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Alas! There the nasty sorry useless stuff lay; I had no more manner of business for it; and I often thought with myself, that I would have given a handful of it for a gross of tobacco pipes, or for a hand-mill to grind my corn;
可是，这些肮脏、可悲而又无用的东西，至今还放在那里，对我毫无用处。我自己常常想，我宁愿用一大把金币去换十二打烟斗，或换一个磨谷的手磨。
nay, I would have given it all for six-penny-worth of turnip and carrot seed out of England, or for a handful of peas and beans, and a bottle of ink:
我甚至愿意用我全部的钱币去换价值仅六个便士的英国萝卜和胡萝卜种子，或者去换一把豆子或一瓶墨水。
As it was, I had not the least advantage by it, or benefit from it; but there it lay in a drawer, and grew mouldy with the damp of the cave, in the wet seasons; and if I had had the drawer full of diamonds, it had been the same case; they had been of no manner of value to me, because of no use.
可是现在，那些金钱银币对我一点也没有用处，也毫无价值。它们放在一个抽屉里，而一到雨季，由于洞里潮湿，就会发霉。在这种情况下，即使我抽屉里堆满了钻石，对我来说也毫无价值，因为它们毫无用处。
I had now brought my state of life to be much easier in itself than it was at first, and much easier to my mind, as well as to my body.
与当初上岛时相比，我已大大改善了自己的生活状况。我不仅生活舒适，而且心情也安逸。
I frequently sat down to meat with thankfulness, and admired the hand of God's providence, which had thus spread my table in the wilderness.
每当我坐下来吃饭，总会有一种感激之情，惊异上帝万能，竟然能在旷野为我摆设筵席。
I learned to look more upon the bright side of my condition, and less upon the dark side; and to consider what I enjoyed, rather than what I wanted; and this gave me sometimes such secret comforts, that I cannot express them;
我已学会多看看自己生活中的光明面，少看看生活中的黑暗面；多想想自己所得到的享受，少想想所缺乏的东西。这种态度使我内心感到的由衷安慰，实难言表。
and which I take notice of here, to put those discontented people in mind of it, who cannot enjoy comfortably what God has given them; because they see, and covet something that he has not given them:
在这儿，我写下这些话，就是希望那些不知满足的人能有所觉醒：他们之所以不能舒舒服服地享受上帝的恩赐，正是因为他们老是在期望和贪求他们还没有得到的东西。
All our discontents about what we want, appeared to me, to spring from the want of thankfulness for what we have.
我感到，我们老是感到缺少什么东西而不满足，是因为我们对已经得到的东西缺少感激之情。
Another reflection was of great use to me, and doubtless would be so to any one that should fall into such distress as mine was; and this was, to compare my present condition with what I at first expected it would be;
还有一种想法对我也大有好处，而且，这种反省毫无疑问对遇到我这种灾难的其他任何人也一定大有用处。那就是拿我目前的情况跟我当初所预料的情况加以比较，
nay, with what it would certainly have been, if the good providence of God had not wonderfully ordered the ship to be cast up nearer to the shore, where I not only could come at her, but could bring what I got out of her to the shore, for my relief and comfort;
或者不如说，跟我必然会遭遇的境况加以比较。上帝神奇地作出了目前这样的安排，把大船冲近海岸，让我不仅能靠近它，还能从上面取下所需要的东西搬到岸上，使我获得救济和安慰。
without which, I had wanted for tools to work, weapons for defence, or gun-powder and shot for getting my food.
假如不是这样，我就没有工具工作，没有武器自卫，没有弹药猎取食物了。
I spent whole hours, I may say whole days, in representing to myself in the most lively colours, how I must have acted, if I had got nothing out of the ship.
我有时一连几小时，甚至好几天沉思冥想。我自己设想：假如我没能从船上取下任何东西，那将怎么办呢？
How I could not have so much as got any food, except fish and turtles; and that as it was long before I found any of them, I must have perished first.
假如那样，除了鳖外，我就找不到任何其他食物了；而鳖是很久之后才发现的，那么，我一定早就饿死了。
That I should have lived, if I had not perished, like a meer savage.
即使不饿死，我也一定过着野人一样的生活，
That if I had killed a goat, or a fowl, by any contrivance, I had no way to flay or open them, or part the flesh from the skin, and the bowels, or to cut it up; but must gnaw it with my teeth, and pull it with my claws like a beast.
即使想方设法打死一只山羊或一只鸟，我也无法把它们开膛破肚，剥皮切块，而只好像野兽一样，用牙齿去咬，用爪子去撕了。
These reflections made me very sensible of the goodness of providence to me, and very thankful for my present condition, with all its hardships and misfortunes:
这种想法使我深深地感到造物主对我的仁慈，尽管我当前的处境相当困苦不幸，但我还是充满了感激之情。
And this part also I cannot but recommend to the reflection of those, who are apt in their misery to say, is any affliction like mine!
在困苦中的人常常会哀叹：“有谁像我这样苦啊！”
Let them consider, how much worse the cases of some people are, and their case might have been, if providence had thought fit.
我劝他们好好读读我这段话，并好好想一想，有些人的情况比他们还要坏得多。还应想一想，假如造物主故意捉弄他们，他们的景况将会糟得多。
I had another reflection which assisted me also to comfort my mind with hopes; and this was comparing my present condition with what I had deserved, and had therefore reason to expect from the hand of providence.
此外，还有一种想法，使我心里充满了希望，从而内心获得极大的安慰。那就是，把我目前的境况与造物主应对我的报应加以比较。
I had lived a dreadful life, perfectly destitute of the knowledge and fear of God.
过去，我过着可怕的生活，对上帝完全缺乏认识和敬畏。
I had been well instructed by father and mother; neither had they been wanting to me, in their early endeavours, to infuse a religious awe of God into my mind, a sense of my duty, and of what the nature and end of my being, required of me.
我父母曾给我很好的教育，他们也尽力教导我应敬畏上帝，教育我应明白自己的责任，明白做人的目的和道理。
But alas! falling early into the seafaring life, which of all the lives is the most destitute of the fear of God, though his terrors are always before them;
可是，天哪，我很早就当了水手，过上了航海生活。要知道，水手是最不尊敬不畏惧上帝的人，尽管上帝使他们的生活充满了恐怖。
I say, falling early into the seafaring life, and into seafaring company, all that little sense of religion which I had entertained, was laughed out of me by my messmates, by a hardened despising of dangers; and the views of death, which grew habitual to me;
由于我年轻时就过水手生活，与水手们为伍，我早年获得的那不多的宗教意识，早就从我的头脑里消失得一干二净了。这是由于伙伴们的嘲笑，由于经常遭遇危险而视死如归，
by my long absence from all manner of opportunities to converse with any hing but what was like myself, or to hear anything that was good, or tended towards it. So void was I of everything that was good, or of the least sense of what I was, or was to be,
由于没有与善良的人交往而从未听到有益的教导，因此本来就十分淡薄的宗教信仰，就消失殆尽了。那时，我完全没有善心，也不知道自己的为人，不知道该怎样做人；
that in the greatest deliverances I enjoyed, such as my escape from Sallee; my being taken up by the Portuguese master of the ship; my being planted so well in the Brasils; my receiving the cargo from England, and the like; I never had once the word Thank God, so much as on my mind, or in my mouth;
因此，即使上帝赐给我最大的恩惠，在我心里或嘴里却从未说过一句“感谢上帝”的话。譬如，我从萨累出逃，被葡萄牙船长从海上救起来，在巴西安身立命并获得发展，从英国运回我采购的货物，凡此种种，难道不都是上帝的恩赐吗？
