Henry Wadsworth Longfellow，美国诗人、翻译家，其诗歌的质朴和单纯使他受到儿童和成年人的喜爱，是一个有着纯粹、亲切、温文尔雅风格的多才多艺的抒情诗人。
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《Children》
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.
来吧，上这儿来吧，孩子们！
我听见你们嬉笑游玩，
那些叫我烦恼的问题
就都一下子烟消云散。
Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.
你们把东边窗户打开，
初升的太阳正在窗外，
那儿，思绪像呢喃的燕子，
像清晨的溪水，流得欢快。
In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooklet’s flow,
But in mine is the wind of Autumn
And the first fall of the snow.
你们心里有鸟儿和阳光，
你们思想里有小溪流过；
我这儿却只有秋天的凄风
和冬天第一次雪花飘落。
Ah! what would the world be to us
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.
啊！若是没有了孩子，
那还算得个什么世界？
我们会惧怕身后的荒凉
甚于惧怕眼前的黑夜。
What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood, –
好比嫩绿的树叶在林间，
把阳光空气当作主食，
叶片中甜美清新的汁液
还不曾化为坚硬的木质，——
That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.
孩子在世间也是这般，
凭着他们，世人才感到
天气比树干所接触的更好，
阳光也更明亮地照耀。
Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear
What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.
来吧，上这儿来吧，孩子们！
在我耳边悄悄告诉我：
你们晴朗温和的天气里，
鸟儿和风儿在唱些什么。
For what are all our contrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks?
算得了什么，书上的学问？
算得了什么，我们的事业？
哪里比得上你们的爱抚
和你们脸上甜蜜的笑靥？
Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,
And all the rest are dead.
历来说说唱唱的歌谣
没有哪一首比得上你们；
只有你们是活的诗篇，
别的诗都是死气沉沉。
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