高等学校研究生英语系列教程综合英语上册课文原文+翻译(10)

waterfront, and ships calling here from many exotic lands, but the only boat I've happened to notice since my arrival was a small sloop tacking out of the East River night before last on the ebb tide when I was walking across the Brooklyn Bridge. I heard the Queen Mary blow one midnight, though, and the sound carried thewhole history of departure and longing and loss. The Lions have been in convention. I've see not one Lion. A friend of mine saw one and told me about him. (He was lame, and was wearing a bolero.) At the ball grounds and horse parks the greatest sporting spectacles have been enacted. 1 saw no ballplayer, no race horse. The governor came to town. I heard the siren scream, but that was all there was to that- an 18- inch margin again. A man was killed by a falling cornice. I was not a party to the tragedy, and again the inches counted heavily.

4纽约城赐予人们独处孤居之礼的同时，也奉上一份参与的兴奋；同其他人口稠密的社区相比，纽约能更好地将个人与每时每劾在他周围发生的重大的、猛烈的、奇妙的事件隔离开来(只要他需要，而几乎每个人都想要或需要这种隔离)。自打我搬进这乌烟瘴气的通风井以来，城里已发生了好些惹人注目的事件。妒火中烧之下，一个男人开枪打死了自己的妻子，但此事却并未在他所处街区以外的地方引起任何反响，报纸上也只是稍稍提到几笔。我当时并不在现场。我来到城里以后，世界上规模空前的飞行表演恰好在纽约举行。当时我并没到场，城中800万居民也大多没有去观摩，尽管据宣称，到现场捧场的观众不在少数。我甚至没有听到飞机的轰鸣声，只是间或有几架西行的商业航班从通风井上空飞过。北大西洋上最大的远洋轮船在纽约进进出出，可我并没有留意，大多数纽约人也没有注意到。纽约港被称为世界上最大的港口，沿港码头绵延650英里，停泊着来自他乡异域的船只，但我来到纽约之后，只有在前天夜里经过布鲁克林大桥时看到过一艘单桅帆船罢了，其时，它正抢在退潮前急急驶出东河。不过，一天半夜里我还听到了玛丽女王号的汽笛声，这一声长鸣传达了“离行--期许--惘然”这一完整过程。狮子会会员们齐聚集会，我却连他们的人影都没看到过。我的一位朋友倒是撞见一个，并告诉过我(据他描述，那人瘸着脚，身穿一件短开衫)。棒球场和赛马场上如火如荼的比赛也已拉开序幕，我却连一个球员、一匹赛马都没见着。州长驾临城中，我听到警报尖鸣，但仅此而已——又是18英寸的距离使然。有人被从天而降的一截房檐砸中，死于非命。我却并未卷入这场惨剧，究其原因，还是这18英寸的距离使然。

5 I mention these events merely to show that New York is peculiarly constructed to absorb almost anything that comes along (whether 1,000-foot liner out of the East or a 20,000-man convention out of the West) without inflicting the event on its inhabitants so that every event is, in a sense, optional, and the inhabitant is in the happy position of being able to choose his spectacle and so conserve his soul. In most metropolises, small and large, the choice is often not with the individual at all. He is thrown to the Lions. The Lions are overwhelming the event is unavoidable. A cornice falls, that it hits every citizen on the head, every last man in town. I sometimes think that the only event that hits every New Yorker on the head is the annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which is fairly penetrating- the Irish are a hard race to tune out, there are 500,000 of them in residence, and they have the police force right in the family.

5我提到这些，仅仅为了表明纽约城是一座建构奇特的城市，这里发生的事件包罗万象(城东1,000英尺长的班轮也好，城西2万人的集会也罢)，但种种事件却

又未被强加到每个居民身上。因此，从某种意义上说，每个事件都有可供选择的余地，居民们大可随心所欲地选择心仪的场景来体味，保护其灵魂免受侵害。在许多都市里，无论是大都会还是小城市，个人往往没有这种选择的自由。他必然会同狮子会会员们狭路相逢。狮子会会员无处不在，各种事件避无可避。一截房檐从天而降，必然会砸到每个市民头上，无一幸免。我有时想，能够砸到每个纽约人头上的事件恐怕只有一年一度的圣帕特里克节游行，其影响之广，可谓无孔不入——爱尔兰是一个不可小觑的民族，纽约城中居住的爱尔兰人有50万之众，他们还拥有自己的武装力量。

6 The quality in New York that insulates its inhabitants from life may simply weaken them as individuals. Perhaps it is healthier to live in a community where, when a cornice falls, you feel the blow; where, when the governor passes, you see at any rate his hat.

6在将居民同其周边生活隔离开来的同时，纽约也会弱化他们作为个体的存在。也许，生活在一个普通社区里，生活反而会健全些：在那里，当一截房檐从天而降时，你总会感受到疼痛；在那里，当州长经过时，至少他的帽子会映入你的眼帘。

7 I am not defending New York in this regard. Many of its settlers are probably here merely to escape, not face, reality. But whatever it means, it is a rather rare gift, and I believe it has a positive effect on the creative capacities of New Yorkers- for creation is in part merely the business of forgoing the great and small distractions.

7说到这点，我并不是在为纽约辩护。很多人选择这里落脚也许只是为了逃避现实，而不是面对现实。但无论如何，这都是非常希罕的礼物，而且我也相信这给纽约客的创造力带来了积极的影响——因为在一定程度上，创造就是将大大小小令人分心的事物抛之脑后的过程。

8 Although New York often imparts a feeling of great forlornness or forsakenness it seldom seems dead or unresourceful; and you always feel that either by shifting your location 10 blocks or by reducing your fortune by five dollars you can experience rejuvenation. Many people who have no real independence or spirit depend on the city's tremendous variety and sources of excitement for spiritual sustenance and maintenance of morale. In the country there are a few chances of sudden rejuvenation- a shift in weather, perhaps, or something arriving in the mail. But in New York the chances are endless. I think that although many persons are here from some excess of spirit, (which caused them to break away from their small town), some, too, are here from a deficiency of spirit, who finds in New York a protection, or an easy substitution. 8尽管纽约常常带给人一种强烈的失落感或被遗弃感，但她却很少显得死气沉沉或乏味无趣，你总会生出如下想法：只需变换一下位置，搬到10个街区以外，或者稍稍破一下财，花掉5美元，你就能立刻重获生机，神采奕奕。许多缺乏自主精神 …… 此处隐藏：5536字，全部文档内容请下载后查看。喜欢就下载吧 ……