簡單的英語美文欣賞

　　對英語經典美文分類集中,加深認識,培養學生良好的英語閱讀習慣。下面是小編帶來的，歡迎閱讀!

　　精選

　　Companionship of Books

　　以書為友

　　A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is acompanionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

　　看一個人讀些什麼書和交什麼樣的朋友就可知道他的為人。因為世界上有與人為友的，也有與書為友的。無論是書友或朋友，我們都應該擇其最佳者而從之。

　　A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change, it is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us, in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness, amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

　　一本好書就像是一個最好的朋友。它始終不渝，過去如此，現在仍然如此，將來也永遠不變。它是最有耐心、最令人愉快的伴侶。在我們窮困潦倒、臨危遭難的時候，它也不會拋棄我們，對我們總是一往情深。在我們年輕時，好書陶冶我們的性情，增長我們的知識;到我們年老時，它又給我們以安慰和勉勵。

　　A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of man's life is; for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasures of good words, the golden thoughts, which remembered and cherished become our constant companions and comforters. "They are never alone",said sir Philip Sydney."that are accompanied by noble thoughts."

　　好書常如最精美的寶器，珍藏著人一生思想的精華。人生的境界，主要就在於他思想的境界。所以，最好的書是金玉良言的寶庫，若將其中的崇高思想銘記於心，就成為我們忠實的伴侶和永恆的慰藉。菲利普•悉尼爵士說得好：“有崇高思想做伴的人永不孤獨。”

　　The good and true thought may in times of temptation be as an angel of mercy purifying and guarding the soul. It also enshrines the germs of action, for good words almost always inspire to good works.

　　當我們面臨誘惑的時候，優美純真的思想會像仁慈的天使一樣，純潔並保衛我們的靈魂。優美純真的思想也孕育著行動的萌芽，因為金玉良言幾乎總會啟發善行。

　　Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statuses decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author's minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed pages. The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good.

　　書籍具有不朽的本質，是人類勤奮努力的最為持久的產物。寺廟會倒坍，神像會朽爛，而書卻經久長存。對於偉大的思想來說，時間是無關重要的。多少年以前初次閃現在作者腦海裡的偉大思想今天依然清新如故。他們當時的言論和思想都刊於書頁，如今依然那麼生動感人。時間惟一的作用是淘汰不好的作品，因為只有真正的佳作才能經久長存。

　　Books introduce us into the best society; they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; thejr experience becomes ours and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

　　書籍引導我們與最優秀的人物為伍，使我們置身歷代偉人巨匠之間，如聞其聲，如觀其行，如見其人。同他們情感交融，悲喜與共。他們的感受成為我們自己的感受，我們覺得有點兒像是在作者所描繪的人生舞臺上跟他們一起粉墨登場了。

　　The great and good do not die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens. Hence we ever remain under the influence of the great old men. The imperial intellects of the world are as much alive now as they were ages ago.

　　即使在人世間，偉大傑出的人物，也是永生不滅的，他們的精神載入書冊，傳之四海。書是人們至今仍在聆聽的智慧之聲，永遠充滿著活力。所以，我們永遠都是在受著歷代偉人的影響。多少世紀以前的蓋世英才，如今仍同當年一樣，顯示著強大的生命力。

　　閱讀

　　On Pleasure

　　自由如歌的快樂

　　Pleasure is a freedom song, but it is not freedom. It is the blossoming of your desires; but it is not their fruit, it is a depth calling unto a height; but it is not the deep nor the high, it is the caged taking wing; but it is not space encompassed. Ay, in very truth, pleasure is a freedom song. And I fain would have you sing it with fullness of heart; yet I would not have you lose your hearts in the singing.

　　快樂是一首自由的歌，但它不是自由。它是你們的慾望綻放的花朵，但不是它們的果實;它是深谷對高峰的呼喚，然而它既不深沉也不高聳;它是囚禁在籠中展翅的鳥兒，而不是環抱的空間。哦，的確，快樂是首自由的歌。我願你們全心全意地歌唱它，不願你們在歌唱時迷失自己的心。

　　Some of your youth seek pleasure as if it was all, and they are judged and rebuked. I would not judge nor rebuke them. I would have them seek, for they shall find pleasure, but not her alone;seven are her sisters, and the least of them is more beautiful than pleasure. Have you not heard of the man who was digging in the earth for roots and found a treasure?

　　你們年輕人中有一些追求快樂，好像它就是一切，他們已受到判決和譴責。我不會判決他們，也不會譴責他們，我會讓他們去尋找。因為他們尋找的是快樂，然而也不單單是快樂;快樂有七個姐妹，她們中最小的也比她柔美。難道你們未曾聽說有人在刨樹根時發現了寶藏嗎?

　　And some of your elders remember pleasures with regret like wrongs committed in drunkenness. But regret is the beclouding of the mind and not its chastisement. They should remember their pleasures with gratitude, as they would the harvest of a summer. Yet if it comforts them to regret, let them be comforted.

　　你們中有一些老年人遺憾地回憶快樂，好像在追悔酒醉後做的錯事。但遺憾只會讓心靈蒙上陰影，而不是一種懲罰。他們應以感恩之心回憶他們的快樂，好像回憶夏曰的收穫。但如果遺憾能給他們以慰藉，那就讓他們得到安慰吧。

　　And there are among you those who are neither young to seek nor old to remember; and in their fear of seeking and remembering they shun all pleasures, lest they neglect the spirit or offend against it.

　　你們中一些人，既不是喜歡追尋的年輕人，又不是沉灑於回憶的老年人;他們在追尋和回憶的恐懼中逃避一切快樂，唯恐自己忽視或惹怒了心靈。

　　But even in their foregoing is their pleasure.

　　然而，在他們的前行中也有快樂。

　　And thus they too find a treasure though they dig for roots with quivering hands.

　　因而，即使他們用顫抖的雙手挖掘樹根，他們也會找到寶藏。

　　But tell me, who is he that can offend the spirit?

　　請告訴我，誰敢惹怒靈魂呢?

　　Shall the nightingale offend the stillness of the night,or the firefly the stars? And shall your flame or your smoke burden the wind?

　　夜鸞會擾亂夜的寂靜，螢火蟲會惹惱繁星嗎?你們的火焰和煙霧會拖累風嗎?

　　Think you the spirit is a still pool which you can trouble with a staff? Oftentimes in denying yourself pleasure you do but store the desire in the recesses of your being.

　　你們以為靈魂是一汪止水，你們用一根木棍就可以攪亂嗎?你們通常拒絕快樂，你們只是把快樂的慾望潛伏在內心中。

　　Who knows but that which seem omitted today, waits for tomorrow? Even your body knows its heritage and its rightful need and will not be deceived.

　　有誰知道，今天被忽略的事，明天會不會存在?甚至你們的身體也瞭解它的本性和合理需求，而不會被欺騙。

　　And your body is the harp of your soul, and it is yours to bring forth sweet music from it or confused sounds.

　　你們的身體是你們心靈的琴絃，它或奏出柔美的樂曲，或撥弄出混亂的噪音，全都在你。

　　And now you ask in your heart, "How shall we distinguish that which is good in pleasure from that which is not good?" Go to your fields and your gardens and you shall learn that it is the pleasure of the bee to gather honey of the flower, but it is also the pleasure of the flower to yield its honey to the bee, for to the bee a flower is a fountain of life, and to the flower a bee is a messenger of love, and to both, bee and flower, the giving and the receiving of pleasure is a need and an ecstasy.

　　現在你們捫心自問：“我們將怎樣區別快樂衝的善與惡呢?”去你們的田野和花園，你們就會明白蜜蜂的快樂在於採集花蜜，對於花朵而言，給蜜蜂提供花蜜就是快樂。因為蜜蜂視花朵為生命之泉，而花朵視蜜蜂為愛之使者，對於兩者而言，蜜蜂與花朵，給予與接受的快樂是一種需要，一種醉人心扉的喜悅。

　　People of Orphalese, be in your pleasures like the flowers and the bees.

　　奧菲里斯城的人們，盡情享受快樂吧，就像花朵和蜜蜂一樣!

　　學習

　　The Meditations

　　沉思錄

　　Begin each day by telling yourself: I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness 一 all of them due to the offenders' ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the evildoer himself, who is my brother ***not in the physical sense, but as a fellow-creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine***; therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man's two hands, feet, or eyelids, or like the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Natures law 一 and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction...

　　每天早晨醒來的時候告訴你自己：今天我將要面對紛紛擾擾,U忘恩負義，傲慢無禮，背叛與敵意，自私自利，所有這些都是那些冒犯者對善惡無知的表現。而對我來說，自己一直都深知善的真諦和崇高，惡的本質和低俗，以及施惡者的本性。那些所謂施惡者其實是我的兄弟***並非因為肉體上的接近，而是神賦予我們共同的理智和神聖***。既然如此，任何的攻擊都無法傷我一根毛髮，任何人都不能夠將我捲入卑劣的事情。我既不會生我兄弟的氣，也不會與之發生爭吵，因為我們天生註定要在一起工作，就如同人的兩隻手,一雙腳，或一對眼瞼，上下兩排牙齒一樣緊密不可分。妨礙別人就是違反自然法則，而憤怒與厭惡只是這種妨礙的一種形式……

　　Men seek for seclusion in the wilderness, by the seashore, or in the mountains — a dream you have cherished only too fondly yourself. But such fancies are wholly unworthy of a philosopher, since at any moment you choose you can retire within yourself. Nowhere can man find aquieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul... avail yourself often, then, of this retirement, and so continually renew yourself. Make your rules of life brief, yet so as to embrace the fundamentals; recurrence to them will then suffice to remove all vexation, and send you back without fretting to the duties to which you must return...

　　人在荒郊野外、高山海濱尋求隱居之所,愉快地追尋著自己所珍視的夢想。但是，對於一個哲人來說，這些幻想毫無必要。一個哲人可以隨時選擇自我隱居，最清靜、不受紛擾的靜修之所莫過於他的內心。善於利用好隱居所帶來的好處，不斷地昇華自己，使你的生活規則變得簡單，擁抱世間的基本規律。如此迴圈往復，定會消除一切煩惱，並且讓你安然返回到原來的生活責任當中，而不需憤怒和焦慮……

　　At day's first light have in readiness, against disinclination to leave your bed, the thought that"I am rising for the work of man." Must I grumble at setting out to do what I was born for, and for the sake of which I have been brought into the world? Is this the purpose of my creation, to lie here under the blankets and keep myself warm? "ah, but it is a great deal more pleasant!" was it for pleasure, then, that you were born, and not for work, not for effort? Look at the plants, the sparrows, ants, spiders, bees, all busy at their own tasks, each doing his part towards a coherent world-order; and will you refuse man's share of the work, instead of being prompt to carry out Nature's bidding?

　　當清晨第一縷陽光將要照射進來的時候，打消掉一切不願起床的念頭,要想到：“我起來是要為人類工作的。”對於我們註定要完成的天賦使命，我們非得去抱怨一番嗎?殊不知我們正是為這個天賦使命而來到世間。上帝創造了我，難道就是讓我躺在毯子下面溫暖自己的身體嗎?“噢，但是那樣做很舒適的啊!”難道我們生來便是為了舒適,而不是為了辛勤努力，為了工作勞動嗎?看看那些植物，那些麻雀，那些螞蟻，那些蜘蛛，那些蜜蜂，它們都在忙著自己的工作，為世界秩序的和諧盡著自己的那份力;難道你真的情願放棄人類應該履行的職責，而不主動接受大自然給我們的賞賜嗎?