luck 马克吐温 中英文

I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated1 English military men of his time. I do not want to tell you his real name and titles. I will just call him Lieutenant2 General Lord Arthur Scoresby.

我出席了一次在伦敦举行的为当时最著名的英国军人举行的宴会。我不想告诉你他真实的名字和头衔，我只想叫他阿瑟.斯考兹比爵士。

I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great and famous man. There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals. I could not take my eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatness. His fame had no effect on him. The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people, did not seem to make any difference to him.

当我见到这位伟大而著名的人物的时候，兴奋之情无以言表。他独自一人坐在那里，浑身戴满了勋章。我的注意力无法从他身上挪开，他好象就是真正伟大的标志。他的名望对他根本没什么影响，成百上千双敬佩的眼睛，那么多人的崇敬似乎对他没有一丝影响。

Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine. He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwich. There was a strange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered –“Privately –he is a complete fool.” He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner.

坐在我旁边的是一位牧师，我的一位老朋友。他并不是一直是个牧师，他的前半生在吾尔维希的军校当一名老师。当他向我斜着身子轻声说话的时候，眼睛里有一种奇怪的表情：“别跟别人说，他是个十足的傻子。”他，当然指的是宴会上的那位英雄。

This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at my friend. I could not have been more surprised if he had said the same thing about Napoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon.

他的话使我感到很震惊。这比他说拿破伦或者苏格拉底或者所罗门王是傻子更令我吃惊。

But I was sure of two things about the clergyman. He always spoke3 the truth. And, his judgment4 of men was good. Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could.Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are his exact words:

但是，对于这位牧师，我有两点可以确信：他总是说实话和他对人的判断总是对的。因此，我想尽快找出我们那位大英雄的更多的秘密。几天以后，我找到了一个和这位牧师谈话的机会。下面就是他跟我说的，原文是：

About forty years ago, I was an instructor5 in the military academy at Woolwich, when young Scoresby was given his first examination. I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answered the questions well, intelligently, while he – why, dear me – he did not know anything, so to speak. He was a nice, pleasant young man. It was painful to see him stand there and give answers that were miracles of stupidity.

大约四十年前，我在吾尔维希军事学院任教的时候，年轻的斯考兹比参加了他的第一次考试。我感到他那么可怜，每个人都出色机智地回答了问题，而他----我的天，不知道为什么----也就是说，他什么也不知道。他是个友善的、举止文雅的年轻人。看着他象块木头一样站在那儿，净给出一些愚蠢的回答，真是一件痛苦的事。

I knew of course that when examined again he would fail and be thrown out. So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him as much as I could.

我当然知道，如果再考一次他还失败的话，他将会被开除了。于是，我对自己说，我尽自己最大所能去帮助他，将是一件简单而无恶意的善事。

I took him aside and found he knew a little about Julius Caesar’s history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave. I made him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Caesar, which I knew he would be asked.

我把他带到一边，发现他知道有关凯撒的一点历史。由于其它的东西他都不知道，我就开始逼着他象做苦工一样学习和检测。我反复地让他学习一些我知道会用上的关于凯撒的问题。

If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examination. He got high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharply criticized. By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made him study. Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years.

请相信我，考试那天他出色地通过了，也得到了很高的赞赏。那些知道的比他多一千倍的人也通过了考试。出于奇妙而幸运的巧合，除了我教他的那些问题以外，别的什么都没有问道。象这样的巧合，一百年也不会发生一次。

Well, all through his studies, I stood by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child.