那是圣诞节的前一夜，整个房子里，没有一个动物在走动，连一只老鼠也没有;袜子被小心地挂在烟囱旁，希望圣尼古拉斯很快就会来;孩子们都舒服地躺在床上，糖梅子的景象在他们的脑子里跳着舞，妈妈裹着头巾，我戴着帽子，我们正准备打一个漫长的冬觉——当外面的草坪上响起这样的喧闹声时，我从床上跳起来，想看看是怎么回事。我像闪电一样飞到窗前，撕开百叶窗，扬起窗扇。月亮映在刚落下的雪的胸前，给下面的物体带来了正午的光辉;当我好奇的眼睛看到的是一辆小型雪橇和八只小驯鹿，还有一个活泼敏捷的小老车夫，我立刻知道那一定是圣诞老人。他们跑得比鹰还快，他吹着口哨，喊着他们的名字:“现在!气宇轩昂的男子,现在!舞者,现在!“跳啊!” Comet, on! Cupid, on! Dunder and Blixem1; "To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! "Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!" As dry leaves before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys—and St. Nicholas too: And then in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound: He was dress'd all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnish'd with ashes and soot; A bundle of toys was flung on his back, And he look'd like a peddler just opening his pack: His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry, His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry; His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow. And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath. He had a broad face, and a little round belly That shook when he laugh'd, like a bowl full of jelly: He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laugh'd when I saw him in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread. He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And fill'd all the stockings; then turn'd with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose. He sprung to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew, like the down of a thistle: But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight— Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night. NOTES: In the year 2000, Don Foster, an English professor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, used external and internal evidence to show that Clement Clarke Moore could not have been the author of this poem, but that it was probably the work of Livingston, and that Moore had written another, and almost forgotten, Christmas piece, "Old Santeclaus." Foster's analysis of this deception appears in his Author Unknown: On the Trail of Anonymous (New York: Henry Holt, 2000): 221-75. 22. 1Later revised to "Donder and Blitzen" by Clement Clarke Moore when he took credit for the poem in Poems (New York: Bartlett and Welford, 1844). Source: http://www.library.utoronto.ca/utel/rp/poems/livingston1.html