LESSON 14 THE SANDS O’DEE^[1] 迪河沙灘

Charles Kingsley (b.1819, d.1875) was born at Holne, Devonshire, England.He took his bachelor’s degree at Cambridge in 1842, and soon after entered the Church.His writings are quite voluminous, including sermons, lectures, novels, fairy tales, and poems, published in book form, besides numerous miscellaneous sermons and magazine articles.He was an earnest worker for bettering the condition of the working classes, and this object was the basis of most of his writings.As a lyric poet he has gained a high place.The “Saint’s Tragedy” and “Andromeda” are the most pretentious of his poems, and “Alton Locke” and “Hypatia” are his best known novels.

1.“O Mary, go and call the cattle home,

And call the cattle home,

And call the cattle home,

Across the sands o’ Dee!”

The western wind was wild and dank with foam,

And all alone went she.

2.The creeping tide came up along the sand,

And o’er and o’er the sand,

And round and round the sand,

As far as eye could see;

The blinding mist came down and hid the land—

And never home came she.

3.Oh, is it weed, or fi sh, or fl oating hair?—

A tress o’ golden hair,

O’ drowned maiden’s hair,

Above the nets at sea.

Was never salmon yet that shone so fair

Among the stakes on Dee.

4.They rowed her in across the rolling foam,

The cruel, crawling foam,

The cruel, hungry foam,

To her grave beside the sea;

But still the boatmen hear her call the cattle home,

Across the sands O’ Dee.

【中文閱讀】

查爾斯·金斯利（1819—1875）出生于英國德文郡霍恩鎮(zhèn)。1842年，他在劍橋大學(xué)獲學(xué)士學(xué)位，不久進入教會。他涉獵廣泛，著述豐富，除了各種布道文和雜志文章以外，還包括書籍形式的布道、演講、小說、童話以及詩歌。他為提高工人階級的勞動條件而奔走疾呼，并為此寫出他的大部分作品。作為一名抒情詩人，查爾斯享有崇高的聲譽。在他的作品中，詩歌《圣徒的悲劇》和《仙女座》不愧為他傾心創(chuàng)作的詩歌，而小說《奧爾頓·洛克》和《希帕蒂亞》是他最為著名的小說。

1.“哦，瑪麗，去把牛兒喚回家，

穿過迪河沙灘，

把牛兒喚回家來，

把牛兒喚回家來！”

西風(fēng)呼嘯狂野，浪花翻卷，

她獨自一人離開家。

2.放眼望去，只能模糊看見：

浪潮蠕動著，漫過沙灘，

一次次拍打著，

一次次席卷著。

大霧開始彌漫，遮蔽了沙灘——

她再也沒有回過家。

3.天哪，漁網(wǎng)上纏繞著的

是海草，是魚兒，還是頭發(fā)？——

那是一綹金黃色的頭發(fā)，

一個溺死的少女的頭發(fā)。

在這條長長的迪河里

還從沒有一條鮭魚鱗上能閃爍著這么漂亮的光芒。

4.在翻卷的浪花中，他們劃著船帶她回來，

那殘忍的，嗜血的海浪，

那殘忍的，饑渴的海浪。

她的墓碑立在海邊。

直到今天，漁民們?nèi)阅苈犚姡?/p>

她穿過迪河沙灘，喚她的牛兒回家。

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【注釋】

[1] T he Sands O’ Dee.The Dee is a river of Scotland, noted for its salmon f siheries.O’ is a contraction for of, commonly used by the Scotch.