Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.

I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.

希望，它長(zhǎng)著羽翼，
在我們的靈魂棲息，
它唱著無(wú)詞的曲兒，
永不停息。

風(fēng)中，那歌聲最是甜蜜，
暴雨，會(huì)是怎樣的狂戾，
才能讓那給予眾人溫暖的小鳥，
不安顫栗。

那歌聲，曾飄蕩在最冰冷的陸地，
也曾在最僻遠(yuǎn)的海上響起；
而即使在最困窘的境地，
它也不曾向我索取過(guò)，
哪怕一丁點(diǎn)兒面包碎粒。

最后一句,本想翻成“哪怕一分一厘”，仔細(xì)一想，整首詩(shī)都把希望比作小鳥，那么也許用crumb的原意會(huì)更恰當(dāng)一些。但是，“面包碎粒”讀上去又怪怪的，難辦。

這首詩(shī)很陽(yáng)光。

還有一首印象深刻的有關(guān)希望的詩(shī)卻是相當(dāng)?shù)膎oir. 它節(jié)選自Pope的An Essay on Man，在Veronica Mars的Pilot隆重登場(chǎng)。
高二A.P English教室，老師點(diǎn)名讓正在睡覺的Veronica談An Essay on Man. Veronica非常流利的背誦了下面這一節(jié)：

“Hope springs eternal in the human breast;
Man never is, but always to be blest:
The soul, uneasy and confined from home,
Rests and expatiates in a life to come.”

老師問，And what do you suppose Pope meant by that?
Veronica語(yǔ)出驚人: Life’s a bitch until you die.

（聽到這一句，我立刻愛上了她）

同學(xué)哄笑，老師做總結(jié)： Okay, thank you Ms Mars for that succinct and somewhat inappropriate response.
I think what Pope’s saying is that the thing that keeps us powering through life’s defeats is our faith in a better life yet to come.

正經(jīng)的解釋好無(wú)趣哦。