An Invitation

Dear Lin Sheng,

 

I have been studying in England for one year and enjoyed the natural and cultural environment here. As I once majored in English, it is especially exciting for me to visit Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in London, the hometown of D. H. Lawrence in East Wood, the house of Lord Byron in Ravenshead, the place Robert Burns once stayed in Edinburgh, and so on. The natural scenery here is very impressing as well. Only after seeing those yellow flowers by the waterside, I began to truly understand William Wordsworth’s passion in the poem Daffodils.

 

…

 

Wish to see you soon.

 

Best regards,

 

Shi Chen

 

一篇差點錯過的邀請函，慌亂中只是把它當作簡單的簽證材料——複印、遞交。今天在簽證中心交材料時，偶爾瞟到一眼信上的Daffodils，抛開上下文襲來的一陣感動溫暖。本來已經幾乎放棄的我，實在不願輕易辜負這一番好意，單凴小詩昨天說的一句，一想到小怡和我要過去就興奮得睡不着。恩，我想我們的感受其實差的不多。

 

附：

 

Daffodils (1804)

 

I WANDER’D lonely as a cloud

     That floats on high o’er vales and hills,

When all at once I saw a crowd,

     A host, of golden daffodils;

Beside the lake, beneath the trees,

Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

 

Continuous as the stars that shine

     And twinkle on the Milky Way,

They stretch’d in never-ending line

     Along the margin of a bay:

Ten thousand saw I at a glance,

Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

 

The waves beside them danced; but they

     Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:

A poet could not but be gay,

     In such a jocund company:

I gazed — and gazed — but little thought

What wealth the show to me had brought:

 

For oft, when on my couch I lie

     In vacant or in pensive mood,

They flash upon that inward eye

     Which is the bliss of solitude;

And then my heart with pleasure fills,

And dances with the daffodils.

 

By William Wordsworth (1770-1850).

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