30多年前的粗糙翻译练习（1）--社会从无进步

武夷山

从1980年夏天（大三）开始，我读一些英美文学文选类的课本，一边读就一边将课文译为中文，是为了帮助自己理解原文，不是为了其他目的。现在，我将当年的译文发一部分出来与大家分享。眼下，手头不一定能找到每篇选文的原文，无法修订对原文的理解或中文表达方面的错误，请谅解。另外，我觉得，为保留“个人档案”的真实性，即使当年的译文有错，还是不加改动为好。

美国文学家爱默生（1803-1882）在Self-Reliance（论自立）一文中的两段话：

社会从无进步。它在这一方面进步有多快，在另一方面退步就有多快。社会经历了不断的变化；它既野蛮，又文明，它是基督教化了的、富足的、科学的；但这种变化并非进步（amelioration）。它所得到的一切，都被相应的损失而抵消了。社会获得了新的艺术，但失去了原有的本能。一个美国人，衣冠楚楚，能读书，能写字，能思考，兜里装着怀表、钢笔和汇票，与之对照的一个新西兰（土著）人，赤身露体，其全部财产就是一根棍棒、一支长矛、一张席子和用以遮风避雨的二十分之一顶棚子（并未加以分配），两人之对比是何其鲜明啊！可是，比较一下两人的健康状况，你就会发现，美国白人已经丧失了原始的精力。如果旅行家对我们说的是实话，则那些野蛮人被钺（broad axe）砍伤后，过一两天伤口就自行愈合，就好比当初那一家伙是砍在柏油里一样，而同样这么一击就会送白人回老家。

文明人造出了马车，但是丢掉了用脚的机会。他依赖拐杖，却如此地缺乏对肌肉的依赖。他有精致的日内瓦手表，但丧失了凭太阳位置判断时间的技能。他拥有格林威治天文年鉴（a nautical almanac），这样，当他需要了解有关情况时，完全可以凭信它，但与此同时，大街上的行人不再认识天空中的星斗。他不再观察冬至夏至；他对春分秋分几乎一无所知；他对完整的漂亮历法心中无数。笔记损害了他的记忆；图书馆加重了他的智力负担；保险公司增加了事故的频次；另外，机器是否会起阻碍作用，我们是否会由于追求文雅而丧失精力，拜制度化、形式化之幸而强大起来的基督教是否会失去原始德性的活力，也许都是个问题。

以下链接有《自立》的中译文，供大家参考、对照。

http://www.docin.com/p-164352599.html。

原文如下：

Society neveradvances. It recedes as fast on one side as it gains on the other. It undergoescontinual changes; it is barbarous, it is civilized, it is christianized, it isrich, it is scientific; but this change is not amelioration. For every thingthat is given, something is taken. Society acquires new arts, and loses oldinstincts. What a contrast between the well-clad, reading, writing, thinkingAmerican, with a watch, a pencil, and a bill of exchange in his pocket, and thenaked New Zealander, whose property is a club, a spear, a mat, and an undividedtwentieth of a shed to sleep under! But compare the health of the two men, andyou shall see that the white man has lost his aboriginal strength. If thetraveller tell us truly, strike the savage with a broad axe, and in a day ortwo the flesh shall unite and heal as if you struck the blow into soft pitch,and the same blow shall send the white to his grave.

The civilizedman has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. He is supported oncrutches, but lacks so much support of muscle. He has a fine Geneva watch, buthe fails of the skill to tell the hour by the sun. A Greenwich nautical almanache has, and so being sure of the information when he wants it, the man in thestreet does not know a star in the sky. The solstice he does not observe; theequinox he knows as little; and the whole bright calendar of the year iswithout a dial in his mind. His note-books impair his memory; his librariesoverload his wit; the insurance-office increases the number of accidents; andit may be a question whether machinery does not encumber; whether we have notlost by refinement some energy, by a Christianity entrenched in establishmentsand forms, some vigor of wild virtue.