If you are a philosopher you can do this thing: —
如果你是一位哲学家，你可以做到这一点： —

you can go to the top of a high building, look down upon your fellow-men 300 feet below, and despise them as insects. —
你可以站在一座高楼的顶端，俯视着300英尺下的人群，轻视他们如同昆虫般微不足道。 —

Like the irresponsible black waterbugs on summer ponds, they crawl and circle and hustle about idiotically without aim or purpose. —
就像夏日池塘上那些不负责任的黑色水甲虫一样，他们愚蠢地爬行、旋转和忙碌，没有目标或目的。 —

They do not even move with the admirable intelligence of ants, for ants always know when they are going home. —
他们甚至不像蚂蚁那样以令人羡慕的智能行动，因为蚂蚁总是知道它们何时回家。 —

The ant is of a lowly station, but he will often reach home and get his slippers on while you are left at your elevated station.
蚂蚁虽然地位卑微，但它们经常能回到家中穿上拖鞋，而你则留在你的高位上。

Man, then, to the housetopped philosopher, appears to be but a creeping, contemptible beetle. —
对于居住在屋顶上的哲学家来说，人类似乎只是一个爬行而卑微的甲虫。 —

Brokers, poets, millionaires, bootblacks, beauties, hod-carriers and politicians become little black specks dodging bigger black specks in streets no wider than your thumb.
经纪人、诗人、百万富翁、鞋匠、美女、搬运工和政客在不宽于拇指的街道上变成了小小的黑色斑点，躲闪着更大的黑色斑点。

From this high view the city itself becomes degraded to an unintelligible mass of distorted buildings and impossible perspectives; —
从这个高度看，城市本身变成了一团扭曲的建筑和不可能的景观。 —

the revered ocean is a duck pond; —
仰望的海洋变成了一片鸭子的池塘； —

the earth itself a lost golf ball. —
地球本身只是一个丢失的高尔夫球。 —

All the minutiae of life are gone. —
生活的细枝末节都消失了。 —

The philosopher gazes into the infinite heavens above him, and allows his soul to expand to the influence of his new view. —
哲学家凝视着他头顶的无限天空，让他的灵魂扩张到新视野的影响下。 —

He feels that he is the heir to Eternity and the child of Time. Space, too, should be his by the right of his immortal heritage, and he thrills at the thought that some day his kind shall traverse theose mysterious aerial roads between planet and planet. —
他觉得自己是永恒的继承者，也是时间的孩子。空间，也应属于他这不朽传承的权利，他对有一天他的种族会穿越那些行星间神秘的天路感到激动。 —

The tiny world beneath his feet upon which this towering structure of steel rests as a speck of dust upon a Himalayan mountain - it is but one of a countless number of such whirling atoms. —
他脚下微小的世界，这个高耸的钢铁结构只是一座像在喜马拉雅山上的一粒尘埃。它只是无数类似旋转的原子中的一个。 —

What are the ambitions, the achievements, the paltry conquests and loves of those restless black insects below compared with the serene and awful immensity of the universe that lies above and around their insignificant city?
与他们微不足道的城市周围的宏伟而可怕的宇宙相比，那些不安的黑色昆虫们的抱负、成就、微不足道的征服和爱情如何？

It is guaranteed that the philosopher will have these thoughts. —
可以保证，哲学家一定会有这些思考。 —

They have been expressly compiled from the philosophies of the world and set down with the proper interrogation point at the end of them to represent the invariable musings of deep thinkers on high places. —
它们已经被明确地编纂自世界的哲学思想，并以适当的问句标点符号结束，以代表高处深思者对不变的思考的沉思。 —

And when the philosopher takes the elevator down his mind is broader, his heart is at peace, and his conception of the cosmogony of creation is as wide as the buckle of Orion’s summer belt.
当哲学家乘电梯下楼时，他的思想更加开阔，他的心灵平静安宁，他对宇宙创造的认识与猎户座的夏天腰带一样广阔。

But if your name happened to be Daisy, and you worked in an Eighth Avenue candy store and lived in a little cold hall bedroom, five feet by eight, and earned $6 per week, and ate ten-cent lunches and were nineteen years old, and got up at 6: —
但是如果你的名字偏偏叫做黛西，你在一家第八大道的糖果店工作，住在一个只有五英尺乘八英尺的小寒冷的卧室里，每周挣6美元，吃着十美分的午餐，年仅十九岁，早上6点起床。 —

30 and worked till 9, and never had studied philosophy, maybe things wouldn’t look that way to you from the top of a skyscraper.
30岁并且工作到了9点，从一座摩天大楼顶部看过去，或许你的视角就不会像现在这样了。

Two sighed for the hand of Daisy, the unphilosophical. —
有两个人对黛西，这个不爱哲学的女孩，表达了爱意。 —

One was Joe, who kept the smallest store in New York. It was about the size of a tool-box of the D. P. W., and was stuck like a swallow’s nest against a corner of a down-town skyscraper. —
其中一个人是乔，他经营纽约最小的商店。它的大小差不多和公共建设局(D.P.W.)的工具箱一样，并且像燕子窝一样粘在一个市中心摩天大楼的角落上。 —

Its stock consisted of fruit, candies, newspapers, song books, cigarettes, and lemonade in season. —
这个商店的库存包括水果、糖果、报纸、歌本、香烟和时令柠檬水。 —

When stern winter shook his congealed locks and Joe had to move himself and the fruit inside, there was exactly room in the store for the proprietor, his wares, a stove the size of a vinegar cruet, and one customer.
当严冬来临，震动着他凝结的头发，乔不得不将自己和水果挪到室内，商店里正好能容纳店主、商品、一个像醋瓶塞子大小的炉子和一个顾客。

Joe was not of the nation that keeps us forever in a furore with fugues and fruit. —
乔并不属于那个用赋格和水果让我们永远陷入狂热的国度。 —

He was a capable American youth who was laying by money, and wanted Daisy to help him spend it. —
他是一个能干的美国年轻人，正在存钱，并希望黛西帮他花钱。 —

Three times he had asked her.
他曾三次向她求婚。

“I got money saved up, Daisy,” was his love song; —
“我攒了些钱，黛西，”这是他的情歌。 —

“and you know how bad I want you. —
“你知道我是多么渴望你。 —

That store of mine ain’t very big, but -”
我那家商店虽然不大，但是——”

“Oh, ain’t it?” would be the antiphony of the unphilosophical one. —
“哦，是吗？”这是不思考的人的反问。 —

“Why, I heard Wanamaker’s was trying to get you to sublet part of your floor space to them for next year.”
“什么？我听说万纳梅克斯想要向你租用你的一部分店面明年。”

Daisy passed Joe’s corner every morning and evening.
黛西每天早晚都会经过乔的角落。

“Hello, Two-by-Four!” was her usual greeting. —
“嘿，矮冬瓜！”这是她通常的问候。 —

“Seems to me your store looks emptier. —
“看起来你的店空了， —

You must have sold a pack of chewing gum.”
你一定卖了一包口香糖。”

Ain’t much room in here, sure,” Joe would answer, with his slow grin, “except for you, Daise. Me and the store are waitin’ for you whenever you’ll take us. —
乔会带着慢慢的笑容回答：“除了你，黛西，这里确实没有多少空间。我和店里都在等待你什么时候愿意接受我们。” —

Don’t you think you might before long?”
“不久之前你不觉得可能吗？”

“Store!” - a fine scorn was expressed by Daisy’s uptilted nose - “sardine box! —
“店！”黛西翘起鼻子嘲笑道，“小小的盒子！ —

Waitin’ for me, you say? Gee! —
你说在等待我？天哪！ —

you’d have to throw out about a hundred pounds of candy before I could get inside of it, Joe.”
你得把大概一百磅的糖果扔掉我才能进去，乔。”

“I wouldn’t mind an even swap like that,” said Joe, complimentary.
“我不介意这样的公平交换，”乔恭维地说道。

Daisy’s existence was limited in every way. —
黛西的存在在各个方面都受到限制。 —

She had to walk sideways between the counter and the shelves in the candy store. —
她必须在糖果店的柜台和货架之间侧身行走。 —

In her own hall bedroom coziness had been carried close to cohesiveness. —
在她自己的小卧室里，舒适感被带到接近凝聚力的程度。 —

The walls were so near to one another that the paper on them made a perfect Babel of noise. —
墙壁相互靠得很近，使得上面的墙纸发出一片嘈杂的噪音。 —

She could light the gas with one hand and close the door with the other without taking her eyes off the reflection of her brown pompadour in the mirror. —
她能一只手点燃煤气，并用另一只手关闭门，而不需要将目光从镜子里的她自己的棕色小山羊须上移开。 —

She had Joe’s picture in a gilt frame on the dresser, and sometimes - but her next thought would always be of Joe’s funny little store tacked like a soap box to the corner of that great building, and away would go her sentiment in a breeze of laughter.
她在梳妆台上的一个镶金相框里放着乔的照片，有时候 - 但她下一个思考总是关于乔那个有趣的小店，像一个纸盒一样贴在那座大楼的角落上，于是她的感情马上会消散在一阵笑声中。

Daisy’s other suitor followed Joe by several months. —
黛西的另一个追求者比乔晚了几个月。 —

He came to board in the house where she lived. —
他来到黛西住的房子里寄宿。 —

His name was Dabster, and he was a philosopher. —
他叫达布斯特，是一个哲学家。 —

Though young, attainments stood out upon him like continental labels on a Passaic (N. J.) suit-case. —
尽管年轻，但他的成就就像贴在帕塞克（新泽西州）旅行箱上的大陆标签一样显著。 —

Knowledge he had kidnapped from cyclopedias and handbooks of useful information; —
他从百科全书和实用信息手册中获取的知识，他说出了豌豆和小牛肉的含水量和肌肉生成特性的比例，圣经中最短的经文，需要多少石英钉来固定四英寸偏离地方的256块木瓦，伊利诺伊州坎卡基人口，斯宾诺莎的理论，H. McKay Twombly先生的第二个门童的名字，胡萨克隧道的长度，孵鸡的最佳时间，德里夫特伍德和红岸炉之间的铁路邮政信使的工资，以及猫的前肢中的骨头数量。 —

but as for wisdom, when she passed he was left sniffling in the road without so much as the number of her motor car. —
但是至于智慧，当她经过时，他只能在路上抽鼻涕，连她的汽车牌照号都没有。 —

He could and would tell you the proportion of water and muscle-making properties of peas and veal, the shortest verse in the Bible, the number of pounds of shingle nails required to fasten 256 shingles laid four inches to the weather, the population of Kankakee, Ill., the theories of Spinoza, the name of Mr. H. McKay Twombly’s second hall footman, the length of the Hoosac Tunnel, the best time to set a hen, the salary of the railway post-office messenger between Driftwood and Red Bank Furnace, Pa., and the number of bones in the foreleg of a cat.
沉重的学识对达布斯特没有任何阻碍。他的统计数据就像是他用来装饰他所提供的小谈话盛宴的装饰品，如果他觉得那是你的品味的话。

The weight of learning was no handicap to Dabster. —
Dabster并不因知识的重量而受阻。 —

His statistics were the sprigs of parsley with which he garnished the feast of small talk that he would set before you if he conceived that to be your taste. —
他的统计数据就像他为你提供的小谈话盛宴中的装饰，如果他认为那是你的味道的话。 —

And again he used them as breastworks in foraging at the boardinghouse. —
再次，他把它们当作工事用于蓄食。 —

Firing at you a volley of figures concerning the weight of a lineal foot of bar-iron 5 x 2 ³⁄₄ inches, and the average annual rainfall at Fort Snelling, Minn., he would transfix with his fork the best piece of chicken on the dish while you were trying to rally sufficiently to ask him weakly why does a hen cross the road.
当你试图勉强询问他母鸡为何过马路时，他向你射出一连串关于一英尺长的铁条5×2 3/4英寸的重量和明尼苏达州斯奈灵堡的平均年降雨量的数字，然后用叉子刺中盘子上最好的一块鸡肉。

Thus, brightly armed, and further equipped with a measure of good looks, of a hair-oily, shopping-district-at-three-in-the-afternoon kind, it seems that Joe, of the Lilliputian emporium, had a rival worthy of his steel.
因此，他装备华丽，有一定的英俊外表，头发油油的，那种下午三点逛购物区的类型，看起来乔，这位一流百货商店的人，有了一个相当的竞争对手。

But Joe carried no steel. —
但是乔没有带钢刀。 —

There wouldn’t have been room in his store to draw it if he had.
就算他带了，他的店里也没有地方拔出来。

One Saturday afternoon, about four o’clock, Daisy and Mr. Dabster stopped before Joe’s booth. —
一个星期六下午，大约四点钟，黛西和达布斯特先生停在了乔的摊位前。 —

Dabster wore a silk hat, and - well, Daisy was a woman, and that hat had no chance to get back in its box until Joe had seen it. —
达布斯特戴着丝礼帽，而黛西是个女人，这顶帽子直到乔看到它之前都没机会回到盒子里。 —

A stick of pineapple chewing gum was the ostensible object of the call. —
这个电话的表面目的是一根菠萝口香糖。 —

Joe supplied it through the open side of his store. —
乔通过他店铺的开放侧面提供了它。 —

He did not pale or falter at sight of the hat.
他看到那顶帽子并没有变得苍白或犹豫。

“Mr. Dabster’s going to take me on top of the building to observe the view,” said Daisy, after she had introduced her admirers. —
“达比斯特先生将带我到建筑顶部观察风景，” 黛西在介绍完她的仰慕者后说道。 —

“I never was on a skyscraper. —
“我从来没有在摩天大楼上过。 —

I guess it must be awfully nice and funny up there.”
我猜那里肯定很美好和有趣。”

“H’m!” said Joe.
“嗯！”乔说道。

“The panorama,” said Mr. Dabster, “exposed to the gaze from the top of a lofty building is not only sublime, but instructive. —
“从高楼顶部眺望的全景不仅壮丽，而且富有教育意义，”达比斯特先生说道。 —

Miss Daisy has a decided pleasure in store for her.”
黛西有一个非常令人愉快的事情等着她。

“It’s windy up there, too, as well as here,” said Joe. “Are you dressed warm enough, Daise?”
“那里也很刮风，就像这里一样，” 乔说道。”你穿得够暖和吗，黛西？”

“Sure thing! I’m all lined,” said Daisy, smiling slyly at his clouded brow. —
“当然！我穿得很暖和，” 黛西窃笑着看着他阴沉的眉头。 —

“You look just like a mummy in a case, Joe. Ain’t you just put in an invoice of a pint of peanuts or another apple? —
“你看起来就像一个盒子里的木乃伊，乔。你刚进了一打花生或者又进了一个苹果吗？” —

Your stock looks awful over-stocked.”
你的库存看起来非常过剩。

Daisy giggled at her favorite joke; —
黛西在她最喜欢的笑话中咯咯地笑了起来； —

and Joe had to smile with her.
乔不得不和她一起微笑。

“Your quarters are somewhat limited, Mr. - er - er,” remarked Dabster, “in comparison with the size of this building. —
“您的住所相对于这座大楼的规模而言确实有些有限，先生 - 呃 - 呃，”达布斯特评论道。 —

I understand the area of its side to be about 340 by 100 feet. —
我了解它的侧面面积大约是340乘以100英尺。 —

That would make you occupy a proportionate space as if half of Beloochistan were placed upon a territory as large as the United States east of the Rocky Mountains, with the Province of Ontario and Belgium added.”
这意味着如果把半个俾路支省放在一个与洛基山东部的美国加拿大安大略省和比利时相加的领土上，你占据的空间比例就差不多了。

“Is that so, sport?” said Joe, genially. —
“是吗，小伙子？”乔友好地说道。” —

“You are Weisenheimer on figures, all right. —
你对数字可真是大话连篇。 —

How many square pounds of baled hay do you think a jackass could eat if he stopped brayin’ long enough to keep still a minute and five eighths?”
如果一只驴子在停下鸣叫足够时间安静了一分五八分钟，你认为它能吃多少平方磅的压缩干草？

A few minutes later Daisy and Mr. Dabster stepped from an elevator to the top floor of the skyscraper. —
几分钟后，黛西和达布斯特从电梯走出来，来到了摩天大楼的顶楼。 —

Then up a short, steep stairway and out upon the roof. —
然后上一段陡峭的楼梯，走出屋顶。 —

Dabster led her to the parapet so she could look down at the black dots moving in the street below.
达布斯特带她走到护墙边，这样她可以俯瞰下面街道上移动的黑点。

“What are they?” she asked, trembling. —
“它们是什么？”她颤抖着问道。 —

She had never before been on a height like this before.
她以前从未站在这么高的地方。

And then Dabster must needs play the philosopher on the tower, and conduct her soul forth to meet the immensity of space.
那时，Dabster 必须扮演哲学家的角色站在塔上，引导她的灵魂去迎接无尽的空间。

“Bipeds,” he said, solemnly. —
“双足动物，”他庄重地说道。 —

“See what they become even at the small elevation of 340 feet - mere crawling insects going to and fro at random.”
“看他们在仅有340英尺高度的地方是怎样变成了仅仅爬行的昆虫，随机地往返。”

“Oh, they ain’t anything of the kind,” exclaimed Daisy, suddenly - “they’re folks! —
“哦，他们可不是那样的，”黛西突然惊呼道。“他们是人！我看到了一辆汽车。 —

I saw an automobile. Oh, gee! —
哎呀，天啊！ —

are we that high up?”
我们真的这么高吗？”

“Walk over this way,” said Dabster.
“走到这边来，”Dabster说道。

He showed her the great city lying like an orderly array of toys far below, starred here and there, early as it was, by the first beacon lights of the winter afternoon. —
他向她展示了遥远的大城市，如同一排排整齐的玩具，远远地望去，依稀可见这个寒冬下午的第一批灯塔闪烁着的光点。 —

And then the bay and sea to the south and east vanishing mysteriously into the sky.
然后，向南和东方的海湾和大海神秘地消失在天空之中。

“I don’t like it,” declared Daisy, with troubled blue eyes. —
“我不喜欢这个，”黛西用忧虑的蓝色眼睛说道。 —

“Say we go down.”
“我们下去吧。”

But the philosopher was not to be denied his opportunity. —
但是哲学家并不打算放弃这个机会。 —

He would let her behold the grandeur of his mind, the half-nelson he had on the infinite, and the memory he had for statistics. —
他要让她目睹他的思想的伟大，他对无限的完全掌控，以及他对统计数据的记忆。 —

And then she would nevermore be content to buy chewing gum aat the smallest store in New York. And so he began to prate of the smallness of human affairs, and how that even so slight a removal from earth made man and his works look like one tenth part of a dollar thrice computed. —
然后她再也不会满足于在纽约最小的商店里买口香糖了。于是他开始喋喋不休地谈论人类事务之微小，以及即使只是离地球稍微远一点，人和他的作品看起来就像是一美元的十分之一经过三次计算。 —

And that one should consider the sidereal system and the maxims of Epictetus and be comforted.
而人们应该考虑星座系统和Epictetus的格言来获得安慰。

“You don’t carry me with you,” said Daisy. “Say, I think it’s awful to be up so high that folks look like fleas. —
“你没有带上我，” Daisy说。”说实话，我觉得高得能看到人们像跳蚤一样的地方太可怕了。 —

One of them we saw might have been Joe. Why, Jiminy! —
我们看到了一个可能是乔的人。天啊！ —

we might as well be in New Jersey! —
我们可能真的在新泽西！说实话， —

Say, I’m afraid up here!”
我害怕在这里！”

The philosopher smiled fatuously.
这位哲学家幸福地笑了。

“The earth,” said he, “is itself only as a grain of wheat in space. —
“地球，”他说，”在太空中只不过是一颗小麦粒而已。 —

Look up there.”
看那儿上面。”

Daisy gazed upward apprehensively. —
Daisy忧虑地抬头看着上面。 —

The short day was spent and the stars were coming out above.
短暂的白天已经过去，星星正在上方升起。

“Yonder star,” said Dabster, “is Venus, the evening star. She is 66,000, 000 miles from the sun.”
“那颗星星，”Dabster说，”是金星，晚上的明星。她离太阳有六千六百万英里远。”

“Fudge!” said Daisy, with a brief flash of spirit, “where do you think I come from - Brooklyn? —
“天啊！”戴茜气愤地说道，“你以为我是从布鲁克林来的吗？” —

Susie Price, in our store - her brother sent her a ticket to go to San Francisco - that’s only three thousand miles.”
在我们商店里的苏茜·普莱斯 - 她的哥哥给她寄了一张去旧金山的机票 - 只有三千英里而已。

The philosopher smiled indulgently.
哲学家和善地微笑着。

“Our world,” he said, “is 91,000,000 miles from the sun. —
“我们的世界，”他说道， —

There are eighteen stars of the first magnitude that are 211, 000 times further from us than the sun is. —
“距离太阳有九千一百万英里。有十八颗一等星，比太阳离我们远两百一十一万倍。 —

If one of them should be extinguished it would be three years before we would see its light go out. —
如果其中一颗熄灭了，我们需要三年才能看到它的光消失。 —

There are six thousand stars of the sixth magnitude. —
地球上有六千颗六等星。 —

It takes thirty-six years for the light of one of them to reach the earth. —
其中一颗星的光需要三十六年才能到达地球。 —

With an eighteen-foot telescope we can see 43,000,000 stars, including those of the thirteenth magnitude, whose light takes 2,700 years to reach us. —
通过一个十八英尺的望远镜，我们可以看到四千三百万颗星，包括那些需要二千七百年才能到达我们的十三等星。 —

Each of these stars -”
这些星星中的每一颗 - ”

“You’re lyin’,” cried Daisy, angrily. —
“你在撒谎！”戴茜愤怒地叫道， —

“You’re tryin’ to scare me. —
“你在吓唬我。 —

And you have; I want to go down!”
你成功了；我要下去！”

She stamped her foot.
她生气地跺了一脚。

“Arcturus -” began the philosopher, soothingly, but he was interrupted by a demonstration out of the vastness of the nature that he was endeavoring to portray with his memory instead of his heart. —
“亚班德凯撒 -”哲学家开始说话，语气温和，但他的话被一场展示性的事件打断了。他试图用记忆而非心灵来描绘他所努力描绘的天地广袤。 —

For to the heart-expounder of nature the stars were set in the firmament expressly to give soft light to lovers wandering happily beneath them; —
对于那位以内心诠释自然的哲学家来说，星星是置于天空中的，专门为了给幸福漫步的情侣们提供柔和的光芒； —

and if you stand tiptoe some September night with your sweetheart on your arm you can almost touch them with your hand. —
当你带着你的甜心挺起脚尖在一个九月的夜晚站立时，你几乎可以用手触摸到它们。 —

Three years for their light to reach us, indeed!
这确实需要三年的时间才能够看到它们的光芒抵达我们这里！

Out of the west leaped a meteor, lighting the roof of the skyscraper almost to midday. —
一颗流星从西方跃起，将摩天大楼的屋顶照亮得近乎正午。 —

Its fiery parabola was limned against the sky toward the east. —
它燃烧着在东方的天空中绘出抛物线的轨迹。 —

It hissed as it went, and Daisy screamed.
它在飞过时发出嘶嘶声，黛西尖叫起来。

“Take me down,” she cried, vehemently, “you - you mental arithmetic!”
“带我下去！”她情绪激动地喊道，“你这个……你这个心理算术家！”

Dabster got her to the elevator, and inside of it. —
达伯斯特把她带到了电梯里，进了电梯。 —

She was wild-eyed, and she shuddered when the express made its debilitating drop.
她眼神狂野，当电梯进行剧烈的下降时，她颤抖不已。

Outside the revolving door of the skyscraper the philosopher lost her. —
在摩天大楼旋转门外，那位哲学家失去了她。 —

She vanished; —
她消失了； —

and he stood, bewildered, without figures or statistics to aid him.
他站在那里，困惑不解，没有数字或统计数据可以帮助他。

Joe had a lull in trade, and by squirming among his stock succeeded in lighting a cigarette and getting one cold foot against the attenuated stove.
乔的生意停滞了下来，他在库存中扭动着身子成功地点燃了一支香烟，把一只冷脚靠在了瘦弱的炉子上。

The door was burst open, and Daisy, laughing, crying, scattering fruit and candies, tumbled into his arms.
门被猛然推开，黛西笑着，哭着，撒着水果和糖果，摔进了他的怀里。

“Oh, Joe, I’ve been up on the skyscraper. —
“哦，乔，我刚刚在摩天大楼上。 —

Ain’t it cozy and warm and homelike in here! —
这里舒适、温暖、像家一样！ —

I’m ready for you, Joe, whenever you want me.”
乔，你随时可以拿我。”