一些（双语）内容摘⚓︎
约 3006 个字 预计阅读时间 10 分钟
葛底斯堡演说 (Gettysburg Address)⚓︎
葛底斯堡演说。我心中最牛逼的演说。In a larger sense 忘了好一串。以后多看看。（民有、民治、民享）
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
工人读史 (Questions of a worker reading History)⚓︎
Bertolt Brecht 1935 参考链接 （中文译者：冯至）
Who built Thebes of the 7 gates ?
In the books you will read the names of kings.
Did the kings haul up the lumps of rock ?
And Babylon, many times demolished,
Who raised it up so many times ?
In what houses of gold glittering Lima did its builders live ?
Where, the evening that the Great Wall of China was finished, did the masons go?
Great Rome is full of triumphal arches.
Who erected them ?
Over whom did the Caesars triumph ?
Had Byzantium, much praised in song, only palaces for its inhabitants ?
Even in fabled Atlantis, the night that the ocean engulfed it,
The drowning still cried out for their slaves.
The young Alexander conquered India.
Was he alone ?
Caesar defeated the Gauls.
Did he not even have a cook with him ?
Philip of Spain wept when his armada went down.
Was he the only one to weep ?
Frederick the 2nd won the 7 Years War.
Who else won it ?
Every page a victory.
Who cooked the feast for the victors ?
Every 10 years a great man.
Who paid the bill ?
So many reports.
So many questions.
【中文翻译】
七个城门的底比斯是谁建造的？
书本上列了一些国王的名字。
石头和砖块是国王搬的吗？
还有巴比伦，一再被摧毁
是谁又一再将她重建？
金光闪闪的利马的建筑工人，
他们住的房子在什么地方？
砌了一天的城墙，天黑之后，
万里长城的泥水匠在哪里过夜？
雄伟的罗马到处都有凯旋门。
那是谁打造的？那些罗马皇帝
战胜的又是谁？
大名鼎鼎的拜占庭
它的居民都住在宫殿吗？
传说中的亚特兰提斯，
大海先淹没奴隶，然后
那些主子才漂浮在黑夜的汪洋中哀嚎。
年轻的亚历山大征服了印度。
就凭他一人吗？
西泽打败了高卢人，
他该不会连个煮饭的都没带吧？
无敌舰队沉没的时候，
西班牙的腓力哭了。
没有别的人哭吗？
腓特烈大帝在七年战争中获胜。
除了他还有谁获胜？
页页有胜利。
谁来准备庆功宴？
代代出伟人。
谁来买单？
一大堆史实。
一大堆疑问。
All this I did without you⚓︎
Then I met you and I felt my monster stir, and become half awake when you told me of Lincoln and others you have known and with your letter, my monster came out of its lair black, irrational, bigoted, stupid, evil, malevolent. You will never know how terribly corrosive jealous is, it's a physical pain as though you had swollowed acid or red hot coals, it is the most terrible of feelings. But you can't help it-at least I can't. God knows I've tried. I don't want any ex-boyfriends sitting in church when I marry you. On our wedding day I want nothing but happiness, both for you and me. And I know I wouldn't be happy if there is a church full of your ex-conquests. When I marry you, I will have no past, only a future. I don't want to drag my past into our future and I don't want you to do it either. Remember I'm jealous of you because I love you. You are never jealous of something you don't care about.
Okay, enough about jealous.
Now let me tell you something. I have seen a thousand sunsets and sunrises, on land where it floods forest and mountains. With honey-colored light, at sea where it rises and sets like a blood orange in a multi-colored nest 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 as ice chips, new moons like baby swans' feathers. I have seen seas as smooth as if painted, colored like shot silk: or blue as a kingfisher, or transparent as glass, or black and crumpled with foam, moving ponderously and murderously. I have felt winds straight from the South Pole, bleak and wailing like a lost child; winds as tender and warm as a 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, the smell of a million flowers; fierce winds that churned and moved the sea like yeast, or winds that made the waters lap at the shore like a kitten.
I have known silence: the cold, earthy silence at the bottom of a newly dug well; the implacable stony silence of a deep cave; the hot, drugged midday silence when everything is hypnotized and stilled into silence by the eye of the sun; the silence when great music ends. 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 the grey glaciers that groaned to themselves like old people, as they inched their way to the sea.
I have heard the hoarse street vendor cries of the mating Fur seals as they sang to their sleek golden wives, the crisp staccato admonishment of the Rattlesnake, the cobweb squeak of the Bat, 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 vibrate with their roaring cries. I have heard the squeak, purr and grunt of a hundred multi-colored reef fishes. I have seen humming birds flashing like opals round a tree of scarlet blooms, humming like a top. I have seen flying fish, skittering like quicksilver across 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 Versalles of fountain with their breath. I have watched butterflies emerge and sit, trembling while the sun irons their wings smooth. I have watched Tigers like flames, mating in the long grass. I have been dive-bombed by an angry Raven, black and glassy as the Devil's hoof. I have lain in water warm as milk, soft as silk while around me played a host of Dolphins. I have met a thousand animals and seen a thousand wonderful things. 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 your company, 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 privilege to delve.
delve 钻研，迷人的，妩媚的
tune in
sit in for rows
peer review
non-technically-oriented
corrosive: 腐蚀的
malevolent：恶意，狠毒
coup：政变？
enraptured = be captured by
Jekyll and Hyde situation 双重人格
hypnotized：使着迷、催眠、恍惚
cicadas：蝉壳
emerald：绿宝石、祖母绿、翡翠？
ponderously 笨重地、生硬地
murderously
astringent：收敛的、涩的
hoarse 嘶哑的
sleek 圆滑的
cobweb 蛛网、圈套
heather 欧石楠
squeak 告密、吱吱声
skittering 深红的，鲜红的，罪恶深的
cornflower 矢车菊
glossy 光滑的，有光泽的
raven 渡鸦
rattlesnake 响尾蛇
admonishment 训诫，警告
crisp
About Virginia Woolf~⚓︎
About
是大一英语课的一次汇报的电子版稿件。历经了第一次macOS浩劫（指发生于2020年7月27日 的误删系统事件）后依然通过印象笔记的云笔记功能保存下来，成为为数不多的大一英语课电子文物。特记录如下。
Hello everyone, have you ever finished reading some books and felt shocked in the end, can’t wait to shout at the writer: What does the novel talk about? It doesn’t make any sense. Well, today the book I’m goona talk about is just like that. Here’s The Mark On the Wall, written by Virginia Woolf and first published in 1919.
Before I start my introduction part, I have to admit that the first time I saw the end of this novel, I felt like an innocent boy who is tricked by is closest friend in Halloween. I mean, it’s too ridiculous for me to accept that. You know, some kind of, wired, right? But if you dig into that genre, the Stream of Consciousness novel, you can never forget the beauty of Woolf. To start with, I decided to answer the 3 questions: Who’s Woolf? What in earth is the stream-of-consciousness? Why the novel is so famous? Frist, let’s go back to 100 years ago, V.W was born in Britain in 1882, Famous for her literary criticism essays, It was the stream-of- consciousness that made her eternal. She was also a member of Bloomsbury Group which included some artists like Russal, T. S Eiliot, and James Joyce, who wrote U. At that time, That’s where the inspiration sparks.
However, what’s hidden behind the briliant achievement is continusous depression which had been torturing her since she was a little girl. It’s really a tragedy that in 1941 she chose to fill her pocket with rocks and jumped into river Ouse to end her life. But just as F said, what if the suicide itself iexactly the proof of her excellent thoughts and mind and we just can’t understand her? Who knows? We can just show our respect and honor to such a legendery woman.
Next we are gonna touch the most abstract concept: The Stream of consciousness. It’s not evented by Woolf but the Mark on the Wall is her first trial. In Wikipedia, the Stream of Consciousness is explained as “~(Listed in the slides)”, Writers of this genre pay attention to the pure feelings and thoughts and emotions of human beings. Let’s see this picture, Interestingly the definition is relevant to the stream, because critics feel that those novelists thoughts are just like the stream, flowing to all directions and you can never catch, not to mention to predict where it heads to. However in Woolf’s persoective, things are a little bit different. Sometimes she led you into a foggy town and you can hardly grasp the main topic, While in “The Mark on The Wall”, it’s like a rose, with all petal pointing to each side, and a fixed core inside them. To Woolf, the core is the title What’s “The Mark on the Wall”, the process of finding out the answer is fascinating.
All in all, I believe the quatation of Woolf herself can best explain her ideas: “~” At this point, you may ask why the novel is so famous? Firstly, it had a very simple plot: The writer saw a mark on the wall, after various thoughts like self reflection about the nature uncertainty, even about the former owner of the house, She finally realized that the so-called mark is simply a snail. Of course with the help of “Someone”, Very short indeed. But it’s not hard to see the complicating thoughts given by Woolf. Sometimes she mentioned Shakespare, the Whitaker’s Almanack, the tomb etc. But she didn’t just mixed these parts together, she followed people’s subconsciousness to express the whole thing. Supposing you are looking out of the window and letting your mind wandering, there’s always a start point, but after that, your consciousness is completely out of control. Jumping from one to another, and you can hardly remember where you get started. However at a sudden moment, there seems to be a sound ringing around your mind, forcing you to go back to reality. To be honest, this kind of Meditation usually reminds you of important things like deadlines and appointment. That’s actually what Woolf expressed in the novel, Your association is unstoppable, but the mark on the wall is still there.
So what does the symbol mean?
Take a look at W.A. Woolf mentioned it 3 times in the story, of course in a very ironic way: She said the book is about “Men’s masculine part of view which governs our lives.” The writer believed that the society is built because “People follow orders”, As an independent woman, she didn’t want to be ordered by others, who set the standard. Men are forcing their power on women, That’s why such a book could exist!
This can be seen as Woolf’s bud for feminism. Equal rights for both genders, no restrictions should exist any more. Another good example is Naturalism. In the end, Woolf’s imagination falls back on a “Plank in the sea”, she then tracked back to the original condition of the plank, the tree in a forest, the winter night, small insects and the winterstorm. Woolf was finding a natural life where she can enjoy the pure nature without being interrupted. Her understanding of “Future life” is idealistic, I believe she would choose a countryside abbey and just be engaged in the beauty of nature. Even if she was a feminism fighter. This can be proved by this quotation: “~”.
The last but most famous symbol is the snail. In the last but 2 para, the so-called “Someone” is complaining about the “War”, considering the time of the novel is 1919, the war is definitely the WWI, Interestingly, the “Wall” shares the same pronunciation with “War”, so the title can also mean: The snail on the war. People are just like snails, the war is going on, and tregedy is happening everyday, everywhere.
In my opinion, I divide the snail into 4 parts, Snails always carry a heavy shell to protect their delicate body, Woolf prefer using animals, insects, plants and so on to show pure naturalism. You can find more examples in Walves, Woolf’s another novel, Their praise of insects is some kind of respect for nature. The snail also symbolized powerful men and delicate women, the shell is the pressure of men, and the reason why women move so slowly, is that men are putting pressure on them. The fourth symbolization is about Woolf’s another novel “A room of your own” which is published 12 years later. She made an appeal to people that we should leave a room for us to store our thoughts and emtions, the shell is like the port for ships, to prevent you from the interfere of the outside world. Ok, let’s look back on what we’ve talked about 3 parts....Conclusion parts. Thx for watching...