The Gay Genius-Chapter 1

一.感悟

For one thing, the living man's life is not completed, and one never knows what he is going to do next when a crisis comes. The drunkard reforms, the saint falls, and the pastor runs away with a choir girl. A living man has always so many "possibilities." Then, too, the living man has secrets, and some of the best secrets usually come out long after the man is dead. That is why it is so difficult usually to judge a contemporary, whose life is too close to us.

读完这一章节，苏东坡的才华、、乐观、他的文章对人的渲染力给我留下的印象不及开头这段话深。想要了解一个在世的人不如了解一个已故的人简单。

  人都是多变的，而已故的人已经把他所有变化的痕迹列在了他的人生篇章里，而我们在世的人却不知道下一秒的选择是会是什么。正如文章所说，醉汉会戒酒自新，教会中的圣人会堕落。我们不能以每个人某一刻的现状去评判他的未来。

二.3-5词

“......and after a futile struggle with petty minds but great politicians, he went into his second exile outside civilized China in the island of Hainan, somewhat fatalistically and with great peace of mind.”

在与心地狭窄而位居要津的政客徒然挣扎了一番后，他被流放到中国域外的蛮荒琼崖海岛，他以坦荡荡之胸怀处之，有几分相信是命运使然。

petty minds：心地狭窄

petty adj.小规模的，小气的，琐碎的. minds n.思想，主意➡️我理解minds更偏向于对人思维上的一种描写，也可翻译为小心眼

The human spirit in Su Tungpo was mellowed, not soured, by his many troubles

苏东坡虽饱经忧患拂逆，但他的人性更趋稳和厚道，并没变得尖酸刻薄。

soured sour的意思是酸的，已经是坏了的发酵的感觉。东西坏了是酸味，人变的坏了会变成尖酸刻薄，soured变成形容人的形容词。

Innocent and honest, such poems of protest against the government's doings, at a time when all good scholars were hounded out of the capital, concentrated on him alone the fury of the ruling regime and almost cost him his life.

苏东坡虽然发乎纯良真挚之情，但内容是对政策表示异议，当时正值忠直之士不容于国际之都，当权者之愤怒遂集于他一人之身，情势严重，苏东坡几乎险遭不测。

protest against 对...提出异议

hound pursue or chase relentlessly

regime 政体 政权

fury of the ruling regime 当权者的愤怒