读点好英文:Tulips 郁金香

Tulips 郁金香

Joseph Addison

I chanced to rise very early one particular morning this summer, and took a walk into the country to divert myself among the fields and meadows, while the green was new, and the flowers in their bloom. As at this season of the year every lane is a beautiful walk, and every hedge full of nosegays, I lost myself, with a great deal of pleasure, among several thickets and bushes that were filled with a great variety of birds, and an agreeable confusion of notes, which formed the pleasantest scene in the word to one who had passed a whole winter in noise and smoke. The freshness of the dews that lay upon everything about me, with the cool breath of the morning, which inspired the birds with so many delightful instincts, created in me the same kind of animal pleasure, and made my heart overflow with such secret emotions of joy and satisfaction as are not to be described or accounted for. On this occasion I could not but reflect upon a beautiful simile in Milton:

As one who long in populous city pent

Where houses thick and sewers annoy the air

Forth issuing on a summer's morn, to breathe

Among the pleasant villages and farms

Adjoin'd from each thing met conceived delight

The smell of grain, or tended grass, or kine

Or dairy, each rural sight, each rural sound

Those who are conversant in the writings of polite authors receive an additional entertainment from the country, as it revives in their memories those charming descriptions, with which such authors do frequently abound.

I was thinking of the foregoing beautiful simile in Milton, and applying it to myself, when I observed to the windward of me a black cloud, falling to the earth in long trails of rain, which made me betake myself for shelter to a house saw at a little distance from the place where I was walking. As I sat in the porch, I heard the voices of two or three persons, who seemed very earnest in discourse. My curiosity was raised when I heard the names of Alexander the Great and Artaxerxes; and as their talk seemed to run on ancient heroes, I concluded there could not be any secret in it; for which reason thought I might very fairly listen to what they said.

After several parallels between great men, which appeared to me altogether groundless and chimerical, I was surprised to hear one say, that he valued the Black Prince more than the Duke of Venoms. How Duke of Vendos should become a rival of Black Prince, I couldn't conceive; and was more startled when I heard a second affirm, with great vehemence, that if the Emperor of Germany was not going off, he should like him better than either of them. He added, that though the season was so changeable, the Duke of Marlborough was in blooming beauty. I was wondering to myself from whence they had received this odd intelligence: especially when I heard them mention the names of several other great generals, as the Prince of Hess and the King of Sweden, who, they said, were both running away. To which they added, what I entirely agreed with them in, that the Crown of France was very weak, but that the Marshal Villars still kept his colors. At last, one of them told the company, if they would go along with him, he would show them a chimney-sweeper and a painted lady in the same bed, which he was sure would very much please them. The shower which had driven them as well as myself into the house, was now over; and as they were passing by me into the garden, I asked them to let me be one of their company.

The gentleman of the house told me, if I delighted in flowers, it would be worth my while; for that he believed he could show me such a blow of tulips as was not to be matched in the whole country.

I accepted the offer, and immediately found that they had been talking in terms of gardening, and that the kings and generals they had mentioned were only so many tulips, to which the gardeners, according to their usual custom, had given such high titles and appellations of honor.

I was very much pleased and astonished at the glorious show of these gay vegetables, that arose in great profusion on all the banks about us. Sometimes I considered every leaf as an elaborate piece of tissue, in which the threads and fibers were woven together into different configurations, which gave a different coloring to the light as it glanced on the several parts of the surface. Sometimes I considered the whole bed of tulips, according to the notion of the greatest mathematician and philosopher that ever lived, as a multitude of optic instruments, designed for the separating light into all those various colors of which it is composed.

I was awakened out these my philosophical speculations, by observing the company often seemed to laugh at me. I accidentally praised a tulip as one of the finest I ever saw; upon which they told me, it was a common Fool's Coat. Upon that I praised another, which it seems was but another kind of Fool's Coat.

I had the same fate with two or three more, for which reason I desired the owner of the garden to let me know which were the finest of the flower; for that I was so unskillful in the art, that I thought the most beautiful were the most valuable, and that those which had the gayest colours were the most beautiful. The gentleman smiled at my ignorance. He seemed a very plain honest man, and a person of good sense, had not his head been touched with that distemper which Hippocrates calls the Tulippomania; in so much that he would talk very rationally on any subject in the world but a tulip.

He told me, that he valued the bed of flowers which lay before us, and was not above twenty yards in length and two in breadth, more than he would the best hundred acres of land in England, and added, that it would have been worth twice the money it is, if a foolish cook, maid of his had not almost ruined him in the last winter, by mistaking a handful of tulip roots for a heap of onions, and "by that means," said he, "made me a dish of pottage that cost me above thousand pounds sterling." He then showed me what he thought the finest of his tulips, which I found received all their value from their rarity, and oddness, and put me in mind of our great fortunes, which are not always the greatest beauties.

I have often looked upon it as a piece of happiness, that I have never fallen into any of these fantastical tastes, nor esteemed anything the more for its being the uncommon and hard to be met with, For this reason I look upon the whole country in springtime as a spacious garden, and make as many visits to a spot of daisies or a bank of violets, as a florist does to his borders or parterres. There is not a bush in blossom within a mile of me, which I am not acquainted with, nor scarce a daffodil of cowslip that withers away in my neighborhood without my missing it, I walked home in this temper of mind through several fields and meadows with hand unspeakable pleasure, not without reflecting on the bounty of Providence which has made the most pleasing and most beautiful objects the most ordinary and most common.

郁金香

［英］约瑟夫·艾迪生

今年夏天的一个清晨，我碰巧起得很早。于是，便跑去乡间散步，希望能在绿草丛中和田野间得到一份安逸。夏天，正是绿草芬芳，百花绽放的季节。每年一到这个时节，任何一条小路都是一片美妙的景色，任何一道篱笆上都点缀着鲜花。四周满是丛生的灌木，我快乐地沉浸在鸟儿委婉动听的歌唱声中。我已经在嘈杂和浓烟中熬过了整整一个冬天，眼前的景色可谓是人间仙境。清新的露水洒落在世间万物上（包括我），还有那清爽宜人的清晨空气，周围的一切不但让鸟儿焕发出欢快的本性，也让我感到丝丝喜悦，内心深处充溢着一种神秘的、无以言表的满足与快乐。在这样的情景下，我总是不由地想起弥尔顿诗句中那个精妙的比喻：犹如长久禁锢于躁动的市井之人，择夏日的一个清晨，步出城墙，步出林立的房屋，步出水天污浊，吐纳于宜人的田间村舍。乡间万物孕育着乐趣，谷物、干草、黄牛、牛乳，每一处农家美景，每一处乡间乐赋。

那些熟悉这些名人佳作的人，在他们的脑海里总能浮现名人笔下反复出现的娇媚景色，因此他们更能从乡间美景中获得一份意外的乐趣。

正当我独自品味着弥尔顿的诗句时，忽然发现迎面飘来一团乌云，刹那间绵长的雨丝急坠而下。我赶忙起身，举目四望，向不远处的一座农舍跑去。当我坐在门廊中时，听到两三个人谈话的声音。他们似乎正在十分认真地争论着什么。听他们提到亚历山大大帝和阿塔克西斯的名字，我的好奇心立即被吸引了出来。因为他们争论的好像是古代英雄和伟人，我想里面应该不会有任何秘密。想到这儿，我想或许可以仔细地听一下他们的谈话。

他们先是比较了几个伟人。在我看来，这种比较根本毫无根据，纯属虚构。我十分诧异地听到其中一个人说，他认为黑色王子远比旺多姆公爵好得多。旺多姆公爵和黑色王子怎么能作比较呢？我感到非常不解。然后，我又听到第二个人斩钉截铁地说，如果德国皇帝不退位的话，那么他就最推崇德国皇帝。听到这里，我更是惊叹不已。这个人又补充说，尽管岁月如流水，但马尔伯勒公爵始终是风流倜傥。他们从哪里知道的这些谬论，我绞尽脑汁也想不明白。还有比这更荒谬的：他们还谈到了几位将军，其中就有黑森王子和瑞典国王，他们说这两个人现在正在逃亡中。后来他们所说的，我是完全同意的。他们提到法国国王身体虚弱，维拉尔元帅却仍旧精神饱满。最后，他们当中的一个人说，如果大家同意跟他一起去，他会叫他们看到一个扫烟囱的人和一个美丽的少女“同床共枕”。他确信，这样的场景一定会令大家非常开心。我和他们都是跑到这家农舍来避雨的，此时大雨已经停了。当他们从我身旁经过，朝花园走去的时候，我便要求加入到他们的队伍之中。

农舍的主人对我说，如果我对花感兴趣的话，很值得去花园看一看。因为他相信，他让我看的那片郁金香，在全国都找不出可以与之媲美的。

我接受了他的邀请，也马上明白刚才那几个人谈论的是园艺。他们所说的国王、将帅全是郁金香的名字。花匠们按照习惯做法赋予那些花头衔或称号。

看到花团锦簇的美妙画面，我真是又惊又喜。一垄一垄的花儿，密密麻麻地将我笼罩。一时间，我觉得每一片叶子都变成一方精美别致的薄纱，经纬交错，形成一幅幅千娇百媚的画卷。阳光照在薄纱不同的角落上，叶子便映出五彩斑斓的色彩。有时我觉得，这大片的郁金香，在曾经最伟大的数学家和哲学家看来，就是由众多的光学仪器把光线分散成为的各种不同的颜色。

意识到大家似乎一直在嘲笑我，我这才从陶醉中清醒过来。我赞美一朵郁金香，认为它是世界上最美丽的花朵。但他们却出乎意料地告诉我，那仅仅是最普通的“愚人衣”。然后，我又去赞美另一朵，但那朵花好像也属于“愚人衣”。

赞美其他两三朵花时，我遇到了相同的情况。于是，我恳求花园的主人告诉我，哪些是最好的花。因为我对花一知半解，一直以为最美的就是最有价值的，最鲜艳的就是最美的。看到我这样，主人只是一笑了之。他看上去是位单纯老实的人，有较高的品位，头脑也很理智。除了郁金香，他可以理性地谈论世间的任何事物。

他告诉我，他自己特别珍惜我们面前的那个花坛。虽然那个花坛不足20码长，宽也不足2码，但是即使有人用英国最肥沃的百亩良田来换，他也坚决不换。他又补充说，去年冬天，要不是他的一个愚蠢的厨娘误把一堆郁金香球茎当成了洋葱做了汤，差点要了他的命，否则，这个花坛的价钱至少是现在的两倍。他说：“厨娘做的那碗汤，花了我整整一千多英镑。”他随后又给我看了他心目中最好的郁金香。我觉得那些郁金香珍贵的原因，主要是稀有，形态也非常奇异。由此我想到，不论我们有多少财富，都没有什么可珍贵的。

我从来没有捕风捉影的嗜好，不会因为某样东西不同寻常、很稀有，便用不同的眼光看待它。我认为这是一件高兴的事。因此，我把春日的乡野看作是一座花园，时常去看看雏菊，看看紫罗兰，就像花匠照看自己的花坛一样。周围绽放的每一朵花儿，都是那么的熟悉，我不会错过一朵水仙、一簇迎春，即使它们的凋谢我也都知道。带着这种心情，我穿过几处农田，几片草地，向家走去。我想，这是普罗维登斯的赏赐，他把那些最令人高兴的、最美丽的事物变得那么平凡，那么简单。

实战提升

Practising & Exercise

导读

约瑟夫·艾迪生（Joseph Addison），英国散文家、诗人、剧作家、政治家。艾迪生的名字在文学史上常常与他的好朋友理查德·斯蒂尔一起被提起，两人最重要的贡献是创办了两份著名的杂志《闲谈者》与《旁观者》。约瑟夫·艾迪生在该文中建议那些躁动的市井之人，应在某个夏日的清晨，走入一幅由花儿组成的绝美景致中，定会有一种无以言表的满足和快乐。

核心单词

divert [diˈvəːt] v. 使转向；使改道

nosegay [ˈnəuzɡei] n. 花束

dew [djuː] n. 露

instinct [ˈinstiŋkt] n. 本能；天性

vehemence [ˈviːiməns] n. 热烈；强烈

fiber [ˈfaibə] n. 纤维

rarity [ˈrɛəriti] n. 稀有，罕见

scarce [skɛəs] adj. 缺乏的；不足的

翻译

Those who are conversant in the writings of polite authors receive an additional entertainment from the country, as it revives in their memories those charming descriptions, with which such authors do frequently abound.

He then showed me what he thought the finest of his tulips, which I found received all their value from their rarity, and oddness, and put me in mind of our great fortunes, which are not always the greatest beauties.