『譯作 · A PAINFUL CASE』

悲痛的往事（节选）

[爱尔兰] 詹姆斯·乔伊斯

译 / 顾忆青

（译文） 修订本

（感谢 Shannon 的指导）

走到麦迦津山的山顶时，他停了下来，沿着河流向都柏林望去，寒夜中的城市泛着宜人的红光。他朝山坡下看去，在山脚下那座公园围墙的阴影里，依稀可见横躺着的斑驳人影。那些用金钱换来的隐密艳情，使他陷入绝望之中。他为自己那正人君子的生活苦恼不已，他觉得自己是生活盛宴的局外人。有人似乎爱上过他，然而他却拒绝给予她生命和幸福。他曾给那女人定下了“不知廉耻”的罪状，致使她在羞愧中死去。他知道公园围墙下那些人正注视着他，巴望着他赶快离开。谁也不需要他，他是生活盛宴的局外人。他将目光转向那条灰暗中微光闪烁的河流，河水正朝着都柏林蜿蜒流淌。他看见河对岸的一辆货车正迂回驶出国王桥车站，如同一条弯曲蠕动的蚯蚓，顶着火焰般赤红色的脑袋，倔强而又费力地穿过夜色。货车缓缓从他视线中消失，但机车吃力沉闷的嗡嗡声仍在耳畔，似乎在重复着她名字的每一个音节。

他转身按原路返回，机车那富有节奏的声响仍不绝于耳。他开始怀疑记忆中的那一切都是不是真的。在一棵树下，他停了下来，直到这轰鸣的节奏声逐渐淡去。黑暗中，他感觉不到她在自己身边，也听不到她的声音。他又听了几分钟，什么也没有听到：夜，出奇地静。他再次去听：还是出奇地静。他觉得自己已是孤身一人。

（原稿）

当他走到麦迦津山的山顶时，他停了下来，沿着河流向都柏林望去，寒夜中的城市泛着宜人的红光。他朝山坡下眺望，只见山脚下，那座公园围墙的阴影里，依稀可见横躺着的斑驳人影。那些用金钱换来的隐密艳情，使他陷入绝望之中。他那正人君子的生活令他苦恼不已，他觉得自己是生活盛宴的局外人。有人似乎爱上过他，然而他却拒绝给予她生命和幸福。他在心里给那女人定下了不知廉耻的罪状，致使她在羞愧中死去。他知道公园围墙边躺着的那些人正注视着他，巴望着他赶快离开。谁也不需要他，他是生活盛宴的局外人。他将目光转向那条灰暗中微光闪烁的河流，河水正朝着都柏林蜿蜒流淌。在河的对岸，他看见一辆货车正迂回驶出国王桥车站，如同一条弯曲蠕动的蚯蚓，顶着火焰般赤红色的脑袋，倔强而又费力地穿过黑暗的夜色。货车缓缓从他视线中消失，但机车吃力沉闷的嗡嗡声仍不绝于耳，似乎在重复着她名字的每一个音节。

他转过身去按原路返回，机车那富有节奏的声响在他的耳畔轰鸣。他开始怀疑记忆中的那一切都是不是真的。在一棵树下，他停下了脚步，等这轰鸣的节奏声逐渐淡去。黑暗中，他感觉不到她在自己身边，耳边也没有了她的声音。他又听了几分钟，什么也没有听到：夜，出奇地静。他再次去听：还是出奇地静。他觉得自己已是孤身一人。

（原文）

A Painful Case

(Excerpt)

by James Joyce

When he gained the crest of the Magazine Hill he halted and looked along the river towards Dublin, the lights of which burned redly and hospitably in the cold night. He looked down the slope and, at the base, in the shadow of the wall of the Park, he saw some human figures lying. Those venal and furtive loves filled him with despair. He gnawed the rectitude of his life; he felt that he had been outcast from life's feast. One human being had seemed to love him and he had denied her life and happiness: he had sentenced her to ignominy, a death of shame. He knew that the prostrate creatures down by the wall were watching him and wished him gone. No one wanted him; he was outcast from life's feast. He turned his eyes to the grey gleaming river, winding along towards Dublin. Beyond the river he saw a goods train winding out of Kingsbridge Station, like a worm with a fiery head winding through the darkness, obstinately and laboriously. It passed slowly out of sight; but still he heard in his ears the laborious drone of the engine reiterating the syllables of her name.

He turned back the way he had come, the rhythm of the engine pounding in his ears. He began to doubt the reality of what memory told him. He halted under a tree and allowed the rhythm to die away. He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.

◎ 关于作者：James Joyce

詹姆斯·乔伊斯（1882-1941），爱尔兰作家和诗人，是二十世纪最伟大的作家之一。他的“意识流”宏篇巨著《尤利西斯》（Ulysses, 1922）在世界文学史上具有划时代的意义。他的代表作还有短篇小说集《都柏林人》（Dubliners, 1914）、《一个青年艺术家的画像》（A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, 1916）、《为芬尼根守灵》（Finnegans Wake, 1939）。

尽管乔伊斯一生大部分时光都远离故土爱尔兰，但早年在祖国的生活经历却对他的创作产生了深远的影响，他所创作的小说大多根植于他早年在都柏林的生活。他谙熟欧洲大陆作家作品，受易卜生影响尤深，并渐渐表现出对人类精神世界特殊的感悟及对家庭笃信的宗教和自己生活环境中的习俗、传统的叛逆。大学毕业后，曾与当时的爱尔兰文艺复兴运动有所接触，不久即成为其对立面。同年，迫于经济压力及为摆脱家庭宗教和自身狭隘环境的束缚，自行流亡到欧洲大陆，先后在法国、瑞士、意大利过着流离的生活，广泛地吸取欧洲大陆和世界文化的精华。乔伊斯是用英文写作的现代主义作家中将国际化因素和乡土化情节结合最好的人，他作品中所表现出来的对民族对国家的热爱，深深感动着爱尔兰人民。

◎ 作品主题：

这个世界是否存在着达菲先生所喜欢的事物呢，他认为就是“过去”。我们在前面已经谈到，“过去”或“往事”是乔伊斯非常喜欢用的一个概念，往往意味着幸福的回忆，但这个概念实际上是非常抽象而空洞的（没有什么实质性的内容），乔伊斯只是在某种象征的意义上使用它，用来反衬“现实生活”的绝望与无趣。在达菲先生看来，他内心的绝望感的最重要的来源就是世界的与人的精神的双重“混乱”。为了与这种无处不在的混乱相抗衡，他用自己的全部生活建立起个人的“清洁”与“秩序”，就象陀思妥耶夫所说的那样，希望在无望的人间建立起上帝的天国。而他把自己一生的全部奋斗与抗争，耗费在整理自己的居室的日复一日的劳作中，这是一个意味深长的“代偿行为”，也是一个充满反讽的寓言。他的房间越清洁，他个人心灵的自闭壁垒也就越厚；他自以为是的步伐越坚定，他内心的迷茫感也就越深刻。他看上去忙得很，工作，看书，写作，参加墓地仪体告别仪式，在圣诞节访问他的亲戚，甚至他还去剧院听音乐会，他这样做似乎只有一个目的，避免自己处在“闲暇”之中，与其说憎恶“闲暇”和无所事事，不如说他害怕面对自己的内心。

我以为乔伊斯的用意是为了让这段离奇而温馨的情感纠葛来测量一下主人公达菲先生的虚无的深度。所以，在《悲痛的往事》中，悲剧的主角并不是埃米莉·辛尼科太太，而恰恰是达菲先生本人。达菲觉得自己是一个“被人生的盛宴排斥在外的人”，他活着，而在某种意义上他已经死了。他没有了爱欲，没有了生活的动力与激情，甚至丧失了基本的意愿。假如说，达菲的身体与精神状况已完全麻木，他的悲剧性也许还没有那么深刻。问题在于，他理智还能隐约感觉到自己的荒谬，他与爱米莉的交往显然不完全是被动的，他甚至主动接近对方，“抓住机会同她亲热一番”，只有当对方表现了明显“爱情”的信号时，他才发现自己的内心已经死去，没有任何能力。这一点，我们在埃米莉死后，达菲的追悔与悲伤也可以看得比较清楚。我个人认为，尽管乔伊斯在篇小说中使用了淡淡的揶揄和讽刺，但达菲先生的精神状况正是这个时期乔伊斯本人的真实写照。

（格非：《都柏林人》小说讲稿）

◎ 延伸阅读：

A Painful Case
from James Joyce "Dubliners"

『譯作 · Koala Rescued from Australia's Wildfire Wasteland』

澳洲山火肆虐 考拉主动“讨水”

编译 / 顾忆青

译自：《国际论坛先驱报》
( International Herald Tribune )

【译者按】连日来，澳大利亚东南部维多利亚州山火肆虐，引起各方关注。今天，国内外各大媒体相继报道和刊载了下面这张照片：往日十分害羞的树袋熊，难得主动地向消防员“求救”，令人动容。这幅温情脉脉的场景，使得惨剧不断的山火灾害流露出别样的滋味。人们感受到了生命的力量，对于未来逐渐充满信心。

(Mark Pardew/The Associated Press)

(The Associated Press) SYDNEY: It was a chance encounter in the charred landscape of Australia's deadly wildfires: A koala sips water from a bottle offered by a firefighter.

David Tree noticed the koala moving gingerly on scorched paws as his fire patrol passed. Clearly in pain, the animal stopped when it saw Tree.

"It was amazing, he turned around, sat on his bum and sort of looked at me with (a look) like, put me out of my misery," Tree told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I yelled out for a bottle of water. I unscrewed the bottle, tipped it up on his lips and he just took it naturally.

"He kept reaching for the bottle, almost like a baby."

The team called animal welfare officers to pick up the koala Sunday, the day after deadly firestorms swept southern Victoria state.

"I love nature, and I've handled koalas before. They're not the friendliest things, but I wanted to help him," Tree said.

Often mistakenly called koala bears because they resemble a child's teddy bear, the marsupial is actually a rather grumpy creature with a loud growl. It rarely comes down from the trees and doesn't like walking.

Koalas are especially vulnerable to wildfires because they move slowly on the ground.

The wildfires cut through parks and forests and sent countless wombats and other native species fleeing. One resident reported seeing kangaroos bouncing down the road with flames at their backs.

The fires also razed farmland, killing or panicking sheep and cattle. Television footage showed cows running down the main street of a smoke-filled town.

A count of the animals killed has not been made.

Tree said he found the koala in a burned-out forest near Mirboo North, about 90 miles (150 kilometers) east of Melbourne, Victoria's capital.

Koalas normally drink almost no water because they get almost all their fluids from the leaves they eat.

After the scorched koala sipped from the water bottle and Tree's crew moved on, animal welfare officials came by.

The koala was in pain but recovering with antibiotics, Jenny Shaw of the Mountain Ash Wildlife Shelter told Melbourne's The Herald Sun newspaper.

"She is lovely — very docile — and she has already got an admirer. A male koala keeps putting his arms around her," Shaw was quoted as saying. "

It will be a long road to recovery, but she should be able to be released back into the wild in about five months."

The Royal Society for the Protection of Animals said it was establishing shelters to care for thousands of pets and livestock affected by the fires.

Despite her gender, the now famous koala is nicknamed Sam. ♦

【Words & Expressions】

► charred v. 烧焦 ► sip v. 吸吮 ► gingerly adv. 小心翼翼地

► scorch v. 烧焦 ► patrol n. 巡逻 ► bum n. [俚] 屁股

► marsupial n. 有袋动物 ► grumpy adj. 性情乖戾► wombat n. 袋熊

► raze v. 夷为平地 ► docile adj. 驯良温顺的 ► livestock n. 牲畜

___________

► yell out (for) phr v. 呼喊 ► tip up phr v. （使）倾斜；（使）一边翘起

► put sb. out of one's misery 使（某人）摆脱痛苦；（某人）不再提心吊胆

（译文）

（美联社2月10日悉尼）：

澳洲致命山火中的特殊邂逅：消防员给一只受伤的考拉喂水。

消防员戴维·特里在执行灭火任务时发现，一只考拉正拖着烧伤的爪子缓慢地移动。显然它受了重伤，但当它看到特里时便立刻停了下来。特里10日在接受美联社记者的采访时说：“这实在太不可思议了！它环顾四周，坐了下来，然后看着我，仿佛要我救它。我打开一瓶水喂给它，它很自然地喝了起来，抓着瓶子，像个婴儿。”

消防员们随即通知了当地野生动物官员。澳大利亚动物福利组织当天已把这只考拉带走，而就在前一天山火严重肆虐了维多利亚州南部地区。

特里表示：“我热爱动物，我曾经照看过考拉。尽管他们不是最友好的动物，但我仍愿意帮助它。”

考拉之所以被称为“树袋熊”，是因为他们和孩子手中玩的泰迪熊长得很像，然而这种有袋动物却脾气暴躁，常喜欢大声咆哮。它们很少下树，也不喜欢在地上爬行，因而一旦山火来袭，它们便显得十分脆弱。

这场山火摧毁了大片公园和森林，使得袋熊等野生动物惊慌失措，四处奔逃。一位当地居民甚至看到一只尾巴着火的袋鼠逃到了公路上。大火同样将许多农场夷为平地，牛羊家畜损失惨重。电视画面中显示，在一座被烧焦的小镇里，一群奶牛在道路上奔逃。在这场山火中，野生动物伤亡惨重。

在维州首府墨尔本东南约150公里的米尔布诺思附近，戴维·特里在一片烧焦了的森林里发现了这只考拉。由于能够从桉树叶中得到足够多的水分，因此考拉一般不喝水。在给这只受伤的考拉喂完水后，特里一行队员又向灾区继续前行，随后澳大利亚动物福利组织来到了这里。

花楸野生动物收容所的工作人员詹妮·肖向墨尔本《先驱太阳报》透露，虽然这只考拉受了伤，但在注射了抗生素后它便能够康复。“她太可爱了，还很温顺，并且有一只雄性考拉一直抱着她，可见她已经有了追求者。她的康复过程将会十分漫长，但大约在五个月后，她会被放归大自然。”

澳大拉亚皇家动物保护协会说，他们正在筹建一个动物庇护所，供遭受到火灾影响的宠物和家畜栖身。

也许是营救的时候还不知道她的性别，这只因大火出了名的雌性考拉被取了个男孩的名字叫“萨姆”。

◎ 译外闲谈：

这幅温馨的画面，勾起了我在澳洲旅行的记忆。想起了悉尼海德公园的绿意盎然，想起了布里斯班动物园的那只树袋熊，想起了伊丽莎白老师那句临别赠言：Don't forget the blue sky and the red shoes!

盖逝者如斯夫，别君四载！

『譯作 · THE LIMNER』

画匠（节选）

[英] 朱利安·巴恩斯

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

维兹华斯开始关心起顾客对他说的话了。虽然在他看来这很重要，但他始终没让自己的视线离开画笔。他指着一本装订像样的笔记本让顾客把话写下来。这本子里记着的都是那些曾经被画像的人褒贬不一的留言，有些倒是挺明智，有些则显得很愚蠢。他也可能会随手翻到一页，就让顾客写下适当的意见。一旁已经写有过去某个顾客的留言，那可能是五年甚至十年以前的事了。迄今为止，这个征税员的留言最无新意可言，就如同他马甲上那些中规中矩的纽扣，更别提有趣了。幸运的是，画这个马甲，维兹华斯可是收费的，然而满足顾客的额外要求则不一样了。当然，事实要复杂得多。他画马甲、假发和马裤的时候，其实就是按照顾客的要求画的——确切地说，画的是整个身体。马甲和马裤将他下半身画了出来，假发和帽子则勾勒出下面的脑袋。在某些情况下，这只是一种夸张的画法，随便哪个脑袋其实都一样。

（原文）

The Limner
(Excerpt)

by Julian Barnes

From the edge of his eye, Wadsworth became aware that his client had spoken, but he did not divert his gaze from the tip of his brush. Instead he pointed to the bound notebook in which so many sitters had written comments, expressed their praise and blame, wisdom and fatuity. He might as well have opened the book at any page and asked his client to select the appropriate remark left by a predecessor five or ten years before. The opinions of this customs collector so far had been as predictable as his waistcoat buttons, if less interesting. Fortunately, Wadsworth was paid to represent waistcoats, not opinions. Of course, it was more complicated than that: to represent the waistcoat, and the wig, and the breeches, was to represent an opinion—indeed, a whole corpus of them. The waistcoat and breeches showed the body beneath, as the wig and hat showed the brain beneath—though, in some cases, it was a pictorial exaggeration to suggest that any brains lay beneath.

◎ 关于作者：Julian Barnes

朱利安·巴恩斯（1946-），英国后现代主义作家。自1980年以来，他就跻身于英国80年代最具影响力的作家群之列，他和马丁·艾米斯（Martin Amis）、伊恩·麦克伊万（Ian McEwan，《赎罪》的作者）一道成为当代英国文坛的佼佼者。他下笔极有灵气，睿智过人，文字俏丽圆熟，技艺炉火纯青。凭借其《福楼拜的鹦鹉》（Flaubert's Parrot, 1984）、《英格兰，英格兰》（England, England, 1998）、《亚瑟与乔治》（Arthur & George, 2005），巴恩斯三度冲击“布克奖”；他还曾获得“杰弗里·费伯纪念奖”、“福斯特奖”、“古腾堡奖”、“莎士比亚奖”及法国“美第契外国作品奖”（1986）和“费米娜外国小说奖”（1992）。

◎ 延伸阅读：

The Limner by Julian Barnes
(from The New Yorker, January 5, 2009 )

『譯作 · A VIEW OF MOUNTAINS』

唯见青山（选段）

[美] 乔纳森·谢尔

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

从山端庸介所拍摄的照片中，我们能够窥见世界末日的图景。但现如今，我们所面临的挑战，不仅仅是认识到核武器造成的巨大危害，而且还要把握天赐良机彻底消除它。值此之际，我们似乎还需要另一张照片，一张能够平复长崎的毁灭所带来的伤痛的照片，彰显我们成功所得的希望而非战败所失的家园。然而，那张照片该是什么样子的？ 我们如何呈现世界末日的反面？难道是受创之前完好无损又生机勃勃的长崎？或许是幸免于难的九洲岛？ 难道是一个孩子，一对母子？或者就是我们赖以生存的地球本身？看起来很难找到一幅合适的画面，因为对于现在和未来所有人的生命，我们如何给这般无穷变幻的事物，赋予一个具体有形的呈现？ 对世界末日的想象抑或是对现世延续的憧憬，必定是不甚全面的。唯有付诸行动才能令人满意。

终有一天，来临的新一代有能力照顾自己。而现在，我们应该鼓起勇气、坚守信念，秉承集体意志，去确保他们生存的权利，惟有这样他们方才得以存活。付此行动是现在活着的这几代人最为重大的责任。时间的赠与的永远是生命的礼物，如果我们明白该如何接受这个礼物的话。

（原文）

A View of Mountains
(Excerpt)

by Jonathan Schell

Yamahata's pictures afford a glimpse of the end of the world. Yet in our day, when the challenge is not just to apprehend the nuclear peril but to seize a God-given opportunity to dispel it once and for all, we seem to need, in addition, some other picture to counterpoise against ruined Nagasaki - one showing not what we would lose through our failure but what we would gain by our success. What should that picture be, though? How do you show the opposite of the end of the world? Should it be Nagasaki, intact and alive, before the bomb was dropped -- or perhaps the spared city of Kokura? Should it be a child, or mother and child or the earth itself? None seems adequate, for how can we give definite form to that which can assume infinite forms, namely the lives of all human beings, now and in the future? Imagination, faced with either the end of the world or its continuation, must remain incomplete. Only action can satisfy.

Once, the arrival in the world of new generations took care of itself. Now, they can come into existence only if, through an act of faith and collective will, we ensure their right to exist. Performing that act is the greatest of the responsiblity of the generations now alive. The gift of time is the gift of life, forever, if we know how to receive it.

◎ 关于作者：Jonathan Schell

乔纳森·谢尔（1943- ），是美国著名的改革派作家、耶鲁大学全球化研究中心访问学者，先后执教于耶鲁、普林斯顿以及哈佛等名校。他定期为《哈拨斯》（Harpen’s）、《外交事务》（Foreign Affairs）和《国家》（The Nation）等知名杂志撰稿。年轻时还一度作为《纽约客》（The New Yorker）杂志记者赴前线报道越南战争。这些经历使得他善于把握时代主题，并懂得如何以最清晰、最吸引人的方式向公众作阐述。主要著作有《边水村庄》（The Village of Ben Suc）、《地球的命运》（The Fate of the Earth）（1982年获普利策奖）、《不可征服的世界：力量、非暴力和人民的意志》（The Unconquerable World: Power, Nonviolence, and the Will of the People)等。 本文选自他的作品《时间的礼物：现在终止核武器》（The Gift of Time: The Case for Abolishing Nuclear Weapons Now）。

◎ 作品主题:

《唯见青山》这篇议论文从山端庸介的照片展开，作为核爆后第一个到达长崎的摄影师，他拍下长崎遭到原子弹轰炸后的情景。但是这些照片直到50年后才在纽约展出。此时，重要的已经不是照片本身，而是它们所蕴含的深意，为我们敲响了警钟，只要原子弹继续存在一天，人类就时刻生存在毁灭的阴影之下。作者呼吁我们这一代人勇敢地肩负起自己的责任，坚决销毁原子弹，给我们的子孙后代留下一个安全的成长环境。

『譯作 · FIRST SNOW』

初雪（选段）

[加拿大] 吉丽安·道格拉斯

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

      一天夜晚，当我从隐居的小屋向窗外望去，金黄的灯光下，柔软的雪花悄无声息地悠然飘落。整整一宿，飞雪纷扬不息。梯尔河的流水渐入宁静，喧嚣的森林归于沉寂。黎明时分，溪流川谷、林木群山已是白雪一片，皑皑动人。
      天蒙蒙亮，我便出了家门，屋外静谧无声，甚至连我的呼吸都成了一种打扰。北边的山峰泛出灰蓝的色泽，而西边的天空夜色还未消散。不断漫延的淡粉色晕染着东南边广袤的天际。我抬头仰望，依稀可见晨曦中的星宿，正俯瞰着这片白茫茫的世界。
      顷刻之间，整个天空有如火焰般一派红光。寒冷和沉静压弯了树枝，晶莹的冰雪覆盖了树桩，倒落的残木宛若披上了银装。遍生野莓的树丛间，随处可见嫩生的白色马勃菌，像是缀满珠宝的棉絮。铁杉和雪松光秃秃的树根已然成了石英和橄榄石砌成的洞穴。
      大雪过后，常青树最是可人，被积雪压弯的白色树枝垂挂在树干上，如同一只为抵御严寒而合拢翅膀的巨鸟。
      然而，小雪之后，最美的当属落叶树了。它们有如烟雾般飘渺轻盈，似乎是沿着河岸飘去，但又脆弱得不堪一击，仿佛这水声也能将它们震碎。银丝细缕的灌木丛恍若置身幻境，它好似轻得可以踮起脚尖，哪怕最轻柔的微风也会吹落枝梢上微微闪烁的雪花，徒留空荡的枝条，叫人怜爱不已。

（原文）

First Snow
(Excerpt)

Gilean Douglas (1900-1993)

      One evening I look out the window of my secluded cabin, and there are soft languid flakes falling in the golden lamplight. They fall all night, while the voice of the Teal River becomes more and more hushed and the noises of the forest die away. By dawn, the whole world of stream and wood and mountain had been kindled to a white flame of beauty.

      I go out on the early morning and there is such silence that even breath is a profanation. The mountain to the north has steel-blue light on it, and to the west the sky still holds something of the darkness of the night. To the east and the south a faint pink is spreading. I look up and see the morning star keeping white watch over a white world.

      Soon the whole sky is azure and flaming. Every branch of every tree is weighted with cold and stillness; every stump is crowned with crystal; every fallen log is overlaid with silver. The wild berry bushes have puffballs of jeweler’s cotton here and there along their branches, and the stark roots of hemlocks and cedars have become grottoes of quartz and chrysolite.

      After heavy snowfalls, it is the evergreens that are the loveliest, with their great white branches weighted down until they are almost parallel with the trunks. They seem like giant birds with their wings folded against the cold.

      But after a light fall, it is the deciduous trees that are the most beautiful. They are so fragile, so ethereal, that it seems even the sound of the rivers might shatter them as they appear to drift like crystal smoke along the banks. The bushes are silver filigree, so light, so much on tiptoe in this enchanted world. Even the slightest breeze sends the snow shimmering down from them, leaving the branches brown and bare and rather pitiful.

◎ 关于作者：Gilean Joan Douglas

      吉丽安•道格拉斯 (1900-1993)，是加拿大自然作家。她以诗人著称，但她同时也是摄影记者、女权主义者、历史学家和政治活动家。生长男权家庭的环境下，对成为独立女性的渴望便成了她写作灵感的源泉。她的诗歌、散文、小说和自传等作品，时间跨度近八十年，描写了在这段光阴岁月里，她的四段婚姻、在卡斯克德山（Cascade Mountains）的十年以及在英属哥伦比亚科尔特斯岛（Cortes Island）四十年的生活经历。她的自然散文作品集有《我所漫步的河流》（River For My Sidewalk, 1953）、《宁静是我的故乡：梯尔河生活记》（Silence Is My Homeland: Life on Teal River , 1978）和《守护之所》（The Protected Place, 1979）。 （顾忆青）

◎ 延伸阅读：

《初雪》全文： First Snow

『譯作 · SUNDAY BEFORE THE WAR』

大战前的星期天 （节选）

[英] 亚瑟·克拉顿·布洛克

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

      可是，当战争疯狂肆虐别处山谷，此处的平静又有何幸福可言？人们的内心又能否安定依旧呢？此地的美景一如既往，由人类的意志深扎大地。然而，与那些奔赴前线的人相比，在这里生活的人们本性并无二致，同样承受着近乎疯狂的本能支配。在我们人类身上，创造与毁灭的力量并存，时而有如神明般高瞻远瞩，时而又如野兽般愚昧无知。今天的我们或许并无过错，而为战之人也生就如此，他们的所做所为令我们憎恶，但他们何尝又不这么认为？这就是所谓宿命，自过去的兽性而来，我们至今难以掌控。如今，这命运彷佛源自寰宇间固有的恶，即便身处僻静优美的山谷，我们也依然无法摆脱它的嘲弄。但其实并非如此，我们并不像野兽那般孤立与冷漠。倘若我们的民族暂且忘却了我们共有的人性，以及对未来的希冀，那么另一个民族必将肩负起这一神圣的使命，抛却憎恨，毫不畏惧地坚守着它，直至疯狂平息。但愿这就是我们现在的职责，为了维护世界未来的和平而战，怀着恒久的勇气一往无前，而此般勇锐无需仇恨激起。

（原文）

Sunday Before The War
(Excerpt)

Arthur Clutton-Brock (1868-1924)

      But what happiness can there be in that peace, or what security in the mind of man, when the madness of war is let loose in so many other valleys? Here there is a beauty inherited from the past, and added to the earth by man’s will; but the men here are of the same nature and subject to the same madness as those who are gathering to fight on the frontier. We are all men with the same power of making and destroying, with the same divine foresight mocked by the same animal blindness. We ourselves may not be in fault today, but it is human beings in no way different from us who are doing what we abhor and they abhor even while they do it. There is a fate, coming from the beast in our own past, that the present man in us has not yet mastered, and for the moment that fate seems a malignity in the nature of the universe that mocks us even in the beauty of these lonely hills. But it is not so, for we are not separate and indifferent like the beasts; and if one nation for the moment forgets our common humanity and its future, then another must take over that sacred charge and guard it without hatred or fear until the madness is passed. May that be our task now, so that we may wage war only for the future peace of the world and with the lasting courage that needs no stimulant of hate.

© National Portrait Gallery, London

◎ 关于作者：Arthur Clutton-Brock

      亚瑟·克拉顿·布洛克 (1868-1924)，是英国散文家、文艺评论家和记者。他曾为英国《泰晤士报·文学增刊》（TLS: Times Literary Supplement）写过众多关于文学和艺术的批评散文。英国诗人欧那斯特·莱斯（Ernest Rhys）曾对他有过这样的评价：“他向我们展示了如何为期刊散文注入永恒的阅读价值”（"...shown again how to give the periodical essay the savour of permanent things." ）。布洛克的思想深受英国“工艺美术运动”的领导人、小说家、诗人威廉·莫里斯（William Morris）的社会主义、唯美主义思潮的影响，承袭了意大利哲学家、历史学家、美学家克罗齐（Benedetto Croce）对艺术精神及其真理质朴而又纯粹的追求。（顾忆青）

◎ 作品主题：

      《大战前的星期天》又译《战前星期天》(Sunday Before the War) ，是英国散文中的名篇。生活在边远山谷中的居民，本来过着世外桃源般的日子，却因战争的爆发而失去往日的宁静祥和，匆忙备战。作者将写景与议论抒情巧妙结合，文笔优美细腻，运用了对比衬托的手法，突出了文章的主题：为了“世界未来的和平”，大家必须鼓起勇气去作战。此文陆谷孙先生曾经翻译过。

◎ 延伸阅读：

《大战前的星期天》全文： Sunday Before the War