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Christmas is sights; who can tell of the sights of Christmas reflected in the eyes of a child?
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● sights：所看到的东西，形形色色。tell of：描述。reflected：反映。圣诞节可看的东西太多，作者不一一列举。
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Christmas is being together—gathering together. You do not have to tell a child what this means, and at Christmas, if at no other time, all men are children.
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● being together：阖家团圆。
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● if at no other time：有些人主张大人和小孩本来没有多少分别，这句话在平时是否恰当，姑且不论，至少到了圣诞节，大人都成了小孩子了。
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Because it is the child’s day, the coming of Christmas up the white steps of December transforms mothers and fathers into the children they once were—until at last, on Christmas Eve, their caroling beside the tree is with the earnest voice of childhood. And the tears in their eyes are once again the tears caused by great expectations of wondrous things to come.
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● Because：既然。
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● the coming of Christmas up the white steps of December：作者把十二月比作一座白色的台阶，日子一天一天地过去，圣诞节一天一天接近，好像是圣诞节沿着台阶一步一步地走上来似的。这样一个譬喻，放在诗里也许是“绝妙好辞”，放在这样一篇散文里，是否妥当，请读者自己评判。不过散文里乱用“诗的譬喻”（poetic images），是一种很危险的尝试，至少初学者应该谨慎避免。
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● transforms：使……变化；它的主语是coming。they once were：（定语从句）大人一度都曾经是小孩子。圣诞节日益迫近，父亲母亲的心情都渐渐返老还童，到了圣诞前夕，变化已经无可再变（until：至此为止），他们都成了小孩子；他们在圣诞树边上唱圣诗（caroling）的时候，就是用童年时候纯真的歌喉来唱的。他们唱歌的时候眼睛里含着眼泪，他们热烈地期待着神奇的事情发生，因此和童年时候一样（once again），眼泪不得不流出来了。
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If children could speak—or if anybody could—what would be said on Christmas Day would be the book that all books would be. But who can say, with words, what children feel, what Christmas means to them and to us? There are no words for it.
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● speak：把心里的话讲出来。if anybody could：谁真能把心里的话讲出来呢？小孩固然不能，大人又何尝能呢？could：违反事实的假定。
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● what would be said on Christmas day：主语从句，主词格，它的动词是紧跟在它后面的would be。
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● 圣诞节可说的话太多了，可讲的道理太深了，这些话要是说出来，就可以成一部书，这部书可以把天下所有的书的道理统统包括在内。“that all books would be”的that代替the book，all books恐怕是补足语（subjective complement），放在动词的前面，“这部书将要成为天下所有的书”。
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And yet children say it all—with meaning straight and clear—when they say only, “Merry Christmas.”
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● 圣诞节的意义没有人说得上来，但是小孩子说“Merry Christmas”的时候，就把它的意义直截了当清清楚楚地说出来了。
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● children say it all的it代替上一段“what children feel, what Christmas means…”。And yet children say it all：小孩子把这意思完全表达出来了。
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And so, as one of them, and one of you, one of us, helpless with the clumsy words, I say to them and to you: “Merry Christmas.” I say it as a child says it.
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● as=in the character of（以这样一个人的身份）。
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● them：小孩。you：大人。us：大人小孩算在一起——咱们统统都是辞不达意的。clumsy：笨拙的。helpless：没有办法的。
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● I say it as a child says it：呼应首段。
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现代英文选评注 D-Day诺曼第登陆
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Winston S. Churchill (1874—1965)
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本文选自英国前首相邱吉尔所著《第二次世界大战史》第六卷（即最后一卷）Triumph and Tragedy（1954）的第一章。邱氏才气纵横，吐属隽雅，其历史著作与演说讲稿不少为可传之作。渠文字修养甚深，同书中收其致外务部“手谕”一通，甚饶趣味，现抄录如下：
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