Monday, May 24, 2010

学无止境与神仙生活

上次翻译《商业意识》一书时,作者简介里说他是“a scholar at Charterhouse”,我最初不明白他到底是在Charterhouse教书还上学。Scholar一词我们最常见的翻译是学者,a learned person,其实它还有学生的意思,尤其指年幼的小学生。我最初拿不定主意他是学者还是学生,主要是因为Charterhouse就是伦敦一寄宿学校,就好像你要是出本书,还好意思在封皮上写“毕业于北师大附中”吗?显然,这位仁兄对自己的母校颇为自豪。

最近在看《The Thoreau You Don't Know》时,又碰到scholar一词,这次用意再明显不过。梭罗曾经和他的哥哥在家乡康科德共同创办了一家学校,有点像私塾的意思。他的教育理念就是,“I would make education a pleasant thing both to the teacher and the scholar. This discipline, which we allow to be the end of life, should not be one in the schoolroom, and another in the street. We should seek to be fellow students with the pupil, and we should learn of, as well as with him, if we would be most helpful to him.”能当他们的学生,真是幸运。

梭罗和他哥哥的学校相当成功。他们经常带着学生到树林里远足散步,他们的课间休息是30分钟,而不是其他学校一般规定的10分钟,他们还主张教室要开窗让新鲜空气进来,这在当时(1830s)是很激进的做法。他们还带学生去参观印第安人的栖息地,去参观当地的企业,印刷厂和枪支店。当梭罗的小船需要上漆时,他让学生们帮忙一起动手。到了晚上,学生们放学后,梭罗和他的哥哥就参加村里的各种舞会、派对。试想一下他们的生活,早上教书,下午在田间树林漫步,晚上party,真是神仙般的生活。

Monday, May 10, 2010

I am the clue-finder, web-cutter, ring-winner, barrel-rider

用英文写作时常常感到词汇匮乏,想不出精确精彩的词。其实很多英文作家的用词很简单,但精妙在造句顺畅。

最近在看“The Thoreau You Don't Know”(你不知道的梭罗) by Robert Sullivan。讲到梭罗出生时的家庭状况时,作者写到,“By the time Thoreau came along, he had a sister, Helen, and a brother, John, and the family money was mostly gone.”只一句话,就把梭罗出生时的家庭成员和经济状况表达得清清楚楚,而且没用一个生僻词,但利用巧妙的押韵让一句简单说明事实的句子读起来像诗歌一样朗朗上口。

Mike最近为我朗读的“The Hobbit”(魔戒前传-哈比人历险记)要接近尾声了,哈比人一行终于找到了巨龙,在巨龙的山洞里,哈比人跟巨龙展开了一段斗智斗勇的对话,巨龙企图从哈比人嘴里得知他与同伴的身份,聪明的哈比人不想说实话,但又不原意冒说谎话被巨龙识破的风险,于是他这样描述了自己是谁,来自哪里。

“I come from under the hill, and the under the hills and over the hills my paths led. And through the air. I am he that walks unseen. I am the clue-finder, the web-cutter, the stinging fly. I was chosen for the lucky number. I am he that buries his friends alive and drowns them and draws them alive again from the water. I came from the end of bag, but no bag went over me. I and the friend of bears and the guest of eagles. I am Ring-winner and Luckwearer, and I am Barrel-rider.”

在这一段话里,哈比人概述了整本书到这为止他所有的历险和传奇的遭遇,巨龙对他的这个回答一头雾水,不过相信读者都知道他说的是什么。而且这一段话也没有用任何生僻的词。不得不为J.R.R. Tolkien的文字功力所折服。