【英文原文】

  "If you want a red rose," said the tree, "you must build it out of music by moonlight, and stain it with

your own heart’s blood. You must sing to me with your breast against a thorn. All night long you must sing to me, and the thorn must pierce your heart, and your life-blood must flow into me veins, and become mine."

  "Death is a great price to pay for a red rose," cried the nightingale, "and Life is very dear to all. It is pleasant to sit in the green wood, and to watch the sun in his chariot of gold, and the moon in her chariot of pearl. Sweet is the scent of the hawthorn, and sweet are the bluebells that hide in the valley, and the heather that blows on the hill. Yet love is better than life, and what is the heart of a bird compared to the heart of a man?"

  So she spread her brown wings for flight, and soared into the air. She swept over the garden like a shadow, and like a shadow she sailed through the grove.

 

【词汇简析】

stain n. 给染色

thorn n. 荆棘

pierce v. 刺穿

chariot n. 战车

scent n. 香味

hawthorn n. 山楂树