- 記錄人類文明的那些美文（環球時代美文讀本）
- 吳中東 宮玉波
- 1894字
- 2020-08-20 09:57:21
01 Civilization & History
文明與歷史
導讀
本篇作者喬德（C. E. M. Joad, 1891—1953），英國哲學家、作家和廣播界名人。作為20世紀40年代英國最飽受爭議的知識分子，喬德既是一個和平主義者，又是一位不可知論者。喬德在1936年西班牙內戰時，作為反法西斯聯盟“人民陣線”的支持者，積極幫助戰亂中無家可歸的婦女和兒童。1941年喬德加入BBC廣播公司，成為《專家小組》欄目的成員。他以幽默機智的話語一夜成名，其名言“這要看你怎么說”成為英國人的流行用語。1953年喬德病逝于倫敦。在本文中，喬德提出了一個發人深省的問題：“為何世界文明史上最顯赫的人物往往是征服者和殺戮者？”細數一下西方文明史，無數的戰爭和征服，美其名曰是要傳播文明，啟蒙世界未開化的角落，但其破壞力卻是驚人的。唐代大詩人杜甫曾經寫道：“殺人亦有限，立國自有疆。茍能制侵陵，豈在多殺傷。”（《前出塞》），但是國際政治的法則始終是“強權即公理”，至少歷史上皆是如此。人類的發展之路還很漫長，如何避免過去的歷史重演，也成了我們現代人要反思的一個問題。
Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all. We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy
boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured a field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that the side which has killed most has won. And not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets—while, that is to say, we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life—nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages. But we must not expect too much. Suppose that we reckon the whole past of living creatures on the earth as one hundred years;then the whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that month there have been civilization for between seven and eight hours. Thus mankind is only at the beginning of its civilized life, and as I say, we must not expect too much. The past of man has been of the whole a pretty beastly business, a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing and hurting. We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things. All we can ask is that they will some times have done something else.
在歷史書上出現得最為經常和最為顯耀的人，大多是一些偉大的征服者、將軍和軍人，而真正推動文明前進的人，卻往往名不見經傳。我們不知道是誰最早接上折斷的腿骨，是誰最先造出適于航海的船只，是誰最早計算出一年的長度，又是誰最先給田地施肥；但是我們對那些殺人者和破壞者卻知之甚詳。人們對他們敬重有加，在世界上一些大城市里所有最高的柱石上，你都會發現一位征服者，或一位將軍，或一位軍人的雕像。我想，大多數人都會認為，最偉大的國家是那些在戰斗中打敗其他國家最多并作為征服者統治這些國家的國家。他們很可能是偉大的，然而他們并不是最文明的。動物搏斗，野蠻人也搏斗，因而善于搏斗僅是動物或野蠻人擇優的標準，而絕非文明的表現。即使善于驅使別人為自己打仗，并且告訴他們怎樣打才最有效——這畢竟是征服者和將軍們干過的事——也稱不上是文明的作為。人們為解決爭執而打仗。打仗意味著殘殺，文明的民族應當能夠找到某種解決爭端的辦法，而不是看哪一方能消滅另一方更多的人，而后說殺人最多的一方獲勝。戰勝者不僅勝了，而且還因為勝利帶來了“公義”。這就是戰爭的法則，它意味著強權就是公理。
人類的經歷大體上就是如此。盡管今天人們確實不在街上打仗并互相殘殺了，也就是說，我們在日常生活中已做到循規蹈矩，舉止有禮，然而民族和國家卻還沒有學會這一點，仍然表現得像野蠻人一樣。可是，我們不應期望過高，我們姑且把地球上生物生存的歷史算作一百年吧，那我們可以算出人類生存的歷史大約為一個月，而在這個月中，文明的歷史則為七至八個小時，我們可以由此來預計人類的未來，人類還處于文明生活的開端，像我所說的，我們不應期望過高。人類的過去基本上是一場相當殘酷的斗爭過程：廝殺角逐，恃強凌弱，吞并掠奪，蹂躪踐踏。我們也不必苛求即使是文明的民族不曾干過的那些事情。我們所要求的只是，他們也會在某些時候還做過某些其他的事。
Translation Practices
翻譯練習
And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized.
Key
我想，大多數人都會認為，最偉大的國家是那些在戰斗中打敗其他國家最多并作為征服者統治這些國家的國家。他們很可能是偉大的，然而他們并不是最文明的。動物搏斗，野蠻人也搏斗，因而善于搏斗僅是動物或野蠻人擇優的標準，而絕非文明的表現。