2011脱产本科翻译作业1

2011脱产本科翻译作业1 We chase after it, when it is waiting all about us 我们到处追逐幸福，而幸福就在我们身边。 Our Pursuit of Happiness 我们对幸福的追求 “Are you happy?” I asked my brother, Lan, one day. “Yes. No. It depends what you mean,” he said. “Then tell me,” I said, “when was the last time you think you were happy?” “April 1967,” he said. 一天，我问哥哥岚:“你感到幸福吗?”他回答说:“幸福，也不幸福，这要看你指什么了。” “那告诉我，”我说，“最近一次你感到幸福是什么时候?” “1967年4月，”他答道。 It served me right for putting a serious question to someone who has joked his way through life. But Lan’s answer reminded me that when we think about happiness, we usually think of something extraordinary, a pinnacle of sheer delight---and those pinnacles seem to get rarer the older we get. 我真不该对一个游戏人生的人提出这么严肃的问题，但岚的回答却使我想到:当我们想 到的幸福时，通常是一些非同寻常的事，一种纯粹的快乐——但是随着年龄的增长，这种快 乐好像越来越少了。 For a child, happiness has a magical quality. I remember making hide-outs in newly cut hay, playing cops and robbers in the woods, getting a speaking part in the school play. Of course, kids also experience lows, but their delight at such peaks of pleasure as winning a race or getting a new bike is unreserved. 对一个孩子来说，幸福是魔幻的。记得我曾在新鲜的干草丛中捉迷藏;在树林里玩“警察与 小偷”;在学校的戏剧里扮演有台词的角色。当然，孩子也有情绪低落的时候;但是，他们会毫无 保留地为赢得一场比赛，或得了一辆新车快乐到极点。 In the teenage years the concept of happiness changes. Suddenly it’s conditional on such things as excitement, love, popularity and whether that zit will clear up before prom night. I can still feel the agony of not being invited to a party that almost everyone else was going to. But I also recall the ecstasy of being plucked from obscurity at another event to dance with a John Travolta look-alike. 到了青少年时期，幸福概念逐渐改变。突然间，幸福就建立在激动、爱情、名气甚至是 脸上的青春痘能否在晚会前消失这样的种种条件之上。我始终能感觉到当时大家都去参加一 个舞会，而我末被邀请时的痛苦。但仍记得，在另—次活动中，我意外地与—个貌似约翰?特 拉沃尔塔的人共舞时的兴奋。 In adulthood the things that bring profound joy---birth, love, marriage---also bring responsibility and the risk of loss. Love may not last, sex isn’t always good, loved ones die. For adults, happiness is complicated. 成年后，能使人内心深处喜悦的是爱情和生育，婚姻，同时这也也意味着担负起责任和 放下失去的包袱。爱情可能会消逝，性爱也不总是令人满意，深爱的人可能会死去。对于成 人来说，幸福很复杂。 My dictionary defines happy as “lucky” or “fortunate”, but I think a better definition of happiness is “the capacity for enjoyment”. The more we can enjoy what we have, the happier we are. It’s easy to overlook the pleasure we get from loving and being loved, the company of friends, the freedom to live where we please, even good health. 我的字典里幸福的定义是“幸运”或“好运”，但我认为幸福更好的定义是“快乐的能力”。 更多地享受现在所拥有的一切，更多地享受幸福。而我们却很容易忽视一些快乐，爱与被爱， 喷狗的陪伴，自由的生活，甚至健康的体魄。 I added up my litter moments of pleasure yesterday. First there was sheer bliss when I shut the last lunchbox and had the house to myself. Then I spent an uninterrupted morning writing, which I love. When the kids came home, I enjoyed their noise after the quiet of the day. 昨日合计了一下我的幸福时刻，首先，我盖上最后—个饭盒，独享整个房间，感受无比 的幸福。然后，整个早上，我都在写字而无人打扰，这是我爱做的。孩子们回到家，我又享 受着寂静一天后的热闹。 Later, peace descended again, and my husband and I enjoyed another pleasure---intimacy. Sometimes just the knowledge that he wants me can bring me joy. 不久，再次恢复宁静，我和丈夫享受另一种快乐——亲热。有时候只要想到他需要我， 就能给我带来快乐。 You never know where happiness will turn up next. When I asked friends what makes them happy, some mentioned seemingly insignificant moments. “I hate shopping,” one friend said. “But there’s this clerk who always chats and really cheers me up.” 你永远不会知道幸福下一次会在什么时候出现。当我问起朋友，什么能给他们带来幸福 时，有些人会提到—些看似微不足道的小事。“我讨厌购物，”一个朋友说，“但确实有些健谈 的售货员令我很开心。” Another friend loves the telephone. “Every time it rings, I know someone is thinking about me.” I get a thrill from driving. One day I stopped to let a school bus turn onto a side road. The driver grinned and gave me a thumbs-up sign. We were two allies in a world of mad motorists. It made me smile. We all experience moments like these. Too few of us register them as happiness. 另一个朋友喜欢接电话，“每次电话一响，我就知道有人想我了”。 我喜欢开车的刺激。一天，我停下来，让一辆学校班车拐到路边。那个司机笑笑，会意 地竖起大拇指。我们都是这个世界上的飙车一族，这让我会心一笑。 我们都有过类似的经历，但很少有人能意识到这就是幸福。 Psychologists tell us that to be happy we need a blend of enjoyable leisure time and satisfying work. I doubt that my great-grandmother, who raised 14 children and took in washing, had much of either. She did have a network of close friends and family, and maybe this is what fulfilled her. If she was happy with what she had, perhaps it was because she didn’t expect life to be very different. 心理学家告诉我们,想要幸福，需要将愉快的休闲时光和满意的工作结合起来。我质疑我 的曾祖母是否幸福，她养育了14个孩子，还要给别人洗衣服，做其他一些家务杂活。但她有 一个亲密的朋友和和睦的家。或许这已经让她很满足了。如果说她因自己拥有的一切感到幸 福，或许是因为她并所希望生活就是这样。 We, on the other hand, with so many choices and such pressure to succeed in every area, have turned happiness into one more thing we “gotta have”. We’re so self-conscious about our “right” to it that it’s making us miserable. So we chase it and equate it with wealth and success, without noticing that the people who have those things aren’t necessarily happier. 另一方面，我们因为有太多的选择和压力想在各个领域都成功，让我们把幸福变成“必 须得到”的一种东西。我们自以为我们有“权”得到它，这也是我们痛苦的根源。所以我们 去追求幸福，并将它同财富和成功联系起来，而没有意识到拥有它的人并不一定更幸福。 While happiness may be more complex for us, the solution is the same as ever. Happiness isn’t about what happens to us---it’s about how we perceive what happens to us. It’s the knack of finding a positive for every negative, and viewing a setback as a challenge. It’s not wishing for what we don’t have, but enjoying what we do possess. 对我们来说，也许幸福是复杂多样的，但获得幸福的方式却相同。幸福不是指发生在我 们周围的事——而是我们如何去看待周围发生的事。这是将不利化为有利，化挫折为激励的 秘诀，幸福并非是乞求我们未得到的，而是享受我们此刻所拥有的一切。