原文: 英语美文网
中文译文: 深圳大学 赖小琪
Real men don't cry. We just get something in our eye
真正的男人不会哭泣, 只是有东西掉进了眼睛.
A short walk from my house in Hampshire, on a hill overlooking the heathland, is a plaque marking the spot where Richard Pryce Jones deliberately crashed his Halifax bomber during the war. He could have parachuted to safety, but that would have meant crashing into the village. The epitaph reads: "He died that others might live."
在汉普郡, 从我家出发走一小段路到达一个小山坡, 就可以鸟瞰黑斯兰, 看到一个牌子, 上面标记着那是理查德在战争期间故意将他的哈利法克斯轰炸机摧毁的地方. 他本来可以跳伞自保, 但是那也意味着飞机将会坠入村庄. 他的墓志铭写着这么一句话: “他死了, 所以别人才活了下来.”
It never fails to move me. Not to tears, you understand. That would be disrespectful. But I do usually manage a lump in the throat and that film of moisture over the eyes that men have in their emotional armoury. Gordon Brown demonstrated the non-crying cry beautifully when he made his farewell speech on the steps of Number 10. That catch in the throat. The determination not to weep in public. At that moment, if at no other, he had nobility.
这个故事总是一次又一次地让我感动. 我并没有流泪, 这点你是知道的. 流泪只会让我在那位英雄面前显得失态. 但我却常常感到喉咙哽咽, 眼睛被男人特有的一层薄薄的湿气所模糊. 戈登布朗曾经他的第十次告别演说中展示了没有泪水的哭泣的微妙感受. 那是一种如梗在咽却决意不当众流泪哭泣的感觉. 暂且不论别的时候, 就在那一刻, 他显得伟大而崇高.
Not everyone can carry it off. I don't think Paul Gascoigne ever quite got the hang of it, for example. But I like to think I have it down to an art, my technique honed from years of watching The Railway Children, Sleepless in Seattle and that scene in Dumbo when the mother elephant is locked away. "Daddy!" my sons will say, pointing the accusing finger. "You're crying!"
并非每个人都拥有这种本领. 比如说, 我觉得保罗并没有完全掌握它的技巧. 但我喜欢把它和艺术联系起来. 经过多年看各种电影的磨励, 我的这种本领已是炉火纯青.多年来我曾看过, 以及在. 在里我依然记得大象妈妈被关起来的情景. “爸爸!” 我的儿子们经常会用责难地指着我, 惊讶地说, “你哭了!”
"Me? Over Dumbo? Ha ha ha. No, boys, what I am doing is man-crying, a sort of non-crying cry. I'll teach you it one day. Very useful."
“我? 为哭吗? 哈哈. 不, 我的孩子们, 我的是 “男人式的哭泣”, 那是一种无声无泪的哭泣. 总有一天我会教你们的. 它非常有用!”
They are too young to appreciate the nuance yet, but when they are older I will explain that open sobbing is associated with being female, and so inappropriate for men. The Charlie Chaplin analogy might be useful here. He once said that the way to act drunk is to imagine yourself a drunk man trying to act sober. The same is true when a man learns the non-crying cry. To be convincing, you must look as if you are trying to avoid tears.
他们太年轻了, 所以无法理解个中微妙, 但当他们长大后, 我会告诉他们, 公开哭泣通常是女性才会做的, 对男人是不合适的. 查理卓别林文集或许在此有点作用. 他曾经说过, 要扮一个醉汉, 我们必须要想象自己喝醉了并且很想哭泣. 这与一个人演无声的哭泣是一样的. 为了让别人确信无疑, 你必须让自己看起来像是尽力在控制泪水.
In this respect, it is important for a young man to appreciate the difference between male tears and female. I remember once asking the actress Emilia Fox if she could cry at will, right there and then, over lunch. To my astonishment, she could – from a standing start. Fat tears rolling down her cheeks. When she had finished, she resumed her smiling countenance.
在这方面, 年轻的男人非常有必要去理解一下男人的泪水与女人泪水的差别. 我记得有一次我问女演员艾米利她是否可以随时哭泣. 让我吃惊的是, 她说她会-从她很小的时候就会. 说完, 豆大的泪珠沿着她的脸流下来. 当她表演完毕, 她又变得笑容可掬.
Those are female tears, and the reason you never hear anyone say: "It's enough to make a grown woman cry." That expression only works when it refers to "grown men" and though that may seem tautological, the "grown" is justified. Not all men are grown. The emotionally incontinent exhibitionists who cry when they are kicked off talent shows such as The X Factor are not grown men, for example. Men have to be careful what they cry at, because some subjects are more worthy of tears than others. Grief, obviously. But not self-pity. And rarely should a man cry in pain. And never at the death of a princess he didn't know. Those are the rules.
那就是女人的泪水, 同时也是你为什么从不会听到 “那足以让一个成熟的女人哭泣.” 这样的句子只会在指 “成熟的男人”时才会用到. 尽管显得罗嗦, 我还是得说, “成熟”是必须强调的. 并不是所有的男人都成熟. 比如说, 那些无法自制的表演者在才艺展示中被踢出局而放声大哭时, 他们就不成熟. 男人需要注意自己要为什么而哭, 因为有些东西更值得我们哭泣, 比如说悲痛, 但不是自怜. 除非在亲人或者珍爱的人离世时, 男人应该很少恸哭. 这些都是潜规则.
I suspect my colleague Matt Pritchett might be with me on this. One of his cartoons this past week showed a father next to a television tuned to the World Cup, explaining to his children that "at some point in the next few weeks, you are going to see me cry". And the day after the last survivor of the Great Escape died, he did a cartoon showing a gravestone with a mound of tunnelled earth trailing away from it. I seemed to have something in my eye when I saw that, and I expect he had the same something in his eye when he drew it.
我觉得我的同事马特在这个问题上和我是一致的. 上周他的一部卡通片播放的是一个坐在电视旁的父亲将频道换到世界杯, 并和他的孩子说 “在接下来的几周里, 你们可能有时会看到我哭.” 当里最后一个幸存者死亡后, 就在那天, 他制做了一个卡通片, 上面显示了一个墓碑, 四周围着一个挖土堆成的坟墩. 当我看了以后, 我觉得眼睛里有什么东西, 而且我想当他在画这个墓碑时, 他的眼睛肯定也有什么东西.
后记: 这些年来翻译了很多篇文章, 但是多数是中译英, 很少英译中. 其实对我来讲, 英译中比中译英难得多. 这可能和我平时的练习有关, 同时英语里很多句子有时在我们看来是很 “怪”的, 就算你知道里面每个词的意思你也未必译得出来. 自从前几天的一个翻译兼职的面试中我失败了以后, 我更认识到英译中的重要性. 其实说是 “失败”, 完全是自己的粗心大意, 一拿到题目就飞快地做, 有一个句子的结构没有看清, 结果 “铸成大错”, 就因为一句话的错误, 让我与一个好机会擦肩而过. 现在想来, 真的是后悔莫及. 趁现在出国前还有点时间, 要多点练习一下, 反正也是兴趣所在. 翻译上面这篇, 还真觉得有点难度. 不过译完后觉得有一种成熟感. |
