玛格丽特.撒切尔 自述

英文：

Margaret Thatcher

“Age 10, I was theproud winner of a prize at the Grantham Eisteddfod for reciting Poetry. In the first years of thewar I would go out as part of a concert party to the surrounding villages, andrecite from my Oxford Book of English Verse.A book which even now, is never far from reach. Methodism itself, of course,has in the form of the Wesley hymns, somereally fine religious poetry. It was, I confess, the musical side of Methodismwhich I liked best. Our church had an exceptionally good choir. Every other year we would perform an oratorio: Handel ’s Messiah, Haydn’s Creation orMendelssohn’s Elijah. We were a musical family. From the age of five my parentshad me learn the piano. My mother played too. Sadly, at sixteen, I found it necessaryto stop music lessons when I was cramming for my university entrance. And I stillregret that I never took up the piano again.Perhaps the biggest excitement ofmy early years was a visit to London when I was twelve years old. I came downby train in the charge of a friend of my mother’s. Arriving at Kings’ crosswhere I was met by Reverend Skinner and his wife, family friends, who weregoing to look after me. The first impact ofLondonwas overwhelming.Kings’ Cross itself was a giant bustling cavern. The rest of the city had all the dazzle of acommercial and imperial capital. For the first time in my life I saw peoplefrom foreign countries. Some in the traditional native dress ofIndiaandAfrica.The sheer volume of traffic and of pedestrianswas exhilarating. They seemed to generate asort of electricity.London’sbuildings were impressive for another reason; begrimed with soot, they had adark imposing magnificence which constantly reminded me that I was at thecenter of the world. I was taken by the Skinner’s to all the usual sites. I fedthe pigeons inTrafalgar Square.I rode the Underground, a slightly forbidding experience for a child. I visitedthe zoo where I rode on an elephant and recoiled from the reptiles: an early portent of my relations with Fleet street. And Iwent to look atDowning Street. But unlike theyoung Harold Wilson, I did not have the prescience tohave my photograph taken outside No. 10.”

中文对照：    玛格丽特.撒切尔   “10岁时，我已是格兰萨姆艾斯特得福特朗诵大赛获奖者中的佼佼者。第一次世界大战头一年，我随歌舞表演会到周围各村庄去朗诵牛津课本中的英语诗歌。即使是现在，那本书也并非遥不可及。诗文本身是韦斯利圣诗形式。其中有优美的宗教诗。我得承认，诗文中我最喜欢的是它的音乐性。我们教堂有个很棒的唱诗班。每隔一年在教堂大厅演出一场清唱剧：有亨德尔的《弥赛亚》、海顿的《创造》、门德尔松的《以利亚》。我们是音乐世家，五岁父母让我学钢琴。我母亲也会弹琴。令人伤心的是十六岁时，我不得不停了音乐课而为升大学忙碌地准备功课。可我依然为后来没有继续练琴遗憾不已。也许早年我最感兴奋的事是我12岁时的那次伦敦之行。当时母亲的一个朋友带我乘火车去的。到达国王十字街时，史金尼夫妇前来接我，他们是我家的朋友，随后一直照顾我。伦敦给我的第一印象是不可磨灭的。国王十字街是一个巨大繁忙的闹市。城市四处充满着商业和帝国首都的气氛，让人眼花缭乱。这是我平生第一次看见来自异国他乡的人们。有一些还穿着印度和非洲的传统的民族服装。街上车水马龙和熙熙攘攘的行人就像产生电流一样，令人振奋。伦敦的建筑出于另一种原因给人深刻的印象，烟熏灰暗的外表赋予的壮丽辉煌不断地提醒我，我站在世界的中心。史金尼夫妇带着我游览了所有景点。我在特拉法尔加广场喂鸽子。我搭乘地铁，这对一个孩子而言是挺可怕的经历。我参观了动物园，我骑着大象，遇到爬虫胆怯地后退：这是我和舰队街的一点关系的早期预兆。我还去了唐宁街，但不象小哈洛德·威尔逊，我没在10号门外拍照留念，我没有那种预感。”

注释：Grantham Eisteddfod：Grantham(格兰萨姆)是英格兰的一个小镇，撒切尔夫人在那里长大，并在那里读初级学校：Eisteddfod  （艾斯特得福特）是一项传统的竞赛，主要内容有威尔士民族舞蹈歌咏和表演。Verse：    诗歌    hymn：      圣歌，赞美诗    choir：     唱诗班     oratorio    名词，圣乐(歌曲)；(以基督教《圣经》故事为主题的)清唱剧。cram：      塞满，填满Overwhelming：   压倒优势的，这里指极为深刻的    bustling：       喧闹的，繁忙的   pedestrian       形容词，行者，徒步旅行者。
exhilarating：   使人高兴的，令人振奋的  portent：预兆Prescience：     预感