2022翻译硕士(MTI)考研复习:英译中国现代散文选(六十九)
Love is Not a Game
Lu Yin
A Buddhist monk without having experienced ups and downs in the sea of mortals will have no claim to true wisdom.
Likewise, one who has never gone through the baptism of romantic love will have little genuine knowledge of life. Buddhist monks exert every effort to renounce this life in favour of future nirvana. But, without a full knowledge of this life, how could they see through the vanity of human society and make a clean break with this mortal world?
Romantic love is the core of human life. Mencius says, “The desire for food and sex is nature.” In other words, love is innate. If one remains a lifelong stranger to love, how can he thoroughly understand life?
Man becomes capable through learning. But love is an exception. Boy and girl, when they are of age and meet at an opportune moment, will become mysteriously attached to each other.
Though people love by instinct, yet all cannot understand it correctly. More often than not, love is but carnal desire in disguise and is treated as a mere game. That is why we so often hear tragic stories of love. True love is not a game. Nor can its true value be appreciated by the morally degenerate.
True love spurs one on to higher attainment. It embodies the supreme quality of selflessness, and is, above all, symbolic of beauty.
When a man and woman are deeply immersed in true love, they are full of amazing inner strength. Their souls are freed from all bondage. They are unyielding before threats and incorruptible before any promise of material gain. They transcend the reality to create an ideal paradise of their own.
Unfortunately, in this present world overflowing with material desires, this kind of true love is as rare as the feeble light of fireflies. What is more, “love” sometimes even leads to moral degeneration on the part of ignorant men and women. Over this, Venus cannot help lamenting with a deep sigh, “Love has become a mere game ever since humanity set out on its way to extinction. O what a sad story!”
注释:
女作家庐隐(1898-1934),福建闽侯人,早期与冰心齐名。她的杂文短小精悍,直爽坦率,笔锋锐利。
(1)“浮沉的人海中”译为ups and downs in the sea of mortals,其中ups and downs意同vicissitudes(兴败、盛衰)the sea of mortals意同the sea of the living。
(2)“不能算善知识”意即“没有过资格称为智者”,现译为will have no claim to true wisdom,其中have no claim to本作“对……没有提出要求的权利”解,现作“没有资格称为……”解。此句也可译为will have no true wisdom to speak of,但与原意稍有出入。
(3)“涅槃”指信佛教者经过长期“修道”所达到的最高境界。后世也称僧人逝世为“涅槃”(又称“入灭”或“圆寂”)。英语称之为virvana,源于梵文。
(4)“勘破现世”意同“看破红尘”现译为see through the vanity of human society。
(5)“跳出三界”中的“三界”也是佛教用语,指“众生所住的世界”。现按“与现世一刀两断”的意思把“跳出三界”译为make a clean break with this mortal world。
(6)“恋爱人人都会”意即“恋爱出于本能”,故译为People love by instinct。
(7)“可是不见的人人都懂”译为yet all cannot understand it correctly,等于yet not all can understand I correctly。
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