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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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On Friday, the 23rd of April, the weather cleared so that the work could be begun. In fine weather in Mudros a haze of beauty comes upon the hills and water till their loveliness is unearthly it is so rare. Then the bay is like a blue jewel, and the hills lose their savagery, and glow, and are gentle, and the sun comes up from Troy, and the peaks of Samothrace change color, and all the marvelous ships in the harbor are transfigured. The land of Lemnos was beautiful with flowers at that season, in the brief Aegean spring, and to seaward always, in the bay, were the ships, more ships, perhaps, than any port of modern times has known; they seemed like half the ships of the world. In the crowd of shipping, strange beautiful Greek vessels passed, under rigs of old time, and the tugs of the Thames and Mersey met again the ships they had towed of old, bearing a new freight, of human courage.
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● 第一句很简单,只是说天气晴朗了,工作可以开始了。工作就是大军登舰出发,进攻葛利波里。这是何等繁复而又意义重大的工作,而作者不加任何形容词,只是轻轻地称之为“the work”。但是前面保留得愈多,后面便愈容易开展;“作势欲张”有时比真的“铺张扬厉”还要引人入胜;简单的字眼往往有丰富的含蓄,便是这个道理。
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● Mudros是爱琴(Aegean)海中Lemnos岛上的一个海港,英大军在此集中,为进攻葛利波里之基地。
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● haze:雾气。their loveliness is unearthly:山水为雾气所罩,其美妙疑非人间所有。it is so rare(稀有):此一子句在文法上与前面没有连接,但读来语气极顺,如排印本无误,则似为说明上文:所以unearthly者,即为其稀有之故也。
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● 第三句内共有六个“and”,句法故意松弛,不求紧凑,读者因此可以少用脑筋去想,只要睁开眼睛,东一处西一处地去看,自然海也,山也,日出也,船只也,重重叠叠,纷然杂陈,令人有目不暇接之感。
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● the hills lose their savagery:雾气笼罩,山色略显朦胧,无复犷悍之状。glow:发光,遍体通亮。gentle:文静;重复“lose their savagery”。
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● Troy:在Lemnos之东,今小亚细亚之西北角,相传古希腊联军围攻Troy达十年之久,荷马史诗Iliad即取材于此。
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● Samothrace:爱琴海中一岛,在Lemnos之北。peaks:群峰;此乃远景,当较Lemnos本岛上近景hills为高。transfigured:形状变易。港内船舶亦因景色之诡异,而变得unearthly了。
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● 第二第三两句的时态用的是现在式,指的大约是好天气时候的经常情形。第四句起用过去式,以点明大军出征的那一天。
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● brief:简短的。爱琴海中气候,夏天紧跟着冬天,春天没有几天。to seaward:开出海去;为adverbial phrase,形容动词were,主词为the ships, more ships用以加强ships;“比之近代任何港口(port)所见到(known)的船只还要多;好像全世界船只的半数都在这里。”
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