英国语文第四册(双语):云雀(2)
God meant the lark for singing, and sing it does, with all its might.
上帝创造云雀是为了让它歌唱，让它尽一切可能用生命去歌唱。
Most birds sing their song through, and then stop a minute, as if to take breath;
大部分的小鸟一口气唱完一首歌，然后要停一分钟，好像要歇口气似得。
but the sky-lark all the time it is in the air never pauses, and never seems to tire.
但云雀不是这样的：它在天空中从不停歇地歌唱，好像从不会疲倦似得。
Most birds sing upon a bough, but the sky-lark sings in the air.
大部分的鸟儿停在树枝上歌唱，而云雀是在空中歌唱。
It never perches on a tree.
它从不在树枝上栖息，
Its claws are straight, so that it could not clasp the spray;
它的脚爪是直直的，所以没办法紧抓住枝桠，
they are made for running swiftly through the thick grass or clover where it lives and makes its nest.
上帝创造出它们，是让它们在用来做窝的厚草或者三叶草上灵巧迅捷地奔跑的。
It has a relation, the wood-lark, which lives partly on trees and partly on the ground;
它跟那些有时住在树上，有时住在地上的木云雀是亲戚。
but the sky-lark itself is never seen upon a tree.
不过，欧洲云雀从来不栖息在树上。
If it is not singing in the air, it is down in some lowly spot upon the ground.
如果它不在天空中歌唱，就待在地上某些低洼隐蔽的地方。
That is where it always springs from; as if to teach you and me that the humblest place is, after all, the nearest to heaven.
它常常从那里一跃而起，好像教导我们，最卑微的地方也许距离天堂最近。
The sky-lark sings nearly all the year round.
云雀几乎一年到头都在歌唱，
As soon as the first daisy opens its yellow eye, the lark thinks it is fulltime for it to begin its work too.
当第一朵雏菊刚刚睁开黄色的眼睛，云雀也决定从那时起开始它的工作。
