什麼樣的英文稱得上是文辭優美？

12-11

對於中文，我可以認為語言簡潔明快或者辭藻華麗都可以是優美文章。讀英文文章卻沒有這種體會。
也想請牛人推薦一些優美的英文散文。

新概念4。

這本教材中的課文單獨挑一篇拿來研讀都能感受到其中無與倫比的英文美感。

許多年來，我堅持背誦新概念4，每天都晨讀。基本已經達到了倒背如流的程度。有心人會發現，其中有數不清的遣詞造句堪稱英語文學的典範，根本不輸於那些所謂的美文。

至於那些膾炙人口的名著經典，是的，它們確實很美，高度的審美價值早已得到了歷史的肯定。
但新概念所獨有的優勢即是它的平易近人，每個普通人都能體會到字裡行間洋溢的美感，它並不華麗，也不炫耀，只是寥寥幾句樸實的措辭，就能打動人心，極易模仿，我是不會告訴你們我當年托福，GRE的作文都是靠自己平時背新概念積累下來的功力的。

附上我個人最鍾愛的一篇
Lesson24 Beauty
A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond.

It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe, for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.

That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods Nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret.

But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us, if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning.

If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that whichwe cannot grasp. Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.

有時最美麗的，往往是最不起眼的。

題主要推薦散文的話，我想起來大二有一次翻譯課的作業是翻譯林語堂先生的短篇散文 Human Life A Poem，感嘆不愧是語言大家，自己怎麼翻譯都像是暴殄天物。

原文如下：

I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambitions; then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age, there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life; then In the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment; finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake up again.

我以為，從生物學角度看，人的一生恰如詩歌。人生自有其韻律和節奏，自有內在的生成與衰亡。人生始於無邪的童年，經過少年的青澀，帶著激情與無知，理想與雄心，笨拙而努力地走向成熟；後來人到壯年，經歷漸廣，閱人漸多，涉世漸深，收益也漸大；及至中年，人生的緊張得以舒緩，人的性格日漸成熟，如芳馥之果實，如醇美之佳釀，更具容忍之心，處世雖更悲觀，但對人生的態度趨於和善；再後來就是人生遲暮，內分泌系統活動減少，若此時吾輩已經悟得老年真諦，並據此安排殘年，那生活將和平，寧靜，安詳而知足；終於，生命之燭搖曳而終熄滅，人開始永恆的長眠，不再醒來。

One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life, but the music must be provided by the individual himself. In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody. Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a pistol or jump into a river. But that is because his original leitmotif has been hopelessly over-showed through the lack of a good self-education. Otherwise the normal human life runs to its normal end in kind of dignified movement and procession. There are sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and because the tempo is wrong, the music is not pleasing to the ear; we might have more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo o the Ganges, flowing slowly and eternally into the sea.

人們當學會感受生命韻律之美，像聽交響樂一樣，欣賞其主旋律、激昂的高潮和舒緩的尾聲。這些反覆的樂章對於我們的生命都大同小異，但個人的樂曲卻要自己去譜寫。在某些人心中，不和諧音會越來越刺耳，最終竟然能掩蓋主曲；有時不和諧音會積蓄巨大的能量，令樂曲不能繼續，這時人們或舉槍自殺或投河自盡。這是他最初的主題被無望地遮蔽，只因他缺少自我教育。否則，常人將以體面的運動和進程走向既定的終點。在我們多數人胸中常常會有太多的斷奏或強音，那是因為節奏錯了，生命的樂曲因此而不再悅耳。我們應該如恆河，學她氣勢恢弘而豪邁地緩緩流向大海。

No one can say that life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life, except what is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven stages of life, and a good many Chinese writers have said about the same thing. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion. I think this was his greatness; he took human life largely as it was, and intruded himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon the characters of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature itself, and that is the greatest compliment we can pay to a writer or thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away.

人生有童年、少年和老年，誰也不能否認這是一種美好的安排，一天要有清晨、正午和日落，一年要有四季之分，如此才好。人生本無好壞之分，只是各個季節有各自的好處。如若我們持此種生物學的觀點，並循著季節去生活，除了狂妄自大的傻瓜和無可救藥的理想主義者，誰能說人生不能像詩一般度過呢。莎翁在他的一段話中形象地闡述了人生分七個階段的觀點，很多中國作家也說過類似的話。奇怪的是，莎士比亞並不是虔誠的宗教徒，也不怎麼關心宗教。我想這正是他的偉大之處，他對人生秉著順其自然的態度，他對生活之事的干涉和改動很少，正如他對戲劇人物那樣。莎翁就像自然一樣，這是我們能給作家或思想家的最高褒獎。對人生，他只是一路經歷著，觀察著，離我們遠去了。

英文玩家 (豆瓣)

不過我最喜歡的作家還是伍尓夫姐姐呀：
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91d/chapter1.html
https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/w/woolf/virginia/w91o/chapter1.html

首先想說，樓上提到的好多都是詩，題主問的是散文.. poem和prose還是有區別的，別一提優美就只想到詩歌。
好的、優美的英文散文是簡潔、沒有不需要的歧義的、並且非常descriptive的文字。行文特點在於動詞多，is/am/are、被動語態等能避免則避免。胡亂堆砌辭藻的那都是扯淡。最好是那種讀起來十分流暢，有渾然天成之感的。（雖然讀起來覺得很容易，寫出來卻非常不容易。）
要想真正了解/閱讀/寫出好的英文prose，我推薦一本關於writing的書： On writing well. By William Zinsser. 幾十年的英文寫作經典，介紹了什麼是好的prose寫法。豆瓣鏈接：On Writing Well (豆瓣) 而且此書本身的行文也可以稱得上是名家之作了。
上面這本書里提到好幾位行文簡練優美的名家，都可以拿來拜讀。如 E.B. White. 20世紀美國最偉大的隨筆作家。
Hemingway 也差不多是這個風格。「海明威有著出色的語言駕馭能力，他常以最簡單的辭彙表達最複雜的內容，用基本辭彙、簡短句式等表達具體含義，用名詞、動詞來揭示事物的本來面目，絲毫無矯揉造作之感。」 --摘自百度百科.
我現在能想到的還有當代的寫懸疑恐怖小說的名家- Steven King和Dan Brown, 去看看他們寫的那些有名的、引人入勝的小說，其中很多文字都非常優美... 推薦兩個有名的.. King - The Shawshank Redemption, Brown - The Da Vinci Code

喬治.奧威爾的散文。奧威爾散文最大特點，你永遠猜不到他下個句子寫什麼，處處帶給你意外！他觀察常人根本不會注意的事情，寫的活潑生動，語言又純樸莊重，大名鼎鼎的 politics and the English language。敘事佳作 shooting an elephant ，the hanging，such such were the joys每次讀，唏噓不已。
這裡想給大家推薦一篇沒那麼有名的。

some thoughts on the common toad.
（對，就是蟾蜍，俗稱癩蛤蟆！）

文章的開頭，Before the swallow, before the daffodil, and not much later than the snowdrop, the common toad salutes the coming of spring after his own fashion, which is to emerge from a hole in the ground, where he has lain buried since the previous autumn, and crawl as rapidly as possible towards the nearest suitable patch of water. Something - some kind of shudder in the earth, or perhaps merely a rise of a few degrees in the temperature - has told him that it is time to wake up: though a few toads appear to sleep the clock round and miss out a year from time to time - at any rate, I have more than once dug them up, alive and apparently well, in the middle of the summer.
為無人為之頌歌的蟾蜍正名：I mention the spawning of the toads because it is one of the phenomena of spring which most deeply appeal to me, and because the toad, unlike the skylark and the primrose, has never had much of a boost from poets. But I am aware that many people do not like reptiles or amphibians, and I am not suggesting that in order to enjoy the spring you have to take an interest in toads. There are also the crocus, the missel-thrush, the cuckoo, the blackthorn, etc. The point is that the pleasures of spring are available to everybody, and cost nothing. Even in the most sordid street the coming of spring will register itself by some sign or other, if it is only a brighter blue between the chimney pots or the vivid green of an elder sprouting on a blitzed site. Indeed it is remarkable how Nature goes on existing unofficially, as it were, in the very heart of London. I have seen a kestrel flying over the Deptford gasworks, and I have heard a first-rate performance by a blackbird in the Euston Road. There must be some hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of birds living inside the four-mile radius, and it is rather a pleasing thought that none of them pays a halfpenny of rent.
結尾最讓我動容，不管你是貧窮、疾病、身在貧民窟、也不管什麼原子彈、警察、謊言真理部，春天就在這裡，誰也阻止不了你欣賞春天。結尾的三個句子對仗工整，下筆有力，春天也是你的！
At any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can"t stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thought of all the important persons who as you are not actually ill, hungry, frightened or immured in a prison or a holiday camp, spring is still spring. The atom bombs are piling up in the factories, the police are prowling through the cities, the lies are streaming from the loudspeakers, but the earth is still going round the sun, and neither the dictators nor the bureaucrats, deeply as they disapprove of the process, are able to prevent it.
奧威爾就是這樣，full of surprises！

SHYLOCK

To bait fish withal: if it will feed nothing else,
it will feed my revenge. He hath disgraced me, and
hindered me half a million; laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my
bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
enemies; and what"s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath
not a Jew eyes? hath not a Jew hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions? fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer, as
a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
if you tickle us, do we not laugh? if you poison
us, do we not die? and if you wrong us, shall we not
revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian
wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by
Christian example? Why, revenge. The villany you
teach me, I will execute, and it shall go hard but I
will better the instruction.

Enter a Servant

—— Act 3 Scene 1，《威尼斯商人》，莎士比亞著。

個人喜歡帶感情的文字，戲劇劇本就深富情感。這一段是一名猶太商人在被問「何以要他人以血肉償還債款，那又不能讓你獲利」時的回答。

[ 擺出大言不慚臉，我覺得我自己寫的就頗為詩意加大氣。就是描繪了一幅圖那種感覺。 ]

例如，去年給某部太空探索相關的CG 短片寫的序：

Man"s
fascination with the heavens is as old as mankind itself. Since the
beginning of human civilization, stargazing had been a common thread
across cultures. From East to West, from cave paintings in Lascaux,
France to pottery fragments unearthed at the Yellow River Delta in
China, our ancestors left countless tributes of their deep reverence and
longing for celestial bodies, for worlds beyond our world, for the
universe beyond Earth.

As
space launch technology becomes increasing accessible, space
exploration will no longer be the monopoly of national governments and
big corporations. Our short film aims to inspire and inform young people
and space enthusiasts from all over the world, to contribute to
continuing humankind"s journey to space, and to boldly go where no man
has gone before.

然後，請一位英國口音的配音演員念出來，超帶感的，有木有：
Cromerty York Space-E Audition_土豆

配音演員微博號： Cromerty配音演員

哇咔咔咔，強答另一帖的時候，想起來以前用過來撩白人美眉的詞，誰說法文、義大利文才能撩妹的？！哼哼，老衲當年可是全校唯一一個能用中文詩詞撩白妹的。

看好了。當年老衲是用在學校 homecoming dance 的時候，超級應景的：

I searched the crowd for a glimpse of your elegant profile, to no avail.
I turned, to find you in a dimly-lit corner, with a smile that must"ve come from a fairy tale.

再加一幅圖，因為知乎大嬸說有圖才會火：

Unlimited Blade Works:

I am the bone of my sword
Steel is my body,and fire is my blood
I have created over a thousand blades
Unknown to death
Nor known to life
Have withstood pain to creat weapons
Yet,those hands will never hold anything
So as I pray,Unlimited Blade Works

無限劍制：

身由劍生
血為鋼鑄，心似琉璃
跨越無數戰場不敗
無一敗績
無一知己
常在此孤身一人鍛鐵於劍丘之上
因此，此身無須任何意義
此身為「無限劍制」

迄今為止，是冰與火之歌里的守夜人之誓言，氣勢渾然。
Night gathers, and now my watch begins.
It shall not end until my death.
I shall take no wife, hold no lands, father no children.
I shall wear no crowns and win no glory.
I shall live and die at my post.
I am the sword in the darkness.
I am the watcher on the walls.
I am the fire that burns against the cold, the light that brings the dawn, the horn that wakes the sleepers, the shield that guards the realms of men.
I pledge my life and honor to the Night』s Watch, for this night and all the nights to come.

附上官方中文翻譯:
長夜將至，我從今開始守望，至死方休。
我將不娶妻、不封地、不生子。
我將不戴寶冠，不爭榮寵。
我將盡忠職守，生死於斯。
我是黑暗中的利劍，長城中的守衛。
我是抵禦寒冷的烈燄，破曉時分的光線，喚醒眠者的號角，守護王國的鐵衛。
我將生命與榮耀獻給守夜人，今夜如此，夜夜皆然。

我突然想起來 Saying Good-bye to Cambridge Again

Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Quietly I wave good-bye
To the rosy clouds in the western sky.

The golden willows by the riverside
Are young brides in the setting sun;
Their reflections on the shimmering waves
Always linger in the depth of my heart.

The floating heart growing in the sludge
Sways leisurely under the water;
In the gentle waves of Cambridge
I would be a water plant!

That pool under the shade of elm trees
Holds not water but the rainbow from the sky;
Shattered to pieces among the duck weeds
Is the sediment of a rainbow-like dream?

To seek a dream?
Just to pole a boat upstream
To where the green grass is more verdant;
Or to have the boat fully loaded with starlight
And sing aloud in the splendor of starlight.

But I cannot sing aloud
Quietness is my farewell music;
Even summer insects keep silence for me
Silent is Cambridge tonight!

Very quietly I take my leave
As quietly as I came here;
Gently I flick my sleeves
Not even a wisp of cloud will I bring away

你可以先體會一下其中的意味

散文的話梭羅瓦爾登湖就很經典，還有一個伯特蘭·羅素。
What I have lived for?
Bertrand Russell
Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind. These passions, like great winds, have blown me hither and thither, in a wayward course, over a great ocean of anguish, reaching to the very verge of despair.

I have sought love, first, because it brings ecstasy - ecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy. I have sought it, next, because it relieves loneliness--that terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the cold unfathomable lifeless abyss. I have sought it finally, because in the union of love I have seen, in a mystic miniature, the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints and poets have imagined. This is what I sought, and though it might seem too good for human life, this is what--at last--I have found.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge. I have wished to understand the hearts of men. I have wished to know why the stars shine. And I have tried to apprehend the Pythagorean power by which number holds sway above the flux. A little of this, but not much, I have achieved.

Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth. Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart. Children in famine, victims tortured by oppressors, helpless old people a burden to their sons, and the whole world of loneliness, poverty, and pain make a mockery of what human life should be. I long to alleviate this evil, but I cannot, and I too suffer.

This has been my life. I have found it worth living, and would gladly live it again if the chance were offered me.

詩歌的話可以看英國浪漫主義流派的那些。
She Walks in Beauty
by Lord Byron
She walks in beauty, like the night
Of cloudless climes and starry skies;
And all that"s best of dark and bright
Meet in her aspect and her eyes:
Thus mellowed to that tender light
Which heaven to gaudy day denies.
One shade the more, one ray the less,
Had half impaired the nameless grace
Which waves in every raven tress,
Or softly lightens o"er her face;
Where thoughts serenely sweet express
How pure, how dear their dwelling place.
And on that cheek, and o"er that brow,
So soft, so calm, yet eloquent,
The smiles that win, the tints that glow,
But tell of days in goodness spent,
A mind at peace with all below,
A heart whose love is innocent!

I Saw Thee』weep
by Lord Byron
I saw thee weep the big bright tear
Came out that eye of blue;
And then me thought it did appear
A violet dropping dew:
I see thee smile
the sapphire』s blaze
Beside thee ceased to shine;
It could not match the living rays
That filled that glance of thine.
As clouds from yonder sun receive
A deep and mellow dye
Which scarce the shade of coming eve
Can banish from the sky,
Those smiles unto the moodiest mind
Their own pure joy impart;
Their sunshine leaves a glow behind
That lightens on the heart.

I wandered lonely as a cloud
By William Wordsworth
That floats on high o"er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.
Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.
The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed -and gazed -but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:
For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.

你們如果看看中國作家的英文，林語堂是當之無愧的「優美」。
一本原版《京華煙雲(Moment in Peking)》足以見識大師水平啊。

In me the tiger sniffs the rose
我心裡有猛虎在細嗅薔薇
----英國當代詩人西格夫里薩松

要說散文我不清楚，但是我覺得阿黛爾的那首《some one like you 》挺美的，然後國內的某一牛人把它譯成文言文版，卻別有一番風味。

歌曲：Someone like you 另尋滄海
歌手：Adele 阿黛拉

文言文版中文歌詞：

I heard, that you"re settled down.
已聞君，諸事安康。
That you, found a girl and you"re married now.
遇佳人，不久婚嫁。
I heard that your dreams came true.
已聞君，得償所想。
Guess she gave you things, I didn』t give to you.
料得是，卿識君望。

Old friend, why are you so shy?
舊日知己，何故張皇？
It ain』t like you to hold back or hide from the lie.
遮遮掩掩，欲蓋彌彰。

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited.
客有不速，實非我所想。
But I couldn』t stay away, I couldn』t fight it.
避之不得，遑論與相抗。
I』d hoped you』d see my face that you』d be reminded,
異日偶遇，識得依稀顏。
That for me, it isn』t over.
再無所求，涕零而淚下。

Never mind, I』ll find someone like you.
毋須煩惱，終有弱水替滄海。
I wish nothing but the best, for you too.
拋卻糾纏，再把相思寄巫山。
Don』t forget me, I beg, I remember you said:
勿忘昨日，亦存君言於肺腑。
「Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead」
「情堪雋永，也善心潮掀狂瀾。」
Sometimes it lasts in love but sometimes it hurts instead, yeah.
情堪雋永，也善心潮掀狂瀾，然。

You』d know, how the time flies.
光陰常無蹤，詞窮不敢道荏苒。
Only yesterday, was the time of our lives.
歡笑仍如昨，今卻孤影憶花繁。
We were born and raised in a summery haze.
彼時初執手，夏霧鬱郁濕衣衫。
Bound by the surprise of our glory days.
自縛舊念中，詫喜榮光永不黯。

I hate to turn up out of the blue uninvited.
客有不速，實非我所想。
ButI couldn』t stay away, I couldn』t fight it.
避之不得，遑論與相抗。
I』d hoped you』d see my face that you』d be reminded,
異日偶遇，識得依稀顏。
That for me, it isn』t over.
再無所求，涕零而淚下。

Nothing compares, no worries or cares.
無可與之相提，切莫憂心同挂念。
Regret』s and mistakes they』re memories made.
糊塗遺恨難免，白璧微瑕方可戀。
Who would have known how bittersweet this would taste?
此中酸甜苦咸，世上誰人堪相言？

沒有人粉華盛頓歐文的嗎？
Those who see the Englishman only in town are apt to form an unfavorable opinion of his social character. He is either absorbed in business,or distracted by the thousand engagements that dissipate time, thought, and feeling, in this huge metropolis. He has, therefore, too commonly a look of hurry and abstraction. Wherever he happens to be, he is on the point of going somewhere else; at the moment he is talking on one subject, his mind is wandering to another; and while playing a friendly visit, he is calculating how he shall economize time so as to pay the other visits allotted in the morning. An immense metropolis, like London, is calculated to make men selfish and uninteresting. In their casual and transient meetings, they can but deal briefly in commonplaces. They present but the cold superficies of character--its rich and genial qualities have no time to be warmed into a flow.
貼一段

來自《權力的遊戲》。審判小惡魔的一段台詞。

Father, I wish to confess, I wish to confess.

I saved you, I saved the city and all your worthless lives. I should have let Stannis kill you all.

Yes father, I』m guilty, Is that what you want to hear?I』m innocent, I』m guilty of a far more monstrous crime, I』m guilty of being a dwarf. I』ve been on trial for that my entire life.

I did not do it, I did not kill Joffrey, but I wish I had. Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores.

I wish I was the monster you think I am, I wish I had enough poison for the whole pack of you. I would gladly give my life to watch you all swallow it.

I will not give my life for Joffrey』s murder, and I know I』ll get no justice here. So I would like the gods decide my fate. I demand a trial on combat.

文辭優美，如果能夠與中國文化相融合，那必然能夠碰撞出激烈的火花，原本的美也必然更加動人，有人做到了，看到這個問題，第一個出現在腦海里的就是楊憲益老先生，雖然先生已經作古，但是不的不說，先生在翻譯上的成就恐怕一時間無人能夠出其右。
楊老先生是中國著名翻譯家、外國文學研究專家、詩人。楊憲益曾與夫人戴乃迭合作翻譯全本《紅樓夢》、全本《儒林外史》等多部中國歷史名著，在國外皆獲得好評，產生了廣泛影響。被稱為「向世界翻譯中國的人」
個人最推崇的還是他與夫人翻譯的《離騷》。稱文辭優美絕不為過。
貼出一部分，大家感受下。
（一）
Li Sao

Qu Yuan

A prince am I of ancestry renowned,
Illustrious name my royal sire hath found.
When Sirius did in spring its light display,
A child was born, and Tiger marked the day.

When first upon my face my lord"s eye glanced,
For me auspicious names he straight advanced,
Denoting that in me Heaven"s marks divine
Should with the virtues of the earth combine.

（二）
With lavished innate qualities indued,
By art and skill my talents I renewed;
Angelic herbs and sweet selineas too,
And orchids late that by the water grew,

I wove for ornament; till creeping time,
Like water flowing, stole away my prime.
Magnolias of the glade I plucked at dawn,
At eve beside the stream took winter-thorn.

Without delay the sun and moon sped fast,
In swift succession spring and autumn passed;
The fallen flowers lay scattered on the ground,
The dusk might fall before my dream was found.

Had I not loved my prime and spurned the vile,
Why should I not have changed my former style?
My chariot drawn by steeds of race divine
I urged; to guide the king my sole design.

（三）
Three ancient kings there were so pure and true
That round them every fragrant flower grew;
Cassia and pepper of the mountain-side
With melilotus white in clusters vied.

Two monarchs then, who high renown received,
Followed the kingly way, their goal achieved.
Two princes proud by lust their reign abused,
Sought easier path, and their own steps confused.

The faction for illict pleasure longed;
Dreadful their way where hidden perils thronged.
Danger against myself could not appal,
But feared I lest my sovereign"s scepter fall.

Forward and back I hastened in my quest,
Followed the former kings, and took no rest.
The prince my true integrity defamed,
Gave ear to slander, high his anger flamed;

Integrity I knew could not avail,
Yet still endured; my lord I would not fail.
Celestial spheres my witness be on high,
I strove but for His Sacred Majesty.

"Twas first to me he gave his plighted word,
But soon repenting other counsel heard.
For me departure could arouse no pain;
I grieved to see his royal purpose vain.

Of Study
Francis Bacon

STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humour of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.

Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man; and writing and exact man. And therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little, he head need have much cunning, to seem to know that he does not. Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend. Abeunt studia in mores. Nay there is no stond or impediment in the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies: like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man"s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again. If his wit be not apt to distinguish or find differences, let him study the schoolmen; for they are cymini sectores. If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him study the lawyers" cases. So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

譯文
論讀書

文:弗郎西斯.培根
譯:王佐良

讀書足以怡情，足以傅彩，足以長才。其怡情也，最見於獨處幽居之時；其傅彩也，最見於高談闊論之中；其長才也，最見於處世判事之際。

練達之士雖能分別處理細事或一一判別枝節，然縱觀統籌，全局策劃，則舍好學深思者莫屬。讀書費時過多易惰，文采藻飾太盛則矯，全憑條文斷事乃學究故態。

讀書補天然之不足，經驗又補讀書之不足，蓋天生才幹猶如自然花草，讀書然後知如何修剪移接，而書中所示，如不以經驗范之，則又大而無當。

有一技之長者鄙讀書，無知者羨讀書，唯明智之士用讀書，然書並不以用處告人，用書之智不在書中，而在書外，全憑觀察得之。

讀書時不可存心詰難讀者，不可盡信書上所言，亦不可只為尋章摘句，而應推敲細思。

書有可淺嘗者，有可吞食者，少數則須咀嚼消化。換言之，有隻需讀其部分者，有隻須大體涉獵者，少數則須全讀，讀時須全神貫注，孜孜不倦。書亦可請人代讀，取其所作摘要，但只限題材較次或價值不高者，否則書經提煉猶如水經蒸餾，淡而無味。

讀書使人充實，討論使人機智，筆記使人準確。因此不常做筆記者須記憶力特強，不常討論者須天生聰穎，不常讀書者須欺世有術，始能無知而顯有知。

讀史使人明智，讀詩使人靈秀，數學使人周密，科學使人深刻，倫理學使人莊重，邏輯修辭之學使人善辯；凡有所學，皆成性格。

人之才智但有滯礙，無不可讀適當之書使之順暢，一如身體百病，皆可借相宜之運動除之。滾球利睾腎，射箭利胸肺，慢步利腸胃，騎術利頭腦，諸如此類。如智力不集中，可令讀數學，蓋演題需全神貫注，稍有分散即須重演；如不能辯異，可令讀經院哲學，蓋是輩皆吹毛求疵之人；如不善求同，不善以一物闡證另一物，可令讀律師之案卷。如此頭腦中凡有缺陷，皆有特效可醫。

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私貨時間

這篇論讀書是每個學英語的學生必讀的一篇文章，希望與其它知乎朋友們共勉。

看到這個問題，腦海中第一個浮現出來的是一首歌的歌詞。
&

Some say love it is a river that drowns the tender reed

Some say love it is a razor that leaves your soul to bleed

Some say love it is a hunger and endless aching need

I say love it is a flower and you its only seed

It"s the heart afraid of breaking that never learns to dance

It"s the dream afraid of waking that never takes the chance

It"s the one who won"t be taken who cannot seem to give

And the soul afraid of dying that never learns to live

When the night has been too lonely and the road has been too long

And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong

Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snow

Lies the seed that with the sun"s love

In the spring becomes the rose

目前認為菲茨傑拉德的《了不起的蓋茨比》文筆很棒