美國語文第六冊 第57期:我的演說經(jīng)歷(6)
一提到演說，就會想到偽造其他人的表情，步伐或聲音，抑或通過為笛子定調(diào)的方法來調(diào)整我自己的音調(diào)
(as the ancient orators did, with whom oratory was acting elocution, a branch of the dramatic art),
(就像古代演說家那樣，在他們看來演說術(shù)就是表演朗誦，屬于戲劇的一個分支)，
as of adopting or imitating the gestures and tones of the most celebrated rhetorician I ever saw.
采用或模仿我曾見過的最著名的演說家的姿勢和聲音。
The result was rather encouraging.
結(jié)果相當(dāng)令人鼓舞。
My mother and sister were both satisfied.
我媽媽和姐姐都很滿意。
At any rate, they said nothing to the contrary.
不管怎樣，她們沒有說讓我氣餒的話。
Being only in my nineteenth year, what might I not be able to accomplish after a little more experience!
鑒于當(dāng)時只有十九歲，我不可能做得更好了。
How little did I think, while rehearsing before my mother and sister,
在我媽媽和姐姐面前朗誦時，我的顧慮很少，
that anything serious would ever come of it, or that I was laying the foundations of character for life,
任何一點(diǎn)點(diǎn)麻煩都會克服，或者說我以生活中的人物性格為基礎(chǔ)，
or that I was beginning what I should not be able to finish within the next forty or fifty years following.
抑或我開始做的事情在接下來四十年或五十年之內(nèi)都無法完成。
Yet so it was. I had broken the ice without knowing it.
然而，事實(shí)就是如此。我不用先了解就打破了這層堅冰。
These things were but the foreshadowing of what happened long afterward.
這些事情只不過預(yù)言了長久以后將要發(fā)生的一切而已。
