经典英语晨读美文精选
何谓美文? 这不是文艺学理论上关于文学类别的一个概念,而是一个与审美阅读效果相关的一种称谓,说得直白一点,美文者,即写得漂亮、写得精彩。下面是小编带来的英语晨读美文，欢迎阅读!
英语晨读美文精选
Sunrise at Sea海上日出
Ba Jin
巴金
I would often get up early to watch the sunrise when it was not yet quiet light and all was quiet except for the droning of the ship engine.
为了看日出，我常常早起。那时天还没有大亮，周围非常清静，船上只有机器的响声。
The sky was pale with a bluish blue. Soon a streak of pink dawn broke over the horizon，expanding gradually and becoming brighter and brighter. Knowing that the sun was about to rise, I had my eyes fixed on the distant edge of the sea.
天空还是一片浅蓝，颜色很浅。转眼间天边出现了一道红霞，慢慢地在扩大它的范围，加强它的亮光。我知道太阳要从天边升起来了，便不转眼地望着那里。
As expected, the sun soon appeared revealing half of its face, which was very red but not bright It kept rising laboriously bit by bit as if weighted down with a heavy burden on its back until，after breaking through the rosy clouds;it completely emerged from the sea aglow with a lovely red. Then，before I knew it, the dark red orb began to shine blazingly, dazzling my eyes until they stung and all of a sudden lighting up the surrounding cloud.
果然过了一会儿，在那个地方出现了太阳的小半边脸，红是真红，却没有亮光。这个太阳好像负着重荷似的一步一步、慢慢地努力上升，到了最后，终于冲破了云霞，完全跳出了海面，颜色红得非常可爱。一刹那间，这个深红的圆东西，忽然发出了夺目的亮光，射得人眼睛发痛，它旁边的云片也突然有了光彩。
Sometimes，hidden by the clouds, the sun nonetheless shed its rays straight onto the sea water, making it difficult for me to distinguish between the sky and the sea because what I saw in front of me was nothing but a wide expanse of brilliant light.
有时太阳走进了云堆中，它的光线却从云里射下来，直射到水面上。这时候要分辨出哪里是水，哪里是天，倒也不容易，因为我就只看见一片灿烂的亮光。
Sometimes, with thick layers of dark clouds hanging in the sky, the sun was hardly visible to the naked eye. But its radiance managed to show through the dark clouds to edge them with golden lace. Then, after gradually breaking through the tight encirclement, it came into full view and even dyed the dark clouds purple or scarlet. At the moment, apart from the sun，the clouds and the seawater, I too was luminous.
有时天边有黑云，而且云片很厚，太阳出来，人眼还看不见。然而太阳在黑云里放射的光芒，透过黑云的重围，替黑云镶了一道发光的金边。后来太阳才慢慢地冲出重围，出现在天空，甚至把黑云也染成了紫色或者红色。这时候发亮的不仅是太阳、云和海水，连我自己也成了明亮的了。
Wasn't that a marvelous spectacle?
这不是很伟大的奇观么?
英语晨读美文阅读
Flowery Tuscany 如花的托斯卡纳
D. H. Lawrence
「英」D·H·劳伦斯
North of the Alps, the everlasting winter is interrupted by summers that struggle and soon yield;south of the Alps，the everlasting summer is interrupted by spasmodic and spiteful winters that never get a real hold, but that are mean and dogged.The in between，in either case，is just as it may be. But the lands of the sun are south of the Alps, forever.
在阿尔卑斯山的北面，持续的冬天会受到夏季的顽强入侵，但夏天很快屈服了。而其南面，夏季会被间歇性的、充满敌意的寒冬袭扰，但冬天永远也不能真正占了上风。在南北两者之间，任何一种情况都有可能发生。但是，阳光普照的地方，永远都是阿尔卑斯山的南面。
In the morning，the sun shines strong on the horizontal green cloud-puffs of the pines，the sky is clear and full of life，the water runs hastily, still browned by the last juice of crushed olives. And there the earth's bowl of crocuses is amazing.You cannot believe that the flowers are really still. They are open with such delight, and their pistil is so red-orange, and they are so many, all reaching out wide and marvellous, that it suggests a perfect ecstasy of radiant, thronging movement, lit-up violet and orange, and surging in some invisible rhythm of concerted,delightful movement. You cannot believe they do not move, and make some sort of crystalline sound of delight. If you sit still and watch，you begin to move with them，like moving with the stars，and you feel the sound of their radiance. All the little cells of the flowers must be leaping with flowery life and utterance.
清晨，阳光强烈地照射在地平线上松树团团的绿雾上，天空清新，充满了生机。河水急匆匆地流着，直到被最后一些压碎的橄榄汁染成棕色。遍地的番红花更是令人诧异不已。你不会相信这些花是静止的。它们如此欢快地绽放，雌蕊是那样的橘红。不计其数的花朵，竞相开放，争奇斗艳，让人如痴如醉。花朵们翩翩起舞，那明亮起来的紫色和橙色的色调，合着无形的美妙节奏欢快地摆动。你不得不相信它们在动，而且发出了水晶般的欢快声。如果你是坐着欣赏花朵，你就会不由自主地随着它们舞动，那样的情形就好像跟着星星走一样。当然，你还会听到花朵们的欢快声。花的每一个小细胞都跳跃着绚丽的生命和思想。
And now that it is March, there is a rush of flowers. Down by the other stream，which turns sideways to the sun，and tangles the brier and bramble, down where the hellebore has stood so wan and dignified all winter, there are now white tufts of primroses，suddenly come. Among the tangle and near the water-lip，tufts and bunches of primroses，in abundance. Yet they look more wan，more pallid，more flimsy than English primroses. They lack some of the full wonder of the northern flowers. One tends to overlook them，to turn to the great，solemn-faced purple violets that rear up from the bank, and above all，to the wonderful little towers of the grape hyacinth.
现在正是三月，也是花儿竞相开放的时节。在其他一些朝太阳方向流动的溪流边，荆棘灌木交错，莬葵无助而不屈地对抗冬天，一丛丛白色的樱草花出乎意料地生长着。丛丛的樱草花占满了杂乱的灌木丛和溪水的拐角处。可它们比莬葵无助，更加苍白，比英格兰的樱草花单薄许多。樱草花不像北面的花朵那样让人惊奇。人们往往会注意不到它，而是会被长在河岸边庄严而美丽的紫罗兰所吸引，会更愿意欣赏那些深紫色的风信子小花塔。
This is the time，in March，when the sloe is white and misty in the hedge-tangle by the stream，and on the slope of land the peach tree stands pink and alone. The almond blossom，silvery pink, is passing，but the peach，deep-toned，bluey,not at all ethereal this reveals itself like flesh，and the trees are like isolated individuals，the peach and the apricot. It is so conspicuous and so individual，that pink among the coming green of spring，because the first flowers that emerge from winter seem always white or yellow or purple. Now the celandines are out, and along the edges of the podere, the big，sturdy, black-purple anemones, with black hearts.
三月，刚好是溪边灌木乱丛中白色的野李花朦朦胧胧、粉红的桃树独自站立在山坡的时节。银粉色的杏花已渐渐褪去，桃树裹着深深的蓝，一点也不飘逸，却是本来面目，而桃树与杏树，看起来就像毫不相干的个体。绿意盎然的春天里，桃树的粉色是如此别致。因为最先从冬天开出来的花，通常看起来都是白色或黄色的或紫色的。白屈菜也冒出头来了。在湖边你可以发现高大强壮，黑色花蕊的银莲花。
The daisies are out too，in sheets，and they too red-mouthed. The first ones are big and handsome. But as March goes on，they dwindle to bright little things，like tiny buttons，clouds of them together. That means summer is nearly here.
雏菊穿着红色的衣服成群地跑出来，开始的时候，它们长得又大又漂亮。可是渐渐地，进入三月中下旬，花就变成了光鲜的小东西，像小小的纽扣聚在一起。这预示着夏天的来临。
In some places there are odd yellow tulips, slender, spiky and Chinese-looking. They are very lovely, pricking out their dulled yellow in slim spikes. But they too soon lean，expand beyond themselves, and are gone like an illusion.And when the tulips are gone, there is a moment's pause, before summer.Summer is the next move.
你还可以在一些地方，看到一些修长、带穗的黄色郁金香。在细长的穗上嵌着光亮的黄色，十分惹人喜爱。不过，它们也很快变得倾斜，然后虚弱起来，仿佛幻觉一样消失得无影无踪。
In the pause towards the end of April，when the flowers seem to hesitate，the leaves make up their minds to come out. For sometime, at the very ends of the bare boughs of fig trees, spurts of pure green have been burning like little cloven tongues of green fire vivid on the tips of the candelabrum. Now these spurts of green spread out, and begin to take the shape of hands, feeling for the air of summer. And tiny green figs are below them, like glands on the throat of a goat.
郁金香离开以后，在夏天前，花儿们都短暂地歇息了一下。夏天即将到来。
Now the aspens on the hill are all remarkable with the translucent membranes of blood-veined leaves. They are gold-brown，but not like autumn, rather like thin wings bats when like birds-call them birds-they wheel in clouds against the setting sun，and the sun glows through the stretched membrane of their wings, as through thin, brown-red stained glass. This is the red sap of summer, not the red dust of autumn.
寂静的四月底，在花儿们踌躇不定的时候，叶子们一股脑地跑了出来。一时间，纯净的绿色在无花果的树枝尖冒出，好像烛台顶那生动的绿色小火舌头一样在燃烧。现在，这团绿焰伸展开来，变成小手的样子，触摸着夏天的气息。小小的绿色无花果像一只山羊喉咙的腺附下面。
The cherry tree is something the same, but more sturdy. Now, in the last week of April，the cherry blossom is still white,but waning and passing away: it is late this year, and the leaves are clustering thick and softly copper in their dark blood-filled glow. It is queer about fruit trees in this district. The pear and the peach were out together. But now the pear tree is a lovely thick softness of new and glossy green, vivid with a tender fullness of apple-green leaves, gleaming among all the other green of the landscape, the half-high wheat, emerald, and the grey olive, half-invisible, the browning green of the dark cypress, the black of tt}e evergreen oak, the rolling of the heavy green puffs of the stone-pines, the flimsy green of small peach and almond trees,the sturdy young green of horse-chestnut. So many greens, all in flakes and shelves and tilted tables and round shoulders and plumes and shaggles and uprisen bushes, of greens and greens, sometimes blindingly brilliant at evening，when the landscape looks as if it were on fire from inside, with greenness and with gold.
现在，山坡上白杨的叶子上有一层半透明薄膜的叶脉，显得格外引人注目。与秋天不同，叶子是金棕色的，像是薄翼的蝙蝠，如同鸟儿一样—我们暂时就叫它们鸟吧—在落日的余晖中，叶子在云层里涌动，太阳照射在这薄翼拉紧似的薄膜上，仿佛透过棕红色的彩绘玻璃。这是夏天里树叶旺盛时所特有的红色树液，并不意味着秋天的红尘。
In the wood, the scrub-oak is only just coming uncrumpled,and the pines keep their hold on winter. They are wintry things,stone-pines. At Christmas, their heavy green clouds are richly beautiful. When the cypresses rise their tall and naked bodies of dark green, and the osiers are vivid red-orange, on the still blue air, and the land is lavender; then，in mid-winter, the landscape is most beautiful in colour, surging with colour.
樱桃树和白杨差不多，只是更加顽强。现在都已是四月的最后一个星期，白色的樱桃花依然绽放，可已经渐渐虚弱，即将逝去。今年的时节晚了，树叶团团紧簇，鲜红的光亮中挥洒着轻柔的铜色。这个地方的果树十分不同寻常，梨花和桃花会在同一时节开放。不过，现在这里有还未伸长的麦子，翠绿色的橄榄，柏树所特有的棕绿，长青橡树的黑色，石松浓重的绿色，小桃树和杏树脆弱的绿色，七叶树强壮的新绿。而在这所有的绿色中，梨树清新光亮的绿色是可爱的、浓密的、轻柔的， 像苹果绿色叶子柔和的饱满一样鲜明。在这绿色的海洋中，绿 色一片一片的，一层一层的，像斜斜的一块板，像圆圆的肩膀， 又像羽毛，像矮树丛，像挺直的灌木。有时在夜晚，从外面向 绿色里望去，仿佛绿色带着绿色、带着金色在里面燃烧，显得 光彩夺目。
Not that this week is flowerless. But the flowers are a little lonely things, here and there:the early purple orchid, ruddy and very much alive, you come across occasionally, then the little groups of bee-orchids, with their ragged concerted indifference to their appearance. Also there are the huge bud-spikes of the stout, thickflow-Bring pink orchid，huge buds like fat ears of wheat, hard-purple, and splendid. But already odd grains of the wheat-ear are open，and out of the purple hangs the dell-cate pink rag of floweret. Also mere are very lovely and choice cream-clouted orchids with brown spots on the long and delicate lip. These grow in the more moist places, and have exotic tender spikes，very rare-seeming. Another orchild is a little pretty yellow one.
在森林里，矮灌木即将倒下，而松树在冬天里则稳稳地保持自己的站姿。冬天是最适宜石松生长的季节。一到圣诞节的时候，石松团团的深绿色更显得婀娜多姿。当柏树裸露地显示出自己高高的、墨绿色的身躯时，柳树仍然在蓝色的空气中展现着自己活泼的鲜橙色。大地染上淡紫色的时候，浓冬时节就到了。这儿将成为颜色的世界，颜色才是最美的风景。
By May, the nightingale will sing an unbroken song，and the discreet barely audible Tuscan cuckoo will be a little more audible. Then the lovely pale-lilac irises will come out in all their showering abundance of tender, proud, spiky bloom，till the air will gleam with mauve, and a new crystalline lightness will be everywhei0e.There wilt be tufts of iris everywhere，arising up proud and tender. When the rose-coloured wild gladiolus is mingled in the corn，and the love-in-the-mist opens blue:in May and June, before the corn is cut. But as yet is neither May nor June, but the end of April，the pause between spring and summer，the nightingale singing uninterrupted，the bean-flowers dying in the bean-fields，the bean-perfume passing with spring，the little birds hatching in the nests, the olives pruned,and the vines, the last bit of late ploughing finished，and not much work to hand，now, not until the peas are ready to pick,in another two weeks or so.
当然，这一个星期还会有花的足迹，但这时候的花儿成了孤独的小东西，四处分散。你会在不经意间发现它们的足迹:提前出来的紫兰花，红润而有生命力;成群结队的蜜蜂兰，它们对自身的外表，都显露出刻意的、不屑的神情。当然，也少不了顶着巨大的花苞穗，长满茂密花儿的强壮的粉红兰花，兰花那巨大的花苞穗如同饱满的麦穗一样，配上耀眼的紫色，让人觉得完美无缺。但零星的麦穗已经开花了，在紫色中旋着一幅由娇嫩小花编织成的精致花布。还有那些非常可爱的、米色的兰花，在它们的细长花蕊上有些棕色斑点。兰花喜欢在较潮湿的地方生长，因此它奇异柔和的穗是不常见的。其他的兰花都是小小的花形，漂亮的黄色。
So the change，the endless and rapid change. In the sunny countries，the change seems more vivid, and more complete than in the grey countries. In the grey countries，there is a grey or dark permanency, over whose surface passes change ephemeral, leaving no real mark.
五月一到，夜莺便不间断地唱着一首歌。这时候，小心翼翼的托斯卡纳杜鹃也会唱出平日里听不到的歌。接着，浅淡紫色的丁香花大量地出现，展示着它们柔嫩、穗状的花，直到空气中露出紫红，清澈透明的轻柔四处飘荡。世界将变成一丛丛蝴蝶花的天下，它们得意而柔嫩地昂起头。五六月，谷物还没收割的时候，在野外，玫瑰色的唐首蒲就会混合在谷物中。而黑种草开着蓝色的花朵。但现在还没到五月或六月—只是四月末，春夏之间的间歇。在这个时节里，夜莺不停地歌唱;豆地里的豆花正在凋谢;豆的芳香正随着春天一起逝去;小鸟在巢里成长;橄榄已被修剪;葡萄已经过了最后的耕种时间;两个星期后豌豆成熟之前，没有多少活要做。
But in the sunny countries，change is the reality and permanence is artificial and a condition of imprisonment. Hence,to the northerner, the phenomenal world is essentially tragical，because it is temporal and must cease to exist. Its very existence implies ceasing to exist, and this is the root of the feeling of tragedy. But to the southerner, the sun is so dominant that shadow, or dark, is only merely relative:merely the result of something getting between one and the sun.
这样才是变化，永不停息的快速变化。在阳光照耀的地方，变化似乎更显著，比在昏暗地带更彻底。而在没有阳光的地方，是一成不变的灰暗和阴暗。变化只是短暂的事，不会留下任何记号。
In the human race, the one thing chat is always there is the shining sun, and dark shadow is an accident of intervention. For my part, if the sun always shines，and always will shine，in spite of millions of clouds of words. In the sunshine, even death is sunny. And there is no end to the sunshine.
然而，对于生活在阳光地带的人，却是不同的概念。变化对他们来说就是现实，永久是人创造的，是一种囚禁。因此，生活在北面的人认为，变化中的世界实际上是悲惨的，因为世界只是短暂的，注定消逝的。世界的存在意味着自己的结束，这就是伤感本身。而生活在南面的人，对他们来说，阳光具有决定性的作用，阴影或黑暗不过是相关联的事物—只是在人和太阳之间才会出现的东西。
That is why the rapid change of the Tuscan spring is utterly free, for me, of any senses of tragedy. The sun always shines.It is our fault if we don't think so.
对于人类来说，有一件事是千真万确的，那就是在这个世界上，仅有一个发光的太阳，黑色的影子不过是一个干扰的意外罢了。而在我看来，尽管争议纷纷，但太阳一直光芒四射，也将永远光芒四射。在阳光下，即便死亡也是充满阳光的。阳光没有终点。
托斯卡纳的春天飞快地流逝，而我没有感到一丝的悲惨。这就是原因所在。太阳永远在照耀。如果不这样想，那就是我们的责任了。
英语晨读美文学习
Rafting Down the Neckar 内卡河上木筏行
Mark Twain
[美]马克·吐温
When the landlord learned that I and my agents were artists，our party rose perceptibly in his esteem;we rose still higher when he learned that we were making a pedestrian tour of Europe.
当旅店老板得知我和我的代理人是艺术家时，我们在他心中的地位就提升了一大截，得知我们正在徒步旅行欧洲后，我们的地位就更高了。
He told us all about the Heidelberg road，and which were the best places to avoid and which the best ones to tarry at;he charged me less than cost for the things I broke in the night;he put up a fine luncheon for us and added to it a quantity of great light-green plums, the pleasantest fruit in Germany;he was so anxious to do us honor that he would not allow us to walk out of Heilbronn,but called up Gotz von Berlichingen's horse and cab and made us ride.
他向我们介绍了海德堡的路线情况，告诉我们最好绕过哪些地方，最好在哪些地方多逗留些时日;对那晚我所使用的物品，他只收取了低于成本的费用;还为我们准备了一桌丰盛的午餐，并送了很多德国人最喜爱的嫩绿洋李。为了给我们赏光，他坚决不答应我们步行离开海尔布隆，于是，叫了葛兹·封·贝利欣根的马车来载我们离开。
I made a sketch of the turnout，It is not a Work, it is only what artists call a "study"—a thing to make a finished picture from This sketch has several blemishes in it; for instance, the wagon is not traveling as fast as the horse is. This is wrong. Again，the person trying to get out of the way is too small，he is out of perspective, as we say. The two upper lines are not the horse's back, they are the reins; there seems to be a wheel missing-this would be corrected in a finished Work, of course. That thing flying out behind is not a flag, it is a curtain. That other thing up there is the sun，but I didn't get enough distance on it. I do not remember, now, what that thing is that is in front of the man who is running, but I think it is a haystack or a woman. This study was exhibited in the Paris Salon of 1879, but did not take any medal;they do not give medals for studies.
我用素描的形式把马车画了下来。它算不上是件作品，只是画家所谓的“习作”—一种能成就完美画面的东西。这幅素描有几处败笔，如:马车的速度与马的步伐不一致，这是不正确的。而且，给马车让路的人实在太小了，就是我所说的不符合透视画法。最上边的两条线不是马背的曲线，而是缰绳;似乎还丢了一只车轮—当然完美的画中，这些败笔都会被纠正。马车后面飞舞的不是旗帜，而是车上的蓬帘。画中还有太阳，不过我没有空出足够的空间。现在，我记不清奔跑的那个人前面是什么东西了，不过我想那可—是堆干草，或者是个女人。1879年的巴黎画廊上，这幅习作被展览出来，但是并没有获得任何奖项，因为展览不为习作设奖。
We discharged the carriage at the bridge. The river was full of logs—long, slender, barkless pine logs—and we leaned on the rails of the bridge, and watched the men put them together into rafts. These rafts were of a shape and construction to the.crookedness and extreme narrowness of the Neckar. They were from fifty to one hundred yards long，and they gradually tapered from a nine —log breadth at their sterns，to a "three-log breadth at their bow-ends. The main part of the steering is done at the bow, with a pole;the three-log breadth there furnishes room for only the steersman，for these little logs are not larger around that an average young lady's waist. The connections of the several sections of the raft are slack and pliant, so that the raft may be readily bent into any sort of curve required by the shape of the river.
车到桥头的时候，我们付了钱打发马车回去了。河面上漂满了原木—细长的、没有树皮的松树圆木—我们倚靠在桥栏上，看着人们把这些木头捆成木筏。这些木筏的形状和结构都适用于内卡河道弯曲和极狭窄的特点。它们的长度由100码逐渐缩为50码，由尾部9根原木的宽度缩小到头部3根的宽度。主要的舵是一根撑篙，安装在木筏的前部。3根原木的宽度，只能容纳一个舵手，因为这些小木材的粗细也不过一名普通妇女的腰围大小。木筏几部分的连接是松散的，灵活性也较强，以便随时变向来适应河流任何水流形式的需要。
The Neckar is in many places so narrow that a person can throw a dog across it, if he has one;when it is also sharply curved in such places, the raftsman has to do some pretty nice snug piloting to make the turns. The river is not always allowed to spread over its whole bed—which is as much as thirty, and sometimes forty yards wide—but is split into three equal bodies of water, by stone dikes which throw the main volume, depth，and current into the central one. In low water these neat narrow-edged dikes project f?ur or five inches above the surface，like the comb of a submerged roof，but in high water they are overflowed. A hatful of rain makes high water in the Neckar, and a basketful produces an overflow.
内卡河的很多地方都非常狭窄，以至于你可以把一只小狗扔到对面。当一些地方水流陡变时，撑筏者就不得不使出几招绝技，引航变向。河流并不总是淹没整个河床—河床的宽度达到30码，有些地方甚至达到40码—但是石堤把注入其中的水流分隔成三等份，并把主要的水量汇集到中心水道中去。在浅水期，这些整齐的、狭窄的石堤会露出水面四五英寸，就像被淹没的房屋的屋顶。但在深水期，它们就都会被河水淹没。在内卡河，一帽子的雨水就能使水位上涨，一满筐的雨水就会使水决堤!
There are dikes abreast the Schloss Hotel，and the current is violently swift at' that point. I used to sit for hours in my glass cage，watching the long, narrow rafts slip along through the central channel，grazing the right-bank dike and aiming carefully for the middle arch of the stone bridge below;I watched them in this way, and lost all this time hoping to see one of them hit the bridge-pier and wreck itself sometime or other, but was always disappointed. One was smashed there one morning，but I had just stepped into my room a moment to light a pipe, so I lost it.
舒劳斯旅馆与几条堤坝走向相同，与它并排的那一段，水流湍急。我时常坐在自己的房间，透过玻璃看那长而狭窄的木筏沿着中心水道，顺流而下，擦过堤岸的右侧边缘，小心地对准下游石桥的中孔滑下。我就这样望着它们，在对什么时候能看到它们撞在桥墩，成为残骸的憧憬中迷失了自我。然而，我总是失望。一天早晨，有一条木筏粉碎在那里，不过却是在我刚刚踏进房间去点烟时撞击的，因此我还是错过了。
While I was looking down upon the rafts that morning in Heilbronn, the daredevil spirit of adventure came suddenly upon me, and I said to my comrades:
在海尔布隆的那个早晨，当我俯瞰着木筏时，蛮勇的冒险精神突然产生，我对我的同伴们说:“我准备乘木筏去海德堡。你们和我一起去冒险吗?”
"I am going to Heidelberg on a raft. Will you venture with me?"
他们的脸色吓得苍白，不过还是尽可能优雅地表示赞同。哈里斯想给他的母亲发一封电报—认为这是他的职责，因为他是母亲在这个世界上唯一的亲人—因此，他去发电报了。与此同时，我跑上那条最长、最好的木筏，热情地向舵手打招呼道:“晦，你们好啊!”这一问候立刻使气氛活跃起来，接着我们便进入了正题。我说，我们原本是要徒步旅行到海德堡去的，但现在打算乘坐他们的木筏去那里。我的这些话有一部分是通过蔡德先生翻译的，他的德语说得很好;另一部分则是通过爱克司先生翻译的，他的德语说得相当地道。我能像发明它的狂人一样听明白德语，不过我要通过翻译才能把它说好。
Their faces paled a little, but they assented with as good a grace as they could. Harris wanted to cable his mother—thought it his duty to do that, as he was all she had in this world—so, while he attended to this, I went down to the longest and finest raft and hailed the captain with a heary "Ahoy, shipmate!” which put us upon pleasant terms at once, and we entered upon business. I said we were on a pedestrian tour to Heidelberg，and would like to take passage with him.l said this partly thorough young Z, who spoke German very well, and partly through Mr. X who spoke it peculiarly. I can understand German as well as the maniac that invented it, but I talk it best through an interpreter.
木筏上的舵手提提裤子，边嚼着烟草块，边思考，正如我所预料的，他说他没有运送旅客的执照，万一这件事宣扬出去或者出了什么事故，他就会被追查。于是，我租下了这条木筏，雇了他的舵手，一切责任由我承担。
The captain hitched up his trousers, then shifted his quid thoughtfully. Presently he said just what I was expecting he would say—that he had no license to carry passengers, and therefore was afraid the law would be after him in case the matter got noised about or any accident happened. So I chartered the raft and the crew and took all the responsibilities on myself.
伴着一阵激昂的号子声，右舷的舵手们开始忙活了起来，他们收起缆索，升起筏锚，我们的木筏便飞速地向前游去。很快，时速就达到了20海里。
With a rattling song the starboard watch bent to their work and hove the cable short, then got the anchor home, and our bark moved off with a stately stride, and soon was bowling along at about two knots an hour.
我们一行人聚集在木筏的中央。起初，大家的谈话有些低沉，主要围绕着短暂且难测的，其间危机重重生命，随时做好最坏的准备是必需的也是明智的。这种交谈渐渐变成低语，内容都是些海洋的危险之类的。然而，当灰色的东方出现红彼，在黎明那神秘的庄严和静寂中传来小鸟欢快的歌声时，大家的谈话也欢快了许多，我们的情绪也逐渐高昂了起来。
Our party were grouped amidships. At first the talk was a little gloomy, and ran mainly upon the shortness of life，the uncertainty of it, the perils which beset it, and the need and wisdom of being always prepared for the worst;this shaded off into low-voiced references to the dangers of the deep, and kindred matters;but as the gray cast began to redden and the mysterious solemnity and silence of the dawn to give place to the joy-songs of the birds, the talk took a cheerier tone, and our spirits began to rise steadily.
夏日的德国是至善至美的。但是，如果不乘木筏从内卡河漂流而下，是不可能理解、感知和享受这种至高的温柔、平和的美妙的。木筏的漂流是不可或缺的运动，它柔美、顺滑、流畅、无声;它平息一切狂躁的行为;缓和所有不安的仓促和急躁情绪。在其宁静的影响之下，一切影响情绪的烦恼、悲伤都销声匿迹，变成一个梦、一种魅力、一种深深的、宁静的喜悦。炎热、辛劳的徒步行走，与尘土飞扬、隆隆行驶的火车，还有在炫目的大道路颠簸的疲惫的马车，形成了鲜明的对比啊!
Germany, in the summer, is the perfection of the beautiful，but nobody has understood，and realized，and enjoyed the utmost possibilities of this soft and peaceful beauty unless he has voyaged down the Neckar on a raft. The motion of a raft is the needful motion;it is gentle, and gliding, and smooth，and noiseless;it calms down all feverish activities，it soothes to sleep all nervous hurry and impatience; under its restful influence all the troubles and vexations and sorrows that harass the mind vanish away, and existence becomes a dream, a charm, a deep and tranquil ecstasy. How it contrasts with hot and perspiring pedestrianism，and dusty and deafening railroad rush，and tedious jolting behind tired horses over blinding white roads!
带着不断高涨的愉悦和满足感，我们在郁葱芳香的河岸间静静地滑行。有的地方，岸边倒垂下的浓密柳枝，覆盖了后面所有的土地;有的地方，河岸一侧壮丽的山脉，上面植被丰盈，另一侧则是一望无际的平原，开放着鲜艳的婴粟花，或是靛蓝恰人的矢车菊。我们时而漂流在森林的阴影之下，时而沿着天鹅绒般柔软的草地边缘滑行。那映入眼帘的草地是那么碧绿清新，灼灼明亮，蕴涵着无限的魅力。还有那随处可见的鸟儿。它们频繁地穿梭于两岸之间，鸣起的欢歌不绝于耳。
We went slipping silently along, between the green and fragrant banks, with a railroad rush, and tedious jolting behind tired horsesover blinding white roads!
看日出能令人百般回味且愉悦人心。太阳冉冉升起，耐心地、温柔地铺上一层又一层光彩，拨撤着一片又一片壮丽。直到一个新的早晨完整地筑就起来。在木筏上观赏日出与等候在火车站的候车室中，嚼着干巴巴的三明治，透过窗户眺望破落的小村庄的感觉有着天滚之别。
We went slipping silently along，between the green and fragrant banks, with a sense of pleasure and contentment that grew，and grew，all the time. Sometimes the banks were overhung with thick masses of willows that wholly hid the ground behind;sometimes we had noble hills on one hand，clothed densely with foliage to their tops, and on the other hand open levels blazing with poppies, or clothed in the rich blue of the corn-flower; sometimes we drifted in the shadow of forests,and sometimes along the margin of long stretches of velvety grass, fresh and green and bright, a tireless charm to the eye.And the birds!—they were everywhere;they swept back and forth across the river constantly, and their jubilant music was never stilled.
It was a deep and satisfying pleasure to see the sun create the new morning，and gradually, patiently, lovingly, clothe it on with splendor after splendor, and glory after glory, till the miracle was complete. How different is this marvel observed from a raft, from what it is when one observes it through the dingy windows of a railway-station in some wretched village while he munches a petrified sandwich and waits for the train.