英语美文：今天开始

英语美文：Start today
从今天开始
It was a
bleak, rainy day, and I had no desire to drive up the winding
mountain road to my daughter Carolyn’s house. But she had insisted
that I come see something at the top of the mountain.
一个阴冷的雨天，我并不想开车经过蜿蜒的山路去我女儿卡洛琳的家，但是她坚持要我去看一下山顶的什么东西。

So here I
was, reluctantly making the two-hour journey through fog that hung
like veils. By the time I saw how thick it was near the summit, I’d
gone too far to turn back.
所以我就来了。

不情愿地用了两个小时的车程，穿过如面纱般笼罩的迷雾。

然而当我看到接近山顶的雾有多浓的时候，我已经走出太远而无法返回了。

Nothing
could be worth this, I thought as I inched along the perilous
highway.
没有什么值得我这样做。

我一边想一边缓慢地行驶在这条危险的公路上。

“I’ll
stay for lunch, but I’m heading back down as soon as the fog
lifts,” I announced when I arrived.
“我会留下来吃午饭，但是我必须趁云雾散去之时尽快返回。

”
我到达的时候这样说道。

“But I
need you to drive me to the garage to pick up my car,” Carolyn
said. “Could we at least do that?”
“但是我需要你载我到车库取车。

”
卡洛琳说，“我们至少可以做这一件事吗？”
“How far
is it?” I asked.
“有多远？”我问道。

“About
three minutes,” she said. “I’ll drive—I’m used to
it.”
“大约三分钟”，她说，“我来开车，我已经习惯了。

”
After ten
minutes on the mountain road, I looked at her anxiously. “I thought you said three minutes.”
上了山路十分钟之后，我不安地看着她说：“我原以为你说的三分钟。

”She grinned.
“This is a detour.”
她笑着说：“这是一条弯路。

”
Turning down a
narrow track,we parked the car and got out. We walked along a path that was thick with old pine needles. Huge black--green evergreens
towered over us. Gradually, the peace and silence of the place
began to fill my mind.
转入了一条狭窄的小道，我们把车停好，下了车。

我们沿着一条长满了古老的松针树的小路走着。

巨大的浓绿常青树高耸云宵。

渐渐地，此处的平和与宁静开始充斥我的头脑。

Then we turned
a corner and stopped—and I gasped in amazement.
然后我们转了个弯停下来，眼前的景象让我惊讶地倒吸一口气。

From the top
of the mountain, sloping for several acres across folds and
valleys, were rivers of daffodils in radiant bloom. A profusion of
color—from the palest ivory to the deepest lemon to the most vivid
salmon—blazed like a carpet before us. It looked as though the sun
had tipped over and spilled gold down the
mountainside.
从山顶开始，有几英亩的坡地，横跨山峦层叠的山谷，那里有绚烂开放的水仙花海。

色彩缤纷——从最苍白的象牙色到最深的柠檬黄再到最有活力的橙红色。

宛如一张地毯在我们面前褶褶闪耀。

它看起来仿佛是太阳侧身斜倚把金子溢撒在了山上。

At the center
cascaded a waterfall of purple hyacinths. Here and there were
coral-colored tulips. And as if this bonanza were not enough,
western bluebirds frolicked over the heads of the daffodils, their
tawny breasts and sapphire wings like a flutter of
jewels.
在坡地的中央，是如瀑布般倾泻而下的紫色风信子。

到处都是珊瑚色的郁金香。

仿佛这
些丰富的宝藏还不够，还有西部的蓝色知更鸟在水仙花枝头嬉戏，它们黄褐色的胸脯和宝蓝色的翅膀像一串振翅摆动的珠宝。

A riot of
questions filled my mind. Who created such beauty? Why?
How?
一连串各种各样的问题充斥着我的大脑。

谁创造了如此美景？为什么？怎么创造的？
As we
approached the home that stood in the center of the property, we
saw a sign that read: “Answers to the Questions I Know You Are
Asking.”
当我们快要回到位于这个宝藏中央的家时，看到一个标语，上面写着：“我知道你要问的问题，这里是答案。

”
The first
answer was: “One Woman—Two Hands, Two Feet, and Very Little Brain.”
The second was: “One at a Time.” The third: “Started in
1958.”
第一个答案是：“一个女人——两只手，两只脚，和一个很小的脑袋。

”
第二个答案是：“每次一个。

”
第三个是：“始于1958年。

”
As we drove
home, I was so moved by what we had seen, I could scarcely speak.
“She changed the w orld,” I finally said, “one bulb at a time. She
started almost 40 years ago, probably just the beginning of an
idea, but she kept at it.”
在我们开车回家途中，我被今天的见闻感动到无法说话。

“她改变了世界。

”
我最终说到，“一次一株花。

她几乎是从40年前开始的，很可能只是始于一个想法，但是她坚持了下来。

“
The wonder of
it would not let me go. “Imagine,” I said, “if I’d had a vision and
worked at it, just a little bit every day, what might I have
accomplished?”
它的神奇让我无法放下思考。

“想象一下”，我说，“如果我有一个想法并且持续致力于它，只需每天一点点，我可能已经成就的会是什么？”
Carolyn
looked at me sideways, smil ing. “Start tomorrow,” she said. “Better
yet, start today.”
卡洛琳斜眼看着我，微笑道：“从明天开始吧”，她说。

“从今天开始，岂不更好。

”。