雙語對照 ● Advice to Youth　馬克·吐溫致青年人的忠告

Advice to Youth　馬克·吐溫致青年人的忠告

◎ Mark Twain

Being told I would be expected to talk here, I inquired what sort of talk I ought to make. They said it should be something suitable to youth—something didactic, instructive, or something in the nature of good advice. Very well. I have a few things in my mind which I have often longed to say for the instruction of the young; for it is in one’s tender early years that such things will best take root and be most enduring and most valuable, First, then. I will say to you my young friends—and I say it beseechingly, urgingly—

聽說期望我來談談，我便想要知道應該發(fā)表怎樣的談話。他們說應該是適合于青年人的話題，比如教育性的、啟發(fā)性的，或者是一些本質(zhì)上是金玉良言那類的話題。好吧！關(guān)于指導青年人，我心里其實有幾件時常想要說的事。因為就是在人的幼年時期，這些事情才更容易扎根，更能持久和最有價值。那么，首先，我要對青年朋友們說的是——我誠懇地、迫切地想要說的是——

Always obey your parents, when they are present. This is the best policy in the long run, because if you don’t, they will make you. Most parents think they know better than you do, and you can generally make more by humoring that superstition[81]than you can by acting on your own better judgment.

父母在場的時候，要永遠服從他們。長遠看來這是上策，因為如果你不服從他們的話，他們也會想方設(shè)法讓你服從。大多數(shù)父母覺得他們比你懂得多，一般來說，你們相信這種迷信的說法，要比根據(jù)自以為是的判斷行事來得好。

Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any, also to strangers, and sometimes to others. If a person offend you, and you are in doubt as to whether it was intentional or not, do not resort to extreme measures; simply watch your chance and hit him with a brick. That will be sufficient. If you shall find that he had not intended any offense, come out frankly and confess yourself in the wrong when you struck him; acknowledge it like a man and say you didn’t mean to. Yes, always avoid violence; in this age of charity and kindliness, the time has gone by for such things. Leave dynamite to the low and unrefined[82].

尊重你的上司，在你有了上司之后。尊重陌生人，有時也要尊重其他人。如果一個人冒犯了你，你要稍微懷疑一下，看看他們是存心的還是無心的，不要采取極端的方法。如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)他并無心要冒犯你，那就坦白承認自己打他是不對的。像個男子漢那樣承認錯誤，并說聲不是故意的。是的，永遠都不要采用暴力。身在這個充滿仁慈善意的時代里，暴力的時代已然遠去。把“炸藥”留給低俗又無教養(yǎng)的人吧！

Go to bed early, get up early—this is wise. Some authorities say get up with the sun; some say get up with one thing, others with another. But a lark is really the best thing to get up with. It gives you a splendid reputation with everybody to know that you get up with the lark; and if you get the right kind of lark, and work at him right, you can easily train him to get up at half past nine, every time—it’s no trick at all.

早睡早起——這是一種明智之舉。有些權(quán)威人士說要跟著太陽起床；而有些則說跟著這個東西起床，其他人說跟著那個東西起床。然而，跟著云雀起床是最好不過了。你因此獲得好名聲，人人都知道你跟著云雀起床。如果你有幸找到一只好的云雀，在它身上花點功夫，你能很容易地把它訓練成每天九點半起床——這可不是騙人的把戲。

Now as to the matter of lying, you want to be very careful about lying; otherwise you are nearly sure to get caught. Once caught, you can never again be in the eyes to the good and the pure, what you were before. Many a young person has injured himself permanently through a single clumsy and ill finished lie, the result of carelessness born of incomplete training. Some authorities hold that the young out not to lie at all. That of course, is putting it rather stronger than necessary; still while I cannot go quite so far as that, I do maintain, and I believe I am right, that the young ought to be temperate in the use of this great art until practice and experience shall give them that confidence, elegance, and precision which alone can make the accomplishment graceful and profitable. Patience, diligence, painstaking attention to detail—these are requirements; these in time, will make the student perfect; upon these only, may he rely as the sure foundation for future eminence. Think what tedious years of study, thought, practice, experience, went to the equipment of that peerless old master who was able to impose upon the whole world the lofty and sounding maxim that “Truth is mighty and will prevail”—the most majestic[83]compound fracture of fact which any of woman born has yet achieved. For the history of our race, and each individual’s experience, are sewn thick with evidences that a truth is not hard to kill, and that a lie well told is immortal. There is in Boston a monument of the man who discovered anesthesia; many people are aware, in these latter days, that that man didn’t discover it at all, but stole the discovery from another man.

現(xiàn)在來談談說謊的問題。你要小心應付說謊，否則你被揭穿的機會十有八九。一旦被揭穿，在善良和純潔的目光中，你再也不是以前的你了。許多青年人，由于接受的教育不完整而導致處事輕率，從而編造了一個難以自圓其說的笨拙謊言，最后傷害了自己。一些權(quán)威人士認為青年人根本不該說謊。當然，這種說法有點過于偏激，或者說情況并非真的如此。雖然我無法把話說得太過，但我仍然堅信自己的觀點是正確的。我認為青年人應該適當?shù)剡\用這門偉大的藝術(shù)，當然前提條件是他們從實踐和經(jīng)驗身上獲得了信心、高雅和嚴謹。因為這三點中的任何一點都能讓謊言變得高雅、有益。耐心、勤奮和細致入微——這些都是必要的素質(zhì)。隨著時間的推移，這些素質(zhì)能夠讓學生變得完美。有了這些，只要有了這些，他才能為以后的功成名就打下堅實的基礎(chǔ)。試想一下，通過多年乏味的學習、思考、實踐、親身體驗，那位蓋世無雙的大師才能擁有這些素質(zhì)，才能強迫整個世界接受“真理是強大的，而且終將取得勝利！”這句崇高而擲地有聲的格言——這句關(guān)于事實的復雜層面說出的最崇高的話，任何一個女人都未曾獲得過。因為人類的歷史和每個個人的經(jīng)驗都深深地將這樣的證據(jù)埋藏起來：一個真理不難抹殺，可一個巧妙的謊言卻能經(jīng)久不衰。波士頓有個紀念碑，專門為發(fā)現(xiàn)麻醉法的人而立的。后來人們才知道，那個人根本就沒有發(fā)現(xiàn)麻醉法，他只是盜取了另一個人的發(fā)現(xiàn)。

Is this truth mighty, and will it prevail? Ah no, my hearers, the monument is made of hardy material, but the lie it tells will outlast it a million years. An awkward, feeble, leaky lie is a thing which you ought to make it your unceasing study to avoid; such a lie as that has no more real permanence than an average truth. Why, you might as well tell the truth at once and be done with it. A feeble, stupid, preposterous lie will not live two years—except it be a slander upon somebody. It is indestructible, then of course, but that is no merit of yours. A final word: begin your practice of this gracious and beautiful art early—begin now. If I had begun earlier, I could have learned how.

這個真理強大嗎？它能最終取得勝利嗎？唉，不會的。聽眾們，紀念碑是用堅硬的材料建成的，但它向世人說的謊卻比它持久百萬年。一個笨拙的、不攻自破的、漏洞百出的謊言是你應該不斷學會避免的東西。這樣的謊言甚至不比一個普通的事實來得更具真實的永恒性。那你為何不既講真話又相信真理呢？一個不攻自破的、愚蠢的、荒謬的謊言持續(xù)不了兩年——除非是對某人的誹謗。因為那種謊言是牢不可破的，當然那也不是你值得夸耀的東西。最后說一句：早點開始實踐這門高雅美妙的藝術(shù)——立刻開始吧！如果我能早點開始實踐，我想我已經(jīng)學會這門藝術(shù)了。

美麗語錄

If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.

想要實現(xiàn)夢想，就先從夢中醒來。

超多雙語閱讀，盡在聽力課堂