高一英语翻译练习

注: 作者吴今（1968-1989），曾就读于北京大学生物系。作者文笔细腻流畅，语言精致有力，思想凝重向上，反映出青年人对于生命的思考。

请打印英文底稿，对照翻译。

To Be Or Not To Be

The meaning of life, the meaning of death

Everyone who knows Shakespeare must know his most well-known tragedy: Hamlet and that famous line: To be or not to be, that's a question. As for Hamlet, to be or not to be is quite a dilemma. He was doomed to be in a tragedy. Perhaps

everyone will confront the similar choice to Hamlet in his life sooner or later. To survive or to die, to fight or to surrender, to win or to lose, he must make his own decision. Fortunately, I haven't come to that crucial point yet. Up till now, my life is like a smooth sailing. Sometimes I ask myself whether I have found the real meaning of life and death? Though I am going to be a biologist, I have no definite answer to that. But still I believe that I do find something in life. When I ramble along in the peaceful field, hearing the twittering of birds, drifting in the fragrance of wild flowers, I will always praise the beauty of life and feel really happy that I'm still alive. When I learn the mysterious nature and the evolution of life, I am filled with admiration by the greatness of nature. Life is a bestowing of nature and we have no right to kill it, for it's a part of universe. I remember one day, when I felt so frustrated by those misfortunes in life, it seemed that I had done everything wrong and there was no remedy at all. I left home, wandering along the street, feeling sad and hopeless. It was then when I caught sight of sunset. The sun was like a huge burning ball, flaring and shinning, and it was so glorious and so brilliant. Soon the whole sky was flaming, the sun gathered its last energy burning thoroughly, like the solemn end of a tragedy. It sank slowly under the horizon, soon darkness fell around me. I stood there not aware of where I was. Tears ran down my face. A voice cried out in my heart: "I will wait, till the sun rises again, till the first sunshine on my shoulder." Perhaps that's the meaning of life. Everyone has his own sun and his own dream, and everyone has own brilliant moments when his sun shines

gloriously. We'll struggle and suffer in order to reach that brilliant moment. Nothing can stop us, no matter how hard, no matter how many times we fail. That dream, deeply rooted in our heart, is worthy of being devoted our whole life to. All of us want to see the sun shining again and want to catch that glorious moment to appreciate the real beauty of life.

Life is like a long river, it will end someday and somehow. No one can escape from that eternal end, when that day comes, we'll say goodbye to this colored world. A man's life is a man's song. Whether it's sad or happy, fierce or quiet, it's his own song. This is a song written in his own way with his soul, with his life. A man who lived, did what he should do, found what

he wanted and fulfilled his dream. He then died calmly. Because he knew that there was nothing to regret. He had seen all evil and good, ugly and beautiful. Now it was all over and it was time for him to enclose his play and give the stage to newcomers. His song was going to end, but it would never diminish, it would become a tiny part of the chorus of the

universe, and that will sing forever. Another man lived, struggled, but never reached his dream, for him, life was a perpetual nightmare, then he saw the twilight, they glimmered far in the distance, though he had no time and he would never get there, his heart was quiet, for he knew he had tried his best. His song might only be a faint cry but he knew it was just the prelude to the grand movement of that chorus. He died happily, hearing the song were sung continually. The world is beautiful, because of warm sunshine and also because of its rain and storm. Only a man who has been drenched with tears can

understand the real meaning of happiness. Once, a famous writer said in one of his novels: there is no real happiness in life, but just one situation compared with another. The whole meaning of life lies in two words "hope and wait". To be or not to be, it all depends on a man's own attitude towards life, on whether he appreciates the morning sunshine, whether he wants to explore the beauty of nature. If thunderstorms come, it all depends on whether he still firmly believes that the sun will rise again. Yes, the sun is going to shine, and it will shine even more brilliantly. Do not cry, just wait and hope and fight. Life and death and the sunshine make the world. As they go generation after generation, day by day, the world goes round. Let's sing out our own song, lauding life, lauding world.