1705040952
前面，在田野的尽头，树林茂密而古老。右侧，如我前面所说，是橡树、榛子树和山茱萸，左侧是向下延伸至山谷的田野，我看到了老橡树的树梢。这是依偎在树林中的一片田园风光，尤其是和那条大路比起来，更是如此。可是，就在看到这片田野的那一刻，我意识到它并不神秘。几枝毛茛矗立在稀疏的干草间，远处长着雏菊，草丛间露出一块块褐色土地，干干的。毫无疑问，司空见惯的空气每天掠过这片田野。很难确定到底是什么散发着如此的魅力，与奇特的东西接触能看出某种神奇，但从毛茛和雏菊以及收成不佳的干草中当然不可能做到。
1705040953
1705040954
我的目光从田野转向山谷斜坡，掠过橡树的树梢，向前面看去，确定自己没有走错。如果我能看到而且只要看到长着野蔷薇的田野，那么这片田野和树木一定是我曾经一直寻找的。千真万确，我看到了那些明白无误的山丘，我就是从那里来的，又看到了山丘上的树林以及树林上方的田野。但有一会儿我又无法确定。那片田野看起来如此陌生，充满神秘色彩——不是因为阴影，毕竟太阳早就落山了，而是因为树篱下正在聚集的某种黑暗，在这片黑暗的中心，薄暮依然闪着微光——我没有很快认出它来。而且，就在我观察那片田野，通过许多标识辨认出我那片非常普通的田野时，这种神秘感越来越强，薄暮褪尽之前，那片田野显然笼罩在这种神秘之中，而这种神秘从来都与难以置信的东西密不可分。
1705040955
1705040956
那个地方实在太远，今晚去不了，我再次看了看身边的这片田野，想看一看是否有什么东西潜伏在它所拥有的全部神奇之中。没有，什么都没有，一切都消失了。这时，一个乡下男孩从树林里跳出来，穿过田野向我奔来。他看起来就像在自己家中一样，好像对周围的灌木和阴影如此熟悉。我怀着对自己幻想的最后一丝希望跟他打招呼，这时男孩竖起了耳朵。我问他，就像问是否还有公交车一样：“萨梯今晚在这里跳舞吗？”
1705040957
1705040958
“在这儿？不！”男孩回答得如此肯定，我知道自己一定弄错了。
1705040959
1705040960
我咕哝着说，原认为他们会在这里跳舞。
1705040961
1705040962
“不。”男孩一边说着，一边摇头，指着我要去的那片长着野蔷薇的田野，只见那里若明若暗，在日暮前呈现出灰暗的绿色。“他们今晚在那里跳舞。”
1705040963
1705040964
（彭萍 译）
1705040965
1705040966
1705040967
1705040968
[1]森林之神，具人形而有羊的尾、耳、角等，性嗜嬉戏，好色。
1705040969
1705040970
西南联大英文课（英汉双语版） [:1705033858]
1705040971
35 EVERY MAN’S NATURAL DESIRE TO BE SOMEBODY ELSE
1705040972
1705040973
By Samuel McChord Crothers
1705040974
1705040975
1705040976
EVERY MAN’S NATURAL DESIRE TO BE SOMEBODY ELSE, by Samuel McChord Crothers, from his “The Dame School of Experience,” 1920.
1705040977
1705040978
1705040979
1705040980
Samuel McChord Crothers （1857-1927）, American essayist and Unitarian clergyman. In 1894 he went to Cambridge, Massachusetts, as pastor of the First Parish. He has kept alive the literary traditions of old Boston—the earnest culture, the whimsical imagination, the pleasant aloofness from the mad rush of the Gilded Age. The delightful whimsicality of Charles Lamb and the genial optimism of Holmes invest Mr. Crother’s essays with a charm that defies analysis.
1705040981
1705040982
Several years ago a young man came to my study with a manuscript which he wished me to criticize.
1705040983
1705040984
“It is only a little bit of my work,” he said modestly, “and it will not take you long to look it over. In fact it is only the first chapter in which I explain the Universe.”
1705040985
1705040986
I suppose that we have all had moments of sudden illumination when it occurred to us that we had explained the Universe, and it was so easy for us that we wondered why we had not done it before. Some thought drifted into our mind and filled us with vague forebodings of omniscience. It was not an ordinary thought, that explained only a fragment of existence. It explained everything. It proved one thing and it proved the opposite just as well. It explained why things are as they are, and if it should turn out that they are not that way at all, it would prove that fact also. In the light of our great thought chaos seems rational.
1705040987
1705040988
Such thoughts usually occur about four o’clock in the morning. Having explained the Universe, we relapse into satisfied slumber. When, a few hours later, we rise, we wonder what the explanation was.
1705040989
1705040990
Now and then, however, one of these highly explanatory ideas remains to comfort us in our waking hours. Such thought is that which I here throw out, and which has doubtless at some early hour occurred to most of my readers. It is that every man has a natural desire to be somebody else.
1705040991
1705040992
This does not explain the Universe, but it explains that perplexing part of it which we call Human Nature. It explains why so many intelligent people, who deal skilfully with matters of fact, make such a mess of it when they deal with their fellow creatures. It explains why we got along as well as we do with strangers, and why we do not get on better with our friends. It explains why people are so often offended when we say nice things about them, and why it is that, when we say harsh things about them, they take it as a compliment. It explains why people marry their opposites and why they live happily ever afterwards. It also explains why some people don’t. It explains the meaning of taste and its opposite.
1705040993
1705040994
The tactless person treats a person according to a scientific method as if he were a thing. Now, in dealing with a thing you must first find out what it is, and then act accordingly. But with a person, you must find out what he is and then carefully conceal from him the fact that you have made the discovery. The tactless person can never be made to understand this. He prides himself on taking people as they are without being aware that that is not the way they want to be taken.
1705040995
1705040996
He has a keen eye for the obvious, and calls attention to it. Age, sex, color, nationality, previous condition of servitude, and all the facts that are interesting to the census-taker, are apparent to him and are made the basis of his conversation. When he meets one who is older than he, he is conscious of the fact, and emphasizes by every polite attention the disparity in years. He has an idea that at a certain period in life the highest tribute of respect is to be urged to rise out of one chair and take another that is presumably more comfortable. It does not occur to him that there may remain any tastes that are not sedentary. On the other hand, he sees a callow youth and addresses himself to the obvious callowness, and thereby makes himself thoroughly disliked. For, strange to say, the youth prefers to be addressed as a person of precocious maturity.
1705040997
1705040998
The literalist, observing that most people talk shop, takes it for granted that they like to talk shop. This is a mistake. They do it because it is the easiest thing to do, but they resent having attention called to their limitations. A man’s profession does not necessarily coincide with his natural aptitude or with his predominant desire. When you meet a member of the Supreme Court you may assume that he is gifted with a judicial mind. But it does not follow that that is the only quality of mind he has; nor that when, out of court, he gives you a piece of his mind, it will be a piece of his judicial mind that he gives.
1705040999
1705041000
My acquaintance with royalty is limited to photographs of royal groups, which exhibit a high degree of domesticity. It would seem that the business of royalty when pursued as a steady job becomes tiresome, and that when they have their pictures taken they endeavor to look as much like ordinary folks as possible—and they usually succeed.
1705041001