专八英译汉段落翻译完整版 中英文对照

2024年1月27日发(作者：)

My First Job

When I reached the age of twelve I left the school for ever and got

my first fulltime job, as a grocer’s boy. I spent my days carrying heavy

loads, but I enjoyed it. It was only my capacity for hard work that saved

me from early dismissal, for I could never stomach speaking to my

“betters” with the deference my employer thought I should assume.

But the limit was reached one Tuesday — my half holiday. On my

way home on that day I used to carry a large basket of provisions to the

home of my employer’s sister-in-law. As her house was on my way home

I never objected to this.

On this particular Tuesday, however, just as we were putting the

shutters up, a load of smoked hams was delivered at the shop. “Wait a

minute,” said the boss, and he opened the load and took out a ham, which

he started to bone and string up.

I waited in growing impatience to get on my way, not for one minute

but for a quite a considerable time. It was nearly half-past two when the

boss finished. He then came to me with the ham, put it in the basket

beside me, and instructed me to deliver it to a customer who had it on

order.

This meant going a long way out of my road home, so I looked up

and said to the boss: “Do you know I finish at two on Tuesday?” I have

never seen a man look more astonished than he did then. “What do you

mean?” he gasped. I told him I meant that I would deliver the groceries as

usual, but not the ham.

He looked at me as if I were some unusual kind f insect and burst

into a storm of abuse. But I stood firm. He gave me up as hopeless and

tried new tactics. “Go out and get another boy,” he yelled at a

shop-assistant.

“Are you going to deliver them or not?” the boss turned to me and

asked in a threatening tone. I repeated what I had said before. “Then, out

of here,” he shouted. So I got out.

This was the first time I had serious trouble with an employer.

1

我的第一份工作

当我十二岁时我永远地离开了学校,同时得到了我的第一份全职工作,作为一个食品杂货商的男孩。我每天都在搬沉重的货物,不过干得倒也挺带劲。要不是我能干重活，我早就给辞退了，因为老板要我毕恭毕敬的给那些上等人说话，这样干，我实在受不了。

但是有一个星期二，到了我的忍耐极限----这是我歇半天的假日。那一天，在我回家的路上,我又像往常一样，替老捎了一大篮子吃的东西，给他的嫂子送去。因为顺路，我也从没说过不乐意。

然而,在这个特别的星期二，就在我们正关门的时候, 一大批的熏火腿送到了商店。“等一下,”老板说,他打开火腿包，拿出一只，开始剔骨头，然后用绳子绑起来。

我想回家，越等越不耐烦,不是一分钟，一等就是半天。当老板完成已经有二点半了。然后他拿着火腿走向我,把它放在我旁边的篮子里,让我把它送给一个预定的顾客那里。

这意味着我要走很长一段路程才能到家,所以我抬起头对老板说:“你知道我星期二两点下班吗?“我还没见过有人像他那次那样吃惊的呢。“你什么意思?"他气喘吁吁的说。我告诉他，我的意思是，像平常那样捎点货可以,那只火腿就不送了。

他盯着我，好像我是一条怪怪的小爬虫，然后暴跳如雷破口大骂起来。可是我丝毫不让步。他拿我没办法，就耍新花招。“出去给我再找一个伙计来，”他对一个店员大声喊道。

“你到底送不送？”老板转过身子，以威胁的口吻问我。我把说过的话又重复了一遍。“那就滚蛋，”他喊道。于是，我就走出来了。

这是我头一回和老板真正闹翻了脸。

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Just as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature

so Marx discovered the law of development of human history, the simple

fact, hitherto concealed by an overgrowth of ideology, that mankind must

first of all eat, drink, have shelter and clothing before it can pursue

politics, science, art, religion, etc; that, therefore the production of the

immediate material means of subsistence and consequently the degree of

economic development attained by a given people during a given epoch

form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal

conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned

have been evolved, and in the light of which they must, therefore, be

explained, instead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.

正像达尔文发现有机界的发展规律一样，马克思发现了人类历史的发展规律，即历来为纷繁芜杂的意识形态所掩盖着的一个简单事实：人们首先必须吃、喝、住、穿，然后才能从事政治、科学、艺术、宗教等等。所以，生产直接与生活有关的物质用品，会为一个民族或一个时代带来一定的经济发展，这两者又构成了国家制度、法律观点、艺术以至宗教思想的基础。因而，我们必须从这个方向来解释上述种种观念与思想，而不是依随那一直以来的相反方向去解释这些观念与思想。

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For my sons there is of course the rural bounty of fresh-grown

vegetables, line-caught fish and the shared riches of neighbors’’ orchards

and gardens. There is the unpaid baby-sitter for whose children my

daughter-in-law baby-sits in return, and neighbors who barter their skills

and labor. But more than that, how do you measure serenity? Sense if

self?

I don’t want to idealize life in small places. There are times when the

outside world intrudes brutally, as when the cost of gasoline goes up or

developers cast their eyes on untouched farmland. There are cruelties,

there is intolerance, there are all the many vices and meannesses in small

places that exist in large cities. Furthermore, it is harder to ignore them

when they cannot be banished psychologically to another part of town or

excused as the whims of alien groups --- when they have to be

acknowledged as “part of us”.

对我的几个儿子来说，乡村当然有充足的新鲜蔬菜，垂钓来的鱼，邻里菜园和果园里可供分享的丰盛瓜果。乡下有不用付报酬便可请来照看孩子的邻居，作为回报，我儿媳也帮着照看其孩子。乡邻之间互相交换技能和劳动。但比之更重要的是，你如何来衡量那静谧与安详？如何来衡量自我价值呢？

我无意将小地方的生活理想化。因为有时外面的世界会无情地侵入：比如汽油价格上涨，开发商把眼睛盯住尚未开发的农田；那里充斥着凶残和偏狭，大城市的种种卑劣行径，小地方也一应俱全。不仅如此，当人们无法自欺欺人地硬把那些丑恶现象想象成只是小地方的一小部分或将它们解释为异乡人的为所欲为，而又不得不承认这一切是我们的一部分时，就更难以忽视它们。

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In addition, one class of family reasons shares a border with the

following category, namely, having children in order to maintain or

improve a marriage: to hold the husband or occupy the wife; to repair or

rejuvenate the marriage; to increase the number of children on the

assumption that family happiness lies that way. The point is underlined

by its converse: in some societies the failure to bear children (or males) is

a threat to the marriage and a ready cause for divorce.

Beyond all that is the profound significance of children to the very

institution of the family itself. To many people, husband and wife alone

do not seem a proper family —they need children to enrich the circle, to

validate its family character, to gather the redemptive influence of

offspring. Children need the family, but the family seems also to need

children, as the social institution uniquely available, at least in principle,

for security, comfort, assurance, and direction in a changing, often hostile,

world. To most people, such a home base, in the literal sense, needs more

than one person for sustenance and in generational extension.

此外，有一类家庭原因与下列类别不无共通之处，这便是：生儿育女是为了维系或改善婚姻：能拴住丈夫或者使妻子不致于无所事事；修复或重振婚姻；多子多孙，以为家庭幸福惟有此法。这一点更可以由其反面得到昭示：在某些社会中，无法生儿育女（或无法生育男孩）对婚姻而言是一种威胁，还可作为离婚的现成借口。

后代对于家庭这一体制本身所具有的深远意义远非如此。对许多人来说，夫妻两人尚不足以构成一个真正意义上的家庭——夫妻需要孩子来丰富其两人小天地，赋予该小天地以真正意义上的家庭性质，并从子孙后代身上获取某种回报。孩子需要家庭，但家庭似乎也需要孩子。家庭作为一种社会机构，以其特有的方式，至少从原则上说，可在一个变幻莫测、常常是充满敌意的世界中让人从中获取某种安全、慰藉、保障，以及价值取向。于大多数人而言，这样的一个家庭基础，即使从其表层意义上来讲，也需要不止一个人来维持其存在，并使其世代相传，生生不息。

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If people mean anything at all by the expression “untimely death”,

they must believe that some deaths must be on a better schedule than

others. Death in old age is rarely called untimely—a long life is thought

to be a full one. But with the passing of a young person, one assumes that

the best years lay ahead and the measure of that life was still to be taken.

History denies this, of course. Among prominent summer deaths, one

recalls those of Marilyn Monroe and James Deans, whose lives seemed

equally brief and complete. Writers cannot bear the fact that poet John

Keats died at 26, and only half playfully judge their own lives as failures

when they pass that year. The id ea that the life cut short is unfulfilled is

illogical because lives are measure d by the impressions they leave on the

world and by their intensity and virtue.

如果人们藉"英年早逝"这一字眼真的意欲表达什么含义的话，他们必然相信某些人的辞世可以算是寿终正寝，而另一些人则"死不逢时" 。死于年迈很少被冠以"死不逢时"之名，因为能度过漫长的一生被认为是甚为圆满的。反之，如果所碰到的是一位年轻人之死，人们会以为这位年轻人风华正茂，前途无可限量，生命的倒计时尚未真正开始。

当然，历史否定这一切。在诸多较为著名的"英年早逝"的情形中，我们会忆起玛丽莲.梦露与詹姆斯.迪恩斯之死，其生命的短暂丝毫无损于其生命的完整性。对于约翰.济慈年方26便溘然长逝这一事实，文人墨客们皆痛不欲生，但他们中仅有半数人诙谐地认为，设若他们也死于这一年龄，其一生可视为失败。视英年早逝为不圆满，这一观念有悖于逻辑，因为衡量生命的尺度乃是留给世界的印记，是生命的力度及其美德。

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Winners do not dedicate their lives to a concept of what they

imagine they should be: rather, they are themselves and as such do not

use their energy putting on a performance, maintaining pretence, and

manipulating others. They are aware that there is a difference between

being loving and acting loving, between being stupid and acting stupid,

between being knowledgeable and acting knowledgeable. Winners do not

need to hide behind a mask.

Winners are not afraid to do their own thinking and to use their own

knowledge. They can separate facts from opinions and don’t pretend to

have all the answers. They listen to others, evaluate what they say, but

come to their own conclusions. Although winners can adore and respect

other people, they are not totally defined, demolished, bound, or awed by

them.

Winners do not play “helpless”, nor do they play the blaming game.

Instead, they assume responsibility for their own lives.

成功者不会毕生致力于这样一种概念：即想象自己应该成为何种人。相反，他们即他们自己。因此，他们不会费神去装腔作势，故作姿态，摆布他人。他们明白：爱与装爱，傻与装傻，知与装知、真正博学与假装博学之间是有区别的。成功者无须躲在面具后面。

成功者敢于独立思考，敢于运用自己的知识。他们能够把事实从纷繁的意见中剥离出来，而又不会假装无所不知。他们倾听他人的意见，品评他人的言论，却能得出自己的结论。虽然胜利者也钦佩他人，尊敬他人，但是，他们不会完全被他人所规定、所摧垮、所束缚，所吓倒。

成功者不会假装无助，也不会怨天尤人，相反，他们承担起自己生命的责任。

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But, as has been true in many other cases, when they were at last

married, the most ideal of situations was found to have been changed to

the most practical. Instead of having shared their original duties, and as

school-boys would say, going halves, they discovered that the cares of

life had been doubled. This led to some distressing moments for both our

friends; they understood suddenly that instead of dwelling in heaven they

were still upon earth, and had made themselves slaves to new laws and

limitations. Instead of being freer and happier than ever before, they had

assumed new responsibilities; they had established a new household, and

must fulfill in some way or another the obligations of it. They looked

back with affection to their engagement; they had been longing to have

each other to themselves, apart from the world, but it seemed that they

never felt so keenly that they were still units in modern society.

但是正如其他许多已经发生过的事情一样，当他们最终结婚后，发现最憧憬的生活变得再实际不过了。他们非但没有分担各自原先的责任---正如那些学生们所说“一半一半”，相反却发现生活的重担加倍了。这使得我们那两个结婚的朋友时常觉得沮丧；他们突然发现自己并没有过着天堂般的生活而是仍实实在在地生活在地球上，而且成为了新规则和新约束的奴隶。生活并没有比以前更自由、更幸福，因为他们要去承担新的责任。既然成立了一个新的家庭，那就无论如何也要尽一点家庭的义务。他们深情地回想起订婚的那段时光，曾经如此地渴望拥有彼此而忘掉这个世界，然而现在最深切的感受却是自己仍是这个世界的一份子

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To speak of American literature, then, is not to assert that it is

completely unlike that of Europe. Broadly speaking, America and Europe

have kept step. At any given moment the traveler could find examples in

both of the same architecture, the same styles in dress, the same books on

the shelves. Ideas have crossed the Atlantic as freely as men and

merchandise, though sometimes more slowly. When I refer to American

habit, thoughts, etc., I intend some sort of qualification to precede the

word, for frequently the difference between America and Europe

(especially England) will be one of degree, sometimes only of a small

degree. The amount of divergence is a subtle affair, liable to perplex the

Englishman when he looks at America. He is looking at a country which

in important senses grew out of his own, which in several ways still

resembles his own — and which is yet a foreign country. There are odd

overlappings and abrupt unfamiliarities; kinship yields to a sudden

alienation, as when we hail a person across the street, only to discover

from his blank response that we have mistaken a stranger for a friend.

那么，要谈论美国文学，倒并非意欲断言，它与欧洲文学全然大相径庭。广而言之，美国与欧洲一直同步发展，协调一致。在任何一个特定的时刻，旅行者在两地均能目睹同一样式的建筑实例，相同款式的服饰，书架上相同的书籍。在大西洋两岸，思想如同人员与货物往来一样自由交流，尽管有时会略显迟缓。当我提及美国式的习惯、思想等概念时，我意欲在“美国式的”这一词汇之前加上某种限定，因为欧美（尤其是英美）之间的差异往往只是程度上的差异而已，并且有时候仅仅只是微乎其微的一点程度差异而已。差异的多寡是件极为微妙的事务，这极容易使一个英国人在审视美国时大惑不解。他所审视的那个国家，从某些重要的意义上来说，诞生于他自己的国家，并在某些方面仍与他自己的国家相差无几——然而，它却实实在在是一个异邦。两者间存在着某些古怪的交替重迭，以及令人甚感突兀的陌生感；亲缘关系已让位于一种突如其来的异化与疏远，这种情景仿佛就像我们隔着马路向另一个人打招呼，结果却从这个人漠无表情的反应中发现，我们原来竟将一个陌生人误认为我们的熟人。

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Opera is expensive: that much is inevitable. But expensive things

are not inevitably the province of the rich unless we abdicate society's

power of choice. We can choose to make opera, and other expensive

forms of culture, accessible to those who cannot individually pay for it.

The question is: why should we? Nobody denies the imperatives of food,

shelter, defense, health and education. But even in a prehistoric cave,

mankind stretched out a hand not just to eat, drink or fight, but also to

draw. The impulse towards culture, the desire to express and explore the

world through imagination and representation is fundamental. In Europe,

this desire has found fulfillment in the masterpieces of our music, art,

literature and theatre. These masterpieces are the touchstones for all our

efforts; they are the touchstones for the possibilities to which human

thought and imagination may aspire; they carry the most profound

messages that can be sent from one human to another.

聆听歌剧，无疑昂贵至极。但是，昂贵的事物并非必定属于富人的范畴，除非我们放弃社会的选择权。我们可以选择去使歌剧以及其他某些昂贵的文化形式也能为那些不具备个人支付能力的人所享受。但问题是，我们有必要这么做吗？没人会否认食物、居所、防护、健康与教育的不可或缺性。但即便是在史前时代的洞穴中，人类伸出手来，早就不单纯是为了吃、喝或搏杀，而且亦进行绘画创作。人类对于文化的冲动，通过形象思维和再现手段来表现并探索世界的欲望，乃亘古有之。在欧洲，这一欲望在我们的音乐、艺术、文学和戏剧杰作中寻找到了其实现形式。这些杰作构成了我们全部努力的试金石。作为试金石，它们能衡量出人类的思想和想象力所可能企及的程度。它们携带着最寓意深刻的主题，可在人类彼此间相互传递。

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Possession for its own sake or in competition with the rest of the

neighborhood would have been Thoreau’s idea of the low levels. The

active discipline of heightening one’s perception of what is enduring in

nature would have been his idea of the high. What he saved from the low

was time and effort he could spend on the high. Thoreau certainly

disapproved of starvation, but he would put into feeding himself only as

much effort as would keep him functioning for more important efforts.

Effort is the gist of it. There is no happiness except as we take on

life-engaging difficulties. Short of the impossible, as Yeats put it, the

satisfaction we get from a lifetime depends on how high we choose our

difficulties. Robert Frost was thinking in something like the same terms

when he spoke of “The pleasure of taking pains”. The mortal flaw in the

advertised version of happiness is in the fact that it purports to be

effortless.

We demand difficulty even in our games. We demand it because

without difficulty there can be no game. A game is a way of making

something hard for the fun of it. The rules of the game are an arbitrary

imposition of difficulty. When someone ruins the fun, he always does so

by refusing to play by the rules. It is easier to win at chess if you are free,

at your pleasure, to change the wholly arbitrary rules, but the fun is in

winning within the rules. No difficulty, no fun.

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梭罗所理解的“低层次”，即为了拥有而去拥有，或与所有的邻居明争暗斗而致拥有。他心目中的“高层次”，则是这样一种积极的人生戒律，即要使自己对自然界永恒之物的感悟臻于完美。对于他从低层次上节省下来的时间和精力，他可将其致力于对高层次的追求。勿庸置疑，梭罗不赞成忍饥挨饿，但他在膳食方面所投入的精力仅果腹而已，只要可确保他能去从事更为重要的事务，他便别无所求。

殚精竭虑，全力以赴，便是其精髓所在。除非我们愿意直面那些需要我们全身心投入的艰难困苦，否则便不会有幸福可言。正如叶芝所言，除却某些不可能的情形，我们于人生中所获取的满足皆取决于我们在多高的境界中选择我们所愿意面对的艰难困苦。当罗伯特·弗罗斯特言及“以苦为乐”时，他内心所思，大体如此。商业广告中所宣扬的那种幸福观，其致命的缺陷就在于这样一个事实，即它宣称，一切幸福皆唾手可得，不费吹灰之力。

即便于游戏之中，我们也需要有艰难困苦。我们之所以需要它，因为设若没有困难，便断无游戏可言。游戏即是这样一种方式，为了享受其中的情趣而人为地使事情变得不那么轻而易举。游戏中的种种规则，便是将困难武断地强加于人。当有人将情趣摧毁殆尽时，他总是因为拒不按游戏规则行事而使然。这犹如下棋；如果你随心所欲、心血来潮地去更改那些全然武断的游戏规则，这样去赢棋当然会更加容易。但下棋的情趣则在于，应在规则的限定范围内赢取胜利。一言以蔽之，没有艰难，断无情趣。

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