诗心

After love
by Jack Gilbert

He is watching the music with his eyes cloesd.

Hearing the piano like a man moving

through the woods thinking by feeling.

The orchestra up in the trees, the heart below,

step by step. The music hurrying sometimes,

but always returning to quiet, like the man

remembering and hoping. It is a thing in us,

mostly unnoticed. There is somehow pleasure

in the loss. In the yearning. The pain

going this way and that. Never again.

Never bodied again. Again the never.

Slowly. No undergrowth. Almost leaving.

A humming beauty in the silence.

The having been. Having had. And the man

knowing all of him will come to the end.

Summary of a documentary

看了BBC的纪录片Seven Wonders of the Industrial World关于伦敦下水道的一集，写了个summary贴上来，留着看。许久不写英文了，生疏了。

The Sewer of London

London has grown into a metropolis since the Industrial Revolution during the 19^th century. With the development of the industry and a large wave of workers, London became one of the biggest, the richest and the most densely populated cities on the face of the earth. However, a problem of public health was beginning to emerge, say, the human waste which would cause a terrible epidemic in London.

The residents, especially the poors, lived in fear of death. The air was not fit to breathe. A disastrous epidemic, called cholera, was spreading in the city. The Sewage Council was established by the government. People there nevertheless argued, resigned and regrouped, but agreed on nothing, and nothing was done. The Londoners suffered from the fatal disease. Parents lost their children, and moreover, lots of children were orphaned. But the government had no idea what to do.

Man came to save the londoners. His name is Joseph Bazalgette, an excellent engineer who was dedicated to his work. Bazalgette improved the decision of building a sewer to take the human waste off London. And in this way the disease would be stopped from spreading.

It took several years to convince the politicians. And after 7 years of planning, endless setbacks, rejections and disappointments, the politicians gave Bazalgette 3 million pounds and told him to start immediately.

Meanwhile, an epidemiologist, Dr. John Snow discovered the source of cholera is the pollution of the water supply. These two great brains encountered each other even without seeing or talking.

The distinguished work was accomplished in 1865. All the waste water was taken in the direction of the sea. The Londoners applauded for Bazalgette’s engineering marvel. Bazalgette saved a large number of lives, for which a statue was made in memory of him and his valuable contribution.

热爱黑咖啡

三杯黑咖啡的直接后果就是失眠。
手边的陶瓷杯底余下几滴冷的咖啡，做语料库的作业时，在网上查关于反恐的文章，逛到联合国的网站，在这里放一个地址http://www.un.org/french/，跟黑咖啡还蛮配的呢。