第一篇：A Grain of Sand
一粒沙子
William Blake/威廉.布萊克
To see a world in a grain of sand,
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
從一粒沙子看到一個世界，
從一朵野花看到一個天堂，
把握在你手心里的就是無限，
永恒也就消融于一個時辰。
第二篇：Love Your Life
熱愛生活
Henry David Thoreau/享利.大衛.梭羅
However mean your life is, meet it and live it ;do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are. It looks poorest when you are richest. The fault-finder will find faults in paradise. Love your life, poor as it is. You may perhaps have some pleasant, thrilling, glorious hours, even in a poor-house. The setting sun is reflected from the windows of the alms-house as brightly as from the rich man's abode; the snow melts before its door as early in the spring. I do not see but a quiet mind may live as contentedly there, and have as cheering thoughts, as in a palace. The town's poor seem to me often to live the most independent lives of any. May be they are simply great enough to receive without misgiving. Most think that they are above being supported by the town; but it often happens that they are not above supporting themselves by dishonest means. which should be more disreputable. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends, Turn the old, return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.
不論你的生活如何卑賤，你要面對它生活，不要躲避它，更別用惡言咒罵它。它不像你那樣壞。你最富有的時候，倒是看似最窮。愛找缺點的人就是到天堂里也能找到缺點。你要愛你的生活，盡管它貧窮。甚至在一個濟貧院里，你也還有愉快、高興、光榮的時候。夕陽反射在濟貧院的窗上，像身在富戶人家窗上一樣光亮;在那門前，積雪同在早春融化。我只看到，一個從容的人，在哪里也像在皇宮中一樣，生活得心滿意足而富有愉快的思想。城鎮中的窮人，我看，倒往往是過著最獨立不羈的生活。也許因為他們很偉大，所以受之無愧。大多數人以為他們是超然的，不靠城鎮來支援他們;可是事實上他們是往往利用了不正當的手段來對付生活，他們是毫不超脫的，毋寧是不體面的。視貧窮如園中之花而像圣人一樣耕植它吧!不要找新的花樣，無論是新的朋友或新的衣服，來麻煩你自己。找舊的，回到那里去。萬物不變，是我們在變。你的衣服可以賣掉，但要保留你的思想
第三篇The life I desired
我所追求的生活
That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the pattern of life it offers has a homely grace. It reminds you of a placid rivulet, meandering smoothly through green pastures and shaded by pleasant trees, till at last it falls into the vast sea; but the sea is so calm, so silent, so indifferent, that you are troubled suddenly by a vague uneasiness. Perhaps it is only by a kink in my nature, strong in me even in those days, that i felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognized its social value. I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights. In my heart was desire to live more dangerously. I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous, shoals it I could only have change-change and the excitement of unforeseen.
這一定是世間無數對夫妻的生活寫照，這種生活模式給人一種天倫之美。它使人想起一條平靜的溪流，蜿蜒暢游過綠茵的草場，濃蔭遮蔽，最后注入煙波浩渺的汪洋大海;但是大海太過平靜，太過沉默，太過不動聲色，你會突然感到莫名的不安。也許這只是我自己的一種怪誕想法，在那樣的時代，這想法對我影響很深：我覺得這像大多數人一樣的生活，似乎欠缺了一點兒什么。我承認這種生活有社會價值，我也看到了它那井然有序的幸福，但我血液里的沖動卻渴望一種更桀驁不馴的旅程.這樣的安逸中好像有一種叫我驚懼不安的東西.我的心渴望一種更加驚險的生活。只要生活中還能有變遷———以及不可知的刺激，我愿意踏上怪石嶙峋的山崖，奔赴暗礁滿布的海灘。