After the lecture one of the students in the audience asked Eliot what he thought the most beautiful line in the English language was—an insane question, really, like asking for the largest number. Much to my amazement Eliot answered without the slightest hesitation, "But look, the morn in russet mantle clad / Walks o'er the dew of yon high eastward hill." I asked Spender what he thought the most beautiful line in the English language was. He got up from his chair and in a firm hand wrote a line of Auden's on the blackboard. He looked at it with an expression that I have never forgotten—sadness, wonder, regret, perhaps envy. He recited it slowly and then sat back down. There was total silence in the room. I thanked him, and my companion and I left the class.
講座后聽眾中有一個學生問艾略特他認為最美的英文詩句是什么，一個愚蠢的問題，真的，就像問最大的數字是什么一樣。令我萬分吃驚的是，艾略特毫不猶豫地回答了這個問題，“瞧，清晨披著金黃色的氅蓬，踏著髙山上的露珠從東方走來。”于是我問斯彭德，他認為最美的英文詩句是什么。他從椅子上站起，堅定地在黑板上寫下了一行奧登的詩句。他以一種我永難忘懷的復雜表情看著詩句——悲傷、驚嘆、悔恨，也許還有妒忌。他慢慢地背誦了一遍，然后坐了回去。房間里悄無聲息。我謝了他，與我的女友離開了課堂。
I had not thought of all of this for many years, but recently, for some reason, it all came back to me, nearly. I remembered everything except the line that Spender wrote on the blackboard. All that I could remember for certain was that it had to do with the moon—somehow the moon. My companion of fifteen years ago is my companion no longer: so I could not ask her. I am a compulsive collector of data from my past, mostly in the form of items that were once useful for tax preparation. Perhaps I had saved the program of the conference with the line written down on it. I looked in the envelopes for 1981 and could find no trace of this trip.
我已經很多年沒有想過這些事了，可是最近由于某種原因，我幾乎又都想起來了。我記得所有的事情，除了斯彭德寫在黑板上的那行詩句。我的的確確能夠記起來的就是那句詩與月亮有關一反正是某種關于月亮的東西。我十五年前的那位女友如今已經不再是女友了，所以我也沒法去問她。我是個收集成癖的人，熱衷于收集過去的數據資料，多數資料以條款的形式列出，曾經對返稅起了作用。或許我保存了那次會議的章程，上面會寫著那句詩。我仔細翻看了裝著1981年材料的信封，沒有找到一丁點兒關于那次旅行的資料。
來源:可可英語 http://www.ccdyzl.cn/daxue/201912/601015.shtml
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