◎董欣

The Angel

◎董欣

The angel took up the rose bush；then he kissed the child，and the little one half opened his eyes.The angel gathered also some beautiful flowers，as well as a few humble buttercups and heartsease.

“Now we have flowers enough，”said the child；but the angel only nodded，he did not fly upward to heaven.

It was night，and quite still in the great town. Here they remained，and the angel hovered over a small，narrow street，in which lay a large heap of straw，ashes and sweepings from the houses of people who had removed.There lay fragments of plates，pieces of plaster，rags，old hats and other rubbish not pleasant to see.Amidst all this confusion，the angel pointed to the pieces of a broken flower pot，and to a lump of earth which had fallen out of it.The earth had been kept from falling to pieces by the roots of a withered field flower，which had been thrown among the rubbish.

“We will take this with us，”said the angel，“I will tell you why as we fly along.”

譯文

安琪兒把這朵花帶走了，同時(shí)還吻了孩子一下，孩子半睜開(kāi)他的眼睛。他們摘下了幾朵美麗的花，但也帶走了幾朵被人瞧不起的金鳳花和野生的三色堇花。

“現(xiàn)在我們有足夠的花兒了?！焙⒆诱f(shuō)。安琪兒點(diǎn)點(diǎn)頭，可是他并沒(méi)有飛到天上去。

一天夜晚，非常靜寂。他們停留在這座大城市里。他們?cè)谝粭l最狹窄的街上飛。街上堆著許多干草、塵土和垃圾，因?yàn)檫@是一戶剛搬完家的人清理出來(lái)的。這兒還有破碎的碗盤(pán)、墻上脫落下來(lái)的泥塊、爛布和破帽子——讓人不忍直視。安琪兒在這堆破東西中間指著幾塊花盆的碎片和花盆里面掉出來(lái)的一團(tuán)干泥塊。一枝枯萎了的野花用它的根把自己和這個(gè)土塊維系在一起。這枝花現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)沒(méi)有用了，因此被人拋到街上來(lái)了。

“我們要把這枝花帶走！”安琪兒說(shuō)，“我在飛行的時(shí)候再把理由告訴你。”

注釋

rose bush玫瑰花叢

gather收集

humble(級(jí)別或地位)低下的；不大的

buttercups毛茛屬植物

heartsease三色堇

nod點(diǎn)頭

remain保持；留下

hover盤(pán)旋，翱翔

heap堆積

straw稻草

ash灰塵

sweep打掃，掃除

fragment碎片；片段

plate板材

rags破布；抹布

rubbish垃圾，廢物

amidst在……當(dāng)中

confusion混淆，混亂；困惑

flower pot花盆

lump塊

wither枯萎，使凋謝