张培基英译散文选/渐

Through the process of imperceptible gradual change, innocent kids become ambitious youths, chivalrous youths become unfeeling grownups, aggressive grownups become mulish old fogeys.

Suppose a kid suddenly became a young man overnight, or a young man suddenly became an old man in a matter of hours from dawn till dusk.

Hence it is evident that life is sustained by "gradualness".

It is also due to this "gradualness" that one is able to reconcile himself to his reduced circumstances.

Fiction and reality abound with instances of a good-for-nothing young man from a wealthy family "gradually"ruining his family by repeated business failures and becoming in turn a poor wretch, 150 2 hired labourer, a slave, a rogue, a pauper and a thief..

Budding spring "gradually" changes into verdant summer; withered autumn "gradually changes into bleak winter.

Though we have gone through several dozen years, yet on a winter night, when we sit around a fire or lie in bed, we can hardly imagine how we would feel on a summer day consuming cold drinks and fanning ourselves busily, and vice versa.

The gradual change from winter to summer, or from summer to winter takes place day by day, hour by hour, minute by minute, second by second, without leaving any marked traces in between.

When you Sit by your window reading a book towards the evening, you"1l find the words on each Page "gradually becoming blurred.

Likewise, when at dawn you stand intently gazing out of a window into the easter horizon.

If the narcissus had really come into bloom in Our presence at our desire, it would have meant the violation of the law of Nature, the weakening of the foundation of the universe, and the last day of humanity!

Through bit-by-bit change, "gradualness" conceals from notice the lapse of time and the change of things, so that people are misled into believing that everything remains the same eternally.

What a trick the Creator is playing on humans!

There was a farmer who would jump over a ditch holding a calf in his arms on his way to work in the fields every morning and also on his way back home every evening.

A year later, the calf had grown bigger and heavier, almost like a cow, but the farmer, insensible to its increasing weight, continued the same old daily routine.

It normally seems to be "'still at first sight, but, of all things artificially made, it is the most busy with its hands moving all the time.

We are apt tO think that we are forever our own selves and unchangeable, while in fact we are ever-changing like the hands of a clock.

Alas, as long as we are alive, we are completely fooled by "'gradualness" into believing that we will always remain the same and unchangeable, and therefore becoming only too ready to hold on to this life!

ETime" is the essence of "gradualness".

They seem to know it only as regards such small matters as boarding a train or boat, but not in things concerning a lifetime.

Often some passengers are sensible and considerate enough to offer their own seats to the elderly or handicapped so that they themselves can enjoy peace of mind or momentary public praise.

Some.

We'll all make it!

Nobody will be left behind!" But few will be as sensible and considerate when making the long journey of life on board a big "social" or "global" train.