中英文本

I was very much pleased and astonished at the glorious show of these gay vegetables, that arose in great profusion on all the banks about us.
看到花团锦簇的美妙画面，我真是又惊又喜。一垄一垄的花儿，密密麻麻地将我笼罩。
Sometimes I considered every leaf as an elaborate piece of tissue, in which the threads and fibers were woven together into different configurations, which gave a different coloring to the light as it glanced on the several parts of the surface.
一时间，我觉得每一片叶子都变成一方精美别致的薄纱，经纬交错，形成一幅幅千娇百媚的画卷。阳光照在薄纱不同的角落上，叶子便映出五彩斑斓的色彩。
Sometimes I considered the whole bed of tulips, according to the notion of the greatest mathematician and philosopher that ever lived, as a multitude of optic instruments, designed for the separating light into all those various colors of which it is composed.
有时我觉得，这大片的郁金香，在曾经最伟大的数学家和哲学家看来，就是由众多的光学仪器把光线分散成为的各种不同的颜色。
I was awakened out these my philosophical speculations, by observing the company often seemed to laugh at me.
意识到大家似乎一直在嘲笑我，我这才从陶醉中清醒过来。

I accidentally praised a tulip as one of the finest I ever saw； upon which they told me, it was a common Fool's Coat.
我赞美一朵郁金香，认为它是世界上最美丽的花朵。但他们却出乎意料地告诉我，那仅仅是最普通的“愚人衣”。
Upon that I praised another, which it seems was but another kind of Fool's Coat.
然后，我又去赞美另一朵，但那朵花好像也属于“愚人衣”。
I had the same fate with two or three more，for which reason I desired the owner of the garden to let me know which were the finest of the flower；
赞美其他两三朵花时，我遇到了相同的情况。于是，我恳求花园的主人告诉我，哪些是最好的花。
for that I was so unskillful in the art, that I thought the most beautiful were the most valuable, and that those which had the gayest colours were the most beautiful.
因为我对花一知半解，一直以为最美的就是最有价值的，最鲜艳的就是最美的。
The gentleman smiled at my ignorance.
看到我这样，主人只是一笑了之。

作者介绍

约瑟夫艾迪生
英国散文家、诗人、辉格党政治家。曾在牛津大学求学和任教，并去欧洲大陆旅行多年。担任过南部事务部次官、下院议员、爱尔兰总督沃顿伯爵的秘书等职。与斯梯尔合办《闲话报》(1710)和《旁观者》(1711)等刊物。为英国散文大师之一。写有诗篇《远征》、悲剧《卡托》以及文学评论文章等。