My mind opened naturally and joyously to a conception of antiquity. Greece, ancient Greece, exercised a mysterious fascination over me. In my fancy the pagan gods and goddesses still walked on earth and talked face to face with men, and in my heart I secretly built shrines to those I loved best. I knew and loved the whole tribe of nymphs and heroes and demigods—no, not quite all, for the cruelty and greed of Medea and Jason were too monstrous to be forgiven, and I used to wonder why the gods permitted them to do wrong and then punished them for their wickedness. And the mystery is still unsolved. I often wonder how...

　　我对古代的思想心仪久矣，古希腊的历史把我带入了一个神秘的境界。在我的幻想中，异教徒的神祇依旧行走在世间，而且还同人类面对面地交谈;在心里，我悄悄地为我爱戴的亲人们建造一座座圣殿。我知晓而且喜爱所有部族的女神和英雄，以及半神半人怪——不，并不能说是所有的神，对于残忍而贪婪的美狄亚和伊阿宋我就不喜欢，他们的邪恶是不可饶恕的。我一直很奇怪为什么天神会允许他们行不义之事，可最后又对他们的恶行进行惩罚。这个秘密仍未解开，我常常惊讶于如何……

　　God can dumbness keep

　　神是如此地缄默无语

　　While Sin creeps grinning through His house of Time.

　　当罪愆讪笑着悄悄爬过“光阴的殿堂”。

　　It was the Iliad that made Greece my paradise. I was familiar with the story of Troy before I read it in the original, and consequently I had little difficulty in making the Greek words surrender their treasures after I had passed the borderland of grammar. Great poetry, whether written in Greek or in English, needs no other interpreter than a responsive heart. Would that the host of those who make the great works of the poets odious by their analysis, impositions and laborious comments might learn this simple truth! It is not necessary that one should be able to define every word and give it its principal parts and its grammatical position in the sentence in order to understand and appreciate a fine poem. I know my learned professors have found greater riches in the Iliad than I shall ever find; but I am not avaricious. I am content that others should be wiser than I. But with all their wide and comprehensive knowledge, they cannot measure their enjoyment of that splendid epic, nor can I. When I read thefinest passages of the Iliad, I am conscious of a soul-sense that lifts me above the narrow, cramping circumstances of my life. My physical limitations are forgotten—my world lies upward, the length and the breadth and the sweep of the heavens are mine!

　　可以说，正是《伊利亚特》把古希腊变成了我心目中的天堂。在没有读原著之前，我就已经熟悉了特洛伊的故事。虽然当时我已经穿越了语法的边境线，但是在迫使希腊词语交出它们的“财宝”时，我还遇到了少许的困难。伟大的诗篇，无论用希腊文还是英文写就，它需要的不是讲解员，而是一颗敏感的心。难道不正是有那么一群好事之徒，通过他们所谓的分析而令伟大的诗歌变得面目可憎吗?所以，那些强加于人和艰深晦涩的评论的炮制者，真应该好好学一学这条朴素的真理!事实上，理解和欣赏一部杰出的诗篇，并不需要你去对每一个词的作用，或者是它在句子中的语法结构进行解释。我很清楚，博学的教授们从《伊利亚特》中发掘的财富要远胜于我。我并不是个贪婪的人，我甘愿接受别人比我更聪明的现实。但是即使拥有了渊博的知识，他们却无法揣摩出恢弘史诗所蕴涵的激情。当然，我也揣摩不出来。而当我读了《伊利亚特》中最精彩的篇章以后，我才有了灵魂升华的感觉——我狭隘逼仄的生命得以释放，而身体的局限也已被我淡忘。我的世界也在上升，它浩瀚无边，横扫过重重天际!

　　My admiration for the Aeneid is not so great, but it is none the less real. I read it as much as possible without the help of notes or dictionary, and I always like to translate the episodes that please me especially. The word-painting of Virgil is wonderful sometimes; but his gods and men move through the scenes of passion and strife and pity and love like the graceful figures in an Elizabethan mask, whereas in the Iliad they give three leaps and go on singing. Virgil is serene and lovely like a marble Apollo in the moonlight; Homer is a beautiful, animated youth in the full sunlight with the wind in his hair.

　　我并不十分赞赏《埃涅阿斯纪》这部史诗，但它的真实依然令人动容。在阅读这部作品的时候，我尽量不去借助字典或注释的帮忙，而且，我总是喜欢把我特别喜欢的章节翻译出来。维吉尔的文笔有时的确精彩，但是他笔下的诸神和人类无不游走在激情、冲突、怜悯和情爱之间，就如同伊丽莎白时代化装舞会中的才子佳人。然而，《伊利亚特》中的神祇和人类则欢呼雀跃，纵情歌唱。维吉尔具有沉静而迷人的气质，如同月光之下的一尊阿波罗雕像;而荷马恰如头顶烈日、迎风而立的英武青年。