英格兰之声，是乡村铁匠铺里铁砧上锤子的叮当声，是露珠欲滴的清晨秧鸡的鸣啼声，是磨刀石上镰刀的霍霍声，山梁上走过一队犁地的农夫，这是许多世纪里英格兰的永恒景象。四月里森林中野生的银莲花，黎明时分最后一趟满载夜草的车行进在小路上，那时你简直辩认不出马的身影，农夫们正赶着它驶向农庄。然而最微妙莫测 、沁人肺腑，动人心弦的还是秋日黄昏时分袅袅升起的柴烟的气味。远在几万年前，当我们的祖先作为游牧民还游历在欧洲大陆的森林和原野的时候，当他们带着一天收获来的草料回家的时候，他们肯定都看到过那木柴的清烟。这些东西深深地烙进了我们的性格，拨动着我 们的心弦，并伴随着我们的生命年复一年地从我们心灵的最深处发出一个益发深沉的和声。

The sounds of England, the tinkle of the hammer on the anvil in the country smithy, the corncrake on a dewy morning, the sound of the scythe against the whetstone, and the sight of a plough team coming over the brow of a hill, for centuries the one eternal sight of England. The wild anemones in the woods in April, the last load at night of hay being drawn down a lane as the twilight comes on, when you can scarcely distinguish the figures of the horses as they take it home to the farm, and above all, most subtle, most penetrating and most moving, the smell of wood smoke coming up in an autumn evening, the wood smoke that our ancestors, tens of thousands of years ago, must have caught on the air when they were coming home with the results of the day’s forage, when they were still nomads, and they were still roaming the forests and the plains of the continent of Europe. These things strike down into the very depths of our nature, and touch chords that with every year of our life sound a deeper note in our innermost being.

tinkle  n. 叮叮当当的响声 v. 叮当作响
anvil  n. 铁砧
smithy  n. 铁铺
corncrake  n. 秧鸡
dewy  adj. 带露水的
scythe  n. 镰刀
whetstone  n. 磨刀石
eternal  adj. 永恒的
anemone  n. 野莲花
twilight n. 黎明
scarcely  adv. 几乎不
distinguish  v. 辨认
subtle  adj. 微妙的
penetrating  adj. （指声音、喊声等）尖锐的
ancestor  n. 祖先
forage  n. 草料
nomad  n. 游牧民
roam v. 徜徉
chord  n. 弦
innermost  adj. 内心最深处的