中译英 陶渊明的《桃花源记》

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桃花源记
In End of the Peach Forest
陶渊明（东晋）
Tao Yuanming (the Eastern Jin Dynasty)

晋太原中，武陵人，捕鱼为业，缘溪行，忘路之远近。忽逢桃花林，夹岸数百步，中无杂树，芳草鲜美，落英缤纷，渔人甚异之；复前行，欲穷其林。林尽水源，便得一山，山有小口，仿佛若有光。 便舍船，从口入。

In the middle of Taiyuan,the Jin Dynasty there was a Wuling man, who caught fish for living. One day he went on by a boat, sailing along a stream for a long time and neglecting how much distance he had traveled. Suddenly, in front of his eyes a peach forest was extended hundreds of paces on both sides of the river and without any other trees scattered. In the forest, the fragrant grass was fresh and beautiful and a lot of fallen flowers were spread on the ground. The fishing man was very strange, and then he went on again, intending to make a thorough investigation of this forest. The forest was ended at the stream source. He caught sight of a mountain，which had a little entrance, seemed to have some light in it .And then, the fishing man left his boat and went into the entrance.

初极狭，才通人。复行数十步，豁然开朗。土地平旷，屋舍俨然。有良田、美池、桑竹之属，阡陌交通，鸡犬相闻。其中往来种作，男女衣著，悉如外人。黄发垂髫，并怡然自乐。见渔人，乃大惊，问所从来，具答之，便要还家，设酒杀鸡作食，村中闻有此人，咸来问讯。自云先世避秦时战乱，率妻子邑人，来此绝境，不复出焉；遂与外人间隔。问今是何世，乃不知有汉，无论魏、晋。此人一一为具言所闻，皆叹惋。余人各复延至其家，皆出酒食。停数日，辞去，此中人语云：“不足为 外人道也！

In the beginning the entrance was extremely narrow, just able to pass through a person, and continually walking tens of paces, suddenly became bright and open. The ground and soil behind the mountain was flat and vast, and the houses and sheds all set out in a neat order. In the place, having the fertile lands, clear pools, white mulberries and nice bamboo and so forth, and also having the crisscross footpaths between the fields, the crowing of cocks and the barking of dogs were within hearing of each other. People planted with rice, cotton and vegetable and worked hard to and fro in the fields and their clothes were as same as the outsiders. The old men with their hair，which had been yellow transmitted from grey and children with hair's tufts in front of their head all looked very pleasant, contented and self-enjoyed. When in sight of the fishing man, they all got frightened and asked where he was come from. The fishing man replied to these questions according to the fact. And then the villagers invited him to home, butchering cock and heating up wine for him as food. Other people heard that there was an outside man in the village, they all came to visit and inquire him about the events happened outside. The village people told him, for avoiding the chaos caused by the war of the Qin Dynasty, their ancestors along with their families and county colleagues came to this sealed place, and did not go out again. Therefore the people in the village were separated from the external people up to now. Asking what the Dynasty was nowadays, since it is in the case of being not aware of the Han Dynasty, of course they also could not know the Dynasties such as Wei and Jin later. The fishing man told them what he had heard one by one. Hearing those, the villagers all sighed and felt pity very much. The others repeatedly invited him to their house and offered him with wine and other cooked food. After several days, when the fishing man took leave the village, the people in the village said to him: “There is no need to tell the situation here to the external people.''

既出，得其船，便扶向路，处处志之。及郡下，诣太守，说如此。太守即遣人随其往，寻向所志，遂迷，不复得路

Having gone out from the village, the fishing man got his boat. Along the incoming road, where he marked some symbols to every important location. Turning back into the Wuling County, he called on the prefecture chief and spoke out all that he saw and heard. The prefecture chief dispatched men going along with him to search the symbols which he had marked; unexpectedly they had lost the way and couldn't find the place that the fishing man found.

南阳刘子骥，高尚士也，闻之，欣然亲往，未果，寻病终。后遂无问津者。

Liu Ziji in Nanyang was a respectable scholar. Hearing this information, he went to search the end of peach forest with pleasure by himself, but no result was obtained. Before long，he died of illness. Later there was nobody to make inquire into this event.