【英文短篇共读：第1篇-02】The Five Boons of Life by Mark Twain 人生的五种恩赐

「根据大家反馈，增加短篇小说共读内容。

配有中文对照，每次阅读时长不超3分钟。

作为其他原版小说书评的补充。

英语积累为主，评论为辅，大家可以自行解读。

没有时间和信心阅读整本原版小说的你，

可以从短篇小说读起。」

所选内容均出自一款小说阅读App，因为是我之前自行购买的，文字也是我手动打的。所以拿出来分享应该也没关系吧。

这次分享为马克·吐温的《人生的五种恩赐》，计划分三次读完。

（此篇为第二次阅读）

Chapter III

“Choose again.” It was the fairy speaking.

“再选一次。”仙女说。

“The years have taught you wisdom-surely it must be so. Three gifts remain. Only one of them has any worth- remember it, and choose warily.”

“年华已教你变得睿智了—肯定是这样的。还剩下三件礼物。它们中只有一个是有价值的—记住这点，小心地选择。”

The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighting, went her way.

那人沉思了很久，然后选了名誉；仙女叹息着离开了。

Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat solitary in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:

许多年过去了，仙女又来了，站在那人后面；而他则在消逝的日子里孤独地坐着，思考着。仙女知道他在想什么：

“My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! “我曾在世间鼎鼎有名，人人皆夸赞我，曾经有那么一阵子，我感觉很不错。但这是多么短暂的一阵子啊！ Then came envy; then detraction; then calumny; then hate; then persecution. Then derision, which is the beginning of the end. 然后随之而来的是嫉妒；接着是诽谤；接着是中伤；接着是仇恨；接着是迫害。再接着是嘲笑，这是结束的开端。

And last of all came pity, which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown! Target for mud in its prime, for contempt and compassion in its decay.”

最后是遗憾，它是名誉的葬礼。噢，声望带来的心酸和痛苦啊！鼎盛时它是诽谤的靶子，衰落时便是被轻视和同情的对象。”

Chapter IV

“Choose yet again.” It was the fairy’s voice.

“再选一次。” 还是仙女的声音。

“Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but one that was precious, and it is still here.”

“剩下两件礼物。不要绝望。一开始的时候只有一件礼物是有价值的，它现在仍然在这儿。”

“Wealth-which is power! How blind I was!” said the man. “Now, at last, life will be worth the living. I will spend, squander, dazzle. “财富—它就是力量！我当初真是瞎了眼！”那人说，“现在，这日子终于值得过下去了。我会消费、大把花钱、炫耀我的财富。 These mockers and despisers will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed my hungry heart with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all enchantments of the spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds dear.

这些嘲笑我和轻视我的人将会在我面前的泥土中爬行，而我会用他们的嫉妒填满我的雄心。我将拥有一切奢侈品、所有的欢乐、所有精神上的魅力，以及人们所珍视的身体上的所有满足。

I will buy, buy, buy! deference, respect, esteem, worship- every pinchbeck grace of life the market of a trivial world can furnish forth. I have lost much time, and chosen badly heretofore, but let that pass; I was ignorant then, and could but take for best what seemed so. ”

我要买、买、买！顺从、尊敬、尊重和崇拜—点缀俗世生活的各种廉价的体面。我已经失去很多时间，而且迄今为止做了那么多错误的选择，但就让那一切过去吧；那时的我很无知，以为看上去最好的就是最好的。”

Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in a mean garret; and he was gaunt and wan and hollow-eyed, and clothed in rages; and he was gnawing a dry crust and mumbling:

短短三年过去了，终于有一天，那人颤抖地坐在一间破落的阁楼里；他面容憔悴、脸色苍白、眼窝凹陷并且衣衫褴褛；他正咬着一块干面包皮，喃喃地说着：

“Curse all the world’s gifts, for mockeries and gilded lies! And miscalled, every one. They are not gifts, but merely lendings. Pleasure, Love, Fame, Riches: they are but temporary disguises for lasting realities—Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty. “世上所有的礼物都见鬼去吧，全都是嘲弄和镀金的谎言！它们中的每一个都被称呼错了。它们并非礼物，只是租借物。快乐、爱情、名誉、财富；它们只是伤痛、悲伤、耻辱、贫困—这些长久现实的短暂伪装。 The fairy said true; in all her store there was but one gift which was precious, only one that was not valueless.

仙女说的是对的；她所有的藏品中只有一件是珍贵的礼物，只有一件是无价之宝。 How poor and cheap and mean I know those others now to be, compared with that inestimable one, that dear and sweet and kindly one, that steeps in dreamless and enduring sleep the pains that persecute the body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind and heart. Bring it! I am weary, I would rest.”

现在我才知道，同那件无价之宝，那件心爱的、可爱的、亲切的礼物比起来，其他礼物都显得如此卑微、廉价和低劣。那件礼物能让你身体所遭受的痛苦以及心灵所蒙受的耻辱和忧伤都沉浸在无梦的、永久的睡眠中。把它带来吧！我已经疲倦了，我要休息了。”

（未完待续）

曾经高中英文不及格的我，现在也能读懂英文原版小说～

好看的小说那么多，欢迎来我的个人公众号看看：雨田书房（ID：readingisthenewsexy）