《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 10

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對文學名著的愛好與追求，以及對大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由網(wǎng)友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 10的內(nèi)容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

Mentally and physically, I must be much older than my years. At three and-fifty a man ought not to be brooding constantly on his vanished youth. These days of spring which I should be enjoying for their own sake, do but turn me to reminiscence, and my memories are of the springs that were lost.

在心態(tài)和體力兩個方面，我一定是比實際年齡老邁。一個五十三歲的人按理不應該總去緬懷逝去的青春。這個春天，我本該盡力享受當下的日子，卻常常陷入懷舊的情緒中，回憶里盡是生命中無暇欣賞的那些春天。

Some day I will go to London and revisit all the places where I housed in the time of my greatest poverty. I have not seen them for a quarter of a century or so. Not long ago, had any one asked me how I felt about these memories, I should have said that there were certain street names, certain mental images of obscure London, which made me wretched as often as they came before me; but, in truth, it is a very long time since I was moved to any sort of bitterness by that retrospect of things hard and squalid. Now, owning all the misery of it in comparison with what should have been, I find that part of life interesting and pleasant to look back upon—greatly more so than many subsequent times, when I lived amid decencies and had enough to eat. Some day I will go to London, and spend a day or two amid the dear old horrors. Some of the places, I know, have disappeared. I see the winding way by which I went from Oxford Street, at the foot of Tottenham Court Road, to Leicester Square, and, somewhere in the labyrinth (I think of it as always foggy and gas-lit) was a shop which had pies and puddings in the window, puddings and pies kept hot by steam rising through perforated metal. How many a time have I stood there, raging with hunger, unable to purchase even one pennyworth of food! The shop and the street have long since vanished; does any man remember them so feelingly as I? But I think most of my haunts are still in existence: to tread again those pavements, to look at those grimy doorways and purblind windows, would affect me strangely.

有朝一日，我會到倫敦去，重游貧困潦倒時住過的地方。我和它們分別差不多有四分之一個世紀那么久了吧。如果不久前有人問起我對那段日子的感受，我應該會回答說，有一些街道的名字，還有倫敦的模糊印象，每次回想起來，都會讓我感到沮喪。而事實上，我已經(jīng)好久沒有因為回憶那些艱難可憐的日子而感到辛酸了。現(xiàn)在，盡管我承認那段生活是比一般人艱苦，但我發(fā)現(xiàn)那段日子有一部分回憶起來是有趣且令人愉快的—比起后來生活體面、衣食無憂的日子更是如此?？傆幸惶?，我會到倫敦去，在那里呆上一兩天，重溫一下舊時親切的噩夢。有一些地方，我知道已經(jīng)不存在了。我看到一條曲折的道路，從牛津街，到托特納姆法院路，再到萊斯特廣場，在這個迷宮的某處（在我的記憶里，它總在迷霧籠罩中和昏暗的煤油燈光下），有一家店鋪，櫥窗里擺著派和布丁，從下面網(wǎng)狀金屬板升騰上來的蒸汽給它們保溫。有多少次，我饑腸轆轆地站在那里，卻拿不出一個便士來購買食物！這家店鋪和那條街道都早已消失，還有誰像我這樣充滿感情地回憶起它們嗎？不過，我想我過去經(jīng)常光顧的地方大部分應該還在，重新踏上那些街道，看看那些骯臟的門道和陰暗的窗戶，我應該會有一種別樣的感覺。

I see that alley hidden on the west side of Tottenham Court Road, where, after living in a back bedroom on the top floor, I had to exchange for the front cellar; there was a difference, if I remember rightly, of sixpence a week, and sixpence, in those days, was a very great consideration—why, it meant a couple of meals. (I once FOUND sixpence in the street, and had an exultation which is vivid in me at this moment.) The front cellar was stone-floored; its furniture was a table, a chair, a wash-stand, and a bed; the window, which of course had never been cleaned since it was put in, received light through a flat grating in the alley above. Here I lived; here I WROTE. Yes, "literary work" was done at that filthy deal table, on which, by the bye, lay my Homer, my Shakespeare, and the few other books I then possessed. At night, as I lay in bed, I used to hear the tramp, tramp of a posse of policemen who passed along the alley on their way to relieve guard; their heavy feet sometimes sounded on the grating above my window.

我看到那條隱藏在托特納姆法院路西邊的巷子，我曾經(jīng)住在頂樓后部的一個臥室里，后來不得不換到了前面的地下室。兩個地方房價不同，如果我沒記錯的話，一周能省下六個便士。在那些日子里，六個便士可非同小可—因為它意味著好幾頓飯錢。（我曾在街上撿到六便士，當時欣喜若狂，至今記憶猶新）。地下室鋪著石地板；家具是一張桌子，一把椅子，一個洗臉架和一張床；窗子從裝上后就沒有擦過，光線透過窗格柵從上面的巷子照進來。我就在這樣的環(huán)境中生活和寫作。是的，“文學作品”是在一張骯臟的牌桌上寫就的，順便提一句，桌上還擺著荷馬、莎士比亞的作品和幾本我當時僅有的書。夜里，躺在床上，我常常聽到一隊換崗的警察穿過巷子，他們沉重的腳步有時會震響我窗子上方的柵板。

I recall a tragi-comical incident of life at the British Museum. Once, on going down into the lavatory to wash my hands, I became aware of a notice newly set up above the row of basins. It ran somehow thus: "Readers are requested to bear in mind that these basins are to be used only for casual ablutions." Oh, the significance of that inscription! Had I not myself, more than once, been glad to use this soap and water more largely than the sense of the authorities contemplated? And there were poor fellows working under the great dome whose need, in this respect, was greater than mine. I laughed heartily at the notice, but it meant so much.

我憶起在大英博物館發(fā)生的一件悲喜交加之事。一次，我去盥洗室洗手，發(fā)現(xiàn)一排洗滌盆上方貼著一張新告示。內(nèi)容大體如下：“請各位讀者注意，這些洗滌盆僅供偶爾使用?！编?，這告示多么意味深長??！我自己不是曾經(jīng)不止一次愉快地使用過這里的香皂和水么，按照發(fā)布告示者的預想，我肯定很過分吧？當時還有那些在這個圓頂建筑下勞作的可憐人，他們在這方面的需求比我還要大得多。這個告示讓我開懷大笑，但它對那時的我意義非凡

Some of my abodes I have utterly forgotten; for one reason or another, I was always moving—an easy matter when all my possessions lay in one small trunk. Sometimes the people of the house were intolerable. In those days I was not fastidious, and I seldom had any but the slightest intercourse with those who dwelt under the same roof, yet it happened now and then that I was driven away by human proximity which passed my endurance. In other cases I had to flee from pestilential conditions. How I escaped mortal illness in some of those places (miserably fed as I always was, and always over-working myself ) is a great mystery. The worst that befell me was a slight attack of diphtheria—traceable, I imagine, to the existence of a dust-bin UNDER THE STAIRCASE. When I spoke of the matter to my landlady, she was at first astonished, then wrathful, and my departure was expedited with many insults.

曾經(jīng)的一些住處我已完全遺忘。出于種種原因，我一直在搬家—因為所有的家當一個小箱子便可應付，所以并不費事。有些時候，同住的人讓我無法忍受。在那些日子，我并不挑剔，我和同住一個屋檐下的人幾乎沒有交往。但時不時的，我還是會因為不堪忍受鄰居而搬走。還有些時候，我不得不逃離瘟疫的威脅。在那些地方我竟然沒有罹患致命疾病，還真是奇跡（我一直營養(yǎng)不良，總是勞累過度）。我得過最重的病是輕微的白喉—我猜想可能是因為樓梯下的一個垃圾桶。我把這件事向女房東說了，她的第一反應是吃驚，繼而憤怒，然后是辱罵，她幾度出言不遜，我很快便搬離了那里。

On the whole, however, I had nothing much to complain of except my poverty. You cannot expect great comfort in London for four-and six pence a week—the most I ever could pay for a "furnished room with attendance" in those days of pretty stern apprenticeship. And I was easily satisfied; I wanted only a little walled space in which I could seclude myself, free from external annoyance. Certain comforts of civilized life I ceased even to regret; a stair-carpet I regarded as rather extravagant, and a carpet on the floor of my room was luxury undreamt of. My sleep was sound; I have passed nights of dreamless repose on beds which it would now make my bones ache only to look at. A door that locked, a fire in winter, a pipe of tobacco—these were things essential; and, granted these, I have been often richly contented in the squalidest garret. One such lodging is often in my memory; it was at Islington, not far from the City Road; my window looked upon the Regent's Canal. As often as I think of it, I recall what was perhaps the worst London fog I ever knew; for three successive days, at least, my lamp had to be kept burning; when I looked through the window, I saw, at moments, a few blurred lights in the street beyond the Canal, but for the most part nothing but a yellowish darkness, which caused the glass to reflect the firelight and my own face. Did I feel miserable? Not a bit of it. The enveloping gloom seemed to make my chimney-corner only the more cosy. I had coals, oil, tobacco in sufficient quantity; I had a book to read; I had work which interested me; so I went forth only to get my meals at a City Road coffee-shop, and hastened back to the fireside. Oh, my ambitions, my hopes! How surprised and indignant I should have felt had I known of any one who pitied me!

不過，大體上說，我除了貧窮外沒什么可抱怨的。在倫敦一周花銷四到六個便士，不要指望生活得太舒適—在當窮學徒的那段艱難時光，我能負擔起的是“有家具并有人照料的房間”。而我很容易滿足，我需要的僅是一個封閉的小空間，不被外界干擾。文明生活的舒適，我雖然欠缺但并不引以為憾。樓梯上的地毯在我看來相當奢侈，在我的房間地板上鋪地毯是做夢都沒想過的事。我睡得很香甜，我曾經(jīng)使用過的那些床鋪，現(xiàn)在只要看看就會感覺骨頭酸痛，而在當時，我休息得很好，連夢都不會做。一扇鎖上的門，冬天里的一爐火，一支裝滿煙草的煙桿—這是必需的。有了這三樣東西，即使在最骯臟的頂樓，我也經(jīng)常感覺心滿意足。我經(jīng)?；貞浧疬@樣一個住處，它位于伊斯靈頓區(qū)，離城市大街不遠，房間的窗戶對著攝政王運河。想起這間陋室，我就會想到我見過的可能是倫敦最大的一場霧。在接下來至少三天的時間里，我的燈不得不一直亮著；透過窗戶，間或能看見運河那邊的一條街上幾點模糊的燈光，但是多數(shù)時候，什么都沒有，只有一片有些發(fā)黃的黑暗，這使得在窗戶的玻璃上，我能看見爐火和自己的臉。我感到悲慘嗎？一點都不。這籠罩一切的陰暗似乎使壁爐邊的暖和處所更加舒適了。我有足量的煤、油和煙草儲備，我有一本書可讀，我有喜歡的工作可做，所以我只需要到城市路的咖啡店用餐，然后趕快回到爐火旁。噢，我的雄心，我的希望！要是知道誰可憐我，我當時一定感覺驚訝和憤怒！

Nature took revenge now and then. In winter time I had fierce sore throats, sometimes accompanied by long and savage headaches. Doctoring, of course, never occurred to me; I just locked my door, and, if I felt very bad indeed, went to bed—to lie there, without food or drink, till I was able to look after myself again. I could never ask from a landlady anything which was not in our bond, and only once or twice did I receive spontaneous offer of help. Oh, it is wonderful to think of all that youth can endure! What a poor feeble wretch I now seem to myself, when I remember thirty years ago!

大自然時不時會進行報復。冬天的時候，我患上很嚴重的喉炎，有時還伴有持久難忍的頭痛。當然，我從來沒考慮過看醫(yī)生。我只是把自己鎖在屋內(nèi)，如果感覺確實很糟，我就爬上床—躺在那里，不吃不喝，直到能照料自己時再起床。我從來不向女房東索要房契中不包括的任何東西，只在一兩次，我接受了主動提供的幫助。噢，想到年輕時能扛過那么多苦難，真是神奇??！相比三十年前，現(xiàn)在的我是一個多么可憐虛弱的家伙呀！