五课爱丑之欲的翻译.docx

爱丑之欲几年前的一个冬日，我乘坐宾夕法尼亚铁路公司的一班快车离开匹兹堡，向东行驶一小时，穿越了威斯特摩兰县的煤城和钢都.这是我熟悉的地方，无论是童年时期还是成年时期，我常常经过这一带.但以前我从来没有感到这地方荒凉得这么可怕.这儿正是工业化美国的心脏，是其最赚钱、最典型活动的中心，世界上最富裕、最伟大的国家的自豪和骄傲-然而这儿的景象却又丑陋得这样可怕，凄凉悲惨得这么令人无法忍受，以致人的抱负和壮志在这儿成了令人毛骨悚然的、令人沮丧的笑料.这儿的财富多得无法计算，简直都无法想象-也是在这儿，人们的居住条件又是如此之糟，连那些流浪街头的野猫也为之害羞.我说的不仅仅是脏.钢铁城镇的脏是人们意料之中的事.我指的是所看到的房子没有一幢不是丑陋得令人难受，畸形古怪得让人作呕的.从东自由镇到格林斯堡，在这全长25英里的路上，从火车上看去，没有一幢房子不让人看了感到眼睛不舒服和难受.有的房子糟得吓人，而这些房子竞还是一些最重要的建筑-教堂、商店、仓库等等.人们惊愕地看着这些房子，就像是看见一个脸给子弹崩掉的人一样.有的留在记忆里，甚至回忆起来也是可怕的：珍尼特西面的一所样子稀奇古怪的小教堂，就像一扇老虎窗贴在一面光秃秃的、似有麻风散鳞的山坡上;参加过国外战争的退伍军人总部，设在珍尼特过去不远的另一个凄凉的小镇上.沿铁路线向东不远处的一座钢架，就像一个巨大的捕鼠器.但我回忆里出现的 三要还是一个总的印象-连绵不断的丑陋.从匹兹堡到格林斯 堡火车调车场，放眼望去，没有一幢像样的房子.没有一幢不是歪歪扭扭的，没有一幢不是破破烂烂的.尽管到处是林立的工厂，遍地弥漫着烟尘，这一地区的自然 霉仟并不差.就地形而论，这儿是一条狭窄的河谷，其中流淌着一道道发源自山间的深溪.这儿的人口虽然稠密，但并无过分拥挤的 迹象，即使在一些较大的城镇中，建筑方面也还大有发展的余地. 这儿很少见到有高密度排列的建筑楼群，几乎每一幢房屋，无论 大小，其四周都还有剩余的空地.显然，如果这一地区有几个稍有职业责任感或荣誉感的建筑师的话，他们准会紧依山坡建造一些美观雅致的瑞士式山地小木屋-一种有着便于冬季排除积雪的陡坡屋顶，宽度大于高度，依山而建的低矮的小木屋.可是，他们实际上是怎么做的呢?他们把直立的砖块作为造房的模式，造出了一种用肮脏的护墙板围成的不伦不类的房屋，屋顶又窄又平，而且整个地安放在一些单薄的、奇形怪状的砖垛上.这种丑陋不堪的房屋成百上千地遍布于一个个光秃秃的山坡上，就像是一些墓碑竖立在广阔荒凉的坟场上.这些房屋高的一侧约有三四层，甚至五层楼高，而低的一侧看去却像一群埋在烂泥潭里的猪猡.垂直式的房屋不到五分之一，大部分房屋都是那样东倒西歪，摇摇欲坠地固定在地基上.每幢房屋上都积有一道道的尘垢印痕，而那一道道 垢痕的间隙中，还隐隐约约露出一些像湿疹痂一样的油漆斑痕.偶尔也可以看到一幢砖房，可那叫什么砖啊!新建的时候，它的颜色像油煎鸡蛋，然而一经工厂排放出来的烟尘熏染，蒙上一层绿锈时，它的颜色便像那早已无人问津的臭蛋一样了.难道一定得采用这种糟糕的颜色吗?这就及把房屋都建成直立式一样没看攀要.若是用红砖造房，便可以越古老陈旧越气派，即使在钢铁城镇中也是如此.红砖就算被染得漆黑，看起来还是能够使人悦目，尤其是如果用白石镶边，经雨水一洗刷，凹处烟垢残存，凸处本色外露，红黑映衬，更觉美观.可是在威斯特摩兰县，人们却偏偏喜欢用那血尿般的黄色，因此便有了这种世界上最丑陋不堪、最令人恶心的城镇和乡村.我是在经过一番苦心探究和不断祈祷后才将这顶丑陋之最的桂冠封赠于威斯特摩兰县的.我自信我已见到过世界上所有的丑陋之极的城镇，它们全都在美国.我目睹了日趋衰落的新英格兰地区的工业城镇，也目睹了犹他州、亚利桑那州和得克萨斯州的荒漠城市.我熟悉纽瓦克、布鲁克林和芝加哥的偏街僻巷，并曾对新泽西州的卡姆登和弗吉尼亚州的纽波特纽斯作过科学的考察.我曾安安稳稳地坐着普尔曼卧车，周游了衣阿华州和堪萨斯州那些昏暗凄凉的村镇以及佐治亚州那些乌烟瘴气的沿海渔村.我到过康涅狄格州的布里奇港，还去过洛杉矶市.然而，在世界上的任何一个地方，无论国内国外，我从未见到过任何东西可以及那些拥挤在宾夕法尼亚铁路从匹兹堡调车场到格林斯堡路段沿线的村庄相比.它们无论在色彩上还是在样式上都是无及伦比的.仿佛有什么及人类不共戴天的、能力超常的鬼才，费尽心机，动员魔鬼王国里的鬼斧神工，才造出这些丑陋无比的房屋来.这些房屋不仅丑陋而且奇形怪状，使人回头一看，顿觉它们已变成一个个青面獠牙的恶魔.人们无法想象单凭人的力量如何能造出如此可怕的东西来，也很难想象居然还有人类栖居其中并在那里生儿育女，繁殖人类.这些房屋如此丑陋，难道是因为该河谷地区住满了一些愚蠢迟钝、麻木不仁、毫无爱美之心的外国蛮子吗?若果然如此，为什么那些外国蛮子却并没有在自己的故土上造出这样丑恶的东西来呢?事实上，在欧洲绝对找不到这种丑恶的东西-英国的某些破败的地区也许例外.整个欧洲大陆很难找到一个丑陋的村落.欧洲那儿的农民，不论怎么穷，都会想方设法将自己的居室修造得美观雅致，即使在西班牙也是如此.而在美国的乡村和小城镇里，人们千方百计地追求的目标是丑陋，尤其在那个威斯特摩兰河谷地区，人们对丑的追求已达到狂热的程度.如果说单凭愚昧无知就能造就这样令人毛骨悚然的杰作，那是无法让人信服的.美国某些阶层的人们当中似乎的的确确存在着一种爱丑之欲，如同在另一些不那么虔信基督教的阶层当中存在着一种爱美之心一样.那些把一般美国中下层家庭的住宅打扮得像丑八怪的糊墙纸决不能归咎于选购者的疏忽大意，也不能归咎于制造商的鄙俗的幽默感.那些糊墙纸上的丑陋图案显然真正能使具有某种心理的人觉得赏心悦目.它们以某种莫名其妙的方式满足了这种人的某种晦涩难解的心理需要.人们对这类丑陋图案的欣赏，就同某些人对教条主义神学和埃德加·A格斯特的诗歌的迷恋一样，既不可思议，又让人习以为常.因此，我相信(尽管坦白地说，我不敢绝对肯定)，威斯特摩兰县绝大多数正直诚实的人，尤其是其中的那些百分之百的美国人，确实很欣赏他们居住的房屋并为之感到自豪.虽然他们可以用同样多的建筑成本造出好得多的房屋，他们却宁愿要他们现有的那种丑陋不堪的房屋.可以肯定地说，海外战争退伍军人组织总部将自己的旗帜插在那样一幢丑陋的大楼上绝对不是出于无奈，因为铁路沿线多的是闲置未用的建筑，而且许多建筑都比他们那幢大楼要好得多.他们如果愿意的话，也完全可以自己建造一幢像样一些的大楼.然而，他们却眼睁睁地选择了那幢用护墙板造起来的丑陋的大楼，而且选定之后，还要让它发展演变成现在这副破烂相.他们喜欢的就是这种丑怪样子，如果有人在那附近竖起一座像希腊巴特农神殿那样的漂亮建筑，他们一定会感到恼火.前面提到的那个形如捕鼠器的钢架运动场的设计建造者们也是这样有意地作了一个深思熟虑的选择.在费尽心血，辛辛苦苦地设计并建成那个运动场之后，又想进一步美化完善它，于是便在建筑平项上加造一间极不协调的小棚屋，并涂上鲜艳夺目的黄色油漆.这样造成的效果是使该建筑看起来就像一个肥胖的女人面上带着一只被打肿发青的眼圈，也可以说像一位长老会牧师面上突然露出勉强的笑容的模样.但他们喜欢的就是这种模样.这里涉及到一个心理学家迄今未加重视的问题，即为了丑本身的价值而爱丑(非因其他利益驱动而爱丑)，急欲将世界打扮得丑不可耐的变态心理.这种心理的孳生地就是美国.从美国这个大熔炉中产生出了一个新的种族，他们像仇视真理一样地仇视美.这种变态心理的产生根源值得进行更多的研究，它的背后一定隐藏着某些原因，其产生和发展肯定受到某些生物学规律的制约，而不能简单地看成是出于上帝的安排.那么，这些规律的具体内容究竟是什么呢?为什么它们在美国比在其他任何地方更为盛行?这个问题还是让某位像德国大学的无薪教师那样正直的社会病理学 家去研究吧.The Libido for the Ugly 练习题答案/answerI.Henry Louis Mencken (1880-1956) was the first American to be widely read as a critic. He was born in Baltimore, Md. , on Sept. 12, 1880, and privately educated there. After graduating from Baltimore Polytechnic Institute at the age of 16, he became a reporter on the Baltimore Herald. He rose repidly, soon he was the Herald's city editor and then edi tor. In 1906 Mencken joined the organization known as the Sunpaper, which he served in a variety of ways until his re- tirement. Mencken' s journalistic skill became his chief hand- icap as a critic. He had also carried out a fruitful study of the American Language, with some comprehensive works pub- lished in this field. By the time of his death on Jan. 29, 1956, in his beloved Baltimore, recognition of his service to the language was everywhere admitted. 1. The writer is referring to industrial production which is the most lucrative and characteristic activity in the United States. 2. All the noble aspirations of a man for a better, fuller and more beautiful life here on earth. 3. All the houses were ugly. The houses look like bricks set on end. They were made of clapboards, with narrow, low- pitched roofs. And the whole house is set upon thin brick piers. All the houses are streaked with grime and many of them are not even perpendicular but they lean this way and that. The writer suggests a chalet-type house for the hill sides. A chalet with high-pitched roof, to throw off theheavy winter snows, but still essentially a low and clinging building, wider than it was tall. 4, According to the writer, the house has the most loathsome color. The color of a fried egg when and after some time they take on the color of uremic yellow. 5. Strictly speaking, no. Most of them were most probably U.S. citizens of European origin, with perhaps a few re- cent immigrants from Europe. 6. Mencken doesnI t believe that mere ignorance was the rea son for such ugliness. He believes on certain levels of the American race, there seems to be a great passion for the ugly. Ugliness seems to give some sort of satisfaction to this type of mind. Mencken, however, doesnf t understand they have such tastes. 7. No. he is only implying in a sarcastic tone, that he does- nt understand why so many Americans seem to love ugli ness for its own sake. He doesn t understand the psycholo gy of these people who lust to make the world intolerable. He thinks these people have a diseased mind. Questions on structure and style1. Mencken deliberately uses the word "libido", a specialterm in psychoanalysis, in his title to create the impres sion that his description and analysis has some scientific foundation. 2. Paragraph 1 is developed by contrasting the great wealth of this region to the abominable human habitations seen everywhere. The last two sentences bring home to readers that ugliness is not due to poverty, but to something in- nate in the American character-a love of ugliness for its own sake, or, as the title says, the libido for the ugly. 3. Meneken refers to other towns and villages in America, to the villages of Europe and to the Parthenon in order to em- phasize the ugliness of Westmoreland County. He means to say Westmoreland is the ugliest spot on earth and the United States as a whole is uglier than Europe. 4. The author also attacks the whole American raeea race that loves ugliness for its own sake, that lusts to make the world intolerable; a race which hates beauty as it hates truth (see the text, para. 9) 5. The satirical power of the authorr s attack in this essay is not only a result of his choice of words, of his diction, but also his masterly employment of the various rhetoric means such as metaphors, similes, hyperboles and so on. Examples may be referred to the answers to Exs. XIII, XIV,XV. 6. So far as the point which the author wanted to make is concerned, all the metaphors, similes and hyperboles are used appropriately and effectively. 7. As a rule, an excessive use of strong language in writing tends to be self-defeating. Mencken uses a lot of hyper boles to exaggerate and also makes abundant use of sar casm, ridicule and irony to taunt the jeer in the essay. It may lead the average reader to doubt the objectivity and fairness or even the honesty of the writer. He may feel the writer perhaps has a special axe to grind and lose interest in what he has to say. So one might say Mencken employs all the force of diction, structure and figures only to batter his readers into insensitivity. IV. 1. As a boy and later when I was a grown-up man, I had of- ten travelled through the region. 2. But somehow in the past I never really perceived how shocking and wretched this whole region was. 3. This dreadful scene makes all human endeavors to advanceand improve their lot appear as a ghastly, saddening joke. 4. The country itself is pleasant to look at, despite the sooty dirt spread by the innumerable mills in this region. 5. The model they followed in building their houses was a brick standing upright. / All the houses they built iooked like bricks standing upright. 6. These brick-like houses were made of shabby, thin wooden boards and their roofs were narrow and had little slope. 7. When the brick is covered with the black soot of the mills it takes on the color of a rotten egg. 8. Red brick, even in a steel town, looks quite respectable with the passing of time. / Even in a steel town, old red bricks still appear pleasing to the eye. 9. I have given Westmoreland the highest award for ugliness after having done a lot of hard work and research and after continuous praying. 10. They show such fantastic and bizarre ugliness that, in looking back, they become almost fiendish and wicked./ When one looks back at these houses whose ugliness is so fantastic and bizarre, one feels they must be the work of the devil himself. 11. It is hard to believe that people built such horrible houses just because they did not know what beautiful houses were like. 12. People in certain strata of American society seem definite- ly to hunger after ugly things; while in other less Chris- tian strata, people seem to long for things beautiful. 13. These ugly designs, in some way that people cannot un- derstand, satisfy the hidden and unintelligible demands of this type of mind. 14. They put a penthouse on top of it, painted in a bright, conspicuous yellow color and thought it looked perfect but they only managed to make it absolutely intolerable. 15. From the intermingling of different nationalities and races in the United States emerges the American race which hates beauty as strongly as it hates truthVSee the translation of the text1express：a fast，direct train.Making few stops2roll：travel in a wheeled vehicle(here an express train) 3revolting：disgusting4.line：railway line 5yard：a railway center where trains are made up，serviced， switched from track to track.etc6streak：mark with streaks(a line or long，thin mark)7sightly：pleasant to the sight8pullman：a railroad car with private compartments or seats that can be made up into berths for sleepingIt is socalled after the USinventor，George.MPullman(1831 1897)9save：except.but10yield：surrender，give into border upon：be like，almost be 11pull：drawing forceappeal121evel：position.elevation，or rank considered as one of the planes in a scale of values13put down(to)：attribute(to) 14impossible：not capable of being endured，used.agreed to，etc，because of being disagreeable or unsuitable： hard to tolerate.1dirt指任何不清洁的或玷污之物，如泥土、灰尘、粪便、垃圾； filth一词用来表示脏得令人作呕的东西；soot是指主要由 炭粒构成，由物质的不完全燃烧所形成的一种黑色物质； grime指沉积在表面上或嵌入表面之中的煤烟或小颗粒状 污秽.2love意指强烈的喜爱或深刻的倾心，可用于表示各种不同的 关系或用于各种对象(如性爱、手足之爱、对工作之爱等)； passion通指一种具有压倒或强制性的强烈情绪，如：His passions overcame his reason(他的激情压倒了他的理 智.)；lust指一种欲望，特别是那种寻求不.受拘束的满足 感官满足，尤其是性满足的欲望；libido是精神分析学 上的一个术语，能指精神上的能量，通指精神能量的一种基 本形式，包含积极的、爱的本能，并在性格发展的不同阶段中 表现出来.hideous.horrid.horrible，frightful，dreadful，terrible，awful，repulsive，repugnant，ghastly，revoltingbeautybeautifulness.prettiness，handsomeness，attractiveness，loveliness，charm，pulchritude，grace，elegance， exquisitenessX11ucrative，creative，destructive，indicative，fricative，e vocative，sedative，negative，interrogative，relative，con templative2characteristic，realistic，artistic，egotistic，altruistic，im pressionistic，antagonistic，chauvinistic，humanistic，opti mistic，pressimistic3horrible，divisible，legible，invincible，edible，incredible， elegible.negligible，audible，intelligible，infallible4ghastly，harshly，finely，loosely，delicately，tersely，fear somely，deathly，steadfastly，curtly，eloquently5swinish，piggish，sluggish，doggish，hoggish，kittenish， owlish，ghoulish，girlish”fiendish，devilish6biological，theological，physiological，etymological，an thropological，astrological，bacteriological，psychologi cal，geological，archeological，mythological710athsome，gladsome，tiresome，venturesome，trouble some.burdensome，cumbersome，frolicsome，gruesome， quarrelsome，fearsome8hideous，outrageous，courageous，advantageous，contem poraneousextemporaneous，simultaneous，spontaneous' instantaneous, extraneous, erroneousXI. appalling desolation, dreadfully, hideous, intolerably, bleak, forlorn, abominable, filth, dirty, ugliness, revolt ing, monstrousness, horrible, leprous, hideousness, mis shapen, shabby, uncomely, grime, dingy, decaying, swin ishly, eczematous patches, shocking, uremic yellow, loath- some, unlovely, decomposing, gloomy, God-forsaken, malarious, grotesqueries of ugliness, diabolical, frightful, abominations, putrid, horror, deface, ghastly, depravity, etc. XI. 1. profitable 2. dwellings, homes 3. refer to 4. wound, hurt 5. absurd, ridiculous 6. exactly upright, vertical7. unsafely, insecurely8. continual, repeated 9. unfriendly, hostile 10. insensitive, without feelings 11. hateful or dis gusting things 12. spoil the appearance of, disfigure care- lessness, oversight 13. building 14. causesXI. The many metaphors and similes in the essay are largely ap propritately used in describing the ugliness of Westmoreland County. For example, in para. 3 the metaphor of comparing the houses there to pigs wallowing in the mud the metaphor in the same para. of comparing the patches of paint to dried up scales formed by a skin disease and the simile in para. 2 as shown in the sentence "one blinks . shot away", the sim ile in the same para. as shown in the sentence "a steel stadi um - the line", just to mention a few. Hyperboles are profusely used in the essay. They are mostly very effective in conveying what the author had to say. In para. 1, we read the sentence "Here was wealth . alley cats", exaggerating the richness and grandeur of this region and of America as a whole, the boast and pride of the richest and grandest nation ever seen on earth ; in para. 5 we read "It is as if . of them", which implies exaggeratedly that it is as if some genius of great power, who didn' t like to do the right things and who was an inflexible enemy of man, em ployed all the cleverness and skill of hell to build these ugly houses; and again in para. 2 there is the sentence "What al lude to " in sight", which suggests an exaggeration that is hard to believe. Not every house could have been that ugly. XV. In the essay, sarcasm, ridicule or irony is employed profuse The following are just a few examples:l. (Para. 2) "a steel stadium "" the line. " This description sounds ridiculous. 2. (Para. 3) "Obviously "-" the hillside. " We read evident sar- casm in this sentence. 3. (Para. 4) "When it