評論
打印
Sells of phrasebooks are falling fast.
外語常用語手冊的銷量正在迅速下降。
The phrasebook had looked so helpful.
常用語手冊曾經似乎很有用。
When Eric Newby, a writer, set out to walk in the Hindu Kush in 1956, he knew he would be visiting places no Englishman had been since 1891.
1956年，作家埃里克·紐比前往了興都庫什山，他知道他將造訪的是自1891年以來英國人從未去過的地方。
Nonetheless, he was hopeful of communicating.
盡管如此，他仍對交流抱有希望。
In his bag he carried “Notes on the Bashgali Language”, a phrasebook published in Calcutta in 1902.
他的包里有一本1902年在加爾各答出版的常用語手冊《巴什加利語言筆記》。
Opening it one afternoon in the high Himalayas, his hopes faded.
一天下午，他在高聳的喜馬拉雅山上打開了這本手冊，然后，他的希望破滅了。
Whereas most guidebooks explain how to order a small glass of red wine or a coffee, this offered phrases of more opaque utility.
大多數的旅游指南都會介紹如何點一小杯紅酒或咖啡，但這本書中提到的短語卻看不出有什么實用性。
“Ini ash ptul p’mich e manchi mrisht waria’m” ran one which, it explained, meant: “I saw a corpse in a field this morning.”
其中一句寫道：“Ini ash ptul p’mich e manchi mrisht waria’m”，意思是：“今天早上我在田野里看到一具尸體。”
That was followed by “Tu tott baglo piltia” (“Thy father fell into the river”); “I non angur ai; tu ta duts angur ai” (“I have nine fingers; you have ten”); and “Ia chitt bitto tu jarlom” (“I have an intention to kill you”).
緊隨其后的是“Tu tott baglo piltia”(“你父親掉進了河里”)、“I non angur ai; tu ta duts angur ai”(“我有九根手指，你有十根手指”)和“Ia chitt bitto tu jarlom”(“我打算殺了你”)。
Some struck a more conversational tone, such as “Tu chi se biss gur biti?”
也有些像是用于對話的句子，比如“Tu chi se biss gur biti?”
(“How long have you had a goitre?”).
(“你的甲狀腺腫有多久了？”)。
But on the whole the book left him with “a disturbing impression” of Bashgali life.
但總體而言，這本書讓他對巴什加利生活產生了“不安的印象”。
Newby’s guide was an eccentric but by no means unique example of a neglected literary genre: the phrasebook.
紐比手中的指南屬于一種容易被忽視的文學類型：常用語手冊。它不同尋常，但絕不罕見。
These began in antiquity, gathered pace with medieval pilgrimages and flourished in the age of empires and, later, of aeroplanes.
常用語手冊出現于古代，隨著中世紀的朝圣之旅快速發展，并在帝國時代和后來的航空時代煥發蓬勃生機。
Once they were essential.
它們曾是不可或缺的書籍。
Now the internet and machine translation are rendering them obsolete.
而現在，由于互聯網和機器翻譯的發展，它們開始逐漸過時。
Figures from Nielsen Book Research, a market-research firm, show that sales in Britain have fallen by 40% in three years.
市場研究公司尼爾森圖書研究公司的數據顯示，在英國，常用語手冊的銷量在三年內下降了40%。
The phrasebook is dying.
常用語手冊正在消亡。
Few readers will mourn them.
但很少有讀者會對它們表示哀悼。
The conversations they mapped out rarely ran so smoothly in life as on the page.
書中安排的對話說起來不像現實生活中那樣流暢。
But for historians they are invaluable.
但對于歷史學家來說，它們是無價的。
Newby thought his phrasebook was revealing about the Bashgalis; in truth such books reveal much more about their English-speaking authors.
紐比認為他的常用語手冊揭示了有關巴什加利人的事實；但事實上，這樣的書籍更多地映照了會說英語的作者內心的想法。
To sift through old phrasebooks is to study an unparalleled source on the assumptions made by Britons abroad.
舊時的常用語手冊是一些獨一無二的材料，能夠用于研究旅居海外的英國人對當地產生的猜測。
It is an archaeology of othering.
這是一門關于他者的考古學。
Two things quickly become clear.
兩件事很快變得明朗起來。
The first is that travel was seen as a troublesome, even perilous, pursuit.
首先，旅行過去被視為一種麻煩，甚至是危險的行動。
The other is that the now familiar form of the genre - books offering sentences that are practically and predictably useful - took some time to develop.
第二，現在人們熟悉的那種書籍體裁——提供一些實用句子，供日常生活使用，或應對可能情況的書籍——過了一段時間才發展起來。
The 1900 English-Welsh phrasebook “for the use of Travellers and Students” offers “Have you any apples?”
1900年出版的“供旅行者和學生使用的”英語-威爾士語常用語手冊中的句子包括：“你有蘋果嗎？”
and “Where is the butter market?”
和“黃油市場在哪里？”
before adding the more unexpected: “They have cut off his arm.”
更讓人意想不到的是：“他們砍掉了他的胳膊。”
The savour of national stereotypes can be tasted on almost every page.
幾乎每一頁都能感受到作者對威爾士民族的刻板印象。
J.B.Leek’s 1928 English-Italian Conversation Handbook shows that Italy has long been seen as a land of aesthetic indulgence.
J.B.利克在1928年出版的《英語-意大利語對話手冊》顯示，意大利長期以來被視為一個藝術且放縱的國家。
A section on hair care (“Shave my mustachio/ Kindly twist up my mustachio/ A little pomade on my mustachio”) follows a lengthy section on food.
書中有關于毛發護理的章節(“剃掉我的八字胡/小心地整理我的八字胡/在我的八字胡上抹一點潤發油”)，在那之前，是關于食物的長篇大論。
“Give me a bottle...of red wine/ of white wine/ of claret/ of Burgundy...” it runs.
“給我一瓶……紅葡萄酒/白葡萄酒/干紅葡萄酒/勃艮第葡萄酒……“書中這樣寫到。
“Give me some Brie cheese/ some Camembert/ some Gruyere...”
“給我一些布里干酪/一些卡蒙貝爾奶酪/一些古老也芝士奶酪......”
