MarkTwain—MirrorofAmerica中英對照翻譯

1、Mark Twain-the Mirror of AmericaMost Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finns idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyers endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nations best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as a

2、nyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as wellone who grew cyni cal, bitter, sadde ned by the profo und pers onal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.在大多數(shù)美國人的心目中， 馬克 ?吐溫是位偉大作家， 他描寫了哈克 ?費恩永恒的童年時代

3、中 充滿詩情畫意的旅程和湯姆?索亞在漫長的夏日里自由自在歷險探奇的故事。的確，這位美國最受人喜愛的作家的探索精神、 愛國熱情、浪漫氣質及幽默筆調都達到了登峰造極的程度。 但我發(fā)現(xiàn)還有另一個不同的馬克?吐溫一個由于深受人生悲劇的打擊而變得憤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的馬克 ?吐溫，一個為人類品質上的弱點而憂心忡忡、明顯地看到前途是一片黑暗 的人。Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The manwho becameMark Twai

4、n was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of w

5、ater - a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world.印刷工、領航員、邦聯(lián)游擊隊員、淘金者、耽于幻想的樂天派、語言尖刻的諷刺家：馬克 ? 吐溫原名塞繆爾 ?朗赫恩 ?克萊門斯， 他一生之中有超過三分之一的時間浪跡美國各地，體驗著美國的新生活， 爾后便以作家和演說家的身分將他所感受到的這一切介紹給全世界。他的筆名取自他在

6、蒸汽船上做工時聽到的報告水深為兩口尋 (12 英尺 ) 意即可以通航的信號 語。他的作品中有二十幾部至今仍在印行， 其外文譯本仍在世界各地擁有讀者， 由此可見他 的享譽程度。The geographic core, in Twains early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nations heart. Keelboats，flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major co

7、mmerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850s, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States.在馬克 ?吐溫青年時代，美國的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是這個年

8、輕 國家中部的交通大動脈。 龍骨船、 平底船和大木筏載運著最重要的商品。 木材、玉米、煙草、 小麥和皮貨通過這些運載工具順流而下， 運送到河口三角洲地區(qū)， 而砂糖、 糖漿、 棉花和威 士忌酒等貨物則被運送到北方。 在 19 世紀 50 年代，西部領土開發(fā)高潮到來之前， 遼闊的密 西西比河流域占美國已開發(fā)領土的四分之三。Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was r

9、ich and varied a cosmos.He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds,piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books, together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic1857 年

10、，少年馬克 ?吐溫作為蒸汽船上的一名小領航員踏人了這片天地。在這個新的工作 崗位上， 他接觸到的是各式各樣的人物， 看到的是一個多姿多彩的大干世界。 他完全地投身 到這種生活之中，經(jīng)常在操舵室里聽著人們談論民間爭斗、海盜搶劫、 私刑案件、 游醫(yī)賣藥 以及河邊的一些化外民居的故事。 所有這一切， 連同他那像留聲機般準確可靠的記憶所吸收 的豐富多彩的語言，后來都有機會在他的作品中得以再現(xiàn)。Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers,

11、 gamblers, and thugs as well. From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are. His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it

12、. In later life Twain acknowledged that the river had acquainted him with every possible type of humannature. Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his writing, but he never wrote well than when he wrote of the people a-long the great stream.蒸汽船的甲板上不僅擠滿了富有開拓精神的人們， 而且也載著一些娼妓、 賭棍和歹徒等 社會渣滓。從所有這些形形色色

13、的人身上，馬克?吐溫敏銳地認識了人類，認識了人們的言與行之間的差距。 他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半時間是他真正接受教育的開端， 而且也是最具 有深遠意義的教育。到了晚年，馬克?吐溫還聲言是密西西比河使他了解了各種各樣的人的本性。這種生活體驗對他的全部創(chuàng)作都起了促進作用， 然而他描寫得最為成功的還是那些密 西西比河上的人物。When railroads began drying up the demand for steam-boat pilots and the Civil Warhalted commerce, Mark Twain left the river country. He trie

14、d soldiering for two weeks with a motley band of Confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy. Twain quit after deciding, . I knew more about retreating than theman that invented retreating. 隨著鐵路運輸?shù)陌l(fā)展，社會上對汽船領航員的需求日漸減少，而內戰(zhàn)的爆發(fā)又阻礙了商業(yè)貿易的發(fā)展。這時，馬克?吐溫便離開了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦聯(lián)游擊隊的一支雜牌隊伍里當了兩

15、個星期的兵。那支隊伍想方設法避免與敵軍交戰(zhàn)。在確信 “我比發(fā)明撤退的人更精通撤退”之后，馬克?吐溫離開了那支隊伍。He went west by stagecoach and succumbed to the epidemic of gold and silver fever in Nevadas Washoe region. For eight months he flirted with the colossal wealth available to the lucky and the persistent, and was rebuffed. Broke and discouraged

16、, he accepted a job as reporter with the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, to literatures enduring gratitude.他乘驛站馬車來到西部， 在內華達州的華蘇地區(qū)受到當時正流行的淘金熱的誘惑。同那只有既幸運而又鍥而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大財富三心二意地打了八個月交道之后， 他 遭到了失敗。在破產(chǎn)和灰心之余，他接受了為弗吉尼亞市領土開發(fā)報當記者的工作，這 一行動將獲得文學界永久的感激。From the discouragement of his mining failures, Mark

17、 Twain began digging his way to regional fame as a newspaper reporter and humorist. The instant riches of a mining strike would not be his in the reporting trade, but for making money, his pen would prove mightier than his pickax. In the spring of 1864, less than two years after joining the Territor

18、ial Enterprise, he boarded the stagecoach for San Francisco, then and now a hotbed of hopeful young writers.自從他因淘金失敗而感到心灰意冷之后，馬克?吐溫便開始努力博取作為一名報社記者和幽默作家的地區(qū)性聲望。 從事新聞報道工作當然不能使他像淘金成功者一樣立成巨富， 但 在掙錢方面他的筆桿卻比他的鋤鎬要有效得多。 1864 年春季，在他加盟領土開發(fā)報還 不足兩年之時， 他又乘驛站馬車前往舊金山， 那兒在當時和現(xiàn)在都是有前途的年輕作家成長 的搖籃。Mark Twain honed and e

19、xperimented with his new writing muscles, but he had to leave the city for a while because of some scathing columns he wrote. Attacks on the city government, concerning such issues as mistreatment of Chinese, so angered officials that he fled to the goldfields in the Sacramento Valley. His descripti

20、ons of the rough-country settlers there ring familiarly in modern world accustomed to trendsetting on the West Coast. It was a splendid population for all the slow, sleepy,sluggish-brained sloths stayed at home. It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterpri

21、ses and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences, which she bears unto this day - and when she projects a new surprise, the grave world smiles as usual, and says Well, that is California all over. 馬克 ?吐溫磨煉并試驗了他的新筆力，但他卻因寫了一些尖銳的評論文章而被迫暫時離 開這座城市

22、。他圍繞著虐待華人等一類問題對市政府提出的尖銳批評惹得一些官員大為惱 火，因之他只好逃到薩克拉門托山谷的金礦區(qū)暫避風頭。 他對那兒的拓荒者們的描寫使西海 岸地區(qū)富有創(chuàng)新精神的現(xiàn)代人倍感親切。 “這兒的人們真是了不起因為那些笨手笨腳、 無精打彩、呆頭呆腦的懶漢都呆在家里正是那些人們?yōu)榧永Ｄ醽嗂A得了這樣的聲譽： 當他們著手進行一項宏偉的事業(yè)時， 他們會不計代價或風險而以一種豪邁的氣概和闖勁勇往 直前， 一千到底。加利福尼亞人至今仍保持著這樣的聲譽，因而， 每當他們發(fā)起一項新的驚 天動地的壯舉時，那些素來穩(wěn)重的人便會像往常一樣微笑著說：看吧，這完全是加利福尼亞的風格?！盜n the dreary

23、winter of 1864-65 in Angels Camp, he kept a notebook. Scattered among notations about the weather and the tedious mining-camp meals lies an entry noting a story he had heard that day an entry that would determ ine his course forever: Coleman with his jumping frog- bet stranger $50- stranger had no f

24、rog, and C.got him one in the mean time stra nger filled C. s frog full of shot and he could nt jump. The strangers frog won.1864 年與 1865 年之交的那個冬天，馬克 ?吐溫是在安吉爾斯礦區(qū)度過的。在這段沉悶 的日子里， 他記了一本筆記。 在雜亂無章的有關天氣情況和乏味無趣的有關礦區(qū)飯食情況的 記錄條目中夾著一條敘述當天聽到的一則故事的記錄這條記錄決定了他一生事業(yè)的發(fā) 展方向：“科爾曼用他的跳蛙與陌生人賭 50美元陌生人沒有跳蛙， 科爾曼去給他弄 來一只陌生人利用

25、這段時間將科的跳蛙肚子塞滿鉛彈， 這樣，科的跳蛙跳不起來， 陌生 人的跳蛙便得以獲勝。 ”Retold with his descriptive genius, the story was printed in newspapers across the United States and became known as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Mark Twains national reputation was now well established as the wild humorist of the Paci

26、fic slope.經(jīng)過馬克 ?吐溫的生花妙筆改寫之后， 這個故事登在美國各地的報紙上， 成了家喻戶曉 的“卡拉韋拉斯縣有名的跳蛙” 。至此，馬克 ?吐溫作為“太平洋海岸狂放的幽默大師”的聲 望已在全國范圍內牢固地確立起來了。Two year s later the opportunity came for him to take a distinctly American look at the Old World. In New York City the steamship Quaker City prepared to sail on a pleasure cruise to Euro

27、pe and the Holy Land. For the first time, a sizable group of United States citizens planned to journey as tourists - a milestone , of sorts, in a countrys development. Twain was assigned to accompany them, as correspondent 工 for a California newspaper. If readers expected the usual glowing travelogu

28、e , they were sorely surprised.兩年之后，他得到了一個以美國人特有的眼光去觀察歐洲舊大陸的機會。 在紐約市，“費 城號”蒸汽船準備進行一次到歐洲和圣地的觀光航行。 這是美國人第一次組織較大規(guī)模的團 體觀光旅行也可以看作是一個國家發(fā)展史上的某種里程碑。馬克?吐溫作為加利福尼亞一家報紙的記者被委派隨同觀光團采訪。 如果讀者們期望能讀到有關這次旅行見聞的神采飛 揚的描寫的話，那他們是要倍感意外的。Unimpressed by the Sultan of Turkey,for example, he reported, “. one could seta trap any

29、where and catch a dozen abler menin a night. ” Casually he debunked revered artists and art treasures, and took unholy verbal shots at the Holy Land. Back home, more newspapers began printing his articles. America laughed with him. Upon his return to the States the book version of his travels, The I

30、nnocents Abroad, became an instant best-seller.舉例來說，他對于那沒有給他留下什么好印象的土耳其君主蘇丹是這樣報道的， “人們 可以任意選擇一個地方設一個陷阱，一夜之間準可捕捉到十幾個更有能耐的人。 ”他信口開 河地對一些受人景仰的藝術家和藝術珍品加以鄙薄， 甚至對宗教圣地也敢于以褻瀆性的言辭 加以侮蔑?；貒院?，越來越多的報紙開始刊登他的文章，整個美國都同他一齊歡笑。 他一 回到美國，他的旅行雜記傻子出國旅行記立即成為暢銷書。At the age of 36 Twain settled in Hartford, Connecticut. His

31、best books were published while he lived there.三十六歲時，馬克 ?吐溫開始定居于康涅狄格州哈特福德鎮(zhèn)，他的最優(yōu)秀的作品全是在 那段時間里問世的。As early as 1870 Twain had experimented with a story about the boyhood adventures of a lad he named Billy Rogers. Two years later, he changed the name to Tom, and began shaping his adventures into a stage

32、 play. Not until 1874 did the story begin developing in ear nest. After publication in 1876, Tom Sawyer quickly became a classic tale of American boyhood. Toms mischievous daring, ingenuity, and the sweet innocence of his affection for Becky Thatcher are almost as sure to be studied in American scho

33、ols to-day as is the Declaration of Independence.早在 1870 年，馬克 ?吐溫就試著寫了一篇關于一個他名之為比利?羅杰斯的男孩子的童年歷險故事。 兩年后， 他又將主人公的名字改為湯姆， 并著手將故事改編成劇本。 直到 1874年他才開始認真地擴展故事情節(jié)。 湯姆 ?索亞于 1876 年出版后，很快成為美國兒童故事 的經(jīng)典之作。這部描寫湯姆的頑皮、勇敢、機智以及他對貝琪?莎切爾的天真純潔的感情的故事幾乎像獨立宣言一樣成了今天美國學校里的必讀書本。Mark Twains own declaration of independence came f

34、rom another character. Six chapters into Tom Sawyer, he drags in the juvenile pariah of the village, Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard. Fleeing a respectable life with the puritanicalWidow Douglas, Huck protests to his friend, TomSawyer: Ive tried it,and it dont work; it dont work, Tom. It

35、aint for me . The widder eats by a bell;she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell- everyth in gs so awful reglara body cant stand it.馬克 ?吐溫本人的獨立宣言卻是由另一個人物表達出來的。在湯姆? 索亞第六章里，他引出了 “村里的流浪少年， 鎮(zhèn)上酒鬼的兒子哈克貝利 ?費恩”。哈克不愿在清教徒道格拉斯 寡婦家過上等人的體面生活，從那里逃出來后對他的朋友湯姆?索亞發(fā)牢騷說： “我試過了，還是不行；不行啊，湯姆。那不是我過的日子那寡婦家吃飯要聽鐘聲，睡覺要

36、聽鐘聲， 起床也要聽鐘聲，什么事情都得規(guī)規(guī)矩矩，簡直叫人受不了。 ”Nine years after Tom Sawyer swept the nation, Huck was given a life of his own, in a book often considered the best ever written about Americans. His raft flight down the Mississippi with a runaway slave presents a moving panorama for exploration of American society

37、.湯姆 ?索亞風靡美國九年之后，哈克被賦予獨立的生命，成為一本被許多人認為是 最成功的描寫美國人的作品的書中的主人公。 他同一個逃跑出來的奴隸一起乘坐木筏沿著密 西西比河順流而下的漂流航程展現(xiàn)了一幅幅揭示美國社會生活全貌的生動畫面。On the river, and especially with Huck Finn, Twain found the ultimate expression of escape from the pace he lived by and often deplored, from lifes regularities and the energy-sapping

38、clamor for success.通過對密西西比河， 尤其是對哈克 ?費恩這一人物的描寫，馬克 ?吐溫將自己想從那束縛著自己并常常令自己苦惱的生活步調中擺脫出來， 從生活中的各種清規(guī)戒律以及為了事業(yè)成功而 進行的艱苦掙扎中解放出來的愿望表達得淋漓盡致。Mark Twain suggested that an ingredient was missing in the American ambition when he said: What a robust people, what a nation of thinkers we might be, if we would only lay

39、 ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges.馬克 ?吐溫認為， 美國人的理想中缺少了一種成分。 他說：“我們只消偶爾地躺下來好好放 松休息一下， 保持鋒棱利角， 我們將有可能成為一個多么朝氣蓬勃的民族， 一個多么富有思 想的民族啊 ! ”Personal tragedy haunted his entirelife, in the deaths of lovedones: his father,dying of pneumonia when Samwas 12; his brother Henry, killed by a

40、steamboat explosion; the death of his son, Langdon, at 19 months. His eldest daughter, Susy, died of spinal meningitis, Mrs. Clemens succumbed to a heart attack in Florence, and youngest daughter. Jean, an epileptic, drowned in an upstairs bathtub.馬克?吐溫的一生都籠罩在悲劇的陰影之中，自己的親人一個接一個地去世：他的父親 在他十二歲那年死于肺炎，

41、他的兄弟亨利在一次汽船爆炸事故中遇難； 他的兒子朗頓才滿十 九個月即離開人世。他的大女兒蘇茜死于脊膜炎； 克萊門斯夫人在佛羅倫薩死于心臟??； 而 他的小女兒也因癲癇病的發(fā)作淹死在樓上的浴盆里。Bitterness fed on the manwho had made the world laugh. The moralizing of his earlier writing had been well padded with humor. Nowthe gloves came off with biting satire. He pretended to praise the U. S. mi

42、litary for the massacre of 600 Philippine Moros in the bowl of a volcanic, crater. In The Mysterious Stranger, he insisted that man drop his religious illusions and depend upon himself, not Providence, to make a better world.這位曾令全世界歡笑的人自己卻飽嘗了人世的辛酸。 他早期作品中的道德說教厚厚地包著 一層幽默的外衣，現(xiàn)在幽默換成了辛辣的諷刺。 對于美國軍隊在一個火山口

43、上屠殺六百名菲 律賓摩洛人的行為，他沒有直接進行抨擊， 而是假裝為之高唱贊歌。 在神秘的陌生人中， 他指出人類應該拋棄宗教幻想，依靠自己而不是上帝的力量去創(chuàng)造一個更加美好的世界。 The last of his own illusions seemed to have crumbled near the end. Dictating his autobiography late in life, he commented with a crushing sense of despair on mens final release from earthly struggles:. they va

44、nish from a world where they wereof no consequence; where they achieved nothing; where they were a mistake and afailure and a foolish ness; where they have left no sig n that they had existed-a world which will lament them a day and for-get them forever. ”他自己的最后一個幻想到后來似乎也破滅了。 在晚年口述自傳的時候， 他以極端絕望的心 情談到人從塵世的苦難中的最終解脫：“他們從世界上消失了，在這個世界上他們無足輕重，無所成就；甚至他們的存在本身就是個錯誤，是個失敗，是種愚蠢。這個世界上也沒 有留下絲毫能表明他們存在過的痕跡。 這個世界贈給他們的只是一日的哀傷和永久的遺忘。 ”Devices of figurationMetaphorMark Twain - Mirror of Americasaw clearly ahead a black wall of night.main artery of transportation in the young nations heartthe v