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现代英文选评注 Kant the Man康德的日常生活
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W. Somerset Maugham (1874—1965)
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毛姆的散文，清楚易读，最宜初学模仿。下面所选几段，很少费解之处，实在用不到什么注解。据毛姆在他的《写作生活回忆》（The Summing Up）中说，他自己作文，有三个标准，按其重要性次序说来，第一是达（lucidity），第二是简（simplicity），第三是顺（euphony）。达者，就是把话说清楚了，使人一看就懂；简者，要言不烦，少说废话；顺者，音调悦耳，便于上口。这三点——尤其是达——为毛姆一生致力所在，当代作家在这三点上的成就，能及得上毛姆的，实不多见。国内有几种英文选本都选用毛姆《中国游记》（On a Chinese Screen）里的文章，其实他那本书里的文字，既不达，又不简，并不足以代表他的风格。
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本文选自他的散文集《随心所至》（The Vagrant Mood, Doubleday & Co. 1953）。原题《某书的读后感》（“Reflections on a Certain Book”）。他所谓某书是康德的美学名著《判断力之批判》（Critique of the Power of Judgment），这样一个书名很可能把一个不学哲学的外行读者吓倒，但是毛姆自己承认对于哲学也是外行，只是对于艺术有兴趣，所以他觉得他对于美学的问题也可以来发表意见。全文分六节，第一节是描写康德的日常生活，就如下面所节录介绍的。后五节是他读康德美学名著后的杂感，都很平易近人，并不比第一节艰难多少。
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Punctually at five minutes to five Lampe, his servant, waked Professor Kant and by five, in his slippers, dressing-gown and night-cap, over which he wore his three-cornered hat, he seated himself in his study ready for breakfast. This consisted of a cup of weak tea and a pipe of tobacco. The next two hours he spent thinking over the lecture he was to deliver that morning. Then he dressed. The lecture room was on the ground floor of his house. He lectured from seven till nine and so popular were his lectures that if you wanted a good seat you had to be there at six-thirty.
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● Punctually：准时地。Lampe：仆人之名。slippers：拖鞋；dressing-gown：晨服（燕居时所穿之宽大袍服）；night-cap：睡帽。注意：穿（鞋或衣）和戴（帽）都可以用介词in来表示。
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● three-cornered hat：三角状之帽；康德把它戴在睡帽的外面。study：书房。deliver：发表（演讲）。
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● 本段句法都很平顺，只有第三句The next two hours he spent…中hours为宾语，放在动词之前；末句so popular were his lectures中主语lectures放在动词之后。此种次序之颠倒，大多为加强语气之用；移放在一句前头的字，往往是意义上应该着重的字。
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Kant, seated behind a little desk, spoke in a conversational tone, in a low voice, and very rarely indulged in gesture, but he enlivened his discourse with humour and abundant illustrations. His aim was to teach his students to think for themselves and he did not like it when they busied themselves with their quills to write down his every word.
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“Gentlemen, do not scratch so,” he said once. “I am no oracle.”
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● seated是过去分词。conversational tone：普通谈话式的语气（不像在讲学）。
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● indulged in：任性而为。用了indulge in以后，所做的事情大约并不是一件好事；即使并不是坏事，至少也应该加以节制而少去做它的。照毛姆的意思，讲学的时候多做手势一事并不可取，但是康德很少有这个毛病。enlivened：使活泼有趣。discourse：讲演。illustrations：实例，用以说明理论者。
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● he did not like it之it指学生勤记笔记这种情形。quills：鸟羽笔。
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● scratch原意是“扒，搔”，转作“像扒搔似的写字”：乱写，急写。
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● oracle：代表天神发言之人。这种人的话才是值得一字不漏地记下来的。
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It was his custom to fix his eyes on a student who sat close to him and judge by the look on his face whether or not he understood what he said. But a very small thing distracted him. On one occasion he lost the thread of his discourse because a button was wanting on the coat of one of the students, and on another, when a sleepy youth persistently yawned, he broke off to say:
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“If one cannot avoid yawning, good manners require that the hand should be placed before the mouth.”
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● custom：习惯。judge：判断（前面的to省去），它的宾语是“whether”clause。
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● distracted him：分他的心。
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● thread：线索。lost the thread of his discourse：演讲断了线索，讲不下去了。a button was wanting on the coat：上衣上面少了一个钮扣。注意：中文说法用“上衣”做主语，英文常用“钮扣”做主语。
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● persistently：（坚持）不断的。yawned：打呵欠。broke off to say：打断了话锋，改讲另外一件事情。
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● avoid：避免。good manners：礼貌。“假如呵欠非打不可的话，照规矩手也得捂在嘴上的。”这是一句幽默的话，幽默之所以为幽默，这里也不妨试一试探求其原因：一、康德看见那人不断地打呵欠，心里也许很不高兴，但是他宽恕他的打呵欠，只是批评他不该不把嘴捂上。他的宽容也许是勉强的，他的批评只是避重就轻。但是这种勉强的宽容精神和避重就轻的批评，假如表现得好的话，往往就成了幽默。二、这句话本来是专指某一个人说的，可是康德并不讲明是谁，先用的是one（任何人），后面连one都不用了，只是说good manners require that the hand…根本没有提什么人。这样把“专指”化为“泛指”，就显得更为气度雍容。假如改说“…one should place one’s hand…”，就似乎带点声色俱厉的样子，还不足以言幽默也。
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At nine o’clock Kant returned to his room, once more put on his dressing-gown, his night-cap, his three-cornered hat and his slippers and studied till exactly a quarter to one. Then he called down to his cook, told her the hour, dressed and went back to his study to await the guests he expected to dinner.
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● called down to his cook：他的厨子可能在楼下。he expected to dinner是定语从句，关系代名词whom省却。dinner：一天中主要的一餐。
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He could not bear to eat alone, and there were always guests, never less than two nor more than five. As soon as they were assembled Kant told his servant to bring the dinner and himself went to fetch the silver spoons which he kept locked up with his money in a bureau in the parlour.
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