新视野大学英语第三版读写教程第四册课文及课文翻译.doc

Unit 8 A turning point of my life 我人生的转折点 I wasnt yet 30 years old and was working as a firefighter in New York City, in a firehouse completely swamped with calls. In the rare moments when we werent busy, I would make calls on our cordless phone handset or rush to our office to read Captain Grays subscription of the Sunday New York Times. Late one afternoon when I finally read the Book Review section, my blood began to boil. An article stated a thesis I took to be an offensive insult: William Butler Yeats, the Nobel Prize-winning light of the Irish Literary Renaissance, had risen above his Irishness and was now a universal poet. I grew indignant suddenly, and a deep-seated passion within me was activated. 我那时还不到 30 岁，是纽约市的一名消防员，我工作的消防站总是不断有求助电话进来。偶尔在我们不忙的时候，我会打打无绳电话，或是到办公室，看看格雷队长订的《纽约时报》周日版。一天下午晚些时候，当我最后读到书评栏时，我开始血液沸腾。一篇文章提出了一个在我看来带有侮辱性的观点：它说诺贝尔奖获得者威廉.巴特勒.叶芝，即点亮爱尔兰文学复兴之光的人，已经超越了其爱尔兰身份，是一名世界性的诗人。我突然感到愤怒，内心深处一种激情也被激发起来。 There were few things I was more proud of than my Irish heritage. My ancestors were Catholic Irish farmers, fishermen and blue-collar workers, all of whom were patrons of literature. From the time my family came ashore on Ellis Island and faced the threat of being deported, we have fought discrimination against Irish immigrants. Ever since I first picked up a book of his poems, Yeats had been my favorite writer. He wrote his poetry in close adherence to his Irish sensibilities. His life was, in essence, a tribute to his homeland. 很少有什么事情比我是爱尔兰后裔更让我感到骄傲的了。我的祖先是信仰天主教的爱尔兰人，他们做过农夫、渔民和蓝领工人，但是他们所有人都热爱文学。从我的家族登上埃利斯岛、面临被驱逐的威胁那一刻起，我们就一直在反抗对爱尔兰移民的歧视。自从我第一次拿起叶芝的诗集开始，他就一直是我最喜欢的作家。他创作的诗中有着深深的爱尔兰情怀。实际上，他的一生都在赞颂祖国。所以，不管是从心理的、社会的还是文学的角度，认为爱尔兰的身份是能够超越的，都是一种侮辱。我感觉自己继承的身份就像是成了法庭上的被告，我别无选择，只能保护它并谴责这样一种过时的偏见。 So, it was offensive to think Irishness, no matter if it was psychological, social or literary, was something to rise above. I felt like my heritage was a defendant at a tribunal, and I had no choice but to protect it and denounce such an outdated prejudice. 我焦躁不安，全身