IT WAS the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens 的《双城记》，开头如是说，这是最好的年代，这是最坏的年代。
今天到大众书局买了这本英文书，终于可以尝一尝经典的滋味。
Rabindranath Tagore was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj philosopher, visual artist, playwright, novelist, and composer whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.
A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta, Tagore first wrote poems at the age of eight. At the age of sixteen, he published his first substantial poetry under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") and wrote his first short stories and dramas in 1877. His home schooling, life in Shilaidaha, and travels made Tagore a nonconformist and pragmatist. Tagore strongly protested against the British Raj and gave his support to the Indian Independence Movement and Mahatma Gandhi. Tagore's life was tragic—he lost virtually his entire family and was devastated to witness Bengal's decline—but his life's work endured, in the form of his poetry and the institution he founded, Visva-Bharati University.
Tagore wrote novels, short stories, songs, dance-dramas, and essays on political and personal topics. Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World) are among his best-known works. His verse, short stories, and novels, which often exhibited rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation, received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bengali art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his rabindrasangeet canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.
月光
文：伊京
一道微弱但温暖的光芒，轻轻伏在他左边侧脸上，攀爬。
光芒轻轻地揉着那深深的刀痕，来回轻抚，舒缓那直达骨髓的痛楚。
那一道道伤痕仿佛融化在雪白的光芒之中，然后随着迎面而来的风，散。
初一，月华初现。
一道微弱但温暖的光芒，轻轻站在他左边身旁。
光芒温柔地拂去那深深的泪痕，来回轻抚，滚烫那直透灵魂的寒冷。
雪白得就像月光。
是人，是月？
宇宙唯有那绝美的脸庞。
今夜，牡丹盛放。
他突然觉得，他是活着的。
而且，还要继续活下去！
这是他第一次感受到“活着”的滋味。
他赫然发现，他的人生依然彻底改变。
那双闪烁的星光，盯住那漆黑的窗，照亮了黑暗。
他突然觉得，不止要活下去，而且绝对不可以死！
不可以！
发如雪
