中國網站品牌欄目（頻道）
By Michael T. Smith
硯青 選 安旻 譯
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I sat on my deck, enjoying the evening. Birds chirped and fluttered around the birdfeeder in the backyard. Finches clung to a bag of thistle hanging on a tree branch, only ten feet from me. They’d grown used to my presence and no longer flew away, when I stepped out for fresh air. I sat and watched them pull the thistle through the tiny openings in the fabric. Their feathers, red, purple and yellow, pleased my eye. From a distant tree, I heard the song of a cardinal: purdy, purdy, purdy. The song changed. It was a starling. Next, it was a version of the robin’s evening song. A little later it was a song I couldn’t identify. It was a mocking bird. For more than thirty minutes, he sang through his repertoire of songs. He was loud; his singing perfect. He didn’t have a song of his own. He mocked the songs of other birds, pieced them together, and created a concert for my enjoyment. I was reminded of “American Idol,” a show my stepdaughter, Heather, has me addicted to. Hopeful singers competed against each other, singing the songs of others, judged by a panel of three, now four. The top contestants went to Hollywood, where they competed against others. Each week they were faced with new challenges. One-by-one they were eliminated until a winner was chosen. A carpenter built a house. He used skills, learned as a young man, to construct a basic house. Over time, the carpenter learned more. He added his personal touch to his work. He took the basics he learned from those before him and made it a creation of his own. The mocking bird, the winner of “American Idol,” and the carpenter have a common link. They took the ideas of others, copied and learned from them. They added to what they learned and created their own works of art. We don’t have to be original. We start with the building blocks placed in our path by those before us. We have a choice: we can continue to copy, or we can add our own blocks for the next to follow and learn from. I have to run. I think I hear my mocking bird outside. I want to hear what he has created for my enjoyment today. |
我坐在露臺上，欣賞傍晚的夜色。后院鳥兒啁啾，在喂鳥器旁邊盤旋。雀兒停在樹枝上的一堆薊上面，離我只有十英尺遠。它們已經習慣了我的存在，在我出去呼吸新鮮空氣時，它們不再飛走了。我坐著，從窗簾的縫隙里看它們拉扯著薊。它們的羽毛是紅色、紫色和黃色的，十分悅目。 遠處一棵樹上傳來紅雀的歌聲：勃第，勃第，勃第。后來歌聲變了，那是一只椋鳥。接下來，是知更鳥的傍晚之歌。再后來的曲子我就聽不出了。 那是一只八哥。他唱了足有半個多小時，聲音洪亮，曲調完美。他沒有自己的曲子，只會模仿其他鳥兒，把它們的曲子拼湊成一場音樂會，供我欣賞。 這讓我想起《美國偶像》，因為繼女海瑟的緣故，我迷上了這個節目。選手們通過演唱別人的歌曲來互相競爭，由三人評審團進行評判，現在已經變成四個人。最優秀的選手們到好萊塢進行最后的淘汰賽。每周他們都會面臨新的挑戰。選手們一個接一個遭到淘汰，直到冠軍脫穎而出。 我又想到了木匠修建房屋。他用年輕時學到的技能建一座簡單的房子。隨著時間累積，木匠學到了更多的東西，在工作中加入了個人的風格。就這樣，他運用從前人那里學到的基本技能，把房子變成了自己的作品。 八哥、《美國偶像》的冠軍和木匠之間有一個共同點。他們都學習和借鑒他人的成果，在此基礎上加以創新，最后創作出屬于自己的藝術品。 我們不必追求獨創。我們從前人放在我們面前的建筑材料的基礎上開始。我們可以選擇：或者繼續模仿，或者把自己的木料加上去，供后人效仿學習。 我要趕快出去了，我又聽到那只八哥在外面高歌了。我想聽聽他今天創作了什么曲子讓我欣賞。 （來源：英語學習雜志） |
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Vocabulary: deck: （房屋的）露天平臺。 flutter: 拍翅而飛，盤旋。 finch: 雀科鳴鳥（如燕雀、金翅雀等）。 thistle: 薊。 American Idol: 福斯廣播公司從2002年起主辦的美國大眾歌手選秀賽。 |
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