評(píng)論
打印
You ransack your budget of historic facts much as you would hunt for a bit of silk in a rag-bag. You are sure it is somewhere in your mind near the top—you saw it there the other day when you were looking up the beginnings of the Reformation. But where is it now? You fish out all manner of odds and ends of knowledge—revolutions, schisms, massacres, systems of government; but Huss—where is he? You are amazed at all the things you know which are not on the examination paper. In desperation you seize the budget and dump everything out, and there in a corner is your man, serenely brooding on his own private thought, unconscious of the catastrophe which he has brought upon you.
于是，在你儲(chǔ)備的歷史事件中，你上下求索，其過(guò)程好似在一個(gè)塞滿碎布頭的口袋中尋找一小塊絲綢。你確信這個(gè)信息就在距你思維階梯頂端不遠(yuǎn)的地方——你曾在查找“宗教改革運(yùn)動(dòng)”初期歷史時(shí)見(jiàn)到過(guò)它。但是現(xiàn)在它究竟藏在哪里？于是，你翻出所有零零碎碎的知識(shí)儲(chǔ)備——宗教革命，教會(huì)分裂，集體屠殺，政權(quán)體制——可是“哈斯”這個(gè)人在哪里呢？你會(huì)驚奇地發(fā)現(xiàn)，你所了解的那些事件并沒(méi)有在試卷上表現(xiàn)出來(lái)。失望之余，你只得攫取知識(shí)儲(chǔ)備，還要把你所學(xué)過(guò)的每一樣?xùn)|西悉數(shù)查驗(yàn)，終于，你要找的人就躲藏在一個(gè)角落里——他靜靜地沉浸在自己的思緒之中，全然沒(méi)有意識(shí)到加負(fù)在他人身上的精神磨難。
Just then the proctor informs you that the time is up. With a feeling of intense disgust you kick the mass of rubbish into a corner and go home, your head full of revolutionary schemes to abolish the divine right of professors to ask questions without the consent of the questioned.
就在這時(shí)，監(jiān)考官卻通知你考試結(jié)束時(shí)間已到。于是，懷著滿腔憤懣，你一腳把思維的殘片踢到角落里；你的頭腦里塞滿了革命性的計(jì)劃——你想廢除教授們的神圣特權(quán)，為什么他們能隨意提問(wèn)而無(wú)須經(jīng)過(guò)被提問(wèn)者的同意？
It comes over me that in the last two or three pages of this chapter I have used figures which will turn the laugh against me. Ah, here they are—the mixed metaphors mocking and strutting about before me, pointing to the bull in the china shop assailed by hailstones and the bugbears with pale looks, an unanalyzed species! Let them mock on.
在這一章的最后兩三頁(yè)里，我已經(jīng)隱約提到了幾個(gè)人物——他們一定會(huì)轉(zhuǎn)過(guò)身來(lái)嘲笑我。哈，這正是他們的風(fēng)格——在我面前趾高氣揚(yáng)，用混合了種種隱喻的言辭冷嘲熱諷；他們用手指著那頭因遭受冰雹襲擊而闖進(jìn)瓷器店的公牛，以及各種面色慘白的怪物，說(shuō)這是一些未經(jīng)鑒別的物種！讓他們嘲笑去吧。
