高英-Mark-Twain—Mirror-of-America原文+翻译+修辞

Comment Shyla1 Metaphor Comment Shyla2 Simile Comment Shyla3 hyperbole 夸张 Comment Shyla4 Parallelism 对应 排比 Comment Shyla5 Personification Comment Shyla6 Metaphor Comment Shyla7 Metaphor Comment Shyla8 Synecdoche 提喻 部分指代整体 Comment Shyla9 Metaphor Comment Shyla10 Metaphor hyperbole Mark Twain the Mirror of America 1 Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn s idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer s endless summer of freedom and adventure In deed this nation s best loved author was every bit as adventurous patriotic romantic and humorous as anyone has ever imagined I found another Twain as well one who grew cynical bitter saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night 在大多数美国人的心目中 马克 吐温是位伟大作家 他描写了哈克 费恩 永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆 索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历 险探奇的故事 的确 这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神 爱国热情 浪 漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度 但我发现还有另一个不同的马克 吐温 一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗 尖酸刻薄的马克 吐温 一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡 明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人 2 Tramp printer river pilot Confederate guerrilla prospector starry eyed optimist acid tongued cynic The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days signaling two fathoms 12 feet of water a navigable depth His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print and translations are still read around the world 印刷工 领航员 邦联游击队员 淘金者 耽于幻想的乐天派 语言尖刻 的讽刺家 马克 吐温原名塞缪尔 朗赫恩 克莱门斯 他一生之中有超过三分之 一的时间浪迹美国各地 体验着美国的新生活 尔后便以作家和演说家的身分 将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界 他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到 的报告水深为两口寻 12 英尺 意即可以通航的信号语 他的作品中有二十 几部至今仍在印行 其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者 由此可见他的享誉程 度 3 The geographic core in Twain s early years was the great valley of the Mississippi River main artery of transportation in the young nation s heart Keelboats flatboats and large rafts carried the first major commerce Lumber corn tobacco wheat and furs moved downstream to the delta country sugar molasses cotton and whiskey traveled north In the 1850 s before the climax of westward expansion the vast basin drained three quarters of the settled United States 在马克 吐温青年时代 美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域 而密西西比河 是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉 龙骨船 平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的 商品 木材 玉米 烟草 小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下 运送到河 口三角洲地区 而砂糖 糖浆 棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方 在 19 世纪 50 年代 西部领土开发高潮到来之前 辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开 发领土的四分之三 4 Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos He participated abundantly in this life listening to pilothouse talk of feuds Comment Shyla11 Metaphor Comment Shyla12 Simile Comment Shyla13 Metaphor Comment Shyla14 Antithesis 对比 Comment Shyla15 Personification Comment Shyla16 Metaphor Comment Shyla17 Metaphor Comment Shyla18 Personification piracies lynchings medicine shows and savage waterside slums All would resurface in his books together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic 1857 年 少年马克 吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这片天地 在 这个新的工作岗位上 他接触到的是各式各样的人物 看到的是一个多姿多彩 的大干世界 他完全地投身到这种生活之中 经常在操舵室里听着人们谈论民 间争斗 海盗抢劫 私刑案件 游医卖药以及河边的一些化外民居的故事 所 有这一切 连同他那像留声机般准确可靠的记忆所吸收的丰富多彩的语言 后 来都有机会在他的作品中得以再现 5 Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity but its flotsam of hustlers gamblers and thugs as well From them all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education and the most lasting part of it In later life Twain acknowledged that the river had acquainted him with every possible type of human nature Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his writing but he never wrote well than when he wrote of the people a long the great stream 蒸汽船的甲板上不仅挤满了富有开拓精神的人们 而且也载着一些娼妓 赌棍和歹徒等社会渣滓 从所有这些形形色色的人身上 马克 吐温敏锐地认识 了人类 认识了人们的言与行之间的差距 他在蒸汽船上工作的四年半时间是 他真正接受教育的开端 而且也是最具有深远意义的教育 到了晚年 马克 吐 温还声言是密西西比河使他了解了各种各样的人的本性 这种生活体验对他的 全部创作都起了促进作用 然而他描写得最为成功的还是那些密西西比河上的 人物 6 When railroads began drying up the demand for steam boat pilots and the Civil War halted commerce Mark Twain left the river country He tried soldiering for two weeks with a motley band of Confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy Twain quit after deciding I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating 随着铁路运输的发展 社会上对汽船领航员的需求日渐减少 而内战的爆 发又阻碍了商业贸易的发展 这时 马克 吐温便离开了密西西比河流域 他在 南方邦联游击队的一支杂牌队伍里当了两个星期的兵 那支队伍想方设法避免 与敌军交战 在确信 我比发明撤退的人更精通撤退 之后 马克 吐温离开了 那支队伍 7 He went west by stagecoach and succumbed to the epidemic of gold and silver fever in Nevada s Washoe region For eight months he flirted with the colossal wealth available to the lucky and the persistent and was rebuffed Broke and discouraged he accepted a job as reporter with the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise to literature s enduring gratitude 他乘驿站马车来到西部 在内华达州的华苏地区受到当时正流行的淘金热 的诱惑 同那只有既幸运而又锲而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大财富三心二意 地打了八个月交道之后 他遭到了失败 在破产和灰心之余 他接受了为弗吉 尼亚市 领土开发报 当记者的工作 这一行动将获得文学界永久的感激 8 From the discouragement of his mining failures Mark Twain began digging Comment Shyla19 Metaphor Comment Shyla20 Metonymy 转喻 Comment Shyla21 Metaphor Comment Shyla22 Personification Comment Shyla23 Alliteration Comment Shyla24 Alliteration Comment Shyla25 Alliteration Comment Shyla26 Personification Comment Shyla27 Personification his way to regional fame as a newspaper reporter and humorist The instant riches of a mining strike would not be his in the reporting trade but for making money his pen would prove mightier than his pickax In the spring of 1864 less than two years after joining the Territorial Enterprise he boarded the stagecoach for San Francisco then and now a hotbed of hopeful young writers 自从他因淘金失败而感到心灰意冷之后 马克 吐温便开始努力博取作为一 名报社记者和幽默作家的地区性声望 从事新闻报道工作当然不能使他像淘金 成功者一样立成巨富 但在挣钱方面他的笔杆却比他的锄镐要有效得多 1864 年春季 在他加盟 领土开发报 还不足两年之时 他又乘驿站马车前往旧金 山 那儿在当时和现在都是有前途的年轻作家成长的摇篮 9 Mark Twain honed and experimented with his new writing muscles but he had to leave the city for a while because of some scathing columns he wrote Attacks on the city government concerning such issues as mistreatment of Chinese so angered officials that he fled to the goldfields in the Sacramento Valley His descriptions of the rough country settlers there ring familiarly in modern world accustomed to trend setting on the West Coast It was a splendid population for all the slow sleepy sluggish brained sloths stayed at home It was that population that gave to California a name for getting up astounding enterprises and rushing them through with a magnificent dash and daring and a recklessness of cost or consequences which she bears unto this day and when she projects a new surprise the grave world smiles as usual and says Well that is California all over 马克 吐温磨炼并试验了他的新笔力 但他却因写了一些尖锐的评论文章而 被迫暂时离开这座城市 他围绕着虐待华人等一类问题对市政府提出的尖锐批 评惹得一些官员大为恼火 因之他只好逃到萨克拉门托山谷的金矿区暂避风头 他对那儿的拓荒者们的描写使西海岸地区富有创新精神的现代人倍感亲切 这 儿的人们真是了不起 因为那些笨手笨脚 无精打彩 呆头呆脑的懒汉都呆 在家里 正是那些人们为加利福尼亚赢得了这样的声誉 当他们着手进行一 项宏伟的事业时 他们会不计代价或风险而以一种豪迈的气概和闯劲勇往直前 一千到底 加利福尼亚人至今仍保持着这样的声誉 因而 每当他们发起一项 新的惊天动地的壮举时 那些素来稳重的人便会像往常一样微笑着说 看吧 这完全是加利福尼亚的风格 10 In the dreary winter of 1864 65 in Angels Camp he kept a notebook Scattered among notations about the weather and the tedious mining camp meals lies an entry noting a story he had heard that day an entry that would determine his course forever Coleman with his jumping frog bet stranger 50 stranger had no frog and C got him one in the meantime stranger filled C s frog full of shot and he couldn t jump The stranger s frog won 1864 年与 1865 年之交的那个冬天 马克 吐温是在安吉尔斯矿区度过的 在这段沉闷的日子里 他记了一本笔记 在杂乱无章的有关天气情况和乏味无 趣的有关矿区饭食情况的记录条目中夹着一条叙述当天听到的一则故事的记录 这条记录决定了他一生事业的发展方向 科尔曼用他的跳蛙 与陌生 人赌 50 美元 陌生人没有跳蛙 科尔曼去给他弄来一只 陌生人利用这段 时间将科的跳蛙肚子塞满铅弹 这样 科的跳蛙跳不起来 陌生人的跳蛙便得 以获胜 Comment Shyla28 Antithesis Comment Shyla29 Personification Comment Shyla30 elliptical sentence 省略句 11 Retold with his descriptive genius the story was printed in newspapers across the United States and became known as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County Mark Twain s national reputation was now well established as the wild humorist of the Pacific slope 经过马克 吐温的生花妙笔改写之后 这个故事登在美国各地的报纸上 成了家喻户晓的 卡拉韦拉斯县有名的跳蛙 至此 马克 吐温作为 太平洋 海岸狂放的幽默大师 的声望已在全国范围内牢固地确立起来了 12 Two year s later the opportunity came for him to take a distinctly American look at the Old World In New York City the steamship Quaker City prepared to sail on a pleasure cruise to Europe and the Holy Land For the first time a sizable group of United States citizens planned to journey as tourists a milestone of sorts in a country s development Twain was assigned to accompany them as correspondent for a California newspaper If readers expected the usual glowing travelogue they were sorely surprised 两年之后 他得到了一个以美国人特有的眼光去观察欧洲旧大陆的机会 在纽约市 费城号 蒸汽船准备进行一次到欧洲和圣地的观光航行 这是美国 人第一次组织较大规模的团体观光旅行 也可以看作是一个国家发展史上的 某种里程碑 马克 吐温作为加利福尼亚一家报纸的记者被委派随同观光团采访 如果读者们期望能读到有关这次旅行见闻的神采飞扬的描写的话 那他们是要 倍感意外的 13 Unimpressed by the Sultan of Turkey for example he reported one could set a trap anywhere and catch a dozen abler men in a night Casually he debunked revered artists and art treasures and took unholy verbal shots at the Holy Land Back home more newspapers began printing his articles America laughed with him Upon his return to the States the book version of his travels The Innocents Abroad became an instant best seller 举例来说 他对于那没有给他留下什么好印象的土耳其君主苏丹是这样报 道的 人们可以任意选择一个地方设一个陷阱 一夜之间准可捕捉到十几个更 有能耐的人 他信口开河地对一些受人景仰的艺术家和艺术珍品加以鄙薄 甚 至对宗教圣地也敢于以亵渎性的言辞加以侮蔑 回国以后 越来越多的报纸开 始刊登他的文章 整个美国都同他一齐欢笑 他一回到美国 他的旅行杂记 傻子出国旅行记 立即成为畅销书 14 At the age of 36 Twain settled in Hartford Connecticut His best books were published while he lived there 三十六岁时 马克 吐温开始定居于康涅狄格州哈特福德镇 他的最优秀的 作品全是在那段时间里问世的 15 As early as 1870 Twain had experimented with a story about the boyhood adventures of a lad he named Billy Rogers Two years later he changed the name to Tom and began shaping his adventures into a stage play Not until 1874 did the story begin developing in earnest After publication in 1876 Tom Sawyer quickly became a classic tale of American boyhood Tom s mischievous daring ingenuity and the sweet innocence of his affection for Becky Thatcher are almost as sure to be studied in American schools today as is the Declaration of Independence 早在 1870 年 马克 吐温就试着写了一篇关于一个他名之为比利 罗杰斯的 Comment Shyla31 Personification 男孩子的童年历险故事 两年后 他又将主人公的名字改为汤姆 并着手将故 事改编成剧本 直到 1874 年他才开始认真地扩展故事情节 汤姆 索亚 于 1876 年出版后 很快成为美国儿童故事的经典之作 这部描写汤姆的顽皮 勇 敢 机智以及他对贝琪 莎切尔的天真纯洁的感情的故事几乎像 独立宣言 一 样成了今天美国学校里的必读书本 16 Mark Twain s own declaration of independence came from another character Six chapters into Tom Sawyer he drags in the juvenile pariah of the village Huckleberry Finn son of the town drunkard Fleeing a respectable life with the puritanical Widow Douglas Huck protests to his friend Tom Sawyer I ve tried it and it don t work it don t work Tom It ain t for me The widder eats by a bell she goes to bed by a bell she gits up by a bell everything s so awful reg lar a body can t stand it 马克 吐温本人的独立宣言却是由另一个人物表达出来的 在 汤姆 索亚 第六章里 他引出了 村里的流浪少年 镇上酒鬼的儿子哈克贝利 费恩 哈 克不愿在清教徒道格拉斯寡妇家过上等人的体面生活 从那里逃出来后对他的 朋友汤姆 索亚发牢骚说 我试过了 还是不行 不行啊 汤姆 那不是我过 的日子 那寡妇家吃饭要听钟声 睡觉要听钟声 起床也要听钟声 什么事 情都得规规矩矩 简直叫人受不了 17 Nine years after Tom Sawyer swept the nation Huck was given a life of his own in a book often considered the best ever written about Americans His raft flight down the Mississippi with a runaway slave presents a moving panorama for exploration of American society 汤姆 索亚 风靡美国九年之后 哈克被赋予独立的生命 成为一本被许 多人认为是最成功的描写美国人的作品的书中的主人公 他同一个逃跑出来的 奴隶一起乘坐木筏沿着密西西比河顺流而下的漂流航程展现了一幅幅揭示美国 社会生活全貌的生动画面 18 On the river and especially with Huck Finn Twain found the ultimate expression of escape from the pace he lived by and often deplored from life s regularities and the energy sapping clamor for success 通过对密西西比河 尤其是对哈克 费恩这一人物的描写 马克 吐温将自 己想从那束缚着自己并常常令自己苦恼的生活步调中摆脱出来 从生活中的各 种清规戒律以及为了事业成功而进行的艰苦挣扎中解放出来的愿望表达得淋漓 尽致 19 Mark Twain suggested that an ingredient was missing in the American ambition when he said What a robust people what a nation of thinkers we might be if we would only lay ourselves on the shelf occasionally and renew our edges 马克 吐温认为 美国人的理想中缺少了一种成分 他说 我们只消偶尔地 躺下来好好放松休息一下 保持锋棱利角 我们将有可能成为一个多么朝气蓬 勃的民族 一个多么富有思想的民族啊 20 Personal tragedy haunted his entire life in the deaths of loved ones his father dying of pneumonia when Sam was 12 his brother Henry killed by a steamboat explosion the death of his son Langdon at 19 months His eldest daughter Susy died of spinal meningitis Mrs Clemens succumbed to a heart attack in Florence and youngest daughter Jean an epileptic drowned in an upstairs bathtub Comment Shyla32 Personifi