R. L. 斯蒂文森(R. L. Stevenson)
If the evening be fine and warm, there is nothing better in life than to lounge before the inn door in the sunset, or lean over the parapet of the bridge, to watch the weeds and the quick fishes. It is then, if ever, that you taste joviality to the full significance of that audacious word. Your muscles are so agreeably slack, you feel so clean and so strong and so idle, that whether you move or sit still,whatever you do is done with pride and a kingly sort of pleasure. You fall in talk with any one, wise or foolish, drunk or sober. And it seems as if a hot walk purged you, more than of anything else, of all narrowness and pride, and left curiosity to play its part freely, as in a child or a man of science. You lay aside all your own hobbies, to watch provincial humors develop themselves before you, now as a laughable farce, and now grave and beautiful like an old tale.
Or perhaps you are left to your own company, and surely weather imprisons you by the fire. You may remember how Burns, numbering past pleasures dwells upon the hours when he has been“happy thinking.” It is a phrase that may well perplex a poor modern, girt about on every side by clocks and chimes, and haunted, even at night, by flaming medals. For we are all so busy, and have so many far off projects to realize, and castles in the air to turn into solid habitable mansions on a gravel soil, that we can find no time for pleasure trips into the Land of Thought and among the Hills of Vanity.
- parapet [ˈpærəpɪt] n. 栏杆
- joviality [ˌdʒəʊvɪˈælətɪ] n. 欢乐，友好
- kingly [ˈkɪŋlɪ] a. 国王的，国王似的
- purge [pɜːdʒ] v. 清洗，净化
- provincial [prəˈvɪnʃl] a. 乡间的，地方性的
- gravel [ˈɡrævəl] n./a. 砾石；充满砾石的
如果傍晚晴朗而暖和，人生也没有什么可以比得上在夕阳余晖中懒洋洋地躺在小旅店门前，或者依靠在小桥栏杆上观赏水草和急速的游鱼，那是多么幸福。当真有此机会，那时你就会品味到大胆创新的词joviality（愉悦）的充分含义。你浑身肌肉舒坦放松，感觉神清气爽，强壮而又闲适，无论你活动着还是静坐着，随你做什么，都十分惬意，带着一种国王似的快乐。不论面前有谁，是智是愚，是醉是醒，都吸引你和他闲聊。你好像走得大汗淋漓，比任何别的东西都更能净化你的狭隘与自负，任好奇心自动翱翔，犹如孩童和科学家身上的那种。丢开一切自我爱好，观察乡下人怎样在你面前幽默交谈，演变成可笑的闹剧，有时又变得严肃而优美，如同古老的故事。
也许，你孤影相伴，恶劣的天气把你囚禁在壁炉旁。你可能记得彭斯怎样回忆过去的乐事，一连几个小时想啊写啊，如数家珍。当年的赏心乐事，可能会使现代人困惑不解，他们无事不受时钟和钟声的束缚，甚至在夜晚也被火焰般闪亮的奖章弄得闹鬼一样不得安宁。因为我们全都这么忙，有这么多遥远的计划要实现，把空中楼阁建在砾石地面上，想成为可以居住的广厦，却无暇前往思想王国里游历，在虚幻的山峦中漫步。