The Shadowland of Dreams原文和翻譯

1、The Shadowland of Dreams 夢(mèng)想的陰暗之面 Many people cherish the fond dream of becoming a writer but not many are able to see their dream come true. Alex Haley also wanted to be a writer and he succeeded. Read the following for reasons of his success.許多人懷有美好的愿望，期望能成為作家，但是能夠夢(mèng)想成真的人不多。艾力克斯 哈利也想成為作家，可是他成功了。閱讀下面

2、這篇文章，看一看他成功的原因。Many a young person tells me he wants to be a writer. I always encourage such people, but I also explain that there's a big difference between "being a writer" and writing. In most cases these individuals are dreaming of wealth and fame, not the long hours alone at a typ

3、ewriter. "You've got to want to write," I say to them, "not want to be a writer."許多青年人對(duì)我說(shuō)，他們想成為作家。我一直鼓勵(lì)這樣的人，但是我也向他們解釋“成為作家”和寫作之間存在著巨大的差別。多數(shù)情況下這些年輕人夢(mèng)寐以求的是財(cái)富與名譽(yù)，從未想到要孤身一人長(zhǎng)久地坐在打字機(jī)旁?！澳銈兛释膽?yīng)該是寫作，”我對(duì)他們說(shuō)，“而不應(yīng)該是當(dāng)作家。”The reality is that writing is a lonely, private and poor-paying aff

4、air. For every writer kissed by fortune there are thousands more whose longing is never requited. Even those who succeed often know long periods of neglect and poverty. I did. 事實(shí)上，寫作是一項(xiàng)孤單寂寞而又收入微薄的工作。有一個(gè)被命運(yùn)之神垂青的作家，就有成千上萬(wàn)個(gè)永遠(yuǎn)無(wú)法實(shí)現(xiàn)夢(mèng)想的人。即使那些成功人士也經(jīng)常受到長(zhǎng)久的冷落，窮困不堪。我便是其中之一。When I left a 20-year-career in the C

5、oast Guard to become a freelance writer, I had no prospects at all. What I did have was a friend in New York City, George Sims, with whom I'd grown up in Henning, Tenn. George found me my home, a cleaned-out storage room in the Greenwich Village apartment building where he worked as superintende

6、nt. It didn't even matter that it was cold and had no bathroom. I immediately bought a used manual typewriter and felt like a genuine writer. 我放棄了在海岸警衛(wèi)隊(duì)做了二十年的工作，為的是成為一名自由撰稿人，這時(shí)，我根本沒(méi)有前途可言。我所擁有的只是一位住在紐約市的朋友，喬治 西姆斯，他和我是在田納西州的赫寧一起長(zhǎng)大的。喬治為我找了個(gè)家，位于格林威治村公寓大樓中的一間騰空的儲(chǔ)藏室，而他是那幢大樓的管理員。房子里冷嗖嗖的，沒(méi)有衛(wèi)生間，不過(guò)這沒(méi)什么。我馬

7、上買了一臺(tái)舊的手動(dòng)打字機(jī)，感覺(jué)自己頗象一位名符其實(shí)的作家。After a year or so, however, I still hadn't gotten a break and began to doubt myself. It was so hard to sell a story that I barely made enough to eat. But I knew I wanted to write. I had dreamed about it for years. I wasn't going to be one of those people who die

8、 wondering, What if? I would keep putting my dream to the test even though it meant living with uncertainty and fear of failure. This is the Shadowland of hope, and anyone with a dream must learn to live there. 然而，大約一年后，我的寫作生涯依然沒(méi)有任何起色，我開(kāi)始懷疑自己。賣出一篇小說(shuō)是如此艱難，以至我?guī)缀跆畈伙柖亲?。但是，我清楚的是我想寫作，我已?mèng)寐以求了許多年。我并不準(zhǔn)備成為一名到

9、死時(shí)還在想假如的人。我會(huì)堅(jiān)持把我的夢(mèng)想付諸實(shí)踐 - 即使這夢(mèng)想意味著不穩(wěn)定的生活和對(duì)失敗的恐懼。這是希望的陰暗面，任何心存夢(mèng)想的人都必須學(xué)會(huì)在這陰暗面下生存。Then one day I got a call that changed my life. It wasn't an agent or editor offering a big contract. It was the opposite a kind of siren call tempting me to give up my dream. On the phone was an old acquaintance from

10、 the Coast Guard, now stationed in San Francisco. He had once lent me a few bucks and liked to egg me about it. "When am I going to get that $15, Alex?" he teased. 后來(lái)有一天，我接到了一個(gè)電話，由此改變了我的一生。這并不是一位代理人或編輯打來(lái)電話，主動(dòng)要求與我簽大的稿約。恰恰相反 - 是一聲?shū)Q笛，誘使我放棄夢(mèng)想。打電話來(lái)的是海岸警衛(wèi)隊(duì)的老熟人，現(xiàn)在在舊金山。他曾經(jīng)借給我?guī)酌涝?，喜歡催我還給他?！拔沂裁磿r(shí)候才能拿到

11、那十五美元，艾力克斯？”他逗我說(shuō)。"Next time I make a sale."“等我下一次賣出作品吧?！?quot;I have a better idea," he said. "We need a new public-information assistant out here, and we're paying $6 000 a year. If you want it, you can have it."“我有個(gè)好主意，”他說(shuō)，“我們這兒需要一位新的公共信息管理員，年薪六千美元。若想干，那就是你的了?！?Six tho

12、usand a year! That was real money in 1960. I could get a nice apartment, a used car, pay off debts and maybe save a little something. What's more, I could write on the side.年薪六千美元！這個(gè)數(shù)目在1960年可真是值錢啊。我可以有一套上好的公寓，一輛二手車，可以還清債務(wù)，也許還可有些結(jié)余。另外，我還可以業(yè)余寫作。As the dollars were dancing in my head, something cle

13、ared my senses. From deep inside a bull-headed resolution welled up. I had dreamed of being a writer full time. And that's what I was going to be."Thanks, but no," I heard myself saying. "I'm going to stick it out and write."當(dāng)這些美元在我的腦海里晃動(dòng)時(shí)，某種東西卻使我神志清醒起來(lái)。我的內(nèi)心深處升起一個(gè)堅(jiān)強(qiáng)的信念。我曾

14、經(jīng)夢(mèng)想成為一名作家 - 一名專業(yè)作家。那才是我的追求。“謝謝你，但是我不去，”我聽(tīng)見(jiàn)自己在說(shuō)?！拔視?huì)堅(jiān)持到底來(lái)寫作?！盇fterward, as I paced around my little room, I started to feel like a fool. Reaching into my cupboardan orange crate nailed to the wall I pulled out all that was there: two cans of sardines. Plunging my hands into my pockets, I came up with

15、18 cents. I took the cans and coins and jammed them into a crumpled paper bag. There, Alex, I said to myself. There's everything you've made of yourself so far. I'm not sure I've ever felt so low.后來(lái)，我在蝸居里踱來(lái)踱，開(kāi)始覺(jué)得自己象個(gè)傻瓜。我打開(kāi)櫥柜 - 一只釘在墻上的桔黃色板條箱 - 把里面的東西全部弄了出來(lái)：兩罐沙丁魚(yú)。我把手伸進(jìn)口袋，只摸出十八美分。我把罐頭和硬

16、幣一起塞進(jìn)一個(gè)皺巴巴的紙袋中。你看，艾力克斯，我自言自語(yǔ)道，你迄今為止努力的結(jié)果都在這里。我不知道，自己是不是曾經(jīng)情緒如此低落過(guò)。 I wish I could say things started getting better right away. But they didn't. Thank goodness I had George to help me over the rough spots.我希望自己能說(shuō)，情況馬上開(kāi)始好轉(zhuǎn)。但是并沒(méi)有。感謝上帝，幸虧有喬治幫我渡過(guò)了難關(guān)。 Through him I met other struggling artists like Jo

17、e Delaney, a veteran painter from Knoxville, Tenn. Often Joe lacked food money, so he'd visit a neighborhood butcher who would give him big bones with morsels of meat and a grocer who would hand him some wilted vegetables. That's all Joe needed to make down-home soup.通過(guò)喬治，我結(jié)識(shí)了另外一些正在艱苦奮斗的藝術(shù)家，

18、象喬 德拉尼，一位來(lái)自田納西州科諾科斯威爾市的老畫家。喬經(jīng)常常沒(méi)吃飯的錢，于是就去光顧附近社區(qū)的一位屠戶和一個(gè)食品商。屠戶會(huì)送給他一些帶點(diǎn)肉的大骨頭，從食品商那里他可以弄到一些 枯萎的蔬菜。喬做南方燉湯需要的就是這些。Another Village neighbor was a handsome young singer who ran a struggling restaurant. Rumor had it that if a customer ordered steak the singer would dash to a supermarket across the street to

19、 buy one. His name was Harry Belafonte.村里另一位鄰居是個(gè)年少英俊的歌手，他慘淡經(jīng)營(yíng)著一家餐館。據(jù)說(shuō)，如果有客人點(diǎn)牛排，這位歌手會(huì)火速?zèng)_到街對(duì)面的超市買一個(gè)。他的名字是哈利 百拉芬特。People like Delaney and Belafonte became role models for me. I learned that you had to make sacrifices and live creatively to keep working at your dream. That's what living in the Shado

20、wland is all about.德拉尼和百拉芬特這樣的人都成了我筆下角色的原型。我懂得了，若要一直奮斗實(shí)現(xiàn)夢(mèng)想，就得作出犧牲，創(chuàng)造性地生活。那就是生活在陰影里面的含義所在。 As I absorbed the lesson, I gradually began to sell my articles. I was writing about what many people were talking about then: civil rights, black Americans and Africa. Soon, like birds flying south, my thought

21、s were drawn back to my childhood. In the silence of my room, I heard the voices of Grandma, Cousin Georgia, Aunt Plus, Aunt Liz and Aunt Till as they told stories about our family and slavery. 在認(rèn)識(shí)到這一點(diǎn)的同時(shí)，我逐漸開(kāi)始賣出我的文章。我寫的都是當(dāng)時(shí)人們經(jīng)常談?wù)摰脑掝}：人權(quán)、美國(guó)黑人和非洲。不久，我的思緒象鳥(niǎo)兒南飛一樣回到了我的童年時(shí)光。在靜寂的房間里，我仿佛聽(tīng)見(jiàn)了祖母、喬治亞堂兄、普魯斯姑媽、利茲

22、姑媽和提爾姑媽的聲音，聽(tīng)見(jiàn)他們?cè)阪告付勎覀兊募易搴团`制的故事。 These were stories that black Americans had tended to avoid before, and so I mostly kept them to myself. But one day at lunch with editors of Reader's Digest I told these stories of my grandmother and aunts and cousins; and I said that I had a dream to trace my

23、family's history to the first African brought to these shores in chains. I left that lunch with a contract that would help support my research and writing for nine years. 這些故事是美國(guó)黑人以前盡量回避的，因此多數(shù)時(shí)候我并不對(duì)外人說(shuō)。但是有一天，在與讀者文摘的編輯們共進(jìn)午餐時(shí)，我講起了我的祖母、姑媽與堂兄們的那些故事，我還告訴他們，我夢(mèng)想追溯我的家族史，一直追溯到第一批戴著手鐐腳銬被運(yùn)到美國(guó)海岸的非洲黑人。午餐結(jié)束離開(kāi)

24、時(shí)，我手中多了一張足以供我從事研究和寫作長(zhǎng)達(dá)九年的合同。 It was a long, slow climb out of the shadows. Yet in 1976, 17 years after I left the Coast Guard, Roots was published. Instantly I had the kind of fame and success that few writers ever experience. The shadows had turned into dazzling limelight. 那是為擺脫陰影進(jìn)行的一次漫長(zhǎng)而緩慢的攀登。然而，1

25、976年，也就是我離開(kāi)海岸警衛(wèi)隊(duì)十七年后，根出版了。立刻我擁有了那種唯有少數(shù)作家有幸體驗(yàn)的名望與成功。陰影此時(shí)已變成了令人眼花燎亂的聚光燈。For the first time I had money and open doors everywhere. The phone rang all the time with new friends and new deals. I packed up and moved to Los Angeles, where I could help in the making of the Roots TV mini-series. It was a con

26、fusing, exhilarating time, and in a sense I was blinded by the light of my success. 有生以來(lái)第一次我是如此富有，第一次享受到處處受歡迎的禮遇。電話鈴響個(gè)不停，帶來(lái)了新朋新友，新交易。我收拾行裝，搬到了洛杉磯。在那兒我可以協(xié)助制作根的電視 短篇系列片。那是一段令人困惑，又令人欣喜若狂的時(shí)期；從某種意義上說(shuō)，我被成功的光芒照花了眼。 Then one day, while unpacking, I came across a box filled with things I had owned years befo

27、re in the Village. Inside was a brown paper bag. 后來(lái)有一天，在打開(kāi)包著的東西時(shí)，我偶然發(fā)現(xiàn)了一個(gè)盒子，里面裝著我數(shù)年前在格林威治村的全部家當(dāng)，其中有一個(gè)棕色紙袋。I opened it, and there were two corroded sardine cans, a nickel, a dime and three pennies. Suddenly the past came flooding in like a riptide. I could picture myself once again huddled over the typewriter in that cold, bleak, one-room apartment. And I said to my self,