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Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 阿麗思漫游奇境記

Lewis Carrol

劉易斯·卡羅爾

導讀

英國維多利亞時代數學家劉易斯·卡羅爾（Lewis Carrol）創作于1862年的小說Alice's Adventures in Wonderland一問世就成為英國最暢銷的兒童讀物，并已成為現代兒童文學中的經典。1922年著名語言學家趙元任翻譯了該書的第一個中譯本。趙譯本《阿麗思漫游奇境記》問世以后的九十多年中，有眾多的譯本出版，其中有一些是根據趙譯本改寫的，有一些是重新翻譯的，但趙譯本仍是公認的最佳譯本。這部作品有許多雙關語、藏頭詩、典故和文字游戲等，翻譯難度相當大。趙元任卻將絕大部分成功地轉化成了簡潔平易且豐富有趣的漢語，表現出一代大師深厚的中英文功底和高超的翻譯技巧。

Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book, ” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation? ”

阿麗思陪著她姊姊閑坐在河邊上沒有事做，坐得好不耐煩。她有時候偷偷地瞧她姊姊看的是什么書，可是書里又沒有畫兒，又沒有說話，她就想道：“一本書里又沒有畫兒，又沒有說話，那樣書要它干什么呢？”

So she was considering in her own mind (as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.

所以她就無精打采地自己在心里盤算——（她也不過勉強地醒著，因為這熱天熱得她昏昏地要睡）——到底還是做一枝野菊花圈兒好呢，還是為著這種玩意兒不值得站起來去找花的麻煩呢？她正在納悶的時候，忽然來了一只淡紅眼睛的白兔子，在她旁邊跑過。

There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that: nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself,“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late! ” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.

就是看見一只淡紅眼睛的白兔子，本來也不是件怎么大了不得的事情，并且就是阿麗思聽見那兔子自言自語地說，“噯呀，啊噫呀！我一定要去晚了！”她也不覺得這算什么十二分出奇的事情（事后想起來她才覺得這是應當詫異的事，不過當時她覺得樣樣事情都像很平常似的）；但是等到那兔子當真在它背心袋里摸出一只表來，看了一看時候，連忙又往前走，阿麗思想道，“那不行！”頓時就站了起來，因為阿麗思心里忽然記得她從來沒有見過兔子有背心袋的，并且有只表可以從袋子里摸出來的。她忍不住好奇的心，就緊追著那兔子，快快地跑過一片田場，剛剛趕得上看見它從一個籬笆底下的一個大洞里鉆進去。

（趙元任譯）

翻譯點評

這是本書的開場，原作用極其淺易的語言，從一開始就制造出一個懸念，緊緊地抓住讀者。在百無聊賴的日常生活中，突然跑出一只既會說話又會看表還穿著背心的兔子，誰都會有興趣讀下去。譯本的文字也非常淺近，但難得的是，在短短的三段話中，趙譯本卻把整個開場處理得極為流暢自然，活靈活現，令人完全覺察不到翻譯的痕跡。一些細節把原作幽默風趣的語調處理得恰到好處，例如：兒化音（畫兒、圈兒）、語氣詞（噯呀、啊噫呀）、適度增詞（無精打采、那不行、十二分出奇）、幽默筆法（她也不過勉強醒著）等處理手法。

Translation Practices 翻譯練習

Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—” (she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn't sound at all the right word) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma'am, is this New Zealand or Australia? ” (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy CURTSEYING as you're falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it? ) “And what an ignorant little girl she'll think me for asking! No, it'll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”

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Key

一會兒她又說話了。她道，“我倒不知道會不會一直掉穿了地球嘞，那怎么呢？掉到那邊，遇見了許多倒著站的人，一定很好玩兒！叫倒豬世界，不是嗎？” ——她這回倒覺得幸虧沒有人聽著，因為她想不起來書里那個“倒足世界”的名字，又覺“倒豬世界”又不大像——“但是你想我不是得要問他們貴國的名字叫什么嗎？潑里寺、麻達姆，這是新西蘭啊，還是澳大利亞啊？”（說著就一頭向空中請安——你想想看，在半空中一頭往下掉，一頭又要請安，你能辦得到嗎？）“可是要這樣問，他們一定把我當個傻孩子，連自己在什么國里都會不知道。不行，這個一定不好意思問人的；或者我會看見在哪兒墻上或是柱上寫著：這是新西蘭，或者：這是澳大利亞。”

Emulation 美文自己寫得出——學生仿寫

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仿寫范例

An Unexamined Life Is Not Worth Living

“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates said when he was tried for heresy and sedition for encouraging his students to ask tough questions about themselves and society. Upon examining his life and situation, he chose to die for dignity rather than live out the rest of life in disgrace and humiliation. Socrates was seeking truth to live a life of high station. According to him, as to many including me as well, the unexamined existence is of no discipline, no freedom and void of dignity.

To begin with, the unexamined life is a life without discipline. Put it another way, a life that has not been subjected to certain codes and purposes is doomed to moral looseness, human alienation and insatiable indulgence. It is such a life style that, to many of us, leads to a lack of sense of justice or direction of values. A case in point is Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde's novel,The Portrait of Dorian Gray.Dorian Gray is a young man who takes advantages of his beauty and ruins many pure women. It is his unexamined life and loose lifestyle that lead to his hurt of others and his own final downfall.

Contrariwise, the examined life can provide one with a chance for a more thorough and better understanding of life and the world—an understanding which can bring us maximum freedom in thought. Leading an examined life, Emerson is believed by many to understand the world better even than most people do today. His words “To be great is to be misunderstood” show that an independent individual needs to trust himself even if people around doubt and question his life. Few could live a life as sober and examined as Emerson did in that his realm of thought enjoys such a degree of freedom and independence that it can even tolerate the misunderstanding of the rest of the world.

Last but not least, the unexamined life may amount to the absence of dignity. In order to be a true man of integrity, one should subject his life and beliefs to examination and introspection or else his life will degenerate into a life of moral frivolity and waywardness. As Socrates himself put it, “I eat to live while others live to eat.” This chiasma embodies his contempt for those who live an unexamined life with no dignity. However, the examined life is not confined to such a learned man or woman as a teacher or philosopher. A working class man can also have a clear purpose in life. Santiago, Hemingway code hero, has such a quality. He clings to a life of dignity even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He has been regarded as the embodiment of indomitable spirit of humanity.

To sum up, Socrates' decision to die is the logical consequence of his outlook on life. If he had chosen otherwise, he would have felt he was robbed of the only thing that made life meaningful: examining the world around him, the universe and life itself. Where an “examined life” is, there are discipline, freedom and dignity that highlight the essence of life.