前几天在旧书市场转，淘了几本好书，其中一本是英国著名作家狄更斯写的《A Tale of Two Cities》的汉译本《双城记》。该汉译本的译者是罗稷南教授，该书于1950年由三联出版社出版，距今已有60多年的历史了。该书第一部第一章第一节的第一段是这样翻译的：

“它是最美好的时候，它是最糟糕的时候；它是智慧的年代，它是愚昧的年代；它是信仰的时期，它是怀疑的时期；它是光明的季节，它是黑暗的季节；它是希望之春，它是失望之冬；人们前面有着各样事物，人们前面一无所有，人们正在直登天堂，人们正在直下地狱——总之，那时和现代是这样相像，以至那时声名最响底某些作家对于它的批评，说好说坏，都固执地只用最高级底比较之词。”

英语原文：

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way--in short, the period was so. far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.”

国内许多讲英汉修辞的书都引用到这短话的中英文，说是采用了antithesis，即对比法。大家可研究研究，很有现实意义。