精美英文欣赏:无知的快乐

Part 5 The Pleasures of Ignorance

第五部分 无知的快乐

It is impossible to take a walk in the country with an average townsman-especially, perhaps, in April or May-without being amazed at the vast continent of his ignorance. It is impossible to take a walk in the country oneself without being amazed at the vast continent of one's own ignorance.Thousands of men and women live and die without knowing the difference between a beech¹ and an elm, between the song of a thrush and the song of a blackbird. Probably in a modern city the man who can distinguish between a thrush's and a blackbird's song is the exception. It is not that we have not seen the birds. It is simply that we have not noticed them. We have been surrounded by birds all our lives, yet so feeble is our observation that many of us could not tell whether or not the chaffinch sings, or the colour of the cuckoo.

和一个普通的城里人在乡村漫步-特别是，可能在四五月份--你不可能不对他无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。一个人去乡间散步，你不可能不对自己无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。成千上万的男男女女活着然后死去，一辈子也不知道山毛榉和榆树之间有什么区别，不知道画眉和黑鹂的啼鸣有什么不同。现代都市中能辨别画眉和黑鹂叫声的人大概是极其罕见的。并非我们没有见过这两种鸟儿，仅仅是因为我们从不去注意它们。我们一生中都有鸟儿生活在我们周围，然而我们的观察力是如此微弱，以致我们中间许多人弄不清楚苍头燕雀是否全唱歌，说不出布谷鸟是什么颜色。

This ignorance, however, is not altogether miserable². Out of it we get the constant pleasure of discovery. Every fact of nature comes to us each spring, if only we are sufficiently³ ignorant, with the dew still on it. If we have lived half a lifetime without having ever even seen a cuckoo, and know it only as a wandering voice, we are all the more delighted at the spectacle of its runaway⁴ flight as it hurries from wood to wood conscious of its crimes, and at the way in which it halts hawk-like in the wind, its long tail quivering, before it dares descend⁵ on a hill-side of fir-trees where avenging⁶ presences may lurk⁷.

然而，这种无知并不完全是不幸的。从无知中，我们能源源不断地获取发现带来的喜悦。但愿我们真的一无听知，那么每到春天，各种自然现象就会带着清新的露珠呈现在我们眼前。如果我们已生活半生，甚至未曾见过一只布谷鸟，而仅仅把它当成一个四处飘荡的声音，那么.当我们亲眼目睹它因为自知自己的罪恶在林木间匆匆逃离穿梭，看到它如何如鹰般在风中骤然停止鸣叫，摆动着瑟瑟发抖的长尾翼，不敢在小山旁的冷杉上停歇，担心那里危机四伏时，我们一定会更加欣喜。

It would be absurd to pretend that the naturalist⁸ does not also find pleasure in observing the life of the birds, but his is a steady pleasure, almost a sober and plodding⁹ occupation, compared to the morning enthusiasm of the man who sees a cuckoo for the first time. And, as to that, the happiness even of the naturalist depends in some measure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer. He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes. Assuredly the men of science have no reason as yet to weep over their lost ignorance. There will always be a fortune of ignorance waiting for them under every fact they turn up.

如果博物学家在观察鸟类的生活时发现不到乐趣，那是荒谬可笑的。和清晨有人第一次看到布谷鸟的兴奋相比，博物学家的快乐是稳固的，他们的工作是严肃而漫长的。为此，甚至是博物学家的幸福在某种程度上也取决他的无知，无知给他留下这类新天地让他去征服。他的书本知识可能已经达到了顶峰，但是，在他亲眼证实每一个光辉的细节之前, 他仍然感到自己是半无知的，无疑，科学家们迄今没有理由为他们错过的无知而哭泣。在他们发掘出的每一个事实下面总将会有一笔无知的财富在等待着他们。

But your and my ignorance is not confined to cuckoos. It dabbles¹⁰ in all created things, from the sun and moon down to the names of the flowers, including nearly everything you and I have taken for granted. One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen¹¹. Do not forget that Socrates. was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient¹² but because he realised at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing. Once more I shall see the world as a garden through the eyes of a stranger, my breath taken away with surprise by the painted fields.

但是，你我的无知绝不仅仅局限于布谷鸟，它涉及世间万物，上到太阳和月亮，下到百花的名称，几乎包括所有你我认为是理所当然的事物。人类感受过的最大的快乐之一就是迅速逃到无知中去追求知识。无知的巨大乐趣，归根结底，是提问的乐趣。已经失去了这种快乐的人，或已经用这种快乐去换取教条的乐趣（即回答问题的乐趣)的人，已经开始僵化。不要忘记苏格拉底之所以以其智慧闻名于世，并不是因为他无所不知而是因为他在70岁的时候认识到他还什么都不知道. 而我将再一次用陌生人的眼光来审视这个花园一样的世界，每当我看到那如画的田野，我都将惊叹不已。

1 beech   

n.山毛榉；adj.山毛榉的

参考例句：

• Autumn is the time to see the beech woods in all their glory.秋天是观赏山毛榉林的最佳时期。
• Exasperated,he leaped the stream,and strode towards beech clump.他满腔恼怒，跳过小河，大踏步向毛榉林子走去。

2 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

3 sufficiently   

adv.足够地，充分地

参考例句：

• It turned out he had not insured the house sufficiently.原来他没有给房屋投足保险。
• The new policy was sufficiently elastic to accommodate both views.新政策充分灵活地适用两种观点。

4 runaway   

n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的

参考例句：

• The police have not found the runaway to date.警察迄今没抓到逃犯。
• He was praised for bringing up the runaway horse.他勒住了脱缰之马受到了表扬。

5 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。

6 avenging   

adj.报仇的，复仇的v.为…复仇，报…之仇( avenge的现在分词 )；为…报复

参考例句：

• He has devoted the past five years to avenging his daughter's death. 他过去5年一心报丧女之仇。 来自辞典例句
• His disfigured face was like some avenging nemesis of gargoyle design. 他那张破了相的脸，活象面目狰狞的复仇之神。 来自辞典例句

7 lurk   

n.潜伏，潜行；v.潜藏，潜伏，埋伏

参考例句：

• Dangers lurk in the path of wilderness.在这条荒野的小路上隐伏着危险。
• He thought he saw someone lurking above the chamber during the address.他觉得自己看见有人在演讲时潜藏在会议厅顶上。

8 naturalist   

n.博物学家(尤指直接观察动植物者)

参考例句：

• He was a printer by trade and naturalist by avocation.他从事印刷业，同时是个博物学爱好者。
• The naturalist told us many stories about birds.博物学家给我们讲述了许多有关鸟儿的故事。

9 plodding   

a.proceeding in a slow or dull way

参考例句：

• They're still plodding along with their investigation. 他们仍然在不厌其烦地进行调查。
• He is plodding on with negotiations. 他正缓慢艰难地进行着谈判。

10 dabbles   

v.涉猎( dabble的第三人称单数 )；涉足；浅尝；少量投资

参考例句：

• He dabbles in local politics. 他开始涉足地方政坛。
• She dabbles in painting as a hobby. 她学点绘画作为业余爱好。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 stiffen   

v.(使)硬，(使)变挺，(使)变僵硬

参考例句：

• The blood supply to the skin is reduced when muscles stiffen.当肌肉变得僵硬时，皮肤的供血量就减少了。
• I was breathing hard,and my legs were beginning to stiffen.这时我却气吁喘喘地开始感到脚有点僵硬。

12 omniscient   

adj.无所不知的；博识的

参考例句：

• He's nervous when trying to potray himself as omniscient.当他试图把自己描绘得无所不知时，内心其实很紧张。
• Christians believe that God is omniscient.基督教徒相信上帝是无所不知的。