《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 夏 25的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

For two things do my thoughts turn now and then to London. I should like to hear the long note of a master's violin, or the faultless cadence of an exquisite voice, and I should like to see pictures. Music and painting have always meant much to me; here I can enjoy them only in memory.

因为两件事，我时常会想起伦敦。第一件，我想听听大师手中小提琴的悠扬旋律，或者优美嗓音演绎的完美曲调；第二件，我想欣赏绘画。音乐和绘画对我一直意义重大，而在这里，我只能从回忆里欣赏它们。

Of course there is the discomfort of concert-hall and exhibition-rooms. My pleasure in the finest music would be greatly spoilt by having to sit amid a crowd, with some idiot audible on right hand or left, and the show of pictures would give me a headache in the first quarter of an hour. Non sum qualiseram when I waited several hours at the gallery door to hear Patti19, and knew not a moment's fatigue to the end of the concert; or when, at the Academy, I was astonished to find that it was four o'clock, and I had forgotten food since breakfast. The truth is, I do not much enjoy anything nowadays which I cannot enjoy ALONE. It sounds morose; I imagine the comment of good people if they overheard such a confession. Ought I, in truth, to be ashamed of it?

当然，音乐厅和展览室会让人感到不舒适。坐在一大群人中间，听得见旁边某个蠢材的说话声，最优美的音乐给我的愉悦感也会大打折扣；而画展呢，十五分钟就足以让我头痛了。“今我非昔我”，当年，为了听帕蒂演唱，我在剧院门口等上好几个小时，直到音乐会结束也没有一丝倦意；又或者在美术学院，我吃惊地发现已经下午四点，而我从早餐后一点东西都没吃。事实上，如果不能独自欣赏的东西，我现在都不大喜欢了。这听起来有些乖僻，我能想象一般人碰巧听到我这番自白会有什么评论。我难道真得要为此羞愧吗？

I always read the newspaper articles on exhibitions of pictures, and with most pleasure when the pictures are landscapes. The mere names of paintings often gladden me for a whole day—those names which bring before the mind a bit of seashore, a riverside, a glimpse of moorland or of woods. However feeble his criticism, the journalist generally writes with appreciation of these subjects; his descriptions carry me away to all sorts of places which I shall never see again with the bodily eye, and I thank him for his unconscious magic. Much better this, after all, than really going to London and seeing the pictures themselves. They would not disappoint me; I love and honour even the least of English landscape painters; but I should not try to see too many at once, and fall back into my old mood of tired grumbling at the conditions of modern life. For a year or two I have grumbled little—all the better for me.

我一直在读报纸上关于画展的文章，如果是风景画，那我更会愉快非常。单是这些画作的名字，就常能让我快乐一整天—这些名字让我的脑海中浮现出海滨一角、河畔一景、沼泽地或树林的掠影。不管新闻记者的批评多么无力，他在写这些主题时大都怀着欣赏的态度；他的描述把我带到了各种我再也无法亲眼看到的地方，为了这无意识的魔法文笔，我要感谢他。这毕竟要比亲身前往伦敦欣赏那些画作好得多。报纸上的画作不会让我失望，我热爱并尊敬甚至最不起眼的英国风景画家；但是如果一次欣赏太多，我就会对现代生活环境大发牢骚,陷入昔日那种疲乏厌世的情绪。这一两年，我几乎没发什么牢骚—这对我是件好事。