His First Day as Quarry-Boy
当采石工的第一天
By Hugh Miller (1802～1856)
休•米勒(1802～1856)
It was twenty years last February since I set out, a little before sunrise, to make my first acquaintance with a life of labour and restraint; and I have rarely had a heavier heart than on that morning. I was but a slim, loose-jointed boy at the time, fond of the pretty intangibilities of romance, and of dreaming when broad awake; and, woful change! I was now going to work at what Burns has instanced, in his ‘Twa Dogs’, as one of the most disagreeable of all employments,—to work in a quarry. Bating the passing uneasinesses occasioned by a few gloomy anticipations, the portion of my life which had already gone by had been happy beyond the common lot. I had been a wanderer among rocks and woods, a reader of curious books when I could get them, a gleaner of old traditionary stories; and now I was going to exchange all my day-dreams, and all my amusements, for the kind of life in which men toil every day that they may be enabled to eat, and eat every day that they may be enabled to toil!
二月刚刚过去，我在快日出前便出发去第一次了解一种受约束的劳工生活就二十年了；从那以后，我难得有过比那天早晨更加沉重的心情。那时我还只是个身材瘦长、行动灵便的小伙子，喜欢美好而捉摸不定的浪漫故事，喜欢醒着做白日梦，可变化却令人痛苦不堪！那天我要去彭斯在其《两条狗》2中作为所有职业中最不如人意的工作之一举例的地方干活——在采石场干活。之前，除了因期望有些暗淡而感到忧虑，我生命中过去的那些日子一直都比一般人过得快乐。我曾经漫游于岩石和树林之间，阅读我能搞到手的各种奇书，搜集古老的传说故事；而现在我却要用我所有的幻想及兴味去交换那样一种生活——人们每天苦干才有饭吃，而每天吃饭就是为了能苦干的生活！
