My Favorite Fruit
By A. A. Milne
Of the fruits of the year I give my vote to the orange.
In the first place it is a perennial—if not in actual fact, at last in the greengrocer’s shop. On the days when dessert is a name given to a handful of chocolates and a little preserved dinger, when macedoine de fruits is the title bestowed on two prunes and a piece of rhubarbs, then the orange, however sour, comes nobly to the rescue; and on those other days of plenty when cherries and strawberries and raspberries and gooseberries riot together upon the table, the orange, sweeter than ever, is still there to hold its own. Bread and butter, beef and mutton, eggs and bacon, are not more necessary to an ordered existence than the orange.
It is well that the commonest fruit should be also the best. Of the virtues of the orange I have not room fully to speak. It has properties of health giving, as that it cures influenza and establishes the complexion. It is clean, for whoever handles it on its way to your table, but handles its outer covering, its top coat, which is left in the hall. It is round, and forms an excellent substitute with the young for a cricket ball. The pip can be flicked at your enemies, and quite a small piece of peel makes a slide for an old gentleman.
But all this would count nothing had not the orange such delightful qualities of taste. I dare not let myself go upon this subject. I am a slave to its sweetness. I grudge every marriage in that it means a fresh supply of orange blossom, the promise of so much golden fruit cut short. However, the world must go on.
Yet with the orange we do live in year and year out. That speaks well for the orange. The fact is that there is honesty about the orange which appeals to all of us. If it is going to be bad--- for the best of us are bad sometimes--- it begins to be bad from the outside, not from the inside. How many a pear which presents a blooming face to the world is rotten at the core. How many an innocent-looking apple is harbouring a worm in the bud. But the orange has no secret faults. Its outside is a mirror of its inside, and if you are quick you can tell the shopman so before he slips it into the bag.
参考译文
我钟爱的水果
在一年四季的水果中，我最为推崇的就是柑橘了。
首先，柑橘一年四季都有的吃——即使其不是四季结果；至少在水果店里常年有售。一年中有些时日，几块巧克力和一点蜜饯生姜就被称为餐后的水果甜点，两块梅脯加一片大黄便被冠以什锦果羹的美称。此时，柑橘虽然仍酸涩未熟，便侠肝义胆地前来救急了。到了水果丰盛的季节，当樱桃、草莓、木梅、醋栗争相挤上餐桌时，比任何时候都更为甜美的柑橘却依然坚守在自己的岗位上。对于人们的日常生活而言，面包和黄油、牛肉和羊肉、鸡蛋和咸肉都未必比得上柑橘那么必不可缺。
这种最普通的水果恰恰就是最好的水果，这是我们的福气。其优点言之无尽。柑橘有益于健康，可以治疗流感，可以滋养皮肤。柑橘干净卫生，不管是谁把它拿上餐桌时都只触到它的表皮，表皮就如同外衣，被脱到了餐厅里。柑橘是圆形的，孩子们用其来代替板球是再好不过了。柑橘的核可以用来弹射你的对头，一片小小的橘皮就可以让一个老先生滑个趔趄。
但是，如果柑橘没有其甜美可口的味道，上述的一切便不足挂齿了。我简直不敢纵情谈论这个话题，因为我完全被柑橘的甜美征服了。每一场婚礼都使我感到痛惜，它意味着又要献上一大束橘花，致使那么多本来可望成熟的金黄色的果子夭折了。无奈，这个世界总得世代繁衍呀。
我们年复一年的生活离不开柑橘，这就充分说明了柑橘的好处。事实上，吸引我们大家的是柑橘那种诚实的品格。如果它开始变坏的话——我们之中最好的人有时也会变坏——它是从外表而不是从内部开始变坏的。有多少梨子向世人露出容光焕发的笑靥，而内部已经烂透了。有多少看上去纯洁无暇的苹果，在发芽时就包藏着蛀虫。而柑橘从不隐藏瑕疵，它的外表就是它内心的一面镜子（或：它表里如一）。如果你眼明手快，店员还来不及将一个坏橘子放进纸袋儿里，你就能指出来了。（靳梅琳译）
