三人同游
2004-11-1
广西师范大学出版社
郭洪涛,K.季洛姆
251
136000
郭洪涛
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《三人同游》是19世纪末、20世纪初英国著名小说家、戏剧家K·季洛姆(1859-1929)的又一代表作,是与其成名作《三人同舟》齐名的姊妹篇。这部小说自1900年面世以来,一百多年的时间内,始终受到世界读者的喜爱。小说主人公椅矣、哈里斯、乔治是三位住在伦敦的好朋友,他们因讨厌单调平静的生活,决定以德国的黑林山为目标骑自行车出游。三人一路上见识了种种奇闻趣事,也闹出不少有惊无险的笑话。小说以主人公的游览路线为主线,轻松自如地将沿途的自然风光、人情百态、历史沧桑娓娓道来,间或穿插主人公对过去经历的回忆和对世事风俗的点评,小说中处处透出一种幽默、诙谐的情趣,让人会心一笑或畅怀大笑。
译序第一章 三人思变第二章 整装待发第三章 修车奇趣第四章 语言试验第五章 编辑轶闻第六章 水中大战第七章 软垫之吻第八章 雕像惊魂第九章 德国冒险第十章 骗已有术第十一章 山回路转第十二章 狗心不渝第十三章 马刀决斗第十四章 警察上帝
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以前读过英国幽默作家J.K.杰罗姆的《三人同舟》(原作出版于1889年),讲述了三个好朋友为解决生活无聊之感,在泰晤士河上租船游历一番的故事。里面既有妙趣横生的旅途记事,又有作者不时插入的令人发噱的段子,读完后我的评语是“有点过火,可以一乐”。
也是抱着这个想法,又读了他的另一本书《三人同游》(The Man on the Bummel,原作出版于1900年)。此书可以看作是《三人同舟》的续书,出游的仍是作者、乔治、哈里斯三人(几年后两人已经有家有口),出游工具改成了自行车,出游的地方为德国。我读下来却只有失望。
《三人同舟》的叙事看来倒有几分真实,而看《三人同游》感觉好像所谓的“三人同游”根本是想像出来的,大量的议论淹没了游记情节,而那些议论对德国人极尽讽刺挖苦之能事,反显得自己小肚鸡肠,也许《我看德国》作为书名更为适当。即使在所谓的三个同游者之间,也很少有《三人同舟》里亲切友好的气氛,经常互相攻讦。
总之,这是一部不成功的续作,充满了偏狭之气,我的建议是不读也罢。
抄书:
He showed me a picture in water-colours of the Rogue flying before the wind. The deck was at an angle of 95 to the ocean. In the picture no human beings were represented on the deck; I suppose they had slipped off. Indeed, I do not see how anyone could have kept on, unless nailed.
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I had wasted more time than I had intended in the paddock, and when Ethelbertha came to tell me it was half-past seven, and the breakfast was on the table, I remembered that I had not shaved. It
vexes Ethelbertha my shaving quickly. She fears that to outsiders it may suggest a poor-spirited attempt at suicide, and that in consequence it may get about the neighbourhood that we are not happy together. As a further argument, she has also hinted that my appearance is not of the kind that can be trifled with.
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We were riding our machines through this wood on the Monday afternoon in the company of many other cyclists, for it is a favourite resort with the Hanoverians on a sunny afternoon, and its shady pathways are then filled with happy, thoughtless folk. Among them rode a young and beautiful girl on a machine that was new. She was evidently a novice on the bicycle. One felt instinctively that there would come a moment when she would require help, and Harris, with his accustomed chivalry, suggested we should keep near her. Harris, as he occasionally explains to George and to myself, has daughters of his own, or, to speak more correctly, a daughter, who as the years progress will no doubt cease practising catherine wheels in the front garden, and will grow up into a beautiful and respectable young lady. This naturally gives Harris an interest in all beautiful girls up to the age of thirty-five or thereabouts; they remind him, so he says, of home.
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George, the opposite to Harris, is British to the core. I remember George quite patriotically indignant with Harris once for suggesting the introduction of the guillotine into England.
"It is so much neater," said Harris.
"I don't care if it is," said George; "I'm an Englishman; hanging is good enough for me."
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But in Germany most human faults and follies sink into comparative insignificance beside the enormity of walking on the grass. Nowhere, and under no circumstances, may you at any time in Germany walk on the grass. Grass in Germany is quite a fetish. To put your foot on German grass would be as great a sacrilege as to dance a hornpipe on a Mohammedan's praying-mat. The very dogs respect German grass; no German dog would dream of putting a paw on it. If you see a dog scampering across the grass in Germany, you may know for certain that it is the dog of some unholy foreigner. In England, when we want to keep dogs out of places, we put up wire netting, six feet high, supported by buttresses, and defended on the top by spikes. In Germany, they put a notice-board in the middle of the place, "Hunden verboten," and a dog that has German blood in its veins looks at that notice-board and walks away. In a German park I have seen a gardener step gingerly with felt boots on to grass-plot, and removing therefrom a beetle, place it gravely but firmly on the gravel; which done, he stood sternly watching the beetle, to see that it did not try to get back on the grass; and the beetle, looking utterly ashamed of itself, walked hurriedly down the gutter, and turned up the path marked "Ausgang."
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We left him helping the landlord to pick up the broken things, and went our way. A dozen yards outside the door the faithful animal was waiting for his friend. He looked tired, but contented. He was evidently a dog of strange and sudden fancies, and we feared for the moment lest he might take a liking to us. But he let us pass with indifference. His loyalty to this unresponsive man was touching; and we made no attempt to undermine it.
这一段是个反面例子,有点sadist味道,最好别看:
The whole interest is centred in watching the wounds. They come always in one of two places--on the top of the head or the left side of the face. Sometimes a portion of hairy scalp or section of cheek flies up into the air, to be carefully preserved in an envelope by its proud possessor, or, strictly speaking, its proud former possessor, and shown round on convivial evenings; and from every wound, of course, flows a plentiful stream of blood. It splashes doctors, seconds, and spectators; it sprinkles ceiling and walls; it saturates the fighters, and makes pools for itself in the sawdust. At the end of each round the doctors rush up, and with hands already dripping with blood press together the gaping wounds, dabbing them with little balls of wet cotton wool, which an attendant carries ready on a plate. Naturally, the moment the men stand up again and commence work, the blood gushes out again, half blinding them, and rendering the ground beneath them slippery. Now and then you see a man's teeth laid bare almost to the ear, so that for the rest of the duel he appears to be grinning at one half of the spectators, his other side, remaining serious; and sometimes a man's nose gets slit, which gives to him as he fights a singularly supercilious air.
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The Germans are a good people. On the whole, the best people perhaps in the world; an amiable, unselfish, kindly people. I am positive that the vast majority of them go to Heaven. Indeed, comparing them with the other Christian nations of the earth, one is forced to the conclusion that Heaven will be chiefly of German manufacture. But I cannot understand how they get there. That the soul of any single individual German has sufficient initiative to fly up by itself and knock at St. Peter's door, I cannot believe. My own opinion is that they are taken there in small companies, and passed in under the charge of a dead policeman.
可惜俺看不懂英文.
luke同学可否翻译一段呢?
听说这本书也有译本,你可以查一查。
我们老师让我们读这个..每周写一个chapter的summary...苦啊....觉得有点枯燥诶