英語文摘：遊歷記述
摘要：我總喜愛遊覽新奇美景，觀賞奇風異俗。幼年之時，我便四處漫遊，走過不少地方，深入故土的窮鄉僻壤，作一番探索。
Account of My Travels遊歷記述
By Washington Irving
I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended the range of my observations. My holiday afternoons were spent in rambles about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed, or a ghost seen. I visited the neighboring villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs, and conversing with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long summer's day to the summit of the most distant hill, whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra incognita, and was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabited.
遊歷記述
我總喜愛遊覽新奇美景，觀賞奇風異俗。幼年之時，我便四處漫遊，走過不少地方，深入故土的窮鄉僻壤，作一番探索。爲此，父母常感驚恐，不過公告傳報員 [1]卻受益不少。及至少年，觀察範圍更趨廣泛。每逢假日下午，我便暢遊四周。由此，歷史上或傳說中的著名地方，我無不知曉。哪裏有過兇殺搶劫，哪裏出現過幽靈，我均能一一告知。我去鄰近的村莊，觀察其風俗習慣，與賢明之士和不凡人物交談，從而知識大增。在一個漫長的夏日，我甚至遠走他鄉，爬上一座高山，極目遠眺，凝視尚未去過的陌生地帶。目睹我所居住的地球廣闊無垠，我驚歎不已。
This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their contents, I neglected the regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would I wander about the pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes- with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!
我年歲愈增，愈加喜歡漫遊。種種遊記書籍，令我愛不釋手，讀得廢寢忘食，以致把學校日常功課忽略。我多麼渴望在風和日麗之際，漫步碼頭，看只只船兒遠去。我心馳神往，凝視它們愈來愈小的風帆，想象中隨之漂向天涯海角。
Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country have the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, like oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine;- no, never need an American look beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.
此種愛好，當時不過朦朦朧朧;以後讀書更多，思想更廣，愛好亦更具有理性，更加明確。我到美國各地遊覽。但我並非僅喜愛美麗風光——果真如此，便毋須去國外旅遊，因自然賜予美國的嫵媚，並不少於其他國家。美國有遼闊的湖水，銀波閃閃;有巍峨的羣山，色彩鮮明;有富饒的山谷，植物茂密，鳥獸衆多;有巨大的瀑布，在幽靜的山中隆隆作響;有廣袤的平原，草木青蔥起伏，天然而成;有深廣的河流，莊嚴肅穆地流向海洋;有人跡罕至的森林，宏偉壯觀;有藍藍的天空，夏日彩雲飛舞，陽光燦爛，魅力無窮。不，美國人若欲觀賞壯麗美景，美國已綽綽有餘，無需他求了。
