双语美文之似水流年 （134）郁金香(4)
I was very much pleased and astonished at the glorious show of these gay vegetables, that arose in great profusion on all the banks about us.
看到花团锦簇的美妙画面，我真是又惊又喜。一垄一垄的花儿，密密麻麻地将我笼罩。
Sometimes I considered every leaf as an elaborate piece of tissue, in which the threads and fibers were woven together into different configurations, which gave a different coloring to the light as it glanced on the several parts of the surface.
一时间，我觉得每一片叶子都变成一方精美别致的薄纱，经纬交错，形成一幅幅千娇百媚的画卷。阳光照在薄纱不同的角落上，叶子便映出五彩斑斓的色彩。
Sometimes I considered the whole bed of tulips, according to the notion of the greatest mathematician and philosopher that ever lived, as a multitude of optic instruments, designed for the separating light into all those various colors of which it is composed.
有时我觉得，这大片的郁金香，在曾经最伟大的数学家和哲学家看来，就是由众多的光学仪器把光线分散成为的各种不同的颜色。
I was awakened out these my philosophical speculations, by observing the company often seemed to laugh at me.
意识到大家似乎一直在嘲笑我，我这才从陶醉中清醒过来。
I accidentally praised a tulip as one of the finest I ever saw； upon which they told me, it was a common Fool’s Coat.
我赞美一朵郁金香，认为它是世界上最美丽的花朵。但他们却出乎意料地告诉我，那仅仅是最普通的“愚人衣”。
Upon that I praised another, which it seems was but another kind of Fool’s Coat.
然后，我又去赞美另一朵，但那朵花好像也属于“愚人衣”。
I had the same fate with two or three more，for which reason I desired the owner of the garden to let me know which were the finest of the flower；
赞美其他两三朵花时，我遇到了相同的情况。于是，我恳求花园的主人告诉我，哪些是最好的花。
for that I was so unskillful in the art, that I thought the most beautiful were the most valuable, and that those which had the gayest colours were the most beautiful.
因为我对花一知半解，一直以为最美的就是最有价值的，最鲜艳的就是最美的。
The gentleman smiled at my ignorance.
看到我这样，主人只是一笑了之。
约瑟夫艾迪生
英国散文家、诗人、辉格党政治家。曾在牛津大学求学和任教，并去欧洲大陆旅行多年。担任过南部事务部次官、下院议员、爱尔兰总督沃顿伯爵的秘书等职。与斯梯尔合办《闲话报》(1710)和《旁观者》(1711)等刊物。为英国散文大师之一。写有诗篇《远征》、悲剧《卡托》以及文学评论文章等。