Birds and Death鸟与死亡双语阅读
Birds and Death
The bird, however hard the frost may be, flies briskly to his customary roosting-place, and, with beak tucked into his wing, falls asleep. He has no apprehensions; only the hot blood grows colder and colder,
the pulse feebler as he sleeps, and at midnight, or in the early morning, he drops from his perch---death.
Yesterday he lived and moved, responsive to a thousand external influences, reflecting earth and sky in his small brilliant brain as in a looking-glass; also he had a various language, the inherited
knowledge of his race, the faculty of flight, by means of which he could shoot, meteor-like, across the sky, and pass swiftly from place to place; and with it such perfect control over all his organs, such
marvelous certitude in all his motions, as to be able to drop himself plumb down from the tallest tree-top , or out of the void air , on to a slender spray , and scarcely cause its leaves to tremble . Now ,
on this morning , he lies stiff and motionless ; if you were to take him up and drop him from your hand , he would fall to the ground like a stone or a lump of clay-so easy and swift is the passage from life
to death in wild nature! But he was never miserable.
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尽管天气是如此的寒冷,鸟儿还是矫捷地飞上一惯栖息的地方.把喙埋在翅膀下面,慢慢沉入梦乡.它没有丝毫的恐惧;睡梦中,只有滚烫的血液变得越来越冷;有力的脉搏也越来越微弱.在深夜或者第二天一大早,它便从栖身的树枝上跌落下来,死掉了。
昨天它还活蹦乱跳,回应外界无数刺激。它那奇异的小脑袋宛如明镜一般,映照着天地;它还会种种不同的语言,这是它们种族遗传下来的知识;还有飞行的技能,凭此它能流星般划过天空,迅速地从一个地方飞到另一个地方;它能如此完美地控制每一个器官,且每个动作都如此惊人地平稳,以致于它可以从最高的树顶垂直飞下,从空旷的空中飞落到细小的树枝上而几乎不让树叶抖动。
而现在,在这个清晨,它僵硬地躺在那儿一动不动;假如你把它捡起来,抛向空中,它就会像石头或者泥巴那样掉落在地------在野生自然界中,由生到死是多么容易多么迅速的一个过程呀!但那鸟却永远不会觉得悲痛。