第3章 Death——Jeremy Taylor

内容导读

生命如花，初次绽放时，风姿卓越、富有生机；狂风席卷过后，枝叶凋零、颜色褪落。蓬勃与张扬书写了生命的开始；暗淡与憔悴意味着生命的结束。世间万物，无一幸免。

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英文正文

It is amighty change that is made by the death of every person,and it is visible to us who are alive.Reckon but from the sprightfulness of youth,and the fair cheeks and the full eyes of childhood,from the vigorousness and strong flexure of the joints of five-and-twenty,to the hollowness and dead paleness,to the loathsomeness and horror of athree days'burial,and we shall perceive the distance to be very great and very strange.But so have Iseen arose newly springing from the clefts of its hood,and at first it was fair as the morning,and full with the dew of heaven as alamb's fleece;but when aruder breath had forced open its virgin modesty,and dismantled its too youthful and unripe retirements,it began to put on darkness,and to decline to softness and the symptoms of asickly age;it bowed the head,and broke its stalk;and at night,having lost some of its leaves and all its beauty,it fell into the portion of weeds and outworn faces.The same is portion of every man and every woman…

死亡——杰雷米·泰勒

中文译文

死亡对人诚然是一场巨变，这点尚在世间的人大概无有不知。诚想一个人童年时的雪肤丰颊，慧眼明瞳，少年时的矫健活泼，二十四五岁时的蓬勃精力与坚强筋骨，曾是一种如何光景，而老来之后的瘦损干瘪、憔悴枯槁，新葬之后的可憎可怖、令人嫌恶，这中间的悬殊确属巨大莫测。同样，我见过迎风初放绽破花蕾的红红玫瑰，那美艳璨若晓空丽日，那娇滴宛如玉露凝香，幼羔嫩毛；然而一旦当狂风不顾它少女般的羞涩，排闼直入，把兰闺深处的一切摧残殆尽，那其中的细腻风光顿时蒙上一层阴暗，逐渐呈现颓靡衰败；垂头丧气，茎摧梗折，入夜更枝叶飘零，颜色褪落，辗转委顿于荒芜秽草之中。花的命运如此，每个男女亦然……

（高健 译）

词汇速记

reckon v. 估计，猜想

loathsomeness n. 讨厌，厌恶

dismantle v. 拆除，销毁

美句欣赏

But so have Iseen arose newly springing from the clefts of its hood,and at first it was fair as the morning,and full with the dew of heaven as alamb's fleece.同样，我见过迎风初放绽破花蕾的红红玫瑰，那美艳璨若晓空丽日，那娇滴宛如玉露凝香，幼羔嫩毛。