A love letterGerald Durrell wrote to his future wife
2017年4月19日（講師：姜百爽）

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結(jié)合【天天用英語】2017/4/19學(xué)習(xí)內(nèi)容
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作者簡介：

杰拉爾德·達(dá)雷爾魄幕，英國作家相艇，物種拯救家。
6歲立志建造屬于自己的動物園纯陨；
22歲開始組織采集動物遠(yuǎn)征隊坛芽，足跡橫跨亞、非翼抠、澳智蝠、美洲大陸靶擦；
34歲在澤西島上成立澤西動物園；
51歲，他在澤西動物園旁創(chuàng)建“迷你大學(xué)”悍汛；
67歲英國坎特伯雷肯特大學(xué)為肯定他的成就，成立了“達(dá)雷爾動物保護(hù)及生態(tài)學(xué)院”；
2006為紀(jì)念他設(shè)立“杰拉爾德·達(dá)雷爾瀕危野生動物獎”。
傳奇的是杰拉爾德只讀過一年的小學(xué)帅矗，卻是耶魯、杜倫煞烫、肯特三所知名學(xué)府的榮譽(yù)博士损晤；是“不列顛帝國勛章”獲得者。
一生完成38本著作红竭，代表作《希臘三部曲》被譯為31種文字尤勋，所以他又被譽(yù)為影響全世界的大自然作家。
這是55歲的杰拉爾德寫給未婚妻的一封情書茵宪。
兩人1977年結(jié)識最冰，2年后結(jié)婚，婚后攜手探索世界稀火，拯救瀕危物種暖哨，共同出書。直到1995年杰拉爾德離世凰狞，兩人都非常恩愛篇裁。
比起其他肉麻情書，杰拉爾德這封情書少了幾分纏綿赡若，多了幾分意氣达布，卻不失美感。
全文從頭到尾都透露出對愛人的愛慕與渴望逾冬，信的前半部分相對冷靜黍聂、理性，后半部分卻唯美得無邊無際身腻，浩浩湯湯的排比一氣呵成产还，分分鐘地把你點亮。
不僅讓我們耳朵懷孕了嘀趟，還帶著我們超升一起飛脐区，讓我們腦內(nèi)起伏不斷，內(nèi)心洶涌澎湃她按！

PART1【1】白紙黑字更清楚

July 31st,1978
My darling/ McGeorge,

[1]You said that things seemed clearer/ when theywere written down.
Well,/ herewith a very boring letter in which I will try/ and puteverything down/** so that** you mayread and re-read it in horror** at your folly** in getting involved with me.
Deep breath.

【講解1】

·You said that thingsseemed clearer when they were written down.
白紙黑字看得清楚牛隅。

·Put it in writing
偏向于法律效應(yīng)

·I.O.U
借條縮寫

·Get involved with sb/sth.
與某人扯上關(guān)系，有瓜葛
EG: Don’tget yourself involved with more than one person.
不要與多個人扯上關(guān)系

·One-woman man
從一而終的絕世好男人
I’m a one-man kind of girl, and I only want a man who’s aone-woman man.
我是一個專一的女生尤溜，只想找一個專一的戀人倔叼。

【單詞】

Herewith：adv. <書>隨同此信〔書、文件〕
Folly：n. 愚蠢;蠢笨

PART2【2-4】愛的五個理由

[2] To begin with I love you with a depth and passion that I havefelt for no one else in this life/ and if it astonishesyou/it astonishes me as well.
Not, I hasten to say, /because you arenot worth loving. Far from it.

It’s just that, first of all, /Iswore I would not get involved with another woman.

Secondly, I have never had such a feeling before/ and it is almost frightening.

Thirdly, I would never havethought it possible /that another human being could occupymywaking (and sleeping) thoughts /to the exclusion of almost everything else.

[3] Fourthly, I never thoughtthat/ — even if one was in love/ — one could getsocompletely besottedwithanother person,/ **so that **a minute away from them /feltlike a thousand years.

[4] Fifthly, I never hoped, aspired, dreamed /that one could findeverything one wanted in a person. I was not suchanidiot as tobelievethis was possible.

Yet in you I have found everything Iwant/:
you are beautiful, /gay, /giving, / gentle, idiotically and deliciously feminine,/ sexy, wonderfullyintelligent /and wonderfully sillyas well.

I want nothing else inthis life** than to **be with you,
/ to listen and watch you(your beautiful voice, your beauty),
/ to argue with you,
/to laugh with you,
/ to show you things and sharethings with you,
/to explore your magnificentmind,
/ to explore your wonderfulbody,
/ to help you, protect you ,serve you, and bash you on the head when I think you are wrong…
not to put too fine a point on it/ I consider that I am the only man/ outside mythology /to have found the crock of gold /at the rainbow’s end.彩虹盡頭找到了愛人

【講解2】

·Astonish
vt.使吃驚, /t/濁化成/d/宫莱，程度比surprise深
EG: Oncethat bird starts to fly and sing, it will astonish the world.
諺語：不鳴則已一鳴驚人丈攒。

·Occupy
vt. (時空)占據(jù)
Eg: All the seats on the bus were occupied.
車上沒有空座位了
·Occupy sb’s mind/ thoughts/ attention
占據(jù)所有的思緒
Eg: Work will occupy your mind and help you forget mind and help youforget about him.
工作將占據(jù)你所有的心思，幫助你忘記他。

·Not, I hasten to say, because you are not worth loving.
雙重否定：你并非因為不值得愛巡验。

·Be worth of doing值得做……

·Far from it遠(yuǎn)非如此

·Be/get besotted with sb為……癡迷

·Not to put too fine apoint on it
= Frankly speaking

【單詞】

Hasten: vt. 催促际插；使趕緊；加速vi. 趕快显设；急忙
Exclusion: n.排他
Besot: vt. 使?fàn)€醉,使迷糊,使沉醉
Aspire：vi. 渴望, 追求
Idiot：n. 傻子, 笨蛋
Gay: adj. 快樂的
Feminine: adj. 有女性氣質(zhì)的, 女子氣的, 適于女子
Silly: adj. 蠢的, 傻的; 糊涂的, 可笑的
Magnificent: adj. 壯麗的, 偉大的, 華麗的, 高貴的
Bash: vt. 猛擊
Mythology: n. 神話學(xué)
Crock: n. 瓦罐框弛；碎瓦片；[口]老朽的人

PART3【5-7】三個缺點

[5] But /— having said allthat/ — let us consider things in detail.

Don’t let this become publicbut/… well, I have one or two faults.
Minor ones, I hasten to say.

For example, I am inclined to**** be overbearing.
I do it for the best possible motives (all tyrants say that)/ but I do tend(withoutthinking) /to****tread people underfoot.

You must tell me when I amdoing it to you, my sweet, /because it can be a very bad thing in a marriage.

[6] Right. Second blemish.

This, actually, is** not so much** a blemish of character/ asa blemish of circumstance.

Darling I want you to be you in your ownright, /and I will do everything I can to help you in this.

But you must take into consideration/that I am also me /in my own right /and that I have a head starton you… /what I am trying to say is that you must not** feel offended **if you are sometimes treated simply as my wife.

Always remember /that what you lose on the swings, /you gain on the roundabouts.

But I am an established‘creature’ in the world,/ and so /— on occasions —/you will have to live in my shadow.

Nothing gives me less pleasurethan this/ but it is a fact of life to be faced.

[7] Third/ (and very importantand nasty) blemish: jealousy.

I don’t think you know whatjealousy is/ (thank God) /in the real sense of the word.

I know you have felt jealousyover Lincoln’s wife and child/ but this is what I call normal jealousy, andthis — to my regret/ — is not whatI’ve got.

What I have got/ is a black monster that can pervertmy good sense, /my good humour and any goodness that I have in mymake-up（性格品性）.

It is really a Jekyll and Hydesituation… my Hyde is stronger than my good sense and defeats me, /hard thoughI try.

As I told you, /I have alwaysknown that this lurks within me,/but I couldn’t control it, /and my monster slumbered/ and nothing happened to awake it.

Then I met you /and I felt mymonster stir and become half awake/when you told me of Lincoln and others you have known, /and with your letter mymonster came out of its lair, black,irrational, bigoted, stupid, evil, malevolent.

You will never know howterribly corrosive jealousy is; /itis a physical pain as though you had swallowed acid or red hot coals.

It is the most terrible offeelings.

But you can’t help it — atleast I can’t,/ and God knows I’ve tried.

I don’t want any ex-boyfriends/sitting in church when I marry you.

On our wedding day, I wantnothing but happiness, for both you and me, and I know I won’t be happy ifthere is a church full of your ex-conquests.

When I marry you I will haveno past, /only a future: I don’t want to **dragmy past into our future **/and I don’t want you to do it, either.

Remember I am jealous of youbecause I love you.

You are never jealous ofsomething you don’t care about.

OK, enough about jealousy.

【講解3】

·Having said all that
話雖如此捕捂，雖然我很愛你

·Consider things in detail
把事情說得具體一點

·Incline to = tend to
傾向瑟枫，容易做出某種舉動

·Not so much …… as……
與其說A，不如說B
EG: Thegreatuse of a school education is not so much to teach you things asto teach you the art of learning.
學(xué)校的最大用途不是教你知識指攒，而是教你學(xué)習(xí)方法慷妙。

In one’s ownright:不依附于別人

·Head start: 本有的優(yōu)勢

·Take into consideration：考慮到
EG: People seem to fail to take into consideration on the fact thatdoes not end with education.
人們忽視了教育不應(yīng)該隨著教育結(jié)束這一事實。

·What you lose on theswings, /you gain on the roundabouts.
失之東隅允悦，收之桑榆

·Established ‘creature’
已經(jīng)定型

·Make-up本性膝擂，性格

EG: The final act exposes the fatal flaws in his make-up.
最后的舉動暴露了他性格中的致命缺陷。
EG: Jealousy is not part of his make-up.
嫉妒不是他性格中的一部分隙弛。

·Jekyll and Hyde
有善惡兩種性格的人

·Green-eyes monster
綠眼怪獸架馋，妒忌的人
EG: Jealousy is the art of injuring ourselves more than others.
妒忌害人害己。（大仲馬）

【單詞】

Overbearing: adj. 專橫的,傲慢的,難忍的
Tyrant: n. 專制統(tǒng)治者;暴君;暴君似的人;專橫的人
Tread: vt.踩全闷，踏
Underfoot: adv. 在腳下叉寂；在地上
Blemish=fault (道德，個人習(xí)慣)小瑕疵
Swing：秋千
Roundabouts: 旋轉(zhuǎn)木馬
Monster: n. 怪物室埋；巨人办绝，巨獸伊约；殘忍的人adj.巨大的姚淆，龐大的
Pervert: t. 使墮落, 把…引入邪路, 使變壞
Lurk: vi. 潛伏；埋伏屡律；潛藏
Slumber: vt. 睡眠腌逢；睡著度過
Lair: n. （野獸的）巢穴；躲藏處vi.進(jìn)入獸穴超埋；在穴中休息vt. 使陷入泥潭搏讶；放于穴中
Bigoted: adj. 頑固的；心地狹窄的霍殴；盲從的
Malevolent: adj. 有惡意的;惡毒的
Corrosive: adj. 腐蝕性的;侵蝕性的; (對社會媒惕、個人情感等)有害的, 逐步起損害作用的; (語言)激烈的, 刻薄的
Conquest: n. 攻取, 征服, 克服

PART4【8-12】奇妙的大自然

[8] Now, let me tell yousomething…

I have seena thousand sunsets and sunrises,
/on land where it floods forestand mountains with honey-coloured light,
/at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange /in a multi-colourednest of cloud,
/slipping in and out of the vast ocean.

I have seen a thousand moons:
/harvest moons like gold coins,
/ winter moons as white asice chips,
/new moons like babyswans’ feathers.

[9] I have seen seas as smoothas if painted,
/ coloured like shot silk orblue as a kingfisher(****翠鳥)
/or transparent as glass orblack and **crumpled **with foam,
/moving ponderously and murderously.

I have felt winds /straightfrom the South Pole, bleak and wailing like a lost child;
/winds as tender and warm/ asa lover’s breath;
/winds that carried the **astringent **smell of salt and the death of seaweeds;
/winds that carried the moist rich smell of a forest floor, thesmell of a million flowers.

Fierce winds /that churned and moved the sea like yeast,
/or winds that made the waterslap at the shore /like a kitten.

[11]I have heard summer cicadas cry/ so that the sound seems stitched into your bones.

I have heard tree frogs in an orchestration
/as complicated as Bach singing in a forest
/lit by a million emerald fireflies.

I have heard the Keas calling over grey glaciers
/that groaned to themselves like old people
/as they inched their way to the sea.

I have heardthe hoarse street vendor cries of the mating Fur seals（海狗）as they sangto their sleek golden wives,
/the crisp staccato****admonishment of the Rattlesnake,
/the cobweb squeak of the Batand the belling roar
/ of the Red deer knee-deep in purple heather.

I have heard Wolves baying at a winter’s moon,
/Red Howlers making the forest vibratewith their roaring cries.

I have heard the squeak, purr and grunt of a hundred multi-coloured reef fishes.

[10] I have known silence:
the cold, earthy silence atthe bottom of a newly dug well;
/the implacable stony silence of a deep cave;
/the hot, drugged middaysilence
/ when everything is hypnotized and stilled into silence /bythe eye of the sun;
/ the silence when great musicends.

[12] I have seen hummingbirds flashing like opals round a tree of scarlet blooms, humming like a top.
I have seen** flying fish**, skittering like quicksilveracross the blue waves, drawing silver lines on the surface with their tails.

I have seen Spoonbills flying home to roost like a scarlet banner across the sky.

I have seen Whales, black as tar, cushioned on a cornflower blue sea, creating a Versaillesof fountain with their breath.

I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling, while the sunirons their wings smooth.

I have watched Tigers, like flames, mating in the longgrass.

I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven, black and glossy as the Devil’s hoof.

I have lain in water warm asmilk, soft as silk, while around me played a host of Dolphins.

I have met a thousand animalsand seen a thousand wonderful things…

【講解4】

EG：The fight comes into the room.
EG：I open the curtain and the light floodsintothe room.
我拉開窗簾来庭，陽光照進(jìn)房間妒蔚。

·Crumple 弄皺，壓皺
EG:She crumpled the letter up into a ball and threw it on the fire.
她把信團(tuán)成球，扔到火上燒掉了肴盏。
EG:Silk crumples very easily.
EG:Her face crumpled up and she burst into tears.
她的臉皺起來了科盛，突然哭起來了。

·Astringent 嚴(yán)酷的菜皂；收斂性的
EG:Winds that carried the astringent smell of salt and the darth of seaweeds
·Astringent lotion 收斂水(化妝水)
·Astringent remarks尖酸刻薄的語言

·Stitch: vt. 縫合
EG：The cut over his left eye needed 12 stiches.

·Have someone in stitches
EG:Dawson’s brand of humor had hisaudiences in stitches.
D的獨樹一幟的幽默讓觀眾捧腹大笑贞绵。

【單詞】

Slipping: adj. 〈美俚〉漸漸松馳的;漸漸不行了的,漸漸變懶的
Kingfisher：n.翠鳥
Crumpled: adj. 摺皺的，弄皺的
Foam: n. 泡沫
Ponderously：adj. 沉重的, 笨重的
Murderously: adj. 蓄意謀殺的;殺人的;兇殘的
Bleak: adj. 荒涼的恍飘，無遮蔽的榨崩；
Wail: vi. 悲嘆；哀號
Moist: adj. 潮濕的, 微濕的
Churn: vt. 攪拌(牛奶或乳脂)以制黃油,攪動,擾亂某物
Kitten: n. 小貓
Cicada: n.蟬
Orchestration：n. 管弦樂編曲章母；和諧的結(jié)合
Bach: n. 巴赫（德國作曲家）
Emerald: n. 綠寶石蜡饵，翡翠；祖母綠胳施；翠綠色adj. 翠綠色的溯祸；翡翠的
Kea: n. 食肉鸚鵡
Groan: vi. 呻吟；抱怨舞肆；發(fā)吱嘎聲
Inched: adj. 有英寸刻度的焦辅；英寸的
Hoarse: adj. (指聲音)粗啞的, 嘶啞的
Vendor: n. 小販；賣主椿胯；自動售貨機(jī)
Sleek: adj. 圓滑的筷登；井然有序的
Crisp：adj. 脆的；易碎的哩盲；新鮮的
staccato：n. 斷奏前方，斷音
Admonishment ：n. 警告
Cobweb：n. 蜘蛛網(wǎng)；蛛絲廉油；圈套
Squeak：vi. 告密惠险；吱吱叫；僥幸成功
Heather: adj. 雜色的抒线；似石南的n. [植]石南屬植物
Howler: n.嚎叫的人或動物
Purr: n. 咕嚕咕嚕聲班巩；（貓的）嗚嗚聲；（機(jī)器等）顫動聲vi. 發(fā)出喉音嘶炭；貓發(fā)出嗚嗚聲
Grunt: vi. (豬等)作呼嚕聲
Implacable：adj. (指憤怒抱慌、仇恨、敵意等)難和解的,難平息的
Hypnotized: vt. 對…施催眠術(shù),使著迷;使精神恍惚
Opal: n.貓眼石
Scarlet: a.深紅的
Skitter: v. 掠過水面,沿水面拉動魚鉤釣魚;使掠過水面
Quicksilver: adj. <文>變化〔移動〕極快的;瞬息萬變的
Cornflower: n.矢車菊
Fountain: n.噴泉
Tremble: vi. 戰(zhàn)栗眨猎；焦慮抑进；發(fā)抖；搖晃
Dive-bomb: v. 俯沖轟炸

PART5 【13】惟愿有你相伴

[13]But –All this I did without you.
This was my loss.

All this I want to do with you.
This will be my gain.

All this I would gladly have forgone
/ for the sake of one minute of yourcompany,
/ for your laugh, your voice, your eyes,hair, lips, body,
/and above all for your sweet,
/ ever surprising mind /which is an enchanting quarry
/ in which it is my privilegetodelve.

【講解】
·Forgone=give up 放棄
EG:No one was prepared to forgo their lunch hour to attend the meeting.

·The privilege to do sth/ of doing sth
有幸做某事
EG:It was a privilege to work with such a great scientist.

掃碼進(jìn)英文原著死磕小組 ：
(猶豫勿進(jìn))