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鲁迅:《呐喊》自序1英译

发布日期:2019-04-06      阅读数:1877 次
《呐喊》自序

Preface to “Call to Arms” (December 3, 1922)

                                                                   杨宪益&戴乃迭 译

我在年青时候也曾经做过许多梦,
When I was young I, too, had many dreams.
后来大半忘却了,但自己也并不以为可惜。
Most of them came to be forgotten, but I see nothing in this to regret.
所谓回忆者,虽说可以使人欢欣,有时也不免使人寂寞,使精神的丝缕还牵着己逝的寂寞的时光,又有什么意味呢,
For although recalling the past may make you happy, it may sometimes also make you lonely, and there is no point in clinging in spirit to lonely bygone days.
而我偏苦于不能全忘却,这不能全忘的一部分,到现在便成了《呐喊》的来由。
However, my trouble is that I cannot forget completely, and these stories have resulted from what I have been unable to erase from my memory.
我有四年多,曾经常常,——几乎是每天,出入于质铺和药店里,
For more than four years I used to go, almost daily, to a pawnbroker’s and to a medicine shop.
年纪可是忘却了,总之是药店的柜台正和我一样高,质铺的是比我高一倍,
I cannot remember how old I was then; but the counter in the medicine shop was the same height as I, and that in the pawnbroker’s twice my height.
我从一倍高的柜台外送上衣服或首饰去,在侮蔑里接了钱,再到一样高的柜台上给我久病的父亲去买药。
I used to hand clothes and trinkets up to the counter twice my height, take the money proffered with contempt, then go to the counter the same height as I to buy medicine for my father who had long been ill.
回家之后,又须忙别的事了,因为开方的医生是最有名的,以此所用的药引也奇特:冬天的芦根,经霜三年的甘蔗,蟋蟀要原对的,结子的平地木,……多不是容易办到的东西。
On my return home I had other things to keep me busy, for since the physician who made out the prescriptions was very well-known, he used unusual drugs: aloe root dug up in winter, sugar-cane that had been three years exposed to frost, twin crickets, and ardisia . . . all of which were difficult to procure.
然而我的父亲终于日重一日的亡故了。
But my father’s illness went from bad to worse until he died.
有谁从小康人家而坠入困顿的么,我以为在这途路中,大概可以看见世人的真面目;
I believe those who sink from prosperity to poverty will probably come, in the process, to understand what the world is really like.
我要到N进K学堂去了,仿佛是想走异路,逃异地,去寻求别样的人们。
I wanted to go to the K—— school in N——1 perhaps because I was in search of a change of scene and faces.
我的母亲没有法,办了八元的川资,说是由我的自便;
There was nothing for my mother to do but to raise eight dollars for my traveling expenses, and say I might do as I pleased.
然而伊哭了,这正是情理中的事,因为那时读书应试是正路,
That she cried was only natural, for at that time the proper thing was to study the classics and take the official examinations.
所谓学洋务,社会上便以为是一种走投无路的人,只得将灵魂卖给鬼子,要加倍的奚落而且排斥的,
Anyone who studied “foreign subjects” was looked down upon as a fellow good for nothing, who, out of desperation, was forced to sell his soul to foreign devils.
而况伊又看不见自己的儿子了。
Besides, she was sorry to part with me.
然而我也顾不得这些事,终于到N去进了K学堂了,在这学堂里,我才知道世上还有所谓格致,算学,地理,历史,绘图和体操。
But in spite of that, I went to N—— and entered the K—— school; and it was there that I heard for the first time the names of such subjects as natural science, arithmetic, geography, history, drawing and physical training.
生理学并不教,但我们却看到些木版的《全体新论》和《化学卫生论》之类了。
They had no physiology course, but we saw woodblock editions of such works as A New Course on the Human Body and Essays on Chemistry and Hygiene.
我还记得先前的医生的议论和方药,和现在所知道的比较起来,便渐渐的悟得中医不过是一种有意的或无意的骗子,同时又很起了对于被骗的病人和他的家族的同情;
Recalling the talk and prescriptions of physicians I had known and comparing them with what I now knew, I came to the conclusion those physicians must be either unwitting or deliberate charlatans; and I began to sympathize with the invalids and families who suffered at their hands.
而且从译出的历史上,又知道了日本维新是大半发端于西方医学的事实。
From translated histories I also learned that the Japanese Reformation had originated, to a great extent, with the introduction of Western medical science to Japan.
因为这些幼稚的知识,后来便使我的学籍列在日本一个乡间的医学专门学校里了。
These inklings took me to a provincial medical college in Japan.
我的梦很美满,预备卒业回来,救治象我父亲似的被误的病人的疾苦,战争时候便去当军医,一面又促进了国人对于维新的信仰。
I dreamed a beautiful dream that on my return to China I would cure patients like my father, who had been wrongly treated, while if war broke out I would serve as an army doctor, at the same time strengthening my countrymen’s faith in reformation.
我已不知道教授微生物学的方法,现在又有了怎样的进步了,总之那时是用了电影,来显示微生物的形状的,
I do not know what advanced methods are now used to reach microbiology, but at that time lantern slides were used to show the microbes;
因此有时讲义的一段落已完,而时间还没有到,教师便映些风景或时事的画片给学生看,以用去这多余的光阴。
and if the lecture ended early, the instructor might show slides of natural scenery or news to fill up the time.
其时正当日俄战争的时候,关于战事的画片自然也就比较的多了,我在这一个讲堂中,便须常常随喜我那同学们的拍手和喝采。
This was during the Russo-Japanese War, so there were many war films, and I had to join in the clapping and cheering in the lecture hall along with the other students.
有一回,我竟在画片上忽然会见我久违的许多中国人了,一个绑在中间,许多站在左右,
It was a long time since I had seen any compatriots, but one day I saw a film showing some Chinese, one of whom was bound, while many others stood around him.
一样是强壮的体格,而显出麻木的神情。
They were all strong fellows but appeared completely apathetic.
这一学年没有完毕,我已经到了东京了,因为从那一回以后,我便觉得医学并非一件紧要事,
Before the term was over I had left for Tokyo, because after this film I felt that medical science was not so important after all.
凡是愚弱的国民,即使体格如何健全,如何茁壮,也只能做毫无意义的示众的材料和看客,病死多少是不必以为不幸的。

The people of a weak and backward country, however strong and healthy they may be, can only serve to be made examples of, or to witness such futile spectacles; and it doesn’t really matter how many of them die of illness.


来源:译路通  日期:2018年12月4日

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