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Lesson 24 Beauty
第24课 美
First listen and then answer the following question.
听录音，然后回答以下问题。
What do glimpses of beauty, either in nature or art, often suggest to the human mind?
美的定义是什么，无论是在自然或艺术，往往表明对人类心灵？
A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him,
一个年轻人看到日落，由于无法理解和表达日落在他心中唤起的激情，
concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond.
便得出结论：日落处想必是通往遥远世界的大门。
It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience
无论是谁，在强烈感受到美的时刻，
to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and,
心中都不禁油生一种遐想：我们似乎瞥见从另一个世界射向我们的一线光芒，那个世界不仅不同于我们这个世界，
because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher.
而且由于美感的强烈感染，在某些方面比我们这个世界更美好。
And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined.
虽然这光芒令人眼花缭乱，但它确实给予我们一种不曾经历和无法想象的美感和静谧的启示。
Greater too than we can describe; for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
这种美感和静谧是我们无法描述的，因为我们发明的语言是用来描述这个世界的含义，不能随便拿来去描述另一个世界。
That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable.
不可否认，一切伟大的艺术都具有使人遐想到进入天外世界的魅力。
In some moods, nature shares it.
在某种状态下，大自然也有这种魅力。
There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer,
六月蔚蓝的天空总使人遥想一个更加蔚蓝的苍穹；
no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed,
美丽的落日总会引起一个更加绚丽的景象未及饱览便一闪即逝，
and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret.
并在消逝中给人留下不可名状的渴望和惆怅。
But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars,
如果这个世界不只是一个拙劣的恶作剧，人生不只是群星寒光中平凡的一闪，
and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries;
存在不只是对神秘事物的一种空虚的笑声，
if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion,
如果某种玄妙事物的暗示不是消化不良引起的邪恶情绪，
or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us, if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning.
也不是魔鬼为了捉弄我们，使我们发狂而送给我们的邪念，一句话，如果美有某种意义的话，我们千万不要去阐明它的意义。
If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp.
如果我瞥见了只可意会不可言传的事物，企图把它说出来，那是不明智的；对于我们不理解的事物，我们也不应该去赋予它某种意义。
Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.
用对我们人类有意义的词解释美是没有意义的。
