Preface

 There used to be a little girl who does not come here any more. She is not dead, for when certain things happen, she stirs slightly where she is, perhaps deep within the air. When the sun falls in a particular way, when graham griddle cakes are baking, when the sky laughs sudden blue after a storm, or the town clock points in its clearest you-will-be-late way at nine in the morning, when the moonlight is on the midnight and nothing moves—then, somewhere beyond sealed doors, the little girl says something, and it is plain that she is here all the time.

 

You little child who never have died, in these stories I am trying to tell you that now I come near to understanding you. I see you still, with your over-long hair and your over-much chattering¹, your naughtiness and your dreams. I know the qualities that made you disagreeable and those that made you dear, and I look on you somewhat as spirit looks on spirit, understanding from within. I wish that we could live it again, you and I—not all of it, by any means, and not for a serious business; but now and then, for a joy and for an idleness. And this book is a way of trying to do it over again, together.

 

Will you care to come from the quiet where you are, near to me and yet remote? I think that you will come, for you were wont² untiringly to wonder about me. And now here I am, come true, so faintly like her whom you dreamed, yet so like you yourself, your child, fruit of your spirit, you little shadowy mother....

xii If only words were moments

And I knew where they fly,

I’d make a tale of time itself

To tell you by and bye.

If only words were fathoms³

That let us by for pearls⁴,

I’d make a story ocean-strange

For little boys and girls.

But words are only shadow things.

I summon⁵ all I may.

Oh, see—they try to spell out Life!

Let’s act it, like a play.

 

1 chattering   

n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class. 老师叫孩子们在课堂上不要叽叽喳喳讲话。
• I was so cold that my teeth were chattering. 我冷得牙齿直打战。

2 wont   

adj.习惯于；v.习惯；n.习惯

参考例句：

• He was wont to say that children are lazy.他常常说小孩子们懒惰。
• It is his wont to get up early.早起是他的习惯。

3 fathoms   

英寻( fathom的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The harbour is four fathoms deep. 港深为四英寻。
• One bait was down forty fathoms. 有个鱼饵下沉到四十英寻的深处。

4 pearls   

n.珍珠( pearl的名词复数 )；珍品；人造珍珠；珠状物

参考例句：

• a necklace of rubies intertwined with pearls 缠着珍珠的红宝石项链
• a string of pearls 一挂珍珠

5 summon   

vt.召唤，传唤，鼓起，振作，召集，召开

参考例句：

• He could not summon the courage to tell them about it.他鼓不起勇气告诉他们那件事。
• He pedaled off to summon a doctor.他骑脚踏车去叫医生。