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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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Prime Minister to Foreign Office 4 Apr. ‘45.
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Attention should be drawn to the mis-spelling “inadmissable.” I have noticed this several times in Foreign Office telegrams.
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邱氏于戎马倥偬，日理万机之余，对于一字之微，也不轻易放过，真可谓心细如发矣。
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Our long months of preparation and planning for the greatest amphibious operation in history ended on D-Day, June 6, 1944. During the preceding night the great armadas of convoys and their escorts sailed, unknown to the enemy, along the swept channels from the Isle of Wight to the Normandy coast. Heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force attacked enemy coast-defence guns in their concrete emplacements, dropping 5200 tons of bombs. When dawn broke, the United States Air Force came on the scene to deal with other shore defences, followed by medium and fighter bombers. In the twenty-four hours of June 6 the Allies flew over 14,600 sorties. So great was our superiority in the air that all the enemy could put up during daylight over the invasion beaches was a mere hundred sorties.
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● long months：很多月以来。long这个字安得很好。preparation and planning：准备和设计。amphibious operation：两栖作战。D-Day：预定发动攻击的那一天。本适用于任何战役，现常专指联军反攻欧陆，登陆诺曼第的那一天。
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● preceding night：六月五日夜里。armada本为西班牙文，等于英文的fleet（舰队）。十六世纪时，西班牙曾发“无敌舰队”（The Invincible Armada）攻英，英人谈虎色变，所以现在这个字在英文里的涵义，声势似乎比fleet更壮。convoys：护航队。escorts：保护那些商船运输舰的兵舰。
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