李校来啦 | 背完这10篇英语短文，你的语感会开挂

A Story on an Island

 孤岛上的故事

The only survivor of a shipwreck was washed up on a small, uninhabited island. He prayed feverishly for God to rescue him, and every day he scanned the horizon for help, but none seemed forthcoming.在一场船难中，唯一的幸存者随着潮水，漂流到一座荒无人烟的小岛上。他焦躁不安地祈祷上帝能够救他。每天他都注视着海上是否有可搭救他的人，但似乎没有人前来。

Exhausted, he eventually managed to build a little hut out of driftwood to protect him from the elements, and to store his few possessions.感觉筋疲力尽，他最终决定用浮木造一个简陋的小木屋，以保护他在这险恶的环境中生存，并且保存他所剩无几的东西。

But then one day, after scavenging for food, he arrived home to find his little hut in flames, the smoke rolling up to the sky.但有一天，在他搜寻完食物回到小屋时，却发现他的小屋陷入熊熊烈火之中，滚滚浓烟不断向天上窜。

The worst had happened: everything was lost.最糟糕的是:他所有的一切通通化为乌有。

He was stunned with grief and anger. "God, how could you do this to me!" he cried.他既悲痛又愤怒，茫然不知所措，怒喊道:“神啊！你怎么可以这样对我！”

Early the next day, however, he was awakened by the sound of a ship that was approaching the island. It had come to rescue him.第二天一早，他被一艘正向小岛驶近的船只的鸣笛声吵醒。那是来救他的。

How did you know I was here? he asked the weary man of his rescuers.

“你们怎么知道我在这里？”他问那些船员中一个充满倦意的人。

We saw your smoke signal, they replied.

“我们看到了你发出的烟雾信号。”他们回答说。

It is easy to get discouraged when things are going bad. But we shouldn't lose heart, because God is at work in our lives, even in the midst of pain and suffering.

人处于困境时，很容易变得沮丧。但我们不应失去信心，因为上帝一直在我们的生活中做着工作，甚至在我们遭遇疼痛和苦难时也是这样。

Remember, next time your little hut is burning to the ground, it just may be a smoke signal that summons the grace of God. For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God has a positive answer for it.

记住：当下一次你的小木屋烧毁时，那可能只是召唤上帝美妙恩典的烟雾信号而已。在所有我们认为负面的事情，上帝都有正面的答案。

To Spring

寄给春天的诗

Oh you, sweet Spring, alight from cherub's wing,啊，甜蜜的春天，从小天使翅上轻降，

And put the ugly winter full to flight;吓得讨厌的冬天狼狈逃窜；

And rouse the earth to smile, and larks to sing,唤醒了万物--大地微笑，云雀歌唱，

With skies so bright and hearts of youth so light.天空多明亮，青年的心多欢畅。

Your gentle and genial breaths each blossom blow,你和煦的呼吸吹开一朵朵花苞，

While bees in gardens hum the lullabies.引来蜂儿在花园里把催眠曲吟唱。

The hills and dales are stripp'd of mantles of snow,山岗和山谷脱去了积雪的斗篷，

And streams and rivers freed from irons of ice.溪涧和河川挣开了冰结的镣铐。

May seasons all be Spring--the pride of years,但愿四季皆春---一年的最好时光，

That all the thing would e'er in glories gleam!世界万物就会永远灿烂辉煌！

May men be ever in the prime of years!但愿人人永葆青春年华，

But dream, however sweet, is but a dream.可是梦境再甜蜜，不过是梦儿一场。

If happy when you come and sad when gone,如果你来了就快乐，去了就悲伤，

Would that you'd never come or never gone!倒不如压根儿别来也别往。

Autumn

 秋

The melancholy days are come，the saddest of the year,阴郁的日子将来临，这终年最悲伤的时光，

Of wailing winds, and naked woods, and meadows brown and sear.狂风怒吼，树林凋敝，牧场焦黄如燃。

Heaped in the hollows of the grove, the withered leaves lie dead;成堆的枯叶在林间洼地，静卧凋亡，

They rustle to the eddying gust, and to the rabbit's tread.沙沙作响于狂风的逐旋，兔子的踏践。

The robin and the wren are flown, and from the shrubs the jay,知更鸟和鹪鹩已飞远，阴沉的一整天

And from the wood-top calls the crow, through all the gloomy day.灌木飞出松鸦，乌鸦在树冠上叫唤。

Where are the flowers, the fair young flowers, that lately sprang and stood.花儿在哪里，年轻美丽的花朵，婷婷玉立于新近的绽放。

In brighter light and softer airs, beauteous sisterhood?哪里有明媚阳光和柔和气氛里的美丽姐妹情缘？

Alas! They all are in their graves, the gentle race of flowers唉！温顺的花儿，她们现正躺在自己的坟茔，

Are lying in their lowly beds, with the fair and good of ours.带着我们称道的美丽和善良，低卧土床板。

The rain is falling where they lie, but the cold November rain雨丝落在它们身上，但寒冷的暮秋之雨

Calls not, from out the gloomy earth, the lovely ones again从阴郁的大地，再也唤不出可爱的红颜

Life Is What We Make It

生活靠我们自己创造

Are you dissatisfied with today's success? It is the harvest from yesterday's sowing. Do you dream of a golden morrow? You will reap what you are sowing today. We get out of life just what we put into it.你对今天的成就感到不满意吗？今天的丰收源自昨日的播种。你梦想有一个金色的明天吗？你今天种下了什么，将来就会收获什么。我们从生活中获取我们所投入的。

Nature takes on our moods: she laughs with those who laugh and weeps with those who weep. If we rejoice and are glad, the very birds sing more sweetly, the woods and streams murmur our song. But if we are sad and sorrowful, a sudden gloom falls upon Nature's face; the sun shines, but not in our hearts; the birds sing, but not to us.大自然呈现着我们的情绪；你笑她也笑，你哭她就哭。如果我们的心情是喜悦的，鸟儿们的歌声会分外甜美，森林和小溪也会吟唱着我们的歌儿。但如果我们本身充满忧伤，大自然很快就会被一层阴暗的气氛笼罩。太阳虽然灿烂，但照不到我们的心里:鸟儿虽然在歌唱，却不是在为我们歌唱。

The future will be just what we make it. Our purpose will give it its character. One's resolution is one's prophecy. Leave all your discouraging pessimism behind. Do not prophesy evil, but good. Men of hope come to the front.未来是我们自己创造的。我们的人生目标决定着它的性质；我们的决心是一个人的预言。抛开所有令人沮丧的悲观情绪吧！不要预言邪恶，要看到美好的事物。心里充满希望的人总能走在前面。

Sadness of August

八月的忧伤

In a yellow pond there are white ducks swimming.黄水塘里游着白鸭，

Only a little taller than people, sorghums are still green.高粱梗油青的刚高过头，

Where should I put, in this pounding heart,这跳动的心怎样安插，

A narrow path in the field, this sadness in August.田里一窄条路，八月里这忧愁？

Rain washed the sky clean last night, sun shines天是昨夜雨洗过的，山岗

On hills and leaves some shadows,照着太阳又留一片影；

Sheep follow the shepherd into the village,羊跟着放羊的转进村庄，

And shading a well, a big tree looks like a heart.一大棵树荫下罩着井，又像是心！

No one ever spoke of August, summer is over从没有人说过八月什么话，

And fall isn't here. I look onto a farmland夏天过去了，也不到秋天。

And then at the squashes over the earth wall,但我望着田垄，土墙上的瓜，

I just don't understand how life and dream connect.仍不明白生活同梦怎样的连牵。

Life Is Like a Coffee

生活是杯咖啡

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and in life. Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -- porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, some exquisite -- telling them to help themselves to the coffee.一群毕业生，各自在事业上都已有所建树，相约一起去看望他们年老的大学教授。谈话一会儿就变成了各自对工作和生活压力的抱怨。在用咖啡招待这些客人时，教授去厨房端来一大壶咖啡，并拿出各式各样的咖啡杯——陶瓷的、塑料的、玻璃的、水晶的，有看上去普通的、有价值不菲的、有做工精细的——让他们自己倒咖啡喝。

When all the students had a cup of coffee in hand, the professor said:当所有学生手中都端了一杯咖啡后，教授发话了 ：

If you noticed, all the nice-looking expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.“如果你们注意一下，就会发现所有好看的昂贵的杯子都被挑走了，剩下的只是那些普通的和便宜的。当然，每个人都只想拥有最好的，这很正常，但这也正是你们的问题和压力的根源所在。”

What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups and were eyeing each other's cups.“其实你们真正想要的是咖啡，而不是杯子，但你们却又都下意识去挑选最好的杯子，并观察别人拿到的杯子。”

Now consider this: Life is the coffee and the jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and do not change the quality of life. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided. So, don't let the cups drive you ... enjoy the coffee instead.“现在设想一下：如果生活是杯中的咖啡，工作、财富和社会地位就是那些杯子。它们只是维持生活的工具而已，并不改变生活质量。有时候，我们在过于关注杯子的同时却忘了去品 味上帝賜予的咖啡。所以，不要成为杯子的奴隶…好好品味杯中的咖啡。”

We Are on a Journey

人在旅途

Wherever you are, and whoever you may be, there is one thing in which you and I are just alike at this moment, and in all the moments of our existence. We are not at rest; we are on a journey.无论你身在何处，也不管你是谁，此刻，抑或是我们生命存在的每一个瞬间，有一件事对我们来说都是一样的：我们没有停留；我们正在旅途中。

Our life is a movement, a tendency, a steady ceaseless progress toward an unseen goal. We are gaining something, or losing something, everyday. Even when our position and our character seem to remain precisely the same, they are changing. For the mere advance of time is a change. It is not the same thing to have a bare field in January and in July. The season makes the difference. The limitations that are childlike in the children are childish in the man.生命是一种运动，是一种趋势，是一个向着未知目标奋进的无休止的行进。每天，我们有所得亦有所失。即使我们的状态和角色看上去没有丝毫的变化，它们时时刻刻都在改变。只因为时间推移本身就是一种变化。对于一块荒芜的土地，1月和7月是截然不同的。因为季节的变化让它有所区别，能力的局限在孩子们身上只是一种天真，而在大人的身上却是 一种幼稚。

Everything that we do is a step in one direction or another. Even the failure to do something is in itself a deed. It sets us forward or backward. The action of the negative pole of a magnetic needle is just as real as the action of the positive pole. To decline is to accept -- the other alternative.我们做的所有事情都是朝着某个方向迈出了一步。即使在某一件事上的失败，本身也是一个作为，左右着我们的进退。磁针的负极作用与正极作用是一样的真实。拒绝即接受，只是另一种选择而已。

Are you nearer to your port today than you were yesterday? Yes, -- you must be a little nearer to some port or other; for since your ship was first launched upon the sea of life, you have never been still for a single moment; the sea is too deep, and you could not find an anchorage if you would; there can be no pause until you come into port.对比昨天的你，今天你是否离自己的港口更近了？答案是肯定的，你一定离某个港口更近了些。因为自从你的航船在生命的海洋中起航的那一刻起，你就一刻也没有停泊过。海水太深了，你无法找到抛锚之处。你永远都不可能停下来，除非你到达了自己的港口。

A True Instinct for the Beautiful

让爱美的天性常在

A child's world is fresh and new and beautiful, full of wonder and excitement. It is our misfortune that for most of us that clear-eyed vision, that true instinct of what is beautiful and awe-inspiring, is dimmed or even lost before we reach adulthood. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life, as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchantments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength.儿童的世界新奇而美丽，充满了惊异和兴奋。可是，对我们多数人来说，还未到成年，这种锐利的目光，这种爱一切美丽的和令人敬畏的事物的天性，就已经变得迟钝，甚至丧失殆尽。这真是我们的不幸。据说，有一位善心的仙女主持所有儿童的洗礼。假如我能对她有所影响的话，我倒想向她提个要求：请她赋予世间的儿童以新奇感（一种能伴随他们终身的无可摧毁的新奇感），并使它成为万灵的解药。有了它，他们在以后的岁月中就会永远陶醉在新奇之中，不致产生厌倦感，不致徒劳地全神贯注于人为的虚假的事物，不致脱离力量的源泉。

If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder without any such gift from the fairies, he needs the companionship of at least one adult who can share it, rediscovering with him the joy, excitement of mystery of the world we live in. Parents often have a sense of inadequacy when confronted on the hand with eager, sensitive child mind of a child and on the other with a world of complex physical nature, inhabited by a life so various and unfamiliar that it seems hopeless to reduce it to order and knowledge. In a mood of self-defeat, they exclaim, "How can I possibly teach my child about nature - why, I don't even know one bird from another!"假如一个儿童没有受到仙女的赐予而想要持久地保持他那天生的新奇感，他至少需要有一个能与他共享新奇感的成年人和他作伴，并且跟他一起不断去发现我们所生活的这个世界中的一切欢乐、刺激和神秘。做父母的常有力不从心之感。一方面，他们要满足孩子那感觉灵敏而又渴望求知的心灵。另一方面，复杂的物质世界却使他们感到难于应付，他们自己对于这个世界形形色色的生活都感到生疏，好像未抱有理出头绪、弄个明白的愿望。他们自己就泄了气，喊道：“我哪能教我的孩子认识大自然！啊，我连两只鸟都分不清哩！”

I sincerely believe that for the child, and for the parent seeking to guide them, it is not half so important to know as to feel. If facts are the seeds that later produce knowledge and wisdom, then the emotions and the impressions of the senses are the fertile soil in which the seeds must grow. The years of early childhood are the time to prepare the soil. Once the emotions have been aroused - a sense of the beautiful, the excitement of the new and the unknown, a feeling of sympathy, pity, admiration or love - then we wish for knowledge about the object of our emotional response. Once found, it has lasting meaning. It is more important to pave the way for the child to want to know than to put him on a diet of facts he is not ready to assimilate.我真诚地相信，对于儿童以及期望引导儿童的父母来说，感觉力比理解力相对更为重要。如果将事实比作是以后会萌发知识和智慧的“种子”的话，那么，情感激情与感官印象就好比是肥沃的“土壤”，“种子”离开它就无法生长。童年早期是准备、培育“土壤”的时期。一旦唤起了内心中的种种情感，如美感、对新鲜事物和未知事物的兴奋感、同情心、恻隐之心、钦慕之情、爱慕之心，我们继而就会希望获得关于引起我们产生情感反应的事物的知识。而这种知识一旦获得，就会产生深远的意义与影响。显而易见，培养、激发孩子的求知欲与探究欲，比像饮食似地让孩子吞咽下他还吸收不了的种种知识更为重要。

How to Find True Love

如何发现真爱

I began to learn about love in dancing school, at age 11 remember thinking on the first day I was going to fall madly in love with one of the boys and spend the next years of my life kissing and waltzing.我11岁在一所舞蹈学校上学时开始对爱有所了解。记得去学校的第一天我就在想，自己将疯狂地爱上某个男孩子，并与他在亲吻、华尔兹中度过接下来的时光。

During class,however,I sat among the girls,waiting for a boy to ask me to dance. To my complete shock, I was consistently one of the last to be asked. At first I thought the boys had made a terrible mistake. I was so funny and pretty, and I could beat everyone I knew at tennis and climb trees faster than a cat. Why didn't they dash toward me?在课堂上，我坐在一群女孩子中，等着男孩来邀我跳舞。然而令我完全震惊的是，我总是最后一个被邀请的。起初我认为是男孩子的严重失误：我如此风趣如此可爱，打网球胜过所有我认识的人，爬起树来比猫还要快，他们为什么不争先恐后地冲过来邀请我吗？

Yet class after class, I watched boys dressed in blue blazers and gray pants head toward girls in flowered shifts whose perfect ponytails swung back and forth like metronomes. They fell easily into step with one another in a way that was completely mysterious to me. I came to believe that love belonged only to those who glided, who never shimmied up trees or even really touched the ground.一堂又一堂课，我看着那些穿着蓝色运动上衣和灰色裤子的男孩一头扎向那些穿着花边衬衫的女孩子，她们漂亮的马尾辫有节奏地晃来晃去。他们的舞步总是很合拍，这完全让我感到不可思议。我开始相信，爱只属于那些优雅文静的女孩子，而不会像我这样晃悠着爬树甚至重重摔在地上的女孩。

By the time I was 13,I knew how to subtly tilt my head and make my tears fall back into ray eyes, instead of down my cheeks, when no one asked me to dance. I also discovered the “powder room”, which became my softly lit, reliable retreat. Whenever I started to cry, I'd excuse myself and run in there.13岁时，我已经学会了在没人请我跳舞时，如何巧妙地仰起头，将眼泪忍住，不让它们流下緣颊。我还发现了“化妆室”，那里灯光柔和，成了我可靠的躲避之处。每次我要哭的时候，就借故跑到那里去。

I finally stopped crying when I met Matt, who was quiet and hung out on the edges of the room. When we danced for the first time,be wouldn't even look at me in the eyes. But he was cute, and he told great stories. We became good buddies, dancing every dance together until the end of school.后来我遇见了马特，终于不再哭泣。他静静地出现在房间的一边。我们第一次跳舞时，他甚至不敢正视我。但是他很可爱，而且会讲很多好听的故事。我们成了好朋友，每次都一起跳舞，这样一直到毕北。

I learned from him my most important early lesson about romance: that the potential for love exists in comers, in the most unlikely as well as the most obvious places.从他那儿我学到了有关恋爱的最重要的早期课程：爱的可能性无处不在，既在最显眼之处，也在最不起眼的地方。

For years my love life continued to be one long tragic-comic novel. In college I fell in love with a tall English major who rode a motorcycle. He stood me up on our sixth date--an afternoon of sky diving. I jumped out of the plane alone and Landed in a parking lot.多年来，我的爱情生活一直就像一部悲喜相交的长篇小说。上大学时，我爱上了英语系一个骑摩托车的高个子男孩，我们约好一天下午去跳伞，那是我们的第六次约会，他失约了。我只好独自从飞机上跳下，降落在一个停车场上。

In my mid-20s I moved to New York City where love is as hard to find as a legal parking spot. My first Valentine's Day there, I went on a date to a crowed bar on the Upper West Side. Halfway through dinner, my date excused himself and never returned.二十四五岁时，我搬到了纽约。在那里，找寻真爱如同找一个合法的泊车位一样困难，在纽约的第一个情人节，我前往西区一间拥挤的酒吧赴约，晚餐吃了一半，我的约会对象借故离席后，再也没有回来。

At the time I lived with a beautiful roommate. Flowers piled up at our door like snowdrifts, and the light on the answering machine always blinked in a panicky way, overloaded with messages from her admirers. Limousines purred outside, with dates waiting for her behind tinted windows.当时与我同住的是个漂亮女孩，门口的鲜花多得像雪堆，录音电话上的指示灯疯狂地闪个不停，里面录满了爱慕她的人的留言。豪华轿车停在外面，遨她赴约的人在有色玻璃车窗后等待着她。

In my mind, love was something behind a tinted window, part apparition, part shadow, definitely unreachable. Whenever I spotted happy-looking couples, I'd wonder where they found love, and want to follow them home for the answer.在我的脑海里，爱情就像是有色玻璃后的某种东西，半隐半现，难以企及。每当我看到一对对脸上洋溢着幸福的情侣，我就想问问他们是如何找到真爱的，并想跟随他们一起回家，探个究竞。

After a few years in the city I got my dream job--writing about weddings for a magazine called 7 Days. I had to find interesting engaged couples and write up their love stories. I got to ask total strangers the things I'd always wanted to know.在纽约待了几年之后，我终于得到了自己梦寐以求的工作——为一个名为《七日谈》的杂志写婚礼报道。我的任务就是寻找一些有趣的订了婚的情侣，并将他们的爱情故事写出来。这使我终于有机会向那些陌生人打听我一直想知道的事情。

I found out at least one sure answer to the question "How do you know it's love?" You know when the everyday things surrounding you--the leaves, the shade of light in the sky, a bowl of strawberries--suddenly shimmer with a kind of unreality.我发现至少有一个确切的答案可以回答“你怎么知道这是爱？”这个问题。当你周围一些原来平常的东西，像树叶、天空中的光影、一碗草莓，忽然间蒙上了一层梦幻的色彩，你会知道这就是爱。

You know when the tiny details about another person, ones that are insignificant to most people, seem fascinating and incredible to you. One groom told me he loved everything about his future wife, from her handwriting to the way she scratched on their apartment door like a cat when she came home. One bride said she fell in love with her fiance because "one night, a moth was flying around a light bulb, and he caught it and let it out the window. I said, 'That's it. He's the guy.'"一个人的某些方面在大多数人看来可能是微不足道的，但对恋爱中的人来说却是迷人而奇妙的。一位新郎曾告诉我，他爱未婚妻的一切，从她的字体到她回家时像猫一样挠门的习惯。有一位新娘爱上她的未婚夫则是因为“有一晚，一只飞蛾在灯泡周围飞来飞去，他捉住了它，然后将它从窗户放了出去。当时我想：‘没错，他就是我要找的人。’”

You also know it's love when you can't stop talking to each other. Almost every couple I've ever interviewed said that on their first or second date, they talked for hours and hours. For some, falling in love is like walking into a soundproof confessional booth, a place where you can tell all.当你们滔滔不绝地相互倾诉时，你也会知道那就是爱。我采访过的情侣几乎每一对都说，他们在第一次或第二次约会时，一谈就是几个小时。对一些人来说，坠入爱河就像是走进一间隔音的忏悔室，在那里你可以倾诉一切。

Finding love can be like discovering a gilded ballroom on the other side of your dingy apartment, and at the same time like finding a pair of great old blue jeans that are exactly your size and seem as if you've worn them forever. I can't tell you how many women have told me they knew they were in love because they forgot to wear makeup around their boyfriend. Or because they felt at ease hanging around him in flannel pajamas. There's some modern truth to Cinderella's tale--it's love when you're incredibly comfortable, when the shoe fits perfectly.找到爱情就像是在你昏暗公寓的另一边，发现了一个豪华舞厅：同时又像是找到了一条非常合身而且仿佛你已经穿了很久的质地很好的蓝色旧牛仔裤。我无法说清究竟有多少女人告诉过我，她们确信自己在恋爱，因为她们在男友面前忘记了化妆：或者因为穿着法兰絨的睡衣在他身边晃来晃去也觉得很自在。灰姑娘的故事即使在现代，也有其真实性：当你感到无比惬意时，当那双舞鞋恰恰合你的脚时，那肯定就是爱。

Finally, I think you're in love if you can make each other laugh at the very worst times--when the IRS is auditing you or when you are driving a convertible in a rainstorm or when your hair is turning gray. As someone once told me, 90 percent of being in love is making each other's life funnier and easier, all the way to the deathbed.最后一点，如果你们在最糟的时候，比方说，在国内收入署审查你的账目的时候，在暴风雪中开着敞篷车的时候，或者当你的头发变灰白的时候，还能使对方开心地发笑，那你们就是在相爱。正如有人曾告诉我的那样，爱情让恋爱中的人感到生活百分之九十都是轻松有趣的，直到生命的终结。

Seven years ago I started writing about love and weddings for The New York Times in a column called "Vows". And now that I have been on this beat for so long, a strange thing has happened: I'm considered an expert on love. The truth is, love is still mostly a mystery to me. The only thing I can confidently say is this: Love is as plentiful as oxygen. You don't have to be thin, naturally blond, super-successful, socially connected, knowledgeable about politics or even particularly charming to find it.7年前，我开始为《纽约时报》的“誓言”专栏写关于恋爱和婚姻的报道。由于我从事这一行北很长时间，竟发生了一件怪事:我被人看成是爱情专家。事实上，爱情对我来说仍旧是一个谜。我唯一能自信地说的就是:爱情就像氧气一样丰富。为了得到它，你不需要有苗条的身材、天生的金发、巨大的成就、良好的社会关系、渊博的政治知识甚至富有魅力。

I've interviewed many people who were down on their luck in every way--a ballerina with chronic back problems, a physicist who had been on 112 (he counted) disastrous blind dates, a clarinet player who was a single dad and could barely pay the rent. But love, when they found it, brought humor, candlelight, home-cooked meals, fun, adventure, poetry and long conversations into their lives.我采访过许多遭受各种厄运的人:患上慢性背疾的芭蕾舞女演员，与112(据他自己数）个从未谋面的人有过失败的约会的物理学家，一位几乎付不起房租又是单身父亲的单簧管吹奏者…但是当他们找到真爱时，爱情就会把幽默、烛光、家常便饭、乐趣、冒险精神、诗歌和畅谈融入他们的生活。

When people ask me where to find love, I tell a story about one of my first job interviews. It was with an editor at a famous literary magazine. I had no experience or skills, and he didn't for one second consider hiring me. But he gave me some advice I will never forget. He said, "Go out into the world. Work hard and concentrate on what you love to do, writing. If you become good, we will find you. "当人们问我在哪里能找到真爱时，我就会给他们讲我第一次工作面试时的故事。当时面试我的是一家著名文学杂志社的一名编辑。那时，我没有任何经验和技巧，他也根本没有想要雇用我，但他给我提了一些让我终生难忘的建议。他说:“到社会中去，集中精力努力做好你想做的事——写作。如果你做得好，我们会找到你的

That's why I always tell people looking for love to wait for that "I won the lottery" feeling--wait, wait, wait! Don't read articles about how to trap, seduce or hypnotize a mate. Don't worry about your lipstick or your height, because it's not going to matter. Just live your life well, take care of yourself, and don't mope too much. Love will find you.这就是为什么我一直告诉那些追求爱情的人，让他们去等待那种“我中奖了”的感觉，等待，等待，再等待！你不必去读那些教你如何捕捉、引诱或使男人着迷的文章，也不必去担心那些诸如口红或身高之类的小事，因为这并不重要。只要好好生活，照顾好自己，别太忧郁，爱情终会找到你。

Eventually it even found me. At 28, I met my husband in a stationery store. I was buying a typewriter ribbon, and he was looking at Filofaxes. I remember that his eyes perfectly matched his faded jeans. He remembers that my sneakers were full of sand. He still talks about those sneakers and how they evoked his childhood--bonfires by the ocean, driving on the sand in an old jeep--all those things that he cherished.最终，爱情也找到了我。28岁那年，在一家文具店，我遇到了现在的丈夫。当时，成正在买打字机用的色带，他则在看备忘记事本。我还记得，他的眼睛与他那条褪色的牛仔裤很相配。而他则忘不了我那双里面满是沙子的运动鞋。至今他还说起我那双运动鞋，并且说它们是如何唤起了他对童年的回忆——海边的篝火，驾着老式吉普车在沙滩上兜风——所有这些都是他最珍贵的回忆。

How did I know that it was true love? Our first real date lasted for nine hours; we just couldn't stop talking. I had never been able to dance in my life, but I could dance with him, perfectly in step. I have learned that it's love when you finally stop tripping over your toes.我怎么知道这是真爱呢？我们第一次真正的约会持续了整整9个小时，我们竟有说不完的话！遇到他之前，我从来跳不好舞，但我却能和他一起跳，舞步还非常合拍。我终于明白，是爱情使我不再绊脚。

A year after we met, we married.认识一年后，我们结婚了。

I have come to cherish writing the "Vows" column. With each story I hear, I have proof that love, optimism, guts, grace, perfect partners and good luck do, in fact, exist. Love, in my opinion, is not a fantasy, not the stuff of romance novels or fairy tales. It's as gritty and real as the subway, it comes around just as regularly, and as long as you can stick it out on the platform, you won't miss it.我开始珍视我所主持的“誓言”专栏。我所听到的每一个故事都向我证实了，爱情、乐观、勇气、风度以及完美的伴侣的确存在。在我看来，爱情不是幻想，不是浪漫小说和童话故事的素材。爱就像地铁一样执着而真实，就像地铁一样会按时来到，只要你坚持在月台上等待，你就不会错过它。

Black Charcoal, White Shirt

黑木炭，白衬衫

Eight-year-old Pico stormed home after school, after the door he wildly stomping his feet. His father was working in the yard and saw Pico angry. So he called Pico and wanted to talk with him.

8岁的帕科放学以后气冲冲地回到家里，进门以后使劲地跺脚。父亲正在院子里干活，看到帕科生气的样子，就把他叫了过来，想和他聊聊。

Reluctant to be around his father, Pico said angrily: "Dad, I am very angry."

帕科不情愿地走到父亲身边，气呼呼地说:“爸爸，我现在非常生气。”

Pico's father was quietly listening to his son while working. Pico said: "Joaquin made me disgrace the former friends. I hope he comes across a few particularly bad luck things."

帕科的父亲一边干活，一边静静地听儿子诉说。帕科说: “华金让我在以前的朋友跟前丢脸，我希望他遇上几件特别倒霉的事情。”

His father went to a comer, found a bag of charcoal and said to Pico: "Son, you regard that white shirt over there as Joaquin, and the plastic bag of charcoal as some bad luck things. Use charcoal to hit the white shirt. Imagine that every time you hit one on the shirt Joaquin encountered a bad luck thing. When you finish hitting all the charcoal, see what will happen."

他父亲走到一个角落，找到一袋木炭，对帕科说:“儿子，你把那边的那件白衬衫当做华金，把这一塑料袋的木炭当做一些倒霉的事情。你用木炭去砸白衬衫，假想每砸中一块，华金就遇到一件倒霉的事情。看看当你把木炭砸完以后会怎样？”

Pico thought this game was fun. He picked up charcoal to throw into the shirt. However the shirt was hung in the distant rope. He finished throwing all the charcoal, but not a few on the shirt.

帕科觉得这个游戏很好玩，他拿起木炭就往衬衫上砸去。可是衬衫挂在距离较远的绳子上，他把木炭扔完了，也没有几块扔到衬衫上。

Father asked Pico: "How do you feel now?"

父亲问帕科:“你现在感觉如何？”

He said: "It exhausted me, but I am happy because I threw in quite a few pieces of charcoal, the white shirt with several black trace."

他说:“累死我了，但我很开心，因为我扔中了好几块木炭，白衬衫上有好几个黑印子了。”

Father saw his son did not understand his intentions, so he let Pico look in a large mirror. What he could only see from his face was white teeth.

父亲看到儿子没有明白他的用意，于是便让帕科去一面很大的镜子里照照。帕科从脸上只能看到牙齿是白的。

Then the father said: "You see, the white shirt did not become particularly dirty, but you have become a 'black people' You want a lot of bad luck things on others; the result is the most unfortunate thing falls on ourselves. There, our bad thoughts may fulfill a part on others, others suffer bad luck, but the stains left to us is difficult to remove."

父亲这时说道:“你看，白衬衫并没有变得特别脏，而你自己却成了一个‘黑人’你想在别人身上发生很多倒霉事情，结果最倒霉的事却落到我们自己身上了。有时候，我们的坏念头虽然在别人身上兑现了一部分，别人倒霉了，但留在我们身上的污点也难以去除。”