中国人的性格 译文点评

中国人的性格

伯特兰·罗素

写作背景：见P62

The Chinese remind one of the English in their love of compromise and in their habit of bowing to public opinion.

中国人喜欢让步妥协，习惯于依从舆论，在这两点上他们使人想起英国人/与英国人很相似。

Seldom is a conflict pushed to its ultimate brutal issue.

冲突很少被推向极端和残酷的结局。/他们很少让冲突演变成残酷的事件。

The treatment of the Manchu Emperor may be taken as a case in point.

在这里可以引用对满洲皇帝的处理为例。/可以说明这一点

When a Western country becomes a Republic, it is customary to cut off the head of the deposed monarch, or at least to cause him to fly the country.

西方国家建立共和时，惯于把废黜的君主砍头，或至少赶到国外。/将其驱逐出境But the Chinese have left the Emperor his title, his beautiful palace, his troops of eunuchs, and an income of several million dollars a year.

但中国人却让皇帝保留他的称号、他的美丽宫殿、他的大批太监，以及一年几百万银元的收入。/供养费？

He is a boy of sixteen, living peaceably in the Forbidden City.

他是一个十六岁的男孩，安宁地住在紫禁城里。

Once, in the course of a civil war, he was nominally restored to power for a few days; but he was deposed again, without being in any way punished for the use to which he had been put.

一次在内战期间，他在名义上复辟，又做了几天皇帝，随后又被废黜，也没有因为被利用而受到任何惩罚。

China is much less a political entity than a civilization--the only one that has survived from ancient times.

中国是一个政治实体，但更重要的是一个文化实体——是惟一一个从古代延续下来的文化。

Since the days of Confucius, the Egyptian, Babylonian, Persian, Macedonian, and Roman Empires have perished; but China has persisted through a continuous evolution.

从孔子时代以来，埃及、巴比伦、波斯、马其顿和罗马这些帝国都已消亡，而中国却通过不断演化而坚持了下来。/通过不断变革而延续至今

There have been foreign influences--first Buddhism, and now Western science.

外来影响是有过的/也不是没有，早先是佛教，现在是西方科学。

But Buddhism did not turn the Chinese into Indians, and Western science will not turn them into Europeans.

但是佛教并没有把中国人变成印度人，西方科学也不会把他们变成欧洲人。

I have met men in China who knew as much of Western learning as any professor among ourselves; yet they had not been thrown off their balance, or lost touch with their own people.

我碰到过熟知西方学问的中国人，其程度不亚于我们自己的教授，但这些中国人并没有失去平衡，也没有脱离自己的人民。

What is bad in the West--its brutality, its restlessness, its readiness to oppress the weak, its preoccupation with purely material aims--they see to be bad, and do not wish to adopt.

他们认识西方的缺点：残暴、浮躁、倾向于压迫弱者、专注于物质目的，这些缺点他们不想模仿。/西方不好的一面---野蛮、浮躁、欺凌弱小、物质利益至上---他们不想学习。

What is good, especially its science, they do wish to adopt.

西方的优点，特别是它的科学，中国人确实想学习。

So far, I have spoken chiefly of the good sides of the Chinese character; but of course China, like every other nation, has its bad sides also.

以上我主要谈到了中国人性格中好的方面；但当然，中国像其他每个民族一样，也有坏的方面。/不好的一面

It is disagreeable to me to speak of these, as I experienced so much courtesy and real kindness from the Chinese that I should prefer to say only nice things about them.

我不乐于谈到这些，因为我亲身受过中国人很多礼遇和真诚关怀，只想说他们的好话。

But for the sake of China, as well as for the sake of truth, it would be a mistake to conceal what is less admirable.

不过为了中国，也为了真理，掩盖较丑的一面是错误的。

I will only ask the reader to remember that, on the balance, I think the Chinese one of the best nations I have come across, and am prepared to draw up a graver indictment against every one of the Great Powers.