《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 - 冬 17的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

Why do I give so much of my time to the reading of history? Is it in any sense profitable to me? What new light can I hope for on the nature of man? What new guidance for the direction of my own life through the few years that may remain to me? But it is with no such purpose that I read these voluminous books; they gratify—or seem to gratify—a mere curiosity; and scarcely have I closed a volume, when the greater part of what I have read in it is forgotten.

为什么我要花那么多时间来阅读历史呢？我从中还会有任何收获吗？我还指望从新的角度去认识人性吗？我的人生方向在余下的岁月中还需要新的指导吗？然而，我并没有抱着这些目的，来阅读这些大部头书籍；它们满足了——或是似乎满足了——一种单纯的好奇心，我一合上书，就忘了刚刚读过的大部分内容。

Heaven forbid that I should remember all! Many a time I have said to myself that I would close the dreadful record of human life, lay it for ever aside, and try to forget it. Somebody declares that history is a manifestation of the triumph of good over evil. The good prevails now and then, no doubt, but how local and transitory is such triumph. If historic tomes had a voice, it would sound as one long moan of anguish. Think steadfastly of the past, and one sees that only by defect of imaginative power can any man endure to dwell with it. History is a nightmare of horrors; we relish it, because we love pictures, and because all that man has suffered is to man rich in interest. But make real to yourself the vision of every blood-stained page—stand in the presence of the ravening conqueror, the savage tyrant—tread the stones of the dungeon and of the torture-room—feel the fire of the stake—hear the cries of that multitude which no man can number, the victims of calamity, of oppression, of fierce injustice in its myriad forms, in every land, in every age—and what joy have you of your historic reading? One would need to be a devil to understand it thus, and yet to delight in it.

天可怜我，不必记住所有的内容！有许多次，我对自己说，我要合上这些人类生命的可怕记载，把它们永远丢在一边，并努力忘却。有人宣称，历史显示的正是善对恶的胜利。毫无疑问，善有时是占了上风，但是这种胜利是局部的、短暂的。如果大部头的历史书籍能发出声音，那会是经久不息的痛苦呻吟声。认认真真地回顾过去，我们便能看到，除非缺乏想象力，否则任何人都无法忍受长久停留其中。历史是一场恐怖的噩梦，我们欣赏它，是因为我们热爱画面，因为人类遭受过的所有苦难都让我们深感兴趣。但若让那些血迹斑斑的书页里的景象在你眼前复活——面对烧杀抢掠的征服者和残忍的暴君——走走地牢和刑堂的石板地面——感受火刑柱的烈火——听听那在每块土地每个时代里遭受多重灾难、压迫和野蛮不公的不可计数的受害者的哭喊——试问你在阅读历史中还能有什么快乐？只有魔鬼才能在理解这些后，还可以从中获得乐趣。

Injustice—there is the loathed crime which curses the memory of the world. The slave doomed by his lord's caprice to perish under tortures—one feels it a dreadful and intolerable thing; but it is merely the crude presentment of what has been done and endured a million times in every stage of civilization. Oh, the last thoughts of those who have agonized unto death amid wrongs to which no man would give ear! That appeal of innocence in anguish to the hard, mute heavens! Were there only one such instance in all the chronicles of time, it should doom the past to abhorred oblivion. Yet injustice, the basest, the most ferocious, is inextricable from warp and woof in the tissue of things gone by. And if anyone soothes himself with the reflection that such outrages can happen no more, that mankind has passed beyond such hideous possibility, he is better acquainted with books than with human nature.

不公——这是令人憎恶的罪行，是对世界历史记载的一种诅咒。奴隶注定要因为主人一时的怪想被折磨致死——人们觉得这是一桩可怕的无法容忍的事情；而在人类文明的每一阶段，这种事发生和被容忍了一百万次，它不过是一个粗糙的表现形式罢了。噢，那些在无人倾听的种种不公中受难而死的人们，他们最后有着怎样的想法啊！那无辜的处在痛苦中的人们向冷酷沉默的苍天发出的求救声！就算在时间的编年史上只有这样一例，时间就应该将历史厌恶地抛到脑后。但是，不公，这个最卑劣和最残忍的东西，无法从过去事物的经纬中分离出来。如果有人安慰自己说，这种暴行不会再发生，人类已经超越了这种丑恶的可能性，那他可能更熟悉书本而非人性。

It were wiser to spend my hours with the books which bring no aftertaste of bitterness—with the great poets whom I love, with the thinkers, with the gentle writers of pages that soothe and tranquillize. Many a volume regards me from the shelf as though reproachfully; shall I never again take it in my hands? Yet the words are golden, and I would fain treasure them all in my heart's memory. Perhaps the last fault of which I shall cure myself is that habit of mind which urges me to seek knowledge. Was I not yesterday on the point of ordering a huge work of erudition, which I should certainly never have read through, and which would only have served to waste precious days? It is the Puritan in my blood, I suppose, which forbids me to recognise frankly that all I have now to do is to ENJOY. This is wisdom. The time for acquisition has gone by. I am not foolish enough to set myself learning a new language; why should I try to store my memory with useless knowledge of the past?

明智一点，我应该花时间阅读那些读完不会留下苦涩回味的书——比如我喜爱的伟大诗人、思想家，以及文字让人感觉安慰和平静的作家。书架上的许多书似乎都在谴责地看着我，我再也不会把它们拿在手里了吗？但那些文字都是极好的，我愿意在心灵的回忆中珍视它们，也许我该改掉的最后一个毛病是渴求知识的思想习惯。昨天我不是还差点订购了一本我肯定不会从头至尾读完、只会用来浪费宝贵时间的深奥巨著吗？我想，也许是血液中的清教徒思想让我不能坦率地承认，现在我要做的就只是“享受”而已，这是明智的。获取知识的时间已经过去，我不会愚蠢到现在开始学习一门新语言。我为什么要在记忆里存储一些属于过去的无用知识呢？

Come, once more before I die I will read Don Quixote.

好啦，在死之前，我会再读一遍《堂吉诃德》。