LESSON 104 COLLOQUIAL POWERS OF FRANKLIN
第一百零四课 富兰克林的话语感染力
Never have I known such a fireside companion. Great as he was both as a statesman and philosopher,
我从未见过像他这样可以在炉边推诚置腹的朋友。作为政治家和哲学家他都堪称伟大。
he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle.
他在国内时从来没有获得如此高的推崇。
It was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the back part of Pennsylvania,
我有幸在一位故交位于宾夕法尼亚后方的家中,与他盘桓过两三个星期。
and we were confined to the house during the whole of that time by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows.
在那段时间里由于大雪皑皑,我们被困在那里,中途没有因为任何事情打扰而稍有中断。
But confinement never could be felt where Franklin was an inmate.
但是,大雪的耽搁并没有影响我将富兰克林引为知己。
His cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual spring.
他的乐天达观和话语感染力让人有永远如沐春风之感。
When I speak, however, of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us of Johnson.
然而,当我提到他的话语感染力时,我并非有意唤醒读者诸君对博斯维尔评价约翰生的类似联想。
The conversation of the latter continually reminds one of the "pomp and circumstance of glorious war."
后者的谈话一直提醒我们“华丽战争的壮观和情境”。
It was, indeed, a perpetual contest for victory, or an arbitrary or despotic exaction of homage to his superior talents.
确实,这是为胜利而进行的永无休止的竞争,或者是对他超卓才能表示崇敬的一种主观和独断的苛求。