The Future of the English 第一段译文

To write about the English in standard and cosmopolitan political terms, the usual Left-Centre-Right stuff, is almost always wasting time and trouble. The English are different. The English are even more different than they think they are, though not more different than they feel they are. And what they feel – Englishness again – is more important than what they think. It is instinctive feeling and not rational thought that shapes and colours actual events in England.

若想用标准的、世界上流行的政治术语，即通常的左、中、右三派这种陈腔老调来描述英国人的话，那多半是费力而不讨好。英国人可是与众不同。他们甚至比自己想象中的英国人还要不同，尽管同他们自己感觉中的英国人差不多。而他们所感觉到的——这一点再次反映出英国人的特性——比他们想象到的更为重要。在英国，决定实际事件的形式和色彩的，不是理性思维，而是本能感觉。