【中英】在人间

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有句话是这么说的：“经典作品是那些你经常听人家说‘我正在重读......'而不是 ‘我正在读......'的书。” 很惭愧，自己读过的经典屈指可数，重读的就更不用提了。从小学到大学，自己似乎一直都在为考试成绩而学习，而忽视了读书二字本身的含义，以致于现在发现自己在无数方面都很无知。而有些书，年纪小的时候翻几页就不愿再翻，特别是外国名著，看着不那么顺畅的翻译版本就失去了读下去的兴趣，于是就这么蹉跎了无数年。工作后没有了“为成绩而努力”的压迫感，自己反而更愿意学习，看书也更有耐心去逐字看，哪怕看过后也未必记得多少。可是正如很多博学的人说过的，即便很多文字看过就忘，那些内容也已经在你身上潜移默化地起着作用。但愿这一点犹如神灵附体，把身心中的不清爽杂念统统驱逐出去，让每日的呼吸和精神气都比昨日清新爽朗一点。

《在人间》这本书看了三遍，看第一遍的时候感觉很对不住老高，这么引起共鸣的经典怎么以前都没想过去读呢？之所以引起共鸣，主要是因为一边读一边会想到自己出生、长大的农村和那里的人们，会想到这么多年来来去去的变化以及那些似乎根深蒂固到难以改变的存在。对于学外语的人来说，如果能用第二外语准确表达出自己内心深处的所思所想该是多么如遇知音般幸福的事。如果你觉得这种说法有点夸张，那么不妨看看下面这20句英文及翻译是否也在描述着你的生活或你周围的生活。

1. Naturally I knew that people were inclined to say nasty things behind your back, but it was particularly exasperating to hear these three speak about everybody as though they themselves were the finest people on earth and had been appointed to pass judgment on all others. They envied most people, praised no one, and knew some unsavoury bit of gossip about everyone.

当然我知道人们彼此都在背后说坏话，可是这三个人议论起别人尤其可恶，好像有人认定他们是全世界最优秀的，可以担任其他所有人的审判官。大多数人他们都嫉妒，从来不赞美任何人，对每个人都知道他们的一些短处。

（现在也有好多这样子的人儿呢...）

2. I had never owned toys myself, and while I outwardly treated them with contempt, I harbored a secret envy of those who possessed them.

我从来不曾有过属于自己的玩具，因此表面上虽然装作满不在乎的样子，可是瞧见人家有，心里还是不能不羡慕。

（这种体会你有过么？不仅仅限于玩具等有形的东西...）

3. It's a good thing when a boy and a girl become friends. Only they mustn't do anything foolish. And in the most simple way she explained to us what "doing anything foolish" meant. There was beauty in her words, and inspiration, aand I readily understood that flowers were not to be touched until they were full-blown, otherwise they would give off no perfume and bear no fruit.

“男孩子同女孩子交朋友，这是好事。不过千万不能干傻事。”接着，她用最通俗易懂的话语向我们解释什么是“干傻事”。她的语言魅力而高尚，于是我深刻地理解到，在花儿还未绽放的时候是不应该去招惹的，否则，它们既不会散发香味，也不能结出果实。

(这里的“她”是书中的外婆，也就是老高的外婆原型。这几句话完全可以拿来去做孩子的青春期教育。）

4. If you had nothing to fear, you'd be left with nothing to boast of.

要是你什么都不害怕的话，那就没什么可夸口的了。

（也是外婆说的）

5. The forests are the gardens of the Lord. Nobody planted them but the wind—the Divine breath from out His mouth.

树林是上帝的园子。除了风，谁也没有给它们播过种--是上帝的呼吸把它们吹大的。

（书中的外公讲的，虽然“我”不喜欢自己的外公，但同时也承认他说的某些话有道理。）

6. According to my observation, relatives treated each other worse than strangers. Knowing each other's weak and ridiculous sides better than anyone else, they spread worse gossip, quarreled and fought more often among themselves.

根据我的观察，亲戚间的相互关系还不如外人。它们比外人更了解对方的恶行和丑事，它们造谣中伤愈加恶毒，争吵和打架更是家常便饭了。

7. I was possessed by a fierce desire to go away somewhere people slept less, quarreled less, did not so insistently pour out their complaints to God or so often offend people with their harsh opinions.

我心里惶惑着，恨不得能跑到一个什么地方去，那里，人们不这么贪睡，不这么爱吵闹，不这么令人讨厌地喋喋不休地向上帝告状，不这么经常地欺侮人、苛刻地评判人。

8. "What you've never felt you never can sing."

你自己没有体验的事，就唱不出来。

9. Somehow I bear a particular love for the sun. I like its very name, the sweet sound of it, the rich resonance of it. I love to close my eyes and turn my face to a warm ray, or to catch it on the palm of my hand, when it thrusts like a sword through a crack in a fence or the branches of a tree.

不知什么缘故，我特别喜欢太阳。我喜欢它的名字，它听起来悦耳，响亮。我喜欢闭上眼睛，把脸转向温暖的光线，每当它像柄利剑穿过围墙的缝隙或者杂乱的树枝的时候，我总是喜欢伸出双手去捕捉它。

10. “That's what I sent her to school for. How did the lady fair come by her golden hair? She got it from us, from the scum of the earth. Where else? The more you know, the finer you grow. God sent us into this world young and foolish, but He wants us to leave it old and wise. So it's up to us to study and learn things.” Everyone became silent when she spoke, listening attentively to her sure, flowing speech. They praised her to her face and behind her back, wondering at her strength and endurance and cleverness. But no one tried to imitate her.

“我送她去念书，就是为了这个。什么富贵姥爷，什么夫人太太，都是从哪儿来的？统统都是咱们这班土百姓出身的呀。还能有什么？学问学得强，前程就光明。上帝派我们到这世上来时，我们还都是傻孩子，可他却要求我们回去时都得是聪明的老人。这就是说，必须学习。” 她说话的时候，大家都沉默不语，用心倾听她那有条有理、信心十足的话。但是，没有人效仿她。

11. If they should ever stop shouting and passing judgment on people and making fun of them, they would turn into mutes, unable to speak at all, and quite unaware of themselves. In order to be aware of oneself, a person must bear some conscious relationship to others. The only relationship my employers knew was that of teacher and judge, and if a person brought himself to live according to their pattern, they would judge him even for that. Such was their nature.

如果他们停止斥责人，停止大喊大叫，停止嘲弄人，他们就会失去语言能力，成为哑巴，就会根本看不见自己。为了感觉到自己的存在，就必须以某种方式去对待别人。我的主人一家除了教训和斥责以外，就不知道如何去对待身边的人了，即便人家按照他们的方式生活，他们也依然会为此而对他加以斥责。这是他们的天性。

12. I would marvel in silence. How could you ask a person what he was thinking about? And how could he answer such a question? A person thinks about many things at once--about what his eyes are beholding now, or what they beheld yesterday or last year, all the impressions vague and confused, in constant movement, constant change.

我默默地感到吃惊。你怎么能问一个人在想什么呢？他怎么才能回答这个问题？因为人往往会一下子想许多问题--想眼前所有的一切，想昨天和一年前所见到的东西，所有这一切纠集到一起，模糊不清，全部都在运动与变化之中。

13. "Words, my little friend, are like leaves on a tree, and in order to know why the leaves are such as they are, you must know how the tree grows. You must study. Books, my little friend, are like a lovely garden, in which you will find everything that is pleasant and beneficial."

“我的小朋友，词好比树上的叶子，要弄懂树叶为什么是这样而不是那样，你就必须知道这棵树是如何成长的。那就得学习，我的小朋友，书籍就像一个千姿百态的花园，你能在那儿找到使人愉快和于人有益的一切东西。”

14. Now I appreciated what was meant by good books and realized how essential they were to me. They filled me with the calm confidence that I was not alone upon the earth and would surely make my way in life.

我这才体会到好书意味着什么，认识到它们对我是多么地重要。它们使我形成了一种平静的信念：我在人间并不孤独，而且我绝不会没路可走。

15. "Spit on it!" he said in response to my gratitude. "A game's a game--which means, just for fun. But you go at it like it was a fight. And you don't have to get hot even in a fight--fix 'em with a cool eye. What's there to get hot about? You're young; you've got to hold yourself in tight. Missed once, missed five times, missed seven times--spit on it! Step back. Cool off. Go after it again. That's how to play a game."

“算不了啥！”他听到我感激他，这么说。“打牌就是打牌--也就是说，只是玩玩罢了。可是你把它当成打架。即使打架，也不能急躁--要看准了下手。干嘛要急躁呢？你年轻，应该沉住气。一次不成功，五次不成功，七次不成功--算不了啥！干脆走开。冷静下来。然后重新开始。那才叫玩呢。”

16. "Can't be helped, merchant! Nobody knows how he'll meet his end. Happens a fellow eats mushrooms and--phwit!--gone to his grave! Thousands of people eat mushrooms to their health; only one to his death. And what's a mushroom, after all?"

“没有了，商人！谁也不知道会死在什么地方。有的人吃蘑菇--吃着吃着--突然就死了！成千上万的人都吃蘑菇健身体，独独一个人却吃死了。你说这蘑菇算什么东西呢？”

17. "People of their sort, wellfed and comfortable, feel like having a little fun sometimes, but it doesn't always come off--they don't know how. And that's only natural, being's they're the weighty, trade sort. Takes brains to trade, and you get bored living by your brains all the time; want to have a little fun."

“他们是一些吃喝不愁的人，生活安逸。有时候他们也很想寻点刺激，可结果却不是那么回事--他们不会。当然，这些做生意的人，是严肃认真的。做生意要求他们动不少的脑筋，但光靠费心机过日子太单调无聊；所以就想寻点刺激。”

18. "Here you are reasoning things out, and it's too early for you to do that. At your age it's not with your brains you should live, but with your eyes. In other words, see, and remember, and hold your tongue. Brains are for business; faith for the soul. It's a commendable thing to read books, but there's a limit to everything. Some people read so much that they lose their minds, and lose their God."

“你这可是在发议论了，而对你来说，发议论还为时过早。在你这样的年龄，生活不是靠脑子，而是靠两只眼睛。换句话说，你只需看在眼里，记在心上，对什么事都保持沉默。智慧用于事业；而灵魂需要的是信仰。读书是好事，但做一切事，必须有个限度。有些人读书入了迷，成了书呆子，变得不信上帝了。”

19. Later, after I had met many such people among the intelligentsia, as well as among simple folks, I realized that their persistence was nothing more than the passivity of people who had nowhere to go beyond the point already reached, and who, indeed, had no desire to go further, caught as they were in a tangle of obsolete words and outworn conceptions. Their will had become enervated and incapable of developing toward the future, and had they been suddenly emancipated, they would have rolled mechanically downhill, like a stone on a mountainside.

后来，我在老百姓中，在知识分子中，也看到了许多这样的人，这时我才明白，他们顽强只不过是人们的消极表现，他们站在原地，无处可去了，实际上他们哪儿也不愿意去，因为他们已经被陈旧的言语、过时的概念牢牢地拴住了。他们的意志消沉了，没有能力面向未来去发展，因此，当他们突然遭受到打击，他们便机械地顺势往下滚去，犹如石头从山上滚下去一样。

20. "If one has strength of purpose, a school gives good training. It's only the educated who are capable of budging this life."

“有志气的人，学校就能给他好教育。有大学问的人，才能推动生活前进。”

【注】中英引用部分均摘自高尔基《在人间》，姚健编译。出版社：吉林出版集团有限责任公司。