　　《失樂園(英文版)》講述瞭撒旦率領眾天使反抗上帝失敗後，引誘伊甸園中的亞當和夏娃，偷食智慧樹上的禁果，利用上帝創造的人類反抗上帝的統治。亞當和夏娃最終喪失瞭永生的權利，被逐齣伊甸園，去耕種上帝給予的土地，去麵對充滿活力和挑戰的現實生活。全詩暗指當時的資産階級革命由於喪失理性而使得王朝復闢，錶達革命失敗後的內心痛苦及反省，揭示瞭人的原罪與墮落。

作者簡介

　　約翰·彌爾頓，英國詩人、政論傢，民主鬥士。彌爾頓是清教徒文學的代錶，他的一生都在為資産階級民主運動而奮鬥，代錶作《失樂園》是和《荷馬史詩》、《神麯》並稱為西方三大詩歌。

精彩書摘

　　BOOK I
　　THE ARGUMENT
　　THIS first Book proposes, first in brief, the whole subject – Man’s disobedience, and the loss thereupon of Paradise, wherein he was placed: then touches the prime cause of his fall – the Serpent, or rather Satan in the Serpent; who, revolting from God, and drawing to his side many legions of Angels, was, by the command of God, driven out of Heaven, with all his crew, into the great Deep. Which action passed over, the Poem hastens into the midst of things; presenting Satan, with his Angels, now fallen into Hell – described here not in the Centre (for heaven and earth may be supposed as yet not made, certainly not yet accursed), but in a place of utter darkness, fitliest called Chaos. Here Satan, with his Angels lying on the burning lake, thunderstruck and astonished, after a certain space recovers, as from confusion; calls up him who, next in order and dignity, lay by him: they confer of their miserable fall. Satan awakens all his legions, who lay till then in the same manner confounded. They rise: their numbers; array of battle; their chief leaders named, according to the idols known afterwards in Canaan and the countries adjoining. To these Satan directs his speech; comforts them with hope yet of regaining Heaven; but tells them, lastly, of a new world and new kind of creature to be created, according to an ancient prophecy, or report, in Heaven – for that Angels were long before this visible creation was the opinion of many ancient Fathers. To find out the truth of this prophecy, and what to determin thereon, he refers to a full council. What his associates thence attempt. Pandemonium, the palace of Satan, rises suddenly built out of the Deep: the infernal Peers there sit in council.
　　Of Man’s first disobedience, and the fruit
　　Of that forbidden tree whose mortal taste
　　Brought death into the World, and all our woe,
　　With loss of Eden, till one greater Man
　　Restore us, and regain the blissful seat,
　　Sing, Heavenly Muse, that, on the secret top
　　Of Oreb, or of Sinai, didst inspire
　　That shepherd who first taught the chosen seed
　　In the beginning how the heavens and earth
　　Rose out of Chaos: or, if Sion hill
　　Delight thee more, and Siloa’s brook that flowed
　　Fast by the oracle of God, I thence
　　Invoke thy aid to my adventurous song,
　　That with no middle flight intends to soar
　　Above the Aonian mount, while it pursues
　　Things unattempted yet in prose or rhyme.
　　And chiefly thou, O Spirit, that dost prefer
　　Before all temples the upright heart and pure,
　　Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
　　Wast present, and, with mighty wings outspread,
　　Dove-like sat’st brooding on the vast Abyss,
　　And mad’st it pregnant: what in me is dark
　　Illumine, what is low raise and support;
　　That, to the heighth of this great argument,
　　I may assert Eternal Providence,
　　And justify the ways of God to men.
　　Say first – for Heaven hides nothing from thy view,
　　Nor the deep tract of Hell – say first what cause
　　Moved our grand Parents, in that happy state,
　　Favoured of Heaven so highly, to fall off
　　From their Creator, and transgress his will
　　For one restraint, lords of the World besides.
　　Who first seduced them to that foul revolt?
　　The infernal Serpent; he it was whose guile,
　　Stirred up with envy and revenge, deceived
　　The mother of mankind, what time his pride
　　Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host
　　Of rebel Angels, by whose aid, aspiring
　　To set himself in glory above his peers,
　　He trusted to have equalled the Most High,
　　If he opposed, and with ambitious aim
　　Against the throne and monarchy of God,
　　Raised impious war in Heaven and battle proud,
　　With vain attempt. Him the Almighty Power
　　Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky,
　　With hideous ruin and combustion, down
　　To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
　　In adamantine chains and penal fire,
　　Who durst defy the Omnipotent to arms.
　　……