評論
打印
Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth-something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well.
“我接收到通知將到這里來做演說時，我就詢問我應該講些什么。他們說應該講些適合年輕人的--有教育性的，有意義的，或者一些好的建議。非常好！”
I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young, for it is in one's tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable. First, then, I will say to you — my young friends, and I say it beseechingly, urgently;
我心里有些話一直想一吐為快，好用以指導青年人。因為只有在一個人年輕的時候，這些話才能更好地在內心扎根，產生最為持久的影響，同時也最具價值。年輕的朋友們，首先我要對你們說，我也要誠懇，急切地告誡你們：
Always obey your parents when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don't, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition than you can by acting on your own better judgment.
當著父母的面，要永遠服從父母。如果從長計議，這是最佳選擇，因為即使你不服從，他們也會迫使你服從。大多數(shù)的家長都認為他們比你懂得多，而你如果順從他們，假裝也認為的確是他們比你更有經驗，則往往要比按照自己更正確的判斷行事，更容易取得好的結果。
Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him, acknowledge it like a man and say you didn't mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined.
尊敬你的上司，如果你有的話；你也應該尊敬陌生人；有時還要尊敬其他人，如果有人冒犯你，而你不確定這種冒犯行為是否是有意的，那就不要采取極端措施。你只需要瞅準機會，狠狠地給他來一下，那就夠了。萬一發(fā)現(xiàn)他并非故意冒犯，你就要坦誠地站出來，承認自己的錯誤，像個男子漢一樣坦白自己對他的報復，并說明自己絕非有意如此。對，要始終避免暴力。在這個寬容友好的年代，盛行的是仁愛和寬容。將炸藥留給那些低俗的、沒教養(yǎng)的人。
Go to bed early, get up early — this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some others say get up with on thing, some with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time — it is no trick at all.
要早睡早起——這是明智之舉。有權威人士說要日出而起；也有人說應該與這個或那個同起。但我覺得最好是和云雀同起。如果大家知道你和云雀同起，名聲自然會好。不妨弄一只機靈的能夠接受訓練的云雀，悉心調教，準能輕易讓它每天九點半起床——這可算不上什么復雜的伎倆。
Now as to the matter of lying, you want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before. Many a young person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some authorities hold that the young ought not to lie at all.
“現(xiàn)在來談談說謊的事。你們要非常小心地對待說謊；否則幾乎一定會被抓到。一旦被抓，在那些善良純潔的人眼中，你就不可能再與原來的你一樣了。許多年輕人都這樣；用一個簡單笨拙而又草草結尾的謊言，用那天生缺乏訓練的疏忽所導致的結果來傷害自己。有些權威人士認為，年輕人絕不應該撒謊?！?/div>
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That of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable. Patience, diligence, painstaking attention to detail — these are requirements; these in time, will make the student perfect; upon these only, may he rely as the sure foundation for future eminence.
“當然，這要求過于苛刻，我的觀點沒那么絕對，我堅持認為，同時我也相信我的想法是正確的；年輕人在運用這項偉大藝術時一定要節(jié)制，直到他們的實踐與經驗可以讓他們自信、優(yōu)雅并精確地使謊言漂漂亮亮地成功。耐心、勤奮、對細節(jié)的認真洞察力，這些都需要具備；這些遲早會讓學習者變得完美；僅僅靠這些，就會為將來變得出眾打下堅實基礎?！?/div>
For the history of our race, and each individual's experience, are sewn thick with evidences that a truth is not hard to kill, and that a lie well told is immortal. There is in Boston a monument of the man who discovered anesthesia; many people are aware, in these latter days, that that man didn't discover it at all, but stole the discovery from another man. Is this truth mighty，and will it prevail. Ah no, my hearers, the monument is made of hardy material, but the lie it tells will outlast it a million years.
“我們人類的歷史及每個人的經歷都清清楚楚地證明：事實不難毀掉，編得好的謊言可以長存不朽。波士頓有個紀念碑，是為了紀念一個發(fā)明麻醉術的人；后來許多人都知道，根本不是他發(fā)現(xiàn)的，而是他偷了另一個人的發(fā)明成果。這個事實有力量嗎？它會流傳嗎？哦，不會的，我的聽眾們。紀念碑是用堅硬的材料做的，而它所記述的謊言會比它多活一百萬年?！?/div>
An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why ,you might as well tell truth at once and be done with it. A feeble, stupid, preposterous lie will not live two years — except it be a slander upon somebody. It is indestructible, then of course, but that is no merit of yours. A final word: begin your practice of this gracious and beautiful art early — begin now. If I had begun earlier, I could have learned now.
“笨拙、無力、有漏洞的謊言是你們應該通過不斷學習來避免的；這樣的謊言不會比一個普通的事實更真實永久。你們何不一次說出事實并自此再不提起。一個軟弱無力，愚蠢荒謬的謊言流傳不到兩年--除非那是對某個人的誹謗。當然，它不可毀滅，但這樣對你也沒有好處?？傊痪湓挘含F(xiàn)在趁早就開始實踐這項高尚美麗的藝術吧。如果我早開始，我現(xiàn)在一定會學會了?！?/div>
There are many sorts of books, but good ones are the sort for the young to read. Remember that. They are a great, an inestimable and unspeakable means of improvement. Therefore be careful in your selection, my young friends; be very careful; confine yourselves exclusively to Robertson's Sermons, Baxter's Saint's Rest, The Innocents Abroad, and works of that kind.
書有很多種，但適合青年人看的書才算是好書。記住這一點。好書是難以估量的巨大財富，讀好書是一種絕佳的、難以言表的進步方式。因此，年輕的朋友們，要謹慎選擇圖書，要非常謹慎才行，把自己看書的范圍限定于羅賓遜的《布道辭》、巴克斯特的《圣徒的信息》和《傻子國外旅行記》等諸如此類的作品。
Never handle firearms carelessly. The sorrow and suffering that have been caused through the innocent but heedless handling of firearms by the young ! Only for days ago, right in the next farm house to the one where I am spending the summer, a grandmother, old and gray and sweet, one of the loveliest spirits in the land, was sitting at her work, when her young grandson crept in and got down an old, battered, rusty gun which had not been touched for many years and was supposed not to be loaded, and pointed it at her, laughing and threatening to shoot. In her fright she ran screaming and pleading toward the door on the other side of the room; but as she passed him he placed the gun almost against her very breast and pulled the trigger!
“絕不輕意地用武器。由于年輕人無知，輕率地拿起武器而引起的悲痛有多少！僅僅四天前，就在我過夏天那家農屋的隔壁，有一位頭發(fā)灰白，和藹可親的老奶奶，當?shù)刈羁蓯鄣娜宋镏唬幕睿暧椎膶O子躡手躡腳進來取下那只破舊、已被敲扁了的生銹的槍。這支槍已多年未被動過，可能沒有裝填彈藥。驚駭中，她邊跑邊尖叫著懇求著到了屋子另一邊的門。就在她經過他時，他幾乎把槍正對著她的胸膛，并拉動了扳機。”
He had supposed it was not loaded. And he was right — it wasn't. So there wasn't any harm done. It is the only case of that kind I ever heard meddle with old unloaded firearms; they are the most deadly and unerring things that have ever been created by man. You don't have to take any pains at all with them; you don't have to have a rest, you don't have to have any sights on the gun, you don't have to take aim, even. No, you just pick out a relative and bang away，and you are sure to get him.
“他以為里面沒裝子彈，他對了--是的，是沒裝，所以沒造成任何傷害。這是我所聽過的惟一一個沒有造成傷害的例子。因此，同樣別去擺弄那些舊了的卸了膛的武器，他們是人類創(chuàng)造的武器中最準確最致命的了。使用它們你不用費任何力氣，也不需要休息，不用槍瞄準，甚至都不用選取目標。都不用，你就找個親戚呼地一聲，就一定能擊中他。”
But I have said enough. I hope you will treasure up the instructions which I have given you, and make them a guide to your feet and a light to your understanding. Build your character thoughtfully and painstakingly upon these precepts, and by and by, when you have got it built, you will be surprised and gratified to see how nicely and sharply it resembles everybody else's.
我已經說得差不多了。希望你們將我的教誨銘記在心，作為自己的行動指南、指路明燈。大家要修身養(yǎng)性、奮力進取，這樣，等到最終修成正果，你會驚喜地發(fā)現(xiàn)，你的品行和周圍其他人的是多么驚人地相似。
| 重點單詞 | 查看全部解釋 | |||
| feeble | [fi:bl] |
想一想再看 adj. 虛弱的，無力的 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| carelessly | ['kɛəlisli] |
想一想再看 adv. 粗心大意地，疏忽地 |
||
| heedless | ['hi:dlis] |
想一想再看 adj. 不注意的；不留心的 |
||
| violence | ['vaiələns] |
想一想再看 n. 暴力，猛烈，強暴，暴行 |
||
| reputation | [.repju'teiʃən] |
想一想再看 n. 聲譽，好名聲 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| lark | [lɑ:k] |
想一想再看 n. 云雀，百靈鳥 n. 嬉戲，玩笑 vi. 嬉戲 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| painstaking | ['peinz.teikiŋ] |
想一想再看 adj. 辛苦的，勤勉的 n. 辛苦，苦心，工夫 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| profitable | ['prɔfitəbl] |
想一想再看 adj. 有益的，有用的 |
聯(lián)想記憶 | |
| carelessness | ['kɛəlisnis] |
想一想再看 n. 粗心 |
||
| resort | [ri'zɔ:t] |
想一想再看 n. (度假)勝地，手段，憑借 |
聯(lián)想記憶 |
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