第四届全国大学生‘海伦·斯诺翻译奖’竞赛比赛原文

E-C Translation

We embarked by ship on our journey in the halcyon days of the winter solstice. “It is the most auspicious time for new beginnings,” I told Ed. I had bought some beautiful earrings made of blue-green kingfisher feathers, and I told Ed about the charming superstition taught me by an Old China Hand sea captain: The halcyon days were the fourteen days at the time of the winter solstice when the sea was unnaturally calm, so that the halcyon, or kingfisher, could brood on its nest floating in the ocean. All nature, sun and sea, obeyed the halcyon bird in its breeding season.

The world stood still on halcyon days. It was a time for the birth of Christ and for Joshua to pretend to command the sun and for King Canute to command the waves. It was time for the Word to go forth upon the living waters, a time to create new worlds. It was a time for sailors to forswear their profane oaths. It was a time for an odyssey under the Southern Cross following in the wake of Magellan. It would always be the time for the big events in my life, though I never planned it that way. I did not like living death or darkness. I struggled towards the light at the winter solstice.

On that halcyon journey, those two young people were unafraid. They were claiming kinship with all of nature in all hemispheres, with all people in all countries, with all minds in all kinds of books.

For reading on the ship we took G. B. Shaw?s The Intelligent Women’s Guide to Socialism and Capitalism, and H. G. Well?s Outline of History as well as his 1932 book, The Work, Wealth, and Happiness of Mankind. Americans had not as yet started to think, but we carried along George Dorsey?s Why We Behave Like Human Beings, which I showed to the British pukka sahib Resident in Borneo with one word inserted: Why Don’t We…

We had both read Spengler?s The Decline of the West-- I had read it in the States. In a cursory way we had studied the Age of Empire-- that of Japan in Taiwan, of the British in Borneo, Hong Kong, and the China treaty ports, of the Dutch in the Celebes, Java, and Bali, of the Portuguese in Macao.

And now we were visiting all these places. It was a goodly time for Americans to travel-- before we poisoned our welcome and our own psychology in Korea and Indochina.

In the chart room of the Canada Maru, I Studied the navigation maps. There was the island of English Split (my mother would love that); here

the island of Bum-Bum (beachcombers likely). We had passed through theSulu Sea. The Japanese captain let me take the wheel of the Canada Maru in the Celebes Sea. He said he would let me take the wheel again just as we crossed the equator. He liked us because we chose his ship out of all others-- it was the one calling at the most unlikely places. He insisted on giving my husband and me his own cabin and private bath, and on turning over his deck to us. He borrowed our books of poetry in exchange. He treated us as if I were Amaterasu, the Sun Goddess, with Apollo in tow. The only other passengers were two or three Japanese businessmen. The warm blue-green South Seas were as clear and smooth as molten glass. Striped-sailed catamarans looked as still and unreal as painted ships.

As we approached Borneo, I appeared on deck in English-tailored white jodhpurs, a white cork helmet, and my very American red-white-and-blue scarf half-mast in wilting heat. Red-painted roofs flashed against a white coral shoreline. Casuarina, mangrove, Nipa palm trees nodded a welcome. This was Borneo-- not only Borneobut Tawau! Ten thousand miles from home!

My husband looked at me without approval. He would never forgive me for bringing abroad a big black wardrobe trunk with attire for every possible occasion-- from deck shorts to long evening gowns and gold slippers.

“You may think yourself a born explorer,” he observed with pro fessional scorn, “but you are no traveler.”

The English voice of an ironwood merchant put him in his place, informing me that I was practically the only white woman who had ever stopped at Tawau, except for Mrs. Martin Johnson. He hoped we were not plannin g to take any movies: “We had to organize a …wild? buffalo hunt for her in the rubber groves… All the buffalo were tame, naturally.”

“Did you hear” I swelled with pioneer pride. “Second only to Osa Johnson.” But I suggested that the place must be teeming with white men.

“Not exactly. Only two of us-- the British Resident and myself. We haven?t spoken for years,” the merchant said. “It?s very Somerset Maugham. He thinks I?m letting down the white man?s burden because I make canoe trip with the natives lookin g for rare hardwoods to sell at a profit.”

Borneo was a landmark in my life-- a seamark, anyway. Borneo was all but the last outpost of the British Empire to be given up.

(863 words)汉译英

海伦·斯诺伦认为，她的一生与延安有着特殊的感情。她把延安描写成是一颗镶嵌在群山和城墙环抱之中的宝石，延安就像中国文明的哨兵。60年之后，当她回顾当年在延安的时光时，海伦这样写道：“时至今日，人们依然感到奇怪，一个年轻的美国女青年，居然成为整个延安历史的一部分。我写作的《续西行漫记》，是第一部关于延安的著作，而且在后来的许多年里，一直是唯一的一部”。

海伦笔下的延安，特指“延安时期”的延安，也就是说，从长征结束的1936年起，到延安成为中国共产党的所在地，再到1945年第二次世界大战结束的这一段历史时期。这个阶段的时代精神，在她的笔下是“斯巴达式的自我牺牲、基层民主、纯粹又纯洁的革命目标、革命精神和灵魂”。而这些时代特征，正是当年延安精神的体现。

毛泽东曾经说，他当时并没有精心选择长征的路线和长征的目标。落脚延安并获成功，其伟大在于必然而不是选择。红军开始长征时有10万优秀的战士，经过一年的长征，历经了一年的坚苦跋涉和浴血奋斗，走过了一万多英里的路程，穿过了可怕的草地和沼泽，终于胜利结束，到达了遥远的西北，到了位于古长城转弯处的中国文明的摇篮。长征结束时，只剩下不足3万名红军将士。应该说，长征中生还的人，是那些历经磨难后由弱变强的英雄！

当年，延安的生活非常艰难。肺结核等疾病普遍流行。海伦在书中写道：“在铺着砖的地面，栖居着各种昆虫，有相互争斗的，也有紧紧拥挤在一起的”。这些昆虫小生物包括蝎子、蜈蚣、虱子还有跳蚤等，老鼠在木椽上来回奔跑，彻夜不休。她接着写道：“传播鼠疫的是跳蚤，而不是老鼠。这种致命的疾病，在地球上依然流行的地方已经不多了，而陕北却是其中之一。……每到晚上，我常常饥饿得难以入睡，就啃几口干馒头”。海伦当年离开延安时，体重减少到不足40公斤。因为她染上了阿米巴痢疾和其他四种类似的疾病，不得不去接受医生的重点治疗。

海伦曾介绍说，她当时记录下这样的内容：“朱德说，我来到这里，非常勇敢。我第一次见他时，他就夸奖我的这一点”。是的，海伦受一种精神的驱使，忠实地记录了这段历史。她心灵深处的这种精神和职业道德，支撑着她在延安渡过了艰苦难忘的五个月。

海伦曾经冒着巨大的危险来到延安，但她也有幸见到并认识了那里的许多人，看到中国的未来和希望。她观察到了共产党人的理想，他们的辛勤工作，团结，合作，不怕牺牲。共产党人的这些优秀品质，与海伦祖先们的先驱精神，有许多共同之处。

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