I had,beside all this,an earnest desire to see the great men of the earth. We have,it is true,our great men in Amercia:not a city but has an ample share of them. I have mingled among them in my time,and been almost withered by the shade into which they cast me;for there is nothing so baleful to a small man as the shade of a great one,particularly the great man of .a city. But I was anxious to see the great men of Europe¡ for I had read in the works of various philosophers, that all animals degenerated in America, and man among the number. A great man of Europe,thought I,must therefore be as surperior to a great man of Amercia,as a peak of the Alps to a highland of the Hudson; and in this idea I was confirmed, by observing the comparative importance and swelling magnitude of many English travellers among us,who,I was assured,were very little people in their own country,I will visit this land of wonders, thought l, and see the gigantic race from which I am degenerated.
我除了游览之外,又落欢拜会当代伟大人物。关国自然也有大人物，我们每一个城市都叫得出来几个响当当的名字。我尽量找机会和他们来往,在他们的身影底下,我总觉得自己的渺小;因为小人物在大人物(尤其是城市里的大人物)的脚底下,总觉得自己抬不起头来的。可是我见识了本国大人物之余，更想认识欧洲的大人物;因为好几位哲学家都这么说过;任何动物到了美洲都要退化,人也不是例外。因此我想:咱们赫德逊河流域的上丘既然比不上人家阿尔卑斯山的高峰，咱们的大人物比起欧洲的伟人来，至少也得矮一个头;我这个见地也不无理由，只要看看人家英国人到敝邦来的游客就可明白的了;那辈英国人在他们本国,据我看来，也没有什么了不起,可是一到美国,就趾高气扬，不可一世了，我既然也忝为一个身居美国的[退化]之人，我自然极想观光上国，见识见识尚未退化的人类的真面目了。
It has been either my good or evil lot to have my roving passion gratified. I have wandered through different countries.and witnessed many of the shifting scenes of life. I cannot say that I have studied them with the eye of a philosopher:but rather with the sauntering gaze with which humble lovers of the picturesque stroll from the window of one print-shop to another;caught sometimes by the delineations of beauty, sometimes by the distortions of caricature, and sometimes by the loveliness of landscape. As it is the fashion for modern tourists to travel pencil in hand,and bring home their portfolios filled with sketches,I am disposed to get up a few for the entertainment of my friends. When,however ,I look over the hints and memorandums I have taken down for the purpose, my heart almost fails me at finding how my idle humor has led me aside from the great objects studied by every regular traveller wbo would make a book. I fear I shall give equal disappointment with an unlucky landscape painter, who had travelled on the continent,bur, following the bent of his vagrant inclination, had sketched in nooks, and corners ,and by-places. His sketch-book was accordingly crowded with cottages.and landscapes,and obscure ruinsy but he had neglected to paint St. Peter's,or the Coliseum; the cascade of Terni,or the bay of Naples;and had not a single glacier or volcano in his whole collection.
我的[游历欲]居然常常能够实现，这不知道是我的好运气还是坏运气了。我游历过好几个国家，人生的变迁也见识了不少。我不敢说我有抉隐发微的哲学家的眼光;我至少像一个普通的爱好艺术的人，走过一家一家图画书店的时候，不得不驻足浏览一下,有些画是画得真美,有些画却是奇形怪状的诙谐画,可是它们能吸引我的注意则初无二致，至于可爱的山水画,那是我更要击节称赏的了。近代人旅行,都喜欢一手执铅笔，一手拿画册,速写留影,我因此也喜欢乱涂几笔,作为诸亲好友茶余饭后谈笑之助。可是我把这些杂记随笔重读一遍，心中不免起一种惶恐之感，因为通常出门旅行回来写书的人，总要讨论几项大题目,可是我信手写米,偏偏把大题目都给遗漏了。我像是个不幸的风景画家,也算到欧洲大陆去旅行写生过,可是他心有偏好,专找冷僻角落去作画;他的画集里因此也满是些普通山水以及荒村茅屋穷乡古墟之类，至于圣彼得大教堂或者罗马圆剧场，透尔尼的大瀑布或者那不勒斯的海湾他根本没有收集在内,他整本画册里，你找不到一幅冰川或是火山的伟观。读者诸君假如感到失望,作者只好在这里告罪了。
责任编辑：admin
上一篇：没有了
下一篇：散文翻译示例——Of Sumptuary Laws/谈限制奢侈法（蒙田随笔）
微信公众号搜索“译员”关注我们，每天为您推送翻译理论和技巧，外语学习及翻译招聘信息。