評論
打印
Same age, sam e bac kground,but dumb as an ox. A nice enough young fellow, you understand, but nothing upstairs. Emotional type. Unstable. Impressionable. Worst of all, a faddist. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason. To be swept up in every new craze that come, s along, to, surrender yourself to idiocy just because everybody else is doing it-this, to me, is the acme of mindlessness. Not, however, to Petey.
他跟我年齡相仿，經歷一樣，可他笨得像頭驢。小伙子長得年輕漂亮，可惜腦子里卻空空如也。他易于激動，情緒反復無常，容易受別人的影響。最糟的是他愛趕時髦。我認為，趕時髦就是最缺乏理智的表現。見到一種新鮮的東西就跟著學，以為別人都在那么干，自己也就卷進去傻干--這在我看來，簡直愚蠢至極，但皮蒂卻不以為然。
One afternoon I found Petey lying on his bed with an expression of such distress on his face that I immediately diagnosed appendicitis. Don't move, I said.Don't take a laxative. I'll get a doctor.
一天下午我看見皮蒂躺在床上，臉上顯露出一種痛苦不堪的表情，我立刻斷定他是得了闌尾炎。別動，我說，別吃瀉藥，我就請醫生來。
Raccoon, he mumbled thickly.
浣熊，他咕噥著說。
Raccoon? I said, pausing in my flight.
浣熊?我停下來問道。
I want a raccoon coat, he wailed.
我要一件浣熊皮大衣，他痛苦地哭叫著。
I perceived that his trouble was not physical, but mental. Why do you want a raccoon coat?
我明白了，他不是身體不舒服，而是精神上不太正常。你為什么要浣熊皮大衣?
I should have known it, he cried, pounding his temples. I should have known they'd come back when the Charleston came back. Like a fool I spent all my money for textbooks, and now I can't get a raccoon coat.
我本早該知道，他哭叫著，用拳頭捶打著太陽穴，我早該知道查爾斯登舞再度流行時，浣熊皮大衣也會時興起來的。我真傻，錢都買了課本，可現在不能買浣熊皮大衣了。
Can you mean. I said incredulously, that people are actually wearing raccoon coats again?
我帶著懷疑的眼神問道：你是說人們真的又要穿浣熊皮大衣嗎?
All the Big Men on Campus are wearing them. Where've you been?
校園里有身分的人哪個不穿?你剛從哪兒來?
In the library, I said, naming a place not frequented by Big Men on Campus.
圖書館，我說了一個有身分的人不常去的地方。
