美国语文第五册 第98期：北美食米鸟（04）
We next hear of him, with myriads of his kind, banqueting among the reeds of the Delaware, and grown corpulent with good feeding.
现在我们再度聆听，它与它的无数同类，穿梭在特拉华州的芦苇丛中，因饮食太好愈见臃肿不堪。
He has changed his name in traveling.
旅途中，它更换了名字，
Boblincoln no more, he is the reedbird now, the much-sought-for tidbit of Pennsylvanian epicures, the rival in unlucky fame of the ortolan!
不叫食米鸟，改称芦苇鸟了，居然成为宾夕法尼亚州最受热捧的小报趣闻，与伊壁鸠鲁享乐者们享有同等恶名。
Wherever he goes, pop! pop! pop! every rusty firelock in the country is blazing away.
无论食米鸟飞到哪里，砰！砰！砰！全州老枪火钪争相对准它瞄准开火，成千上万只食米鸟不停地倒毙死亡。
He sees his companions falling by thousands around him. Does he take warning and reform?
那么，它接受人们警告或者有所改变吗？
Alas! not he. Again he wings his flight. The rice swamps of the south invite him.
哎呀！没有。食米鸟继续振动双翼，南方丰美稻田等待着它的光临。
He gorges himself among them almost to bursting; he can scarcely fly for corpulency.
在那里，食米鸟狼吞虎咽险乎撑死，它的体态变得臃肿不堪，甚至无法飞起。
He has once more changed his name, and is now the famous ricebird of the Carolinas.
它不得不再次更名，变成卡罗莱纳州闻名遐迩的稻米鸟，
Last stage of his career: behold him spitted with dozens of his corpulent companions, and served up, a vaunted dish, on some southern table.
这里，将是它一生的最后舞台：看着自己与无数大腹便便的同类被唾弃，最后变成北美大陆南方餐桌上为人称道的一道烘烤大餐。
Such is the story of the bobolink; once spiritual, musical, admired, the joy of the meadows, and the favorite bird of spring;
这就是食米鸟的故事，曾经具有精神信仰、富有音乐气质、令人钦佩、追逐自然草原快乐、钟爱春天蓬勃的鸟儿，
finally, a gross little sensualist, who expiates his sensuality in the larder.
最终变异为恶俗拥趸，躲在角落里耽于世俗物质享受的恶鸟。
His story contains a moral worthy the attention of all little birds and little boys;
这篇食米鸟的故事具有典型的道德意义，世上青少年需引以为戒。
warning them to keep to those refined and intellectual pursuits which raised him to so high a pitch of popularity during the early part of his career,
故事旨在告诫那些年轻人，必须恪守对美好事物与崇高精神的执著坚守，保持懵懂之初纯洁的品质高度，戒绝世俗世界声色犬马的物欲满足。
but to eschew all tendency to that gross and dissipated indulgence which brought this mistaken little bird to an untimely end.
无疑，致命的外在诱惑只会给迷途难返的年轻生命带来过早的凋谢与终结。
