英语散文赏析《落花生》双语散文阅读

英语散文赏析《落花生》双语散文阅读

Peanuts

Xu Dishan

我们屋后有半亩隙地。母亲说：“让它荒芜着怪可惜，既然你们那么爱吃花生，就辟来做花生园罢。” 我们几姐弟和几个小丫头都很喜欢——买种的买种，动土的动土，灌园的灌园;过不了几个月，居然收获了!

Behind our house there lay half a mu of vacant land. Mother said, “It’s a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?” That exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!

母亲说：“今晚我们可以做一个收获节，也请你们爹爹来尝尝我们的新花生，如何?”我们都答应了。母亲把花生做成好几样的食品，还吩咐这节期要在园里的茅亭举行。

Mother said, “How about giving a party this evenin g to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?” We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.

那晚上的天色不太好，可是爹爹也来到，实在很难得!

It looked like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless.

爹爹说：“你们爱吃花生吗?”

“Do you like peanuts?” asked father.

我们都争着答应：“爱!”

“Yes, we do!” we vied in giving the answer.

“谁能把花生的好处说出来?”

“Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?”

姐姐说：“花生的气味很美。”

“Peanuts tastes good,” said my elder sister.

哥哥说：“花生可以制油。”

“Peanuts produce edible oil,” said my elder brother.

我说：“无论何等人都可以用贱价买它来吃;都喜欢吃它。这就是它的好处。”

“Peanuts are so cheap,” said I, “that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyone’s favorite. That’s why we call peanuts good.”

爹爹说：“花生的用处固然很多;但有一样是很可贵的。这小小的豆不像那好看的苹果、桃子、石榴，把它们的果实悬在枝上，鲜红嫩绿的颜色，令人一望而发生羡慕的心。他只把果子埋在地底，等到成熟，才容人把他挖出来。你们偶然看见一棵花生瑟缩地长在地上，不能立刻辨出他有没有果实，非得等到你接触他才能知道。”

“It’s true that peanuts have many uses,” said father, “but they’re most beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win people’s admiration with their brilliant colors, tiny little peanuts bury themselves underground and remain unearthed until they’re ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bears any nuts until you touc h them.”

我们都说是的，母亲也点点头。

“That’s true,” we said in unison. Mother also nodded.

父亲接下去说：“所以你们要像花生，因为它是有用的，不是伟大、好看的东西。”

“So you must take after peanuts,” father continued, “because

they’re useful though not great and nice-looking.”

我说：“那么，人要做有用的人，不要做伟大、体面的人了。”

“Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking,” I said.

父亲说：“这是我对你们的希望。”

“That’s what I expect of you,” father concluded.

我们谈到夜阑才散，所有花生食品虽然没有了，然而父亲的话现在还印在我心版上。

We kept chatting until the party broke up late at night. Today, though nothing is left of the goodies made of peanuts, father’s words remain engraved in my mind.

知识拓展：

作者简介

许地山(1894-1941)，名赞堃，字地山，笔名落华生(古时“华”同“花”，所以也叫落花生)，中国现代著名小说家、散文家、“五四”时期新文学运动先驱者之一。

《落花生》是一篇叙事散文，描述了一家人收获花生的情景，通过谈论花生的好处，借物喻人，揭示了花生不图虚名、默默奉献的品格，说明人要做有用的人，不要做只讲体面而对别人没有好处的人，表达了作者不为名利，只求有益于社会的人生理想和价值观。