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[联盟荐文]徐sir‘英语文经典导读’《瓦尔登湖》示例续

2023-05-10 14:56:27

 

昨天推送了《瓦尔登湖》阅读示例后,陆续收到了伙伴们踊跃滴反馈和回答,有好多童鞋和徐sir的基友们比如@爱迪生lee、@狮子山下等都读得好认真呀,不仅有问题交流往来,还有自己的解读体会,颇为高明;只不过这里就不方便公布啦,总之,我心里有数!


今天呐,我就把昨天文后遗留的几个问题给大家一个交代——主要针对一些可以运用到Critical Reading Skill的问题。当然,徐sir照旧希望看到读者君的留言和反馈。


首先,方便大家阅读检索,还是附上英文原文(中文译文紧接其后):

Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself. I have been as sincere a worshipper of Aurora (1. in Roman mythology, the goddess of dawn) as the Greeks. I got up early and bathed in the pond; that was a religious exercise, and one of the best things which I did. They say that characters were engraven on the bathing tub of King Tching Thang (2. another name for Confucius) to this effect: "Renew thyself completely each day; do it again, and again, and forever again." I can understand that. Morning brings back the heroic ages. I was as much affected by the faint hum of a mosquito making its invisible and unimaginable tour through my apartment at earliest dawn, when I was sitting with door and windows open, as I could be by any trumpet that ever sang of fame. It was Homer's requiem; itself an Iliad and Odyssey (3. Iliad and Odyssey, attributed to Homer, 8th cent. B.C. Greek epic poet) in the air, singing its own wrath and wanderings. There was something cosmical about it; a standing advertisement, till forbidden, of the everlasting vigor and fertility of the world. The morning, which is the most memorable season of the day, is the awakening hour. Then there is least somnolence in us; and for an hour, at least, some part of us awakes which slumbers all the rest of the day and night. Little is to be expected of that day, if it can be called a day, to which we are not awakened by our Genius, but by the mechanical nudgings of some servitor, are not awakened by our own newly acquired force and aspirations from within, accompanied by the undulations of celestial music, instead of factory bells, and a fragrance filling the air — to a higher life than we fell asleep from; and thus the darkness bear its fruit, and prove itself to be good, no less than the light. That man who does not believe that each day contains an earlier, more sacred, and auroral hour than he has yet profaned, has despaired of life, and is pursuing a descending and darkening way. After a partial cessation of his sensuous life, the soul of man, or its organs rather, are reinvigorated each day, and his Genius tries again what noble life it can make. All memorable events, I should say, transpire in morning time and in a morning atmosphere. The Vedas (4. Brahmin religious books) say, "All intelligences awake with the morning." Poetry and art, and the fairest and most memorable of the actions of men, date from such an hour. All poets and heroes, like Memnon,(5. statue in ancient Egypt said to produce music at dawn) are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. ...It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men. Morning is when I am awake and there is a dawn in me. Moral reform is the effort to throw off sleep. Why is it that men give so poor an account of their day if they have not been slumbering? They are not such poor calculators. If they had not been overcome with drowsiness, they would have performed something. The millions are awake enough for physical labor; but only one in a million is awake enough for effective intellectual exertion, only one in a hundred millions to a poetic or divine life. To be awake is to be alive. I have never yet met a man who was quite awake. How could I have looked him in the face?

 

We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. If we refused, or rather used up, such paltry information as we get, the oracles would distinctly inform us how this might be done.

 

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion. For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."(6. Westminster Catechism)

 

Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.

接着,给出选段部分完整的中译文,也许有助于大家理解(中译文转自:《瓦尔登湖》,梭罗著,仲泽译,四川文艺出版社,2010)




最后,我简单把文后几个问题给读者君critically分析下(具体答案不唯一):


1. 划线句这里所采用的描写,属于什么类型的语言(fact还是opinion),?它在段落中服务于什么行文目的?你的根据在哪里?

  • It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do.

初读这句话,好像是在说it is sth.是一个fact,但是,接着读到it is far more glorious to...我们又发现这是一个表示个人感受和态度的opinion,那究竟哪个才是对的呢?读完这句话,看到which morally we can do了吗?所以这是一个opinion.

至于它服务于什么行文目的,请看出现在它之前的本段第一句We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep. I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by a conscious endeavor. 接着,两段并一起看。发现结构上的特点了吗?划线句的前一句话,其实是它的一个具体的主张;易言之,划线句是第一句话的一个例证或者说扩展,哪里看出来的?代词 it!这就是论证和说明中的一个手法:扩大外延。想想这个it指代的是什么?


2. 文中的加粗斜体的 "resignation" 是什么意思?你猜测的根据是什么?

  • I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.

注意黑体字出现的前文中的否定,结合后面的I want to...应该可以看出,I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to...是对resignation的取非,所以理解了这句话,倒一倒,就是resignation的意思了。


3. 蓝色字体标识出的段落,能够说明作者对什么事物持有什么样的态度,以及这种态度是什么?你的依据在哪里? 

请看这紧接着的两句话:To him whose elastic and vigorous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning. ...It matters not what the clocks say or the attitudes and labors of men.

应该看得出蓝色字体的句子引入了前一句句子中不曾出现的叙述对象,这意味着:从语义的角度说,要开始叙述其他事物了,那么地,可以把这句蓝色字体的句子看作是“新的一段”的段首句——虽然作者没有给你另起一段。于是,我们可以预判,这接下去的文字就是对蓝色字体这句话——也就是梭罗的主张或者信念——作出的补充说明(可以是支持也可以是反驳)。于是很容易应该可以看出作者认为most people are only awake enough for physical labor, some for intellectual discussions, and very few for a higher calling.


4. 梭罗在哪里对于宗教问题有所探讨?他对于宗教问题是怎么看的?你的根据在哪里?

注意到其实通篇梭罗并没有直接谈到所谓的“宗教”,但我之所以这么问,就是看您读的时候够不够critical,事实上,细节里有。在这里:For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."(6. Westminster Catechism)。想想看,为什么?因为讲到了上帝和魔鬼,不是么?找到这句话了,你就自然有答案了:梭罗认为 far too many people hastily agree to preconceived ideas on these topics.


5. 含有红色字体的这一段是和上文是什么关系?通过哪里体现得出来?梭罗用这两个词用意何在?你的根据在哪里?

For most men, it appears to me, are in a strange uncertainty about it, whether it is of the devil or of God, and have somewhat hastily concluded that it is the chief end of man here to "glorify God and enjoy him forever."(6. Westminster Catechism)

 Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail.

黑体加粗是什么词?连接词!所以一目了然,说明后文是对前文的一个现象变本加厉的表现,并且两者都是作者持贬抑态度的,从这两个词的词义就看得出来了


6. 是否可以尝试梳理一下,梭罗整体的社会观是什么样子的?

其实回答完了以上几个问题,对此基本上就很清晰了,你可这么写:

Throughout the passage, Thoreau frequently mentions that our society focuses too much on mundane labor and details to afford a life of conscious endeavors.

该文转发自“上海素养联盟”成员“徐sir寰球英文讲堂”。


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