Owing to[1] ill health I have not talked to you for a long time.I am now well[2] again,and,fearing the editor[3] may have been growing[4] impatient over my delay in sending him my "talks",have decided upon the above-given subject,[5] to assure[6]him - and also you - that I really was a sick man till but a few days ago.
I hasten[7] to add[8] that I had only slight attacks of fever[9]and a cough.[10] I was not very ill.I was simply poorly,[11]and too unwell to write.
But if I was too unwell to write,I was yet well enough to think.Hence my thoughts.[12]
As is often said,[13] one does not realize[14]the value of health till one is taken ill.[15] Needless to say,[16] my chief thought during my indisposition[17]was how to get over[18] it.I tried to account for[19] it in several ways,and regretted[20] having stayed too late at a friend's house on a certain[21] night,having gone out too early on a certain morning,having walked too much on certain days,and,having...
I thought a great deal[22] besides.[23]Perhaps one cannot afford[24] to spend whole days thinking and thinking[25] except when ill in bed.Then one thinks and thinks; for the only thing one then can do is to think - if one can then think at all.During my recent illness,I thought of many things that I do not usually think of.I thought of particular little incidents[26]in my early childhood,of particular passages[27] in books that I had read long before,of particular faces I had seen,and of ...
Nor did I think altogether aimlessly and carelessly.I thought seriously of life and its problems.I thought of the most serious thing in my mind - the reading and writing of books.I considered what an ideal[28] series of English readers for Chinese students should be.I planned(of course merely mentally[29])a handbook[30]of English composition for Chinese college students that should teach them to write English as Englishmen write it.
I wonder I did not think much of any of my favourite authors[31] during my last illness.Last year,when I was laid up with a cold,[32] I used to think so much of Burns[33]and Blake[34]that I dreamt of them in the night.
注释
[1]owing to：因
[2]well：健全的
[3]editor：主笔
[4]growing：变
[5]subject：题
[6]assure...：向……郑重声明
[7]hasten：赶快
[8]add：加言
[9]slight attacks of fever：寒热病之小袭击；小寒热
[10]cough：咳嗽
[11]poorly：身体不适的
[12]Hence my thoughts：故有我（下文所述）之思想
[13]As is often said：有如人所常言者
[14]realize：知
[15]taken ill：起病
[16]Needless to say：不必说
[17]indisposition：小病
[18]get over ...：由……复原
[19]account for...：说明……之理由
[20]regretted：悔
[21]certain：某
[22]a great deal：多
[23]besides：除此以外
[24]cannot afford：不能；不会得
[25]thinking and thinking：继续思想
[26]incidents：事
[27]passages：文字之片段
[28]ideal：理想的，完美的
[29]mentally：在心上
[30]handbook：小书
[31]favourite authors：喜读之作家
[32]was laid up with a cold：因伤风而卧
[33]Burns：即Robert Burns，罗伯特·彭斯，苏格兰诗人，生于1759年，卒于1796年
[34]Blake：即William Blake，威廉·布莱克，英国诗人，生于1757年，卒于1827年
