精美英文欣赏:在自然界中探险

Part2 Adventure in the World of Nature

第二部分 在自然界中探险

One stormy autumn night when my grandnephew Roger was about twenty months old I wrapped him in a blanket and carried him down to the beach in the rainy darkness. Out there, just at the edge where we couldn't see big waves were thundering in, dimly seen white shapes that boomed and shouted and threw great handfuls of froth at us. Together we laughed for pure joy-he a baby meeting for the first time the wild tumult¹ of oceanus, I wish the salt of half a lifetime of sea love in me. But I think we felt the same spine-tingling response to the vast, roaring ocean and the wild night around us.

一个暴风骤雨的秋夜，我用毛毯把侄孙罗杰裹好，带着他冒雨在黑暗里穿行，径直走到海滩边，当时他只有大约20个月大。在那里，在我们无法看见海的边缘，巨浪雷鸣般呼啸而来，依稀可见白色形状的浪花翻腾着、吼叫着，朝我们抛来大把大把的泡沫。我们一起大笑，因为纯粹的快乐而放声欢笑-婴儿的他第一次见到了海洋之神异常激动的神态，我多么希望我能拥有大海一半的爱的情怀。但我想，面对辽阔咆哮的大海还有周围狂野的黑夜，我们都感受到了同样的兴奋。

A night or two later the storm had blown itself out and I took Roger again to the beach, this time to carry him along the water's edge, piercing the darkness with the yellow cone² of our flashlight.Although there was no rain the night was again noisy with breaking waves and the insistent³ wind.It was clearly a time and place where great elemental things prevailed.

一两个晚上以后，暴风雨平息了，我带着罗杰再次来到海边。这一次我抱着他沿着水边漫步，手电筒射出的锥形的黄色光芒穿透了黑暗。虽然没有下雨，海浪的巨响和持续的风声使得夜晚一样喧闹。显然，就在此时此地，伟大的自然力量尽显无疑。

One adventure on this particular night had to do with life, for we were searching for ghost crabs⁴, those sand-colored, fleet-legged beings which Roger had sometimes glimpsed briefly⁵ on the beaches in daytime. But the crabs are chiefly nocturnal, and when not roaming the night beaches they dig little pits near the surf line where they hide, seemingly watching and waiting for what the sea may bring them. For me the sight of these small living creatures, solitary⁶ and fragile against the brute⁷ force of the sea, had moving philosophic⁸ overtones, and I do not pretend that Roger and I reacted with similar emotions. But it was good to see his infant acceptance of a world of elemental things, fearing neither the song of the wind nor the darkness nor the roaring surf, entering with baby excitement into the search for a " ghost."

在这样一个特别的夜晚做一次冒险是和生命相关的，因为我们找寻着那些罗杰有时白天在海堆上匆匆瞥见过的和沙子一样颜色的、行动敏捷的幽灵蟹。但蟹主要在夜间活动，当它们不能在黑夜的沙滩漫游时,就在它们在冲浪线的附近挖些小坑藏在里面，似乎在观察，在等待大海带给他们什么。看到这些小生灵，面对大海的强力而孤单脆弱时，我体会到了令人感动的哲学寓意，我不敢说罗杰和我有相似的反应。但是，看到婴儿的他接受着自然的世界，不怕风在唱歌，也不怕黑暗包围和海浪轰吟，带着婴儿的兴奋寻求着"幽之蟹"实在是一件令人高兴的事。

It was hardly a conventional way to entertain one so young, I suppose, but now, with Roger a little past his fourth birthday, we are continuing that sharing of adventures in the world of nature that we began in his babyhood, and I think the results are good. The sharing includes nature in storm as well as calm, by night as well as day, and is based on having fun together rather than on teaching.

我想，这不是一个让如此年幼的孩子高兴的方式，通常人们不会这么做。但现在，罗杰刚过了他第四个生日，我们仍然继续着从他婴儿时期就开始的自然界探险之旅，我们一同感受这个旅程，而且我认为结果是美好的。我们一同感受自然，不仅有风暴，也有宁静；不仅有黑夜，也有白昼，并且我们的目的是一同嬉戏玩耍，而不是教导。

1 tumult   

n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹

参考例句：

• The tumult in the streets awakened everyone in the house.街上的喧哗吵醒了屋子里的每一个人。
• His voice disappeared under growing tumult.他的声音消失在越来越响的喧哗声中。

2 cone   

n.圆锥体，圆锥形东西，球果

参考例句：

• Saw-dust piled up in a great cone.锯屑堆积如山。
• The police have sectioned off part of the road with traffic cone.警察用锥形路标把部分路面分隔开来。

3 insistent   

adj.迫切的，坚持的

参考例句：

• There was an insistent knock on my door.我听到一阵急促的敲门声。
• He is most insistent on this point.他在这点上很坚持。

4 crabs   

n.蟹( crab的名词复数 )；阴虱寄生病；蟹肉v.捕蟹( crab的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• As we walked along the seashore we saw lots of tiny crabs. 我们在海岸上散步时看到很多小蟹。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The fish and crabs scavenge for decaying tissue. 鱼和蟹搜寻腐烂的组织为食。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

6 solitary   

adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士

参考例句：

• I am rather fond of a solitary stroll in the country.我颇喜欢在乡间独自徜徉。
• The castle rises in solitary splendour on the fringe of the desert.这座城堡巍然耸立在沙漠的边际，显得十分壮美。

7 brute   

n.野兽，兽性

参考例句：

• The aggressor troops are not many degrees removed from the brute.侵略军简直象一群野兽。
• That dog is a dangerous brute.It bites people.那条狗是危险的畜牲，它咬人。

8 philosophic   

adj.哲学的，贤明的

参考例句：

• It was a most philosophic and jesuitical motorman.这是个十分善辩且狡猾的司机。
• The Irish are a philosophic as well as a practical race.爱尔兰人是既重实际又善于思想的民族。