美國語文第五冊 第98期：北美食米鳥（04）
We next hear of him, with myriads of his kind, banqueting among the reeds of the Delaware, and grown corpulent with good feeding.
現(xiàn)在我們再度聆聽，它與它的無數(shù)同類，穿梭在特拉華州的蘆葦叢中，因飲食太好愈見臃腫不堪。
He has changed his name in traveling.
旅途中，它更換了名字，
Boblincoln no more, he is the reedbird now, the much-sought-for tidbit of Pennsylvanian epicures, the rival in unlucky fame of the ortolan!
不叫食米鳥，改稱蘆葦鳥了，居然成為賓夕法尼亞州最受熱捧的小報(bào)趣聞，與伊壁鳩魯享樂者們享有同等惡名。
Wherever he goes, pop! pop! pop! every rusty firelock in the country is blazing away.
無論食米鳥飛到哪里，砰！砰！砰！全州老槍火鈧爭相對準(zhǔn)它瞄準(zhǔn)開火，成千上萬只食米鳥不停地倒斃死亡。
He sees his companions falling by thousands around him. Does he take warning and reform?
那么，它接受人們警告或者有所改變嗎？
Alas! not he. Again he wings his flight. The rice swamps of the south invite him.
哎呀！沒有。食米鳥繼續(xù)振動雙翼，南方豐美稻田等待著它的光臨。
He gorges himself among them almost to bursting; he can scarcely fly for corpulency.
在那里，食米鳥狼吞虎咽險乎撐死，它的體態(tài)變得臃腫不堪，甚至無法飛起。
He has once more changed his name, and is now the famous ricebird of the Carolinas.
它不得不再次更名，變成卡羅萊納州聞名遐邇的稻米鳥，
Last stage of his career: behold him spitted with dozens of his corpulent companions, and served up, a vaunted dish, on some southern table.
這里，將是它一生的最后舞臺：看著自己與無數(shù)大腹便便的同類被唾棄，最后變成北美大陸南方餐桌上為人稱道的一道烘烤大餐。
Such is the story of the bobolink; once spiritual, musical, admired, the joy of the meadows, and the favorite bird of spring;
這就是食米鳥的故事，曾經(jīng)具有精神信仰、富有音樂氣質(zhì)、令人欽佩、追逐自然草原快樂、鐘愛春天蓬勃的鳥兒，
finally, a gross little sensualist, who expiates his sensuality in the larder.
最終變異為惡俗擁躉，躲在角落里耽于世俗物質(zhì)享受的惡鳥。
His story contains a moral worthy the attention of all little birds and little boys;
這篇食米鳥的故事具有典型的道德意義，世上青少年需引以為戒。
warning them to keep to those refined and intellectual pursuits which raised him to so high a pitch of popularity during the early part of his career,
故事旨在告誡那些年輕人，必須恪守對美好事物與崇高精神的執(zhí)著堅(jiān)守，保持懵懂之初純潔的品質(zhì)高度，戒絕世俗世界聲色犬馬的物欲滿足。
but to eschew all tendency to that gross and dissipated indulgence which brought this mistaken little bird to an untimely end.
無疑，致命的外在誘惑只會給迷途難返的年輕生命帶來過早的凋謝與終結(jié)。
