1705006850
现代英文选评注 University Days大学生活回忆
1705006851
1705006852
James G. Thurber (1894—1961)
1705006853
1705006854
作者瑟勃出生于美国俄亥俄（Ohio）州之Columbus。他是美国现代幽默大师，文画双绝。他的漫画以臃肿而懦弱的男人，臃肿而凶横的女人，以及神经质的狗为题材，最能反映病态的西方文明社会。他的著作很多，如Further Fables for Our Time，所收为供成人阅读的伊索寓言式的故事。这篇《大学生活回忆》原为他的自传My Life and Hard Times（1933）里的一章，现在选择“植物学课”和“经济学课”的几段，在这里发表。（录自Modern Library出版的《美国最佳幽默小说集》（Best American Humorous Short Stories）。美国式的幽默，通常以胡闹与胡说（nonsense）为主，不一定有什么尖刻的讽刺，或是高尚的含义。中国近代知识分子，大多推崇高级的幽默，而鄙视低级的滑稽。其实喜剧与悲剧，历史同样久远；喜剧主要的目的是叫人笑，并不一定有什么明确的教训。莎士比亚的幽默，胡闹与胡说的成份很多，但是莎士比亚的喜剧天才，同他的悲剧天才一样受到举世的称颂。这几段文章的描写可能夸张，记事不一定忠实，问题是看读者觉得好笑不好笑了。
1705006855
1705006856
I passed all the other courses that I took at my University, but I could never pass botany. This was because all botany students had to spend several hours a week in a laboratory looking through a microscope at plant cells, and I could never see through a microscope. I never once saw a cell through a microscope. This used to enrage my instructor. He would wander around the laboratory pleased with the progress all the students were making in drawing the involved and, so I am told, interesting structure of flower cells, until he came to me. I would just be standing there. “I can’t see anything,” I would say. He would begin patiently enough, explaining how anybody can see through a microscope, but he would always end up in a fury, claiming that I could too see through a microscope but just pretend that I couldn’t. “It takes away from the beauty of flowers anyway,” I used to tell him. “We are not concerned with beauty in this course,” he would say. “We are concerned solely with what I may call the mechanics of flars,” “Well,” I’d say, “I can’t see anything.” “Try it just once again,” he’d say, and I would put my eye to the microscope and see nothing at all, except now and again a nebulous milky substance—a phenomenon of maladjustment. You were supposed to see a vivid, restless clockwork of sharply defined plant cells, “I see what looks like a lot of milk,” I would tell him. This, he claimed, was the result of my not having adjusted the microscope properly, so he would readjust it for me, or rather, for himself. And I would look again and see milk.
1705006857
1705006858
● that I took的took有“修读”之意。my University指Ohio State University。
1705006859
1705006860
● botany students：修植物学的学生。（同样的，English students 指修读英语的学生。）microscope：显微镜。plant cells：植物细胞。I could never see：事实上，Thurber确有眼疾，近年几已成盲人。他写稿时，字写得很大，一张纸上只写寥寥数十字。但他仍写文作画不辍，精神可佩。
1705006861
1705006862
● instructor：狭义是“讲师”（大学教员的一个等级），广义是“授课的先生”。这儿用的是广义，因为这位先生是一个“教授”。
1705006863
1705006864
● He would：这一段里would用得很多，表示过去的习惯。pleased是过去分词，形容主语He，教授看见全班学生在画细胞图，心里很高兴。the progress all the students were making：这里progress的意思，不是“进步”，而是“进行”——先画了一个轮廓，然后愈画愈详细。structure：（花卉细胞之）结构。这种结构是复杂的（involved），据说（so I am told）也是有趣的。
1705006865
1705006866
● standing there：大家都在埋头作画，我只是站着。
1705006867
1705006868
● end up：他开头很耐心地对我解释，显微镜里的细胞是人人看得见的；最后总要大发雷霆（fury），说我一定也看得见的，只是假装（pretending）看不见而已。claim=to assert or maintain as a fact。
1705006869
1705006870
● It takes away from中的It指在显微镜中看花这件事。takes在这里是不及物动词。takes away from：减损。anyway：不管显微镜里看得见看不见细胞。
1705006871
1705006872
● concerned with：所关心者，所注意者。
1705006873
1705006874
● mechanics：机械结构之学。花是有生命的东西，当然和没有生命的机械不同，但是细胞的结构，其配合整齐，亦可与机械结构相比。故教授说“我可以称之为花的机械结构的学问”。flars：教授读flowers时，嘴张得太大，读成了这个音。
1705006875
1705006876
● now and again：有时。nebulous：云雾状的。milky：牛奶状的。a phenomenon of maladjustment：因调整不良（显微镜的焦距没有对好）而产生的现象。
1705006877
1705006878
● You：泛指看显微镜的人。restless：活动不息的。clockwork：发条机械；呼应前面的mechanics。sharply defined：轮廓鲜明的。
1705006879
1705006880
● for me, or rather, for himself：与其说为我调整，不如说为他自己调整。教授调整好了，他自己先看。
1705006881
1705006882
I finally took a deferred pass, as they called it, and waited a year and tried again. (You had to pass one of the biological sciences or you couldn’t graduate.) The professor had come back from vacation brown as a berry, brightened, and eager to explain cell-structure again to his classes. “Well,” he said to me, cheerily when we met in the first laboratory hour of the semester, “we’re going to see cells this time, aren’t we?” “Yes, sir,” I said. Students to right of me and to left of me and in front of me were seeing cells; what’s more, they were quietly drawing pictures of them in their notebooks. Of course, I didn’t see anything.
1705006883
1705006884
● deferred pass：重修后给学分（延迟的及格）。as they called it：学生手则上有这样一个名称。（they系泛指。）
1705006885
1705006886
● You同上段的You一样，也是泛指。在那所大学里读书，必须选修一门生物科学（动物学、植物学、生理学、遗传学等），否则不得毕业。
1705006887
1705006888
● vacation：美国人喜欢到山上海边去度暑假，回来的时候，皮肤晒得红红的（应该说是“棕色的”，但是中国人不大说“棕色的”）。
1705006889
1705006890
● the first laboratory hour：本学期第一堂实验课。
1705006891
1705006892
● were seeing：see用进行式，是不常见的。但这里应该用进行式：教授和我谈话的时候，同学们都在看显微镜；非但是看（looking through），而且都从显微镜里看见细胞。
1705006893
1705006894
“We’ll try it,” the professor said to me grimly, “with every adjustment of the microscope known to man. As God is my witness, I’ll arrange this glass so that you see cells through it or I’ll give up teaching. In twenty-two years of botany, I—” He cut off abruptly for he was beginning to quiver all over, like Lionel Barrymore.
1705006895
1705006896
● grimly：教授的脸沉下去了。known to man：全人类所知道的调整显微镜的方法本来只有这么几种，教授都给用上了。
1705006897
1705006898
● As God is my witness：赌咒的话——你这次再看不见细胞，我就不（give up）吃这碗教书饭了。
[
上一页 ]
[ :1.705006849e+09 ]
[
下一页 ]