Tuesday, November 18, 2008

菲利浦祥.英文短文分享Day2

Many great writers were active people who had strange experiences, traveled widely, and knew a lot of people. Do you think a woman who just stayed home, hardly ever saw anyone, and only published seven poems during her lifetime could be a great poet? Well, Emily Dickinson was. In fact, she is considered one of the greatest American poets of the nineteenth century. She was a rather unusual person. She seldom left her house, she never married, and she always dressed in white. But she wrote some wonderful poems about nature, love, life, and death. Her poems are short and not hard to read, but they have deep meanings. See if you can figure out the meanings of these poems.

許多偉大的作家都是活躍的人物,他們有奇特的經驗,到處旅行,並且認識許多人。你認為一位足不出戶的女子,幾乎避見任何人,而且一生中只發表了七首詩,有可能成為一位偉大的詩人嗎?嗯,愛彌麗.狄瑾蓀就是。事實上,她被認為是十九世紀最偉大的美國詩人之一。她是一個相當不尋常的人。她很少離家,終生未婚,並且總穿得一身白。但是她寫下了有關自然、愛、生與死的美妙詩篇。她的作品篇幅短,不難讀,卻意義深遠。試試看你能否明白下列詩作的意涵。
  1. strange KK: []
    奇特的
  2. experiences KK: []
    經驗
  3. poems KK: []

  4. rather KK: []
    相當
  5. unusual KK: []
    不尋常的
  6. seldom KK: []
    很少
  7. dressed KK: []
    穿著

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,
Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.


若我能使一顆心不致破碎,
此生我便不虛度。
若我能使一生命苦痛得以抒解,
或平撫一次痛楚,
或幫助一隻昏厥的知更鳥
重返它築巢之處,
此生我便不虛度。
  1. vain KK: []
    空虛的
  2. aching KK: []
    心痛的
  3. fainting KK: []
    昏暈

1 comment:

Mavis said...

補:片語 in vain-徒勞無功的