《凯尔特的薄暮》是爱尔兰著名诗人叶芝的代表作之一，本文节选自其中的一篇，因篇幅所限，有删节。标题不用听写
Last summer, whenever I had finished my day’s work, I used to go wandering in certain roomy woods, and there I would often meet an old countryman, and talk to him about his work and about the woods. He had spent all his life lopping away the witch elm and the hazel and the privet and the hornbeam from the paths, and had thought much about the natural and supernatural creatures of the wood. He has heard the hedgehog—he calls him—“grunting like a Christian,” and is certain that he steals apples by rolling about under an apple tree until there is an apple sticking to every quill. He is certain too that the cats, of whom there are many in the woods, have a language of their own—some kind of old Irish. He says, “Cats were serpents, and they were made into cats at the time of some great change in the world. That is why they are hard to kill, and why it is dangerous to meddle with them. If you annoy a cat it might claw or bite you in a way that would put poison in you, and that would be the serpent’s tooth.” Sometimes he thinks they change into wild cats, and then a nail grows on the end of their tails; but these wild cats are not the same as the marten cats, who have been always in the woods. The foxes were once tame, as the cats are now, but they ran away and became wild. He talks of all wild creatures with what seems an affectionate interest, though at times his eyes will twinkle with pleasure as he remembers how he made hedgehogs unroll themselves when he was a boy, by putting a wisp of burning straw under them.
去年夏天，我只要一完成每天的工作，就习惯去一个空地儿多的树林散步。在那里，我经常遇见一位老农夫，跟他聊聊他的活计和这片树林。他一辈子都忙着修剪小路上的榆树、榛树、女贞树和角树枝条，对树林里的自然和超自然生物也有过不少思考。他听说过那只刺猬，说它“呼噜叫着，像个基督徒在发牢骚”，他相信那家伙偷苹果的办法是在一棵苹果树下打滚，直到每根刺儿上都穿了一个苹果。他也确信树林里的众多猫群有它们独有的语言——像某种古爱尔兰语。他认为，“猫都是大毒蛇变的，它们在世界发生的某次巨变中变成了猫。所以杀它们不容易，也正是因为这个原因，惹到它们，就危险了。要是你把猫惹怒了，它会抓你咬你，让你中毒，就像大毒蛇用牙施毒一样。”有时，他又认为它们变成了野猫，尾巴末端长爪子；不过野猫和松貂可不一样，后者自古就住在树林里。狐狸曾一度被驯服，像现在的家猫那样，但是它们后来逃走又变野了。他说到各种野生动物时，总是满心爱意，兴致盎然，不过，有时说起小时候的恶作剧——丢一束燃烧的稻草到刺猬身下，逼它们摊开身体——他的双眼会得意地放光。