书城外语课外英语-自然知识小贴士(双语版)
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第13章 人物魅影(2)

To Prince Henry the world owes credit for development of craft that made oceanic exploration possible.He lives in history as Henry the Navigator.

从未航过海的航海者亨利

现代帆船是一位从未在海上航行过的人研制的,他就是葡萄牙的亨利王子——葡萄牙国王和一位英国公主所生的次子。

亨利王子生活在15世纪,少年时代便迷恋于航海事业,后又致力于改进船只的设计和航行的方法。1416年他22岁时,创建了一所水手学校,广邀能帮助他的人士来校讲学,其中包括犹太天文学家,意大利和西班牙水手,以及阿拉伯数学家和地图测绘家。这些阿拉伯人懂得怎样使用当时的粗糙罗盘,并能加以改进。

亨利的目标是设计和装备能进行远洋航行而无需靠岸的船只。一种轻快多桅的帆船比当时造的任何其他种船只能张更多的帆,其船身也更长,更纤巧,然而又很坚固,足以抵挡海上暴风的袭击。他又研制了一种宽身帆船,它是一种航速较慢、但能装载更多货物的船。

世界把发展船舶工艺、使远洋探险成为可能的光荣归于亨利王子。他以航海者亨利的名字永载史册。

Carson Mcullers,Author of theBook“Clock Without Hands”

In spite of ill health and a physical incapacity that threatened her career,Carson Mcullers completed a novel in the summer of 1961that made the bestseller list before its official publication date by virtue of prepublication sales.

In an interview at her home,the noted novelist looked back on some of her problems of recent years and spoke with out emotion of her latest book,Clock Without Hands,her first in fifteen years:“For many years I had been thinking of the novel and finally wrote it this past year.”The tall,frail novelist,fortythree years old in 1961,suffered a series of strokes in her twenties that left her partially incapacitated,and she admits also that a mental block kept her from writing for many years after the strokes.

Mrs.Mcullers once wrote that “writing is a wandering,dreaming occupation”,but beyond the admission that she works“very hard”at her writing,she is shy about discussing her work.She is remote from literary fashions,and she hasnever learned to intellectualize her art,but she reads her critics and takes them seriously.

Clock Without Hands depicts Mrs.Mcullers native South and the slow passing of the old way of life through the lives of a dying pharmacist,a white judge and formecongressman,his rebellious grandson,and two Negroes.Among her earlier noted works are Member of the Wedding,The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter,and Ballad of a Sad Cafe.

《没有指针的钟》一书的作者卡森·麦卡勒斯

尽管身体差又残废构成了对她终身事业的威胁,卡森·麦卡勒斯仍在1961年夏天完成了一部小说。鉴于预售情况,这本书在正式出版前便被列入畅销书单。

一次在家中会见记者时,这位著名的小说家回顾了她近年来碰到的一些难题,不露感情地谈到了她最近写的《没有指针的钟)——15年来她所写的第一本书,“多年来,我一直在构思这本小说,终于在过去的一年里把它写完了”。这位身高、体弱的女作家,1961年时是43岁。在20多岁时,她曾多次中风,成了局部残废。她也承认,病患带来的脑力阻滞曾使她多年不能写作。

卡森·麦卡勒斯夫人曾这样写道:“写作是像漫游和梦幻般的职业。”但她除了承认自己“非常勤于”写作外,避而不谈自己的作品。她远远避开文学上的时髦潮流,也从未学过给自己的艺术加上智慧的花环。但是,她阅读别人评论她作品的文章,认真地对待这些意见。

《没有指针的钟》描绘了马克勒斯夫人的故乡——(美国)南方——的情况,通过一位奄奄一息的药剂师、一位白人法官和前议员,他的叛逆的孙子和两名黑人的生活状况,写出了古老的生活方式缓慢消退的过程。她早期的知名作品有《婚礼出席者》《心灵是一个孤独的猎手》及《伤心咖啡馆之歌》。

The Secret of Don Quixote’s Appeal

For more than three centuries readers in all countries have been delighted by the adventures of an absurd gentleman named Don Quixote and his squire Sancho Panza.The masterpiece of Miguel de Cervantes,a Spanish contemporary of Shakespear,Don Quixote tells of a poor gentleman who tries to relive the heroic days of old by seeking adventure in the manner of the knighterrant of medieval romance.

Don Quixote’s popularity is not caused merely by his being delightfully nonsense,a comical nuisance,an absurd figure apt to get into trouble wherever he goes.Beneath his humorous surface Don Quixote is the embodiment,even though he is also the exaggeration,of a great idea—that life holds more than the humdrum routine of everyday affairs,that true greatness is to be found only in the spirit of service to an ideal.

That for Don Quixote the ideal is an illusion does not detract from its fascination,though it does make him a pathetic figure.To attempt the impossible for the sake of honor,to add to the store of human greatness by risking everything without the hope of material gain,to endure danger and hardship because endurance itself is noble—this is the quixotic ideal;this is the secret of Don Quixote’s universal appeal.

We must laugh at this absurdity,but we are moved by it as well;if there is any chivalry or generosity in us,we cannot help being on his side,however,innocent his victims.We know he cannot win,but his misguided valor excites our pity with our laughter .

堂·吉诃德魅力的奥秘

三个多世纪以来,堂·吉诃德这位荒唐可笑的绅士和他的仆从桑丘·潘沙的冒险故事,一直使世界各国的读者沉浸在喜悦之中。与莎士比亚同时代的一位西班牙人米盖尔·德·塞万提斯的《堂·吉诃德》这部杰作,讲述了一位贫穷绅士的故事,他仿照中世纪骑士小说中游侠骑士的行事方式,追求冒险,企图重新生活在古老的英雄时代。

堂·吉诃德之所以深受欢迎,并非单纯因为他荒唐可笑,令人捧腹,举止滑稽而又令人厌恶,也并非仅仅因为他是无论去何处都易陷入困境的荒唐角色。在他的幽默的表面下,堂·吉诃德是一个伟大思想的象征,尽管他也是一个伟大思想的夸张体现——这一伟大思想是:生活比单调乏味、一成不变的日常琐事含有更多的内容,而真正的伟大只有在为某一种理想服务的精神中才能找到。

对于堂·吉诃德来说,这个理想是一种幻想,这一点并没有减损这个理想的魅力,纵然这一理想也确实使他成为一个可悲的人物。为了荣誉去尝试不可能做的事;为了给人的伟大性增添瑰宝,去从事各种冒险而不谋求物质的报偿;甘愿忍受危险和艰难,因为忍受本身是高尚的——这就是吉诃德式的理想。堂·吉诃德具有感染千万人的魅力奥秘就在于此。

我们会对他的荒唐付之一笑,然而我们同时也为其所感动。如果我们身上还有任何骑士精神和慷慨大度的气质,我们就难免会站在他的一边,不管他的受害者是多么清白无辜。我们明知他不会获胜,但是他那迷失方向的勇敢却在我们的朗朗笑声中激起我们的怜悯之情。