優美的英語散文

　　春天隨著春風踏著優美的舞步與大地擦肩而過，就在這剎那間，大地的每一個角落都變得奼紫嫣紅。噴泉吐出了一朵又一朵美妙的水花，濛濛的綠蔭間一團團粉色在輕輕的搖曳;下面是有，歡迎參閱。

　　：自由飛翔

　　One windy spring day，I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the strong winds gusted against the kites，a string kept them in check.

　　Instead of blowing away with the wind，they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled，but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow，facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string，they seemed to say，“Let me go!Let me go!I want to be free!”They soared beautifully even as they fought the restriction of the string. Finally，one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last，”it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”

　　Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last” free to lie powerless in the dirt，to be blown helplessly along the ground，and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.

　　How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity and restrictions，rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.

　　Let us each rise to the great heights，recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve.

　　在一個有風的春日，我看到一群年輕人正在迎風放風箏玩樂，各種顏色、各種形狀和大小的風箏就好像美麗的鳥兒在空中飛舞。當強風把風箏吹起，牽引線就能夠控制它們。

　　風箏迎風飄向更高的地方，而不是隨風而去。它們搖擺著、拉扯著，但牽引線以及笨重的尾巴使它們處於控制之中，並且迎風而上。它們掙扎著、抖動著想要掙脫線的束縛，彷彿在說：“放開我!放開我!我想要自由!”即使與牽引線奮爭著，它們依然在美麗地飛翔。終於，一隻風箏成功掙脫了。“終於自由了，”它好像在說，“終於可以隨風自由飛翔了!”

　　然而，脫離束縛的自由使它完全處於無情微風的擺佈下。它毫無風度地震顫著向地面墜落，落在一堆亂草之中，線纏繞在一顆死灌木上。“終於自由”使它自由到無力地躺在塵土中，無助地任風沿著地面將其吹走，碰到第一個障礙物便毫無生命地滯留在那裡了。

　　有時我們真像這風箏啊!上蒼賦予我們困境和約束，賦予我們成長和增強實力所要遵從的規則。約束是逆風的必要匹配物。我們中有些人是如此強硬地抵制規則，以至我們從來無法飛到本來能夠達到的高度。我們只遵從部分戒律，因此永遠不會飛得足夠高，使尾巴遠離地面。

　　讓我們每個人都飛到高處吧，並且認識到這一點：有些可能會令我們生氣的約束，實際上是幫助我們攀升和實現願望的平衡力。

　　：演講其實很簡單

　　Speaking in public is most people s least favorite thing. the reason is that we re all afraid of making fools of ourselves. The more important the speech, the more frightened we become.

　　But stop biting your finger-nails. Public speaking is easy. It s just plain talking, and you talk all the time. Although I m basically shy***honest!***, I ve been making speeches and talking on radio and television for more than 30 years, and I can tell you that public speaking is not a “gift” like musical talent or being able to draw. Anybody who can talk can speak in public. Here are some of the lessons I have learned:

　　Keep it simple.

　　Your audience2 is going to come away with one or two of your main ideas. One or two. Not ten or 20. If you can t express in a sentence or two what you intend to get across3, then your speech is not focused well enough. And if you don t have a clear idea of what you want to say, there s no way your audience will.

　　No matter how long or short your speech, you ve got to get your ducks in a row—how you re going to open, what major points you want to make and how you re going to close.

　　When I do a radio or TV piece, I often write the last sentence first. When you know where you re headed, you can choose any route to get there. A strong close is critical4: the last thing you say is what your audience will most likely remember.

　　Keep it short.

　　the standard length of a vaudeville5 act was 12 minutes. If all those troupers6 singing and dancing their hearts out couldn t go on longer without boring the audience, what makes you think you can?

　　很少有人喜歡在公共場合演講，原因是我們都怕出洋相，越是重要的演講心裡越恐慌。

　　但是你不必緊張兮兮的。演講其實很容易。演講就跟平常說話差不多，大家天天都在說話。我這個人儘管骨子裡很害羞***這是實話!***，但卻在廣播電視節目裡講了30多年，說了30多年。可以這麼跟你說，演講跟音樂才華和繪畫能力不一樣，不靠“天賦”。只要會說話就能演講。這裡談談我自己的幾點經驗。

　　要簡單明瞭

　　別人聽你講話，總會記住你的一兩個要點。一兩點，不是一二十點。如果一兩句話不能把你想說的意思表達出來，那說明你說話的重點不夠突出。如果連你都不知道自己想說什麼，怎麼能指望別人聽明白呢?

　　說話長也好，短也好，必須井井有條——開始說什麼，主要想談哪幾點，最後怎麼收尾。

　　我做廣播電視節目的時候，常常先把最後一句話寫好。一旦你知道了目標，路徑就可以任你挑選了。關鍵是收尾要有力：最後說的話別人可能記得最清楚。

　　：一個人的空間

　　Those who wish to sing always find a song. — Swedish proverb

　　If you have ever gone through a toll booth, you know that your relationship to the person in the booth is not the most intimate you’ll ever have. It is one of life’s frequent non-encounters: You hand over some money; you might get change; you drive off. I have been through every one of the 17 toll booths on the Oakland-San Francisco Bay Bridge on thousands of occasions, and never had an exchange worth remembering with anybody.

　　Late one morning in 1984, headed for lunch in San Francisco, I drove toward one of the booths. I heard loud music. It sounded like a party, or a Michael Jackson concert. I looked around. No other cars with their windows open. No sound trucks. I looked at the toll booth. Inside it, the man was dancing.

　　“What are you doing?” I asked.

　　“I’m having a party,” he said.

　　“What about the rest of these people?” I looked over at other booths; nothing moving there.

　　“They’re not invited.”

　　I had a dozen other questions for him, but somebody in a big hurry to get somewhere started punching his horn behind me and I drove off. But I made a note to myself: Find this guy again. There’s something in his eye that says there’s magic in his toll booth.

　　Months later I did find him again, still with the loud music, still having a party.

　　Again I asked, “What are you doing?”

　　He said, “I remember you from the last time. I’m still dancing. I’m having the same party.”

　　I said, “Look. What about the rest of the people”

　　He said. “Stop. What do those look like to you?” He pointed down the row of toll booths.

　　“They look like tool booths.”

　　“Nooooo imagination!’

　　I said, “Okay, I give up. What do they look like to you?”

　　He said, “Vertical coffins.”

　　“What are you talking about?”

　　“I can prove it. At 8:30 every morning, live people get in. Then they die for eight hours. At 4:30, like Lazarus from the dead, they reemerge and go home. For eight hours, brain is on hold, dead on the job. Going through the motions.”

　　I was amazed. This guy had developed a philosophy, a mythology about his job. I could not help asking the next question: “Why is it different for you? You’re having a good time.”

　　He looked at me. “I knew you were going to ask that, “ he said. “I’m going to be a dancer someday.” He pointed to the administration building. “My bosses are in there, and they’re paying for my training.”

　　Sixteen people dead on the job, and the seventeenth, in precisely the same situation, figures out a way to live. That man was having a party where you and I would probably not last three days. The boredom! He and I did have lunch later, and he said, “I don’t understand why anybody would think my job is boring. I have a corner office, glass on all sides. I can see the Golden Gate, San Francisco, the Berkeley hills; half the Western world vacations here and I just stroll in every day and practice dancing.”

　　如果你仔細觀察一個收費亭，你就會知道你與亭子裡的這個人關係不是最親密的，這是生命中常常出現的非偶遇者。你遞給他一些錢，或許他還要找你些零錢，然後你開車走了。我仔細觀察過17家收費亭，並在奧克蘭-舊金山海灣大橋千百次路過，卻沒有一次找錢值得我記起某個人。

　　1984年的一個上午，很晚了，我驅車去舊金山吃午飯，開到一個收費亭旁邊，我聽到很響的音樂聲。聽起來好像在開舞會，或是邁克爾•傑克遜的音樂會。我朝四周看。別的汽車沒有開啟窗戶的，也沒有宣傳車。我朝收費亭裡望去，有個人在裡邊跳舞。

　　“你在幹嗎?”我問。

　　“我在開舞會呢，”他說。

　　“那其他人呢?”我看其他的亭子，沒什麼動靜。

　　“我沒邀請他們。”

　　我還有十幾個問題要問他，但我後面的人急著要去某地，開始按喇叭，我只好開走了。但我在心裡告訴自己：還要再找這個人。他眼裡有某種東西，告訴我在他的收費亭裡一種魔力。

　　幾個月後我又見到了他，音樂仍然很響，舞會還在舉行。

　　我再次問他：“你在做什麼呢?”

　　他說：“我記得你上次問過了。我還在跳舞，還在舉行同樣的舞會。”

　　我說：“瞧，其他人呢?”

　　“打住。”他說，“你看那些東西像什麼呢?”他指著那排收費亭。

　　“看來就像收費亭啊。”

　　“真是沒有想象力!”

　　我說;“那好，我放棄。你看它們像什麼呢?”

　　他說：“直立的棺材。”

　　“你在說些什麼呀?”

　　“我可以證實。每早八點半，活的人進去。然後他們死亡八個小時。下午四點半，就像死人中的拉撒路，他們復活回到家中。整整八個小時，頭腦思維中斷，他們只是呆板地工作，重複著相同的動作。”

　　我感到非常驚異。這個小夥子發展了一種哲學，創造了一個有關工作的神話。我禁不住又問了一個問題：“為什麼你不一樣?你過得很快樂。”

　　他看我：“我就知道你會問這個，”他接著說，“總有一天我會成為一個舞蹈家。”我指向行政機關大樓：“我的老闆都在那裡，他們花錢為我培訓。”

　　十六個人呆板地做著工作，而第十七個，幾乎處於同樣的情況，卻找到另外一種生活方式。那個人在舉辦的舞會，你我恐怕連三天都堅持不了。無聊!他和我後來確實一起吃過午飯，他說：“我不理解為何每個人都認為我的工作很枯燥。我有一個街角辦公室，四周都是玻璃。我可以看見金門海峽、舊金山和伯克利山，半個西方世界都在這兒度假，每天我只是漫步到這裡，練習跳舞。”

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