高级英语lesson 14.doc

lesson fourteen Saturday Night and Sunday Morning星期六的晚上和星期日上午 by Alan Sillitoe Text 14-1 He sat by the canal fishing on a Sunday morning in spring, at an elbow(赤楊樹) where alders dipped over the water like old men on their last legs, pushed by young sturdy oaks from behind. 在春天一个星期日的上午，他坐在运河边钓鱼，在他附近，赤杨树被后面生 长着年轻茁壮的橡树向前推挤垂人水中，像垂死的老人一样。 He straightened his back, his fingers freeing nylon line from a speedily revolving reel. 他直起腰身，用手指快速地从绕线轮上放出尼龙线。 Around him lay knapsack and jacket, an empty catch-net, his bicycle, and two tins of worms dug from the plot of garden at home before setting out. 他周围放着背包、夹克、一个空捕鱼网、他的自行车和出发前在家里花园里挖出的两听虫子。 Sun was breaking through clouds, releasing a smell of earth to heaven. 太阳钻出了云层，向空气中散发出泥土的气息。 Birds sang. A soundless and minuscular explosion of water caught his eye. 鸟儿在欢唱。他看到水面忽然间冒出一个无声的小小的水花， He moved nearer the edge, stood up, and with a vigorous sweep of his arm, cast out the line. 他走到水边，站起身，用力挥动手臂，将钓鱼线抛了出去。 14-2 Another solitary man was fishing further along the canal, but Arthur knew that they would leave each other in peace, would not even call out greetings . 不远处还有一个人沿着运河边在独自垂钓，但阿瑟知道他俩可以互不干扰各 钓各的鱼，甚至没必要相互打招呼问候。 No one bothered you: you were a hunter, a dreamer, your own boss away from it all for a few hours on any day that the weather did not throw down its rain . 没人打扰你：你是猎人、梦想家，是自己的老板，在不下雨的日子里，你可以有几个小时的时间摆脱所有的烦恼。 Like the corporal in the army who said it was marvellous (了不起的)the things you thought about as you sat on the lavatory(廁所). Even better than that, it was marvellous the things that came to you in the tranquillity of fishing. 像军队里的那位下士所说，坐在马桶上想到的事情真是太奇妙了。在垂钓的宁静中想 起的事情比在马桶上想起的事情更美妙。 14-3 He drank tea from the flask and ate a cheese sandwich, then sat back to watch the red and white float-up to its waist(腰部) in water under the alder trees(楊柳樹下)-and keep an eye always close to it for the sudden indication of a fortunate catch. 他拿着瓶子喝茶，吃了一块奶酪三明治，然后坐回原处看着钓鱼线上的红白 色浮标浮标一半沉在赤杨树下齐腰深的水中一一他密切注视着浮标，等候着 鱼上钩的那个幸运时刻的突然到来。 For himself, his own catch had been made, and he would have to wrestle with it for the rest of his life. 对他自己而言，他已经被钓上钩了，他得用 自己余生与之抗衡。 Whenever you caught a fish, the fish caught you, in a way of speaking , and it was the same with anything else you caught, like the measles or a woman. . 你不管什么时候钓上了鱼，鱼也同时钩住了你，可以说，你所捉住的其他任何东西也是如此，比如说麻疹或女人。 Everyone in the world was caught, somehow, one way or another, and those that werent were always on the way to it. 不知为什么世界上每个人都这样或那样地被钓住，那些未被钓住的人也逐渐地要被钓住。 As soon as you were born you were captured by fresh air that you screamed against the minute you came out . 你一出生就被新鲜的空气给逮住，所以你一从娘胎里出来就放声大哭。 Then you were roped in by a factory, had a machine slung around your neck , and then you were hooked .up by the arse with a wife. 之后，你又被工厂套住，被工厂的机器拴住。然后你又被妻子用性生活给钩住。 Mostly you were like a fish: you swam about with freedom , thinking how good it was to be left alone, doing anything you wanted to do and caring about no one, when suddenly: SPLUTCH!-the big hook clapped itself into your mouth and you were caught. 大多数时候你像条鱼：你自由自在地游，想着自己独处是多么快活，做你想做的一切事情，不用在意任何 人，突然啪的一声，一个大钩叉入你的嘴中，你被钩住了。 Without knowing what you were doing you had chewed off more than you could bite and had to stick with the same piece of bait for the rest of your life . 尚未弄猜自己在做什么，你已经咬下了你无法嚼烂的鱼饵。你要用余生来嚼这块鱼饵。 It meant death for a fish; but for a man it might not be so bad. 对鱼来说，这 意味着死亡。但对人来说。也许还没有这么糟糕。 Maybe it was only the beginning of something better in life, better than you could ever have thought possible before clamping your avid jaws down over the vital bait. 也许这只是更美好生活的开始， 要比你闭上贪婪的嘴咬住那极为重要的鱼饵之前所能够想到的要好。 Arthur knew he had not yet bitten, that he had really only licked the bait and. found it tasty, that he could still disengage his mouth from the nibbled morsel. But he did not want to do so. 阿瑟知道自 己还未被约住，他只不过刚刚舔了舔鱼饵，发觉鱼饵很香，他仍可以吐出口中的 那一小份鱼饵而解脱自己，但他不愿意那样做。 If you went through life refusing all the bait dangled before you, that would be no life at all. 如果你拒绝所有摆吊在你面前的诱饵而度过一生，那就根本谈不上是生活了。 No changes would be made and you would have nothing to fight against. Life would be as dull as ditchwater. 没有变化，你就没有为之抗争的东 西，生活将极其乏味，就像地沟里的水一样。 You could kill yourself by too much cunning. (狡猾的) 你可能因太狡猾而贻贻误自身。 Even though bait meant trouble, you could not ignore it for ever. 虽然诱饵意味着麻烦，你不可能永远忽视它。 He laughed to think that he was full of bait already, half-digested (消化一半的食物)slop that had certainly given him a share of trouble, one way or another. 他笑着想他已经吃了广嘴的鱼饵，显 然这已消化了一半的劣质食物已经这样或那样地给他带来了麻烦。 14-4 Watching the float so intently made him sleepy: he had been with Doreen until two the night before. 目不转睛地盯着浮标看使他发困：昨天晚上他和多琳一直呆到两点。 They spoke of getting married in three months, by which time, Arthur said, they would have collected a good amount of money, nearly a hundred and fifty pounds, not counting income-tax rebate, which will probably bump it up to a couple of hundred. 他们谈到要在三个月后结婚，阿瑟说到那个时候他们将已攒足一大笔钱，几乎有 150英 磅，还没算上所得税的退款，如若算上这笔返款的话，将凑足 200英磅。 So they would be sitting pretty, Doreen replied, because Mrs. Greatton had already offered to let them stay with her for as long as they liked, paying half the rent. For she would be lonely when Chumley left. 多琳回答说他们过得不错。因为格瑞顿太太已经表示，他们可以只出一半租金住在她那 里，想住多长时间都行， Arthur said he would be able to get on with Mrs. Greatton , because living there he would be the man of the house. 因为丘姆雷搬走了，她会感到寂寞。阿瑟说他会和格瑞顿太太相处融洽，因为住在那儿，他将成为那幢房子的男主人。 And if there was any argument, they could get rooms somewhere. So it looked as though theyd be all right together, he thought, as long as a war didnt start, or trade slump and bring back the dole. 如果出现不和，他们就另找地方。于是阿瑟想看起来大家住在一起挺好，只要不发生战争、商业不衰退、不吃救济； As long as there wasnt a famine, a plague(瘟疫) to sweep over England, an earthquake to crack it in two and collapse the city around them, or a bomb to drop and end the world with a big bang. 只要英国不发生饥荒、瘟疫；只要不发生地震，把英国震成两半，把城市震坍；只要不投下导弹砰地一声摧毁这个世界。 But you couldnt concern yourself too much with these things if you had plans and wanted to get something out of life that you had never had before. 如果你有计划，想从生活中获取你从未得到的东西，你就不能太考虑这些问题。 And that was a fact, he thought, chewing a piece of grass. 阿瑟嚼着一片草，他想这就是事实。 14-5 He fixed the rod firmly against the bank and stood to stretch himself. He yawned widely, felt his legs weaken, then strengthen, then relax, his tall figure marked against a background of curving canal and hedges and trees bordering it. 他把鱼杆牢牢地固定在河岸上。站起来，伸了伸腰，打了个大哈欠，感觉腿 有点软，便绷了绷腿，再放松。他高大的身躯在弯弯的运河以及环绕运河的篱笆、 树木的背景下特别引人注目。 He rubbed his hand over the rough features of his face , upwards over thick lips, grey eyes, low forehead ,short fair hair, then looked up at the mixture of grey cloud and blue patches of sky overhead . 他用手搓了搓粗糙的脸。从下向上搓搓厚嘴唇、灰眼睛、低前额、金黄色短发然后抬头仰望头顶上镶有灰云团的蓝色天空。 For some reason he smiled at what he saw, and turned to walk some yards along the towpath. 不知什么原因，他朝他所看到的一切笑了笑。然后转身沿着纤道走出几码。 Forgetting the stilled float in the water, he stopped to urinate against the bushes. While fastening his trousers, he saw the float in violent agitation, as if it were suddenly alive and wanted to leap out of the water, 忘记了水中静止不动的浮标，他停下来朝树丛里撒尿，系裤子时，他看见浮标猛烈地摇动， 好像它突然活了要跳出水面。 14-6 He ran back to the rod and began winding in the reel with steady movements . 他跑回鱼杆处，稳速向回摇绕线轮。 His hands worked smoothly and the line came in so quickly that it did not seem to be moving except on the reel itself where the nylon thread (尼龍線)grew in thickness and breadth, where he evened it out with his thumb so that it would not clog (纏住)at a vital moment . 他的手流畅地转动着绕线轮，鱼线收回得太快，以至于看上去线都没动，除非看绕线轮上的尼龙线变宽了变厚了，才知道线被收回了。他用大拇指把线拨弄均匀，以便在关键时刻线不会缠住。 The fish came out of the water, flashing and struggling on the end of the line, and he grasped it firmly in his hand to take the hook from its mouth. 鱼被钓出水面，在线的另一端，它闪着水光，挣扎着。他用手紧紧抓住鱼，从鱼嘴里摘 下钩子。 He looked into its glass-grey eye, at the brown pupil(瞳孔) whose fear expressed all the life that it had yet lived, and all its fear of the death that now threatened it. 他看着鱼呆滞无神的眼睛，看着它棕色的瞳孔，鱼眼里透露的恐惧述说了它的一生，以及对正威胁着它的死亡的恐惧。 In its eye he saw the green gloom (朦朧綠影)of willow-sleeved canals(兩邊有柳樹) in cool decay(凄涼衰落), an eye filled with panic and concern for the remaining veins of life that circled like a silent whirlpool旋涡 around it. 从鱼眼中，他看见了两边有柳树的运河凄凉衰落的朦胧绿影。鱼眼中充满了恐惧和对所剩无几的生命的担忧，其所剩生命像打着旋的无声的旋涡。 Where do fishes go when they die? he wondered. 鱼死后去哪里呢？他思考着这个问题。 The glow (發光)of long-remembered lives was mirrored in its eyes, and the memory of cunning curves executed in the moving shadows from reed to reed as it scattered the smaller fry(驅散小魚) and was itself chased by bigger fish(被大魚追趕) was also pictured there. 鱼眼里闪现着它以前的快乐生活，同时也闪现处它曾像晃动的影子一般，在水中芦苇杆 之间娴熟地游来游去，驱散小鱼，同时又被大鱼追逐的情景。 Arthur felt mobile waves of hope running the length of its squamous body from head to tail. 阿瑟感到鳞光闪闪的这条鱼的浑身上下从头到尾涌动着一股求生的愿望。 He removed the hook, and threw it back into the water. He watched it flash away and disappear. 他脱下了鱼钩，把鱼扔回水中。他看着鱼迅速游走，消失了。 14-7 One more chance, he said to himself; 阿瑟心里想再给你一次生存的机会。 but if you or any of your pals(好朋友) come back to the bait, its curtains for em . 但如果你或你的伙伴再来咬鱼饵的话，那肯定是必死无疑了。 With float bobbing(擺動) before him once more he sat down to wait. This time it was war, and he wanted fish to take home, either to cook in the pan or feed to the cat. 浮标又一次被投入水中，在他面前上下摆动，他坐下来等。这回可是一场真正的战争，他要把鱼带回家，放在锅里煎或喂猫。 Its trouble for you and trouble for me, and all over a piece of bait(誘餌), The fattest worm of the lot is fastened to the hook, so dont grumble (抱怨)when you feel that point sticking to your chops. 这对你对我都是个麻烦，都是因为这一诱饵引起的。在鱼钩上放上所有鱼饵中最肥的一只虫子，所以当鱼钩叉入你的嘴中时，你可别抱怨。 14-8 And trouble for me itll be, fighting every day until I die. 我的麻烦是每天奋斗直到生命结束。 Why do they make soldiers out of us when were fighting up to the hilt as it is? 为什么在我们倾全力抗争的时候还让我们当兵呢？ Fighting with mothers and wives, landlords and gaffers(工頭), coppers, army, government. 和母亲、妻子、房东、工头、警察、军队、政府斗争。 If its not one thing its another, apart from the work we have to do and the way we spend our wages. 不是和这个有矛盾就是和那个有冲突，还不算上要工作，要花工资。 Theres bound to be trouble in store for me every day of my life, because trouble its always been and always will be. 每天必定都会遇上麻烦， 因为麻烦一直存在而且还要存在下去。 Born drunk and married blind, misbegotten (私生)into a strange and crazy world, dragged up through the dole (救濟)and into the war with a gas-mask on your clock, and the sirens rattling into you every night while you rot with scabies in an air-raid shelter. 生来酗酒，盲目结婚，被私生在这个古怪疯狂的世界上，家庭靠领救济金把你拉扯大，也没能给你多少好的教育，接着你 又被拖进第二次世界大战，头上成天戴着防毒面具，空袭警报每晚响彻在你耳畔， 而你躲在防空洞里长出了疥疮。 Slung into khaki at eighteen, 18岁时穿上了土黄色的卡其布军服成了一名军人， and when they let you out, you sweat again in a factory, grabbing for an extra pint, 当你服满兵役，又得去工厂挥汗干活，尽量多喝一品脱啤酒， doing women at the weekend and getting to know whose husbands are on the night-shift, working with rotten guts and an aching spine , 周末玩女人，尽力 打探谁的丈夫上夜班，拼命地干活，干得全身疼痛， and nothing for it but money to drag you back there every Monday morning . 为了钱星期一早上又把自己拽回来干活。 14-9 Well, its a good life and a good world, all said and done, if you dont weaken, and if you know that the big wide world hasnt heard from you yet, no, not by a long way, though it wont be long now. 毕竟，如果你还没衰弱，如果你知道你还是个微不足道的小人物，但在不久 的将来你会一鸣惊人的话，生活是美好的，世界是美好的。 14-10 The float bobbed more violently than before and, with a grin on his face, he began to wind (繞)in the reel. 浮标比先前摆动得更厉害了，他咧嘴笑了，开始摇绕线轮。 Lesson Fifteen Is America Falling Apart? 美国在分崩离析吗？ 15-1 I am back in Bracciano, a castellated(城堡式) town about 13 miles north of Rome, after a year in New Jersey. 我在新泽西州呆了一年之后，回到了布拉奇阿诺，这是一座位于罗马以北约13英里的城堡式的小城。 I find the Italian Government still unstable, gasoline more expensive than anywhere in the world, butchers and bank clerks and tobacconists(煙店老板) ready to go on strike at the drop of a hat(隨時的), 我发现意大利政府仍不稳定，汽油比世界任何地方都贵，賣肉的、银行职员和烟店老板随时都准备罢工， neo-fascists at their dirty work, the hammer(錘子) and sickle（鐮刀） painted on the rumps of public statues, a thousand-lira note (officially worth about $1.63) shrunk to the slightness of a dollar bill. 新法西斯分子在干着卑鄙肮脏的勾当，公共场所雕像臀部画着锤子和镰刀，1000里拉（按官价折合1.63美元左右） 的钞票贬值到只值一美元。 15-2 Nevertheless(然而), its delightful to be back. People are underpaid but they go through an act of liking their work, the open markets are luscious with esculent color , the community is important than the state, the human condition is humorously accepted. 然而回到这里仍然令我高兴。人们得到的工资很低，但仍做出喜欢他们的工 作的样子，露天市场里是香甜味美的可口食品，社区比国家重要，人们怀着幽默 感接受了这种人生状况。 The northern wind blows viciously today, and theres no central heating (中央暖氣)to turn on, but it will be pleasant when the wind drops. 今天刮着猛烈的干冷的北风，而且也没有中央暖气可供采暖，但风停了就会舒服了。 The two television channels are inadequate(不充分的), but next Wednesdays return of an old Western is something to look forward to. 两个电视频道太少了，但下个星期三重播一部老西部片，这给了大家一个盼头。 Manifold consumption(多樣化的消費) isnt important here. 在这儿多样化的消费并不重要。 The quality of life has nothing to do with the quantity of brand names. 生活的质量与品牌名称的数量无关 What matters is talk, family, cheap wine in the open air, the wresting of minimal sweetness out of the long-known bitterness of living . 重要的是聊天，家庭，露天喝廉价酒，从久已熟知的痛苦生活 中榨取最低限度的甜蜜。 I was spoiled in(寵壞的) New Jersey. 我在新泽西州被惯坏了。 15-3 In New Jersey, I never had to shiver by a fire that wouldnt draw, or go without canned food . 在新泽西州，我从来不坐在通风不良的炉前发抖。或吃不上罐头。 America made me develop new appetites in order to make proper use of the supermarket. 为了很好利用超市，美国使我培养起了新的胃口。 A character in Evelyn Waughs Put out More Flags said that the difference between prewar and postwar life was that, prewar, if one thing went wrong the day was ruined(毀滅了); postwar, if one thing went right the day would be made. 在伊夫林?沃的升起更多的旗一书中一个人物谈了战前生活与战后生活的区别：战前如一天中有一件事不对头，你觉得这一天就全毁了；战后如果一天中有一件事很顺利，你觉得这一天真痛快。 America is a prewar country, psychologically(心理上的) unprepared for one thing to go wrong. Hence the neurosis, despair, the Kafka feeling that the whole marvelous fabric of American life is coming apart at the seams. 美国是属于战前状态的国家，没有心理准备承受出现的任何问题。因此就出现了 神经质、绝望，感到卡夫卡式的忧虑，整个美妙的美国生活模式正在分崩离析。 15-4 Let us stay for a while on this subject of consumption. American individualism, on the face of it an admirable philosophy, wishes to manifest(表現) itself in independence of the community. You dont share things in common; you have your own things. 让我们在消费这个题目上再稍微多说几句。美国式的个人主义在表面看来是 很值得钦佩的一种哲学，它希望独立于社区之外表现自己，人们不共享东西，各 人都有自己的东西。 A familys strength is signalized by its possessions. 一个家庭的力量体现在它拥有的财产上。 Herein lies a paradox. For the desire for possessions must eventually mean dependence on possessions. 这正是自相矛盾之处，用为对财产的渴望最终必然意味着对财产的依赖。 Freedom is slavery. Once let the acquisitive instinct burgeon, and there are ruggedly individual forces only too ready to make it come to full and monstrous (巨大的)blossom. 自由即屈服，你一旦允许占有的本能发芽生长，便有粗暴的个别力量迫不及待地要使它盛开出巨大的花朵。 New appetites are invented; what to the European are bizarre luxuries become, to the American, plain necessities. 新的欲望产生了，对欧洲人来说是希奇古怪的奢侈品，对美国人来说却成了普通 的必需品。 15-5 During my years stay in New Jersey I let my appetite flower into full Americanism except for one thing. I did not possess an automobile. 在新泽西州的一年中，我任凭自己的欲望充分发展成了美国式的，除了一个例外：我没有汽车。 This self-elected deprivation(剝奪) was a way into the nastier(骯臟) side of the consumer society. Where private ownership prevails, public amenities (公共益事)decay or are prevented from coming into being. 我自己剥夺了自己享用私人汽车的权利，是了解消费社会肮脏侧面的一个途径。在私有制占优势的地方，公共益事不是衰败就是受到阻挠无法存在。 The rundown rail services of America are something I try, vainly(徒勞的), to forget. 美国铁路交通破落是一件我想忘也忘不了的事。 The nightmare of filth(骯臟), outside and in, that enfolds the trip from Springfield, Mass., to Grand Central Station would not be accepted in backward Europe. 从马萨诸塞州的斯普林菲尔德到纽约中央车站的旅程，一路上车里车外肮脏得像噩梦般可怕。这种情况在落后的欧洲也是无法接受的。 But far worse is the nightmare of travel in and around Los Angeles, where public transport does not exist and people are literally choking to death in their exhaust fumes . 但比这更糟得多的是在洛杉机市内或周围噩梦般的旅行，那儿根本没有公共交通工具，毫不夸张地说，人们正被自己汽车排出的废气呛死。 This is part of the price of individual ownership. 这是私有制要付出的部分代价。 15-6 But if the car owner can ignore the lack of public transport, he can hardly ignore the decay(腐朽) of services in general. 但是如果汽车拥有者能无视公共交通缺乏的话，他也很难忽视一般服务性行业情况的恶化。 His car needs mechanics, and mechanics grow more expensive and less efficient. 他的汽车需要机修工人，而请机修工的费用变得越来越贵，其效率却越来越低。 The gadgets in the home are cheaper to replace than repair. 家用小装置买新的要比修理便宜。 The more efficiently self-contained the home seems to be, the more dependent it is on the great impersonal (冷漠的)corporations, as well as a diminishing(縮小的) army of servitors. 在家庭里越是显得设备齐全，就越要依赖于冷漠的大公司和人数日益减少的服务人员。 Skills at the lowest level have to be wooed slavishly and exorbitantly (昂貴的)rewarded. 技术再低的工人也要卑躬屈膝地去恳求，还要付给昂贵的报酬。 Plumbers will not come. Nor, at the higher level, will doctors. And doctors and dentists know their scarcity value and behave accordingly . 管子工叫不来，在更高的层次上，大夫更是难请。医生和牙医知道物以稀为贵，并以此指导自己的行为。 15-7 Americans are at last realizing that the acquisition of goods is not the whole of life. 美国人终于开始明白占有商品并不是生活的全部内容。 Consumption, on one level, is turning insipid, especially as the quality of the goods seems to be deteriorating. 在一个水准上人消费正变得缺乏吸引力，特别是商品的质量似乎一直在降低。 Planned obsolescence is not conducive to pride in workmanship. On another level, consumption is turning sour . 特意制造出很快就会过时的商品不会引起工人对工艺质量的自豪感。在另一个水准上，消费正变得令人不快， There is a growing guilt about the masses of discarded junk(丟棄的垃圾)- -rusting automobiles and refrigerators and washing machines and dehumidifiers(除濕器) that it is uneconomical to recycle. 对于大量回收利用不划算的废弃物品锈蚀着的汽车、冰箱、洗衣机、除湿机人们越来越感到有负罪感。 Indestructible(不能破壞的) plastic hasnt even the grace to un