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现代英文选评注 A Professor in Retirement退休教授
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Jean Stafford (1915—1979)
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珍·斯塔福是美国当代名女作家,她的第一部长篇小说Boston Adventure于1944年出版,一举成名。后来,她又写了The Mountain Lion,The Catherine Wheel等长篇,以及短篇小说多种。珍·斯塔福是个很精细的作家,描写不厌其详,可是笔触轻灵,同情的态度中还略带讽刺。美国当代作家,文字风格的差别很大,有极端的粗犷,也有极端的细腻。珍·斯塔福是用精细的手法,来表现她对世界的看法的。
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本文原题“A Reasonable Facsimile”,刊于1957年8月3日The New Yorker杂志。讲一个老教授和一个青年人的故事。这里选录几段,读者虽不能观全豹,但是她的英文还是可以叫人喜欢的。
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Far from withering on the vine from apathy and loneliness after his retirement as chairman of the Philosophy Department at Nevilles College, Dr. Bohrmann had a second blooming, and it was observed amongst his colleagues and his idolatrous students that he would age with gusto and live to be a hundred. He looked on the end of his academic career—an impressive one that had earned him an international reputation in scholarly quarters—as simply the end of one phase of his life, and when he began the new one, he did so with fresh accoutrements, for, as he had been fond of saying to his students, “Change is the only stimulus.”
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● 第一句相当长,但是内容也丰富。读者试把第一句里所讲的事情,一一列出,然后再把这些事情,集在一句句子里面,这句句子读起来,又要流利漂亮,你就会发现:不要说写篇好文章是件难事,写一句好句子也是不容易的。
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● 这位Bohrmann博士,是Nevilles College的哲学系主任,现在因年老退休了,但是他的精神老而弥健。这一句分前后两节,两节以and联系。
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● 普通人到了退休的年龄,因为对于世事冷淡(apathy),而且亲人凋零,生活孤寂(loneliness;老教授甫丧妻,这点以后就要说到),不免像一颗干瘪的葡萄,在藤上(on the vine)萎谢了,但是这位教授不然。本句用Far from开头,很见力量。普通人是这样的,他可不是这样。Dr. Bohrmann是主语。had a second blooming:第二次开花。第一次开花大约是在青春时期,那时人做事有劲,肯用心学习,老教授退休以后,重新表现青春的活力。blooming当然是和withering对比的。
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● observed:观察;也解作“发表意见”。it代表下面的“that”clause。amongst就是among:在这些人中间,有这样一个意见。colleagues:同事们。此字重音,在第一音节。idolatrous:崇拜的(此字之根是idol:偶像)。学生们平日把这位教授,敬崇之若神明。在庸手写来,这件事大约又需要一句句子,但是这里只用一个字就够了。
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● age是动词:年龄老下去(aging形容词:垂老,渐老)。gusto:(做事,做人)津津有味的精神。live to be a hundred:活到一百岁。
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● the end of his academic career:学术(教授)生涯的结束。looked on连后面的as:他把退休这件事只看作是生活一个阶段(one phase)的结束。career后面,有一个说明。两条横线的作用,等于括弧。an impressive one=an impressive career。impressive:给人深刻印象的,不平凡的。他教了几十年书,替他在学术圈子里挣来了国际上的声誉。him是indirect object;但是这种indirect object和普通indirect object不同。普通的间接宾语,可以说是省掉了介词to,这一种(语法书上称为dative of interest)间接宾语可以说是省掉了介词for,例如:
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He has built me a house.(他替我造了一所房子。)
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It will last the owner a lifetime.(用这件东西的人,用它一辈子也用不坏。)
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● the new one=the new phase。
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● he did so=he began the new one,先用了一个“when”clause,再把从句里的话,在主句重复一遍,这个办法可以使文字流利。
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● accoutrements(此字通常用复数形式):配备。新的“配备”是些什么东西,下文有说明。
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● Change is the only stimulus:变化是唯一的刺激。这句话他是常常喜欢对学生们说的。他退休以后为怕精神颓唐,力求改变生活方式与生活环境(新的“配备”),以“改变”作为刺激自己的方法。
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He took up the study of Japanese; he took up engraving and lettering (designed a new bookplate, designed a gravestone for his dead wife); he began to grow Persian melons under glass; he took up mycology, and mycophagy as well, sending his fidgety housekeeper off into shrill protests as he flirted with death by eating mushrooms gathered in cow pastures and on golf links. He abandoned chess for bridge, and two evenings a week played a cutthroat game with Miss Blossom Duveen, the bursar’s blond secretary, as his partner and as his opponents Mr. Street, the logician, and Mr. Street’s hopelessly scatterbrained wife.
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● took up the study of Japanese:开始研究日文。
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● engraving:镌刻(一种艺术)。lettering:刻美术字。
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● bookplate:藏书凭单。西洋藏书家,喜欢印一种凭单,粘贴在书的内封里。单上有图案画,并有“EX LIBRIS so-and-so”(某某之藏书)等字样。这位教授既然学了镌刻之术,便替自己设计(designed)了一种新的藏书凭单。gravestone:墓碑。他的太太已故,此处顺便提一笔。
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● grow(此处为及物动词):培育。under glass:在花房(greenhouse)里种波斯瓜。
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● mycology:研究蕈菇这类东西的学问。这种学问,研究研究倒也无所谓,可是他吃起野蕈来了。mycophagy:普通字典中可能不载此字。此字源自希腊,myco原义是“蕈”,phagy原义是“吃”,两者连起来,就成“吃蕈”。
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● sending…off into protests:使(某人)提抗议。(send one crazy是英文成语:使某人发疯。)他那管家婆,原来就容易激动(fidgety),看见他从放牛场(pastures)和高尔夫球场(golf links)上找野蕈来吃,觉得这是在跟生命开玩笑(flirted with death:和死神调情),不由得尖声地大叫:使不得。
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● bridge:桥牌。原来下象棋的,现在改为桥牌。cutthroat(形容词):竞争激烈的,谁也不肯饶谁的。(American College Dictionary引有cutthroat competition这样一个成语)。
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