一个美丽的小四合院译文

一个美丽的小四合院

北京市东城区美术馆后街22号，是建于明朝的一座老式的标准四合院，有两进院子，一千多平方米。院内养花种草，整齐有序，四季都有宜人的景色。春天，玫瑰盛开，花的影子散落在地上，满园的春色，一院的缤纷；夏日午后，凌霄花开，核桃树下可听知了鸣叫；秋天时节，天清气爽，能与秋虫低语；冬日的阳光洒在院子里，树木的影子斜映在屋檐和墙壁上，宁静，温暖，独具韵味。

In the street behind the Art Museum, East District, Beijing Municipality, there stands an old-style standard compound with traditional Chinese houses on four sides—NO.22. Built as early as in the Ming Dynasty and composed of two courtyards, this courtyard house has a total floor space of over 1,000 square meters. Grown with flowers and plants and carpeted with lawns, the courtyards look neat and orderly, presenting pleasing scenes all the year round. When spring roses are in full bloom and their shadows spread on the lawns, the courtyards are turned into a perfect of spring, a world of colors. Late on summer afternoon, Chinese trumpet creepers begin budding. Sitting in the shade of walnut trees, one can communicate in whisper with the insects. In winter when the courtyard are bathed in the sunshine, and a slanting shadow of the tree silhouetted against the eaves and walls, a serene, warm picture unfolds itself before our eyes with an irresistible charm of its own.

红的门窗，灰的砖瓦，中规中矩，原汁原味。特别难得的是，在正房的房檐下有一对十分罕见的“象眼”砖雕（“象眼”是明代四合院的一大特征），砖雕为阴文，即黑色底白线描。东边的一块刻的是牡丹花；西边的一块刻的是一只小猫抬头要去扑捉菊花丛中的一只蝴蝶，线条简洁，生动传神。

Red doors and windows against gray bricks and tiles, these houses around the courtyards look neat and rectangular, kept as it had been for hundreds of years without any artificial touch. What is unusual about it is that under the eaves of the principal house there is a pair of brick carvings known as “elephant eyes”, rarely seen nowadays. Characteristic of the courtyard house in the Ming Dynasty, these brick carvings are cut in intaglio---white tracing pattern against dark background. On the brick to the east is a craved peony. On the brick to the west is that a kitten is looking up to capture a butterfly in a bunch of carved chrysanthemum. Lines are simple and neat, lifelike and expressive.

屋内有精美的落地雕花隔扇，东西两侧的隔扇风格不同但同样美丽。房间的陈设既有东方的风格又有西方的特色，既有古代的收藏又有现代的摆设。名人的字画和明代的家具，相互呼应，典雅又华丽。

Inside the house, stand two carved partition boards, reaching from floor to ceiling, one to the left, the other to the west. Though in different styles, they are equally beautiful. And the interior decoration also shows a perfect harmony of two seemingly diametrical styles, oriental and western; collections of antiques go side by side with modern decorations, paintings and calligraphy by celebrities above the furniture handed from the Ming Dynasty, echoing each other, graceful and gorgeous.