花花only
一个民族产生过几位大哲学家没什么稀罕，但一个民族能以哲理的眼光去观察事物，那是难能可贵的。我整理了哲理英语美文故事，欢迎阅读!
让我们微笑吧
The thing that goes the farthest toward making life worthwhile, that costs the least and does the most, is just a pleasant smile.
那最能赋予生命价值、代价最廉而回报最多的东西，不过一个令人心畅的微笑而已。
The smile that bubbles from the heart that loves its fellow men, will drive away the clouds of gloom and coax the Sun again.
由衷地热爱同胞的微笑，会驱走心头阴郁的乌云，心底收获一轮夕阳。
It's full of worth and goodness, too, with manly kindness blent; It's worth a million dollars, and it doesn’t cost a cent.
它充满价值和美好，混合着坚毅的仁爱之心;它价值连城却不花一文。
There is no room for sadness when we see a cheery smile; It always has the same good look; it's never out of style; It nerves us on to try again when failure makes us blue;
当我们看到喜悦的微笑，忧伤就会一扫而光;它始终面容姣好，永不落伍;失败令我们沮丧之时，它鼓励我们再次尝试;
The dimples of encouragement are good for me and you.It pays the highest interest — for it is merely lent;
鼓励的笑靥于你我大有裨益。它支付的利息高昂无比──只因它是种借贷形式;
It's worth a million dollars, and it doesn’t cost a cent.
它价值连城却不花一文。
A smile comes very easy — you can wrinkle up with cheer. A hundred times before you can squeeze out a salty tear. It ripples out, moreover, to the heartstrings that will tug, and always leaves an echo that is very like a hug.
来一个微笑很容易──嘴角欢快翘起来，你能百次微笑，可难得挤出一滴泪;它的涟漪深深波及心弦，总会留下反响，宛若拥抱。
So, smile away! Folks understand what by a smile is meant. It’s worth a million dollars, and it doesn’t cost a cent.
继续微笑吧!谁都懂得它意味着什么。它价值连城却不花一文。
让过去过去 让未来来到
Regret can be a terrible addiction. Those who suffer from it so often become bitter and full of self-pity.
后悔是一件很可怕的东西, 它会让人上瘾. 那些经常感到后悔的人会变得更加悲天悯人, 自顾自怜.
It is an emotion that serious entrepreneurs cannot afford: they must keep pressing onwards and should not look back with remorse, dwelling on errors of long ago.
而对于企业家来说, 他们绝对不可以对 “后悔” 这种情绪上瘾. 他们必须时刻坚持前进, 不能总是回望很久以前犯下的错误而懊悔自责.
As Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, said: “When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.” Entrepreneurs must learn to manage the conflict between constant experimentation – which means lots of painful mistakes – and a fear of failure, which can lead to paralysis.
正如电话机的发明者亚历山大?格拉汉姆?贝尔所言, “当人生的一扇门关闭了, 总会有另一扇门为你打开; 然而, 我们却经常久久地回顾那扇关闭了的门, 懊悔不已, 却没有看到那扇为我们打开的门.” 企业家必须学会如何平衡各种不断的尝试和害怕失败的心理之间的矛盾. 这些尝试可能意味着许多痛苦的失误, 而害怕失败的心理则可能导致你停滞不前.
Likewise, past glory can be a killer. For example, Greg Dyke, who is a clever fellow, still harks back too much to his resignation as director-general of the BBC. He should move on and stop moaning about the injustice of it all.
同样的, 过去的荣耀也可能是毁灭你的杀手. 比如说, 格里格?戴克, 一个头脑聪明的人, 至今仍然对他当初辞去BBC总裁一职耿耿于怀. 他应该立即停止抱怨所有的不公, 继续前进.
And Tim Waterstone should give up trying to buy back his bookshop chain, which he finally left more than 10 years ago (after selling it once and then getting involved again). He has tried to repurchase it at least five times, if rumour is to be believed. Possibly the root of the problem is that he exaggerates the chain’s importance, once saying: “Waterstone’s does more for the day-to-day cultural life of the nation than perhaps anything or anyone else.”
而蒂姆?沃特斯通, 既然十年前已经决定离开他的连锁书店了, 现在就应该放弃试图回购连锁书店的计划(他曾经将书店出售, 后来又买回来). 如果传言属实的话, 他曾经至少五次试图将它买回来. 问题的根源可能是, 他过于高估书店的价值. 他曾说, “Waterstone’s 在本国日常文化生活层面上所做的贡献是任何东西和任何人都不能比拟的.”
No doubt I suffered from a similar delusion in taking over Borders bookshops. But such thoughts were never true, and are even less so now, in the age of e-books and Amazon. Admittedly, I did try to buy back PizzaExpress once, but that was different – it would have been a sound financial deal.
同样并不稀奇的是, 在接管Borders书店时, 我也有类似的错觉. 然而, 这样的感觉从来都是错误的, 而在当今的电子书和亚马逊普及的时代, 这种感觉就更加错误了. 无可置否, 我也曾经试图回购 PizzaExpress, 然而那时的情况不同, 那次的回购可能是一次明智的金融交易.
And who doesn’t have a tale of the one that got away? I remember David Dein, my predecessor as chairman of the charity Stage One, telling a wonderfully self-deprecating anecdote of his initial activities as a theatrical angel. Mr Dein, who has made a fortune investing in Arsenal football club, backed some early shows from a promising young producer called Cameron Mackintosh, and they unfortunately lost money. Finally, the apprentice impresario approached him about supporting an idea to put some of T.S.?Eliot’s poems to music, on stage. Not unreasonably, Mr Dein turned it down. It became, of course, Cats, one of the most successful productions of all time, and helped make Mr Mackintosh a very rich man indeed.
然而, 谁不曾中此类的招数呢? 我记得在我之前担任慈善机构Stage One董事长的大卫?德恩曾经自嘲般地讲过他的一件轶事, 这件事与他刚开始担任戏剧赞助人的经历有关. 德恩先生曾经投资阿森纳足球俱乐部并获得可观的利润. 后来他赞助一位颇有潜力的年轻制片人卡梅伦?麦金托什的一些早期剧目, 然而不幸的是, 这是一笔亏本买卖. 最后, 那位学徒式的剧场经理希望德恩可以支持他将T?S?艾略特的部分诗歌改编成音乐剧搬上舞台. 而德恩拒绝了他的请求, 这一切看起来也确实合情合理. 这时你应该猜到, 这后来成为了史上最成功的音乐剧之一, <<猫>>. 它成功地让麦金托什变成一个非常富有的人.
One of my experiences in that vein was Transform, a leading cosmetic surgery company. It was a highly profitable undertaking, serving a booming market, and I believed the acquisition would be a real winner. I spent many weeks negotiating a deal, but then got slightly cold feet at the last minute, and fell out with the vendor over a relatively trivial sum. He immediately turned round and sold it to those astute fellows at Phoenix private equity. Inevitably, they proceeded to make a rapid fortune.
我也有类似的经历, 那是在一家叫Transform的领先美容整形公司里. 这家公司营利情况非常好, 市场需求大, 因此我相信收购这家公司是一个明智的选择. 我花了好多周的时间谈判这笔交易, 但是在最后一刻却有点动摇了, 最后因为一笔非常小的金额上与出售方发生分歧而使交易告吹. 出售方立即把公司转卖给私人股本公司Phoenix的那帮精明的家伙. 结局不用说, 这些人迅速地赚取了可观的利润.
At least my mistake wasn’t as expensive as George Bell’s. He was the former documentary film-maker hired in 1996 to run Excite, the dotcom darling, which achieved a market capitalisation of $35bn at its peak. Three years later, the founders of Google decided that their search business was interfering with their studies and tried to sell it to a number of buyers, including Mr Bell, for just $750,000. He turned it down flat. Excite subsequently went bankrupt, while Google is now worth $170bn.
然而, 至少, 我的失误不及乔治?贝尔的失误付出的代价高. 他曾经是纪录片制片人, 1996年被Excite雇用. 该公司最高实现了350亿美元的市值. 三年后, 谷歌的创使人认为, 他们的搜索业务干扰到了他们的研究, 试图用区区75万美元向众多的买家出售, 包括贝尔. 然而贝尔直接拒绝了. Excite后来破产了, 而谷歌现在的市值高达1700亿美元.
And it would be hard not to feel some sympathy for James Monaghan. In 1960, he teamed up with his brother Tom in the purchase of a single pizza restaurant in Michigan for $500. But later that year, he decided to go travelling, and so sold his 50 per cent share in the business to his brother in exchange for a used Volkswagen Beetle. A few years later, the company changed its name to Domino’s Pizza, and in 1998 was sold for about $1bn.
同样的, 我们也难免会为詹姆斯?莫纳汗感到可惜. 1960年, 他和他的兄弟汤姆合作, 用500美元在密歇根买下了一间比萨餐厅. 后来, 也就在那一年, 他决定去旅行, 于是将自己百分之五十的股份卖给了他的兄弟, 换取一辆二手的大众甲壳虫汽车. 几年以后, 那家比萨餐厅改名为达美乐比萨餐厅. 1998年, 达美乐比萨餐厅以约10亿美元的价格出售.
By all means treasure experience, and learn from your blunders. But don’t wallow in nostalgia, pining for what might have been. Rather, go ahead and seize the day no matter what. I have little time for those who say: I wish I had started my own business. My only response is: so do it now.
前车可鉴, 我们一定要从经验和失误中吸取教训. 但是切不可以过分沉浸在过去的伤怀中而于可能的结果念念不忘. 相反, 你应该勇往直前, 抓住一切可能的机会. 我没有空去理会那些只会说 “我要早点创业就好了”. 如果有人对我说这句话, 我会对他说: 现在就去做吧!
珍惜现在 不再错过
音乐家约翰带着一把价值不菲的古董名琴，悄悄来到人潮不断的地铁站演奏。弦音曼妙，在空旷处流淌。将近一小时的演奏中，真正驻足聆听者只有六七人。最捧场的是一位三岁小童，听得入神。约翰当天得到52美元赏金。
John, a famous musician, took his priceless antique zither and played it in the crowded subway station. The music emanating from the zither was delicately streaming throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly appreciating the charming music. A three-year-old kid was so fascinated by the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 U.S. dollar for his work that day.
平日，约翰的演奏会举行时，一张票超过100美元，且一票难求。 后来，不少当时就在地铁站的观众扼腕自己眼拙，错过了一场免费或者廉价的音乐盛宴。
However, in normal days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars and it is extremely hard to buy a ticket even at such a high price. Therefore, later, many passers-by in the station that day felt deeply regretful for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a valuable but cheap music feast.
有位忙碌的朋友得知老婆罹患重症，彻头彻尾变了一个人：亲自下厨，陪太太散步……可是妻子敌不过病魔摧残，三个月后就撒手人寰。他很伤感地说，太忙了，错过与妻子营造最美好的人生时光，想弥补却弥补不回来。
I have a very busy friend who had totally changed after knowing that his wife came down with acute illness. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. Nonetheless, his wife still did not manage to conquer the illness and passed away after three months. After that, he often sighed miserably that due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of beautiful time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to make up for it.
医生的儿子从19楼一跃而下，留下一封遗书，信中留言：最想爸爸陪他，最想看电影，最希望快快乐乐……儿子往生之后，爸爸才明白，人生中最珍贵的不是成就，而是亲情。
A doctor’s son jumped from the 19th floor of a building and left a posthumous letter which expressed his strong desire for staying more with his father, going to see a movie with his father, etc. Not until his son committed suicide had the doctor realized that the most precious thing is not career achievement, but the tight and intact family bonds.
可惜千金难买早知道，很多美好的事，往往简简单单就被轻易错过了。
It is no use crying over spilt milk. We have missed a lot of precious things in our life without knowing to cherish them.
事实上，我也错过一些事。错过的理由很简单：以为还有明天。
Actually, I also missed something precious before. The reason why we would have missed those precious things is less than simple: we had thought that we could still own them tomorrow.
事实上，明天是不可靠的。要不，日休禅师怎么会说，很多人的一生中，只做了“等待”与“后悔”两件事，合起来就叫“来不及”。我们老爱说：长大再说，有钱再说，老了再说……可是到了那时候，却什么都不必说了。
Nevertheless, tomorrow is actually by no means reliable. There was a famous Buddhist monk saying that in many people’s lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to cherish what they had before they lost it. We would often claim to do something when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, etc. However, when we reach the condition we have expected, we could no longer do realize our wish any more, because we have lost it by then.
浮生若梦圈
英文散文结构简练、语言简洁、文笔流畅 ,且十分讲究其独特的语言风格 ,给人以美的感受。在翻译时 ,充分体现散文的风格是至关重要的。以供大家参考。
Have You Seen the Tree
My neighbor Mrs. Gargan first told me about it."Have you seen the tree?" she asked as I was sitting in the backyard enjoying the October ilight.
关于那棵树，最初是我的邻居加根太太告诉我的。“你见过那棵树吗?”她问道，当时我正坐在后院欣赏十月的暮色。
"The one down at the corner," she explained. "It's a beautiful tree-all kinds of colors.Cars are stopping to look. You ought to see it."
“就是下去拐角处的那棵”她解释说，“漂亮极了—五颜六色的。好多车路过都停下来看，你该去看看。”
I told her I would, but I soon fot about the tree. Three days later, I was jogging down the street, my mind swimming with petty worries, when a splash of bright orange caught my eye. For an instant, I thought someone's house had caught fire. Then I remembered the tree.
我对她说我会去看的，可转眼就忘记了关于树的事。三天后，我顺着街道慢跑，脑子里充斥着恼人的小事，忽然，一片耀眼的橘红色映入眼帘，有一会儿，我还以为是谁家的房子着火了呢，但我马上想到了那棵树。
As I approached it, I slowed to a walk. There was nothing remarkable about the shape of the tree. a medium-sized maple. But Mrs. Gargan had been right about its colors.Like the messy whirl of an artist's palette, the tree blazed a bright crimson on its lower branches, burned with vivid yellows and oranges in its center. and simmered to deep red at its top. Through these fiery colors cascaded thin rivulets of pale-green leaves and blotches of deep-green leaves, as yet untouched by autumn.
我慢慢走近它.就像朝圣者缓缓步向神殿，我发现靠近树梢的地方有几根光秃秃的枝丫，上面黑乎乎的小枝像鹰爪一般伸向天空。枯枝上落下的叶子一片猩红，像地毯似的铺在树干周围。
Edging closer-like a pilgrim approaching a shrine-I noticed several bare branches near the top, their black igs scratching the air like claws.The leaves they had shed lay like a scarlet carpet around the trunk.
当我靠近树时，禁不住放慢了脚步。树的形状并没有什么非凡之处，是一棵中等大小的枫树。但加根太太说得不错，它的色彩确实奇特，像画家调色板中斑斓的颇料，令人眼花缭乱。树底部的枝丫好似一片鲜红的火海，树的中部燃烧着明快的黄色和橘色，顶部的树梢又爆发着深红色。在这火一样的色彩中，流淌着浅绿的叶子汇成的小溪，深绿的叶子斑驳点缀其间，似乎至今末曾受到过秋天的侵袭。
With its varied nations of color, this tree seemed to bee a globe, embracing in its broad branches all seasons and continents: the spring and summer of the Southern hemisphere in the light and dark greens, the autumn and winter of the Northern in the blazing yellows and bare branches.
这棵枫树集各种颇色于一体。如果一种颜色就是一个国家，枫树俨然成了一个缤纷的地球，它张开宽大的枝条，历数着四季轮回，容纳着五湖四海。深浅错落的绿叶，昭示着南半球的春夏，耀眼的黄叶和光秃秃的枝丫勾勒出北半球的秋冬。整个星球就围绕这一时空的交集点和谐运转。
As I marveled at this all-enpassing beauty, I thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson's ments about the stars. If the constellations appeared only once in a thousand years, he observed in Nature, imagine what an exciting event it would be. But because they're up there every night, we barely give them a look.
我为这棵树无所不包的美而惊叹不已。这时,我想起了著名作家拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生有关星星的评论。他在《自然》一书中写道：倘若星座一千年才出现一次，那么，星座的出现是一桩多么激动人心的事;可正因为星座每夜都挂在天上，人们才很少去看上一眼。
I felt the same way about the tree. Because its majesty will last only a week, it should be especially precious to us. And I had almost missed it.
对于眼前这棵树，我也有同感。它此时的华美只能维持一个星期，所以它对于我们就相当珍贵。可我竟差一点错过了。
Once when Emily Dickenson's father noticed a brilliant display of northern lights in the sky over Massachusetts, he tolled a church bell to alert townspeople. That's what I felt like doing about the tree. I wanted to bee a Paul Revere of autumn, awakening the countryside to its wonder.
有一次，当埃米莉·迪金森的父亲偶然看见马萨诸塞州上空一道炫目的北极光时，他立刻跑到教堂鸣钟告知所有市民。现在，我也产生了同样的想法，我要向世人宣扬这棵树。我愿成为秋天的信使。让田园乡村每一个角落的人们都了解它的神奇。
I didn't have a church bell or a horse, but as I walked home, I did ask each neighbor I passed the same simple but momentous question Mrs. Gargan had asked me: "Have you seen the tree?"
可我没有教堂的大钟，也没有快马，但当我走在回家的路上，我会问遇见的每一位邻居加根太太曾问过我的那个极其简单又极其重要的问题:“你见过那棵树吗?”
Solitude
I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time.To be in pany,even with the best, is soon wearisome. I love to be alone. I never found the panion that was sopanionable as solitude. We are for the most part more lonely when we go abroad among men than when we stay in our chambers. A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. Solitude is not measured by the miles of space that intervene beeen a man and his fellows. 'The really diligent student in one of the crowded hives of Cambridge College is as solitary as a dervish in the desert. The farmer can work alone in the field or the woods all day, hoeing orchopping，and not feel lonesome. beacause he is employed; but when he es home at night he cannot sit down in a room alone, at the mercy of his thoughts, but must be where he can "see the folks," and recreate, and,as he thinks. remunerate himself for his day's solitude; and hence he wonders how the student can sit alone in the house all night and most of the day without ennui and "the blues"; but he does not realize that the student, though in the house, is still at work in his field, and chopping in his woods, as the farmer ire his. and in turn seeks the same recreation and society that the latter does, though it may be a more condensed form of it.
大部分时候，我发现独处都是有益于健康的。有人陪伴，即使是最好的同伴，不久也会心生厌烦，兴致将消散。我爱独处。我没有遇见比孤独更好的伴侣了。我们置身国外，立行人群之中，通常比独处室内更加寂寞。一个思考着的或工作着的人总是孤独的，就让他去他想去的地方吧。孤独不是以和同伴之间的距离里程来衡量的。真正勤奋的学生，在剑桥学院一个拥挤的蜂房里，就像沙漠中的苦行僧一样孤单。农夫可以整日在田间或林中独自工作，耕地或者伐木，却并不感到寂寞，因为他有活儿干;可是当他晚上回到家中，却不能在房间坐下独自思考，而必须去“能看到乡亲”的地方消遣娱乐，正如他所想的，去补偿他五天的孤寂;因此他不明白学生如何可以整日整夜地独坐在家里，而不感到倦怠和“优郁”;但他没有意识到，学生虽然身处室内，却依然在自己的田野上耕耘，在自己的森林中采伐.就像农夫在他的田地林间工作一样，之后学生也和农夫一样要去寻求消遣，山要去交朋结友，只是娱乐方式可能更加简明一些。
Society is monly too cheap. We meet at very short intervals, not having had time to acquire any new value for each other. We meet at meals three times a day, and give each other a new taste of that old mushy cheese that we are. We have had to agree on a certain set of rules, called etiquetteand politeness, to make this frequent meeting tolerable and that we need not e to open war.We meet at the post office, and at the sociable,and about the fireside every night; we live thick and are in each other's way, and stumble over one another, and I think that we thus lose some respect for one another. Certainly less frequency would suffice for all important and hearty munications. Consider the girls in a factory-never alone, hardly in their dreams. It would be better if there were but one inhabitant to a square mile, as where I live.The value of a man is not in his skin.
社会交际往往极其廉价。我们相聚的时间十分短暂,没有足够的时间让彼此获得任何有价值的新事物。我们在一日三餐的时候见面，我们就如陈腐的奶略，却让彼此相互品尝出新味道。我们必须一致同意若干条规则，也就是我们所谓的礼节和礼貌，使这种经常的聚会相安无事，我们还要一致同意我们没有争吵的必要。我们在邮局碰面，在社交场合碰面，每天晚上在炉火边碰面;我们生活得很拥挤，相互干扰，彼此牵绊，我想，我们因此失去了对彼此的尊重。当然，所有重要的、真诚的沟通，次数少一些就足够了。想一想工厂里的女工——永远不会独处，甚至在梦中也难得是独自一人。如果一平方英里只有一个居民，就像我这样，那要好多了。一个人的价值不在于他的外在。
The Pleasures of Ignorance
It is impossible to take a walk in the country with an average town *** an—especially, perhaps, in April or May-without being amazed at the vast continent of his ignorance. It is impossible to take a walk in the country oneself without being amazed at the vast continent of one's own ignorance. Thousands of men and women live and die without knowing the difference beeen a beech and an elm, beeen the song of a thrush and the song of a blackbird. Probably in a modern city the man who can distinguish beeen a thrush's and a blackbird's song is the exception. It is not that we have not seen the birds. It is simply that we have not noticed them. We have been surrounded by birds all our lives, yet so feeble is our observation that many of us could not tell whether or not the chaffinch sings, or the colour of the cuckoo.
和一个普通的城里人在乡村漫步—特别是，可能在四五月份——你不可能不对他无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。一个人去乡间散步，你不可能不对自己无知的领域之广而感到惊讶。成千上万的男男女女活着然后死去，一辈子也不知道山毛榉和榆树之间有什么区别，不知道画眉和黑鹂的啼鸣有什么不同。现代都市中能辨别画眉和黑鹂叫声的人大概是极其罕见的。并非我们没有见过这两种鸟儿，仅仅是因为我们从不去注意它们。我们一生中都有鸟儿生活在我们周围，然而我们的观察力是如此微弱，以致我们中间许多人弄不清楚苍头燕雀是否全唱歌，说不出布谷鸟是什么颜色。
This ignorance, however, is not altogether miserable. Out of it we get the constant pleasure of discovery. Every fact of nature es to us each spring, if only we are sufficiently ignorant, with the dew still on it. If we have lived half a lifetime without having ever even seen a cuckoo, and know it only as a wandering voice, we are all the more delighted at the spectacle of its runaway flight as it hurries from wood to wood conscious of its crimes, and at the way in which it halts hawk-like in the wind, its long tail quivering, before it dares descend on a hill-side of fir-trees where avenging presences may lurk.
然而，这种无知并不完全是不幸的。从无知中，我们能源源不断地获取发现带来的喜悦。但愿我们真的一无听知，那么每到春天，各种自然现象就会带着清新的露珠呈现在我们眼前。如果我们已生活半生，甚至未曾见过一只布谷鸟，而仅仅把它当成一个四处飘荡的声音，那么.当我们亲眼目睹它因为自知自己的罪恶在林木间匆匆逃离穿梭，看到它如何如鹰般在风中骤然停止鸣叫，摆动着瑟瑟发抖的长尾翼，不敢在小山旁的冷杉上停歇，担心那里危机四伏时，我们一定会更加欣喜。
It would be absurd to pretend that the naturalist does not also find pleasure in observing the life of the birds, but his is a steady pleasure, almost a sober and plodding occupation, pared to the morning enthusia *** of the man who sees a cuckoo for the first time. And, as to that, the happiness even of the naturalist depends in some measure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer.He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes. Assuredly the men of science have no reason as yet to weep over their lost ignorance. There will always be a fortune of ignorance waiting for them under every fact they turn up.
如果假设博物学家在观察鸟类的生活时发现不到乐趣，那是荒谬可笑的。和清晨有人第一次看到布谷鸟的兴奋相比，博物学家的快乐是稳固的，他们的工作是严肃和漫长的。为此，甚至是博物学家的幸福在某种程度上也取决他的无知，无知给他留下这类新天地让他去征服。他的书本知识可能已经达到了顶峰，但是，在他亲眼证实每一个光辉的细节之前，他仍然感到自己是半无知的，无疑，科学家们迄今没有理由为他们错过的无知而哭泣。在他们发掘出的每一个事实下面总将会有一笔无知的财富在等待着他们。
But your and my ignorance is not confined to cuckoos. It dabbles in all created things, from the sun and moon down to the names of the flowers, including nearly everything you and I have taken for granted. One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. Do not fet that Socrates. was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realised at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing. Once more I shall see the world as a garden through the eyes of a stranger, my breath taken away with surprise by the painted fields.
但是，你我的无知绝不仅仅局限于布谷鸟，它涉及所有的创造物，上到太阳和月亮，下到百花的名称，几乎包括所有你我认为是理所当然的事物。人类感受过的最大快乐之一就是迅速逃到无知中去追求知识。无知的巨大乐趣，归根结底，是提问的乐趣。已经失去了这种快乐的人，或已经用这种快乐去换取教条的乐趣(即回答问题的乐趣)的人，已经开始僵化。不要忘记苏格拉底之所以以智慧闻名于世，并不是因为他无所不知而是因为他在70岁的时候认识到他还什么都不知道.而我将再一次用陌生人的眼光来审视这个花园一样的世界，每当我看到那如画的田野，我都将惊叹不已。
