研究生高级英语读写译教程课文翻译第五单元张敬源

I fear I cannot picture America as altogether an Elysium—perhaps, from the ordinary standpoint I know but little about the country. I cannot give its latitude or longitude; I cannot

compute the value of its dry goods, and I have no very close acquaintance with its politics.

These are matters which may not interest you, and they certainly are not interesting to me. 我恐怕不能把美国描绘成十足的天堂-- 从一般的角度来说，也许我对这个国家所知甚少。我说

不出它的经、纬度；我算不来它出产谷物的价值；我对它的政治也不十分熟悉。这些东西可能不

会使你们感兴趣，它们当然也不会让我感兴趣。

The first thing that struck me on landing in America was that if the Americans are not the most

well-dressed people in the world, they are the most comfortably dressed. Men are seen there

with the dreadful chimney-pot hat, but there are very few hatless men; men wear the shocking swallow-tail coat, but few are to be seen with no coat at all. There is an air of comfort in the

appearance of the people which is a marked contrast to that seen in this country, where, too

often, people are seen in close contact with rags. 在美国上岸后得到的第一个深刻印象，就是美国人可能算不上是世界上穿得最漂亮的,但却是穿

得最舒服的民族。那里看得到头顶不堪入目的烟囱式高顶礼帽的男人，但很少有不戴帽子的男人；

还看到穿着难看至极的燕尾服的男人，但很少有不穿外套的男人。美国人的穿戴透露着舒适，这

和在我国常可以看到的人们衣衫褴褛的情形形成了鲜明的对比。

The next thing particularly noticeable is that everybody seems in a hurry to catch a train. This

is a state of things which is not favourable to poetry or romance. Had Romeo or Juliet been in a constant state of anxiety about trains, or had their minds been agitated by the question of

return-tickets, Shakespeare could not have given us those lovely balcony scenes which are so

full of poetry and pathos. 我特别注意到的第二个特点，是似乎每个人都在急着赶火车。这种情形对诗歌和浪漫爱情是不

利的。要是罗密欧和朱丽叶老是为乘火车而担心，或是在为返程车票而烦恼，莎士比亚就不可能

写出那几幕如此富有诗意与伤感情调的阳台戏了。

America is the noisiest country that ever existed. One is waked up in the morning, not by the

singing of the nightingale, but by the steam whistle. It is surprising that the sound practical

sense of the Americans does not reduce this intolerable noise. All Art depends upon exquisite and delicate sensibility, and such continual turmoil must ultimately be destructive of the

musical faculty.

美国是世界上最嘈杂的国家。在早晨，不是夜莺的歌唱，而是汽笛的鸣叫把人们叫醒。美国人讲求实际的头脑这么健全；却没有想到要降低这种令人难以忍受的噪音，真叫人吃惊。所有艺术

都依赖于精细微妙的敏锐感觉，这样持续不断的喧嚣，最终一定会损害人的音乐天赋。

There is not so much beauty to be found in American cities as in Oxford, Cambridge, Salisbury or Winchester, where are lovely relics of a beautiful age; but still there is a good deal

of beauty to be seen in them now and then, but only where the American has not attempted to

create it. Where the Americans have attempted to produce beauty they have signally failed. A remarkable characteristic of the Americans is the manner in which they have applied science

to modern life.

美国城市没有牛津、剑桥、索尔兹伯里和温切斯特那么美丽，那些地方有优雅的时代的美好遗

迹；虽然不时还是可以看到许多美的东西，但只能在美国人没有存心创造美的地方。在美国人有意创造美的地方，他们显然遭到了惨败。美国人的突出特点，便是他们把科学应用于现代生活的

那种态度。

This is apparent in the most cursory stroll through New York. In England an inventor is

regarded almost as a crazy man, and in too many instances invention ends in disappointment

and poverty. In America an inventor is honoured, help is forthcoming, and the exercise of

ingenuity, the application of science to the work of man, is there the shortest road to wealth.

There is no country in the world where machinery is so lovely as in America.

在纽约走马观花地一走，这一点就一目了然了。在英国人们常把发明家视作狂人，发明带采的

是失望与穷困的例子简直不胜枚举。在美国发明家受到尊重，他随时可以得到人们的帮助。在那里心灵手巧，把科技应用于人类的劳动，是致富的捷径。没有一个国家比美国更爱机器的了。

I have always wished to believe that the line of strength and the line of beauty are one. That wish was realised when I contemplated American machinery. It was not until I had seen the

water-works at Chicago that I realised the wonders of machinery; the rise and fall of the steel

rods, the symmetrical motion of the great wheels is the most beautifully rhythmic thing I have

ever seen.[3] One is impressed in America, but not favourably impressed, by the inordinate

size of everything. The country seems to try to bully one into a belief in its power by its

impressive bigness.

我一直期望相信，力的线条也是美的线条。在我注视着美国的机器的时候，这一期望得到了实现。直到我见识了芝加哥的供水系统，我才意识到机器的奇妙；钢铁连杆的起落，巨大轮子的对

称运动，是我见过的节奏最美的东西。美国的所有东西都大得过分，这给人以深刻的却不是好的

印象。这个国家似乎想以其令人敬畏的巨大，来胁迫别人认可其力量。

I was disappointed with Niagara—most people must be disappointed with Niagara. Every

American bride is taken there, and the sight of the stupendous waterfall must be one of the

earliest, if not the keenest, disappointments in American married life. One sees it under bad

conditions, very far away, the point of view not showing the splendour of the water. To

appreciate it really one has to see it from underneath the fall, and to do that it is necessary to

be dressed in a yellow oil-skin, which is as ugly as a mackintosh—and I hope none of you ever wears one. It is a consolation to know, however, that such an artist as Madame Bernhardt has