剑桥大学校园英语情景对话13：失明诗人弥尔顿（mp3+中英）

M:John Milton is a genius. His masterpieces Paradise Lost、Paradise Regained and Samson Agonistes are pearls of world literature.

M:约翰弥尔顿真是个天才。他的杰作 < 失乐园》、<复乐园》和《力士参孙 > 是世 界文学的明珠。

L:I cannot agree with you more. The works of today’s poets are not half as brilliant as those of Milton. And he excels in languages studying, too. He can speak and write in Greek, Latin, and Italian.

L:我非常同意你的观点。现在很多诗人的作品 远不如弥尔顿的精彩。弥尔顿还精通多种语 言。他通晓希腊语、拉丁语和意大利语。

M:Milton is a life-long student. His schooling started at home before he went to read the works of Homer and Virgil in Greek and Latin at St Paul’s School in London.

M:弥尔顿终身都在学习。在他到伦敦圣保罗学 校学习希腊语的荷马著作和拉丁语的维吉尔 著作之前，他在家里就开始学习了。

L: And he entered Christ’s College, Cambridge in 1625 with the intent to become a minister.

L: 1625年，他抱着要当牧师的念头考人了剑桥大学基督学院。

M: But Milton did not adjust to university life. He was called, half in scorn, “The Lady of Christ’s”.

M;但是弥尔顿并不适应大学生活。同学们半带蔑视地称他为"基督学院的女士。”

L: While Milton was a hardworking student, he was also argumentative. Only a year later, in 1626, he got suspended after a dispute with his tutor.

L:虽然弥尔顿是一个刻苦学习的学生，他却喜欢和老师争论。入学后仅一年，也就 是1926年，由于与导师产生了矛盾，他被迫辍学。

M; During his temporary return to London, Milton attended plays, and began his first forays into poetry.

M:在弥尔顿暂返伦敦的这段时间里，他参加了戏剧演出，并开始尝试写诘。

L: At his return to Cambridge, Milton was assigned a new tutor. But life at Cambridge was still not easy on Milton; he felt he was disliked by many of his fellow students and he was dissatisfied with the curriculum.

L:回到剑桥后，校方为弥尔顿重选了 一个新导师。但弥尔顿仍感到在剑桥大学生活 不易。他觉得许多同学都不喜欢他，对课程设置也不满意。

M: But he did learn a lot in Cambridge. It was at Cambridge that he composed  “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity”，

M:但是弥尔顿的确在剑桥学到了很多东西。《基督诞生的早晨》这首谙正是他在剑 桥创作的。

L:You’re quite right. Upon graduation in 1632 with a Master of Arts degree, he retired to the family homes, for years of private study and literary composition.

L:你说得很对。1632年毕业拿到文学学士学位后，弥尔顿退隐家中，花费数年时 间自学和创作文学。

M:That’s true. Milton had given up his plan to become a priest. He adopted no profession but spent six years at leisure in his father’s home, writing literary works.

M:的确如此。弥尔顿放弃了成为牧师的计划。他没有找任何工作，6年来的闲暇时 光都待在父亲的房子里，进行文学创作。

L:At the same time Milton decided to further his studies in languages including Hebrew. And he travelled many countries in the late 1630s where he immersed himself in their history and culture.

L:同时弥尔顿决定加强语言学习，包括希伯来语的学习。17世纪30年代晚期，他 去了很多国家旅游，并沉浸于所到国家的历史和文化之中。

M:He met many prominent learned men during the travelling including Galileo Galilei.

M:在旅行中，他遇到了包括伽利略伽利雷在内的很多杰出的博学之人。

L:Yes, he also had a long and meaningful conversation with Galileo Galilei. Their conversation was recorded in his celebrated plea for a free speech and free discussion, AREOPAGITICA (On Liberty).

L:是的。他还和伽利略伽利雷有过一次长时间富有意义的谈话。他们的对话被记 录在弥尔顿著名的呼吁自由演讲和讨论的《论自由》一书中。

M:And I remember that there are references to Galileo’s telescope in Paradise Lost.

M:我还记得弥尔顿在《失乐园》中也谈到了伽利略的望远镜。

L:The intense work of translating and writing created much strain on his eyes and by 1652 he was entirely blind and relied on the assistance of other people,

L:翻译和写作的高强度工作使他的眼睛不堪重负，到了 1652年，他已经完全失明了， 要依赖别人的帮助才能工作。

M: But it seems that Milton was not unduly grieved by his loss of sight. Instead, blindness helped him to stimulate his verbal richness.

M:但是弥尔顿对于自己的失明似乎并不怎么伤心。相反，失明有肋于刺激他语言的 表达。

L： He sacrificed his sight, and then he remembered his first desire, that of being a poet. During the plague years he left London and lived in a cottage in the village of Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire.

L:弥尔顿虽然失明了，但是他想起了他最初的梦想，那就是成为一名诗人。在伦敦 大疮疫期间，他离开伦敦，住在了白金汉郡查尔芬特圣贾尔斯村子的一个小屋里。

M： It was here that Milton prepared for publication Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained.
 

M:正是在这里，弥尔顿创作书了（失乐园》和《复乐园》，并准备出版。