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Mark Twain-Mirror of America
馬克吐溫-美國的一面鏡子
Noel Grove
諾埃爾格羅夫
Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well-one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.
在大多數美國人的心目中，馬克o吐溫是位偉大作家，他描寫了哈克o費恩永恒的童年時代中充滿詩情畫意的旅程和湯姆o索亞在漫長的夏日里自由自在歷險探奇的故事。的確，這位美國最受人喜愛的作家的探索精神、愛國熱情、浪漫氣質及幽默筆調都達到了登峰造極的程度。但我發現還有另一個不同的馬克o吐溫--一個由于深受人生悲劇的打擊而變得憤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的馬克o吐溫，一個為人類品質上的弱點而憂心忡忡、明顯地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。
Tramp printer, river pilot,Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water-a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world.
印刷工、領航員、邦聯游擊隊員、淘金者、耽于幻想的樂天派、語言尖刻的諷刺家：馬克吐溫原名塞繆爾朗赫恩克萊門斯，他一生之中有超過三分之一的時間浪跡美國各地，體驗著美國的新生活，爾后便以作家和演說家的身分將他所感受到的這一切介紹給全世界。他的筆名取自他在蒸汽船上做工時聽到的報告水深為兩口尋(12英尺)--意即可以通航的信號語。他的作品中有二十幾部至今仍在印行，其外文譯本仍在世界各地擁有讀者，由此可見他的享譽程度。
The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ，flatboats,and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses,cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States.
在馬克吐溫青年時代，美國的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是這個年輕國家中部的交通大動脈。龍骨船、平底船和大木筏載運著最重要的商品。木材、玉米、煙草、小麥和皮貨通過這些運載工具順流而下，運送到河口三角洲地區，而砂糖、糖漿、棉花和威士忌酒等貨物則被運送到北方。在19世紀50年代，西部領土開發高潮到來之前，遼闊的密西西比河流域占美國已開發領土的四分之三。
