With its baby rivers and little towns, each with its abbey or its cathedral,

和它幼小的河流和小镇，每个小镇的修道院或教堂；

    with voices–one voice perhaps, echoing through the transept–the

它的声音——或许是回荡在教堂里的一种声音——

criterion of suitability and convenience; and Italy with its equal

是舒适宜人的典范；意大利

    shores–contriving an epicureanism from which the grossness has been

和它持平的两岸——发明了一种享乐主义，

排除了粗野；

extracted: and Greece with its goat and its gourds, the nest of modified illusions:

    and France, the “chrysalis of the nocturnal butterfly,” in

希腊和它的山羊与葫芦，

whose products, mystery of construction diverts one from what was originally one’s

被修饰的幻觉的巢穴：而法国，

    object–substance at the core: and the East with its snails, its emotional

“夜间活动的蝴蝶的蛹，”

在它的作品中，结构的神秘性

shorthand and jade cockroaches, its rock crystal and its imperturbability,

使人忘记了其最初是人的客体对象——

    all of museum quality: and America where there

作为核心的实质：东方和它的蜗牛，它简略的

is the little old ramshackle victoria in the south, where cigars are smoked on the

    street in the north; where there are no proofreaders, no silk-worms, no digressions;

情感表达和玉蟑螂，它的无色水晶和它的沉静，

它全部博物馆似的特性：而美国，它的南方

the wild man’s land; grassless, linksless, languageless country in which letters are written

有微小而古老的摇摇欲坠的维多利亚传统，

    not in Spanish, not in Greek, not in Latin, not in shorthand,

它的北方，街上缭绕着雪茄烟雾；

but in plain American which cats and dogs can read! The letter a in psalm and calm, when

它没有校对者，没有蚕，没有离题；

    pronounced with the sound of a in candle, is very noticeable,

是野蛮人的土地；没有草，没有沙丘，没有语言的国度，它的文字不是

西班牙语，不是希腊语，不是拉丁语，不是速记式的，

but why should continents of misapprehension have to be accounted for by the

而是朴素的美国式的，猫和狗都能阅读它！

    fact? Does it follow that because there are poisonous toadstools

字母a在摇篮*一词中的发音

which resemble mushrooms, both are dangerous? Of mettlesomeness which may be

显得神圣又安宁，这点引人注目，但是

    mistaken for appetite, of heat which may appear to be haste, no con-

为什么误解的大陆

clusions may be drawn. To have misapprehended the matter is to have confessed

必须用事实来作解释呢？

    that one has not loooked far enough. The sublimated wisdom

它这样做，是因为有相似于蘑菇的

of China, Egyptian discernment, the cataclysmic torrent of emotion compressed

剧毒伞菌吗？因为两者都很危险？

    in the verbs of the Hebrew language, the books of the man who is able

从可能被误认为奢欲的精力充沛中，

从可能显得急躁的热情中，

to say, “I envy nobody but him, and him only, who catches more fish than

难以得出结论。

    I do”–the flower and fruit of all that noted superi-

ority–should one not have stumbled upon it in America, must one imagine

误解事实，也即是承认，你没有看得更远。

    that it is not there? It has never been confined to one locality.

中国的超然智慧，埃及的洞察力，

被压缩在希伯来语的动词中的

洪水般奔腾的情感，

这些书——它们的作者会说：

“除了他，我谁也不嫉妒，只有他， 

比我捕获了更多的

鱼”——所有表示高贵的鲜花和果实，

如果不是偶然生在了美国，

你一定想象不出它会在那里？

它从未被局限于一个地方。