中国石油职称英语考试通用教材电子版（2007年）五十八

58. Three Days to See（假如给我三天光明）
　　1. All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified¹ time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours, but always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed² man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned³ criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly⁴ delimited.
　　1、我们大家都读过一些惊心动魄的故事，其主人公死期已定，生日无多。有的长达一年，有的短至24小时。但是我们总是有兴趣搞清楚：这个寿数将尽的人究竟愿意怎样度过他的最后的时日。当然，我所指的是能进行选择的自由的人，而不是活动范围受到严格限制的囚犯。
　　2. Such stories set us thinking, wondering what we should do under similar circumstances. What events, what experiences, what associations should we crowd into those last hours as mortal beings? What happiness should we find in reviewing the past, what regrets?
　　2、这些故事启迪我们思考，诱发我们想象：我们处于这类情况，该做什么呢?作为注定要死的人，我们在最后的时刻会忙不迭地干些什么，体验些什么，联想些什么?在回首往事时，我们又能领略到何种快慰，何种悔恨呢?
　　3. Sometimes I have thought it would be an excellent rule to live each day as if we should die tomorrow. Such an attitude would emphasize sharply the values of life. We should live each day with a gentleness, a vigor⁵, and a keenness of appreciation⁶ which are often lost when time stretches before us in the constant panorama⁷ of more days and months and years to come. There are those, of course, who would adopt the epicurean motto of "Eat, drink, and be merry," but most people would be chastened by the certainty of impending⁸ death.
　　3、有时我想，如果我们度过每一天时都假定明天即将去世，这将是个极好的准则。这样的处世态度会明显突出生命的价值。我们就会高雅地、朝气蓬勃地、感受强烈地来度过每一天，而当我们眼前时光悠悠，不绝流逝，岁月昼夜，绵绵无期，我们反而因此做不到上述种种。当然，在前面提到的假定情况下，有些人会奉行享乐主义的“吃喝玩乐”的信条。然而大多数人则会因迫在眉睫的死亡必定来临而感受到鞭策。
　　4. In stories the doomed hero is usually saved at the last minute by some stroke of fortune, but almost always his sense of values is changed. He becomes more appreciative⁹ of the meaning of life and its permanent spiritual values. It has often been noted¹⁰ that those who live, or have lived, in the shadow of death bring a mellow¹¹ sweetness to everything they do.
　　4、在故事中，那个命定要死的主人公通常是在最后时刻交上好运气被搭救了。但他的价值观几乎总是发生了变化。他变得更加欣赏生命的意义以及其永恒的神圣价值。人们已常常注意到，那些在死亡的阴影下生活着的人给他所做的每一件事都添上甜美的色彩。
　　5. Most of us, however, take life for granted. We know that one day we must die, but usually we picture that day as far in the future, when we are in buoyant health, death is all but unimaginable. We seldom think of it. The days stretch out in an endless vista¹². So we go about our petty task, hardly aware of our listless attitude towards life.
　　5、然而，我们中间大多数，则把生命视作为理所当然的。我们知道，总有一天我们会死去，但通常我们又把那一天想象为遥远的未来。当我们身强力壮欢快活泼时，死亡是件难以想象的事。我们几乎想不到它。来日方长，无边无涯。因此我们忙于种种琐事，几乎意识不到我们对待生活的漠然的态度。
　　6. The same lethargy, I am afraid, characterizes the use of our faculties¹³ and senses. Only the deaf appreciate hearing, only the blind realize the manifold blessings¹⁴ that lie in sight. Particularly does this observation apply to those who have lost sight and hearing in adult life. But those who have never suffered impairment of sight or hearing seldom make the fullest use of these blessed faculties. Their eyes and ears take in all sights and sound hazily¹⁶, without concentration, and with little appreciation. It is the same old story of not being grateful for what we have until we lose it, of not being conscious of health until we are ill.
　　6、我们在应用我们的感觉功能时，恐怕也同样持有这种冷漠态度。只有聋者才知道听觉的重要，只有盲人才理解到视觉所包涵的千姿百态的赏心乐事。这一观点特别适用于那些在成年后才丧失视觉和听觉的人。而那些视觉和听觉从未受到损害的人则很少充分利用这些有幸获得的官能。他们的眼睛和耳朵模糊地、漫不经心地、不加欣赏地容纳入所有的景象和声音。还是那句老话：失后方知难得，病时倍思健康。
　　7. I have often thought it would be a blessing¹⁵ if each human being were stricken blind and deaf for a few days at some time during his early adult life. Darkness would make him more appreciative of sight; silence would teach him the joys of sound.
　　7、我常常想，如果每个人在刚成年时的某个时候能失明或失聪几天，这或许是件大好事。黑暗将使他更深刻地感受景象，而寂静将教会他领略声音的欢乐。
　　8. Now and then I have tested my seeing friends to discover what they see. Recently I was visited by a very good friend who had just returned from a long walk in the woods, and I asked her what she had observed. "Nothing in particular," she replied. I might have been incredulous had I not been accustomed to such responses, for long ago I became convinced that the seeing see little.
　　8、我不时考问我的有视力的朋友，以了解他们所见的情况。最近有一个极好的朋友来看我，她是在林中溜达了好一会才回来的，我问她观察到了些什么。“没有什么特别的东西。”她回答说。要不是我对类似的反应已习以为常的话，我是会感到难以置信的。我之所以不觉为奇，是因为我早已得出结论：有视力者所见甚少。
　　9. How was it possible, I asked myself, to walk for an hour through the woods and see nothing worthy¹⁷ of note? I who cannot see find hundreds of things to interest me through mere¹⁸ touch. I feel the delicate symmetry of a leaf. I pass my hands lovingly about the smooth skin of a silver birch, or the rough shaggy bark of a pine. In spring I touch the branches of trees hopefully in search of a bud, the first sign of awakening¹⁹ Nature after her winter's sleep. I feel the delightful²⁰, velvety²¹ texture²² of a flower, and discover its remarkable²³ convolutions; and something of the miracle of Nature is revealed to me. Occasionally, if I am very fortunate, I place my hand gently in a small tree and feel the happy quiver of a bird in full song. ! am delighted to have cool waters of a brook²⁴ rush through my open fingers. To me a lush carpet of pine needles or spongy grass is more welcome than the most luxurious²⁵ Persian rug. To me the pageant²⁶ of seasons is a thrilling and unending drama, the action of which streams through my finger tips.
　　9、我问自己，在林中溜达了一个小时而竟没有看到什么值得注意的东西，这怎么可能呢?我这个看不见东西的人，仅凭触摸就发现千百种使我感兴趣的东西。我感觉到叶片的精致的对称。我用手爱抚着光滑的白桦树皮，或是粗糙的松树皮。春天里，我满怀希望地触摸树枝，冀求找着一颗幼芽—大自然经过冬日沉睡重又苏醒的最早的征兆。我摸着花朵的可爱的天鹅绒般的质地，并发现它的花瓣一圈圈叠合得那么巧妙，于是我领略到了某种大自然的神奇。偶尔，如果我十分幸运的话，我把手轻轻搭在一棵小树上，能感到一只小鸟儿尽情歌唱的欢愉的颤动。我非常高兴让清凉的溪水流过我的张开的手指。对我来说，那厚密的松针层或茂盛松软的绿茵地比豪华的波斯地毯更惬意。对我来说，四季的奇瑰变幻犹如一出动人心弦的永不落幕的话剧，它的情节似水般徐徐从我指尖流过。
　　10. At times my heart cries out with longing²⁷ to see all these things. If I can get so much pleasure from mere touch, how much more beauty must be revealed by sight. Yet, those who have eyes apparently²⁸ see little. The panorama of color and action fill the world is taken for granted. It is human, perhaps, to appreciate little that which we have and to long for that which we have not, but it is a great pity that in the world of light and the gift of sight is used only as mere convenience rather that as a means of adding fullness to life.
　　10、我的心时时在呼号，渴望见到所有这一切。如果我单靠触摸就能获得如许乐趣，那么通过视觉又将能领略到多少美景呀。可是，那些双目完好的人显然所见甚少。大干世界中的五光十色的千姿百态被认为是理所当然的。对已获得的不以为意，而对未获得的却引颈企盼，这一点或许是人类的特性，可是，非常遗憾，在光明的世界里，天赋的视力只被当成一种单纯的方便，而不是一种使生活臻于完美的手段。
　　11. If I were the president of a university I should establish a compulsory²⁹ course in "How to Use Your Eyes". The professor would try to show his pupils how they could add joy to their lives by really seeing what passes unnoticed before them. He would try to awake their dormant³⁰ and sluggish³¹ faculties.
　　11、如果我是大学校长，我就要开设一门必修课：“如何使用你们的眼睛”。教授应尽力向学生说明，如何做到真正看见那些从他们面前不知不觉溜掉的东西，从而为自己的生活增添快乐。他将尽力唤醒他们那些昏睡懒散的感官。
　　12. Suppose you set your mind to work on the problem of how you would use your own eyes if you had only three more days to see. If with the oncoming darkness of the third night you knew that the sun would never rise for you again, how would you spend those three precious intervening days? What would you most want to let your gaze rest upon?
　　12、假定你在开动脑筋研究这一问题：如果你只有三天的视力了，你将如何使用你的眼睛呢?如果你知道当第三个夜晚的黑暗降临，太阳就永远不再为你升起，你将如何度过其间宝贵的三天呢?你最愿意让你的目光落在何处?
　　13. I, naturally, should want most to see the things which have become dear to me through my years of darkness. You, to, would want to let your eyes rest long on the things that have become dear to you so that you could take the memory of them with you into the night that loomed³² before you.
　　13、我当然最愿意看看那些在我整个失明的岁月里对我已变得亲切的东西。你也会想让你的目光长久地落在那些对你已变得亲切的东西上，这样你就可以把对它们的记忆带进已隐约逼近你的漫漫长夜中去。
　　14. I should want to see the people whose kindness and gentleness and companionship have made my life worth living. First I should like to gaze long upon the face of my dear teacher, Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, who came to me when I was a child and opened the outer world to me. I should want not merely to see the outline of her face, so that I could cherish it in my memory, but to study that face and find in it the living evidence of the sympathetic tenderness and patience with which she accomplished³³ the difficult task of my education. I should like to see in her eyes that strength of character which has enabled her to stand firm in the face of difficulties, and that compassion³⁴ for all humanity which she has revealed to me so often.
　　14、我要看看那些待我仁慈、温和、友好，从而使我的生活变得有价值的人们。首先，我要好好地端详我的老师安·沙利文·梅丝夫人的脸，她在我年幼的时候就来替我打开了外部世界。我不仅想看她的脸形，以便能把它珍藏在我的记忆中，而且还想细细揣摩这面容，并从中找出她的柔肠与耐心的活生生的证据—她正是用这种柔肠和耐心完成了教育我的艰巨任务。我想在她的眼中看到那种使她坚定地面对各种困难的人格力量，以及那种她经常在我面前流露出来的对全人类的同情心。
　　15. I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that "window of the soul", the eye. I can only "see" through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture their personalities³⁵ by touch. I know their personalities, of course, through other means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them which I am sure would come through sight of them through watching their reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the immediate³⁷ and fleeting³⁸ reactions of their eyes and countenance³⁹.
　　15、我不知道，透过“心灵之窗”，即眼睛，来探视一个朋友的心是怎么回事。我只能通过我的指尖来“看”一张脸的轮廓。我能探察到欢笑、忧伤和许多其他明显的感情。我根据触摸脸庞的感觉来辨认朋友，但是我不能靠触摸来真正描绘出他们的全貌。当然，我通过其他手段，通过他们向我表达的思想，通过他们向我表现出的任何行动来了解他们的个性。但是，我无法对他们有更深的理解，因为我确信，要达到这种更深的理解，必须要目视他们，观察他们对各种所表达的思想及情况所作的反应，留意他们眼睛里和脸上那种瞬间和稍纵即逝的反应。
　　16. Friends who are near to me I know well, because through the months and years they reveal themselves to me in all their phases; but of casual friends I have only an incomplete impression, an impression gained from a handclasp, from spoken words which I take from their lips with my finger tips, or which they tap into the palm of my hand.
　　16、我熟悉那些和我亲近的朋友，因为长年累月以来他们向我显露了自己的各个方面，然而对于偶而结识的朋友我只有一种不完全的印象，这是仅凭握手以及言语所获得的印象。那些言语我又是靠用指尖触摸他们的嘴唇，或是靠他们叩击我的手掌而获悉的。
　　17. How much easier, how much more satisfying it is for you who can see to grasp quickly the essential qualities of another person by watching the subtleties⁴⁰ of expression, the quiver of a muscle, the flutter of a hand. But does it ever occur to you to use your sight to see into the inner nature of a friend or acquaintance? Do not most of you seeing people grasp casually⁴¹ the outward features of a face and let it go at that?
　　17、比较起来，你们这些能看见的人，通过观察表情的微妙变化、肌肉的颤动和手的措置来迅速地把握别人的本质特点，就容易得多了，满意得多了。但是，你们可曾想到要用自己的视力去看穿一个朋友或熟人的内在性格?你们这些有视力的人中的大多数不就是随便抓住一张脸的外部特征而就此为止了吗?
　　18. For instance, can you describe accurately⁴² the faces of five good friends? Some of you can, but many cannot. As an experiment, I have questioned husbands of long standing³⁶ about the color of their wives' eyes, and often they express embarrassed confusion and admit that they do not know. And, incidentally, it is a chronic⁴³ complaint of wives that their husbands do not notice new dresses, new hats, and changes in household arrangements.
　　18、举例来说，你能准确地描绘出五个好朋友的脸形吗?你们中有些人可以，但许多人不行。作为试验，我曾向一些结婚多年的丈夫询问过他们妻子眼睛的颜色，但他们常常表现出尴尬困惑的神色，承认不知道。这里顺便提及，做妻子的老是埋怨她们的丈夫不注意她们的新服装，新帽子以及房间布置中的变化。
　　19. The eyes of seeing persons soon become accustomed to the routine of their surrounding, and they actually see only the startling and spectacular. But even in viewing the most spectacular sights the eyes are lazy. Court records reveal every day how inaccurately⁴⁴ "eyewitnesses⁴⁵" see. A given event will be "seen" in several different ways by as many witnesses. Some see more than others, but few see everything that is within the range of their vision.
　　19、有视力者的眼睛很快就对他们周围日常事物感到习惯，因此他实际上只见到一些惊人的、壮观的景象。但是，哪怕是在看最壮观的场面时，他们的眼睛也是懒洋洋的。法院的记录每天都表明“目击者”所见是多么的不准确。一个特定事件可能被几个目击者从几个不同方面“看到”。有一些人比别人看得多些，但几乎没有人看到他们视野之内的一切。
　　20. Oh, the things that I should see if I had the power of sight for just three days!
　　20、哦，如果我能有即使仅是三天的视力，我该见到多少东西啊!