戲或用來放羊會有多大好處。如果這樣的話，那就是一心貪圖錢財?shù)淖非笳叩膼毫有袕搅?。但這孩子內(nèi)心的喜悅卻是至真至純的，是對這件事物的內(nèi)在特性感到真正的心醉神迷。

 

No matter what the things may be, no matter what they are good or no good for, there they are, each with a thrilling unique look and feel of its own, like a face; the iron astringently coop under its paint, the painted wood familiarly warmer, the clod crumbling enchantingly down in the hands, with its little dry smell of the sun and of hot nettles ; each common thing a personality marked by delicious differences.

不管這些事物是什么，也不管它們對什么有用或者沒用，它們自然地存在著，有著自己動人的外觀與感覺，就像一張面孔那樣；油漆下面冰涼的鋼鐵，溫暖可親的彩色木料，拿在手中一揉就碎的令人著迷的土塊，微微含著日曬與蕁麻的干燥氣味；各種普通的事物都有著可愛的差別，因而都突顯了其獨特的性格。

 

The joy of an Adam new to the garden and just looking round is brought by the normal child to the things that he does as well as those that he sees. To be suffered to do some plain work with the real spade used by mankind can give him a mystical exaltation : to come home with his legs, as the French say, reentering his body from the fatigue of helping the gardener to weed beds sends him to sleep in the glow of a beatitude that is an end in itself…

初到伊甸園的亞當左右張望，充滿喜悅，這正是一個正常的兒童在做什么或看什么時所感到的欣喜之情。如果讓他拿起人們使用的真正的鏟子去做點普通的勞動，那他肯定會感到一種神秘的喜悅。當他經(jīng)過一番辛勞，幫助園丁把花園里的雜草除掉，兩只腳像縮進身體里似的走了回來（像法國人說的那樣），他會在一片純粹的喜悅之光的照耀下安然睡去……