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中文

注释

I. Mosquitoes

I. 蚊子

Mosquitoes have arrived with the warm nights, and our bedchamber is their theater under the stars.

晚上暖和了，蚊子就跟着来捣乱，在星光之下，将我们的卧室，变成了它们的戏院。

I have been up and down all night, swinging at them with a face towel dampened at one end to give it authority.

昨晚我一直都时睡时起，起来就甩着毛巾赶蚊子，为了让毛巾甩起来有力，事先把毛巾的一头弄湿了。

This morning I suffer from the lightheadedness that comes from no sleep─a sort of drunkeness very good for writing because all sense of responsibility for what the words say is gone.

今天早晨我因为失眠头晕得难受，有点像是喝醉了，这倒是写作的大好时机，因为对于自己写下的文字，责任感都不见了踪影。

Yesterday evening my wife showed up with a few yards of netting, and together we knelt and covered the fireplace with an illusion veil.

昨天傍晚老伴带回来了几米防蚊纱，我俩都跪在地上，用防蚊纱遮住了壁炉，活像给它蒙上了面纱。

It looks like a bride.

壁炉看起来就像是一位新娘。

(one of our many theories is that mosquitoes come down chimneys.)

（我们有许多观点，其中的一个观点就是蚊子会从烟囱中潜入。）

I bought a couple of adjustable screens at the hardware store on Third Avenue and they are in place in the windows; but the window sashes in this building are so old and irregular that any mosquito except one suffering from elephantiasis has no difficulty walking into the room through the space between sash and screen.

我在第三大街上的五金店买了几个可调纱扇，并已在窗口中把这些纱扇装好；但公寓里的窗扇都很旧，很不平整，除非蚊子得了象皮肿，否则它们都不难经过窗扇和纱扇之间的缝隙溜进室内。

能开合的是“扇”。

I also bought a very old air-conditioning machine for twenty-five dollars, a great bargain, and I like this machine.

我还用二十五美元买了一台很旧的空调，物美价廉，我很喜欢。

It has almost no effect on the atmosphere of the room, merely chipping the edge off the heat, and it makes a loud grinding noise reminiscent of the subway, so that I can snap off the lights, close my eyes, holding the damp towel at the ready, and imagine, with the first stab, that I am riding in the underground and being pricked by pins wielded by angry girls.

这台空调对室内空气几乎不起作用，只是出风口附近有些凉意，而且还会发出很大的噪音，响个不停，听到会让人想起地铁的轰鸣声。这样一来，我就能关了灯，合上眼，边握着湿毛巾备战，边想象第一次“遇刺”时的情形——我在地下骑着马，好几个愤怒的悍妞挺针来刺。

“chipping the edge off”最难弄，但思维方式转变一下，就会知道，作者是说只有出风口附近有点凉。

II.

II.

Education in Ancient Cultures

文明古国中的教育

Traditional Chinese education was, in some respects, very similar to that of Athens in its best days.

传统中文教育的某些方面，酷似雅典全盛时期的语文教育。

一开始想都没想，将“Traditional Chinese”译成了“繁体中文”。但仔细想想就会明白，孔夫子那时候中文哪有繁简之分？

Athenian boys were made to learn Homer by heart from beginning to end; Chinese boys were made to learn the Confucian classics with similar thoroughness.

雅典男孩被迫诵记所有荷马著作；中国男孩也被迫记诵全部孔子名著。

“learn”我一开始译成“学习”。后来仔细查了查词典，发现如下义项：If you learn something such as a poem or a role in a play, you study or repeat the words so that you can remember them。再想想我们老祖先上学堂时的情景，不都是一个个摇头晃脑背诵诗书吗？“by heart”的意思已经包含在“诵记”或“记诵”里面了，因为查词典后就会知道，这个短语的含义是“by committing to memory”。所以就不必像我一开始那样译成“用心”了。这个短语如果译出来，反而是画蛇添足。“similar thoroughness”是不能按字面翻译的，前半句里面有“所有”，后半句里面有“全部”，“similar thoroughness”的意思就已经反映在译文里面了。因为“所有”和“全部”所表达的“thoroughness”是“similar”的。但“from beginning to end”我译得不对劲，临交稿前将“learn”改译成了“记诵”，却没顾上重新整理一下整句译文。思来想去，还是应该译成“通篇”或“逐字”。因此，现在我觉得这句译成“雅典男孩被迫通篇诵记荷马著作；中国男孩也被迫逐字记诵孔子名著。”比较好。

Athenians were taught a kind of reverence for the gods which consisted in outward observances and placed no barrier in the way of tree intellectual speculation.

雅典人受的教育是一种对神的崇敬，已融入外在的仪式，无碍于发散式思维。

树的“way”是发散的，“intellectual speculation”的含义应该是“思考”或“思维”。

Similarly, the Chinese were taught certain rites connected with ancestor-worship, but were by no means obliged to have the beliefs which the rites would seem to imply.

同样，中国人受的教育也是某些仪式，有关祭祖，但绝非务须秉持仿佛会在仪式上暗喻的信仰。

And easy and elegant skepticism was the attitude expected of an educated adult; anything might be discussed, but it was a trifle vulgar to reach very positive conclusions.

而轻松自如、简洁巧妙的怀疑，是有教养的成人应有的态度；一切皆可讨论，但得出非常肯定的结论却略显庸俗。

“elegant”我译成“简洁巧妙”，是因为查汉语词典后发现“态度”有“对某事的观点和做法”的含义，而且查英语词典后发现：If you describe a piece of writing, an idea, or a plan as elegant, you mean that it is simple, clear, and clever。“简洁巧妙”，是可以用来形容“观点和做法”的。“skepticism”的含义是“怀疑态度”，我拆成了“怀疑”和“态度”，分别放在了前半句和后半句的末尾。

Opinions should be such as could be discussed pleasantly at dinner, not such as man would fight for.

提出的观点，应该是可在用餐时津津乐道的那类看法，而不能为之兵戎相见。

Carlyle calls plato “a lordly Athenian gentleman, very much at his ease in Zion.”

卡莱尔将柏拉图称为“满目蛮夷的雅典君子”，认为“这很大程度上是因为他身处圣地（锡安）犹自若”。

“lordly”应该并不是“傲慢”的意思，看了词典中的解释“suitable for a lord”，就会知道，郑和下西洋那样的壮举，才是“lordly”。英国鬼子的鸦片战争，还是蛮子撒野。看了下文之后还会发现，欧洲鬼子学希腊，如果学到了这种“lordly”作风，世界历史恐怕也得改写了。

This characteristic of being “at his ease in Zion” is found also in Chinese sages, and is, as a rule, absent from the sages produced by Christian civilizations, excerpt when, like Goethe, they have deeply imbibed the spirit of Hellenism.

“身处圣地犹自若”，中国圣贤也有这种特质，但出身于基督教文明的圣贤，却通常没有这种特点，他们深入吸取希腊文化精髓时都断章取义，一如歌德。

The Athenians and the Chinese alike wished to enjoy life, and had a conception of enjoyment which was refined by an exquisite sense of beauty.

雅典人和中国人一样，都想享受生活，对于享乐的见解，都因为有极致美感而很精辟。

There were, however, great differences between the two civilizations, owing to the fact that, broadly speaking, the Greeks were energetic and the Chinese were lazy.

然而，这两个文明古国却大不相同，泛泛而言，这是因为希腊人精力充沛，中国人没精打采。

The Greeks devoted their energies to art and science and mutual extermination, in all of which they achieved unprecedented success.

希腊人将其精力投入艺术、科学，以及相互灭绝，在这几个方面，他们都获得了空前的成功。

Politics and patriotism afforded practical outlets for Greek energy: when a politician was ousted, he led a band of exiles to attack his native city.

希腊人的精力，委实可以宣泄在政治活动和爱国主义上：政客遭到革职后，会带领一群流亡者攻击自己的生身之地。

“city”没必要译成“城市”。

When a Chinese official was disgraced, he retired to the hills and wrote poems on the pleasures of country life.

中国官宦失宠后，却会退隐山林，赋诗抒发田园生活之乐。

查词典后会知道，“disgrace”的意思是“the state of being out of favor”，也就是“失宠”。