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Unit 8. Ireland's Contribution to English
第8單元 愛爾蘭對英語的貢獻(xiàn)
Nearly everyone knows that countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are primarily English-speaking countries; that is, English is the mother tongue used in these countries.
幾乎每個人都知道，諸如英國、美國、加拿大、澳洲和新西蘭等國都是說英語的主要國家；也就是說，英語是這些國家使用的母語。
What is less well known is that English is also the mother tongue in countries such as the Republic of Ireland (officially called Eire) , Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana.
較不為人所知的是，英語也是愛爾蘭共和國（正式稱呼為 Eire）、巴巴多斯、牙買加、特立尼達(dá)和圭亞那等國的母語。
Among these latter few, the Irish have made contributions to the English language in both its lexicon and literature which can be considered second to none.
在后面這幾個國家中，愛爾蘭人在英語詞匯和文學(xué)上的貢獻(xiàn)可說是無人能出其右。
Virtually every aspect of English literature has been graced by the writings of the Irish.
英語文學(xué)幾乎在各方面都因為愛爾蘭人的作品而變得多采多姿。
This fact is all the more amazing because Ireland is a relatively small country, with never more than four million people throughout its long history.
此一事實則因愛爾蘭是個相當(dāng)小的國家，其人口在漫長的歷史上從未超過400萬因而更加令人驚異。
Yet many great "English" writers were indeed born and often raised in Ireland, though many, too, emigrated to the United Kingdom at some point in their lives.
然而許多偉大的“英語”作家的確是在愛爾蘭出生且通常都在愛爾蘭長大，即使當(dāng)中也有很多人在他們?nèi)松硞€時期移居到英國去。
Among these pillars of English literature were Jonathan Swift, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Edmund Burke.
在這些英語文學(xué)的巨擘中有喬納森·斯威夫特、威廉·巴特勒·葉芝、詹姆士·喬伊斯、塞繆爾·貝克特、奧斯卡·王爾德、喬治·蕭伯納以及埃德蒙·伯克。
Many other lesser-known figures have punctuated English literature as well.
其它許多較不知名的作家也不時出現(xiàn)在英語文學(xué)中。
These men's contributions to the English language and to Western thought in general are immeasurable.
這些人對英語和西方一般思想的貢獻(xiàn)是無法估量的。
A review of two of these writers' major works will reveal why.
在這些作家中挑兩個出來回顧其主要作品就可了解原因了。
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) by most reckoning is the best English-language satirist ever, and one of the world's greatest as well.
喬納森·斯威夫特（1667～1745）一般都認(rèn)為是歷史上最好的英語諷刺作家，也是世上最偉大的諷刺作家之一。
Born in Ireland of English parents, Swift went to school there through his bachelor's degree (Trinity College, Dublin, capital of Ireland) .
斯威夫特出生于愛爾蘭，父母是英國人；他在那兒接受教育直到完成學(xué)士學(xué)位（愛爾蘭首府都伯林的三一學(xué)院）。
Thereafter he frequently traveled between England and Ireland, including years spent at Oxford College, where he earned his master's degree.
此后他經(jīng)常往返于英國和愛爾蘭之間，包括他在牛津大學(xué)攻讀碩士學(xué)位的那幾年。
Swift wrote a great deal of poetry, but he is best regarded as a prose satirist.
斯威夫特寫過許多詩，但卻以散文諷刺作家著稱。
He wrote prolifically both in Ireland and England, nearly constantly shuttling from one to the other.
他幾乎不斷穿梭于愛爾蘭和英國之間，并在兩地寫出大量作品。
In Ireland he worked on Gulliver's Travels, which he later had published in England in 1726.
《格列佛游記》是他在愛爾蘭寫的，稍后于1726年時在英國出版。
Already famous by that time, Swift would become immortalized with this last great work.
當(dāng)時已經(jīng)成名的他，因為最后這本巨著而得以名垂不朽。
What child does not know the story of the brave sailor Gulliver as he travels through lands in which he is at turn both a giant and a midget?
哪個孩子不知道勇敢的水手格列佛周游各地，一會兒變成巨人，一會兒又變成小小人兒的故事呢？
Yet most readers are not aware of Swift's intent to satirize the political, academic, and religious leaders of his time.
然而大部分的讀者卻不知道斯威夫特是想藉此諷刺當(dāng)時的政治、學(xué)術(shù)和宗教領(lǐng)袖。
Read either way, Swift's genius as a writer of English cannot be denied.
不管讀者怎么看這本書，斯威夫特身為英語作家的天分是不容置疑的。
A giant of English theater was George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) .
喬治·蕭伯納（1856～1950）是英語戲劇上的一位巨人。
Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to England with his family when he was 20 and stayed there for most of the rest of his long life.
蕭生于都伯林，20歲時隨家人搬到英國，在往后漫長的一生中他大部分的時間都待在那兒。
His early fiction writing was so poor that he could not find a publisher.
他早期的小說作品差勁到?jīng)]有出版商愿意出版他的書。
Only when he began to work as a playwright did his fortunes improve.
一直到他開始當(dāng)劇作家時，命運才得到改善。
Among the many, many plays for which Shaw is famous, perhaps his most lasting (though not his most critically acclaimed) is Pygmalion (1916) , the story of a language teacher who attempts to "civilize" a young prostitute by training her to speak correctly.
在他諸多賴以成名的戲劇當(dāng)中，傳頌最久的（雖然不是最受批評家贊揚的）也許是《Pygmalion》（1916）故事描述一位語言教師試圖透過正確的說話訓(xùn)練來“教化”一名年輕的妓女。
If this story sounds familiar, it should:
如果這故事聽來耳熟，那并不奇怪：
Pygmalion was later filmed winning an Oscar for Shaw and later again transformed into the highly popular Broadway musical My Fair Lady (1956) .
《Pygmalion》稍后被拍成電影為蕭贏得了一座奧斯卡獎；后來又被改編成極受歡迎的百老匯音樂劇“真善美”（1956）。
A good story never dies:
好故事絕不會被遺忘：
the original Pygmalion has since been updated in the hit movie Pretty Woman (1990) starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts.
《Pygmalion》原劇之后又以現(xiàn)代的表演方式呈現(xiàn)在理察·吉爾和朱莉婭·羅伯茲主演的賣座電影《麻雀變鳳凰》（1990）中。
As with Shakespeare, many of Shaw's plays are continually restaged or rewritten into new media, because Shaw wrote on many themes which touch on the human condition, independent of time and space.
和莎士比亞一樣，蕭的許多戲劇作品不斷被重新搬上舞臺或改編用在新的媒體上，這是因為蕭所寫的主題觸及人生百態(tài)，不因時間和空間改變而有所不同。
Among the constellation of Irish talents, perhaps Swift and Shaw are two among the more brilliant stars, but much more could be written of those mentioned above and many others.
在愛爾蘭群星中，也許斯威夫特和蕭是其中較為耀眼的兩顆星星；但上面所提到的其它那些人和另外許多作家還有更多可供介紹之處。
Though English literature written by the British suffices as an eternal and shining canon of literature, it would be nonetheless dimmer without the considerable talents of its Irish contributors.
盡管英國人寫的英語文學(xué)足以當(dāng)作永久且閃亮的文學(xué)標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，但若沒有愛爾蘭這些人才的眾多貢獻(xiàn)，它將因而大為遜色吧。
