Unit4 牛津
There are certain things in the world that are so praiseworthy that it seems a needless, indeed an almost laughable thing to praise them; such things are love and friendship, food and sleep, spring and summer; such things, too, are the wisest books, the greatest pictures, the noblest cities. But for all that I mean to try and make a little hymn in prose in honour of Oxford, a city I have seen but seldom, and which yet appears to me one of the most beautiful things in the world.
此世间确有诸多凡物，它们本身便是值得人们去品味和赞誉的，譬如说爱情和友谊、美食和睡梦、春和夏日，还有如那些注满了智慧的书卷、注满了心血的画作和注满了圣意的城邦 。也许对于这些凡物而言，再多的赞誉已无非是陈词滥调，荒唐可笑的，但我之所以还是想要对上述这些事物品味、赞誉一番，都是为了向牛津城表示我的敬意。牛津城对我来说，就是这世间极其罕见，又最为美丽的地方之一。
I do not wish to single out particular buildings, but to praise the whole effect of the place, such as it seemed to me on a day of bright sun and cool air, when I wandered hour after hour
among the streets, bewildered and almost intoxicated with beauty, feeling as a poor man might who has pinched all his life, and made the most of single coins, and who is brought into the presence of a heap of piled-up gold, and told that it is all his own.
我并不想单独从牛津城里遴选出一些建筑来赞誉；我想要赞誉的是这块土地上所映射出的一种整体效果。这种效果在我看来，就好比是在一个阳光明媚、天气清爽的日子里，一连花上几个小时，徜徉在牛津城的街道上，痴迷、甚至是沉醉于这番美景之中。这感觉就犹如是把一位穷得一辈子衣衫褴褛、靠一角一分过日子的人带到一堆金矿旁，然后告诉他，这些财富都已归他所有。
I have seen it said in foolish books that it is a misfortune to Oxford that so many of the buildings have been built out of so perishable a vein of stone. It is indeed a misfortune in one respect, that it tempts men of dull and precise minds to restore and replace buildings of incomparable grace, because their outline is so exquisitely blurred by time and decay. I remember myself, as a child, visiting Oxford, and thinking that some of the buildings were almost shamefully ruinous of aspect; now that I am wiser I know that we have in these batt
ered and fretted palace-fronts a kind of beauty that fills the mind with almost despairing sense of loveliness, till the heart aches with gratitude, and thrills with the desire to proclaim the glory of the sight aloud.
我曾在一些荒谬、无理的书里读到说，牛津城里如此之多的建筑都用易被腐蚀、布满裂纹的砖石砌成，这简直就是一场灾难。从某种角度来说，这倒确实是一场灾难，因为随着时间的流逝，用这种砖石砌成的建筑会渐渐破败，建筑的轮廓会很明显地变得七零八落，这便会惹得那些脑袋不灵活的笨家伙们想着整修或重建这些与牛津城魅力格格不入的“破玩意儿”。记得在我儿时游访牛津城时，我也曾这么想——这些建筑如此破旧不堪，几乎都是见不得人了；可现在，随着我年数和阅历的增益，我才知道在那些破旧不堪、磨坏受损的殿堂式房子里，蕴藏着一种别样的魅力。这种魅力乍看上去真是令人几近绝望，直到人们对这壮观之景开始心生感激时，才会猛地萌发出一种要高声赞誉这股魅力的念头。
These black-fronted blistered facades, so threatening, so sombre, yet screening so bright and clear a current of life; with the tender green of budding spring trees, chestnuts full of silvery spires, glossy-leaved creepers clinging, with tiny hands, to cornice and parapet, give
surely the sharpest and most delicate sense that it is possible to conceive of the contrast on which the essence of so much beauty depends. To pass through one of these dark and smoke-stained courts, with every line mellowed and harmonised, as if it had grown up so out of the earth; to find oneself in a sunny pleasaunce, carpeted with velvet turf, and set thick with flowers, makes the spirit sigh with delight.
牛津大学城里这些满目苍夷、发黑起泡的建筑，乍看上去是如此地阴沉、昏暗，其实也映射出着一番光鲜、清新的生命力——树木在春天冒出了绿叶嫩枝，栗子树上窜满了毛茸茸的幼叶，叶面光亮的爬山虎将它无数细小的藤蔓吸在了建筑的檐口和挡墙上。这便无疑给了人们一种极为强烈又相当细腻的生命感，让人构想出一副融此美景于一体、反差鲜明的画面。随意穿过校园里的那些阴暗、黝黑的院子，院子的墙角线既沉稳又润和，就仿佛是从地下窜出来似的；再个阳光明媚的日子，到那铺满绒草、缀满繁花的庭子里去，人的一呼一吸之间都能透射出内心中的愉悦之情。那些高大的门柱可是这世上其他地方看不到的，门柱的顶部嵌有一块纹章，细长的爬山虎藤蔓舒展地缠在门柱间的铁格栅上，真是惹人喜爱。
Nowhere in the world can one see such a thing as those great gate-piers, with a cognisanc
e a-top, with a grille of iron-work between them, all sweetly entwined with some slim vagrant creeper, that give a glimpse and a hint—no more—of a fairy-land of shelter and fountains within. I have seen such palaces stand in quiet and stately parks, as old, as majestic, as finely proportioned as the buildings of Oxford; but the very blackness of the city air, and the drifting smoke of the town, gives that added touch of grimness and mystery that the country airs cannot communicate.
透过那些铁格栅，便可略微瞥见——仅仅是可以略微瞥见——那里面如仙境般的屋舍和喷泉。这样的建筑，我倒是在一些庄重而寂静的庭院里看到过，那些建筑也是破旧不堪，但却相当高贵，和牛津大学城里的这些建筑就好像是一个模子里刻出来似的。但是，这儿校园里昏昏沉沉的气息，和镇上一屡一屡的炊烟，给这里增添了一股乡村庭院里不到的敬畏感和神秘感。
And even fairer sights are contained within; those panelled, dark-roofed halls, with their array of portraits gravely and intently regarding the strangers; the chapels, with their splendid classical screens and stalls, rich and dim with ancient glass. The towers, domes, a
nd steeples; and all set not in a mere paradise of lawns and glades, but in the very heart of a city, itself full of quaint and ancient houses, but busy with all the activity of a brisk and prosperous town; thereby again giving the strong and satisfying sense of contrast, the sense of eager and every-day cares and pleasures, side by side with these secluded havens of peace, the courts and cloister, where men may yet live a life of gentle thought and quiet contemplation, untroubled, nay, even stimulated, by the presence of a bustling life so near at hand, which yet may not intrude upon the older dream.

版权声明：本站内容均来自互联网，仅供演示用，请勿用于商业和其他非法用途。如果侵犯了您的权益请与我们联系QQ:729038198，我们将在24小时内删除。