specify翻译Mr.DohettyBuildsHisDreamLife原文和翻译

2021年1月19日发(作者：freezing)
In America many people have a romantic idea of life in the countryside. Many
living in towns dream of starting up their own farm, of
living off the land. Few get
round to putting their dreams into practice. This is perhaps just as well, as the life of
farmer is far from easy, as Jim Doherty discovered when he set out to combine being
a
writer
with
running
a
farm.
Nevertheless,
as
he
explains,
he
has
no
regrets
and
remains enthusiastic about his decision to change his way of life.

y Build His Dream Life

Jim Doherty

1
、

There are two things I have always want to do – write and live on a farm.
Today I’m doing both. I’m not in E.B. white’s class as a writer or in my neighbors’
league as
a farmer,
but
I’m
getting by.
And
after
years
of frustration
with
city
and suburban living, my wife Sandy and I have finally found contentment here in
the country.

2
、

It’s a self
-
reliant sort of life. We grow nearly all of fruits and vegetables.
Our hens keep us in eggs, with several dozen left over to sell each week.
Our
bees
provide
us
with
honey,
and
we
cut
enough
wood
to
just
about
make
it
through the heating season.

3
、

It’s a satisfying life too. In the summer, we canoe on the river, go picking
in the woods, and take long bicycle rides. In the winter, we ski and skate, we get
excited about sunsets. We love the smell of the earth warming and the sound of
cattle lowing. We watch for hawks in the sky and deer in the cornfields.

4
、

But the good life can get pretty tough. There month ago when it was 30
below,
we
spent
two
miserable
days
hauling
firewood
up
the
river
on
a
sled.
There
months
from
now,
it
will
be
95
above
and
we
will
be
cultivating
corn,
weeding strawberries and killing chickens. Recently, Sandy and I had to retile the
back roof. Soon Jim, 16 and Emily, 13, the youngest of our four children will help
me
makes
some
long
-
overdue
improvements
on
the
outdoor
toilet
that
supplements our indoor plumbing when we are working in the outside. Later in
this month, we’ll spary the o, clean the bar, plant the garden, and clean the hens
house before the new chick arrive.

5
、

In between such chores, I manage to spent 50 to 60 hours a week at the
typewrite
or
doing
reporting
for
the
freelance
articles
I
sell
to
magazines
and
newspapers. Sandy, meanwhile, pursues her own demanding schedule. Besides

the
usual
household
routine,
she
oversees
the
garden
and
beehives,
bakes
bread, cans and freezes, drives the kids to their music class, practices with them,
takes
organ
lessons
on
her
own,
dose
research
and
typing
for
me,
write
an
article
herself
now
and
then,
tends
the
flower
beds,
stacks
a
little
wood
and
delivers the eggs. There is, as the old saying goes, no rest for the wicked on a
place like this, and not much for the virtuous either.

6
、

None of us will ever forget our first winter, we were buried under five
feet of snow from the December through March. While one storm after another
blasted
huge
drifts
up
against
the
house
and
barn,
we
kept
warming
inside
burning our own wood, eating our own apples and loving every minute of it.

7
、

When
spring
came,
it
brought
two
floods.
First
the
river
overflowed,
covering
much
of
our
land
for
weeks.
Then
the
growing
season
began,
swamping
us
under
wave
after
wave
of
produce.
Our
freezer
filled
up
with
cherries, raspberries, strawberries, asparagus, peas, beans and corn.
Then our
canned
-
goods
shelves
and
cupboards
began
to
grow
with
preserves,
tomato
juice,
grape
juice,
plums,
jams
and
jellies.
Eventually,
the
basement
floor
disappeared under piles of potatoes, squash and pumpkins, and the barn began
to fill with apples and pears. It was amazing.

8
、

The
next
year,
we
grow
even
more
food
and
managed
to
get
through
the
winter
on
firewood
that
was
mostly
from
our
own
trees
and
only
100
gallons of heating oil. At that point I began thinking seriously about quitting my
job and starting to freelance. The timing was terrible. By then, Shawn and Amy,
our oldest girls were attending expensive Ivy League Schools and we had only a
few thousand dollars in the bank. Yet we kept coming back to the same question:
will there ever be a better time? The answer decidedly, was no, and so – with
my
employer’s
blessings
and
half
years
pay
in
accumulated
benefits
in
my
pocket – off I went.

9
、

There
have
been
a
few
anxious
moments
since
then,
but
on
balance
things
have
gone
much
better
than
we
had
any
right
to
expect.
For
various
stories of mine, I’ve crawled into black
-
bear dens for Sports Illustrated, hitched
up
dogsled
racing
teams
for
Smithsonian
magazine,
checked
out
the
Lack
Champlain
“monster”
for
Science
Digest,
and
canoed
through
the
Boundary
waters wilderness area of Minnesota for Destinations.

10
、

I
’m
not
making
anywhere
near
as
much
money
as
I
did
when
I
was
employed full time, but now we don’t need as much either. I generate enough
income
to
handle
our
$$600
-
a
-
month
mortgage


payments
plus
the
usual
expenses for a family like ours. That includes everything from music lessons and
dental
bills
to
car
repairs
and
college
costs.
When
it
comes
to
insurance,
we
have a poor men’s major
-
medical policy. We have to pay the first 500 dollars of
any
medical
fees
for
each
member
of
the
family.
It
picks
up
80%
of
the
costs
beyond that. Although we are stuck with paying minor expenses, our premium
is low
-
Only 560 dollars a year
-
and we are covered against catastrophe. Aside
from
that
and
the
policy
on
our
two
cars
at
$$400
a
year,
we
have
no
other
insurance. But we are setting aside $$2000 a year in an IRA.

11
、

W
e’ve been an able to make up the difference in income by cutting back
without
appreciably
lowering
our
standard
of
living.
We
continue
to
dine
out
once or twice a month, but now we patronize local restaurants instead of more
expensive places in the city. We still attend opera and ballet in Milwaukee but
only
a few times
a
year.
We
eat
less
meat,
drink
cheaper
wine
and
see fewer
movies. Extravagant Christmases are a memory, and we combine vacations with
story assignments...

12
、

I

suspect
not
every
who
loves
the
country
would
be
happy
living
the
way we do. It takes a couple of special qualities. One is a tolerance for solitude.
Because we are so busy and on such a tight budget, we don’t entertain much.
During the growing season there is no time for socializing anyway. Jim and Emily
are involved in school activities, but they too spend most of their time at home.





13
、

T
he
other
requirement
is
energy
-

a
lot
of
it.
The
way
to
make
self
-
sufficiency work on a small scale is to resist the temptation to buy a tractor
and
other
expensive
laborsaving
devices.

Instead,
you
do
the
work
yourself.
The
only
machinery
we
own
(not
counting
the
lawn
mower)
is
a
little
three
-
horsepower rotary cultivator and a 16
-
inch chain saw.

14
、

H
ow much longer we’ll have enough energy to stay on here is anybody’s
guess
-
perhaps for quite a while, perhaps not. When the time comes, we will
leave with a feeling of sorrow but also with a sense of pride at what we’ve been
able to accomplish. We should make a fire profit on the sale of the place, too.
We’ve invested about $$35,000 of our own money in it, and we could just about
double that if we sold today. But this is not a good time to sell. Once economic
conditions
improve,
however,
demand
for
farms
like
ours
should
be
strong
again.

15
、

W
e
didn’t
move
here
primarily
to
earn
money
though.
We
came
because
we
wanted
to
improve
the
quality
of
our
lives.
When
I
watch
Emily
collecting
eggs
in
the
evening,
fishing
with
Jim
on
the
river
or
enjoying
an
old
-
fashioned picnic in the orchard with the entire family,
I know we’ve found
just what we were looking for.

在美国，
不少人对乡村生活怀有浪漫的情感。
许 多居住在城镇的人梦想着自
己办个农庄，梦想着靠土地为生。很少有人真去把梦想变为现实。或许，这也 没
什么不好，
因为，
正如吉姆·
多尔蒂当初开始其写作和农场经营双重生涯时 所体
验到的那样，农耕生活远非轻松自在。但他写到，自己并不后悔，对自己做出的
改变生活方 式的决定仍热情不减。

多尔蒂先生创建自己的理想生活。

Jim Doherty

1
、

有两件事情是我一直想做的
—写作与务农。
如今，
我同时做着两件事情。
作为作家，我和
E.B. W hite
不属同一等级，作为农场主，我和乡邻也不
是同一类人，不过我应付的还行。在城市以 及郊区历经多年的怅惘失望
之后，我和妻子桑迪终于在这里的乡村寻觅到心灵的满足。

2
、

这是一种自力更生的生活。我们食用的果蔬几乎都是自己种的。自家饲
养的
提供鸡蛋，
每星期还能剩余几十个出售。
自己养殖的蜜蜂提供蜂
蜜，我们还自己动手砍柴，足以供过冬取暖之用。

3
、

这也是一 种令人满足的生活。夏日里我们在河上荡舟，在林子里野餐，
骑着自行车长时间漫游。冬日里我们滑雪溜 冰。我们为落日的余晖而激
动。
我们爱闻大地回暖的气息，
爱听牛群哞叫。
我 们守着看鹰飞过上空，
看玉米田间鹿群嬉跃。

4
、

但是 如此美妙的生活有时会变得相当艰苦。就在
3
个月前，气温降到华
氏零下
30
度，我们辛苦劳作了整整两天，用一个雪橇沿着河边托运木
材。再过
3
个月， 气温会升到
95
度，我们就要给玉米松土，在草莓地
除草，还要宰杀家禽。前一阵子， 我和桑迪不得不翻修后屋顶。过些时
候，四个孩子中的两个小的，
16
岁的吉米和13
岁的艾米丽，会帮着我
把拖了很久没修的室外厕所修葺一下，那是专为室外干活修建的 。这个
月晚些时候，我们要给果树喷洒药水，要油漆谷仓，要给菜园播种，要
赶在新的小鸡运到 之前清扫鸡舍。

5
、

在这些活计之间，我每周要抽空花五、六十 个小时，不是打字撰文，就
是为作为自由撰稿人投给报刊的文章进行采访。桑迪则有她自己
< br>的工
作日程。除了日常的家务，她还照管菜园和蜂蜜，烘烤面包，将食品装
罐，冷藏，开 车送孩子学音乐，和他们一起练习，自己还要上风琴课，
为我做些研究工作，并打字，自己有时也写写文 章，还要侍弄花圃，堆
摞木材、运送鸡蛋。正如老话说的那样，在这种情形下，坏人不得闲
—< br>贤德之人也歇不了。

6
、

我们谁也不会忘记第一年的冬天 。从
12
月一直到
3
月底，我们都被深
达
5
英尺的 积雪困着。暴风雪肆虐，一场接着一场，积雪厚厚地覆盖着
屋子和谷仓，而室内，我们用自己砍伐的木材 取暖，吃着自家中种植的
苹果，温馨快乐每一分钟。

7
、

开春后，有过两次泛滥。一次是河水外溢，我们不少田地被淹了几个星
期。接着一次是生长季节到了， 一波接一波的农产品潮涌而来，弄得我
们应接不暇。我们的冰箱里塞满了
、蓝莓、
、芦 笋、豌豆、青豆
和玉米。接着我们存放食品罐的架子上、柜橱里也开始堆满一罐罐的腌
渍食品， 有番茄汁、
汁、李子、果酱和果冻
。最后，
地窖遍地是大堆大堆的土豆、
西葫 芦、
南瓜，
谷仓里也储满了苹果和梨。
真是太美妙了。

8
、

第二年我们种了更多的作物，差不多就靠着从自家树林砍的木柴以及< br>100
加仑的燃油过了冬。当时，我开始认真
起了辞了职去从
事自由撰稿的事来 。时机选的太差。当时，两个大女儿肖恩和艾米正在
费用很高的常春藤学校上学，而我们只有几千美金的 银行存款。但我们
一再回到一个老问题上来：
真的会有更好的时机吗？答案无疑是否定的。于是，带着老板的祝福，口袋里揣着作为累积津贴的半年薪水，我
走了。