I am the clue-finder, web-cutter, ring-winner, barrel-rider

用英文写作时常常感到词汇匮乏，想不出精确精彩的词。其实很多英文作家的用词很简单，但精妙在造句顺畅。

最近在看“The Thoreau You Don't Know”(你不知道的梭罗) by Robert Sullivan。讲到梭罗出生时的家庭状况时，作者写到，“By the time Thoreau came along, he had a sister, Helen, and a brother, John, and the family money was mostly gone.”只一句话，就把梭罗出生时的家庭成员和经济状况表达得清清楚楚，而且没用一个生僻词，但利用巧妙的押韵让一句简单说明事实的句子读起来像诗歌一样朗朗上口。

Mike最近为我朗读的“The Hobbit”(魔戒前传-哈比人历险记)要接近尾声了，哈比人一行终于找到了巨龙，在巨龙的山洞里，哈比人跟巨龙展开了一段斗智斗勇的对话，巨龙企图从哈比人嘴里得知他与同伴的身份，聪明的哈比人不想说实话，但又不原意冒说谎话被巨龙识破的风险，于是他这样描述了自己是谁，来自哪里。

“I come from under the hill, and the under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me. I and the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer, and I am Barrel-rider.”

在这一段话里，哈比人概述了整本书到这为止他所有的历险和传奇的遭遇，巨龙对他的这个回答一头雾水，不过相信读者都知道他说的是什么。而且这一段话也没有用任何生僻的词。不得不为J.R.R. Tolkien的文字功力所折服。