走出非洲英文版第一章（恩贡农场）

Chapter 1.

The Ngong Farm 

     I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of the Ngong Hills. The Equator runs across these highlands, a hundred miles to the North, and the farm lay at an altitude of over six thousand feet. In the daytime you felt that you had got high up, near to the sun, but the early mornings and evenings were limpid and restful, and the nights were cold.

  Equator ：赤道。limpid ：清澈的;清晰的;透明的。

  

   The geographical position, and the height of the land combined to create a landscape that had not its like in all the world. There was no fat on it and no luxuriance anywhere; it was Africa distilled up through six thousand feet, like the strong and refined essence of a continent. The colours were dry and burnt, like the colours in pottery. The trees had a light delicate foliage, the structure of which was different from that of the trees in Europe; it did not grow in bows or cupolas, but in horizontal layers, and the formation gave to the tall solitary trees a likeness to the palms, or a heroic and romantic air like fullrigged ships with their sails clewed up, and to the edge of a wood a strange appearance as if the whole wood were faintly vibrating. Upon the grass of the great plains the crooked bare old thorn-trees were scattered, and the grass was spiced like thyme and bog-myrtle; in some places the scent was so strong, that it smarted in the nostrils. All the flowers that you found on the plains, or upon the creepers and liana in the native forest, were diminutive like flowers of the downs,–only just in the beginning of the long rains a number of big, massive heavy-scented lilies sprang out on the plains. The views were immensely wide. Everything that you saw made for greatness and freedom, and unequalled nobility.

  

   geographical ：地理(学)的。luxuriance：茂盛;华丽;丰富。distilled ：精炼，浓缩。refined ：精炼 的;精制的。foliage：树叶;枝叶。bows ：（小提琴等弦乐器的）弓，琴弓。cupolas：圆屋顶;穹顶。clewed ：帆下角铁圈;（解决问题的）线索，线团。fullrigged ：装备完整的船。crooked ：扭曲的;弯曲的。thorn：带刺的树;荆棘。spiced ：五香的;加了香料的;加了佐料的。thyme ：百里香(一种植物，叶小，有香味，可作烹饪调味品)。bog-myrtle：沼泽香桃木。nostrils：鼻孔。smarted ：感到剧烈刺痛;(因批评、失败等)难过，烦恼。creepers ：蔓生植物;攀缘植物。liana ：藤本（蔓生）植物。diminutive：极小的;特小的;微小的。downs：(尤指英格兰南部的)开阔丘陵地。

   The chief feature of the landscape, and of your life in it, was the air. Looking back on a sojourn in the African highlands, you are struck by your feeling of having lived for a time up in the air. The sky was rarely more than pale blue or violet, with a profusion of mighty, weightless, ever-changing clouds towering up and sailing on it, but it has a blue vigour in it, and at a short distance it painted the ranges of hills and the woods a fresh deep blue. In the middle of the day the air was alive over the land, like a flame burning; it scintillated, waved and shone like running water, mirrored and doubled all objects, and created great Fata Morgana. Up in this high air you breathed easily, drawing in a vital assurance and lightness of heart. In the highlands you woke up in the morning and thought: Here I am, where I ought to be.

  

sojourn：寄居;逗留;旅居;暂住。profusion ：丰富;大量;众多。scintillated：闪光;起火花;发出荧光。Fata Morgana：海市唇楼。

  The Mountain of Ngong stretches in a long ridge from North to South, and is crowned with four noble peaks like immovable darker blue waves against the sky. It rises eight thousand feet above the Sea, and to the East two thousand feet above the surrounding country; but to the West the drop is deeper and more precipitous,–the hills fall vertically down towards the Great Rift Valley.

  

 ridge ：山脊;山脉。peak：高峰;顶峰。immovable ：不能移动的; 固定的。precipitous：陡峭的;险峻的。Great Rift Valley：東非大裂谷。

   The wind in the highlands blows steadily from the North-North-East. It is the same wind that, down at the coasts of Africa and Arabia, they name the Monsoon, the East Wind, which was King Solomon‟s favourite horse. Up here it is felt as just the resistance of the air, as the Earth throws herself forward into space. The wind runs straight against the Ngong Hills, and the slopes of the hills would be the ideal place for setting up a glider, that would be lifted upwards by the currents, over the mountain top. The clouds, which were travelling with the wind, struck the side of the hill and hung round it, or were caught on the summit and broke into rain. But those that took a higher course and sailed clear of the reef, dissolved to the West of it, over the burning desert of the Rift Valley. Many times I have from my house followed these mighty processions advancing, and have wondered to see their proud floating masses, as soon as they had got over the hills, vanish in the blue air and be gone.

  coasts ：海岸;海滨。Monsoon：季候风;季风。King Solomon：所罗门王，所罗门王是犹太民族历史上最伟大的君王，也是世界上最传奇的君王之一。据《圣经》记载，所罗门在20岁登基后，他在梦中向上帝祈求智慧，上帝不仅赐给他无比的智慧，还赐给他无尽的荣耀、财富以及美德。reef：暗礁;礁;礁脉。processions ：(人或车辆的)队列，行列;列队行进。