L8孤独 —— 一种美国症

Lesson Eight

Loneliness... An American Malady

孤独——一种美国症

Carson McCullers

卡森.麦克卡勒

New words

essentially

quest, the act or an instance of seeking or pursuing something; a search. identity, the distinct personality of an individual regarded as a persisting entity; individuality.

Underline the keywords

1 This city, New York -- consider the people in it, the eight million of us. An English friend of mine, when asked why he lived in New York City, said that he liked it here because he could be so alone. While it was my friend‘s desire to be alone, the aloneness of many Americans who live in cities is an involuntary and fearful thing. It has been said that loneliness is the great American malady. What is the nature of this loneliness? [开

始定义] It would seem essentially to be a quest for identity.

译文

想想看，我们这个城市、纽约，有八百万人。人家问我们的一个朋友，

为什么住在纽约。他说，他喜欢住在这，是因为能够与世隔绝，不受干扰。他喜欢一个人住。可是许多美国城里人，却不愿意孤独，他们怕孤独。人家说，孤独是一种不得了的美国症。孤独的本质是什么？它看来主要就是要寻求‘我是谁’的答案。

想想看，翻译不必重复原来的语序。

我是谁，翻译的“达”，是达意，而不是一字一字地直译，或硬译。

New words

spectator, An observer of an event

amateur philosopher,

ricochets, the act or an instance of rebounding at least once from a surface rejections,

enduring,

belong，

infancy, the earliest period of childhood

be obsessed by, compulsively preoccupied

dual motives,

crib, a bed with high sides for a young child or baby

wavering, exhibiting of irresolution or indecision; tentative

pristine, of, relating to, or typical of the earliest time or condition; primitive or original

Underline the keywords

2To the spectator, the amateur philosopher, no motive among the complex ricochets of our desires and rejections seems stronger or more enduring than the will of the individual to claim his identity and belong. From infancy to death, the human being is obsessed by these dual motives. During our first weeks of life, the question of identity shares urgency with the need for mild. The baby reaches for his toes [，] then explores the bars of his crib; again and again he compares the difference between his own body and the objects around him, and in the wavering, infant eyes there comes a pristine wonder.

译文

2对于一个观察者、一个业余哲学家，在所有的要和不要的复杂抉择中，再没有什么比要选择‘我是谁’还是选择和‘我属于谁’次数更多和更持久了。一个人从生到死，总是被这两个问题困扰。生命的头几个星期，‘我是谁’的问题就和要吃奶的问题一样紧急。婴儿去抓他的脚趾、去探索婴儿床的栏杆，一遍又一遍地比较他的身体和他周围的物体的区别。而这在幼小的试探性的眼中留下了最初的惊奇。

抓他的脚趾，注意原文的for 字。

试探性，注意词义的选择。

New words

consciousness,

abstract problem

primitive grasp of identity

constantly shifting emphasis

maturity,

mutations, the act or process of being altered or changed

reveal, to make known (something concealed or secret)

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3 Consciousness of self is the first abstract problem that the human being solve s. Indeed, it is this self consciousness that removes us from lower animals. This primitive grasp of identity develops with constantly shifting emphasis through all our years. Perhaps maturity is simply the history of those mutations that reveal to the individual the relation between himself and the world in which he finds himself.

译文

3 认识自我，是人解决的第一个抽象问题。不错，正是这自我意识，使我们区别于低一等的动物。对‘我是谁’的最初理解，在人一生中不断发展，其重点也一直变化着。大概成熟就是这些发展和变化的历史。这历史向这个人揭示他和他知道的他所在世界的关系。