高级英语课文翻译(下册).pdf

1 下 Lesson One The Company in Which I work 我工作的公司 By Joseph Heller In the company in which I work , each of us is afraid of at least one person . 6 我工作的公司里每个人都至少害怕一个人。 The lower your position is , the more people you are afraid of . 职位越低所惧怕的人越多。 And all the people are afraid of the twelve men at the top who helped found and build the company and now own and direct it . 所有的人都害怕那十二位顶层上司他们帮助创建了这个公司而且现在仍然大权在握。 All these twelve men are elderly now and drained by time 歲月滄桑 and success of energy and ambition . 所有这十二位都已经上了年纪而且岁月的沧桑和对成功的执著追求使他们心力交瘁。 Many have spent their whole lives here .They seem friendly ,slow , and content when I come upon them in the halls and always courteous(有禮貌的) and mute 沉默不語的when they ride with others in the public elevators . 他们中很多人在这儿干了一辈子。当我在大厅里遇见他们时他们看上去非常友善、沉稳而心满意足而且他们与别人一起乘坐公共电梯时又总是彬彬有礼、沉默不语 They no longer work hard .They hold meetings , make promotions, and allow their names to be used on announcements that are prepared and issued by somebody else . 他们不再努力工作。他们主持会议决定别人的晋升任凭别人在准备发布的通告中使用他们的名字 Nobody is sure anymore who really runs the company ( not even the people who are credited with running it ) , but the company does run . 没有人知道谁真正经营这家公司甚至连人们认为现在经营着这家公司的那些人都不知道 然而公司的确在运转。 In the normal course of a business day I am afraid of Jack Green because my department is part of his department and Jack Green is my boss ; 在平常的工作日里我很害怕杰克?格林这是因为我所在的部门属于他的部门而杰克?格林是我的上司。 Green is afraid of me because most of the work in my department is done for the Sales Department , which is more important than his department , and I am much closer to Andy Kagle and the other people in the Sales Department than he is . 格林害怕我则是因为我的部门的绝大部分工作是为销售部所做的 而销售部比他的部门更重要 而且同他相比 我与迪?卡葛勒以及销售部的其他人员的关系更加密切。 Green distrusts me fitfully . 格林偶尔也对我不信任 He makes it clear to me every now and then that he wishes to see everything coming out of my department before it is shown to other departments 他有时会向我表示他希望我的部门的每一项工作在其他部门知道前要先让他知道。 I know he does not really mean this : he is too busy with his own work to pay that much attention to all of mine , 我知道这不是他真正的意思他自己的工作非常忙根本就无暇顾及我们所有的工作。 and I will bypass him on most of our assignments rather than take up his time and delay their delivery to people who have an immediate need for them . 我会将大部分工作绕过格林并直接交给需要它们的人而不愿意占他的时间。 Most of the work we do in my department is , in the long run, trivial (鎖事). 毕竟我们部门绝大部分工作只是微不足道的。 But Green always grows alarmed when someone from another department praises something that has come from my department . 但是每当其他部门赞扬我们部门的工作时格林就会变得不安 2 He turns scarlet with rage and embarrassment(惱羞成怒) is he has not seen or heard of it . 如果他从未看见或听到过的话就更是恼羞成怒。 In my department , there are six people who are afraid of me , and one small secretary who is afraid of all of us . 在我的部门里有六个人害怕我其中一个小秘书害怕我们所有的人。 I have one other person working for me who is not afraid of me who is not afraid of anyone , not even me , and I would fire him quickly , but Im afraid of him 有一个为我工作的人他对任何人都毫不惧怕甚至连我也不怕我真想尽快把他解雇掉然而我害怕他 The people in the company who are most afraid of most people are the salesmen . They live and work under pressure that is extraordinary . When things are bad , they are worse for the salesmen ;when things are good , they are not much better . 公司里非常惧怕大多数人的人是销售人员他们都生活和工作在极大压力之下当情况不好时对销售人员来说就会更糟。而当情况较好时他们也不会好到哪儿去。 They are always on trial , always on the verge of failure , collectively and individually . 不论是从整体上还是个人他们总是在接受检查总是处于不合格的边缘。 They strain 工作努力 even the most secure and self assured of them , to look good on paper ; 他们工作非常努力就连他们中那些很有保障的和充满自信的人都是这样以使在书面评语上看上去好一些 and there is much paper for them to look good on . 况且要让他们看上去好的表格多得很。 Each week , for example , a record of the sales results of the preceding week for each sales office and for the Sales Department as a whole for each division of the company is kept and compared to the sales results for the corresponding week of the year before . 比如每星期为各部门准备的每个销售办事处及销售部所作的前一星期的销售业绩总记录加以保存并且与前一年同期的销售业绩相比较。 The figures are photocopied and distributed throughout the company to all the people and departments whose work is related to selling . 这些数字被复印后发到公司的每位员工和与销售有关的部门。 The result of the photocopying and distributing is that there is almost continuous public scrutiny 公開審查 and discussion throughout the company of how well or poorly the salesmen in each sales office of each division of the company are doing at any given time . 这样做的结果是公司几乎一直在对每一个分公司的销售办事处中的销售人员在某一既定时间内的工作业绩进行公开审查和评论。 When salesmen are doing well , there is pressure upon them to begin doing better , for fear they may start doing worse . 当销售人员业绩好时他们因为要开始使工作做得更好以免不如以前从而感到压力重重。 When they are doing poorly , they are doing terribly . 当他们的业绩不佳时他们就会做得一塌糊涂 When a salesman lands a large order or brings in an important new account , his elation is brief , 当一个销售人员争取到了一份大订单或者得到了一笔大的应收的账款他的兴奋也是短暂的 for there is danger he might lose that large order or important new account to a salesman from a competing company the next time around . 因为很可能他的那份大订单或者大笔的进账下一次有被竞争对手的公司拿去的危险 It might even be canceled before it is filled , 甚至在完成前被取消 in which case no one is certain if anything was gained or lost . 对这种情况没有人能肯定谁输谁赢。 So there is crisis 危機 and alarm 驚慌 even in their triumphs . 3 因此即便在他们的喜悦中也存在着危机和惊慌。 Nevertheless 然而 , the salesmen love their work and would not choose any other kind . 然而销售人员热爱他们的工作而绝不再选择其他职业。 They are vigorous(精力旺盛) , fun-loving bunch 愛說愛笑 when they are not suffering abdominal cramps(消化不良)or brooding miserably about the future ; 在没有消化不良的困扰或不再苦苦为未来忧虑时他们是一群充满活力、爱说爱笑的人。 on the other hand , they often turn cranky(任性的) without warning and complain a lot . 另一方面他们会突然之间变得任性并且牢骚满腹 Each of them can name at least one superior in the company who he feels has a grudge(怨恨)against him and is determined to wreck(毀) his career . 他们每个人都至少能说出公司的一个上层人物是令他极度不满并且觉得这个人会毁了他的前程的。 The salesmen work hard and earn big salaries , with large personal expense accounts that they squander(浪費 揮霍)generously on other people in and out of the company , including me . 销售人员工作努力薪金丰厚还有个人经费他们会把这笔个人经费挥霍在进出公司的其他人的身上其中包括我本人。 They own good houses in good communities and play good games of golf on good private golf courses . 他们在豪宅区拥有自己的房子在高级的私人高尔夫球场打球。 The company encourages this . The company , in fact , will pay for their country club membership and all charges they incur(開支) there , and rewards salesmen who make a good impression on the golf course . 公司鼓励这种做法。实际上公司为他们支付乡村俱乐部会员费以及他们在那里的所有开支并且对那些在高尔夫球上给人留下深刻印象的销售人员给予奖励。 Unmarried men are not wanted in the Sales Department , not even widowers , 销售部不要未婚男士甚至连丧偶的也不要 for the company has learned from experience that it is difficult and dangerous for unmarried salesmen to mix socially with 與社交來往 prominent executives and their wives or participate with them in responsible civic affairs . 因为公司根据以往的经验得出对未婚销售人员来说与前程似锦的高级管理人员以及他们的太太们进行社交来往或者参与重大的活动不仅很困难而且危险。 If a salesmans wife dies and he is not ready to remarry , he is usually moved into an administrative position after several months of mourning . 如果一位销售人员的妻子去世了而他又没有准备再婚那么通常在丧期后的几个月内他就会调去做行政管理工作。 Bachelors 單身漢 are never hired for the sales force , and salesmen who get divorced , or whose wives die , know they had better remarry or begin looking ahead toward a different job . 单身汉永远都不会做销售员。离婚或者丧偶的销售员都很清楚他们最好再婚或者去另谋他职。 Strangely enough , the salesmen react very well to the constant pressure and rigid supervision to which they are subjected . 非常奇怪的是销售人员对长期压力和他们所受的严格管理能够坦然处之。 They are stimulated and motivated by discipline and direction. 他们受到纪律和上级指令的激励和促动。 They thrive on explicit guidance toward clear objectives . 他们在上司的点拨下获得成功业绩蒸蒸日上。 For the most part , they are cheerful , confident, and gregarious when they are not irritable 煩燥焦慮, anxious , and depressed . 当他们不是烦躁焦虑或者沮丧时大多开朗、充满自信而且很合群。 There must be something in the makeup of a man that enables him not only to be a salesman , but to want to be one .一个人一定是具备某种特殊的性格和气质才使他不但从事销售工作而且想做一名销售人员。 4 The salesmen are proud of their position and of the status and importance they enjoy within the company , 销售员们不仅对他们的岗位而且对他们在公司中享有的地位及重要性感到自豪。 for the function of my department , and of most other departments , is to help the salesmen sell . 因此我的部门以及其他的大多数部门的职能就是协助销售人员的推销 The company exists to sell . Thats the reason we were hired , and the reason we are paid . 公司就是靠销售生存。这就是我们受雇佣拿薪水的原因。 The people in the company who are least afraid are the few in our small Market Research Department , 公司里最不担惊受怕的人就是在我们这个小小的市场调研部工作的为数极少的几个人 who believe in nothing and are concerned with collecting , organizing , interpreting 解釋, and reorganizing statistical information about the public , the market , the country , and the world . 他们从不担心任何事情而只关心对公众、市场、国内以及世界的统计信息的收集、组织、解释以及重新组织。 For one thing , their salaries are small , and they know they will not have much trouble finding jobs paying just as little in other companies if they lose their jobs here . 但有一点他们的工资很少而且他们也知道如果一旦失去这里的工作这么少的工资在其他公司找份工作并不困难 Their budget , too , is small , for they are no longer permitted to undertake large projects . 他们的预算也很少因为他们从来没有得到允许承担过大项目。 Most of the information we use now is obtained free from trade associations and some governmental organizations , 我们现在使用的绝大部分信息都是从贸易协会和一些政府机构免费得到的 and there is no way of knowing anymore whether the information on which we base our own information for distribution is true or false . 而且对于我们所发布的信息的来源真实与否也无从知晓。 But that doesnt seem to matter ; all that does matter is that the information come from a reputable 著名 source . 然而这似乎并不太重要重要的是这些信息出自一个信誉好的来源。 People in the Market Research Department are never held to blame for conditions they discover outside the company that place us at a competitive disadvantage . 市场调研部的人们从没有因为他们在公司外发现我们处于竞争劣势而受到责备。 They are not expected to change reality , but merely to find it if they can and suggest ingenious 機靈 ways of disguising 掩 it . 他们不能改变现实而如果他们能的话也只能发现它并提供巧妙的方法来掩盖它。 To a great extent , that is the nature of my own work , 在很大程度上这就是我工作的性质。 and all of us under Green work closely with the Sales Department and the Public Relations Department in converting whole truths into half truths and half truths into whole ones . 而且所有格林的属下与销售部和公共部密切合作从而将全部的事实变成一半而把一半事实变成全部。 I am very good at these techniques of deception(欺騙), although I am not always able anymore to deceive myself . 虽然我不是总能欺骗我自己但是却很擅长这些骗人的把戏。 In fact , I am continuously astonished by people in the company who fall victim to their own propaganda . 宣傳 实际上我经常为公司的人们被自己的宣传所欺骗而吃惊 There are so many now who actually believe that what we do is really important . 现在有很多人相信我们所做的工作是非常重要的。 This happens not only to salesmen , but to the shrewd 精明 , capable executives in top management . 不仅销售人员是这样那些精明能干的高级管理人员也是这样。 It happens to people on my own level and lower . 和我同级的人是这样比我低的人也是这样。 5 It happens to just about everybody in the company who graduated from a good business school with honors . 就连公司里几乎所有从高级商务学校以优秀成绩毕业的人们也不例外。 Every time we launch a new advertising campaign , for example , people inside the company are the first ones to be taken in by it . 比如每当我们举行一个新的广告活动公司内部的人总是最先被蒙骗的 Every time we introduce a new product , or an old product with a different cover , color , and name that we present as new , people inside the company are the first to rush to buy it -even when its no good . 每当我们介绍一种新的产品或者换了外包装、颜色并起了新的品名的老产品即使一点也不好公司内部的人总是第一个赶着去买的。 Its a wise person , I guess , who knows hes dumb , and an honest person who knows hes a liar . 我想知道自己愚蠢的人是聪明的而知道自己撒谎的人是诚实的。 And its a dumb person whos convinced he is wise . 只有愚蠢的人才会自作聪明。 We wise grownups here at the company go sliding in and out all day long , scaring each other at our desks and trying to evade the people who frighten us . 我们这些在公司这儿的聪明的成年人整天悄悄地出没于办公室大家互相惧怕并试图躲避令人生畏的人。 We come to work , have lunch , and go home . 我们上班吃午饭回家。 We goose-step in and goose-step out , change our partners and wander all about , and go back home till we all drop dead . 我们迈着正规的步子进进出出下班后和其他部门的伙伴一起外出直到累得筋疲力尽才回家。 Really , I ask myself every now and then , depending on how well or poorly things are going at the office or at home with my wife , or with my retarded son , or with my other son , or my daughter , or the colored maid 黑人保 , or the nurse for my retarded son , is this all there is for me to do ? 实际上我时常问自己仅取决于办公室情形的好坏或者是家中我妻子、弱智的儿子、另一个儿子、我的女儿、黑人保姆以及照顾我的弱智儿子的护士情况的好坏他们的情形如何这就是我要做的全部吗 Is this really the most I can get from the few years left in this one life of mine ? 难道这真的是我有生之年所能得到的最多的吗 And the answer I get , of course , is always -Yes ! 我所得出的结论当然永远是是的 I am bored with my work very often now . 我现在经常对工作非常厌烦 Everything routine that comes in I pass along to somebody else . This makes my boredom worse . 每项常规的工作我总是交给其他人处理而这使我更加感到厌烦。 It s a real problem to decide whether its more boring to do something boring than to pass along everything boring that comes in to somebody else and then have nothing to do at all . 要判断究竟是干令人生厌的工作更加烦人还是将令人生厌的工作交给他人处理然后无所事事更烦人这真是一个问题。 Actually , I enjoy my work when the assignments are large and urgent and somewhat frightening and will come to the attention of many people . 实际上当任务又大又紧而且有些令人生畏还会引起很多人的注意时我就非常喜欢我的工作。 I get scared , and am unable to sleep at night , but I usually perform at my best under this stimulating (刺激)kind of pressure and enjoy my job the most . 我变得惴惴不安而且夜不能寐。但在这种极有刺激的压力下我的表现最佳也最喜欢我的工作。 6 I handle all of these important projects myself , and I rejoice with tremendous pride and vanity in the compliments I receive when I do them well . 我独自处理所有这些重大的项目并且当我成功地完成时我会因受到赞扬而沉浸在极大的自豪与虚荣之中。 But between such peaks of challenge and elation 興奮 there is monotony and despair . 但在这些挑战与兴奋的巅峰之间是单调与绝望。 ( And I find , too, that once I ve succeeded in impressing somebody , I m not much excited about impressing that same person again ; 而且我也发现一旦我给某人留下了深刻的印象我就不再为给同一个人留下深刻印象而感到兴奋不已 there is a large , emotional letdown after I survive each crisis , a kind of empty , tragic disappointment , and last years threat , opportunity , and inspiration are often this years inescapable tedium . 在度过每次危机后都会有一次大的情感失落一种空虚和令人悲哀的失望。去年的威胁、机遇和鼓励经常会成为今年不可避免的冗长乏味。 I frequently feel I m being taken advantage of 被利用 merely because I m asked to do the work I m paid to do . ) 我常常觉得我被利用了这只是因为我被要求做给我报酬的工作。 On days when I m especially melancholy 悲傷 , I began constructing tables of organization.classifying people in the company on the basis of envy , hope , fear , ambition , frustration 煩惱, rivalry 競爭 , hatred 憎恨 , or disappointment 失望. 在我极度悲伤的日子里我便开始将公司的人员结构列入图表根据嫉妒、希望、恐惧、雄心、烦恼、对手、痛恨或失望将公司的人员分类。 I call these charts my Happiness Charts . 我把这些表格叫做我的快乐图。 These exercises in malice never fail to boost my spirits -but only for a while . 这些恶作剧总是使我精神振奋然而都非常短暂。 I rank pretty high when the company is analyzed this way , because I m not envious or disappointed , and I have no expectations . 这样分析公司时我的排名非常靠前因为我既不嫉妒也不灰心而且我胸无大志。 At the very top , of course , are those people , mostly young and without dependents , 排在前几名的当然是这些人他们中大部分是年轻又没有靠山的人。 to whom the company is not yet an institution of any sacred merit 神聖價質的機構 but still only a place to work , and who regard their present association with it as something temporary . 对他们自己来说公司还不是一个有重要价值的机构而只是一个工作的地