书城外语课外英语-七彩音符奔放的旋律(双语版)
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第14章 我是一块磐石(1)

一个冬日……

一个寒冬腊月黑暗的日子;

我独自一人,

往窗外凝视,

看着下面的大街,

被刚落下来默默无声的白雪覆盖。

我是一块磐石,

我是一个岛屿。

我修建了城墙,

一个任何东西都无法穿透的

巨大而又深深的堡垒。

我不需要友谊,

友谊为痛苦之因。

我藐视狂笑,

我藐视爱情。

我是一块磐石,

我是一个岛屿。

不要谈论爱情;

虽然我曾经听说过这词;

它在我的记忆里沉睡。

我决不打扰

已死去了的感情的睡眠

假如我从没爱过,

我就决不会伤心地哭泣。

我是一块磐石,

我是一个岛屿。

我有保护我的

土地,书籍和诗歌,

我的盔甲保护着我,

躲藏在我的房间里,

在我的孕育之处里平安无恙。

我不触摸任何人,

也没人触摸我。

我是一块磐石,

我是一个岛屿。

巨石没有痛苦的感觉;

岛屿从不哭泣……

【语言点解析】

1.On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.

shroud:

1)cloth or sheet(to be)wrapped round a corpse 尸布;寿衣。

2)something which covers and hides 覆盖物;遮蔽物。

例如:a shroud of mist 一片浓雾。

a shroud of darkness 夜幕:黑夜的笼罩。

2.It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.

loving=love 爱情。

It is/was...that 强调句型。

这一结构可以用来强调几乎句中每一个成分。

例如:My mother threw an egg at the Minister of Education yesterday.

1)It was my mother that(who)threw an egg at the Minister of Education yesterday.

2)It was an egg that my mother threw at the Minister of Education yesterday.

3)It was yesterday that my mother threw an egg at the Minister of Education.

4)It was the Minister of Education that my mother threw an egg at yesterday.

(Note:这一句型不能用来强调动词)。

3.If I never loved I never would have cried.

=If I had never loved I would never have cried.

When we want to talk about things that did not happen in the past(imagining what would have happened if things had been different),we use the structure

If+past perfect,with the perfect conditional in the other part of the sentence.

如果我们谈论与过去事实相反的事,我们使用以下虚拟语气:

从句:If+had done 主句:would+have done

例如:If you had worked harder last year,you would probably have passed your exam.如果你去年学习更努力一点,你也许会考及格的。(事实上你没及格,是因为你学习不太努力。)

I would have told you if I had realized you didn’t know.如果我当时意识到你不知道,我就会告诉你的。(与事实相反:我当时没告诉你是因为我没意识到你不知道)。

Just Around the Riverbend

Introduction

Can you be confused between lust and love?If so,perhaps you may want to reconsider romance,the long slow process by which you,as a part of a possible couple,can get to know your prospective partner as a person,before you decide to intimately explore each others bodies and sexual organs.

If during this long period of friendship either of you decide,for whatever reason not to develop the relationship,you can both politely say goodbye with a minimum of hurt feelings.

Your life consists of choices.How well do you know yourself?Should you decide to control your sexual appetite and delay the responsibilities of marriage?Is it a joy to discover your adult interests,your parents,your culture,and your world?Having sexual intercourse,while usually quite pleasurable,is never a necessity.Other activities,like getting an education,may have a far greater priority and usefulness.

No one ever died because they didn’t have sex.But no one believes you are serious about human friendship and love if you are busy imitating the promiscuous sexual habits of monkeys?

“Pocahontas”first shown in 1995,is another of Disney’s many excellent animated full length movies.In “Pocahontas”,the questioning “Just Around the Riverbend”and the romantic “Colors of the Wind”,are both delightfully sung by Judy Kuhn.Alan Menken composed both of these songs,and the lyrics were written by Stephen Schwartz.

Judy Kuhn is famous for acting and singing in many Broadway theater productions in New York.In 1993she had a solo CD debut called “Just in Time-Judy Kuhn Sings the Music of Jule Styne.”That first CD won rave reviews from American music critics.She is married to David Schwab and in November 1994,she gave birth to a lovely daughter named Anna.

Alan Menken,winner of multiple Academy Awards,also composed music for Disney’s “Aladdin”,“The Little Mermaid”,“The Hunchback of Notra Dame”and “Beauty and the Beast”.

Stephen Schwartz is well respected for his lyrics and work with Menken on “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”,as well as other creative writings.

Disney’s “Pocahontas”is based on the life of an intelligent young Indian woman who lived 400years ago.It explores the relationship between father and daughter,the difficulty in waiting for romantic love,and the conflict between greedy individuals and the wiser people who simply want to live in peace.

Beautiful young Pocahontas struggles to find her own path in life.Should she marry Kokoum,a fierce Indian warrior who has the respect and support of her father?Or should she wait until she finds a man that she can love and respect,a man of her dreams,a dream giver?This is the question posed in richly metaphorical language in “Just around the Riverbend”,wherein life is seen as a river and the unknowable future lies hidden just around the next bend of the river.

Like Pocahontas,do you ask yourself the same types of questions?Should I stop traveling on an unknowable river where I make my own choices?Or is it better to seek the sexual pleasures and protection of marriage to a man like Kocoum,“ahandsome sturday husband who builds handsome sturdy walls and never dreams that something might be coming?”

Just Around the Riverbend

Vocal:Judy Kuhn,singing as Pocahontas

Music:Alan Menken

Lyrics:Stephen Schwartz

What I love most about rivers is:

You can’t step in the same river twice.

The water’s always changing,always flowing.

But people,I guess,can’t live that.

We all must pay a price.

To be safe,we lose our chance of ever knowing

What’s around the riverbend,

Waiting just around the riverbend.

I look once more

Just around the riverbend,

Beyond the shore

Where the gulls fly free.

Don’t know what for?

What I dream the day might send

Just around the riverbend,

Coming for me.

I feel it there beyond those tree,

Or right behind these waterfalls.

Can I ignore that sound of distant drumming

For a handsome sturdy husband,

Who builds handsome sturdy walls,

And never dreams that something might be coming?

Just around the riverbend,

Just around the riverbend.

I look once more

Just around the riverbend,

Beyond the shore,

Somewhere past the sea.

Don’t know what for...

Why do all my dreams extend

Just around the riverbend?

Just around the riverbend...

Should I choose the smoothest course

Steady as the beating drum?

Should I marry Kocoum?

Is all my dreaming at an end?

Or do you still wait for me,Dream Giver,

Just around the riverbend?

就在河流拐弯处

我热爱河流,主要是因为

你不可能两次进入同一条河流。

河水经常在变化,在流动。

但是,我想人却不可能像河流那样生活。

我们都必须付出代价。

为了安全,会失去机会去了解,

在河流拐弯处等待我们的那未知数,