Starting study of a second language is like learning to walk as a toddler.
开始学一门外语就像是蹒跚学步的孩子。
As a beginner, you find yourself stumbling around and occasionally falling flat on your back. Over time, you begin to take more ambitious steps, striding unsteadily across the room and clambering up stairs.
作为一个初学者，你会发现自己就像是刚开始学走路的孩子，时不时地还会摔倒。不过渐渐地，你发现自己胆子大了，敢开始迈大步走了，敢蹒跚爬梯了。
As an intermediate learner, the hardest part is behind you. You walk all the time now and, barring the odd setback, your confidence begins to grow. Although you sometimes feel disheartened, each day that passes takes you closer to your goal.
作为一个中级学者，你已经克服了一开始最艰难的部分你不停的转悠，克服种种奇怪的挑战。你的自信不断地增长。虽然有时候你也会受到挫折，但是日复一日地练习让你逐渐达到目标。
Several years go by and you suddenly realise “intermediate” doesn’t apply anymore. Walking has become so natural to you that you don’t give it a moment’s thought. You break into a jog to catch a departing bus or casually run up stairs. You are now an advanced speaker.
经过几年的语言学习之后，你发现自己已经超越了中级的水平。走路已经渐渐变成了你日常生活的一部分，你想都不用想就可以做出来。时常你会去慢跑追赶快要开走的公交车，或者小步快走下楼梯，你已经达到了高级学习者的水平。
Well, imagine if you continued along this route and, instead of settling for mere fluency, you pushed yourself further and further. What would this look like? An elite sprinter perhaps. Usain Bolt or someone else at the absolute pinnacle of their sport. Every muscle toned to perfection, every inch of fat burnt away by long, arduous hours in the gym and on the track. Legs transformed into piston engines propelling yourself forward with an almost unimaginable strength and agility.
想象一下，如果你在这条路上坚持下去，你已经不满足于行走无碍了，你追求的更多，又会发生些什么呢？也许你会成为一名顶尖的短跑选手。就像博尔特，或其他那些顶尖的运动员，他们身上的每块肌肉都堪称完美，在健身房或者跑道上长时间的艰苦训练燃尽了身上多余的脂肪，双腿被训练的有如活塞，以惊人的力量和敏捷性推动你前进。
Returning to our analogy, at this stage you are no longer learning a language. You are a poet.
语言学习也这样，现在，你已经不是一位语言学习者了，而是一位诗人。
American poet and author Rita Dove called poetry “language at its most distilled and its most powerful.” The dedication, sacrifice and sheer stubbornness that is required to learn this art form in a second language is analogous to the efforts it would take to become a World Champion 100m sprinter.
美国诗人作家丽塔·德芙曾经把诗歌誉为
“语言最精萃有力的提取”。同成为一名100米短跑世界冠军一样，想要用外语写出无与伦比的诗歌，也需要无数的努力，心血和牺牲。
Whether mastering a language or the physical act of sprinting, these are things that most people wouldn’t even attempt, let alone succeed at.
不管你要是学精一门外语还是训练成顶尖短跑选手，你需要付出常人无法想象的辛勤努力才可以成功。
So to celebrate World Poetry Day (March 21) we’re going to focus on those who took the plunge into a second (or even a third) language and achieved worldwide acclaim for their efforts. Hopefully this list will inspire your own language learning journeys or even the desire to put pen to paper yourself!
在此，为了庆祝每年3月21日世界诗歌日，让我们在此看一下那些不可思议的诗人，用自己第二语言写出的无与伦比的伟大诗词作品。希望各位可以通过欣赏他们的作品，找到自己需要的学习外语的灵感，不断进步。
为了庆祝3月21日的世界诗歌日，italki为您精心挑选了4位诗人，他们都用二外写出了在世界范围内广受好评的作品。希望能给各位的语言学习之旅带去些许启迪，又或能激励大家提笔写作。
Samuel Beckett (1906-1989)
Irish playwright, novelist and poet Samuel Beckett is best known for his tragicomic take on human existence, epitomised in works such as the absurdist play Waiting for Godot (1953). Widely regarded as one of the most influential writers of the 21st century, he received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
爱尔兰剧作家，小说家，诗人塞缪尔•贝克特，以描写人生百态的悲喜剧而闻名于世。代表作有荒诞喜剧《等待戈多》（Waiting for Godot)。贝克特被誉为21世纪最具影响力的作家之一，并获得1969年诺贝尔文学奖。
He grew up in a suburb of Dublin and studied French, Italian and English at Trinity College, Dublin before leaving Ireland and moving to Paris, where he spent the majority of his adult life. Although mostly known for his writing in English, he published many poems in French, especially during his later years.
贝克特在都柏林的郊区长大，在剑桥大学三一学院上学期间学习了法语和意大利语。之后他离开爱尔兰，前往巴黎定居。虽然他的英文著作举世闻名。但是他同时也出版法语诗词，尤其是在他的晚年生涯之中。
Here’s a verse from Beckett’s poem Dieppe:
je suis ce cours de sable qui glisse
entre le galet et la dune
la pluie d’été pleut sur ma vie
sur moi ma vie qui me fuit me poursuit
et finira le jour de son commencement
And Beckett’s own translation into English:
my way is in the sand flowing
between the shingle and the dune
the summer rain rains on my life
on me my life harrying fleeing
to its beginning to its end
Vladimir Nabokov (1899-1977)
Russian born Vladimir Nabokov was a giant of literature. His first nine novels were written in Russian but he rose to international prominence when he began to write in English. In fact, Nabokov was so confident switching between languages that he translated many of his own works between English and Russian.
俄罗斯作家纳博科夫被公认为文学巨匠。他的前九部著作都以俄文出版，之后他陆续发表英文作品，享誉国际。他本人是语言天才，纳博科夫可以在英文和俄文中自由转换，他的很多作品都是由他亲自翻译成另一种语言的。
The author is best known for his 1955 novel Lolita (ranked fourth in Modern Library’s 100 Best Novels), but it was in 1962’s Pale Fire where he was able to combine both prose and poetry together. In the poem Lines Written in Oregon, we find this famed polyglot writing in English, but mixing in French and German as well.
让纳博科夫名声大作的是他1955年发表的小说《洛丽塔》。（在百部最佳现代小说的评选中名列第四）在其1962年的小说《微暗的火》（pale fire） 中，他尝试用散文和诗词混合起来描写，获得很高评价。在他的诗歌Lines Written in Oregon 中，我们发现这位语言天才还在英文诗词中加入法语和德语，实在是不同凡响。
And I rest where I awoke
In the sea shade — l’ombre glauque —
Of a legendary oak;
Where the woods get ever dimmer,
Where the Phantom Orchids
glimmer —
Esmeralda, immer immer.
Roald Dahl (1916-1990)
Despite being born in Wales, Dahl’s parents were from Norway and he spent the first few years of his life in a Norwegian speaking household. In fact, it’s perhaps the influences of these two languages that account for some of the inventiveness in Dahl’s writing.
尽管罗尔德·达尔出生在威尔士，但是他的父母是挪威人，所以他小时候一直在家里讲挪威语。也许是受两种语言的交叉影响，他在写作方面从小就别具匠心。
We associate the author, of course, with the widely popular children’s stories that have spawned hit movies like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox. Lesser known but equally admired by Dahl fans are his comic poems. The writer even published three full volumes of verse, featuring many of his deliciously dark takes on classic fairy tales.
Roald Dahl被人们众所周知的是他写的儿童作品，像是《查理和巧克力工厂》（Charlie and the Chocolate Factory）, 《了不起的狐狸爸爸》（Matilda and Fantastic Mr Fox）。 但其实达尔写的卡通诗词也是很有名气。他先后出版了3大本诗集，以其特有的黑色幽默重新诠释经典童话故事。
Here’s an excerpt from his poem Three Little Pigs:
下面的文段摘录于他写的诗歌“三只小猪”
The animal I really dig,
Above all others is the pig.
Pigs are noble. Pigs are clever,
Pigs are courteous. However,
Now and then, to break this rule,
One meets a pig who is a fool.
What, for example, would you say,
If strolling through the woods one day,
Right there in front of you you saw
A pig who'd built his house of STRAW?
Kamala Surayya (1934-2009)
Also known by the pen names Madhavidas and Kamala Das, this Indian poet and writer was feted for her honest treatment of female sexuality. Born in the state of Kerala to a father who was a former managing editor of a newspaper and a poet mother, Surayya was surrounded by creativity from a young age. At the age of fifteen she began writing and publishing work in English and Malayalam (an Indian language of her home state).
Kamala Surayya，大众对她的笔名Madhavidas或Kamala Das更为熟知。这位印度作家的作品涉及很多关于女性的话题。 她出生于印度喀拉拉，自幼受报社出版商父亲和诗人母亲的影响，在环境的熏陶下开始对写作情有独钟。她在15岁时，就用英文和印度Malayalam方言出版了很多作品。
This extract perfectly summarises the conflict and difficulties that can arise around writing in languages other than our mother tongue:
以下短篇完美的总结了在非母语写作时会产生的冲突和遇到的困难
I am Indian, very brown, born in
Malabar, I speak three languages, write in
Two, I dream in one. Don’t write in English, they said,
English is not your mother-tongue. Why not leave
Me alone, critics, friends, visiting cousins,
Everyone of You? Why not let me speak in
Any language I like? The language I speak
Becomes mine, its distortions, its queerness
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