英语巴士网

Mannahatta

分类: 英语诗歌 
by Walt Whitman

    I was asking for something specific and perfect for my city,

    Whereupon lo! upsprang the aboriginal name.

    Now I see what there is in a name, a word, liquid, sane, unruly, musical, self-sufficient,

    I see that the word of my city is that word from of old,

    Because I see that word nested in nests of water-bays,superb,

    Rich, hemm'd thick all around with sailships and

    steamships, an island sixteen miles long, solid-founded,

    Numberless crowded streets, high growths of iron, slender,

    strong, light, splendidly uprising toward clear skies,

    Tides swift and ample, well-loved by me, toward sundown,

    The flowing sea-currents, the little islands, larger adjoining islands, the heights, the villas,

    The countless masts, the white shore-steamers, the lighters,

    the ferry-boats, the black sea-steamers well-model'd,

    The down-town streets, the jobbers' houses of business, the

    houses of business of the ship-merchants and money-brokers, the river-streets,

    Immigrants arriving, fifteen or twenty thousand in a week,

    The carts hauling goods, the manly race of drivers of horses,the brown-faced sailors,

    The summer air, the bright sun shining, and the sailing clouds aloft,

    The winter snows, the sleigh-bells, the broken ice in the

    river, passing along up or down with the flood-tide or ebb-tide,

    The mechanics of the city, the masters, well-form'd,

    beautiful-faced, looking you straight in the eyes,

    Trottoirs throng'd, vehicles, Broadway, the women, the shops and shows,

    A million people——manners free and superb——open voices——

    hospitality——the most courageous and friendly young men,

    City of hurried and sparkling waters! city of spires and masts!

    City nested in bays! my city!

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