“A young star! which shone O’er life–too sweet an image, for such glass! —
“一颗年轻的星星！闪耀着 生命——对于这样的玻璃来说，实在是太美好的形象！” —

A lovely being, scarcely formed or moulded; —
“一个可爱的存在，几乎还没有被塑造或成型；” —

A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.”
“一朵玫瑰，所有最甜美的叶子都还没有展开。”

The Mississippi! How, as by an enchanted wand, have its scenes been changed, since Chateaubriand wrote his prose-poetic description of it,[1] as a river of mighty, unbroken solitudes, rolling amid undreamed wonders of vegetable and animal existence.
“密西西比河！自夏多布里昂以其散文诗般的描写[1]之后，它的景色如同被一根魔杖改变了一样，它是一条穿行于未曾梦见的植物和动物存在的奇迹中的浩渺无垠的河流。”

[1] In Atala; or the Love and Constantcy of Two Savages in the Desert (1801) by Francois Auguste Rene, Vicomte de Chateaubriand (1768-1848).
”[1] _在《阿塔拉，或沙漠中两个野人的爱情与忠贞》（1801年）中法兰索瓦·奥古斯特·勒内·沙多布里昂修道士著（1768-1848年）。”

But as in an hour, this river of dreams and wild romance has emerged to a reality scarcely less visionary and splendid. —
“然而，就在一小时之间，这条充满梦幻和野性浪漫的河流已经转变为一种几乎同样梦幻和辉煌的现实。” —

What other river of the world bears on its bosom to the ocean the wealth and enterprise of such another country? —
“世界上还有哪条河流能像这条河一样承载着另一个国家的财富和企业精神呢？” —

–a country whose products embrace all between the tropics and the poles! —
“——一个产品横跨热带和极地的国家！” —

Those turbid waters, hurrying, foaming, tearing along, an apt resemblance of that headlong tide of business which is poured along its wave by a race more vehement and energetic than any the old world ever saw. —
“那湍急的水流，奔腾、泛白、肆意流淌，恰如商业的洪流，被比起来更为炽烈、更为充满活力的一群人的热情与努力推向前方，这是任何老世界都未曾见过的。” —

Ah! would that they did not also bear along a more fearful freight,–the tears of the oppressed, the sighs of the helpless, the bitter prayers of poor, ignorant hearts to an unknown God–unknown, unseen and silent, but who will yet “come out of his place to save all the poor of the earth!”
“啊！但愿它们不会也承载着更可怕的负担，——受压迫者的眼泪，无助者的叹息，贫穷无知之心向一位不知名的上帝祈祷的苦涩，这位无名无形且沉默的上帝终将会“离开他的座位来拯救地球上的所有可怜人！”

The slanting light of the setting sun quivers on the sea-like expanse of the river; —
“斜照着夕阳的余晖在河面上波光粼粼；” —

the shivery canes, and the tall, dark cypress, hung with wreaths of dark, funereal moss, glow in the golden ray, as the heavily-laden steamboat marches onward.
“摇曳的甘蔗和高大的黑檫树，挂满阴森的黑色丧葬苔藓花环，在金色的光芒中闪耀，船上堆满了从许多庄园中运来的棉包，无论是在甲板上还是船舱边，直到在远处看上去像一座方形的庞大灰块，她沉重地驶向近在咫尺的市场。”

Piled with cotton-bales, from many a plantation, up over deck and sides, till she seems in the distance a square, massive block of gray, she moves heavily onward to the nearing mart. —
“在这拥挤的甲板中我们必须找很久才能再次找到我们的谦卑朋友汤姆。最终我们可以在船上较高的甲板上的一个小角落中找到他，那里到处都是棉包。” —

We must look some time among its crowded decks before we shall find again our humble friend Tom. High on the upper deck, in a little nook among the everywhere predominant cotton-bales, at last we may find him.
“We must look some time among its crowded decks before we shall find again our humble friend Tom. High on the upper deck, in a little nook among the everywhere predominant cotton-bales, at last we may find him.”