英語美文閱讀：孩子們的志願
下面是本站小編爲大家帶來英語經典美文：孩子們的志願，希望大家喜歡!
When l was a boy, there was but one permanent ambition among my comrades in our village on the west bank of the Mississippi River. That was; to be a steamboat man. We had transient ambitions of other sorts, but they were only a circus came and went, it left us all burning to become clowns; the first Negro minstrel show that came to our section left us all suffering to try that kind of life; now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates. These ambitions faded out, each in its turn;but the ambition to be a steamboat man always remained.
在密西西比河西岸的小鎮上，我還是個小孩子的時候，家鄉的夥伴們都有一個恆久的志向，這個志向就是當一名輪船上的水手。我們也有過其他的願望，但它們都不過是一時的想法。馬戲團在村子裏表演過後，我們都積極踊躍地希望扮演小丑;第一次到附近看過黑人吟唱團的表演後，我們都急不可待地想要體驗一下那種生活。我們還有一個願望:如果我們本分地過日子，上帝就會允許我們成爲海盜。沒過多久，這些願望都接二連三地被遺忘了。但在我們的內心深處，當水手的志願沒有改變。
Once a day a cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis，and another downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them，the day was a dead and empty thing. Not only the boys，but the whole village, felt this. After all these years I can picture that old time to myself now, just as it was then.
每天都有一艘廉價但外表豔麗的郵船從聖路易斯開過來，有另一艘從奇奧庫克向下遊駛去。船隻抵達之前，人們翹首以盼，日子也變得津津有味。船隻離開以後，日子又變得毫無生氣、無聊至極了。不單單是孩子們，整個鎮子上的人們都是同樣的感覺。儘管這麼多年過去了，可到今天，我還能在心中回想出當日的情景，彷彿回到了過去。
My father was a justice of the peace, and I supposed he possessed the power of life and death over all men and could hang anybody that offended him. This was distinction enough for me as a general thing; but the desire to be a steamboat man kept intruding, nevertheless. I first wanted to be a cabin-boy, so that I could come out with a white apron on and shake a tablecloth over the side, where all my old comrades could see me;later I thought I would rather be the deckhand who stood on the end of the stage一plank with the coil of rope in lust hand, because he was particularly conspicuous. But these were only daydreamsthey were too heavenly to be contemplated as realpossibilities.
父親是鎮上的治安官，在我看來，他掌管着每個人的生殺大權，任何一個得罪他的人都會被絞死。總的來說，就這一點就足以讓我風光無限了。然而，當水手的念頭還是不時地在我的腦海中閃現。起初我想當個船上的小夥計，因爲這樣我就可以繫上白圍裙，站在船邊搖一搖桌布，以便讓我兒時的小夥伴們看見我。可是隨後，我想我寧願成爲一名水手，手中握着一卷繩子站在踏板邊緣，因爲那樣纔會吸引衆人的目光。不過這些想法僅僅是白日夢而已，這些簡直是天方夜譚，根本不可能會實現。
By and by one of our boys went away. He was not heard of for a long time. At last he turned up as apprentice engineer or "striker" on a steamboat. This thing shook the bottom out of all my Sunday-school teachings. That boy had been notoriously worldly, and I just the reverse;yet he was exalted to this eminence, and I left in obscurity and misery.
沒多久，我們這羣夥伴中的一個男孩離開了小鎮。他銷聲匿跡了好長一段時間。最後，他終於以一種特殊的身份出現了—成了一艘輪船上的見習機械師或是“錘手”。我在主日學校所受的教誨也因爲這件事而全部改變了。這個男孩曾是個臭名遠揚的壞蛋，而我剛好與他不同。可是現在，他卻得意洋洋，而我卻一文不值，苦惱不堪。
There was nothing generous about this fellow in his greatness. He would always manage to have a rusty bolt to scrub while his boat tarried at our town，and he would sit on the inside guard and scrub it, where we could all see him and envy him and loathe him. And whenever his boat was laid up he would come home and swell around the town in his blackest and greasiest clothes, so that nobody could help remembering that he was a steamboat man;and he used all sorts of steamboattechnicalities in his talk, as if he were so used to them that he forgot common people could not understand them. Two or three of the boys had long been persons of consideration among us because they had been to St. Louis once and had a vague general knowledge of its wonders，but the day of their glory was over now. They lapsed into a humble silence, and learned to disappear when the ruthless "cub"-engineer approached. This fellow had money, too, and hair oil. If ever a youth was cordially admired and hated by his comrades, this one was. No gift could withstand his charms. He "cut out" every boy in the village.
這個小子發達之後，變得沒有一點氣量。一旦他的船停泊在我們小鎮上，他總是能設法找來一塊生鏽的鐵栓擦，並且他一直刻意地坐在靠岸的這邊欄杆上擦，一定讓我們都看見他，讓我們對他又是羨慕又是嫉恨。如果一旦那艘船停得久一些，他就會回家看看。在鎮上的每個角落，都可以看到他穿着那套油膩、骯髒的外套到處招搖，恨不得告訴每個人他是一名輪船水手。他一開口，便全是術語，好像已經習以爲常似的，卻忘記了普通人根本聽不懂。我們那些夥伴中有兩三個一直受到大家的羨慕，因爲他們以前去過一次聖路易斯，對那兒的新鮮事略知一二，但是如今他們的光輝歲月已經結束了。他們很有自知之明，從此不再聲張;而且一旦那個冷酷無情的機械師“小惠子”來到身邊，他們趕緊溜走。這個傢伙還有很多錢，頭上抹着亮亮的髮油。假如有個年輕人既能讓他的夥伴羨慕不已，又能讓夥伴對他恨之入骨，那麼這個人就非他莫屬。任何一個女孩都抵抗不了他的魅力，他是鎮上風頭“最勝’的男孩。
When his boat blew up at last, it diffused a tranquil contentment among us such as we had not known for months. But when he came home the next week，alive，renowned，and appeared in church all battered up and bandaged，a shining hero, stared at and wondered over by everybody, it seemed to us that the partiality of Providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to criticism.
後來，傳來他那條船爆炸的消息。私下裏，我們所有人都對他的災難感到很高興，而且好幾個月都沒有這麼開心了。然而，出乎意料的是，一個星期以後，這個傢伙居然又活生生地回來了，並且還因此成了名人。他滿身傷痕，綁着厚厚的繃帶來到教堂，他成了名聲顯赫的大英雄。所有人都注視着他，每個人都對他吃驚不已。在我們看來，老天是如此偏袒一個一文不值的卑鄙小人，這簡直令人無法忍受。
