大学英语综合教程5课文翻译

大学英语综合教程5课文翻译 One Writer?s Beginnings 1 I learned from the age of two or three that any room in our house, at any time of day, was there to read in, or to be read to. My mother read to me. She?d read to me in the big bedroom in the mornings, when we were in her rocker together, which ticked in rhythm as we rocked, as though we had a cricket accompanying the story. She?d read to me in the dining room on winter afternoons in front of the coal fire, with our cuckoo clock ending the story with "Cuckoo", and at night when I?d got in my own bed. I must have given her no peace. Sometimes she read to me in the kitchen while she sat churning, and the churning sobbed along with any story. It was my ambition to have her read to me while I churned; once she granted my wish, but she read off my story before I brought her butter. She was an expressive reader. When she was reading "Puss in Boots," for instance, it was impossible not to know that she distrusted all cats. 作家起步时 我从两三岁起就知道，家中随便在哪个房间里，白天无论在什么时间，都可以念书或听人 念书。母亲念书给我听。上午她都在那间大卧室里给我念，两人一起坐在她那把摇椅里，我 们摇晃时，椅子发出有节奏的滴答声，好像有只唧唧鸣叫的蟋蟀在伴着读故事。冬日午后， 她常在餐厅里烧着煤炭的炉火前给我念，布谷鸟自鸣钟发出“咕咕”声时，故事便结束了;晚 上我在自己床上睡下后她也给我念。想必我是不让她有一刻清静。有时她在厨房里一边坐着 搅制黄油一边给我念，故事情节就随着搅制黄油发出的抽抽搭搭的声响不断展开。我的奢望 是她念我来搅拌;有一次她满足了我的愿望，可是我要听的故事她念完了，她要的黄油我却 还没弄好。她念起故事来富有表情。比如，她念《穿靴子的猫》时，你就没法不相信她对猫 一概怀疑。 2 It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass. Yet regardless of where they came from, I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them — with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself. Still illiterate, I was ready for them, committed to all the reading I could give them. 当我得知故事书原来是人写出来的，书本原来不是什么大自然的奇迹，不像草那样自生自 长时，真是又震惊又失望。不过，姑且不论书本从何而来，我不记得自己有什么时候不爱书 —— 书本本身、封面、装订、印着文字的书页，还有油墨味、那种沉甸甸的感觉，以及把 书抱在怀里时那种将我征服、令我陶醉的感觉。还没识字，我就想读书了，一心想读所有的 书。 3 Neither of my parents had come from homes that could afford to buy many books, but though it must have been something of a strain on his salary, as the youngest officer in a young insurance company, my father was all the while carefully selecting and ordering away for what he and Mother thought we children should grow up with. They bought first for the future . 我的父母都不是来自那种买得起许多书的家庭。然而，虽然买书准得花去他不少薪金，作 为一家成立不久的保险公司最年轻的职员，父亲一直在精心挑选、不断订购他和母亲认为儿 童成长应读的书。他们购书首先是为了我们的前程。 4 Besides the bookcase in the living room, which was always called "the library", there were the encyclopedia tables and dictionary stand under windows in our dining room. Here to help us grow up arguing around the dining room table were the Unabridged Webster, the Columbia Encyclopedia, Compton?s Pictured Encyclopedia, the Lincoln Library of Information, and later the Book of Knowledge. In "the library", inside the bookcase were books I could soon begin on — and I did, reading them all alike and as they came, straight down their rows, top shelf to bottom. My mother read secondarily for information; she sank as a hedonist into novels. She read Dickens in the spirit in which she would have eloped with him. The novels of her girlhood that had stayed on in her imagination, besides those of Dickens and Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, were Jane Eyre, Trilby, The Woman in White, Green Mansions, King Solomon?s Mines. 除了客厅里有一向被称作“图书室”的书橱，餐厅的窗子下还有几张摆放百科全书的桌子和 一个字典架。这里有伴随我们在餐桌旁争论着长大的《韦氏大词典》、《哥伦比亚百科全书》、 《康普顿插图百科全书》、《林肯资料文库》，以及后来的《知识库》。“图书馆”书橱里的书没 过多久我就能读了—— 我的确读了，全都读了，按着顺序，一排接着一排读，从最上面的 书架一直读到最下面的书架。母亲读书最重要的不在获取信息。她是为了享受快乐而埋头读 小说。她读狄更斯时的神情简直就像要跟他私奔似的。她少女时代读的小说印在了她心头的， 除了狄更斯、司各特和罗伯特?路易斯?斯蒂文森等人的作品之外，还有《简?爱》、《切尔比》、 《白衣女士》、《绿厦》和《所罗门王的矿藏》。 5 To both my parents I owe my early acquaintance with a beloved Mark Twain. There was a full set of Mark Twain and a short set of Ring Lardner in our bookcase, and those were the volumes that in time united us all, parents and children. 多亏了我的父母，我很早就接触了受人喜爱的马克?吐温。书橱里有一整套马克?吐温文集 和一套不全的林?拉德纳作品集，这些书最终将父母和孩子联结在一起。 6 Reading everything that stood before me was how I came upon a worn old book that had belonged to my father as a child. It was called Sanford and Merton. Is there anyone left who recognizes it, I wonder? It is the famous moral tale written by Thomas Day in the 1780s, but of him no mention is made on the title page of this book; here it is Sanford and Merton in Words of One Syllable by Mary Godolphin. Here are the rich boy and the poor boy and Mr. Barlow, their teacher and interlocutor, in long discourses alternating with dramatic scenes — anger and rescue allotted to the rich and the poor respectively. It ends with not one but two morals, both engraved on rings: "Do what you ought, come what may," and "If we would be great, we must first learn to be good." 我一本接一本阅读摆在我面前的书，读着读着便发现一本又破又旧的书，是我父亲小时候 的。书名是《桑福徳与默顿》。我不相信如今还有谁会记得这本书。那是托玛斯?戴在18世 纪80年代撰写的一本著名的进行道德教育的故事书，可该书的扉页上并没有提及他;上面 写的是《桑福徳与默顿简易本》，玛丽?戈多尔芬著。书中讲的是一个富孩子和一个穷孩子与 他们老师巴洛先生之间的冗长的谈话，其间穿插着戏剧性场面—— 分别写了富孩子和穷孩 子如何发火、如何获救。书末讲的道德寓意不是一条，而是两条，都印在环形图案里:“不 管发生什么，该做的就去做”，还有“想做伟人，必须先学会做个好人”。 7 This book was lacking its front cover, the back held on by strips of pasted paper, now turned golden, in several layers, and the pages stained, flecked, and tattered around the edges; its garish illustrations had come unattached but were preserved, laid in. I had the feeling even in my heedless childhood that this was the only book my father as a little boy had had of his own. He had held onto it, and might have gone to sleep on its coverless face: he had lost his mother when he was seven. My father had never made any mention to his own children of the book, but he had brought it along with him from Ohio to our house and shelved it in our bookcase. 这本书没了封面，封底用几条纸片粘牢，有好几层，如今都泛黄了，书页上污迹斑斑，边 角处都破碎了;书中花哨的插图脱了页，但都保存良好，夹在书里。即使在少不更事的童年， 我就觉得那是我父亲小时候拥有的惟一一本书。他一直珍藏着这本书，或许还枕着这本没了 封面的书睡觉:他7岁时就没了母亲。我父亲从来没跟自己的孩子提起过这本书，但他从俄 亥俄一路把它带到我们的家，把它放进我们的书橱。 8 My mother had brought from West Virginia that set of Dickens: those books looked sad, too — they had been through fire and water before I was born, she told me, and there they were, lined up — as I later realized, waiting for me. 母亲则从西弗吉尼亚带来了那套狄更斯:那套书看上去也惨不忍睹—— 她告诉我，我还 没出生，这些书就历经水火之灾，可现在它们还是整齐地排列在那儿—— 后来我意识到， 是等着我去读。 9 I was presented, from as early as I can remember, with books of my own, which appeared on my birthday and Christmas morning. Indeed, my parents could not give me books enough. They must have sacrificed to give me on my sixth or seventh birthday — it was after I became a reader for myself-the ten-volume set of Our Wonder World. These were beautifully made, heavy books I would lie down with on the floor in front of the dining room hearth, and more often than the rest volume 5, Every Child?s Story Book, was under my eyes. There were the fairy tales — Grimm, Andersen, the English, the French, "Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves"; and there was Aesop and Reynard the Fox; there were the myths and legends, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and St. George and the Dragon, even the history of Joan of Arc; a whack of Pilgrim?s Progress and a long piece of Gulliver. They all carried their classic illustrations. I located myself in these pages and could go straight to the stories and pictures I loved; very often "The Yellow Dwarf" was first choice, with Walter Crane?s Yellow Dwarf in full color making his terrifying appearance flanked by turkeys. Now that volume is as worn and backless and hanging apart as my father?s poor Sanford and Merton. One measure of my love for Our Wonder World was that for a long time I wondered if I would go through fire and water for it as my mother had done for Charles Dickens; and the only comfort was to think I could ask my mother to do it for me. 从记事起我就收到给自己的书了，那是在生日时，还有圣诞节早晨。我父母真的是送给我 再多的书都嫌不够。在我6岁或7岁生日时—— 那是在我自己能读书之后—— 他们送我一 套10卷本的《我们的神奇世界》，为此，准是作了不少牺牲。那套书真漂亮，厚厚的，我总 是带 着它躺在餐厅壁炉前的地板上，读得最多的是第5卷:《儿童故事》。那都是些童话故事—— 格林的、安徒生的、英国童话、法国童话，“阿里巴巴和四十大盗”; 还有伊索寓言和列那 狐的故事;还有神话和传奇故事，如罗宾汉、亚瑟王、圣乔治和龙，甚至还有历史故事圣女 贞德;还有一部分《天路历程》，以及一长段《格列佛游记》。每篇故事都有精彩的插图。我 早已让自己走进这些故事中去了，一翻就能翻到自己喜爱的故事和插图;《黄肤色小矮人》 常常是我的首选，沃尔特?克莱恩绘的彩色插图中黄肤色小矮人看着令人害怕，他左右还有 火鸡侍立。如今这册书已经跟父亲那本损坏的《桑福徳与默顿》一样，又破又旧，最后几页 掉了，书页散了。有很长一段时间，我一直想自己能不能像母亲为查尔斯?狄更斯做的那样， 为《我们的神奇世界》这套书赴汤蹈火，从这一点也可想见我对这套书是多么珍爱;惟一令 人安慰的是我相信我可让母亲为我这么做。 10 I believe I?m the only child I know of who grew up with this treasure in the house. I used to ask others, "Did you have Our Wonder World?" I?d have to tell them The Book of Knowledge could not hold a candle to it. 在所有认识的孩子们当中，我想自己是惟一有家藏宝库伴随着长大的孩子。过去我常常问 别人:“你有《我们的神奇世界》吗,”我常常得跟人解释，《知识库》根本没法跟这套书比。 11 I live in gratitude to my parents for initiating me — as early as I begged for it, without keeping me waiting — into knowledge of the word, into reading and spelling, by way of the alphabet. They taught it to me at home in time for me to begin to read before starting to school. 我感激父母通过认识字母对我—— 早在我要求之时，而没有让我等待—— 进行文字启 蒙，教我阅读和拼写。他们在家里教我，我得以在上学前就开始了阅读。 12 Ever since I was first read to, then started reading to myself, there has never been a line read that I didn?t hear. As my eyes followed the sentence, a voice was saying it silently to me. It isn?t my mother?s voice, or the voice of any person I can identify, certainly not my own. It is human, but inward, and it is inwardly that I listen to it. It is to me the voice of the story or the poem itself. The cadence, whatever it is that asks you to believe, the feeling that resides in the printed word, reaches me through the reader-voice: I have supposed, but never found out, that this is the case with all readers — to read as listeners — and with all writers, to write as listeners. It may be part of the desire to write. The sound of what falls on the page begins the process of testing it for truth , for me. Whether I am right to trust so far I don?t know. By now I don?t know whether I could do either one, reading or writing, without the other. 从最初听故事，到后来自己开始读书，从来没有一行读过的字我不闻其声。当我的目光扫 过一个句子时，就会有个声音默念给我听。那不是母亲的声音，也不是我能辨认的某个人的 声音，当然也不是我本人的声音。那是人的声音，但是 2 The act I?m referring to is the choice you make every time you sit down to a meal. 我说的这件事就是每次坐下来就餐时挑选菜肴。 3 More than a million Canadians have already acted: They have chosen to not eat meat. And the pace of change has been dramatic. 一百多万加拿大人已经行动起来:他们决定不吃肉。变化速度之快令人惊叹。 4 Vegetarian food sales are showing unparalleled growth. Especially popular are meat-free burgers and hot dogs, and the plant-based cuisines of India, China, Mexico, Italy and Japan. 素食品的销售额大大增加，前所未有。尤受欢迎的是无肉汉堡包和热狗，以及以蔬为主的 印度、中国、墨西哥、意大利和日本的菜肴。 5 Fuelling the shift toward vegetarianism have been the health recommendations of medical research. Study after study has uncovered the same basic truth: Plant foods lower your risk of chronic disease; animal foods increase it. 推动人们转向素食的是医学研究提出的关于如何增进健康的建议。一项又一项的研究都揭 示了同样的基本事实:果蔬降低患慢性病的危险;肉类食品则增加这种危险。 6 The American Dietetic Association says: "Scientific data suggest positive relationships between a vegetarian diet and reduced risk for several chronic degenerative diseases." 美国饮食学协会指出，“科学资料表明，素食与降低多种慢性变性疾病的患病危险肯定有 关系。” 7 This past fall, after reviewing 4,500 studies on diet and cancer, the World Cancer Research Fund flatly stated: "We?ve been running the human biological engine on the wrong fuel." 去年秋天，在检验了4500个饮食与癌症的研究报告之后，世界癌症研究基金会直截了当 地指出:“我们一向利用不合适的养料来维持人类生理引擎的运转。” 8 This "wrong fuel" has helped boost the cost of degenerative disease in Canada to an estimated $400 billion a year, according to Bruce Holub, a professor of nutritional science at the University of Guelph. 据威尔夫大学营养科学教授布鲁斯?霍拉勃称，这一“不合适的养料”致使加拿大每年用于 治疗变性疾病的费用高达4000亿(加)元。 9 Animal foods have serious nutritional drawbacks: They are devoid of fiber, contain far too much saturated fat and cholesterol, and may even carry traces of hormones, steroids and antibiotics. It makes little difference whether you eat beef, pork, chicken or fish. 肉类食品存在严重的营养缺陷:它们不含纤维，含有过多的饱和脂肪和胆固醇，甚至可能 含有微量的激素、类固醇和抗菌素。牛肉、猪肉、鸡肉或鱼肉都一样。 10 Animal foods are also gaining notoriety as breeding grounds for E. coli, campylobacter and other bacteria that cause illness. According to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, six out of ten chickens are infected with salmonella. It?s like playing Russian roulette with your health. 肉类食品也是越来越广为人知的大肠杆菌、弯曲菌以及其他致病细菌的孳生地。据加拿大 食品检验机构称，十分之六的鸡染有沙门氏菌。吃肉无异于玩俄式轮盘赌，拿你的健康做赌 资。 11 So why aren?t governments doing anything about this? Unfortunately, they have bowed to pressure from powerful lobby groups such as the Beef Information Center, the Canadian Egg Marketing Agency and the Dairy Farmers of Canada. According to documents retrieved through the Freedom of Information Act, these groups forced changes to Canada?s latest food guide before it was released in 1993. 既然如此，政府为什么不采取任何措施,很遗憾，政府屈服于强有力的院外活动集团的压 力，如牛肉信息中心、加拿大禽蛋营销公司、加拿大乳牛场场主协会等。根据信息自由法案 获得的有关文件记载，这些集团迫使加拿大最新食品指南在1993年公布前作出修改。 12 This should come as no surprise: Even a minor reduction in recommended intakes of animal protein could cost these industries billions of dollars a year. 这并不奇怪。即使建议动物蛋白质的摄入量减少一丁点儿都会给这些企业带来每年数十亿 元的损失。 13 While health and food safety are compelling reasons for choosing a vegetarian lifestyle, there are also larger issues to consider. Animal-based agriculture is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on the face of the Earth. 健康和食品安全是选择素食生活方式令人信服的理由，但此外还有更为重大的因素要考 虑。以饲养动物为基础的农业是世界上对环境破 坏最严重的产业之一。 14 Think for a moment about the vast resources required to raise, feed, shelter, transport, process and package the 500 million Canadian farm animals slaughtered each year. Water and energy are used at every step of the way. Alberta Agriculture calculates that it takes 10 to 20 times more energy to produce meat than to produce grain. 想一想培育、饲养、建牲畜栏、运输、加工和包装加拿大每年宰杀的5亿头牲畜所需的巨 大资源。其中的每一个环节都耗费水和能源。阿尔伯达农业署估计，生产肉耗费的能源比生 产谷物多10,20倍。 15 Less than a quarter of our agricultural land is used to feed people directly. The rest is devoted to grazing and growing food for animals. Ecosystems of forest, wetland and grassland have been decimated to fuel the demand for land. Using so much land heightens topsoil loss, the use of harsh fertilizers and pesticides, and the need for irrigation water from dammed rivers. If people can shift away from meat, much of this land could be converted back to wilderness. 用于直接为人们提供食物的土地还不到农业用地的四分之一。其余的都用来放牧和种饲 料。森林、湿地和草原的生态系统遭受相当严重的破坏，以满足对土地的需求。土地的大量 利用加剧了表土的流失，增加了会带来负面作用的化肥和杀虫剂的施用，增加了从筑有水坝 的河流中引水灌溉的需求。如果人们能摒弃肉食，许多土地就能回复到未开垦状态。 16 The problem is that animals are inefficient at converting plants to edible flesh. It takes, for example, 8.4 kilograms of grain to produce one kilogram of pork, the U. S. government estimates. 问在于，动物在把植物转化为可食用的肉类这方面的效率很低。举例来说，美国政府估 测，生产1公斤猪肉需要耗费8.4 公斤的谷物。 17 After putting so many resources into animals, what do we get out? Manure — at a rate of over 10,000 kilograms per second in Canada alone, according to the government. Environment Canada says cattle excrete 40 kilograms of manure for every kilogram of edible beef. A large egg factory can produce 50 to 100 tonnes of waste per week, the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture estimates. 我们把这么多资源耗费在动物身上，又得到什么回报呢,粪肥—— 据官方资料，仅加拿 大，就以每秒10,000多公斤的速度排出。加拿大环境部称，牛每产1公斤可食牛肉需排出 40公斤粪便。安大略省农业部估测，一家大型禽蛋工厂每星期可产出50,100吨禽粪。 18 And where does it go? In the 1992 Ontario Groundwater Survey, 43 per cent of tested wells were contaminated with agricultural run-off containing fecal coliform bacteria and nitrates. Earlier this month, charges were laid against a large Alberta feedlot operator for dumping 30 million litres of cattle manure into the Bow River, "killing everything in its path," as a news story described it. 这些粪便都到哪儿去了,1992年安大略省地下水调查发现， 43%的被测试水井都受到含 有粪便大肠杆菌和硝酸盐等农业生产排出的废物的污染。本月初，阿尔伯达一家大型围栏肥 育地经营者被指控将3千万升牛粪排入博河，“沿途生灵悉数被毁”，一则新闻这么报道。 19 And then there is methane, a primary contributing gas in global warming and ozone layer depletion. Excluding natural sources, 27 per cent of Canada?s and 20 per cent of the world?s methane comes from livestock. 此外还有沼气，那是促使全球气候变暖和臭氧层减少的主要气体。不把天然沼气资源包括 在 22 As part of my research at the University of Waterloo, I toured some of the country?s largest "processing" plants. The experience has left me with recurring nightmares. 作为我在沃特卢大学研究工作的一部分，我参观过一些全国最大的“加工”厂。这个经历让 我日后尽做噩梦。 23 I saw "stubborn" cows being beaten and squealing pigs chased around the killing floor with electric calipers. 我见到“固执”的牛被打、尖叫着的猪在屠宰室被人用电卡钳追逐。 24 I looked on in utter shock as a cow missed the stun gun and was hoisted fully conscious upside down by its hind leg and cut to pieces, thrashing until its last breath. 我万分震惊地目睹一头牛躲过了眩晕枪，结果被缚住后腿倒挂起来，惨遭活剐，一直挣扎 到断气。 25 Noticing my shock, the foreman remarked: "Who cares? They?re going to die anyway." 工头见我惊骇不已，便说:“管它呢～它们反正得死。” 26 Because it can cost hundreds of dollars per minute to stop the conveyor line, animal welfare comes second to profit. Over 150,000 animals are "processed" every hour of every working day in Canada, according to Agriculture Canada. 由于传送线停转一分钟就要损失好几百元，家畜的利益就变得不如利润重要。据加拿大农 业署称，在加拿大，每个工作日，每小时有150,000多头家畜被“加工”。 27 The picture gets uglier still. En route to slaughter, farm animals may legally spend anywhere from 36 to 72 hours without food, water or rest. They?re not even afforded the "luxury" of temperature controlled trucks in extreme summer heat or sub-zero cold. 情况变得甚至更可怕。家畜在宰杀前的运输途中，法律允许在36,72小时 加拿大农 业署估计，加拿大每年有3百多万头家畜在宰杀前的运输途中痛苦地慢慢死去。 29 I?ve also visited typical Canadian farms. Gone are the days when piglets snorted and roosters strutted their way about the barnyard. Most of today?s modernized farms have long, windowless sheds in which animals live like prisoners their entire lives. I have seen chickens crammed four to a cage, nursing pigs separated from their young by iron bars and veal calves confined to crates so narrow they couldn?t turn around. Few of these animals ever experience sunlight or fresh air — and most of their natural urges are denied. 本人还参观过一些典型的加拿大农场。猪崽喷着鼻息、公鸡在粮仓的空场上昂首行走的日 子已经一去不复返。而今大多数的现代化农场都有一个个狭长的、没有窗户的牲畜棚，牲畜 一生关在棚里，如囚犯一般。我见到过四只鸡挤在一个笼里，喂奶的母猪与猪崽被铁条隔开， 肉用小牛关在狭窄得转不过身来的板条箱里。这些牲畜几乎都终年不见阳光，呼吸不到新鲜 空气—— 它们天生的欲望大都得不到满足。 30 Although it is difficult to face these harsh realities, it is even more difficult to ignore them. Three times a day, you make a decision that not only affects the quality of your life, but the rest of the living world. We hold in our knives and forks the power to change this world. 面对这种严峻的现实固然困难，置之不理更是难上加难。一日三次，你要做出不仅影响自 身生活质量、更是事关整个有生命世界的决定。我们手里的餐刀餐叉拥有改变这个世界的力 量。 31 Consider the words of Albert Einstein: "Nothing will benefit human health and increase the chances for survival of life on Earth as the Evolution to a vegetarian diet." 让我们想一想阿尔伯特?爱因斯坦的话吧:“没有什么比转向素食更有益于人类健康，更能 增加世间万物的生存机会。” 32 Bon appetite. 祝君胃口好。 The Truth About Lying 1. I?ve been wanting to write on a subject that intrigues and challenges me: the subject of lying. I?ve found it very difficult to do. Everyone I?ve talked to has a quite intense and personal but often rather intolerant point of view about what we can — and can never never — tell lies about. I?ve finally reached the conclusion that I can?t present any ultimate conclusions, for too many people would promptly disagree. Instead, I?d like to present a series of moral puzzles, all concerned with lying. I?ll tell you what I think about them. Do you agree? 关于说谎的真相 朱迪斯?维奥斯特 我一直想写一个令我深感兴趣的话题:关于说谎的问题。我觉得这个题目很难写。所有我 交谈过的人都对什么事情可以说谎—— 什么事情绝对不可以说谎—— 持有强烈的、常常不 容别人分说的个人意见。最后我得出结论，我不能下任何定论，因为这样做就会有太多的人 立即反对。我想我还是提出若干都与说谎有关的道义上的难题吧。我将向读者阐明我对这些 难题的个人看法。你们觉得对吗, Social Lies 2. Most of the people I?ve talked with say that they find social lying acceptable and necessary. They think it?s the civilized way for folks to behave. Without these little white lies, they say, our relationships would be short and brutish and nasty. It?s arrogant, they say, to insist on being so incorruptible and so brave that you cause other people unnecessary embarrassment or pain by compulsively assailing them with your honesty. I basically agree. What about you? 社交性谎言 和我交谈过的大多数人都说，他们认为旨在促进社会交际的谎言是可以接受的，也是必要 的。他们认为这是一种文明的行为。他们说，要不是这类无关紧要的谎言，人与人之间的关 系就会变得粗野不快，无法持久。他们说，如果你要做到十二分正直、十二分无畏，不由自 主地用你的诚实使他人陷入不必要的窘境或痛苦之中，这只能说你是傲慢自大。对此，我基 本赞同。你呢, 3. Will you say to people, when it simply isn?t true, "I like your new hairdo," "You?re looking much better," "it?s so nice to see you," "I had a wonderful time"? 你会不会跟人说:“我喜欢你的新发型，”“你气色好多了，”“见到你真高兴，”“我玩得很尽 兴，”而实际上根本不是这么回事儿, 4. Will you praise hideous presents and homely kids? 你会不会对令人憎厌的礼物，或相貌平平的孩子称赞有加, 5. Will you decline invitations with "We?re busy that night — so sorry we can?t come," when the truth is you?d rather stay home than dine with the So-and-sos? 你婉辞邀请时会不会说“那天晚上我们正好没空—— 真对不起，我们不能来，”而实际上 你是宁肯呆在家里也不想跟某某夫妇一起进餐, 6. And even though, as I do, you may prefer the polite evasion of "You really cooked up a storm "instead of "The soup" — which tastes like warmed-over coffee — "is wonderful," will you, if you must, proclaim it wonderful? 虽然像我那样，你也想用 “太丰盛了”这种委婉的托辞，而不是盛赞“那汤味道好极了”(其 实味同重新热过的咖啡)，但如果你必须赞美那汤，你会说它鲜美吗? 7. There?s one man I know who absolutely refuses to tell social lies. "I can?t play that game," he says; "I?m simply not made that way." And his answer to the argument that saying nice things to someone doesn?t cost anything is, "Yes, it does — it destroys your credibility." Now, he won?t, unsolicited, offer his views on the painting you just bought, but you don?t ask his frank opinion unless you want frank, and his silence at those moments when the rest of us liars are muttering, "Isn?t it lovely?" is, for the most part, eloquent enough. My friend does not indulge in what he calls "flattery, false praise and mellifluous comments." When others tell fibs he will not go along. He says that social lying is lying, that little white lies are still lies. And he feels that telling lies is morally wrong. What about you? 我认识一个人，他完全拒绝说这类社交性谎言。“我不会那一套，”他说，“我生来就不会 那一套。”讲到对人家说几句好听的话并不失去什么，他的回答是:“不对，当然有损失—— 那会损害你的诚信度。”因此你不问他，他不会对你刚买来的画发表意见，但除非你想听老 实话，否则你也不会去问他的真实想法。当我们这些说谎者轻声称赞着“多美啊”的时候，他 的沉默往往是极能问题的。我的这位朋友从来不讲他所说的“奉承话、虚假的赞美话和 动听话”。别人说些无伤大雅的谎言，他则不。他说社交性谎言还是谎言，无关紧要的小小 谎言还是谎言。他认为说谎不合道德。你呢, Peace-Keeping Lies 8. Many people tell peace-keeping lies: lies designed to avoid irritation or argument, lies designed to shelter the liar from possible blame or pain; lies (or so it is rationalized) designed to keep trouble at bay without hurting anyone. 息事宁人的谎言 不少人为了息事宁人而说谎:那种意在避免生气或争吵的谎言，意在使说谎者免受可能的 责备或烦恼的谎言;意在(或据认为理应)不伤害他人而又能帮助避免麻烦的谎言。 9. I tell these lies at times, and yet I always feel they?re wrong. I understand why we tell them, but still they feel wrong. And whenever I lie so that someone won?t disapprove of me or think less of me or holler at me, I feel I?m a bit of a coward, I feel I?m dodging responsibility, I feel...guilty. What about you? 我有时也说这种谎，不过我总觉得不该说。我知道为什么要说这种谎，但说这种谎终究不 对。每当我为了不让别人讨厌自己、看轻自己、或冲着自己嚷嚷而说谎时，我总觉得自己有 点像个懦夫，觉得自己是在逃避责任，觉得,,愧疚。你呢, 10. Do you, when you?re late for a date because you overslept, say that you?re late because you got caught in a traffic jam? 你由于睡过头赴约会迟到了，会不会说是因为碰上堵车才晚到的, 11. Do you, when you forget to call a friend, say that you called several times but the line was busy? 你忘了给朋友打电话，会不会谎称打过好几次，可电话老占线, 12. Do you, when you didn?t remember that it was your father?s birthday, say that his present must be delayed in the mail? 你忘了父亲的生日，会不会说寄给他的礼物准是给耽搁了, 13. And when you?re planning a weekend in New York City and you?re not in the mood to visit your mother, who lives there, do you conceal — with a lie, if you must — the fact that you?ll be in New York? Or do you have the courage — or is it the cruelty? — to say, "I?ll be in New York, but sorry — I don?t plan on seeing you"? 你打算去纽约市度周末，但又不想去看望住在那里的母亲，你会——必要的话用谎言—— 隐瞒你将到纽约的事实，还是会勇敢地——或者说狠心地——说:“我要来纽约，可是抱歉， 我不打算来看望你”, 14. (Dave and his wife Elaine have two quite different points of view on this very subject. He calls her a coward. She says she?s being wise. He says she must assert her right to visit New York sometimes and not see her mother. To which she always patiently replies: "Why should we have useless fights? My mother?s too old to change. We get along much better when I lie to her.") (戴夫和妻子伊莱恩正是在这个问题上有两种颇不相同的观点。他称她为懦夫。她说自己 处理这事是明智的。他说她应该维护自己有的时候去纽约但不去看望母亲的权利。对此她总 是耐心地回答说:“我们何必无谓地争吵呢,我母亲年纪大了，不会改了。我对她说个谎， 我们相处得就更好。”) 15. Finally, do you keep the peace by telling your husband lies on the subject of money? Do you reduce what you really paid for your shoes? And in general do you find yourself ready, willing and able to lie to him when you make absurd mistakes or lose or break things? 最后一点，你会不会在钱的问题上对丈夫说谎，以求太平,你会不会少报买鞋子的钱,你 出了什么荒唐的错误或丢失了物品打碎了器皿时是不是常常想对他撒谎，而且会对他撒谎, 16. "I used to have a romantic idea that part of intimacy was confessing every dumb thing that you did to your husband. But after a couple of years of that," says Laura, "have I changed my mind!" “过去我往往不切实际地以为亲密关系的一个组成部分就是把自己做的每件蠢事都如实告 诉丈夫。可这么过了几年之后，”劳拉说，“我就改了主意!” 17. And having changed her mind, she finds herself telling peacekeeping lies. And yes, I tell them too. What about you? 改主意后，她在不知不觉中说谎话求太平了。没错，我也说这种谎。你呢, Protective Lies 18. Protective lies are lies folks tell — often quite serious lies — because they?re convinced that the truth would be too damaging. They lie because they feel there are certain human values that supersede the wrong of having lied. They lie, not for personal gain, but because they believe it?s for the good of the person they?re lying to. They lie to those they love, to those who trust them most of all, on the grounds that breaking this trust is justified. 保护性谎言 保护性谎言就是因为人们认为事实真相危害性太大而说的谎言，这类谎言通常事关重大。 他们说谎，因为他们认为，人的某些价值观念压倒了说谎这一错误行为本身。他们说谎不是 为个人私利，而是因为他们相信，那是为他们对之说谎的人好。他们对自己所爱的人撒谎， 对最信任自己的人撒谎，就是因为他们认为这样做是有正当理由的。 19. They may lie to their children on money or marital matters. 他们会在金钱或婚姻问题上对子女说谎。 20. They may lie to the dying about the state of their health. 他们会对垂死者隐瞒真实病情。 21. They may lie to their closest friend because the truth about her talents or son or psyche would be — or so they insist — utterly devastating. 他们会对密友说谎，因为关于其才 能、其爱子或其精神状态的实话会——不妨说他们坚持这么认为——使其身心受到极大伤 害。 22. I sometimes tell such lies, but I?m aware that it?s quite presumptuous to claim I know what?s best for others to know. That?s called playing God . That?s called manipulation and control. And we never can be sure, once we start to juggle lies, just where they?ll land, exactly where they?ll roll. 有时我也说这种谎，可我明白，声称自己懂得什么事他人应该知道，这未免太自以为是了。 这无异于充当上帝。这无异于操纵和控制他人。而我们一旦开始玩起谎言戏法，就再也无法 知道谎言何时会收场，究竟会滑向何方。 23. And furthermore, we may find ourselves lying in order to back up the lies that are backing up the lie we initially told. 而且，我们会不知不觉地为了圆先前说的谎言而说谎。 24. And furthermore — let?s be honest — if conditions were reversed, we certainly wouldn?t want anyone lying to us. 而且——我们不妨直说——如果情形倒过来，我们当然不愿意别人对自己说谎。 25. Yet, having said all that, I still believe that there are times when protective lies must nonetheless be told. What about you? 不过，话虽如此，我还是觉得有时保护性谎言还非说不可。你呢, Trust-Keeping Lies 26. Another group of lies are trust-keeping lies, lies that involve triangulation, with A (that?s you) telling lies to B on behalf of C (whose trust you?d promised to keep). Most people concede that once you?ve agreed not to betray a friend?s confidence, you can?t betray it, even if you must lie. But I?ve talked with people who don?t want you telling them anything that they might be called on to lie about. 信守承诺的谎言 另一类谎言是信守承诺的谎言，涉及三方的谎言，即A(你)为了C(你答应为其信守承 诺者)而对B说谎。大多数人承认，一旦你答应不背叛朋友的信任，你就不能背叛，哪怕 你必须说谎。但我与之交谈过的人中也有人不想听那些他们也许得为之说谎的事。 27. "I don?t tell lies for myself," says Fran, "and I don?t want to have to tell them for other people." Which means, she agrees, that if her best friend is having an affair, she absolutely doesn?t want to know about it. “我不为自己说谎，”弗兰说，“我也不愿为别人说谎。”她承认，这就意味着如果她最好的 朋友有风流韵事的话，她绝对不想知道。 28. "Are you saying," her best friend asks, "that you?d betray me?" “你是说，”她最好的朋友问，“你会出卖我,” 29. Fran is very pained but very adamant. "I wouldn?t want to betray you, so…don?t tell me anything about it." 弗兰心里很为难，但态度十分坚决。“我不想出卖你，所以,,别跟我说这事。” 30. Fran?s best friend is shocked. What about you? 弗兰最好的朋友深感震惊。你呢, 31. Do you believe you can have close friends if you?re not prepared to receive their deepest secrets? 你是不是认为，如果你不愿意了解朋友最深的隐密，你仍会有好朋友, 32. Do you believe you must always lie for your friends? 你是不是认为你必须一直为朋友说谎, 33. Do you believe, if your friend tells a secret that turns out to be quite immoral or illegal, that once you?ve promised to keep it, you must keep it? 你是不是认为，如果朋友透露的一个 秘密是违反道德或法律的，而一旦你答应保密，你就得真的保密, 34. And what if your friend were your boss — if you were perhaps one of the President?s men — would you betray or lie for him over, say, Watergate? 如果你的朋友正好是你的上司—— 如果你恰好就是总统班底的人—— 比如说在水门事 件这个问题上，你是背叛他还是为他说谎, 35. As you can see, these issues get terribly sticky. 可以想见这些问题非常棘手。 36. It?s my belief that once we?ve promised to keep a trust, we must tell lies to keep it. I also believe that we can?t tell Watergate lies. And if these two statements strike you as quite contradictory, you?re right — they?re quite contradictory. But for now they?re the best I can do. What about you? 我以为，一旦我们答应信守承诺，我们就是说谎也得信守承诺。同时我也认为，在水门事 件这类事情上我们不能说谎。如果你觉得这两点自相矛盾，那你就对了—— 这两者的确自 相矛盾。但目前我只能如此。你呢, 37. There are those who have no talent for lying. 有些人不擅说谎。 38. "Over the years, I tried to lie," a friend of mine explained, "but I always got found out and I always got punished. I guess I gave myself away because I feel guilty about any kind of lying. It looks as if I?m stuck with telling the truth." “许多年来，我一直试图说谎，”一位朋友解释说，“可我总是露馅，总是为此受罚。我想 人家看出我说谎是因为我一说谎就觉得 可是，对我们这种擅于说谎的人来说，对我们 这种说谎又不露馅的人来说，说谎还是不说谎会成为一个严肃的道德难题。我颇为赞同一位 朋友的话，他说，“我愿意说谎。但只把这作为最后一手—— 真话总比谎话好。” 40. "Because," he explained, "though others may completely accept the lie I?m telling, I don?t." “因为，”他解释说，“哪怕别人对我的谎话完全信以为真，我自己可无法相信。” 41. I tend to feel that way too. 本人也有同感。 42. What about you? 你呢, Take This Fish and Look at It 1 It was more than fifteen years ago that I entered the laboratory of Professor Agassiz, and told him I had enrolled my name in the Scientific School as a student of natural history . He asked me a few questions about my object in coming, my antecedents generally, the mode in which I afterwards proposed to use the knowledge I might acquire, and, finally, whether I wished to study any special branch. To the latter I replied that while I wished to be well grounded in all departments of zoology, I purposed to devote myself especially to insects. 把这条鱼拿去好好看看 塞缪尔?斯卡德 我是在15余年前进入阿加西兹教授的实验室的，告诉他我已在科学学院注册读博物学。 他略略询问了我来此的目的、我大致的经历、 以后准备如何运用所学知识，最后问我是否希望修习某一特别学科。对最后一个问题我回 答说，我希望自己在动物学各个领域都具有一定的基础，但特别想研究昆虫。 2 "When do you wish to begin?" he asked. “你想什么时候开始呢,”他问。 3 "Now," I replied. “就现在，”我回答说。 4 This seemed to please him, and with an energetic "Very well!" he reached from a shelf a huge jar of specimens in yellow alcohol. "Take this fish," he said, "and look at it; we call it a haemulon; by and by I will ask what you have seen." 他听了显然挺高兴，劲头十足地说道“很好”，便从架子上取下一个黄色酒精里浸有标本的 大罐。“把这条鱼拿去看看，”他说，“我们叫它石鲈。过一会儿我会问你都看到些什么。” 5 With that he left me, but in a moment returned with explicit instructions as to the care of the object entrusted to me. 说着他走了，但一会儿又回来跟我详细说明如何保管交给我的标本。 6 "No man is fit to be a naturalist," said he, "who does not know how to take care of specimens." “一个人如果连怎样保护标本都不知道，”他说，“他就不配当博物学家。” 7 I was to keep the fish before me in a tin tray, and occasionally moisten the surface with alcohol from the jar, always taking care to replace the stopper tightly. Those were not the days of ground-glass stoppers and elegantly shaped exhibition jars; all the old students will recall the huge neckless glass bottles with their leaky, wax-besmeared corks, half eaten by insects, and begrimed with cellar dust. Entomology was a cleaner science than ichthyology, but the example of the Professor, who had unhesitatingly plunged to the bottom of the jar to produce the fish, was infectious; and though this alcohol had a "very ancient and fishlike smell," I really dared not show any aversion within these sacred precincts, and treated the alcohol as though it were pure water. Still I was conscious of a passing feeling of disappointment, for gazing at a fish did not commend itself to an ardent entomologist. My friends at home, too, were annoyed when they discovered that no amount of eau-de-Cologne would drown the perfume which haunted me like a shadow. 我得把放在一个锡盘里的鱼摆在面前，过一段时间用罐里的酒精润湿它的表面，每次都要 记住把瓶塞塞紧。那个时候还没有毛玻璃瓶塞和外形精美的展示用瓶，过去的大学生都会记 得那种硕大的无颈玻璃瓶，软木瓶塞全是洞孔，涂过蜡，被虫啃去一半，被地下室的灰尘弄 得很脏。昆虫学这门科学比鱼类学干净，可教授没半点犹豫就伸手探入罐底捞出了鱼，他的 榜样颇具感染力。尽管酒精散发着一种“陈腐的鱼腥味”，我却不敢在这神圣的场所流露出丝 毫厌恶，只能把酒精当作纯净水对待。但我心头还是感到一丝失望，因为盯着看一条鱼实非 一位满怀热情的昆虫学家之所爱。回家后我的那些朋友也不怎么高兴，他们发现，用再多的 科隆香水也驱不走幽灵般附在我身上的那股异味。 8 In ten minutes I had seen all that could be seen in that fish, and started in search of the Professor — who had, however, left the Museum; and when I returned, after lingering over some of the odd animals stored in the upper apartment, my specimen was dry all over. I dashed the fluid over the fish as if to resuscitate the beast from a fainting fit, and looked with anxiety for a return of the normal sloppy appearance. This little excitement over, nothing was to be done but to return to a steadfast gaze at my mute companion. Half an hour passed — an hour — another hour; the fish began to look loathsome. I turned it over and around; looked it in the face — ghastly; from behind, beneath, above, sideways, at three-quarters? view — just as ghastly. I was in despair; at an early hour I concluded that lunch was necessary; so, with infinite relief, the fish was carefully replaced in the jar, and for an hour I was free. 才十分钟，我就把那条鱼能看的全都看了 个遍，接着开始找教授，他却已经离开了博物馆。我在楼上存放着奇异动物的房间里转悠了 一会儿，等我回去时，我的鱼标本全都干了。我急忙把酒精洒上去，就像是要把它从昏迷中 救醒过来似的，急切地等着它回复到平时那湿漉漉的样子。一阵小小的兴奋过后就无事可干 了，只好继续凝视着我那一言不发的伙伴。半个小时过去了，一个小时，又是一个小时。看 着看着觉得那条鱼讨厌得很。我把鱼翻来翻去，瞧瞧头部—— 怪可怕的;再从后面看，从 下面、上面、侧面看，再从展示面部四分之三的角度看—— 也是怪可怕的。我都绝望了。 时间还早，可我觉得应该去吃午饭了，于是我如释重负地把鱼小心翼翼地放回到罐里，便去 逍遥了一个小时。 9 On my return, I learned that Professor Agassiz had been at the Museum, but had gone, and would not return for several hours. My fellow-students were too busy to be disturbed by continued conversation. Slowly I drew forth that hideous fish, and with a feeling of desperation again looked at it. I might not use a magnifying-glass; instruments of all kinds were interdicted. My two hands, my two eyes, and the fish: it seemed a most limited field. I pushed my finger down its throat to feel how sharp the teeth were. I began to count the scales in the different rows, until I was convinced that was nonsense. At last a happy thought struck me — I would draw the fish; and with surprise I began to discover new features in the creature. Just then the Professor returned. 我回来后，得知阿加西兹教授回过博物馆，可又走了，要过几个小时才回来。我的那些同 学都在忙着，不能一直跟他们谈话打搅他们。我慢吞吞地取出了那条面目可憎的鱼，怀着绝 望心情接着看。我不能用放大镜，任何器材都不许用。一双手，两只眼，还有这条鱼:这个 观察场地也未免太狭小了。我把一根手指伸进它的喉部，试试它的牙齿有多锋利。我开始数 一排排鱼鳞，一直数到自己也觉得荒唐。最后我想出了一个绝妙的主意—— 把鱼画下来。 我惊讶地发现这家伙身上还真有不少新特征。就在这时教授回来了。 10 "That is right," said he; "a pencil is one of the best of eyes. I am glad to notice, too, that you keep your specimen wet, and your bottle corked." 对了，”他说， “笔的目光也是最敏锐的。而且，令人高兴的是，我还注意到你的标本没有干，瓶子也是塞 住的。” 11 With these encouraging words, he added: "Well, what is it like?" 说了这番鼓励话之后，他接着问:“好了，看得怎么样了,” 12 He listened attentively to my brief rehearsal of the structure of parts whose names were still unknown to me: the fringed gill-arches and movable operculum; the pores of the head, fleshy lips and lidless eyes; the lateral line, the spinous fins and forked tail; the compressed and arched body. When I finished, he waited as if expecting more, and then, with an air of disappointment: 他专注地听我简要叙述鱼体的结构，许多部位我还不知道叫什么:带边缘的鳃弓、活动鳃 盖骨、头部细孔、肉质唇部、无睑眼;侧线、刺状鳍、叉状尾;扁曲身体。我讲完了，他仍 等着，似乎还想听下去，接着带着失望的神情说: 13 "You have not looked very carefully; why," he continued more earnestly, "you haven?t even seen one of the most conspicuous features of the animal, which is plainly before your eyes as the fish itself; look again, look again!" and he left me to my misery. “你看得不够仔细。唉，”他满脸认真地接着说道，“你连这条鱼最明显的一项特征都没看 出来，跟这条鱼一样，那特征就明摆在你的眼前。再看，再看!”说着他走了，留下我沮丧不 已。 14 I was piqued; I was mortified. Still more of that wretched fish! But now I set myself to my task with a will, and discovered one new thing after another, until I saw how just the Professor?s criticism had been. The afternoon passed quickly; and when, towards its close, the Professor inquired: 我怒从心生，我深感屈辱。还要看那条该死的鱼!不过，这次我看时憋了一股劲，于是发 现了一个又一个新特征，到最后我明白教授的批评的确有道理。一个下午很快过去了。下午 将尽时，教授问道: 15 "Do you see it yet?" “发现了没有,” 16 "No," I replied, "I am certain I do not, but I see how little I saw before." “还没有，”我回答说，“肯定还没有，可我看出了原先自己的确没观察到什么。” 17 "That is next best," said he, earnestly, "but I won?t hear you now; put away your fish and go home; perhaps you will be ready with a better answer in the morning. I will examine you before you look at the fish." “这是仅次于最好的结果了，”他认真地说，“不过现在我不打算听你讲。把鱼放好，然后 就回家吧。说不定到了明天早上你会回答得更好。明天在你看鱼之前我再问你。” 18 This was disconcerting. Not only must I think of my fish all night, studying, without the object before me, what this unknown but most visible feature might be; but also, without reviewing my discoveries, I must give an exact account of them the next day. I had a bad memory; so I walked home by Charles River in a distracted state, with my two perplexities. 这真是太为难人了。我不仅得整晚想着这条鱼，要在实物不在眼前的情况下仔细琢磨这一 未知却又极其显著的特征是什么;而且，第二天要在无法回顾我所作发现的情况下对我所观 察到的东西作一精确描述。我记性不好，因此我沿着查尔斯河走回家时心烦意乱，想着自己 的两个难题。 19 The cordial greeting from the Professor the next morning was reassuring; here was a man who seemed to be quite as anxious as I that I should see for myself what he saw. 第二天早上，教授热情的问候让人感到安慰。眼前这人跟我一样，急切地希望我能独立看 出他业已观察到的事物。 20 "Do you perhaps mean," I asked, "that the fish has symmetrical sides with paired organs?" “您的意思是不是说，”我问，“这条鱼两侧对称，器官成对,” 21 His thoroughly pleased "Of course! Of course!" repaid the wakeful hours of the previous night. After he had discoursed most happily and enthusiastically — as he always did — upon the importance of this point, I ventured to ask what I should do next. 他那听上去极为满意的“当然是，当然是!”的回答补偿了前一晚多少个不眠的小时。等他高 兴而又热情地—— 他一向如此—— 讲述完这一发现的重要性，我斗胆问接下来我该做什 么。 22 "Oh, look at your fish!" he said, and left me again to my own devices. In a little more than an hour he returned, and heard my new catalogue. “哦，看你那条鱼!”他说着走 了，又不管我了。过了一小时多一点，他回来了，听我新的发现。 23 "That is good, that is good!" he repeated; "but that is not all; go on"; and so for three long days he placed that fish before my eyes, forbidding me to look at anything else, or to use any artificial aid. "Look, look, look," was his repeated injunction. “很好，很好!”他重复说道。 “可这还不够，接着看。”于是，整整三天，他把那条鱼置于 我眼前，不让我看别的东西，也不让我借助任何工具。“看看，看看，再看看，”就是他不断 重复的指令。 24 This was the best entomological lesson I ever had — a lesson whose influence has extended to the details of every subsequent study; a legacy the Professor had left to me, as he has left it to so many others, of inestimable value which we could not buy, with which we cannot part. 这是我上过的最好的昆虫学课—— 其影响延伸到以后每一项研究的各个细节。这是阿加 西兹教授留给我以及其他许多人的遗产，其价值无法估量，千金难买，我们决不会割舍。 25 The fourth day, a second fish of the same group was placed beside the first, and I was bidden to point out the resemblances and differences between the two; another and another followed, until the entire family lay before me, and a whole legion of jars covered the table and surrounding shelves; the odor had become a pleasant perfume; and even now, the sight of an old, six-inch worm-eaten cork brings fragrant memories. 第四天，另一条同类的鱼摆在了前一条鱼的旁边，我被要求指出两者之间的异同。接着一 条，又一条，直到这一科的全部成员都摆放在我的眼前，许许多多罐子占满了桌子和周围的 架子。那气味也变得如香水般迷人。直到今天，只要看见一个被蛀虫咬过的6英寸长的旧软 木塞，都会引起我美好的回忆。 26 The whole group of haemulons was thus brought in review; and, whether engaged upon the dissection of the internal organs, the preparation and examination of the bony framework, or the description of the various parts, Agassiz?s training in the method of observing facts and their orderly arrangement was ever accompanied by the urgent exhortation not to be content with them. 就这样，整个石鲈一群全都拿来观察过了。无论是在解剖Back of Robert E. Lee was the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life. 罗伯特?E?李所仰仗的信念是，古老的贵族观念或许能以某种方式继续存在下去，并左右 美国人的生活。 5 Lee was tidewater Virginia, and in his background were family, culture, and tradition... the age of chivalry transplanted to a New World which was making its own legends and its own myths. He embodied a way of life that had come down through the age of knighthood and the English country squire. America was a land that was beginning all over again, dedicated to nothing much more complicated than the rather hazy belief that all men had equal rights and should have an equal chance in the world. In such a land Lee stood for the feeling that it was somehow of advantage to human society to have a pronounced inequality in the social structure. There should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be keyed to the land as the chief source of wealth and influence. It would bring forth (according to this ideal) a class of men with a strong sense of obligation to the community; men who lived not to gain advantage for themselves, but to meet the solemn obligations which had been laid on them by the very fact that they were privileged. From them the country would get its leadership; to them it could look for the higher values — of thought, of conduct, of personal deportment — to give it strength and virtue. 李是弗吉尼亚州沿海低地人氏，他的生活背景是家庭、文化、传统,,，是被移植到这个正 在形成自身的传说与神话的新世界的骑士时代。他体现了从骑士和英格兰乡绅时代流传下来 的一种生活方式。美国是个一切从头开始的国度，信奉的只不过是一种颇为模糊的信念，即 人人拥有平等的权利，在世间应有平等的机会，如此而已。在这样一个国度里，李代表着这 样一种情感，即社会结构中保留一种明显的不平等多少有利于人类社会。理应存在一个拥有 土地的有闲阶级;反过来，社会本身应以土地为本，视其为财富与势力的主要来源。(根据 这一理想)这样一个社会会造就一个对社会有着强烈责任感的阶级，他们不是为自己获利活 着，而是为了承担自己的特权所赋予的重大责任活着。国家从他们中觅得领导人员;国家可 依靠他们产生更加高尚的价值观念—— 思想方面的，行为方面的，个人风度方面的—— 以 求国兴德盛。 6 Lee embodied the noblest elements of this aristocratic ideal. Through him, the landed nobility justified itself. For four years, the Southern states had fought a desperate war to uphold the ideals for which Lee stood. In the end, it almost seemed as if the Confederacy fought for Lee; as if he himself was the Confederacy... the best thing that the way of life for which the Confederacy stood could ever have to offer. He had passed into legend before Appomattox. Thousands of tired, underfed, poorly clothed Confederate soldiers, long since past the simple enthusiasm of the early days of the struggle, somehow considered Lee the symbol of everything for which they had been willing to die. But they could not quite put this feeling into words. If the Lost Cause, sanctified by so much heroism and so many deaths, had a living justification, its justification was General Lee. 李体现了这一贵族理想的最高尚的部分。拥有土地的贵族通过他获得存在的理由。四年间， 南方各州拼死战斗，以捍卫李所代表的理想。到后来，南部邦联似乎是为李而战;李本人似 乎就是南部邦联,,似乎是南部邦联所代表的生活方式能提供的菁华。还在来到阿珀马特科斯 之前，他已经成为传奇人物了。成千上万疲于征战、忍饥挨饿、征衣褴褛的邦联士兵早已失 去了战争伊始的单纯的热情，他们把李视作自己甘愿为之献身的一切的象征。只是他们不善 表述这种情感。这一被无数英雄行为、无数阵亡将士神圣化了的注定失败的事业若有其现实 的理由证明 其是正确的话，那这理由就是李将军。 7 Grant, the son of a tanner on the Western frontier, was everything Lee was not. He had come up the hard way and embodied nothing in particular except the eternal toughness and sinewy fiber of the men who grew up beyond the mountains. He was one of a body of men who owed reverence and obeisance to no one, who were self — reliant to a fault, who cared hardly anything for the past but who had a sharp eye for the future. 格兰特是西部边远地区一个制革工人的儿子，他与李截然不同。他历经艰难才出人头地， 他并不代表哪种特别的信念，所体现的只是在边远山区长大的人所具有的永远能吃苦耐劳、 坚忍不拔的品质。他不敬畏任何人，不顺从任何人，过分讲求自力更生，他不追怀既往，但 能用敏锐的目光看未来。 8 These frontier men were the precise opposite of the tidewater aristocrats. Back of them, in the great surge that had taken people over the Alleghenies and into the opening Western country, there was a deep, implicit dissatisfaction with a past that had settled into grooves. They stood for democracy, not from any reasoned conclusion about the proper ordering of human society, but simply because they had grown up in the middle of democracy and knew how it worked. Their society might have privileges, but they would be privileges each man had won for himself. Forms and patterns meant nothing. No man was born to anything, except perhaps to a chance to show how far he could rise. Life was competition. 这些西部边民与东部沿海低地的贵族恰恰相反。在他们的心目中，在爬过阿勒格尼山脉、 进入辽阔的西部的人潮中，存在着对因循守旧的过去的不直接言明的深深不满。他们拥护民 主制度，不是经缜密分析后推断出了适合人类社会的管理形式，而仅仅是由于他们生长在民 主政体之中，懂得民主制度如何运作。他们的社会或许也存在特权，但那是每个人自己赢得 的特权。惯例与固有模式不起任何作用。也许除了都有一个可以展示自己有多少发展空间的 机会外，没有人生来就享有什么。生活就是竞争。 9 Yet along with this feeling had come a deep sense of belonging to a national community. The Westerner who developed a farm, opened a shop, or set up in business as a trader, could hope to prosper only as his own community prospered — and his community ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific and from Canada down to Mexico. If the land was settled, with towns and highways and accessible markets, he could better himself. He saw his fate in terms of the nation?s own destiny. As its horizons expanded, so did his. He had, in other words, an acute dollars-and-cents stake in the continued growth and development of his country. 然而，伴随着这种情感的是对国家的深深的归属感。那些开垦农场、开店或从事贸易的西 部人只有在所属的社会富起来时自己才有希望富起来—— 他们所属的社会从大西洋一直到 太平洋，从加拿大一直到墨西哥。如果人们前来定居，建立起城镇、公路和近便的市场，他 们自己也就能改善生活。他们从国家的命运出发看自身的命运。国家的疆域拓展了，他们自 身的天地也会随之拓展。换言之，他们的利益与国家的兴旺发达紧紧相连，息息相关。 10 And that, perhaps, is where the contrast between Grant and Lee becomes most striking. The Virginia aristocrat, inevitably, saw himself in relation to his own region. He lived in a static society which could endure almost anything except change. Instinctively, his first loyalty would go to the locality in which that society existed. He would fight to the limit of endurance to defend it, because in defending it he was defending everything that gave his own life its deepest meaning. 而这，或许正是格兰特与李之间最大差异之所在。那位弗吉尼亚贵族必然要将自己与他生 活的地区相联系。他生活在一个几乎容得一切，惟独容不得变化的静止的社会里。出于天性， 他的第一忠诚归于这一社会所在的地域。他会不惜一切地捍卫自己的地域，因为捍卫它，也 就是捍卫赋予他生命最深刻意义的一切。 11 The Westerner, on the other hand, would fight with an equal tenacity for the broader concept of society. He fought so because everything he lived by was tied to growth, expansion, and a constantly widening horizon. What he lived by would survive or fall with the nation itself. He could not possibly stand by unmoved in the face of an attempt to destroy the Union. He would combat it with everything he had, because he could only see it as an effort to cut the ground out from under his feet. 而西部人则以同样的执着捍卫自己更为开明的社会观。他为此而战，因为他赖以为生的都 与发展、开拓以及不断拓宽的地平线密切相连。他所赖以为生的一切与国家同存共亡。面对 颠覆联邦的企图他不可能无动于衷，袖手旁观。他将竭尽所能与之斗争，因为他只能将这一 企图视为挖他墙脚的举动。 12 So Grant and Lee were in complete contrast, representing two diametrically opposed elements in American life. Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him, ready to come on the stage, was the great age of steel and machinery, of crowded cities and a restless burgeoning vitality. Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry, lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head. Each man was the perfect champion of his cause, drawing both his strengths and his weaknesses from the people he led. 因此格兰特和李两人截然相反，代表着美国人生活中两种完全对立的要素。格兰特是初露 锋芒的现代人;他身后准备登场的是钢铁和机器的伟大时代，是拥挤的城市时代，是永不满 足、欣欣向荣、生机勃勃的时代。李则手握长矛从古老的骑士时代一路策马奔来，旌旗在头 上飘扬。两人都是各自事业的杰出捍卫者，从所率的民众中汲取长处，同时也承袭了他们的 弱点。 13 Yet it was not all contrast, after all. Different as they were — in background, in personality, in underlying aspiration — these two great soldiers had much in common. Under everything else, they were marvelous fighters. Furthermore, their fighting qualities were really very much alike. 然而，存在于两人之间的也不完全是差异。虽然他们很不一样—— 如背景、个性、胸怀 的抱负—— 但这两位杰出的军人却也有着许多的共同之处。最根本的是，两人都是优秀的 斗士。再者，两人在战场上显示出的品质也极为相似。 14 Each man had, to begin with, the great virtue of utter tenacity and fidelity. Grant fought his way down the Mississippi Valley in spite of acute personal discouragement and profound military handicaps. Lee hung on in the trenches at Petersburg after hope itself had died. In each man there was an indomitable quality... the born fighter?s refusal to give up as long as he can still remain on his feet and lift his two fists. 首先，两人都具有极其顽强和忠诚的崇高品格。格兰特不顾巨大的个人伤痛和重大的军事 失利，沿密西西比河流域一路打过来。李在完全丧失希望的情况下死守彼得斯堡战壕。两人 都具有一种百折不挠的个性,,一种与生俱来的斗士精神:一息尚存，就战斗到底。 15 Daring and resourcefulness they had, too; the ability to think faster and move faster than the enemy. These were the qualities which gave Lee the dazzling campaigns of Second Manassas and Chancellorsville 1and won Vicksburg for Grant2. 两人还都既勇敢又足智多谋;都有比敌手思考敏捷、行动迅速的能力。正是这些品质为李 赢得了世人赞叹的第二次默纳塞斯战役和桑塞勒兹维尔战役，为格兰特赢得了维科斯堡大 捷。 16 Lastly, and perhaps greatest of all, there was the ability, at the end, to turn quickly from war to peace once the fighting was over. Out of the way these two men behaved at Appomattox came the possibility of a peace of reconciliation. It was a possibility not wholly realized, in the years to come, but which did, in the end, help the two sections to become one nation again... after a war whose bitterness might have seemed to make such a reunion wholly impossible. No part of either man?s life became him more than the part he played in their brief meeting in the McLean house at Appomatox. Their behavior there put all succeeding generations of Americans in their debt. Two great Americans, Grant and Lee — very different, yet under everything very much alike. Their encounter at Appomattox was one of the great moments of American history. 最后，或许也是最重要的，是战事一旦结束，有能力迅速化干戈为玉帛。两人在阿珀马特 科斯的行事方式带来了和平修好的可能。这一可能并没有在以后的几年中完全成为现实，但 在经历了势不两立、恢复联邦似乎根本无望的战争之后，这一可能最终还是促使两大阵营重 新合为一个国家。两人的生活中再没有比在阿珀马特科斯马克莱恩住宅里的简短会面中所起 的作用更能体现其个性了。他们当时这样做，一代又一代美国人都对他们感恩。两位杰出的 美国人，格兰特和李，如此不同，却又在几乎所有方面都如此相像。两人在阿珀马特科斯的 会晤是美国历史上一个辉煌的时刻。 The Legacy 1 „For Sissy Miller.? Gilbert Clandon, taking up the pearl brooch that lay among a litter of rings and brooches on a little table in his wife?s drawing-room, read the inscription: „For Sissy Miller, with my love.? 遗赠物 弗吉妮娅?伍尔芙 “给西瑟?米勒。”吉尔伯特?克兰登拿起放在太太客厅小桌子上那一堆戒指和胸针中的那枚 珍珠胸针，念着上面的字:“给西瑟?米勒，谨致爱意。” 2 It was like Angela to have remembered even Sissy Miller, her secretary. Yet how strange it was, Gilbert Clandon thought once more, that she had left everything in such order — a little gift of some sort for every one of her friends. It was as if she had foreseen her death. Yet she had been in perfect health when she left the house that morning, six weeks ago; when she stepped off the kerb in Piccadilly and the car had killed her. 她连自己的秘书西瑟?米勒都记在心里，安吉拉就是这样的人。可多奇怪，吉尔伯特?克兰 登又一次想着，她居然把一切都安排得那么井然有序—— 每一位朋友都有一件小小的礼物。 似乎她预见到了自己的死。可是，六个星期前，她在那天上午离家时身体很好, 正当她走下 皮卡迪利大街的人行道时，一辆汽车把她撞死。 3 He was waiting for Sissy Miller. He had asked her to come; he owed her, he felt, after all the years she had been with them, this token of consideration. Yes, he went on, as he sat there waiting, it was strange that Angela had left everything in such order. Every friend had been left some little token of her affection. Every ring, every necklace, every little Chinese box — she had a passion for little boxes — had a name on it. To him, of course, she had left nothing in particular, unless it were her diary. Fifteen little volumes, bound in green leather, stood behind him on her writing table. Ever since they were married, she had kept a diary. Some of their very few — he could not call them quarrels, say tiffs — had been about that diary. When he came in and found her writing, she always shut it or put her hand over it. „No, no, no,? he could hear her say, „After I?m dead — perhaps.? So she had left it him, as her legacy. It was the only thing they had not shared when she was alive. But he had always taken it for granted that she would outlive him. If only she had stopped one moment, and had thought what she was doing, she would be alive now. But she had stepped straight off the kerb, the driver of the car had said at the inquest. She had given him no chance to pull up...Here the sound of voices in the hall interrupted him. 他在等西瑟?米勒。他请她来的。他觉得她与他们夫妇俩相处了那么多年，自己应当以这 种方式表示关心。真的，他坐在那儿等着，心里还在想，安吉拉把一切安排得这么井然有序， 是很奇怪。每个朋友都得到一份代表她的情谊的小小礼物。每一枚戒指，每一串项链，每一 个小巧的中国盒—— 她对小巧的盒子情有独钟—— 都有个名字附在上面。当然，她没给他 留下什么特别的物品，除非是她的那些日记。15本小本子，用绿色皮面装帧，全都摆放在 他身后的书桌上。婚后她就开始记日记了。两人偶有的—— 称不上争吵，只能说是别扭—— 都是为了这些日记。每当他走进房间看到她在写，她总是合上本子，或用手按着。“不，不 行，不行，”他会听到她说，“也许，等我死后吧。”就这样，她把日记作为遗物留给了他。 这是她生前夫妇俩惟一不曾共同拥有的东西。不过他一直认为自己一定会先走。只要她停顿 片刻，想一想自己在干什么，此刻她就依然在这世上。可她径直走下人行道，在接受调查时 那位驾车者这么说。她令他措手不及,,就在这时，大厅里的说话声打断了他的思绪。 4 „Miss Miller, Sir,? said the maid. “米勒小姐来了，先生，”女仆说。 5 She came in. She was terribly distressed, and no wonder. Angela had been much more to her than an employer. She had been a friend. To himself, he thought, as he pushed a chair for her and asked her to sit down, she was scarcely distinguishable from any other woman of her kind. There were thousands of Sissy Millers — drab little women in black carrying attaché cases. But Angela, with her genius for sympathy, had discovered all sorts of qualities in Sissy Miller. She was the soul of discretion, so silent, so trustworthy, one could tell her anything, and so on. 她走了进来。她极为悲伤，这也难怪。安吉拉不仅仅是她的雇主。还是她的朋友。在他自 己看来，他一边暗自想着，一边为她拉过一张椅子，请她坐下，她和所有像她这种身份的人 几乎没有什么区别。有成千上万个西瑟?米勒—— 毫无情趣的小妇人，身穿缁衣，手提公文 包。可天生会同情人的安吉拉在西瑟?米勒身上发现了种种优良品质。她十分谨慎，守口如 瓶，值得信任，你什么话都可以对她说，等等。 6 Miss Miller could not speak at first. She sat there dabbing her eyes with her pocket handkerchief. Then she made an effort. 米勒小姐开始时说不出话来。她坐在那儿用手帕轻拭眼睛。接着她定了定神。 7 „Pardon me, Mr Clandon,? she said. “请原谅，克兰登先生，”她说。 8 He murmured. Of course he understood. It was only natural. He could guess what his wife had meant to her. 他含糊应了一声。他当然明白。这太自然了。他想像得出妻子对她意味着什么。 9 „I?ve been so happy here,? she said, looking round. Her eyes rested on the writing table behind him. It was here they had worked — she and Angela. For Angela had her share of the duties that fall to the lot of the wife of a prominent politician, she had been the greatest help to him in his career. He had often seen her and Sissy sitting at that table — Sissy at the typewriter, taking down letters from her dictation. No doubt Miss Miller was thinking of that, too. Now all he had to do was to give her the brooch his wife had left her. A rather incongruous gift it seemed. It might have been better to have left her a sum of money. Or even the typewriter. But there it was — „For Sissy Miller, with my love.? And, taking the brooch, he gave it her with the little speech that he had prepared. He knew, he said, that she would value it. His wife had often worn it... And she replied, as she took it, almost as if she too had prepared a speech, that it would always be a treasured possession. ... She had, he supposed, other clothes upon which a pearl brooch would not look quite so incongruous. She was wearing the little black coat and skirt that seemed the uniform of her profession. Then he remembered — she was in mourning, of course. She too had had her tragedy — a brother, to whom she was devoted, had died only a week or two before Angela. In some accident, was it? He could remember only Angela telling him; Angela, with her genius for sympathy, had been terribly upset. Meanwhile Sissy Miller had risen. She was putting on her gloves. Evidently she felt that she ought not to intrude. But he could not let her go without saying something about her future. And so he added, as he pressed her hand. „Remember, Miss Miller, if there?s any way in which I can help you, it will be a pleasure....? Then he opened the door. For a moment, on the threshold, as if a sudden thought had struck her, she stopped. “我在这里一向非常愉快，”她说着，环顾四周。她的目光落在他身后的书桌上。她俩就是 在这里工作的—— 她和安吉拉。因为安吉拉肩负着政要夫人应该承担的各种责任，在他的 政治生涯中她给了他极大的帮助。他经常看见她和西瑟坐在这张书桌旁—— 西瑟把她口授 的信件用打字机打出。不用说，米勒小姐也在想这些往事。现在他所要做的就是把太太留给 她的胸针交给她。这件礼物似乎不太合适。还不如给她一笔钱呢。即便那台打字机也更合适 些。可是礼物早已安排好了——“给西瑟?米勒，谨致爱意。”他拿着胸针，交给她时讲了几 句事先想好的话。他深知，他说，她会珍惜这枚胸针。他夫人生前经常佩戴它,,她接过胸针 时回答说，简直也像事先准备过似的，它永远是件珍爱之物,,他猜想她有别的跟这枚珍珠胸 针更相配的衣服。她身上穿着黑衣黑裙，像是她那种职业的人穿的制服。他随即想起，她是 穿着丧服，没错。她自己也遇到了伤心事—— 她一向爱着的一位兄弟，在安吉拉之前的一 两个星期去世了。好像是什么意外,他只记得安吉拉跟自己说过;天生会同情人的安吉拉为 此非常难过。他这么想着时西瑟?米勒已经站了起来。她正在戴手套。显然她觉得自己不该 打扰。可是，他不能对她的将来不表示一下关心就让她走。于是他一边说，一边紧紧握着她 的手。”请记住，米勒小姐，若需帮助尽管开口，本人定当效劳,,”说着，他打开门。刹那间， 她似乎突然想到了什么，在门口停了下来。 10 „Mr Clandon,? she said, looking straight at him for the first time, and for the first time he was struck by the expression, sympathetic yet searching, in her eyes. „If at any time,? she was saying, „there?s anything I can do to help you, remember, I shall feel it, for your wife?s sake, a pleasure....? “克兰登先生，”她说，目光第一次直视着他，他第一次为她的眼神暗暗吃惊，既流露出同 情又十分锐利。“如果什么时候，”她说道，“有什么事我能帮上忙，请记住，为了夫人，我 会很高兴为您效劳,,” 11 With that she was gone. Her words and the look that went with them were unexpected. It was almost as if she believed, or hoped, that he would have need of her. A curious, perhaps a fantastic idea occurred to him as he returned to his chair. Could it be, that during all those years when he had scarcely noticed her, she, as the novelists say, had entertained a passion for him? He caught his own reflection in the glass as he passed. He was over fifty; but he could not help admitting that he was still, as the looking-glass showed him, a very distinguished-looking man. 说完她走了。她的话，还有说话时的神态真是出乎意料。就好像她以为，或者希望，自己 会需要她。他坐回到椅子里时，产生了一个离奇的，甚或是荒唐的念头。会不会，那么多年 来，虽然自己很少注意过她，她却像那些小说家写的那样对自己暗生情愫,他走过镜子时瞄 了一眼镜子中的自己。他已经年过半百，可他不得不承认，自己依旧仪表堂堂，就像刚才镜 子里看到的那样。 12 „Poor Sissy Miller!? he said, half laughing. How he would have liked to share that joke with his wife! He turned instinctively to her diary. „Gilbert, „ he read, opening it at random, „looked so wonderful....? It was as if she had answered his question. Of course, she seemed to say, you?re very attractive to women. Of course Sissy Miller felt that too. He read on. „How proud I am to be his wife!? And he had always been very proud to be her husband. How often when they dined out somewhere he had looked at her across the table and said to himself. She is the loveliest woman here! He read on. That first year he had been standing for Parliament . They had toured his constituency. „When Gilbert sat down the applause was terrific. The whole audience rose and sang: "For he?s a jolly good fellow." I was quite overcome.? He remembered that, too. She had been sitting on the platform beside him. He could still see the glance she cast at him, and how she had tears in her eyes. He read on rapidly, filling in scene after scene from her scrappy fragments. „Dined at the House of Commons.... To an evening party at the Lovegroves. Did I realize my responsibility, Lady L. asked me, as Gilbert?s wife?? Then as the years passed — he took another volume from the writing table — he had become more and more absorbed in his work. And she, of course, was more often alone. It had been a great grief to her, apparently, that they had had no children. „How I wish,? one entry read, „that Gilbert had a son!? Oddly enough he had never much regretted that himself. Life had been so full, so rich as it was. That year he had been given a minor post in the government. A minor post only, but her comment was: „I am quite certain now that he will be Prime Minister!? Well, if things had gone differently, it might have been so. He paused here to speculate upon what might have been. Politics was a gamble, he reflected; but the game wasn?t over yet. Not at fifty. He cast his eyes rapidly over more pages, full of the little trifles, the insignificant, happy, daily trifles that had made up her life. “可怜的西瑟?米勒!”他说着，微微一笑。他多想能把这件趣事讲给太太听!他下意识地取过 她的日记。“吉尔伯特，”他信手翻开来读道，“看上去真英俊,,”简直就像是她回答了自己的 问题。没错，她仿佛在说，你让女人着迷。当然，西瑟?米勒也有同感。他接着读下去。“成 为他的太太我感到太荣幸了!”而他也一向以做她的丈夫为荣。多少次，两人外出就餐，他望 着对座的她，暗自说。这儿数她最楚楚动人。他接着读。婚后第一年他竞选议员。两人一起 在选区访问。“吉尔伯特坐下时，掌声雷动。听众全体起立，高唱着:‘他是个大好人。’我 感动万分。”他也记起了这事。她和自己并肩坐在台上。他仍记得她向自己投来的目光，记 得她两眼噙着泪水。他快速读下去，她那些零乱的片断一幕幕涌入他的脑海。“在下议院就 餐,,前往洛夫格罗夫府参加晚会。作为吉尔伯特的太太，洛夫格罗夫夫人问我，我可曾意识 到身负的责任,”光阴一年年逝去—— 他从书桌上取过另一本日记簿—— 他越来越专注于 工作。而她，独处的时间自然也越来越多。他俩没孩子，显然她对此深感悲伤。“我多希望，” 有一天的日记里写着，“吉尔伯特有个儿子!”奇怪的是，他本人从不怎么以此为憾事。生活 那么丰富，那么充实，的确如此。那年派给了他一个无足轻重的政府中的职务。一个小职位 而已，可她的评论竟然是:“现在我相信他会当上首相!”嗯，如果情况朝另外的方向发展， 或许果真如此了。他略略停顿，思忖着事情的进展或许会如何不同。政治就是一场赌博，他 想;可这游戏还没完呢。年方五十还有机会。他目光飞快地掠过一页又一页日记，都是些琐 碎小事，那些构成她生活的无关紧要的快乐琐事。 13 He took up another volume and opened it at random. „What a coward I am! I let the chance slip again. But it seemed selfish to bother him about my own affairs, when he has so much to think about. And we so seldom have an evening alone.? What was the meaning of that? Oh here was the explanation — it referred to her work in the East End. „I plucked up courage and talked to Gilbert at last. He was so kind, so good. He made no objection.? He remembered that conversation. She had told him that she felt so idle, so useless. She wished to have some work of her own. She wanted to do something — she had blushed so prettily, he remembered, as she said it sitting in that very chair — to help others. So every Wednesday she went to Whitechapel. He remembered how he hated the clothes she wore on those occasions. But she had taken it very seriously it seemed. The diary was full of references like this: „Saw Mrs Jones.... She has ten children.... Husband lost his arm in an accident. ... Did my best to find a job for Lily.? He skipped on. His own name occurred less frequently. His interest slackened. Some of the entries conveyed nothing to him. For example: „Had a heated argument about socialism with B. M.? Who was B. M.? He could not fill in the initials; some woman, he supposed, that she had met on one of her committees. „B. M. made a violent attack upon the upper classes... . I walked back after the meeting with B. M. and tried to convince him. But he is so narrow-minded.? So B. M. was a man — no doubt one of those „intellectuals? as they call themselves, who are so violent, as Angela said, and so narrow-minded. She had invited him to come and see her apparently. „B. M. came to dinner. He shook hands with Minnie!? That note of exclamation gave another twist to his mental picture. B. M., it seemed, wasn?t used to parlour-maids: he had shaken hands with Minnie. Presumably he was one of those tame workingmen who air their views in ladies? drawing-rooms. Gilbert knew the type, and had no liking for this particular specimen, whoever B. M. might be. Here he was again. „Went with B. M. to the Tower of London.... He said revolution is bound to come. ... He said we live in a Fool?s paradise.? That was just the kind of thing B. M. would say — Gilbert could hear him. He could also see him quite distinctly — a stubby little man, with a rough beard, red tie, dressed as they always did in tweeds, who had never done an honest day?s work in his life. Surely Angela had the sense to see through him? He read on. „B. M. said some very disagreeable things about. ...? The name was carefully scratched out. „I would not listen to any more abuse of. ...? Again the name was obliterated. Could it have been his own name? Was that why Angela covered the page so quickly when he came in? The thought added to his growing dislike of B. M. He had had the impertinence to discuss him in this very room. Why had Angela never told him? It was very unlike her to conceal anything; she had been the soul of candour. He turned the pages, picking out every reference to B. M. „B. M. told me the story of his childhood. His mother went out charring.... When I think of it, I can hardly bear to go on living in such luxury.... Three guineas for one hat! „ If only she had discussed the matter with him, instead of puzzling her poor little head about questions that were much too difficult for her to understand! He had lent her books. Karl Marx. „The Coming Revolution.? The initials B. M., B. M., B. M., recurred repeatedly. But why never the full name? He read on. „B. M. came unexpectedly after dinner. Luckily, I was alone.? That was only a year ago. „Luckily? — why luckily? — „I was alone.? Where had he been that night? He checked the date in his engagement book. It had been the night of the Mansion House dinner. And B. M. and Angela had spent the evening alone! He tried to recall that evening. Was she waiting up for him when he came back? Had the room looked just as usual? Were there glasses on the table? Were the chairs drawn close together? He could remember nothing — nothing whatever. It became more and more inexplicable to him — the whole situation: his wife receiving an unknown man alone. Perhaps the next volume would explain. Hastily he reached for the last of the diaries — the one she had left unfinished when she died. There on the very first page was that cursed fellow again. „Dined alone with B. M.... He became very agitated. He said it was time we understood each other.... I tried to make him listen. But he would not. He threatened that if I did not...? the rest of the page was scored over. He could not make out a single word; but there could be only one interpretation: the scoundrel had asked her to become his mistress. Alone in his room! The blood rushed to Gilbert Clandon?s face. He turned the pages rapidly. What had been her answer? Initials had ceased. It was simply „he? now. „He came again. I told him I could not come to any decision.... I implored him to leave me.? He had forced himself upon her in this very house? But why hadn?t she told him? How could she have hesitated for an instant? Then: „I wrote him a letter.? Then pages were left blank. Then there was this: „No answer to my letter.? Then more blank pages: and then this: „He has done what he threatened.? After that — what came after that? He turned page after page. All were blank. But there, on the very day before her death, was this entry: „Have I the courage to do it too?? That was the end. 他又取过一本，信手翻开。“我真是个懦夫!我又让机会溜走了。可是，他有那么多事要考 虑，而我却用自己的事去打搅他，而且我俩很少有机会单独在一起度过一个夜晚，这未免太 自私了。”这话是什么意思,哦这里有说明—— 指的是她在伦敦东区的工作。“我鼓起勇气， 终于跟吉尔伯特谈了。他真好，太好了。他一点也不反对。”他记起了那次谈话。她跟他说 她觉得无所事事，像个废物。她希望能做点事。她想做些什么—— 她涨红着脸，那么可爱， 他回想起来了，她说话时就坐在那张椅子里—— 去帮助别人。于是，她每星期三去怀特查 普尔。他回想起来，自己是多么讨厌她去那儿时的穿戴。可看来她还真把这当一回事。日记 里提到的全是这类事 :“见到琼斯太太,,她有十个孩子,,丈夫在事故中失去了一条手臂,,尽 我的努力给莉莉找了个工作。”他快速浏览着。自己的名字出现得少了。他的兴趣也不大了。 有些记载他读了觉得莫名其妙。比如:“与B.M.就社会主义展开了激烈争论。”谁是B.M., 他光看首字母猜不出来 ;是某位女士，他猜想，是她在某个委员会里认识的。“B.M.对上层 社会大加抨击,“会后我和B.M.一起步行回来，我想说服他。可他思想褊狭。”就是说B.M. 是个男的—— 肯定就是自称“知识分子”的那类人，言词非常激烈，就像安吉拉说的那样， 而且思想十分褊狭。显然是她邀请他来访。“B.M.前来赴宴。他竟然与明妮握手!”这句话的 惊叹语气使他对此人的印象更糟了。B.M.可能没见识过客厅女仆:他竟然与明妮握了手。 大概他是那种听使唤的工人，在夫人小姐的起居室里发表自己的看法。吉尔伯特见识过那种 人，且不论这位B.M.究竟是何许人，他对这人全无好感。又写到这人。“和 B.M.一起去伦敦塔,,他说革命必将来临,,他说我们陶醉在虚无缥缈的乐境之中。”这是 B.M.常说的那种话—— 吉尔伯特完全料得到。他还能清楚地看到他的样子—— 一个矮矮胖胖的小男人，胡子拉茬，系着红色领带，穿着他们这种人天天穿的粗花呢衣服，一辈子从没干过一天正经活儿。安吉拉总该有头脑看穿这种人吧,他往下读。“B.M.说了些很难听的话，是有关,,”名字被小心翼翼地划掉了。“我再也不想听这些对,,的诋毁之词了。”名字又被划掉了。会不会是他自己的名字,会不会就为这个安吉拉在他进来时急急忙忙地把本子遮住,这一想法越发加深了他对B.M.的厌恶。他如此放肆，竟然就在这个房间里议论起他来了。可安吉拉怎么从没跟自己说起呢,她才不会对他隐瞒什么呢;她是直率诚恳的化身。他一页页翻着，找出提及B.M.的文句。“B.M.跟我讲了他童年的事。他母亲到别人家里干杂活,,想到这一点，我真不愿继续过如此奢侈的生活,,一顶帽子就花去三几尼!”她只要跟自己谈谈这事就好了，用不着让她那可怜的小脑袋为这种她理解不了的事而烦恼嘛!他借书给她看。卡尔?马克思。《即将来临的革命》。B.M.，B.M.，B.M.的缩写一再重复出现。可为什么不用全名呢,他往下读。“晚餐后B.M.未经邀请自己来了。幸好我一人在家。”那不过是一年前的事。“幸好”—— 为什么幸好,——“我一人在家。”自己那天晚上去哪里了,他查了查约会簿里的日期。那个晚上是去市长官邸赴宴。B.M.和安吉拉那天晚上单独在一起!他试图回忆那晚的情形。他回家时她有没有在等他,屋子里看上去跟平时一样吗,桌上有没有杯子,椅子有没有靠在一起,他什么也回想不起来—— 一点都想不起来了。这事变得越来越莫名其妙—— 整个事件:太太独自一人接待一个陌生男子。也许下一本日记能解释一切。他急急抓过最后一本日记簿—— 她生前没记完的那本。第一页赫然在目的又是那该死的家伙。“一个人与B.M.进餐,,他非常激动。他说咱俩该相互理解了,,我想让他听我说。可他不听。他威胁说要是我不,,”这一页其余的文字全都被涂抹掉了。他一个字也无法辨认;可只有一个解释:那个混蛋要她做他的情人。两人单独在他的房间!热血涌上了吉尔伯特?克兰登的脸。他快速地一页页翻过去。她怎么回答的呢,首字母不见了。现在干脆只说“他”了。“他又来了。 我告诉他我做不了决定。我恳求他离开我。”他就在这所房子里迫她就范,可是为什么她不跟自己说呢,她用得着片刻犹豫吗,下面:“我给他写了一封信。”后面几页都是空白。接着有这么一句话:“没有回信。”后面又是空白，接着是:“他把威胁付之行动了。”那以后—— 那以后怎么了,他一页一页地翻着。都是空白。可是，就在她出事的前一天，写着这么一句:“我有勇气也这么做吗,”日记终止了。 14 Gilbert Clandon let the book slide to the floor. He could see her in front of him. She was standing on the kerb in Piccadilly. Her eyes stared; her fists were clenched. Here came the car... 吉尔伯特?克兰登听任日记本滑落到地上。他能看到她在他眼前。她站在皮卡迪利大街的人行道上。她凝视着前方，紧握着双拳。车开过来了,, 15 He could not bear it. He must know the truth. He strode to the telephone. 他无法再忍受了。他必须了解真相。他大步走到电话机旁。 16 „Miss Miller!? There was silence. Then he heard someone moving in the room. “米勒小姐!”没有声音。接着他听见房间里有人在走动。 17 „Sissy Miller speaking? — her voice at last answered him. “我是西瑟?米勒”—— 总算听到她来接电话了。 18 „Who,? he thundered, „is B. M.?? “到底谁，”他吼道，“是B.M.,” 19 He could hear the cheap clock ticking on her mantelpiece: then a long drawn sigh. Then at last she said: 他听得见她壁炉架上那座廉价钟的滴答声，接着是一声长长的叹息。最后她回答说: 20 „He was my brother.? “他是我兄弟。” 21 He was her brother; her brother who had killed himself. 那是她兄弟，她那自杀的兄弟。 22 „Is there,? he heard Sissy Miller asking, „anything that I can explain?? “有什么，”他听到西瑟?米勒在说，“要我解释的吗,” 23 „Nothing!? he cried. „Nothing!? “没有!”他喊道。“没有!” 24 He had received his legacy. She had told him the truth. She had stepped off the kerb to rejoin her lover. She had stepped off the kerb to escape from him. 他得到了属于自己的遗赠。她把真相告诉了他。她走下人行道与情人重新团聚。她走下人 行道从自己身边逃逸。 Tongues of the Web 1 Since its earliest days, machine translation — the use of computers to translate documents from one language to another automatically — has suffered from exaggerated claims and impossible expectations. One characteristic (but apocryphal) tale tells of an American military system designed to translate Russian into English, which is said to have rendered the famous Russian saying "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" into "The vodka is good but the meat is rotten." 网络语言 佚名 自问世之初，对于机器翻译—— 即运用计算机自动把文件从一种语言译成另一种语言 —— 就有人言过其实地下断言，就有人寄予不切实际的期望。一则典型的(但系杜撰的)故 事讲到美国军方一个专为俄译英的系统，据说它把著名的俄罗斯成语“心有余而力不足” 译作“酒香而肉臭”。 2 This sort of joke prompts a hollow laugh from those in the machine-translation (MT) business. It does so because it demonstrates both the difficulty of getting computers to understand human languages, and the high expectations that must be met if MT is to be taken seriously. Over the years, there have been a number of promising new approaches in the field, and ever-cheaper processing and storage technology have helped improve things. But progress has been painfully slow, and the decisive breakthrough that will transform the fortunes of MT has never appeared. 从事机器翻译的业内人士听了这类笑话顶多苦笑一声。这是因为，这类故事表明要计算机 理解人类语言是多么困难，也表明如果要人们真把机器翻译当回事，必须满足的期望有多么 高。多年来，该领域开辟了不少颇具发展前途的新途径，越来越便宜的处理和存储技术帮助 作出了一些改进。但发展极其缓慢，将会改变机器翻译命运的决定性的突破尚未出现。 3 Now the Internet has given MT a much needed shot in the arm. This is odd because the ability to transmit information quickly and cheaply would not, on the face of it, appear to make the process of translation any easier. Yet, although the underlying technology of MT is still the same as it ever was, the rise of the Internet changes the way in which technology is perceived and the way it is used. And there are signs that, in future, it could improve the way it works as well. 如今因特网给了机器翻译以亟需的推动力。这未免奇怪，因为从表面看来，迅速而又便宜 地传送信息的能力似乎不会使翻译的过程变得容易些。然而，虽然机器翻译的主要技术并无 任何改进，因特网的崛起却改变了对技术的理解与使用。有迹象表明，在将来，机器翻译技 术也将改进其目前的工作。 4 The idea of automating the process of translation using computers goes back to the late 1940s. Warren Weaver of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York wrote a memorandum suggesting that the code-breaking successes of the second world war, combined with electronic computers and the new "information theory" laid out by Claude Shannon, might form the basis of an automatic translation system. This prompted research at several American universities, and the first public demonstration of MT — the result of a collaboration between IBM and Georgetown University — took place in 1954. This early system, based on a simple bilingual dictionary with a few rules to determine word order, caused a surge of enthusiasm and funding. 利用计算机使翻译自动化的想法始于20世纪40年代后期。纽约洛克菲勒基金会的沃伦? 韦弗写了一份备忘录，说若能将第二次世界大战中成功的密码破译技术与电子计算机以及克 劳德?香农提出的新“信息理论”相结合，即能构成自动翻译系统的基础。这一意见促使美国 若干大学展开研究，并于1954年举行了机器翻译的第一次公开展示—— 国际商用机器公司 和乔治敦大学合作的结果。这一早期系统以一本由若干条规则决定词序的简单双语词典为基 础，当时引起一阵热潮并引来一些研究基金。 5 For the next decade, MT researchers tried to overcome the limitations of simple dictionary-based systems using more complex approaches which analysed the source text using grammatical rules. "Today, the computer, or electronic brain, is well along toward picking up the burden of machine translation," declared the Atlantic Monthly in 1959. But despite such optimism, progress was slow, and in 1964 the American government established a committee to examine the prospects for MT. Its report, issued two years later, concluded that, compared with human translators, MT systems were slower, less accurate, and twice as expensive. Instead, the committee recommended that research should concentrate on devising systems to assist human translators, rather than trying to replace them altogether. As a result, American funding for pure MT research dried up. 在以后的十年间，机器翻译研究人员试图突破以字典为基础的简单系统的限制，使用更复 杂的方法，用语法规则分析原语文本。“如今，计算机，或者说电脑，渐渐地挑起机器翻译 这副重担，”1959年《大西洋月刊》如此宣称。然而，尽管态度如此乐观，进展却相当缓慢， 1964年，美国政府建立了一个委员会试图探明机器翻译的前景。该委员会两年之后发布的 报告断定，与人工翻译相比，机器翻译系统速度慢，准确率低，代价要高一倍。于是，该委 员会建议机器翻译研究应致力于开发能帮助人工翻译的系统，而非试图完全取代人工翻译。 结果美国纯粹机器翻译研究的资金来源枯竭了。 6 In some fields, however, it was recognised that even a rough-and-ready translation was better than none at all. Systran, a company established by Peter Toma, a researcher at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, sold a Russian-to-English translation system to the United States Air Force in 1970, and the same system was subsequently adopted by the European Commission. During the 1970s, demand for translation systems began to emerge in the business community. 然而，人们认识到，在某些领域，即便是粗糙的翻译也聊胜于无。1970年，帕萨迪纳市加 利福尼亚理工学院的研究人员彼得?托马建立 的系统分析翻译家公司将一项俄英文翻译系统出售给美国空军，这一系统后来又被欧洲委 员会采用。在20世纪70年代，商界对翻译系统的需求开始增长。 7 During the 1980s, the combination of rapid falls in the cost of computing power and increasing demand from governments and multinational companies caused a revival of interest in MT, spurring renewed research. New systems were developed. Many of them worked by translating the source text into an intermediate language or symbolic representation, from which it could be translated into any of several other languages. As computers became more powerful and storage became cheaper, other new approaches emerged in the 1990s: analysis of parallel texts (the same text in two languages) led to new statistical-translation systems, which did not rely on any underlying grammatical rules, and to example-based systems which translated one sentence at a time by searching a database for examples of similar sentences whose translations were known. 到了20世纪80年代，计算机价格的迅速下跌以及政府和跨国公司日益增长的需求重新激 活了对机器翻译的兴趣，激励人们继续研究。新的系统得到开发。不少新系统将原语文本变 成某种可译为几种其他语言的中介语或符号系统。随着计算机的功能越来越大，存储器的价 格越来越便宜，20世纪90年代出现了其他一些新方法:对平行文本的分析(用两种语言表 达的同一文本)产生了不依赖任何基本语法规则的基于统计的机器翻译新系统，还产生了基 于例句的翻译系统，即通过在数据库中搜索已有现成翻译的类似例句一次翻译一句句子。 8 Even so, the quality of MT has not really improved very much over the past three decades, says John Hutchins, an expert on the history of machine translation at the University of East Anglia, in Britain. "If you look at quality of output now, compared with 1970, in many cases you can?t see much improvement," he says. What has changed is that MT systems have now been plugged into the Internet. That changes the way they are used, and the expectations of them. 英国东英格兰大学一位机器翻译史专家约翰?哈钦斯说，即便如此，在过去的三十年里， 机器翻译的质量并没有得到多少改进。“如果你看一看如今的译文质量，将其与1970年时的 译文对比一下，很多情况下你看不出有多少改进，”他说。变化在于，如今的机器翻译系统 接入了因特网。这改变了机器翻译系统的使用方式，改变了人们对机器翻译的期望。 9 The Internet has democratised MT and boosted demand dramatically, as users around the world struggle to understand pages in languages other than their own. And as companies set up increasingly elaborate websites, they have become aware of the need to maintain multiple sites in different countries and serve customers in different languages. Of America?s 100 largest firms, 33 had multilingual websites at the end of 1999, and 57 did a year later. A study by Aberdeen Group, a management consultancy, found that, on average, users spend up to twice as long at a site, and are four times more likely to buy something from it, if it is presented to them in their own language. Another study by IDC, a technology consultancy, found that only 5% of the 50 top websites responded appropriately to e-mail queries in a foreign language; most simply asked for the message to be resent in English. All of which highlights the need for MT systems to provide on-the-fly translations, and for elaborate publishing systems that can manage multilingual websites. 巴别网络 因特网普及了机器翻译，并极大地促进了需求，因为世界各地的用户急欲看懂非母语的网 页。不少公司在开设Babel Fish, which relies on Systran software to translate pages retrieved by the Alta Vista search engine. Anyone who has used Babel Fish will be familiar with the unintentional hilarity of the results; one popular game involves scrambling the lyrics of pop songs by translating them from English into another language and then back again (a "round-trip" translation). Other MT systems are also in use online, providing rough-and-ready translations of chat-room conversations and e-mail messages. Demand for such services is likely to increase as the diversity of Internet users increases. At the end of 2000, 48% of Internet users were English speakers, but this figure is expected to fall to 32% by the end of 2002. 巴别鱼可以认为是最著名的网上机器翻译系统，这一系统运用系统分析翻译家公司的软件 翻译由Alta Vista搜索引擎检索出的网页内容。用过巴别鱼的人都了解它无意间引人发笑的 翻译效果;一则流行的游戏把流行歌曲的歌词从英文译成另一种语言，再重新译回到英文 (“来回”翻译)，这样歌词就被打乱了。网上还使用其他的机器翻译系统，为聊天室的谈话 以及电子邮件提供粗糙的翻译。由于因特网用户日益多样化，对此类服务的需求可能会增长。 2000年底，48,的因特网用户都是说英语的，但这一数字到2002年底估计会下降到32,。 11 Unfortunately, MT systems work best when they have been customised for a particular subject area, such as microbiology, aerospace or particle physics. This involves analysing typical documents and adding common words and technical terms to the system?s dictionary. Using MT to translate Internet pages, which can be about anything at all, therefore produces terrible results, since no customisation is possible. To make matters worse, most MT systems were designed for use with high quality documents, whereas many web pages, chat-rooms and e-mails tend to involve slang, colloquial language and ungrammatical constructions. 遗憾的是，机器翻译只有在为某一特定领域(如微生物学、航空航天学或粒子物理学)专 门设计时才会出最佳效果。这包括分析典型的文本，在该系统的字典中添加常用词和术语。 使用机器去译内容几乎包罗万象的因特网文字会产出极糟的译文，因为根本不可能做到按用 户需要专门设计。更糟的是，大多数机器翻译系统是为翻译高质量的文献设计的，而许多网 页、聊天室和电子邮件往往夹杂着俚语、口语和不合乎语法的结构。 12 Even so, Steve McClure, an analyst at IDC, notes that the Internet has "refocused" MT from being a tool that provides a first draft for translators to becoming a general tool "for gaining a quick, partial understanding of perishable texts in high-volume environments without human involvement in the translation process". The Internet changes the game for machine translation: users want speed, rather than quality, and are more likely to accept poor results. 即便如此，国际数据公司一位名叫史蒂夫?麦克卢尔的分析师指出，因特网改变了开发机 器翻译的方向，机器翻译不再是为翻译工作者提供初稿的工具，而是一件“翻译过程中不需 人工介入即能迅捷地部分了解高容量信息环境中暂时出现的文本的”普通工具。因特网改变 了机器翻译的追求目标:用户需要的是速度而非质量，更有可能接受质量差的译文。