英语名篇诵读 生命的历程

The Passage of Life

生命的历程

W. H. Hudson(W. H. 赫德森)

The bird, however hard the frost may be, flies briskly to his customary roosting -place, and, with beak¹ tucked into his wing, falls asleep. He has no apprehensions² ; only the hot blood grows colder and colder, the pulse feebler as he sleeps, and at midnight, or in the early morning, he drops from his perch³ — dead.

Yesterday he lived and moved, responsive to a thousand external influences, reflecting earth and sky in his small brilliant brain as in a looking-glass; also he had a various language, the inherited knowledge of his race, and the faculty⁴ of flight, by means of which he could shoot, meteor-like, across the sky, and pass swiftly from place to place; and with it such perfect control over all his organs, such marvellous certitude in all his motions, as to be able to drop himself plumb⁵ down from the tallest tree-top, or out of the void air, on to a slender spray , and scarcely cause its leaves to tremble. Now, on this morning, he lies stiff and motionless; if you were to take him up and drop him from your hand, he would fall to the ground like a stone or a lump of clay — so easy and swift is the passage from life to death in wild nature! But he was never miserable⁶.

那只鸟，无论天气多么寒冷，总是轻快地飞往它惯常的栖息地，把喙埋进翅膀，恬然入眠。它无忧无虑，只是在睡梦中热血变得越来越冷，脉搏跳得越来越弱，在午夜时分，或者在凌晨，它从栖木上掉了下来——死了。

昨天，它还活着，那么轻快、灵巧，对外界的无数动静做出反应，像镜子般把天地映入它小小的聪明脑袋，还说着变幻不定的语言——鸟儿那代代相传的知识，敏捷的身影，像流星似的划过天空，在天地之间翩然翱翔。它所有的器官都完美地协作，所有的动作都惊人地准确，能够从最高的树梢飞降直下，或从九霄直冲下来，落在一个纤细的小树枝上，还几乎不使得树叶摇晃。而现在，在这个早晨，它僵硬地躺在地上，一动不动；如果你把它捡起然后从手中丢下，它会像一块石头或一块泥巴那样落在地上——在自然界中，生命的历程是多么短暂，从生到死的过程是多么轻易，多么迅速啊！但这只小鸟从不悲伤苦恼。

1 beak   

n.鸟嘴，茶壶嘴，钩形鼻

参考例句：

• The bird had a worm in its beak.鸟儿嘴里叼着一条虫。
• This bird employs its beak as a weapon.这种鸟用嘴作武器。

2 apprehensions   

疑惧

参考例句：

• He stood in a mixture of desire and apprehensions. 他怀着渴望和恐惧交加的心情伫立着。
• But subsequent cases have removed many of these apprehensions. 然而，随后的案例又消除了许多类似的忧虑。

3 perch   

n.栖木，高位，杆；v.栖息，就位，位于

参考例句：

• The bird took its perch.鸟停歇在栖木上。
• Little birds perch themselves on the branches.小鸟儿栖歇在树枝上。

4 faculty   

n.才能；学院，系；(学院或系的)全体教学人员

参考例句：

• He has a great faculty for learning foreign languages.他有学习外语的天赋。
• He has the faculty of saying the right thing at the right time.他有在恰当的时候说恰当的话的才智。

5 plumb   

adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深

参考例句：

• No one could plumb the mystery.没人能看破这秘密。
• It was unprofitable to plumb that sort of thing.这种事弄个水落石出没有什么好处。

6 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。