打字猴:1.705005819e+09
1705005819 现代英文选评注 [:1705000329]
1705005820 现代英文选评注 Romeo大情人
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1705005822 Charles Jackson (1903—1968)
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1705005824 本文作者查尔斯·杰克逊是一个谨慎用心的作家,他在四十岁的时候方才出版他的第一部作品 《失去了的周末》(The Lost Weekend, 1944)。这部描写酒徒心理的小说,至今仍被公认是一部杰出的作品。
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1705005826 杰克逊生于美国纽泽西州,早年曾因患肺病,在疗养院休养六年之久。杰氏著有长篇小说四种,短篇小说若干篇,他不是一个多产的作家。
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1705005828 这篇《大情人》采自他的短篇小说集《众生相》(Earthly Creatures, 1953)。原文有很多处描写精彩的地方,因为篇幅所限,不能备录,这是要向读者道歉的。我们在这里所读到的,只是故事的轮廓。故事的主题是一个梦想的幻灭(disillusionment),题目“大情人”是一个“反语”(irony)。
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1705005830 As Alice Harvey hung up the receiver, her first thought, luckily, was a practical one: Now I’ve got to really do something about dinner.
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1705005832 ● receiver:电话听筒。hung up:挂好。luckily:侥幸。电话里所听到的是什么消息,读者暂时并不知晓。可以猜测得到的是:消息很不平常,引起了那个女人很多思想;很侥幸地,第一个思想只是一个实际问题的考虑(a practical one=a practical thought),并没有牵涉到别的问题,否则的话,她恐怕要顿失常态,连说话的气力都没有的。
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1705005834 ● I’ve got to=I have to:不得不。to really do:副词放在不定式to和do的中间,语法家称为split infinitive,引为大忌。事实上,英美人说话作文时,常这么用,这里只是那个女人心里的思想,更不可以谈严格的语法规则了。dinner:我们可以猜想,电话里所说的大约是有人要来吃晚饭。
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1705005836 She stepped into the tiny kitchen.
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1705005838 “Gladys,” she said, “I hate telling you so late, but Ralph just phoned from uptown that he’s bringing somebody home. He’s a kind of, well, celebrity. Could you run over to Gristede’s and get some steak or something?”
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1705005840 ● Gladys:女佣之名。
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1705005842 ● I hate:没有早通知你,害得你临时张罗,有道歉之意。Ralph:是那个女人的亲人,关系在稍后即有说明。uptown:上城。小说发生于纽约市曼哈顿区(Manhattan)。五十九街(59th St.)以上皆为上城,包括哥伦比亚大学、林肯演奏中心在内。五十八街至二十三街为中城(midtown);二十二街以下为下城(downtown)。
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1705005844 ● well:说到这里,想不到一个适当的字眼,语气在这里停顿一下。celebrity:有名人物。a kind of celebrity:可以说相当有名的人物。
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1705005846 ● could:这样说比用can客气,主人对于佣人用这种说法,足以表示说话者的修养,无损说话者的尊严,胜过颐指气使的命令句也。Gristede’s:市场,超级市场; 曼哈顿有好多家Gristede Bros Food Markets同Gristede’s supermarkets。steak:牛排。此字母音读a长音/ei/。临时来了客人,菜肴还需添购。
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1705005848 Back in the living room, she sat on the sofa and lit a cigarette. Perhaps now I can let myself think about it, she thought.
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1705005850 What does a woman do when faced with the prospect of seeing the man she fell in love with more than twenty years ago, fell in love with but never met?
1705005851
1705005852 ● lit是light(点燃)的过去式。
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1705005854 ● 她的第一个念头只是厨房添菜的问题,现在一个人静静地坐下,想起主要的问题来了。
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1705005856 ● What does a woman do:动词用现在式,表示一般情形。
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1705005858 ● faced:过去分词,前面省略了she is二字。prospect期待或期待中的事情。这个男人,她二十多年前曾经爱过(爱过,但是没有见过面),现在面临着同他见面的机会了,在这种情形之下做女人的该怎么办呢?
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1705005860 Ralph had phoned that he’d run into Gavin Douglas and could he bring him home to dinner. She had cried, “Who did you say? You can’t mean the actor!” and he had replied in that infuriating unimaginative way he had, so like his father: “Why can’t I mean the actor?” If the prospect of meeting and knowing Gavin Douglas had arisen when she was eighteen, she would have died. Now, after some twenty years, here he was, about to walk into her living room, the dream made flesh…
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1705005862 ● 这一段是补叙电话里的话。但是这并不是小说家在这里补充说明,这里仍旧是那个女人的心理活动——她坐在沙发上的回忆。
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1705005864 ● run into:碰到,不期而遇。could he bring him home to dinner:这句话语法有问题,但是为了要模仿打电话的口吻,这样说也未尚不可。(按规矩来说,大约应该如此:and had asked whether he could bring him home to dinner。)
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1705005866 ● the actor:天下同名同姓的很多,Gavin Douglas是位名伶,但是现在这位Douglas可能另有其人。
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1705005868 ● in that…way:这几个字说明了Ralph的个性,也说明了他父亲(so like his father:多么的像他的父亲!)的个性。他们父子二人都是缺乏想象力的(unimaginative),令人气恼(infuriating)。这几个字又暗示:她对于她丈夫,并不完全满意。母亲听到Gavin Douglas这个名字,情不自禁,大叫出声,可是儿子不觉察到母亲的音调有异,还侃侃地在电话里答辩:“为什么不可以就是舞台名伶Douglas呢?”不能替别人设想,这就是做人缺乏想象力的地方。
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