双城记 (1)

那是最美好的时期，那是最堕落的时期；那是智慧的岁月，那是没有开化的岁月；那是信仰坚定的时代，那是怀疑一切的时代；那是阳光明媚的季节，那是黑夜深重的季节；那是满怀希望的春天，那是令人绝望的冬天；人们拥有一切，人们一无所有；人们直入天堂，人们直堕地狱...... 总而言之，那个时代与现在极其相似，以至于那时名噪一时的某些权威们坚持只用比较级中的最高级修辞形式对它进行评判，不论是好是坏。

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

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好多年前在买买提上看到一个人写回国见闻，半纪实半小说的形式。那篇见闻写得水平一般，现在我已经完全不记得里面都写了些什么了，但是见闻的开头引用了《双城记》的开篇做开头，給了我深刻的震撼。《双城记》是上大学的时候读的，除了中学英语课本里摘选的那一段，其它的我读过之后也都忘记了，对开篇也没有一点印象。最近因为读《艰难的制造》，重新找出来《双城记》做对照。现在重读，开篇給人的震撼依然如故。这几句话写得真好！