But, alas![qh]
可是,天哪,[qh]
for me to do wrong that never did right, was no great wonder.[qh]
我这个人老是把事情办糟,却从未办好过一件事情;[qh]
I hail no remedy but to go on:[qh]
这种行事处世对我来说又不足为怪了qh]
I had got into an employment quite remote to my genius, and directly contrary to the life I delighted in,[qh]
现在的生计与我的天性和才能是完全不相称的,与我所向往的生活也大相径庭qh]
and for which I forsook my father’s house, and broke through all his good advice.[qh]
为了我所向往的生活,我违抗父命,背井离乡qh]
Nay, I was coming into the very middle station, or upper degree of low life, which my father advised me to before,[qh]
我现在经营种植园,也快过上我父亲一直劝我过的中产阶级生活了qh]
and which, if I resolved to go on with, I might as well have stayed at home, and never have fatigued myself in the world as I had done;[qh]
但是,如果我真的想过中产阶级的生活,那我可以完全呆在家里,何必在世界上到处闯荡,劳苦自己呢?[qh]
and I used often to say to myself, I could have done this as well in England,[qh]
要过上中产阶级的生活,我完全可以留在英国,[qh]
among my friends, as have gone five thousand miles off to do it among strangers and savages, in a wilderness,[qh]
生活在亲朋好友中间,又何必千里迢迢,来到这举目无亲的荒山僻壤之地,与野蛮人为伍呢?[qh]
and at such a distance as never to hear from any part of the world that had the least knowledge of me.[qh]
在这儿,我远离尘世,谁也不知道我的音讯qh]
In this manner I used to look upon my condition with the utmost regret.[qh]
每当我想到自己目前的境遇,总是悔恨不已qh]
I had nobody to converse with, but now and then this neighbour;[qh]
除了偶尔与我的那位邻居交往外,简直没有其他人可以交谈qh]
no work to be done, but by the labour of my hands;[qh]
我也没有什么工作可做,只有用自己的双手辛苦劳作qh]
and I used to say, I lived just like a man cast away upon some desolate island, that had nobody there but himself.[qh]
我老是对自己说,我就像被丢弃在一个杳无人烟的荒岛上,形单影只,雀然一身qh]
But how just has it been - and how should all men reflect, that when they compare their present conditions with others that are worse,[qh]
可是,当人们把自己目前的处境与境况更糟的人相比时,[qh]
Heaven may oblige them to make the exchange, and be convinced of their former felicity by their experience –[qh]
老天往往会让他们换一换地位,好让他们以自己的亲身阅历,体会过去生活的幸福qh]
I say, how just has it been, that the truly solitary life I reflected on, in an island of mere desolation,[qh]
我把自己目前的生活,比作荒岛上孤独的生活,结果我真的命中注定要过这种生活,[qh]
should be my lot, who had so often unjustly compared it with the life which I then led,[qh]
那正是因为我不应该不满足于当前的境遇qh]
in which, had I continued, I had in all probability been exceeding prosperous and rich.[qh]
要是我真的继续我当时的生活,也许我可以变成个大富翁呢![qh]