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● 她们姊妹间的闲谈，并不（little有否定的意义）乱人心意（distracting），反而有使人安静的作用（restful），犹如公园里（喷水泉？）的水珠溅落之声（splashings）。playful原义“嬉戏的”，这里作“忽快忽慢，时东时西”解。
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The last time I saw Rosie (we knew it was the last), she wore her pale Mestiza gown, with its sheer high-shouldered sleeves like wings of butterflies. Among the boles of a grove of palms—a tranquil, timeless colonnade in the moonlight—we built a diminutive fire. Then through long night hours we watched its embers blacken, die, and fall to ashes. My memory of those hours is sharply clear, and only a little sweetened by time, but I can remember no spoken words.
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● Mestiza为Mestizo（菲律宾人之杂有华人血统者）之女性形式。Mestiza gown当为菲律宾混血女儿所惯穿之女式长衣，是“土装”并非“美式”服装也。sheer：绝薄的（衣料）。sleeves：袖。high-shouldered：衣袖在肩部耸起的。
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● grove of palms：一片棕林。棕树干直无枝，叶生干端，人居林中，但见有干（boles），不见枝叶。群树矗立拱卫，犹如柱廊（colonnade）。tranquil：安静的。timeless：终古常存的。diminutive：很小的。fire：堆木柴而生之火。
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● embers：火烬。接着用三个不加to的不定式动词：blacken（由红变黑），die（火熄成炭），fall to ashes（炭碎为死灰）。
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● sweetened by time约相当于中文“愈陈愈香”之意。当时情境，犹历历如在目前，所不同者，唯因岁月推移，回忆益觉甜蜜耳。
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● I can remember no spoken words：两人言语本不通，今别离在即，相对黯然，更没有话可说。自然也记不起说过什么话了。
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I remember well the yellow and mellow Manila cigar that I gently puffed and rolled between my fingers. I recall how I stretched on the dark, springy earth as the night’s gauzy warmth caressed me. I can see the ivory of Rosie’s cheek and Rosie’s arms that glowed here and there orange-red in the firelight. Her eyes were black and sad like a spaniel’s eyes. Her soft lips smiled and smiled.
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● mellow：烟味醇和的。puffed：以口喷烟。rolled：搓卷。
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● stretched：伸臂舒腿地躺下。springy：有弹性如弹簧的。gauzy：轻薄如纱的。夜间暖气，轻如薄纱，来抚我身。ivory：象牙。彼女脸颊双臂之色本如象牙，今火光照处，其肌肤乃发桔色红光。here and there：东一处西一处的。火焰跳跃无定，火光有及有不及，明暗亦不一致。orange-red乃形容词，用作subjective complement。
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● spaniel：西班牙狗，其眼乌黑而有忧郁之表情。
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● Her soft lips smiled and smiled：连用两smiled，而妙在仍不说话。
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She sang me a song whose words I did not understand, and she danced a little round the fire, a lonely slow Lindy with empty arms, hopping barefoot and awkward in the dust.
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● whose words=the words of which。song：为无生命之物，照有些语法书规定，这里应该用of which，但有时为求句法紧凑起见，常有用whose来代替of which的。
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● Lindy：即Lindy Loo，是一种黑人舞蹈。hopping：跳跃，为现在分词，形容主语she。barefoot（赤脚的）可作形容词或副词，但awkward（拙劣的）只可作形容词，如为形容词，当系形容主语she。露西姑娘的舞姿并不美妙，作者照实写来，似亦无伤其人之可爱。一个菲律宾姑娘，连英文都不会说的，想必非摩登人物，作者描写，亦在其朴质处着眼。她的歌喉似乎也没有什么了不起。初学作文者描写美人，往往美得“过火”，结果赞叹多而描写少，读此当可悟作文之道。
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Then she came to my side and was quiet. She faintly smelled of unscented soap, and her hair was full of wood-smoke. So quaint and small was this odd brown girl, my throat congealed, and had there been anything to say, I could not have said it. But there was nothing to say, and in this deepening night we were happy and sad together.
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● smelled of=had the smell of。unscented soap：未加香料之素净肥皂。美人身上，何必一定要发什么“兰麝之香”？这里据实写来，不加夸张，而彼女之朴素洁净，不言自明。wood-smoke：木柴烟味，想是生火时所沾上。
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● quaint：别致，别具风味。congealed原意“冻结”转作“僵化”。这位古怪的棕肤女郎，如此别有风味，又如此娇小玲珑，以致我的喉咙僵住，说不出话来了。她的娇小，她的风味，和他的说不出话有何相干？还不是因为别离在即，愈觉其美，便愈不忍离之耶？
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● had there been…为一conditional clause，义同if there had been…。本来就无话可说，要是有话可说，此情此境，我也说不出口来。
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● deepening night：夜色渐深。用一现在分词deepening，表示时间进行，便觉长夜漫漫，缠绵无穷。第二段已说：Then through long night hours we watched its embers blacken, die, and fall to ashes。看烟消火灭，相对无语，竟夕相共，黯然神伤，尽在不言中矣。
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现代英文选评注 At Gallipoli大军出征
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John Masefield (1878—1967)
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1915年英法为求打通地中海黑海交通，援助帝俄，曾在土耳其达达尼尔海峡上方Gallipoli登陆。苦战累月，终于无功而退。约翰·梅斯斐尔时随红十字会在军中服务，目击忠勇事迹，随笔著录，成Gallipoli一书。书已绝版，1959年5月31日《纽约时报书评周刊》（New York Times Book Review）为纪念英国桂冠诗人梅斯斐尔七十五岁寿辰，转载数段，誉为英文散文中之杰作，兹介绍如下。按
:梅斯斐尔此文写开阔的场面，激昂的情绪，想象丰富，节拍雄健，读之自令人起慷慨悲壮，大气磅礴之感，中文所谓“惊天地，泣鬼神”者，想即指此类文章也。
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