我,铅笔(英汉对照)

我，铅笔*—讲给里德的我的家谱I am a lead pencil—the ordinary wooden pencil familiar to all boys and girls and adults who can read and write.我是一支铅笔，能读会写的男女老少都熟悉的普通木杆铅笔。

Writing is both my vocation and my avocation; that's all I do.写字是我的天职，也是我的爱好，是我生命的全部。

You may wonder why I should write a genealogy. Well, to begin with, my story is interesting. And, next, I am a mystery—more so than a tree or a sunset or even a flash of lightning. But, sadly, I am taken for granted by those who use me, as if I were a mere incident and without background. This supercilious attitude relegates me to the level of the commonplace. This is a species of the grievous error in which mankind cannot too long persist without peril. For, the wise G. K. Chesterton observed, "We are perishing for want of wonder, not for want of wonders."你也许纳闷，我干嘛要写一个家谱。

首先，我的故事十分有趣。

其次，我很神秘，比树木、日落和闪电还神秘。

不过，让我感到悲哀的是，使用我的人却把我当作理所当然的东西，好像我是突然蹦出来的，没有什么来历。

在这些目空一切的人的眼中，我是一个不起眼的小东西。

这是一个十分严重的错误。

长期犯这样的错误会给人类带来灭顶之灾。

英明的切斯特顿（G.K.Chesterton）说过：“我们不会因为缺乏奇迹而走向灭亡，而会因为缺乏好奇而走向灭亡。

”I, Pencil, simple though I appear to be, merit your wonder and awe, a claim I shall attempt to prove. In fact, if you can understand me—no, that's too much to ask of anyone—if you can become aware of the miraculousness which I symbolize, you can help save the freedom mankind is so unhappily losing. I have a profound lesson to teach. And I can teach this lesson better than can an automobile or an airplane or a mechanical dishwasher because—well, because I am seemingly so simple.我，铅笔，看似平凡，却足以博得你的惊奇和敬畏。

我将证明我的这个要求。

事实上，如果你能理解我—不，对任何人来说，这个要求都太高，退一步说，只要你能够意识到我所象征的东西的神奇，就能有助于挽救人类正在十分不幸地失去的自由。

我要给你们上一课，意义深远的一课。

而且，我比汽车、飞机或自动洗碗机更胜任，恰恰因为我看似十分简单。

Simple? Yet, not a single person on the face of this earth knows how to make me. This sounds fantastic, doesn't it? Especially when it is realized that there are about one and one-half billion of my kind produced in the U.S.A. each year.简单？然而，地球上没有一个人独自知道如何制造我。

你也许想，这也太离奇了吧。

如果我告诉你，仅仅美国每年就生产15亿支我的同类，你的嘴巴会张得更大。

Pick me up and look me over. What do you see? Not much meets the eye—there's some wood, lacquer, the printed labeling, graphite lead, a bit of metal, and an eraser.拿起我，仔细瞧瞧。

你看到了什么？没有很多东西呈现在眼前：木头、油漆、标签、石墨铅笔芯、一片金属和一块橡皮。

*英文来自/library/Essays/rdPncl1.htmlInnumerable Antecedents 无数祖先Just as you cannot trace your family tree back very far, so is it impossible for me to name and explain all my antecedents. But I would like to suggest enough of them to impress upon you the richness and complexity of my background.就像你无法把你的家谱追溯很远一样，我也无法说出我的所有祖先。

不过，我还是想尽可能多地回忆起他们，让你对我丰富复杂的背景有个印象。

My family tree begins with what in fact is a tree, a cedar of straight grain that grows in Northern California and Oregon. Now contemplate all the saws and trucks and rope and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting the cedar logs to the railroad siding. Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the growing of hemp and bringing it through all the stages to heavy and strong rope; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the foods. Why, untold thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of coffee the loggers drink!事实上，我的家谱始于一棵树，一棵生长在加利福尼亚北部和俄勒冈州的直纹雪松。

想想用于砍伐和把雪松圆木搬运到铁道旁的无数工具和设备：锯子、卡车、绳子等。

想想制造这些工具的人和无数技能：开采矿石，冶炼钢铁，制造锯子、斧子、发动机；种植大麻，并经过复杂的工序将其加工成粗实的绳子；伐木工棚里有床铺和食堂，需要烹调术和各种食料。

还有无数人参与了伐木工人喝的每杯咖啡！The logs are shipped to a mill in San Leandro, California. Can you imagine the individuals who make flat cars and rails and railroad engines and who construct and install the communication systems incidental thereto? These legions are among my antecedents.圆木被船运到加利福尼亚的圣利安德罗。

你想到了制造车皮、铁轨、火车头，修筑和安装通讯系统的那些人了吗？这许多人也是我的祖先。

Consider the millwork in San Leandro. The cedar logs are cut into small, pencil-length slats less than one-fourth of an inch in thickness. These are kiln dried and then tinted for the same reason women put rouge on their faces. People prefer that I look pretty, not a pallid white. The slats are waxed and kiln dried again. How many skills went into the making of the tint and the kilns, into supplying the heat, the light and power, the belts, motors, and all the other things a mill requires? Sweepers in the mill among my ancestors? Yes, and included are the men who poured the concrete for the dam of a Pacific Gas & Electric Company hydroplant which supplies the mill's power!想想圣利安德罗的木材加工厂吧。