英语名篇诵读 生命的历程（在线收听）

The Passage of Life

生命的历程

W. H. Hudson(W. H. 赫德森)

The bird, however hard the frost may be, flies briskly to his customary roosting -place, and, with beak tucked into his wing, falls asleep. He has no apprehensions ; only the hot blood grows colder and colder, the pulse feebler as he sleeps, and at midnight, or in the early morning, he drops from his perch — dead.

Yesterday he lived and moved, responsive to a thousand external influences, reflecting earth and sky in his small brilliant brain as in a looking-glass; also he had a various language, the inherited knowledge of his race, and the faculty of flight, by means of which he could shoot, meteor-like, across the sky, and pass swiftly from place to place; and with it such perfect control over all his organs, such marvellous certitude in all his motions, as to be able to drop himself plumb down from the tallest tree-top, or out of the void air, on to a slender spray , and scarcely cause its leaves to tremble. Now, on this morning, he lies stiff and motionless; if you were to take him up and drop him from your hand, he would fall to the ground like a stone or a lump of clay — so easy and swift is the passage from life to death in wild nature! But he was never miserable.

那只鸟，无论天气多么寒冷，总是轻快地飞往它惯常的栖息地，把喙埋进翅膀，恬然入眠。它无忧无虑，只是在睡梦中热血变得越来越冷，脉搏跳得越来越弱，在午夜时分，或者在凌晨，它从栖木上掉了下来——死了。

昨天，它还活着，那么轻快、灵巧，对外界的无数动静做出反应，像镜子般把天地映入它小小的聪明脑袋，还说着变幻不定的语言——鸟儿那代代相传的知识，敏捷的身影，像流星似的划过天空，在天地之间翩然翱翔。它所有的器官都完美地协作，所有的动作都惊人地准确，能够从最高的树梢飞降直下，或从九霄直冲下来，落在一个纤细的小树枝上，还几乎不使得树叶摇晃。而现在，在这个早晨，它僵硬地躺在地上，一动不动；如果你把它捡起然后从手中丢下，它会像一块石头或一块泥巴那样落在地上——在自然界中，生命的历程是多么短暂，从生到死的过程是多么轻易，多么迅速啊！但这只小鸟从不悲伤苦恼。