翻译硕士散文精选：Mayhew生活的道路

Mayhew

生活的道路

William S. Maugham

威廉·S.毛姆

The lives of most men are determined by their environment. They accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only with resignation but even with good will. They are like streetcars running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly flivver that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily across the open country. I respect them;they are good citizens, good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands and seem to mould it to their own liking. It may be that we have no such thing as free will, but at all events we have the illusion ofit. At a crossroad it does seem to us that we might go either to the right or the left and, the choice once made, it is difficult to see that the whole course of the world's history obliged us to take the turning we did.

对于大多数人来说，生活是由环境决定的。他们在命运的拨弄面前，不仅逆来顺受，甚至还能随遇而安。这些人犹如街上的有轨电车，满足于在自己的轨道上运行；而对于那些不时出没于车水马龙间和欢快地奔驰在旷野上的廉价小汽车却不屑一顾。我尊重这些人；他们是守法的公民、尽职的丈夫、慈祥的父亲。当然，总得有人缴纳种种税款；可是，我并不觉得他们使人振奋。另有些人把生活掌握在自己手里，似乎在按照自己的意愿创造生活，尽管这样的人寥若晨星，他们却深深地吸引了我。自由意志这玩意儿对我们来说也许纯属子虚乌有；但不管怎么说，它确实存在于我们的幻想之中。每逢站在十字路口，我们好像能在左右两条道路中任选其一，可一旦选定之后，却又很难认识到那实际是世界历史的整个进程左右了我们的转折点。

I never met a more interesting man than Mayhew. He was a lawyerin Detroit. He was an able and a successful one. By the time he was thirty-five he had a large and a lucrative praaice, he had amassed a competence, and he stood on the threshold of a distinguished career. He had an a cute brain, anattractive personality, and uprightness. There was no reason why he should not become, financially or politically, a power in the land. One evening he was sitting in his club with a group of friends and they were perhaps a little worse (or the better) for liquor. One of them had

recently come from Italy and he told them of a house he had seen at Capri, a house on the hill, overlooking the Bay of Naples, with a large and shady garden. He described to them the beauty of the most beautifulisland in the Mediterranean.

我从未见到过比梅休更有意思的人了。他是底特律的一名律师，为人能干，事业上也很成功。35岁时就门庭若市，收入可观，累累胜诉，声名昭着，前程似锦。他头脑灵活，性格招?喜欢，为人又很正直，在这个国家里不变得有钱或有势才怪呢。一天晚上，他与一些朋友在俱乐部聚会。喝了酒之后，他们也许有点醉意（或更清醒）了，其中一人刚从意大利回来，跟大家谈起了在卡普里岛看到的一幢房子。那是一幢坐落在小山上的房屋，还有个绿叶成荫的大花园。从屋里望出去，那不勒斯湾尽收眼底。他娓娓动听地把地中海这个最美的岛屿夸了一番。

"It sounds fine," said Mayhew. "Is that house for sale?"

“听起来倒真不错！”梅休说，“那房子卖不卖？”

"Everything is for sale in Italy."

“在意大利什么东西都卖。”

"Let's send'em a cable and make an offer for it."

“我们打个电报，出个价把那房子买下来。”

"What in heaven's name would you do with a house in Capri?"

“天哪！你买卡普里的一所房子干什么用啊？”

"Live in it," said Mayhew.

“住呗！”梅休说。

He sent for a cable form, wrote it out, and dispatched it. In a few hours the reply came back. The offer was accepted.

他叫人取来一张电报单，填好后就发了出去。没过几小时，回电来了，买卖成交。

Mayhew was no hypocrite and he made no secret of the fact that he would never have done so wild a thing if he had been sober, but when he was he did not regret it. He was neither an impulsive nor an emotional man, but a very honest and sincere one. He would never have continued from bravado in a course that he had come to the conclusion was unwise. He made up his mind to do exactly as he had said. He did not care for wealth and he had enough money on which to live in Italy. He thought he