《在黄昏起飞》中英阅读笔记
Jul. 4th, 2025 06:00 pm新坑
引子 / Introduction
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原文:'The wonder these collections kindled came in part from the ways in which their disparate contents spoke to one another of their similarities and differences in form, their beauties and manifest obscurities. I hope that this book works a little like a Wunderkammer. It is full of strange things and it is concerned with the quality of wonder.'
译:“它们本质迥异,形态或相似或不同,各具其美,奥秘莫测,如此相互映衬,令人称奇。我希望我这本书也多少像个珍奇柜,满含不可思议的事物,让人为之惊叹。”
评: 一直觉得wonder这个词,尤其放在sense of wonder里面的时候很难翻到位:
‘这些收藏给人带来的惊奇倾动,部分源自其中物品之交杂,从形态到美感到各自的奥秘,或相似或迥异,相映成趣/相交辉映。...珍奇柜,充斥着奇异事物,探究惊奇感由何而来。’
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原文:'Most of all I hope my work is about a thing that seems to me of the deepest possible importance in our present-day historical moment:'
译:“我更希望这本书传达了当下我最为重视的主题,”
评: ‘在当下这一历史性的时刻,我最大的希望是在书里传达我认为此刻最最值得重视的主题:... ’
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原文:'And it reveals to us a planet that is beautifully and insistently not human'
译:“它为我们揭示了一个始终有别于人类的美丽星球。”
评: ‘它为我们揭示了一个始终有别于人类、因有别而分外美丽的星球。’
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原文:'when your experience of a wood that is made of light and leaves and song becomes something less complex, less magical, just less, once the warblers have gone.'
译:“一旦林莺消失,来到一片由阳光、树叶和鸣唱构成的树林,我们的体验就会损失少许复杂,少许神奇,总之损失了一点东西。”
评: ‘... 原本由阳光、树叶和鸣唱构成的林中体验,就会损失少许复杂,少许魔力,总之损失了什么。’
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1. 巢/Nests
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原文:'a thing of horsehair and moss, pale scabs of lichen and moulted pigeon feathers; '
译:“巢中夹杂着马毛、苔藓、苍白的痂状地衣和脱落的鸽羽。”
评: ‘由马毛、苔藓、苍白的地衣痂片和脱落的鸽羽构成的巢 ’
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原文:' For children, woods and fields and gardens are full of discrete, magical places: tunnels and dens and refuges in which you can hide and feel safe
译:“在孩子眼中,树林、田野和花园里遍布神奇之地,却又互不连通,有隧道、洞穴和避难所,藏在里面备感安全。'”
评: ‘...遍布星星点点的神奇之地——隧道、洞穴、和供人藏身让人安心的避难所。’
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原文:'To have the presence of these birds shrunk down to that one point of attachment, the nest, made me anxious. '
译:“令我焦虑的是,鸟儿的存在缩减为心有所系的一个点——鸟巢。”
评: ‘... 鸟儿们的存在缩减为牵挂的单点’ ??
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原文:'a mouse-sized bird, all streaks and spots and whispers. '
译:“老鼠大小的鸟,身上有条纹和斑点,鸣声如低语。”
评: ‘由条纹、斑点和轻言细语构成的,老鼠大小的一种鸟 ’
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原文:'This was all a deeper mystery. It was a story about the way lives should go that was somehow like – but not anything like – the one I’d been handed as a child. '
译:“这些都是更深层次的神秘事物,是一个关于生命去往何处的故事,某种程度上像是我幼年被灌输的东西,但又完全不是一回事。”
评: ‘这些组成了更深层次的奥秘。这个关于生命去往何处的故事,.. ’
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原文:'I didn’t know where birds fitted into all this. I didn’t know where I did. It was a narrative that even then gave me pause.'
译:“我不知道鸟类如何对应这些事,我也不知道自己该如何对应。那时候,这种人生叙事法已经让我踌躇不前。”
评: ‘我不知道这个图景中鸟类有什么样的位置。我也不知道自己的位置在哪里。早在那时,这种人生叙事已经让我起疑。’ (all this 指幼年被灌输的人生理所当然的结婚生子进程吧。)
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原文:'I think differently of home now: it’s a place you carry within you, not simply a fixed location. Perhaps birds taught me that, or took me some of the way there. '
译:“现在我对家的看法不一样了:家可以随身携带,不只是一个固定地点。或许就是鸟儿将这想法传授给我,或是它们带我抵达此处。”
评: ‘家是随心携带的,而非固定于一处。或许这全是鸟儿教我的,也许它们对我形成这想法助了一臂之力。’
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原文:'Rooks are rookeries – birds of feathers and bone that are also massed assemblages of twigs in February trees. '
译:“秃鼻乌鸦就是秃鼻乌鸦巢——它们的羽毛和骨架几乎是二月树上重重枝桠的集合。”
评: ‘...它们是羽毛和骨架构成的鸟,也是二月树上层叠的枝桠堆。 ’
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原文:'t the word itself drifts and almost loses purchase.'
译:“连巢这个字都漂浮不定,几乎失去了基础。”
评: ‘... ,几乎无处立足。’
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原文:'Another: a dark space under roof tiles where you can crawl on your mouse feet and your wings drag like feathered blades the colour of carbon steel.'
译:“还有一种:屋瓦下黑洞洞的空间,鸟儿有小鼠一般的足,拖曳着碳钢色刀片似的双翅,”
评: ‘...,你可以靠小鼠一般的足爬进去,身后拖曳着生羽的碳钢色双刃。’ (这个第二人称蛮可爱的)
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原文:'It’s satisfying to consider the incorporation of human detritus into the creations of birds, but it is troubling, too. What have they made out of what we have made of this world? '
译:“创造鸟类的过程纳入了人类的废弃物,这种看法让人满意之余不免心忧。它们如何利用我们在这个世界上创造的东西?”
评: ‘想到人类的废弃物被纳入创造鸟类的过程,是让人满意的同时也让人心忧的。它们拿我们从环境中制造出来的东西,又制造出什么了呢?’ ‘看法’太偏于‘意见’了吧。
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原文:'as birds use our things for their own ends, making our technologies redundant, slowed down, static, full of meaning that is no longer entirely our own.'
译:“鸟儿为了自己的目的而使用我们的东西,技术和设备因此变得多余、缓慢、凝滞,所具有的意义不再为我们独占。”
评: ‘鸟儿把我们的东西挪为己用,让我们的技术设备变得多余、迟缓、... ’
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原文:'We are fascinated by the difference between skill and instinct, just as we police the differences between art and craft.'
译:“我们为技巧和本能之间的差异所吸引,正如艺术和工艺之间的差别需要调控。”
评: ‘...,正如我们监管艺术和工艺之间的差别’
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原文:'If pigment is smeared on to a guillemot’s eggshell as it rotates before being laid in drip-splashes that resemble in their exuberance and finesse the paintings of Abstract Expressionists,'
译:“形成丰富灵动的图案,一如抽象表现主义画作,令人愉悦,”
评: ‘活泼灵巧的’?? 原句怎么都parse不明白。
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原文:'I think of that need to collect that sometimes is billionaires hoarding de Koonings and Pollocks and sometimes tradesmen hiding plastic margarine tubs full of exquisitely marked red-backed shrike eggs beneath beds and floorboards.'
译:“正是出于一种收藏的需求,亿万富翁才会囤积德·库宁和波洛克的画作,而有些商人会把装黄油的塑料盒藏在在床和地板底下,里面装满了斑点精致的红背伯劳鸟蛋。”
评: ‘亿万富翁囤积德·库宁和波洛克的画作,抑或小生意人把斑点精致的红背伯劳鸟蛋装进黄油盒里,藏在床和地板底下,都是表达同一种收藏的需求。’
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原文:'And I see interwar anxieties about marriage in Henry Eliot Howard’s work on bird behaviour;'
译:“我看到两次世界大战之间的他为婚姻焦虑,”
评: ‘...,我看到两次世界大战之间的人们对婚姻的焦虑 ’
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原文:'exclaiming phrases like ‘Is me hat on straight?’ and ‘Crikey, this isn’t ’arf a do!’ White’s skeins of aristocratic pink-footed geese pass high over the slum, singing Scandinavian goose-themed sagas as they fly north.'
译:“这些海鸟喊叫着:“俺的帽子正吗?”“哎呀妈呀,还差得远呢!” 而怀特笔下的一群群贵族粉脚雁高高掠过崖上的贫民窟,吟唱着斯堪的纳维亚大雁史诗飞向北方。”
评: ‘这些海鸟用粗犷的底层人/低级口音喊叫:..。怀特笔下的粉脚雁则贵气十足,一群群高高掠过崖上的贫民窟,吟唱着以大雁为主人公的斯堪的纳维亚史诗,飞向北方。’
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原文:'mostly have little truck with the mainstream rules of nature appreciation and the laws that enforce them. '
译:“和主流的自然鉴赏原则及执行法规鲜有交集。”
评: ‘不把主流的自然鉴赏原则及相关法规看在眼里 ’
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原文:'Egg collecting in this tradition makes me wonder about the terms of ownership, investment and access to pleasure that economically deprived communities are allowed to have in the natural world. '
译:“在这种传统中,收集鸟蛋意味着什么?我想知道在哪些条件下,贫穷社区才能拥有自然资源,靠自然发财,也能享受自然。”
评: ‘这种收集鸟蛋的传统引人深思。我想知道,贫穷社区拥有自然资源、靠自然发财、以及享受自然的条件是什么。’
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原文:'It can become an obsession for minds gripped with stilled beauty. It is a practice that halts time. The collectors grant themselves the power to withhold new lives and new generations. And egg collecting is also, at the same time, one in the eye for the elite and all their rules about what is and what is not an acceptable way to relate to nature.'
译:“那些为静物之美吸引的人可能为此上瘾。这种做法令时间中止,鸟蛋收藏者自认为有权撤销新生命和新世代。与此同时,鸟蛋收藏也令精英们不悦,因为他们规定的开启自然的所有正确方式都受到了挑战。”
评:前面stilled和still到底是有区别的吧;minimalist一点 ‘鸟蛋收藏也能令精英们不悦’估计那种主动性也能表达出来了。
‘那些人被按了暂停键的美吸引,可能为此痴迷。这是一种令时间中止的行为。... 精英们制定规矩,试图定义怎么和大自然打交道才是正确的。鸟蛋收藏是对他们和他们那些规矩的存心冒犯。’
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原文:'gangs of egg protectors guarding the nests of rare birds were a true-life legacy of the war. '
译:“鸟蛋保护者共同守卫稀有鸟类的巢,这确实是战争留给现实生活的遗产。”
评: ‘鸟蛋保护者组队守卫稀有鸟类的巢,这确实是真实生活中战争留下的遗产。’
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原文:'That was when I recognised the particular power of eggs to raise questions of human hurt and harm. '
译:“我意识到了鸟蛋特殊的力量,它和人类的伤害相关。”
评: ‘...,它能彰显/让相关人类伤害的问题浮出水面’ ??
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原文:' but would soon take in the revealed coil and furl of a west-coast breeze and cloud of a hillside in one easy glide at sixty miles an hour, '
译:“但很快就会乘驭西海岸的微风和山顶舒卷的云气,以”
评: ‘...就会每小时96公里的速度轻盈地滑翔,感受到西海岸微风中空气的舒卷,徜徉于山侧的云岚,’
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2. Nothing Like a Pig/一点不像猪
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原文:'The boy said he’d show me something I’d never seen before in the woods, which made me raise an eyebrow. But here we are.'
译:“男孩说,他要带我看看我在这林子里从未见过的东西,我很惊讶。而我们到了这个地方。”
评: ‘男孩说,他要带我到林子里看东西,保证是我从未见过的。我对此保持怀疑,但我们还是来了。’
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原文:'a short, collapsing moment '
译:“短暂而突然的一刻,”
评: ‘...骤缩’
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原文:'a thing I’d seen representations of '
译:“只见过复制品的”
评: ‘...图像或模型’
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原文:'trophy photographs of twenty-first-century hunters kneeling over them with rifles'
译:“二十一世纪的获奖照片上猎人持步枪跪在它们身边”
评: ‘二十一世纪猎人们持步枪跪在它们身边的纪念照片’
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原文:'There are animals that are mythological by virtue of being imaginary: basilisks, dragons, unicorns.'
译:“有一些神话中的动物是想象出来的:蛇怪、龙,独角兽。”
评: ‘有一些动物的神话性源于它们出自想象:蛇怪、龙,独角兽。’
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原文:'still emblematic, still rich and passing strange. And now here one was, called into the real world.'
译:“依然有象征意味,有丰富奇特的含义。此时此地就有一只,它被召唤进真实的世界。”
评: ‘...,依然奇特得非同凡响。而此时此地就有一只,被召唤到真实的世界来了。’
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原文:'listening apprehensively for the faintest sounds and scanning for signs of movement in the undergrowth. '
译:“会仔细聆听最轻微的声响,还在小路上搜寻它们行动的踪迹。”
评: ‘忧心忡忡地... 林下灌丛里’
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原文:'are dying out over a hundred times as fast as they would in a world without humans.'
译:“如今灭绝的速度比它们在没有人类的世界时快了一百倍。”
评: ‘... 它们在假使没有人类的... ’
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原文:'And being considered by a mind that is not human forces you to reconsider the limits of your own. As the boar looked up at me, it was obvious that my knowledge of boars was limited, '
译:“被一个并非人类的头脑审视时,你不得不反思自身的局限性。野猪抬头看我,而我对它的了解显然十分有限。”
评: ‘被一个并非人类的头脑审视,迫使你反思自己头脑的局限性。野猪抬头看我时,我清晰地意识到我对它的了解十分有限。 ’
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原文:'and, oddly, what it thought of me. '
译:“它又如何看待我。”
评: ‘莫名地,想知道它又如何看待我’
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原文:'felt, as the seconds passed, that some tiny skein of aggression in his heart was starting to thrum.'
译:“感觉到就在这几秒钟,它体内的攻击性开始微微颤动。”
评: ‘...它体内的攻击性如同细弦,开始微微颤动 ’
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3. Inspector Calls/督察来访
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原文:'It seemed a logical means of preventing any complaints about coffee rings on the Ercol dining table.'
译:“起码这是一种合乎逻辑的方式,他将无法对实木餐桌上的咖啡杯印有任何怨言。”
评: ‘这么做当时看来合乎逻辑——... ’
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原文:'my heart folds and falls, '
译:“我先是揪紧了心,随后又舒展了,”
评: ‘我的心揪紧又沉落,’
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原文:'He frowns as if he’s assuming upon himself the responsibility of my being one of the elect.'
译:“他皱起眉头,似乎肩负着认定我为上帝选民的重任。”
评: ‘... ,似乎我从芸芸众生中入选了,他会为此担下重任。’ ??
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原文:'They have decided the house is too small for them and their son. So much for my week of cleaning purgatory.'
译:“他们觉得这个房间太小了。我这一周的清洁苦刑到此为止。”
评: ‘...这房子太小了。我这一周的清洁苦刑由此尽付阙如。’
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4. Field Guides/野外指南
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原文:'two-volume guide to British spiders, with its hairy, many-eyed line drawings,'
译:“书中有很多毛茸茸的眼睛素描,”
评: ‘书中的素描画满是细毛和眼睛,... ’
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原文:'for field guides have closely tracked changes in the ways we interact with nature. '
译:“因为田野指南细细地追踪着我们和自然互动方式的变化。”
评: ‘因为田野指南的演变,紧跟我们与自然互动方式的变化... ’
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原文:'a group of competitive, iconoclastic young naturalists. '
译:“他们富有才干,渴望打破陈规。”
评: ‘他们争先恐后... ’
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原文:' pulling intricate variety out of a background blur of nameless grey and green.'
译:“在一片无名的灰绿色模糊背景中,各种精妙的生物跃然凸显。”
评: ‘原来无名的灰绿色模糊背景中,区分精细的不同种类凸显出来。’ ?
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原文:'The first time I saw a silver-spotted skipper butterfly basking on bare chalk on high downland pasture, I instantly knew the name of this dusty-golden dart with pale, ragged patches on its wings. '
译:“我第一次在丘陵地牧场看到裸露的白垩土上一只晒太阳的银斑弄蝶,它像一枚土金色的飞镖,翅膀上有锯齿状的浅白色图案,立刻反应出了名字。”
评: ‘我第一次在丘陵地牧场看到裸露的白垩土上一只晒太阳的蝴蝶,像一枚土金色的飞镖,翅膀上有锯齿状的浅白色图案,立刻反应出它叫银斑弄蝶。’
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5. Tekels Park/泰克尔公园
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原文:'the section of fence I’m searching for, running west and high under skies white as old ice.'
译:“那段围栏,围栏向西延伸,在天空下高高竖立,像古老的寒冰一样洁白。”
评: ‘...在白如古冰的天空下高高竖立’ ?玄冰?
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原文:'the cradled mathematical branches of a monkey puzzle'
译:“一棵智利南洋杉颇具数学之美的弧形枝条,”
评: ‘分布得很有数学性的倒拱形枝条’ 看照片才知道cradle用得多形象
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原文:'and my head blooms with an apprehension of lost space, because I know exactly all the land around those trees, or at least what it was like thirty years ago. '
译:“我为那个失去的时空满心忧惧,因为我完全了解那几棵树周围所有的土地,至少是三十年前它们的样子。”
评: ‘我的心为通晓那个失去的时空胀大,因为我对那几棵树周围所有的土地了然于心... ’ 后文说速读还用了一个apprehend,是明白/了然的意思。如果是双关,‘忧惧’ 应该是比较弱的那层意思。
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原文:'And the feeling I had then, of wanting to apprehend something important that was passing by me very fast: that’s the feeling I have now when I look for the place behind the motorway fence where I grew up.'
译:“那时我想要了解飞掠而过的某个重要的东西,现在我也有这种感觉。此时,我正在寻找公路围栏后的那个地方,我是在那里长大的。”
评: ‘... ,现在寻找公路围栏后那个地方的我也有这种感觉。我是在那里长大的。 ’
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原文:'others were the black sheep of good families: elderly women, mostly, who had refused the roles society had reserved for them: the quiet Lolly Willowes of Surrey Heath. '
译:“其他则是体面人家的不肖子女,多数是上年纪的女人,拒绝了社会为她们设定的角色——萨里郡石南荒原上娴静的“罗莉·威洛伊”[插图]。”
评: ‘...设定的角色;她们是萨里郡石南荒原上安静的“罗莉·威洛伊” ’ 说她们像罗莉·威洛伊,指的是她们的反叛精神。原文的破折号好像容易引起歧义,好像罗莉·威洛伊是符合社会期望的典型,尤其联系了‘娴静’这个词之后。她们并不娴淑,她们只是不张扬。
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原文:'On discovering that I had gone to Cambridge, another, years later, inquired of me where I had stabled my horse – for he’d had dreadful trouble finding livery for his hunter while a student there in the 1930s.'
译:“另一个前住户得知我去了剑桥,问我校园哪里有马厩,因为他二十世纪三十年代也在剑桥读书,为了给他的猎狗找到食宿曾大费周折。”
评: ‘...问我用的是哪一处马厩,因为他二十世纪三十年代也在剑桥读书,为了给他的狩猎用马找寄养处曾大费周折。 ’
[br]
原文:'Everyone had lives and pasts of such luminous eccentricity '
译:“每个邻居的生活和往昔都如此独特古怪,”
评: ‘... 都古怪得光华流转’
[br]
原文:'specimen trees'
译:“园景树”
评: ‘吸引目光焦点的树’
[br]
原文:'an intermittently-broken fountain,'
译:“池中喷泉断断续续,”
评: ‘... 不定时罢工’
[br]
原文:'or walking past the guesthouse with a big grass snake, two feet of supple khaki and gold twined about my arms. '
译:“或是走过家庭旅馆,胳膊上绕着一条大草蛇,两英尺长卡其色和金色的家伙,”
评: ‘或是带着一条大草蛇走过家庭旅馆,那两英尺长柔软的卡其色和金色绕在我胳膊上 ’
[br]
原文:'I could hoist myself into and up,'
译:“我可以钻进枝丛,”
评: ‘...攀入 ’
[br]
原文:' that glittering, shifting particulate mound which moved from year to year '
译:“每年都改变位置的小土堆”
评: ‘那闪亮的、小颗粒形成的小土堆每年都改变位置,’
[br]
原文:'I’d prepare skeletons of the dead birds I found by folding them carefully in little cages of wire mesh '
译:“我收拾好发现的死鸟尸体,小心地把骨架折起来放在小铁丝笼子里,”
评: ‘捡到死鸟后为了获取它们的骨架,我小心地把它们折起来... ’ 这个prepare是蚂蚁代劳的吧
[br]
原文:' though I wasn’t half as posh as their protagonists.'
译:“只是我不及这些优雅的主人公一半。”
评: ‘只是那些主人公都来自上层社会,我的身份远不能相比。’
[br]
原文:'So much of what was there must have arrived in hay brought for long-dead horses, as seeds from lowland meadows:'
译:“那里出现了多少东西:为死去已久的马准备的干草,低地草甸的种子,”
评: ‘那里出现的许多植物原生于低地草甸,种子一定是混在为死去已久的马准备的干草里运来的。 ’
[br]
原文:'wavy hair grass brushed with fog by the sun'
译:“还有阳光下雾气轻拂的曲芒发草。”
评: ‘还有曲芒发草,阳光将它笼罩在氤氲里’
[br]
原文:' I sat in front of the mower to make it stop, then mutely, passively, held my ground in front of the bewildered driver, who came down to quite reasonably ask me what the hell I was doing, and I ran home crying.'
译:“我坐在割草机前面阻挡它。迷惑的司机下来,通情达理地询问我到底在干什么,我默然而被动地坚守自己的阵地,后来跑回家大哭。”
评: ‘...。面对迷惑的司机,我默然而消极地坚守自己的阵地。他下来合情合理地询问我到底在干什么,我就一路大哭地跑回家了。’ 过程这样顺一些?
[br]
原文:' the passing scenery possessed the disconcerting, diffuse, offscale and uncanny closeness of things in dreams. '
译:“一掠而过的风景仿佛梦境中逼近眼前弥漫开来的事物,令人困扰、不合比例、诡异。”
评: ‘一掠而过的风景仿佛梦中之物,逼近得弥漫四周、令人困扰、不合比例、诡异难状。’
[br]
原文:'He said, ‘We should be taking stock.’ I take stock. During this sixth extinction we who may not have time to do anything else must write what we now can, to take stock.'
译:“他说:“应当审时度势。” 我也需要如此。在第六次大灭绝的过程中,我们这种人可能无暇他顾,必须审时度势,尽自己所能写作。”
评: ‘他说:“应当盘点审查。” 我在照他说的做。在第六次大灭绝的进程中,我们这些人可能来不及干别的了,那就一定要把现在能写的都写下来,好好盘点审查。’
[br]
原文:'utterly and accidentally destroying things in the process '
译:“他们彻底地、出乎意料地毁灭了很多东西。”
评: ‘..无心中彻底毁灭 ’
----------------------
6. High-Rise / 高空
[br]
原文:'a spectacular sea of lights spilling far below.'
译:“盛大的灯光如一片汪洋,倾泻而下。”
评: ‘...,在遥远的下方迸流四溅’
[br]
原文:'Farnsworth saw a peregrine falcon drifting ominously around the building.'
译:“法恩斯沃思看见一只游隼在大厦上空飞旋”
评: +‘...,看起来不怀好意 ’
[br]
原文:'the same opportunities to stash a takeout meal'
译:“蕴藏着一份外卖大餐”
评: ‘保存一份现成大餐 ’
[br]
原文:'The spire is lit with pulsing rivulets of climbing colour like a candle tonight'
译:“螺旋塔冠被跃升跳动的彩色灯光点亮,像一枚蜡烛。”
评: ‘... 被脉动攀升的彩灯细流点亮’ ?
[br]
原文:'Disoriented by light and reflections on glass, they crash into obstacles, fly into windows, spiral down to the ground. '
译:“灯光和玻璃幕帘的反光打乱了方向,它们撞向窗户,螺旋式坠地。”
评: ‘灯光和玻璃幕帘的反光打乱了它们的方向感,让它们撞向窗户和其它障碍... ’
[br]
原文:'But you are set in another part of their habitual world, a nocturne of ice crystals and cloud and wind and darkness.'
译:“但是你可以置身于高楼常规世界的另一个部分——冰晶、云、风与黑暗构成的夜景。”
评: ‘...你身处于它们常规世界的另一个部分
----------------
7. The Human Flock / 人群
[br]
原文:'others shake their heads or utter profanities. '
译:“还有人摇头叹息,或是口出秽言”
评: ‘还有人摇头,有人爆粗口 ’
[br]
原文:'The snaking lines synchronise so that each bird raises its wings a fraction before the one behind it, each moving flock resolving itself into a filmstrip showing a single bird stretched through time.'
译:“蛇形的阵列如此同步,每只鸟前方的那只都稍稍抬起翅膀,每一个移动的鸟群分解成一张张呈现单只鸟的幻灯片,随着时间不断延伸”
评: ‘...每一只鸟的翅膀都比身后那只的略抬高一点点,每一个移动的鸟群呈现出来的,是幻灯片里单只鸟的连贯动作’ (?)
[br]
原文:'But then, part of the allure of flocking birds is their ability to create bewildering optical effects. '
译:“此外,群集的鸟所创造的光学效应令人迷惑,这也是它们的魅力所在。”
评: ‘话说回来,群集的鸟的部分魅力,就在于它们能够创造出令人缭乱的视觉效果。 ’
[br]
原文:'vanish and reappear in an instant as the birds turned their counter-shaded bodies in the air. '
译:“消失不见,下一刻它们在空中翻转背光一面的身体,重新显现。”
评: 查到counter-shaded 是保护色的一种,特指动物上一半颜色深,下一半颜色浅
[br]
原文:'Turns can propagate through a cloud of birds at speeds approaching ninety miles per hour, making murmurations look from a distance like a single pulsing, living organism.'
译:“一大群鸟的转向以接近每小时90英里的速度增殖,从远处看就像是一个自成一体的不断律动的生物。”
评: ‘...速度传播/散播,从远处看就像是一个不断律动、有生命的个体’
[br]
原文:'fear is the factor shaping the flocks, pressing and contorting them as they fly.'
译:“鸟儿飞行时,恐惧逼迫和扭曲着它们的群体。”
评: ‘... 挤压扭曲它们的阵列 ’
[br]
原文:'I go from seeing rushing patterns in the sky '
译:“从观看空中群鸟疾飞的模式,”
评: ‘从观看空中迅速变幻的图形,’
[br]
原文:'I marvel at how confusion can be resolved by focusing on the things from which it is made.'
译:“原来专注于鸟儿身体的构成元素,就能厘清这混乱的场景。”
评: ‘原来专注于构成这纷乱场景的元素,就能厘清它的混乱。 ’
[br]
原文:'visceral apprehension '
译:“内心的恐惧”
评: ‘发自内心的本能恐惧’ 强调非理性的?
---------------------
8. The Student’s Tale / 学生的故事
[br]
原文:'Even I know what happens. I am holding my breath just thinking of it.'
译:“即使我明白发生了什么,想到那种处置手段时依然屏住了呼吸。”
评: ‘就连我也明白会发生什么。光想想那种处置手段我就屏住了呼吸。’
[br]
原文:'you couldn’t blame her for expecting friendship when what was offered was its scorched obverse.'
译:“你无法责怪她,她期待友谊,迎来的却是刺痛人心的相反结果。”
评: ‘她期望友谊, 找上门的却是其刺痛人心的相反,但你不能为此责怪她。 ’
[br]
原文:'that loss pours from you, silent through the laughter, like a cold current of air that sinks to the floor and fills the room beneath everything light that is spoken here.'
译:“你满身写着失去这两个字,笑中的沉默像一股寒气沉到地面,充溢整个房间,潜伏在这里说出的每一句轻松的话语之下。”
评: ‘你失去的所有从你身上涌出,在笑声中像一股寒气,无声地沉到地面... ’
[br]
原文:'whose eyes are bright with unspilled tears'
译:“明亮的眼睛噙着的泪水不曾滴落,”
评: ‘噙着的泪水不曾滴落,让眼睛发亮’
[br]
原文:'But a hole is not just a pigeonhole. It’s the space between two things. '
译:“但是这格子不仅是放置分类档案的,它是两个事物之间的空间,”
评: ‘但是这格子不仅是归类放置用的,’
[br]
原文:'And you are also a man who tips back his head and laughs when we discover that the School has been closed for rebuilding, and the windows are boarded up and the palings mean we can’t see the building at all. '
译:“当我们发现医学院关门维修,窗户外竖起木板,脚手架让我们看不到教学楼,你向后微微转头,笑了起来。”
评: ‘... 脚手架挡住了教学楼,你微微仰头笑了起来。是的,那样笑起来的也是你。’ 保持排比?
--------------------
9. Ants/蚂蚁
[br]
原文:'a towering column of flying ants'
译:“飞蚁聚成的塔柱”
评: ‘... 悬空高柱’
[br]
原文:'The hitching curves of the gulls in a vault of sky crossed with thousands of different flightlines, warm airspace tense with predatory intent and the tiny hopes of each rising ant.'
译:“上千条不同的飞行轨迹划过苍穹,其下鸥鸟翻飞构成道道曲线,晴暖的空中充满张力,一方意在捕食,另一方是每一只升空的蚂蚁的渺小希望。”
评: ‘...鸥鸟痉挛性地/忽动忽停地勾勒出曲线...’
--------------------
10. Symptomatic /症状
[br]
原文:'something like a bullet that’s only chambered one morning days after the threat of violence. A slug that ratchets through and slots into your spine before the slow shot begins with an umbrella-towering nimbus of empty pressure'
译:“它是一条蛞蝓,像棘轮一样旋转切入,插进你的脊椎,之后是缓缓推进的注射器,起初如雨伞压顶的空虚压力令你觉得晕眩,”
评: ‘子弹像棘轮一样旋转切入...,之后是缓缓推进,... ’ slug和shot应该都是指子弹吧。
[br]
原文:'the interference in my brain runs sometimes along the lines of those delicate scrawls of blue-flowered decorations on ancient Chinese porcelain.'
译:“感觉到大脑中的干扰有时好像在沿着古代中国瓷器上那种精致的青花纹样游走。”
评: ‘干涉波’ ?
[br]
原文:'we’re not built with the solidity so many of us blithely assume.'
译:“多数人总以为自己的身体多么结实,”
评: ‘多数人没心没肺地以为自己的身体多结实’
[br]
原文:'a sweetly turned phrase more ableist than utopian. '
译:“这个美化过的定义比乌托邦更有健全中心主义的歧视色彩。”
评: ‘这条看着美好的定义与其说太乌托邦,不如说是过于以健全人为中心。’
[br]
原文:'causal molecular pathways'
译:“偶然的分子路径”
评: ‘因果性分子路径’ ?
[br]
原文:'There’s no mistaking their occurrence – I bleed, or I curl up in pain and weep – and both involve a suite of premonitory symptoms.'
译:“毫无疑问,流血,或是蜷起身体痛苦哭泣,这二者来临前都有一系列先兆症状。”
评: ‘它们的降临明确无疑——我流血,或蜷起身体痛苦哭泣,而二者来临前都有一系列先兆症状。’
[br]
原文:'these states are now something like old friends, and I greet them with a deal of archness.'
译:“这些状态现在如同老友,我以狡黠的手段与其周旋。”
评: ‘...,我戏谑地拿出一本正经的态度接待它们’
[br]
原文:'The premonitory symptoms of my migraines are exceedingly specific. '
译:“我对偏头痛的预感极其细微具体。”
评: ‘我的偏头痛的先兆症状... ’
[br]
原文:'There’s dust-and-ashes tiredness'
译:“我感觉幻灭般的疲倦,”
评: ‘万念俱灰的疲倦’
[br]
原文:'I never see it coming.'
译:“我从来觉察不到它的征兆。”
评: ‘我从来不能预知它什么时候来。’
[br]
原文:'occurring in its prodrome, that part of it which precedes the pain.'
译:“是发作之前的前驱症状。”
评: ‘是疼痛发作之前... ’
[br]
原文:'it tips me into days that seem newly forged and prone to surprising beauties. '
译:“将我轻轻推入似乎被重新铸造的日子,更轻易地为一片风景惊艳。”
评: ‘将我轻轻推入新铸/新出炉的日子,那里似乎有更多的美等着带给人惊喜。’
[br]
原文:'I was overcome by delight. '
译:“我满心欢悦,”
评: ‘我喜不自胜’
[br]
原文:'Hurricanes lining up across the Atlantic. '
译:“飓风在大西洋沿岸登陆。”
评: ‘飓风紧挨着在大西洋出现。... ’
[br]
原文:'We can’t connect the dots. We know we’re in trouble, '
译:“我们知道自己陷入困境,”
评: +‘我们察觉不出这些事件间的因果关系。’
[br]
原文:'conspiracies fluttering like millenarian pamphlets,'
译:“阴谋像千禧年宣传活页四处翻飞,”
评: ‘...基督教末世论者的宣传活页’ millenarian字典定义:denoting a religious or political group seeking solutions to present crises through rapid and radical transformation of politics and society.
[br]
原文:'makes it impossible to comprehend symptoms as premonitions? '
译:“致使我们无法将预感认作症状呢?”
评: ‘致使我们无法将症状认作预兆呢 ’
[br]
原文:' We’ve been led to believe we can make decisions that change the world in the supermarket; '
译:“可做出决定在超市里改变世界”
评: ‘在超市里做的那些选择可以改变世界’
[br]
原文:'But the systems of the wider world do not operate according to the temporalities of our human lives;'
译:“整个系统的运转并非围绕我们人类短暂的生命。”
评: ‘...并不把人类短暂的生命为时间刻度’ ?
[br]
原文:'For an apocalypse is not always a cataclysmic ending, and not always a disaster.'
译:“因为末日不一定是巨大的变动,不一定是大灾难。”
评: ‘因为启示录不一定有灾难的结局,不一定是毁灭性的。’
----------------------
11. Sex, Death, Mushrooms / 性、死亡、蘑菇
[br]
原文:'collect stinkhorns for the express purpose of bringing them back to be ‘burned in the deepest secrecy of the drawing-room fire, with the door locked; because of the morals of the maids’, '
译:“曾到林中专门采集白鬼笔,然后带回家中,“考虑到女仆的贞洁道德,锁上门,用客厅的炉火将其秘密烧尽”,”
评: ‘曾为了“保护女仆的贞德”,特地到林中采集白鬼笔,目的就是带回家中,“锁上门,用客厅的炉火将其秘密烧尽”’
[br]
原文:'Our continuing pieties about sex '
译:“性持续的虔敬,”
评: ‘我们依然避讳谈性’
[br]
原文:'a strong and strange conjuration of life-in-death'
译:“仿佛一种生死相依的魔咒,”
评: ‘... 一种死里返生的魔法’
[br]
原文:'thought to be the fingers of the god of the dead bursting through the ground to feed the poor.'
译:“蘑菇被视作死神伸出地面的手指,穷人以此为食”
评: ‘...是死神为了喂养穷人而伸出地面的手指’
[br]
原文:'eager to taste this souvenir from a place full of life hidden from our own.'
译:“迫不及待地想要尝尝滋味。这枚纪念品所在的世界里,满是从我们眼皮下躲藏起来的生命。”
评: ‘迫不及待地想要尝尝这枚纪念品的滋味。它所纪念的,是一个潜伏着诸多生命,不为我们所见的世界。’
-------------------
12. Winter Woods / 冬日树林
[br]
原文:'I’ve walked them in low sun, deep snow, rain, and in dank mist that clings to the skin and seems more water than air.'
译:“夕阳低垂的时分,在深深的雪地上,在雨中,在紧贴皮肤更像水而非气体的湿雾中,我在林间穿行。”
评: 分号??
[br]
原文:'wearing an expression of joyous, fierce concentration.'
译:“他脸上的表情愉悦而又极其专注。”
评: ‘...既沉浸,又享受 ’ 正好别处看来
[br]
原文:'Because life is less obvious in a winter wood, where it does subsist, as bright stars of moss, or fungal fruiting bodies enduring winter frosts with antifreeze-packed cells, it demands attention. '
译:“冬天的林中生命迹象不够明显,但它们确实存在。明亮的星芒状苔藓,或是经受严寒的真菌子实体,它们有“防冻液”细胞,都值得我们关注。”
评: ‘...,它们存在之处就更值得我们关注,无论是明亮的星芒状苔藓,还是... ’
[br]
原文:'their momentary purchase on this world. '
译:“它们对这个世界短暂的把握。”
评: ‘...在这个世界短暂的立足/落足’
[br]
原文:'they’re rich with a buzzing, glittering, shifting profusion of life. Everything seems manifested; there’s no obvious sense of potentiality. '
译:“它们充满嗡鸣、闪光、不断变换的丰富生命。所有的一切都昭然于世,难以感觉到潜藏的东西。”
评: ‘... 潜能则难以察觉。’
------------------
13. Eclipse / 日食
[br]
原文:'an event in which the sun and moon – and me – would line up '
译:“在我的想象中,日食的发生意味着太阳和月亮再加上我将会连成一线,”
评: ‘... 太阳和月亮——也加上我——将会连成一线’
[br]
原文:'The presence of other people would detract from the meaningfulness of it all,'
译:“我觉得其他人的在场将会抹杀所有的意义,”
评: ‘减损’
[br]
原文:'‘volatile Frenchman’ ‘stolid German’ '
译:““反复无常的法国人”“面无表情的德国人”
评: ‘情绪易变/冷漠麻木’
[br]
原文:'I’d always been nervous of crowds... Growing up watching television in Britain in the 1970s and ’80s was a primer in their dangers. '
译:“在上世纪七八十年代的英国看电视长大,这本身就是危险事件入门。”
评: ‘上世纪七八十年代在英国伴我长大的电视节目,是人群之危的入门教材。’
[br]
原文:'marvelling crowds newly assured of the singular grandeur and importance of their nation. '
译:“惊叹不已的人群以全新的眼光领略自己祖国的辉煌和意义。”
评: ‘...确信了自己祖国独有的辉煌和重要’
[br]
原文:'a passing shadow cast across the nation from celestial bodies above.'
译:“而是头顶上方的天体将一片流逝的阴影罩住整个国家。”
评: ‘...让一片移动的阴影穿越整个国家’ path of totality没有那么宽的
[br]
原文:'they’re entities defining themselves by virtue only of what they are against. '
译:“他们是这样一些实体,用以定义自身的德行恰恰是他们所反对的。”
评: ‘他们这样的存在,是完全通过他们所反对什么来定义的。’ (而没有主张、支持的东西吧)
[br]
原文:'New Age travellers and folks in fancy dress. '
译:“服饰花哨的新世纪旅行者”
评: ‘新世纪旅行者,和盛装的人们’
[br]
原文:'night slammed down on us. '
译:“夜晚骤然袭来,”
评: ‘黑夜劈头砸下来’
[br]
原文:'a wave of particulate light crashed along the dark beach... making the whole coast a glittering field of stars. '
译:“光点汇成一道光波,贯穿这片黑压压的海滩,...整片海岸仿佛星光闪烁的原野”
评: ‘...光浪,拍击... 星光闪烁的天幕’ ?
[br]
原文:'For a long while my brain tricks me. It has a vested interest in reassurance:'
译:“我的大脑将我捉弄了许久,因为得到安慰对它自有好处。”
评: ‘...哄骗了我很久,因为安慰我对它有利。’
[br]
原文:'Why everything, the luggage-strap leaves of dune grass under my toes, the broken walls, bay trees, the sea in front, the mountains behind, everything’s still darkly fine.'
译:“但是为什么所有的东西,脚趾下沙丘草那行李箱捆扎带一样的叶子,残墙,海湾的树,面前的大海,身后的山峦,它们依然如常,只是黑乎乎的?”
评: 这里的Why不是提问,是语气词——‘喏,所有的东西,...,黑乎乎的它们依然如常。然后我发现’ ,所以后面是句号。
[br]
原文:'the psychological equivalent of that discordant crash as I have a fraught little struggle with my brain. '
译:“和自己的大脑展开的小小的、紧张的斗争,导致的心理效应等同于那一声混乱的撞击”
评: ‘... 危机四伏的斗争,...刺耳的撞击 ’
[br]
原文:'apparently the blithe amphibian will fail to notice the incremental rise in temperature'
译:“表面上看,那只淡定的青蛙将不会注意到温度的递增”
评: ‘据说那只青蛙一直无忧无虑,不会注意到温度的递增’
[br]
原文:'that story’s creeping dread '
译:“那个故事的恐怖有几分诡异,”
评: ‘...恐怖悄然而至 ’ 不是creepy
[br]
原文:'But though their shapes are reassuring, the content isn’t. '
译:“虽然它们的形状令人安慰,实则不然,”
评: ‘...,轮廓之内的部分却非如此 ’
[br]
原文:'stymied in its search for thermals to soar upon. They’re all disappearing in the rapidly cooling air. '
译:“一只雀鹰飞过,它寻找上升气流的努力受挫,在空中下滑,不再居于高处。在迅速冷却的空气中,它们都在消失。”
评: ‘...,上升气流都在消失’ 因为语序调整,thermals离代指的they太远了,好像再重复一遍更易懂
[br]
原文:'Totality is so incomprehensible for your mental machinery'
译:“你的精神机制对此全然无法理解,”
评: ‘日全食是你的精神机制如此无从理解的事物,’
[br]
原文:'The exhilaration is barely contained terror.'
译:“兴高采烈其实是抑制不住的恐惧。”
评: ‘那刻的振奋狂喜是堪堪抑制住的恐惧’
[br]
原文:'A total eclipse makes history laughable,makes you feel both precious and disposable, '
译:“一场日全食令历史变得滑稽,让你感觉既珍贵又无用,”
评: ‘... 可笑,...又随时/轻易可以被扔掉’
[br]
原文:'like someone trying to engage a stone in discussions about the price of a celebrity magazine.'
译:“就像一个人想在名流杂志定价的讨论中加入石头的话题。”
评: ‘就像一个人想跟一块石头展开关于名流杂志定价的讨论。 ’
[br]
原文:'something (I blush to say it, but here it comes) like a word. And thus begins the world again. Instantly.'
译:“我羞于出口,但我想说,它就像一个词语。世界就这样重新开启。刹那之间,”
评: ‘... 于刹那之间。’ 这里word好像有所特指,让人联想到上帝创世时用的话
[br]
原文:'From a bay tree, struck into existence a moment ago, '
译:“在一棵片刻前赫然再现的月桂树上,”
评: ‘... 赫然出世 ’
-------------------------
14. In Her Orbit / 在她的轨道上
[br]
原文:'‘people who are passionate enough that they can put themselves into dire straits’.'
译:“:“还需要研究者有足够的激情,哪怕置身于凶险的海峡。””
评: ‘... 不惜将自己置身于凶险。’
[br]
原文:'I had brought a sleeping bag, altitude-sickness pills and a considerable amount of anxiety about the conditions we’d meet ahead.'
译:“我带着睡袋、高原反应药片,对即将面临的境况倍觉焦虑。”
评: ‘... 、以及对即将面临的境况的焦虑。’
[br]
原文:'a striking, finely carved handsomeness,'
译:“面孔轮廓分明,英气飒爽。”
评: ‘脸庞精致而英气’ ??
[br]
原文:'subsurface oceans on distant moons like Saturn’s Enceladus and Titan, for instance, could support microbial organisms. '
译:“比如土卫二和泰坦星这两颗土星的遥远卫星,它们的环境可以维系微生物。”
评: ‘...,它们的地下海 ’
[br]
原文:'A stiff Pacific breeze blows dead mimosa blossoms across the pavement as I climb inside a minibus to join them on the long drive to our first field site, '
译:“太平洋的烈风把枯萎的合欢花刮到人行道旁,我正钻进一辆小面包车和团队会合,抵达我们的第一个探测地点还要开很长的路。”
评: ‘我和团队会合时,太平洋的劲风正把枯萎的合欢花刮到人行道旁。小面包车抵达我们的第一个探测地点前... ’
[br]
原文:'Time drifts. Everything outside the windows is so featureless it seems like a theatrical backdrop.'
译:“时间在流逝。车窗外的一切如此平淡无奇,就像舞台的背景幕布。”
评: ‘时间变得飘荡无依。车窗外的景物平淡,完全没有记忆点... ’ (后一句是前一句的原因吧)
[br]
原文:'It’s dizzying to think of the scales her work spans: '
译:“想到卡布罗尔的工作范围尺度,为之心折,”
评: ‘...尺度之大,让人晕眩’
[br]
原文:'she created an imaginative, hermetic world of her own to live in'
译:“创造出一个自成一体的隐秘世界。”
评: ‘她以想象力创造出一个属于她一个人、隔绝于世的小世界’
[br]
原文:'‘For him, that was a phase, you know?’ she said wryly. '
译:“。“对他来说,这只是一个阶段,你明白吧?”她语带讽刺”
评: ‘调侃地/诙谐地’
[br]
原文:'to rest between hours of observing. '
译:“看上几小时以后休息。”
评: ‘在长达数小时的观测之间休息... ’
[br]
原文:'‘Because it is not so much what it is but the journey it took to get here.’'
译:“,“不是因为它本身,而是月球之旅。””
评: ‘...,而是它到达地球的旅程有多长’
[br]
原文:'‘I breathe it, imagine it every day of my life, and I dream about it at night,’ '
译:“我在人生的每一个白天呼吸和想象着探险之旅,夜晚做着探险的梦。””
评: ‘我每天呼吸的是它,想象的是它,夜里梦的也是它 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'a Ph.D. in astrophysics. ‘This is his thing,’ she told me. ‘When he has nothing to do, he plays with Einstein’s equations.’ '
译:“他就是这么厉害,没事的时候会琢磨爱因斯坦的方程式”,”
评: ‘这是他的特别爱好,... ’
[br]
原文:'‘That was it – it took us, you know?’ '
译:“感觉像是——我们俩都被击中了,你明白吗?””
评: ‘就这么简单 —— 我们两个都挣都没挣扎... ’
[br]
原文:'‘The two of us had to take a very big leap of faith,’ '
译:“那是我俩信心的一次飞跃”,”
评: ‘...我们全凭信仰的一次豪赌。 ’
[br]
原文:'She tilts her head to one side and doesn’t move for a long time. '
译:“她转过头去,很久都没有动,”
评: ‘她侧着头... ’
[br]
原文:'Even with that distance, that robotic mediation, she said, ‘the love story started’, '
译:“看到的是机器人的动作,她也觉得:“爱情故事开始了……”
评: ‘,尽管图像/信息是靠机器人中转来的,... 我就是一见钟情’
[br]
原文:'ephemeral points of fierce white light. '
译:“强烈的白色光点明灭不定”
评: ‘强烈的白色光点稍纵即逝’
[br]
原文:'Life is less easy to locate here. '
译:“生命想要在此落脚可不那么容易。”
评: ‘想在这里找到生命可不容易... ’
[br]
原文:'I stare up, frozen, and frozen in wonderment.'
译:“我抬头凝望,惊叹不已,而身体已经冻僵。”
评: ‘...,被惊得冻住了,身体也已冻僵。’
[br]
原文:'Cabrol has always been drawn to both volcanoes and lakes, to fire and water. They’re completely opposite, she says, ‘but if they work synergistically together, '
译:“火山与湖、水与火,这两个完全的极端一直深深吸引着卡布罗尔,她说:“如果二者协同作用,”
评: ‘火山与湖、水与火,这些组合一直深深吸引着卡布罗尔。她提到虽然它们是完全相反的极端,“如果二者协同作用, ’
[br]
原文:'For that very moment, you understand everything. And there is nothing to understand.’ '
译:“因为就在那一刻,一切如此分明,却又没有什么需要了解。””
评: ‘... ,你理解了一切,而并没有什么需要去理解。’
[br]
原文:'“Is it going to be all today?! Is there anything yet you can?!” '
译:“这就是一切吗?!你还有什么本事?”“”
评: ‘你今天完事了没有?!... ’
[br]
原文:'like delicate pine cones or the brittle pages of old books left in the sun.'
译:“看起来像干脆的松塔,或是阳光下晾晒的旧书脆薄的纸页。”
评: ‘看起来像易碎的松果,或是受阳光暴晒的旧书脆薄的纸页。 ’
[br]
原文:'‘It will survive whatever we throw at it. '
译:“不管我们抛给它什么,它都能够存续。”
评: ‘不管我们给它制造什么麻烦,... ’
[br]
原文:'but these miraged recollections were instantly telescoped and pleated together like a pack of cards all of the same suit flicked through with a thumb.'
译:“然而这些幻觉中的回忆被迅速压缩皱褶,就像拇指翻过一套同花色的扑克牌。”
评: ‘... 挤压成略微错开的一叠’ ?
[br]
原文:'As if I could free another reality by rubbing corners of air together like trying to open a recalcitrant plastic bag. '
译:“就好像试图揭开一个难弄的塑料袋”
评: ‘...捻开 ’
[br]
原文:'to ask questions of God '
译:“提出神灵的问题,”
评: ‘对神灵提问,... ’
[br]
原文:'also whether any of us should stay in camp at all.'
译:“也要决定是否该让某个队员留守营地。”
评: ‘... 能否让任何人呆在营地’
[br]
原文:'It’s been a long time since I’ve had none of the tools I need to judge a situation.'
译:“时间无比漫长,因为我没有任何工具用以判断形势。”
评: ‘很久以来,这是我第一次不能借助任何工具判断形势。 ’
[br]
原文:'It has bumbled its way on to my hand and rests there, quivering. '
译:“它笨拙地飞到我的手上,停下休息,微微颤动。”
评: ‘它误撞到我手上,... ’
-------------------
15. Hares / 野兔
[br]
原文:'So perfectly did this reading of their behaviour correspond with our societal mores, it had the force of absolute truth.'
译:“对野兔行为的这种解读如此契合我们社会的习俗,几乎成了强势的绝对真理。”
评: ‘... ,它拥有绝对真理的权威。’
[br]
原文:'The hares circling the fights, I thought, were does, carefully assessing the pugilists’ prowess,'
译:“我以为是雄兔的那几只野兔转着圈搏斗,小心地估量着其他拳击手的勇猛程度,”
评: ‘我以为围观搏斗的那几只野兔是雌兔,正在仔细地评估那些拳击手的勇猛程度 ’ (根据她起初错误的解读吧。)
[br]
原文:'They rise up and fight them off, an animal analogue to a form of violence just as much a feature of our society, '
译:“这种动物行为可类比为我们社会的某种暴力形式或特有现象,”
评: ‘这种动物行为可类比人类社会的某种暴力形式,而且这种暴力形式也是我们社会的一种特色’
[br]
原文:'you are sure must be a rock sunk in winter cereal'
译:“你还以为是冬麦田里石头压出的凹陷,”
评: ‘...一块陷进冬麦田里的石头 ’
[br]
原文:'so our firm ideas about spring belie what is happening to it.'
译:“同样,我们关于春天的固定看法也和实际的春天不符。”
评: ‘...和在春天发生的实际情况不符 ’
------------------
16. Lost, But Catching Up / 迷途的狗
[br]
原文:'Fate saw fit to make me allergic to horses, dogs and foxes. '
译:“命中注定,我对马、狗和狐狸过敏。”
评: ‘命运一早决定了我合适对... ’
[br]
原文:'I’ve lost the ability to concentrate on anything other than fighting for breath.'
译:“我无法再专注于任何东西,只能拼命呼吸。”
评: ‘除了苦苦地维持呼吸,我无法专注于任何别的事。’
[br]
原文:'So – quite apart from my moral qualms – it’s unsurprising that I’ve never ridden to hounds.'
译:“所以,我从来不曾接近猎犬也就不足为奇,此外还有道德疑虑。”
评: ‘所以,就算撇开道德上的顾虑不谈,我从来不曾参与过猎犬捕狐也不足为奇’
[br]
原文:'it seemed clear that the Hunt was drawing the covert at Ham Farm, '
译:“此时也明白捕猎队伍正向火腿农场的矮树林行进,”
评: ‘捕猎队伍在火腿农场的矮树林里放出猎犬,等它们撵出狐狸 ’
[br]
原文:' just across the road and away. '
译:“位置远离公路。”
评: ‘在公路另一边向远处延申’
[br]
原文:'The asphalt at my toes was running with water, '
译:“我脚趾边的沥青和雨水齐流,”
评: ‘我脚趾边的沥青地面上雨水横流,’
[br]
原文:'But being alone made him the type of all hounds that ever existed. '
译:“但是独自行进的它仿佛集中了世间所有猎犬的力量。”
评: ‘但是它的孑然一身也让它成为了世间、历来所有猎犬的代表。 ’
---------------------
17. Swan Upping / 数天鹅
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-swan-upping-at-cookham-t00525
[br]
原文:'a fretted iron bridge'
译:“一座铁桥的栏杆有圆形回纹装饰;”
评: ‘一座有铁艺栏杆的桥’
[br]
原文:'his familiar childhood landscape coursing with new and ominous strangeness.'
译:“他熟悉的童年风景所对接的新东西陌生且不祥。”
评: ‘...风景里注入了陌生且不祥的新东西’
[br]
原文:'The past was always conjured in Brexiteers’ dreams of the future, '
译:“脱欧派在对未来的幻梦中总有往昔的幽魂,”
评: ‘...对未来的梦想中总是召唤往昔’
[br]
原文:'faceless European Union bureaucrats,'
译:“无耻的欧盟官僚、”
评: ‘面目模糊的’
[br]
原文:'The quaintness of these conjured shibboleths was no accident: '
译:“这些无中生有的错误观点好像老调重弹,这并非偶然,”
评: ‘这些无中生有的故事里区分你我的风俗都是老掉牙的’
[br]
原文:'its evocation of deep English history, '
译:“人们对英国悠久历史的缅怀”
评: ‘它唤起久远的英国历史’ ?
[br]
原文:'Exquisitely inked manuscript records of these marks still exist: lines and crosses scribed across diagrammatic beaks.'
译:“今天依然保存着精细的墨色手绘原稿,鸟喙上划着线条和十字。”
评: ‘这些标志被记录在精细的墨色手绘原稿上,至今保存。平面示意图中的那些鸟喙上划着线条和十字。 ’
[br]
原文:'killing a swan still generates unexamined outrage: '
译:“杀死一只天鹅依然会引发不可遏制的愤怒”
评: ‘...不假思索的的愤怒 ’
[br]
原文:'is so commonly understood in Britain – emblems of the monarchy, and by extension the nation – that these birds have long been counters in the game of what is us and what is not. '
译:“人们普遍了解这种象征意义,因此这些鸟很久以来都是界定我们身份的游戏筹码。”
评: ‘...,由此在界定我们身份的游戏中,这些鸟历来是用来计分的。’
[br]
原文:'claimed that swans in the royal parks were killed and skinned and their remains tied to trees by Jewish feather traders.'
译:“皇家公园里的天鹅被犹太羽毛商杀死剥皮。”
评: +‘...,尸体被捆在树上。’
[br]
原文:'He thinks the culprits are as likely to be British as they are to be immigrants.'
译:“他认为罪犯既可能是难民,也可能是英国人自己。”
评: ‘...这些可能是难民干的,也很可能是英国人自己干的。’
[br]
原文:'It is just nice to have something that . . . What’s the word? Sustains?’ She shook her head at the tide of recent history'
译:“这种传统实在美好……有个词是怎么说的?维系?” 她摇着头说起近来的历史,”
评: ‘能够有……那词怎么说?维系?我们的东西可真好。“她对近来的历史潮流不住摇头,’
[br]
原文:'I clambered into the press boat, an elegant wooden umpire launch,'
译:“我登上媒体船,领头木船优雅地离岸下水,”
评: ‘...,一艘平时供赛船裁判用的优雅的木船’
[br]
原文:'into a shrinking patch of water.'
译:“操纵小船把天鹅围在一片浅水区。”
评: ‘...围在越来越小的一片水域’
[br]
原文:'The male swan raised his wings heraldically, defensively,'
译:“雄天鹅像个传令官,防卫地展开双翅,”
评: ‘雄天鹅防卫地展开双翅,像纹章里画的那样’
[br]
原文:'He thought it might have been a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty, years old.'
译:“在他眼里那根天鹅钩足足有一百年,甚至一百五十年的历史。”
评: ‘他觉得那根天鹅钩可能足足有... ’
[br]
原文:'The bird was a strange coincidence of solidity and air. '
译:“这只鸟是固体和气体的一种奇异的并存。”
评: ‘... 是密实和空灵的奇异巧合’
[br]
原文:'constellations of tiny fry darted through sunlit weeds. '
译:“极小的鱼苗游窜在阳光照亮的水草间,”
评: ‘...,像一群群星座’
[br]
原文:'sleek pleasure craft resembling 1920s Daimlers.'
译:“还有像上世纪二十年代的戴姆勒汽车的豪华游艇。”
评: ‘...戴姆勒汽车那样油光水滑的’
[br]
原文:'It was where the stories were written that taught me what it was to be English. '
译:“这些故事的背景教给我身为英格兰人意味着什么。”
评: ‘那些教给我身为英格兰人意味着什么的故事就设在这里。... ’ (???)
[br]
原文:'turned into a patriotic tale of plucky English derring-do.'
译:“成为宣扬英雄事迹的爱国故事。”
评: ‘...宣扬英国人无畏强敌胆量过人的爱国故事’ plucky是那种很朴实的勇敢,感觉有点像‘打不死的小强’?
[br]
原文:'what you read from the banks as you pass is part of what you choose to believe about your nation and who you are.'
译:“你从河岸经过,对国家和身份获得的理解是你选择相信的部分。”
评: ‘你所认定的对国家、对自身的定义,是你选择去相信的东西,而你从所经河岸解读出的内容,是此中的一部分。 ’
[br]
原文:'You might see only Dunkirk boats and lines in the air carved by ghostly Spitfires. '
译:“幽灵般的喷火式战斗机在空中划出的线条,”
评: ‘喷火战斗机幽灵... ’
[br]
原文:'choose to see only the things that speak to us of the way we are told the world should be, '
译:“想到我们选择只看那些告诉我们世界应当如何的事物,”
评: ‘我们听从别人告诉我们世界应当如何,并选择只看那些与之口径统一的事物,’
[br]
原文:'if swan upping could offer us something other than these exclusionist dreams of a sacrosanct Englishness deep-rooted in an imagined past. '
译:“神圣英国的排外主义梦想深植于想象中的往昔,除此之外,数天鹅是否能为我们提供其他的东西。”
评: ‘数天鹅给养一些人深植于想象中的往昔的排外主义梦想,好像有一个神圣不容亵渎的英国,但除此之外,... ’
[br]
原文:'These are craft knowledges, ones learned by apprenticeship, not from books, and universal in the very nature of their specificity. '
译:“这些是学徒学到的手工技艺,并非书本知识,正因为它性质特殊才具有一种普适性。”
评: ‘这些是手工技艺,通过学徒训练学到的,而不是通过书本,而正因为其具体及专属性,... ’
[br]
原文:'the most recondite of traditions'
译:“在最隐秘的传统中”
评: ‘最冷门晦涩的 ’
--------------------
18. Nestboxes / 巢箱
[br]
原文:'I bought these nestboxes to help birds in trouble. But only partly.'
译:“但是作用恐怕有限。”
评: ‘但那只是我动机的一部分。’ (后面讲的是买巢箱的另一部分是为了她自己。)
[br]
原文:'Inside, a blackout curtain kept the nest dark. After school, my brother and I would creep inside,'
译:“巢箱里面有一片遮光帘布,让巢穴保持黑暗。”
评: ‘... ’ 有帘布的应该是花园棚屋,所以后一句小孩子可以钻进去。
[br]
原文:'who recommend plain wooden ones. '
译:“他们推荐普通的木制品。”
评: ‘不上色的/不加装饰’
[br]
原文:'Making them cute and homely raises the spectre of anthropomorphism, something still anathema to bird protection organisations'
译:“可爱的家常款巢箱会让拟人论的幽魂重现,这种论调依然为鸟类保护组织所排斥,”
评: ‘巢箱做得可爱温馨会招来拟人倾向,这种把人类特性套用到动物身上的做法依然是让鸟类保护组织避之不及的。’
[br]
原文:'There’s a kind of performative largesse about the utilitarian ugliness of plain nestboxes in gardens, whereas decorative ones bespeak delight for people too.'
译:“可惜花园里朴素的巢箱透着实用主义的丑陋,似乎有种表演性质的施舍,装饰性的巢箱却让人们同怀喜悦之情。”
评: ‘极简的巢箱带有实用主义的丑陋,似乎在表演慷慨施舍,装饰性的巢箱却表明了它也是为了给人们带来喜悦。’
------------------------
19. Deer in the Headlights / 车灯下的鹿
[br]
原文:'For a while the road doesn’t seem real. Then it does, almost violently so'
译:“过后却又真实得令人震撼”
评: ‘... 真实得近乎暴力’
[br]
原文:'When a country is hurting it so often grasps for ideas of itself in a longed-for past'
译:“国家处于困境时,总想从曾经荣耀的往昔提取身份的意义。”
评: ‘...,往往想从追忆中的往昔里抓获/抓到一些关于自身的理念/信念。’
[br]
原文:'paragons of strength bound entire into unshakeable courses of action by virtue of being what they were.'
译:“它们是力量的典范,与不可撼动的行为方式完全绑定。”
评: ‘...,被自身的性质与不可撼动的行为方式完全绑定’ ?
[br]
原文:'In this tradition they’re slippery, spooky beings in possession of the deepest spiritual significance'
译:“在这个传统中,鹿是一种深具灵性的生物,难以捉摸,易受惊扰,”
评: ‘... 一种难以捉摸,幽灵般可怖的动物,是灵性的深刻象征。’
[br]
原文:'I moved closer and was treated to more incomprehensibility; a sweeping arc of something like upraised bone, something skeletal behind the leaves, '
译:“枝叶间有一道弯弧状的东西,好像隆起的骨头,似乎是一具骸骨,”
评: ‘...,好像是翘起来的骨头,纤瘦嶙峋’
[br]
原文:'I wish there was more magic in the world. And then the deer have appeared to say, Here it is.'
译:“但愿这世上有更多的神奇。而鹿的出现就像是神奇登场。”
评: ‘...然后鹿出现了,说,你要的神奇来了。’
[br]
原文:'I saw a deer in the road in front of me, stark and tense with shock, and then the deer lofted itself into the air, bright and somehow motionless, like the etiolated horses with outstretched legs in eighteenth-century hunting prints.'
译:“看到前方路面有一只鹿。它受到惊吓,呆滞又紧张,接着它腾空跃起,活力勃发,却又似乎是静止的,好像十八世纪狩猎题材的版画上那些伸出双腿的虚弱的马。”
评: ‘...受到惊吓,突兀而僵硬地站着,接着它腾空跃起,熠熠发光,又似乎是静止的,好像十八世纪狩猎题材的版画上那些四腿舒展、毛色苍白的马。’
[br]
原文:'What I remember most about that endless moment apart from the blind heat of it was '
译:“这漫长的一瞬间令人震动,此外我最记得”
评: ‘除了那茫然的灼热,这漫长的一瞬间中我最记得 ’
[br]
原文:'cross from their territory into our own, and with such brute physicality. '
译:“从它们的领地穿越到我们的领地,实打实的躯体,躲避不及。”
评: ‘... ,以明晃晃的血肉之躯’
[br]
原文:'DVCs on screen cast a fierce, traumatic light on the innermost hearts of the characters with the bad luck to experience them.'
译:“荧屏上这些角色遭遇了如此噩运,DVC事故在他们的内心世界投下一道强光,他们深受创伤。”
评: ‘对荧屏上不幸遭遇DVC的角色,这些事故重创他们,向他们的内心最深处投下一道强光,’
[br]
原文:'A deer in the road is part of the wager we all make and do our best to forget when we drive, as we make our way through life. '
译:“开车时我们尽力忘却这回事,就这样摸索前行,度过一生。”
评: ‘我们一天天地度日,开车时尽力忘却这回事。’
[br]
原文:'they speak of the collision as an event that does not admit the secular, the random, the rational.'
译:“他们说起撞车,就像是说起一个不承认世俗、偶然和理性的事件。”
评: ‘... 与世俗、偶然和理性完全绝缘的事件。’
[br]
原文:'glowing like a goddamned unicorn,'
译:“闪耀着,就像一头遭天谴的独角兽,”
评: ‘...就像一头该死的独角兽’ 语气词吧?
[br]
原文:'says the DVC, cutting through all that is quotidian, cutting it all away. '
译:“它割穿所有的庸常日子,将其全部割下。“”
评: ‘...,全部割去 ’
[br]
原文:'And because everything you see is ceaselessly pulled towards and under you, it’s easy to fall prey to the illusion that you are stationary and the world is flowing into you.'
译:“很容易产生一种幻觉,觉得你恒定不动,世界正向你奔涌而来,因为眼前的一切事物都在无休无止地靠近你,进入你的下方。”
评: ‘因为眼前的一切都被无休无止地拉近你,拉入你的轮下,你很容易陷入一种幻觉,觉得自己恒定不动,世界正奔流进你的怀抱 ’
[br]
原文:'of slicks of oil printed with hoofmarks,'
译:“汽油光滑的表面印着鹿蹄痕迹,”
评: ‘浮油表面... ’
[br]
原文:'the accidental coincidence of a deer with an offside fender. '
译:“比一只鹿和越位的汽车”
评: ‘...和驾座侧的保险杠’
[br]
原文:'with deer bursting into view so unexpectedly they seem ghostly artefacts on the screen'
译:“简直像是屏幕上幽灵般的人造物”
评: ‘... 屏幕上幽灵般的压缩失真效果’
[br]
原文:'spin balletically away in parabolae of antlers and flesh and bone. '
译:“或是以芭蕾舞般的动作翻到一侧,划出鹿角、血肉和骨头的抛物线。”
评: ‘或是跳芭蕾舞似的旋转到一侧’
[br]
原文:'tumbling end over end, limp and pathetic. '
译:“软弱又可怜”
评: ‘可怜地全无生机/瘫软又可怜 ’
[br]
原文:'I expect them to be grim and they are.'
译:“我以为会读到满腹担忧的评论,然而没有。”
评: ‘我想那些评论会很恶劣/糟心/不堪,我想对了’
[br]
原文:'Besides, inappropriate laughter is not an unusual response to emotional difficulty.'
译:“此外,不合时宜的发笑是情感表达困难时较为常见的反应。”
评: ‘... 是遇到负面情感时并不少见的反应’
[br]
原文:'Deer–vehicle collisions have gripped me so tightly because they are my own attitude to deer writ large and covered in blood and tattered fur and broken glass:'
译:“我为这些事故揪心不已,因为那覆满鲜血、破损的毛皮和碎玻璃的场面,表明的正是我对鹿的态度。”
评: ‘... ,是因为那以粗大字号写出了我对鹿的态度,并覆满鲜血、破损的毛皮和碎玻璃’
-------------------
20. The Falcon and the Tower / 游隼与高塔
[br]
原文:'a giant’s playset of brutal turbine halls facing the shining sands.'
译:“涡轮大厅像一个巨人的玩具组合,野蛮地直面着闪亮的沙滩。”
评: ‘线条粗犷的涡轮大厅像一套巨人的积木,直面闪亮的沙滩。 ’
[br]
原文:'He shakes his feathers into place and sits looking towards the estuary, flat-headed, an inverted bullet shape black against the sky.'
译:“坐在那里注视着河口,平齐的头顶像一颗倒置的子弹,黑色轮廓映衬着天空。”
评: ‘... 头顶平齐,天空的映衬下,黑色轮廓像一颗倒置的子弹。’ 感觉是整个身体是子弹形
[br]
原文:'the barred feathers of his chest, his black hood, a faint chromatic fringe ghosting him with suggestions of dust and rainbows.'
译:“胸部布满斑点的羽毛,黑色的头部,全身似有一道淡淡的彩色镶边,点燃着灰尘和虹彩。”
评: ‘胸部羽毛有条纹,黑色的头顶,全身有一道弱不可辨的彩色镶边,仿佛隐约自带灰尘和虹彩。’
[br]
原文:'an assumption that seems always one step towards turning our back on the natural world, abandoning it as something disappearing or already lost.'
译:“这种臆断再往前一步就是对自然界置之不理,把它当成正在消失或者已经消失的东西抛弃。”
评: ‘我总觉得这种臆断是向着对自然界置之不理走近了一步,... ’
[br]
原文:'The mountains and waterfall gorges where they chose to nest were sublime sites'
译:“它们选择营巢的山峰和瀑布高峡是气势恢宏的所在,”
评: ‘... 可让人们精神升华的去处’ ??
[br]
原文:'Falcons haunt landscapes that speak to us of mortality: mountains, by virtue of their eternity; '
译:“游隼出没于这片向我们昭示死亡的景观,山川亘古不变,”
评: ‘游隼出没于一些向我们昭示死亡的景观:山川以之亘古不变, ’
[br]
原文:'this is not a distant world, but one alongside you, a place of transient and graceful refuge. '
译:“而是一个你身边的世界,一个短暂而从容的避难处。”
评: ‘...平行世界, ’ ??
[br]
原文:'wincing at the difficulty of focusing them with frozen hands. '
译:“双手僵硬,想要瞄准太难了,脸上的肌肉也在抽紧。”
评: ‘为冻僵的手不听使唤咧嘴——要瞄准太难了’
[br]
原文:'It can’t have seen her. But she has seen it.'
译:“她不可能看见这只鸽子,但她确实看见了。”
评: ‘鸽子肯定没看见她,但她看到它了。’
[br]
原文:'Matters of life and death and a sense of our place in the world tied fast together in a shiver of wings across a scrap of winter sky.'
译:“生死之事,以及我们在世间的位置,这两种体会在颤抖的鸟翼划过冬日天空的这一瞬紧紧相系。”
评: ‘...这两种体会被划过冬日一小片天空的颤抖鸟翼紧紧相系’ ?
------------------
21. Vesper Flights / 黄昏飞行
[br]
原文:'as if it were an entity from an alternate universe whose senses couldn’t quite map on to our phenomenal world. '
译:“它的感觉无法投射在我们的物质世界,”
评: ‘...感官无法在我们所能感知的世界里找到很合适的对应’
[br]
原文:'It had something of the power of incantation, but it did not seem a compulsion, and it was not a prayer.'
译:“它多少有点咒语的力量,却又不是强迫症,也不是一种祈祷。”
评: ‘...神秘仪式的力量,但不像是出于强迫症,... ’ 文后以‘仪式’代it,这里也比‘咒语’好用吧,更强调是重复做的行为,和后面的‘强迫症’连接得上。
[br]
原文:'Listing them one by one built imaginative sanctuary between walls of unknowing knowns. '
译:“将它们一一列出,就是在未知的明确高墙之间搭建虚构的避难所。”
评: ‘...,就是把那些对我们一无所知的已知垒成高墙,在那搭建虚构的避难所。’ 联系前面here was so much up there above me, so much below, so many places and states that were implacable, unreachable, entirely uninterested in human affairs. ?
[br]
原文:'During the war, swifts in Denmark and Italy grabbed chaff, reflective scraps of tinfoil dropped from aircraft to confuse enemy radar, flashing and twirling as it fell. '
译:“飞机上飘落以迷惑敌方雷达的谷糠和反光锡纸碎片,它们随着落下的碎片轻掠回旋。”
评: ‘飞机上撒落俗名‘麸皮’的反光锡纸碎片,它们飘落时回旋闪亮,能迷惑敌方雷达。’
[br]
原文:'and one swift was pulled dead from the engine after the flight returned to earth. '
译:“在飞机降落地面后,从发动机上直接拿下一只雨燕。”
评: ‘... ,从发动机里取出了一只雨燕的尸体。’
[br]
原文:'and at the same time they can calibrate their magnetic compasses, getting their bearings according to the light polarisation patterns that are strongest and clearest in twilit skies. '
译:“同时还可以校准它们的磁罗盘,根据在光线微弱的空中最强且最清楚的偏振光模式来确定方位。”
评: ‘... ,再者,光线微弱的空中偏振光最强最清楚,亦可根据它来确定方位’
[br]
原文:'in the face of clouds that sit like dark rubble on our own horizon.'
译:“在深黑砾石般的浓云布满我们自己的地平线时,”
评: ‘浓云踞伏 ’
------------------
22 In Spight of Prisons / 尽管身陷囹圄
[br]
原文:'things both sublime and ridiculous: half intimations of remote stellar distance and half waggling beetle bums.'
译:“集非凡和滑稽于一身的东西,一半暗示着遥远的星际距离,一半晃动着甲虫的屁股。”
评: ‘... ,一半令人联想到浩渺的星际,一半是甲虫们晃动的屁股’
[br]
原文:'the ‘living lamps’ of Marvell’s Mower to the Glow-Worms, courteous beasts who guide wanderers home to safety.'
译:“也是安德鲁·马维尔《割草机致萤火虫》一诗中指引流浪者安全回家的文雅有礼的生灵。”
评: ‘...诗中的‘有生命的灯盏’,指引流浪者安全回家的文雅有礼的生灵 ’
[br]
原文:'find ways to reconnect people to a natural world more commonly encountered on television and video than in its living reality. '
译:“很难找到多少办法让人们和自然界重新建立联系,自然总在电视和视频中出现,却不是活生生的现实。”
评: ‘... ,自然更多是在电视和视频中出现,却不是活跃在现实中’ ?
-----------------------
23 Sun Birds and Cashmere Spheres / 太阳鸟和开司米球
[br]
原文:'They were legendary birds. '
译:“金黄鹂是传说中的鸟,”
评: ‘金黄鹂是鸟中的传奇’
[br]
原文:'I began to wonder if they could throw their voices.'
译:“我开始好奇它们的叫声是否来自别处。”
评: ‘...它们是否会特技,让叫声好像来自别处 ’
[br]
原文:'where they nested in trees in the Polders just like these. '
译:“它们就在类似此地的区域开辟家园,在树上营巢。”
评: ‘...在填海造田区域安家,在同一树种上营巢’
[br]
原文:'making the fens obliquely glorious with their song.'
译:“用歌声为东部的沼泽地增添隐约的荣耀。”
评: ‘用歌声给东部的沼泽地间接地营造了盛景’ ??
[br]
原文:'Unlike deserts and open water, they’re not inimical to supporting human life except in a very literal sense. '
译:“与沙漠和开阔水域不同,芦苇地的环境并非不利于人类生存,只是情况复杂。”
评: ‘... 芦苇地的环境并非让人类无法立足,除了字面意义上的立足。’ ?
[br]
原文:'and landed to catch like little spherical burrs in the reeds right in front of me. '
译:“在苇丛中着陆,恰好落在我面前。”
评: ‘恰好在我面前的苇丛中着陆,像一些小小的圆形苍耳 ’
[br]
原文:'the way that papery burnet moth cocoons adhere to stems of grass. '
译:“就像斑蛾纸质的茧附着在草茎上。”
评: ‘...如纸制的茧’
[br]
原文:'The telescope’s focus was slightly out for my shortsighted eyes, so it required physical effort to keep what I saw from derealising back into nonsense.'
译:“望远镜的焦点稍微有点偏离我的近视眼,所以需要刻意保持稳定,好让我看到的东西不会化为乌有。”
评: ‘对我的近视眼的来说,望远镜的焦点稍微有点偏离,所以维持我观看到的东西,不让它虚化成无意义的一团,是得耗力气的事。’
[br]
原文:'After thinking this, there was no question but that we needed to go into the wood and look for the chicks that might be underneath the tree.'
译:“想到这里,我们不再有疑问,必须走到林中寻找可能坠落树下的幼鸟。”
评: ‘... 我们不再迟疑,...’
[br]
原文:'Wade through and be damned.'
译:“费力跋涉过去就好。”
评: +‘...不管三七二十一 ’
[br]
原文:' It felt like river caving, tilting our chins upward to the foot and a half of air between water and rock.'
译:“这感觉就像河畔的洞穴探险,我们下巴斜倾,对着水和岩石之间那一英尺半的空间。”
评: ‘... 我们抬着下巴,以持续暴露在水和岩石之间那一英尺半的空气中。’
[br]
原文:'because I saw him only in stamped-out sections, small jigsaw pieces of a bird, but moving ones, animated mutoscope views. '
译:“因为此前只在现已绝迹的地区瞥见拼图碎片似的零散影踪,好像早期手摇动画机播放的移动景象,”
评: ‘因为他身体大部分都被遮住了,只能瞥见拼图碎片似的零散部分,但是会动,好像早期手摇动画机播放的画面。’
---------------------
24 The Observatory / 观测站
[br]
原文:'her snaky neck, black eye, her blank hauteur'
译:“弯曲的脖颈,黑色的眼睛,一派傲慢。”
评: ‘...目中无人的/漠然的傲慢 ’
[br]
原文:'Age has rendered them nicotine-yellow so they resemble the live birds outside the way smoked kippers resemble live herring.'
译:“里面陈列着天鹅标本,岁月为它染上烟碱黄,看起来更像外面的活鸟,类似于烟熏鲱鱼与活鲱鱼的关系。”
评: ‘...染上烟碱黄,让它与外面的活鸟的相似,类似于烟熏鲱鱼与活鲱鱼的关系。’
[br]
原文:'There are no shadows anywhere out there except in the moving lines between ripples that chase themselves across miles of shallow water.'
译:“水上没有一丝阴影,只有涟漪波动的线条,在数英里的浅水上互相追逐。”
评: ‘...没有一丝阴影,除了... ’
[br]
原文:'The lake is mercury-bright and patterned with thousands of birds as far as the eye can see:'
译:“湖面像水银一般闪亮,目之所及的地方足有上千只鸟,”
评: ‘...,目之所及的地方密缀着上千只鸟 ’
[br]
原文:'These aren’t the familiar mute swans of town parks and lakes, not the species that came up to me and made its presence known. '
译:“这些天鹅不是城市公园和湖泊常见的疣鼻天鹅,那天向我走来显示存在感的才是。”
评: ‘...疣鼻天鹅,不是那天向我走来引起我注意的那种’
[br]
原文:'who has come into the observatory to talk with us before the evening feed. '
译:“他到观察站来准备晚上的喂食,跟我们聊起来。”
评: ‘在晚上喂食之前,他到观察站来跟我们聊起来’
[br]
原文:'Every few seconds comes a carillon of new voices. The swans are coming home to roost in little family groups'
译:“每隔几秒钟,又一阵钟琴般的声音响起来。天鹅回到这里的家,以小家庭的集体结伴休息。”
评: ‘...,就有一组新的钟琴声降临。... ’
---------------------
25 Wicken / 威肯沼泽
[br]
原文:'a barn owl floated past us, '
译:“一只仓鸮掠过我们的头顶,”
评: ‘...飘着掠过’ ?
[br]
原文:'still haunted by my niece’s reasonable inability to understand that the life that is here was once everywhere. '
译:“心里仍在思忖小侄女的问题,她无法理解这里的生命曾经遍布各地,这种疑惑合乎情理,”
评: ‘小侄女合乎情理的困惑在我心中挥之不去,我很能理解她为何无法理解这里的生命曾经到处都是’
[br]
原文:'Fen landscapes are unstable places where familiar categories of water and land are disconcertingly confused, and they feel temporally unstable, too, rich with a sense of their layered ages. .'
译:“沼泽地的存在并不稳定,水和陆地的习惯分类被打乱。时间线也让人觉得不稳定,多少个世纪的层叠让它们具有极为丰富的特质,”
评: ‘沼泽地是一种不稳定的地形,扰乱了我们惯有的对水和陆地的分类。它的时间属性也让人觉得不稳定,年份层叠得繁博丰厚’
[br]
原文:'The wildlife and vegetation around me here are not frozen remnants of another time'
译:“我四周的野生动物和植被并非冻结在另一段时间中的残遗,”
评: ‘...并非被冻结的、来自早先时间的残遗,’
[br]
原文:'I learned to stop needing to see. '
译:“我学会了不刻意观看,学会了聆听,”
评: ‘我学会了不依靠观看,... ’
------------------
26 Storm / 暴雨
[br]
原文:'I could see the small crosses that were transatlantic jets steering their courses around the storm’s perimeter. '
译:“但能看到那些小小的十字,跨越大西洋的喷气式飞机,正绕开暴雨的周边驾驭航线。”
评: ‘但能看到一些小小的十字,那是跨越大西洋的喷气式飞机,正改变航线绕开暴雨的周边。’
[br]
原文:'and small turquoise pools of clear sky. '
译:“但也有小片小片松石蓝的晴空。”
评: ‘... 小洼/一汪’
[br]
原文:'Eventually lightning leaps across these differentials between the cloud’s top, its base and the ground, casting out shockwaves of superheated air that make the sound of thunder. ... '
译:“最终,闪电跃过云顶、云底和地面之间这些不同的区域,射穿过热空气的冲击波,雷声轰然迸响。”
评: ‘... 之间的电压差,投掷出过热空气形成的冲击波,造成轰然迸响的雷声’
[br]
原文:'Summer storms conjure distance and time but conjure, too, all the things that come towards us over which we have no control.'
译:“夏天的暴雨变幻了距离和时间,却也变幻出所有那些向我们袭来,令我们无法控制的东西。”
评: ‘...唤起我们对距离和时间的意识/营造...感知,却也让我们想起所有那些我们遭遇到的,全不受我们控制的事物’
[br]
原文:'when storm light makes luminous all roofs and fields and strands black silhouettes of trees on the horizon. '
译:“截开地平线上树木的黑色剪影,”
评: ‘...,让地平线上树木看起来孤零零的/孤立无援/形单影只/’
[br]
原文:'This is the storm as expectation. '
译:“这是期待中的暴雨,”
评: ‘这里的暴雨指代期待... ’
[br]
原文:'Waiting for hope, stranded in that strange light that stills our hearts before the storm of history.'
译:“等待希望——它困在那道令我们心跳静止的奇异的闪电光里,在历史的风暴来袭之前。”
评: ‘...它被孤零零地困在那道令我们心跳静止的奇异的闪电光里 ’ 呼应前面一句树木剪影
---------------------
27. Murmurations / 椋鸟群飞
[br]
原文:'because we were all to look skyward back then, for history had brought us wings and borders would fade into obsolescence. '
译:“因为那个年代我们都会仰望天空,历史已经为我们带来了翅膀,而边界将会湮灭消亡。”
评: ‘因为到那时我们都会往天际看了,... ’
[br]
原文:'a thousand shortwave radios tuning between circus stations out east, across the Baltic from whence they came.'
译:“一千个短波电台在东部的环形车站之间调频,直抵它们的来处——波罗的海。”
评: ‘一千台短波收音机在东部的主题电台之间调频, ... ’
[br]
原文:'Bunks and camps spooled out again in post-war ornithology. He christened it the principle of pecking distance.'
译:“铺位和营地这样的用语又出现在战后的鸟类学研究中。彼得将其正式命名为“啄序原则”。”
评: ‘...啄距原则 ’
[br]
原文:'And before that, after the First World War had made caustic maps of Flanders fields and woods, built no man’s land, built fields of mines and wire and ingraved trenches of men and filthy water, a man called Henry Eliot Howard decided that birds held territories too. '
译:“是在第一次世界大战中绘制了佛兰德斯田野和林地的焦散效果图,打造了无人区,布下雷区,竖起铁丝网,深挖的战壕里容纳着士兵和污水,此后,一个名叫亨利·艾略特·霍华德的男人认为鸟儿也有自己的领地范围。”
评: ‘...竖起铁丝网,镌刻下盛着士兵和污水的战壕’ 保留排比好一点点? 查到caustic maps类似一种filter,是隔着水波纹看东西的效果
[br]
原文:'Perfect forms, held steady. Forms of sympathy.'
译:“完美的表格,稳稳拿住。同情心的表格。”
评: 存疑,不知道这里护照申请表格和同情心的联系
[br]
原文:'Every smudge of pencil tied myself closer to the birds and the garden. But it untied me too. It unfolded layers of other eyes'
译:“每一点铅笔笔迹都把我跟鸟儿和花园联结得更密切,但同时也松开了这种捆绑,因为它展现出不同的层次”
评: ‘... ,但这同时也是一种松绑,’ (松绑的是作者对世界的认知角度吧)
[br]
原文:'Birds were no longer to be watched. They were to be observed'
译:“鸟类不再是被注视的对象,它们将被一群目光锐利的公民科学家组成的志愿者团队密切观察。”
评: ‘鸟类不再被‘观看/观赏’,... ’
[br]
原文:'Your birds are feathered proxies, transcending human borders. '
译:“你的鸟是超越人类边界的羽翼化身”
评: ‘你的鸟是携羽的替身,超越人类之间的边界’
[br]
原文:'Doubts wheel and swarm. '
译:“我疑虑丛生,”
评: ‘疑虑纷沓而至’
[br]
原文:'The particulate beauty of unimagined hordes of lives that aren’t our own, tracked minute by minute across the sky and rising out of mystery. '
译:“未曾想象过的成群结队的生命的独特之美不属于我们,在跨越天空时被一分钟一分钟地追踪,它们的来处是未知的神秘。”
评: ‘那些不属于我们的,想象不到的诸多/成群生灵,来自未知的神秘,在分分钟钟的追踪下跨越天空,具有带颗粒感的美。’ ??
-----------------------------
28. A Cuckoo in the House / 房子里的大杜鹃
书名该是从 'Cuckoo in the nest'化出来的,而后者是‘is a figure of speech for an unwelcome intruder in a place or situation.’ https://www.quillsandquartos.com/post/a-cuckoo-in-the-nest
[br]
原文:'I wonder how satellite-tagged ‘sentinel animals’ such as these cuckoos fit into our surveillance-hungry world, '
译:“大杜鹃这样有卫星标记的“哨兵动物”将如何被纳入我们这个渴求监控的世界,”
评: ‘在我们这个对监控瘾头甚大的世界,我好奇...“哨兵动物”有什么样的位置 ’
[br]
原文:'But the BTO project spurred me to read it again, this time knowing more about Knight. '
译:“但是BTO项目促使我重读此书,对奈特有了更多了解。”
评: ‘...,而此时我已经对奈特有了更多了解。’
[br]
原文:'a writer of appalling thrillers, '
译:“惊悚小说作家,”
评: ‘写过几本烂得骇人的惊悚小说 ’
[br]
原文:'‘Kim’s Game’, tellingly named after the hero of Rudyard Kipling’s novel about a boy training to be a spy.'
译:“如何用“金姆的游戏”来磨炼观察技能,那个游戏名恰好来自鲁德亚德·吉卜林的一个小说,讲一个男孩接受训练成为间谍的故事。”
评: ‘...,意味深长的是,那个游戏名来自鲁德亚德·吉卜林的一个小说... ’
[br]
原文:'to impress your associates, and to spring surprises’. '
译:“还有如何给同事留下深刻印象,并令人称奇”
评: ‘...,如何出人意外’
[br]
原文:'First, he explained, animals might pass as tame, but not be; they might turn.'
译:“你也许会以为动物已被驯服,但事实并非如此,它们还会有变化。”
评: ‘动物可能看上去已经被驯服了,但事实并非如此,它们可能会徒然生变/叛逆...’
[br]
原文:'will accept us as well disposed towards it – '
译:“并接受我们对它的好感”
评: ‘... 对它的好意’ 这里语法蛮少见的,‘as people who are well disposed' 的简练说法?
[br]
原文:'One of its own kind. There’s a world of counter-subversion right there, a ghosting of the topologies of his secret life. '
译:“一名同类。这正是一个反颠覆的世界,奈特自己秘密人生的拓扑学的重影。”
评: ‘... 这里可不就有一个反颠覆的世界,虚虚地描摹着奈特自己秘密人生中的丘丘壑壑 ’
[br]
原文:'His animals were mirrors only so far as they reflected their keeper’s expertise, '
译:“动物的状况只是反映了饲养者的专业技能,”
评: ‘他眼中的动物当不了镜子,它们最多只能反映出饲养者是否专业’
[br]
原文:'animals had other uses: they were epistemological puzzles to solve. '
译:“动物还有其他用处:它们是有待解决的认识论难题,”
评: ‘... :它们可以被当作有关知识由何而来的谜题来解’
[br]
原文:'Parasitic, scientifically baffling, the cuckoo’s ambiguous moral status revolved around concepts of cuckoldry, duplicity, sexual confusion and even species boundaries themselves: '
译:“大杜鹃的寄生行为令研究者困惑,而它暧昧的道德地位也围绕着通奸、两面性、性混乱,甚至物种界限本身的概念。“”
评: ‘大杜鹃令研究者困惑,依赖寄生,它道德定位围绕着通奸、两面性、性混乱,甚至物种界限本身的概念,暧昧尴尬。’?其实这句语法也不太清晰...
[br]
原文:'The cuckoo also starred in a spectacular piece of popular science of the period.'
译:“大杜鹃也在同时期一部壮观的科普作品中亮相。”
评: ‘...令人震撼的科普作品中领衔主演’
[br]
原文:'The book is a sort of ornithological death-match, a series of staged fights, photographed in blow-by-blow detail, of well-known, well-loved British songbirds tearing apart stuffed cuckoos in a frenzy of defensive aggression and ‘extreme fury’.'
译:“在逐一拍摄的细节照片中,一些深受喜爱的常见英国鸣禽发起狂热的防御攻击,“极度愤怒”地撕碎大杜鹃模型,相当于一种死亡竞技,一系列分阶段的战斗。”
评: ‘书里描绘的可算是鸟类间的生死搏斗,一系列摆拍出来的,一些深受喜爱的常见英国鸣禽与‘大杜鹃’的交锋厮杀。那些照片一招一式呈现出了鸣禽如何发起狂热的防御攻击,“极度愤怒”地撕碎大杜鹃模型。’
[br]
原文:'a series of experiments born of cultural anxieties reflected on to a post-war nationalised avifauna. '
译:“这些实验的背后是战后被“民族主义化”的本土鸟类所折射的文化焦虑。”
评: ‘是战后的文化焦虑折射到被“民族主义化”的本土鸟类身上,催发了这些实验。’
[br]
原文:'What they discovered was that British birds were reassuringly adept at uncovering dissimulation'
译:“他们发现,英国的鸟类善于识破伪装,”
评: ‘他们安心地发现... ’
[br]
原文:' It is ‘mysterious’, he explained, with evident relish.'
译:“它“很神秘”,奈特对此玩味不已。”
评: ‘他津津乐道地说起它的“神秘” / 他对它的“神秘”显得津津乐道。’
[br]
原文:'He maintained that birds never knew they were cuckoos at all. Cuckoos lived their cover. '
译:“他认为鸟类根本认不出大杜鹃,它们带着假面。”
评: ‘...。大杜鹃始终躲在假身份后面。’
[br]
原文:'you sense his delight that this mysterious cuckoo has been turned,'
译:“读奈特这本书,能体会到他时而为这只神秘大杜鹃的转变而喜悦,”
评: ‘为杜鹃归附他’ 这里的turn也是间谍术语吧,类似‘投诚’的意思
[br]
原文:'but also his disconcerted half-knowledge that what it has turned into is a strange, feathered proxy for Knight himself. '
译:“时而因一知半解而不安,这只鸟似乎变成了奈特自己一个长羽毛的奇怪化身。”
评: ‘但同时不安地隐隐理解到,... ’
[br]
原文:'For the first time, Knight admits, troubled, he is not sure that the ‘gulf which exists between humans and other animals . . . is quite as wide as some people think’.'
译:“生平第一次,奈特承认了他的困惑,他不确定“人类和其他动物之间存在的鸿沟”
评: ‘尽管为此困扰,奈特生平第一次承认了他不确定... ’
[br]
原文:'It also reveals that the meanings we give animals can be strangely robust.'
译:“它还反映了我们赋予动物的意义。”
评: ‘...揭示了我们赋予动物的意义有时牢固得令人费解/奇怪’
------------
29. The Arrow-Stork / 箭矢鹳
[br]
原文:'which tracks the annual journeys of individual cuckoos between Britain and Africa as part of a larger project investigating the species’ rapid population decline in Britain: '
译:“该项目属于一个大规模的调查计划,追踪大杜鹃个体在英国和非洲之间一年一度的旅程,意在研究英国大杜鹃种群急速衰落的原因。”
评: ‘该项目追踪大杜鹃个体在英国和非洲之间一年一度的旅程,是一个大规模调查计划的一部分,意在研究英国大杜鹃种群急速衰落的原因。 ’
[br]
原文:'This notion of autonomous biological-sampling devices confuses the distinctions between technology and living organisms, quietly erasing the animal’s agency.'
译:“无声地抹除了动物的作用。”
评: ‘...动物的能动性’
[br]
原文:'a world where Defense Department researchers in the US are working on autonomous flying robots that mimic the flight of hawks and insects, where scientists fit electronic backpacks on giant flower beetles that enable them to be flown and steered by remote control.'
译:“美国国防部的研究员正在研发能够模仿鹰隼和昆虫飞行的自动飞行机器人,他们将“电子背包”安在大花金龟身上,便可以遥控它们的飞行。”
评: ‘这个世界里,美国国防部的研究员正在研发能够模仿鹰隼和昆虫飞行的自动飞行机器人,而科学家们将“电子背包”安在大花金龟身上,便可以遥控它们的飞行。’ (两批不同的人)
[br]
原文:'a draggled corpse of a stork that had become a poignant avatar for human fears and conflicts. '
译:“人类恐惧和冲突的惨痛化身。”
评: ‘... 辛酸化身’ ?
[br]
原文:'Media reports of his plight cast his story as one of almost comical paranoia. '
译:“媒体报道将它的困境叙述成一个偏执到几乎滑稽的故事。”
评: ‘...将它的悲催遭遇叙述成一个由近乎滑稽的妄想症带来的故事 ’
-------------------
30. Ashes / 欧洲白蜡树
[br]
原文:'their buoyant, ragged silhouettes'
译:“寻找它们遒劲粗犷的黑色轮廓。”
评: ‘...蓬勃粗犷’
[br]
原文:'while at the same time stripping familiar meaning from the places we live in. '
译:“也让我们一直生活的地方变得陌生。”
评: ‘也剥离掉了我们所居之处的熟悉含义’
[br]
原文:'People seek out these singular chestnut trees that have cheated death'
译:“人们找到这些死里逃生的非凡栗树”
评: ‘人们特意去拜访... ’
[br]
原文:'Increasingly, knowing your surroundings, recognising the species of animals and plants around you, means opening yourself to constant grief. '
译:“你越了解身处的环境,对周遭的动植物认识得越多,也就意味着让你悲伤的事情越来越常见。”
评: ‘发生得越来越多的是,你越了解身处的环境、对周遭的动植物认识得越多,意味着让自己每时每刻都身处哀伤的威胁中’ 更直译了些...
[br]
原文:'though they are caught up in stories about ourselves, trees are not ever just about us. '
译:“虽然树木和我们自身的故事纠缠在一起,但与其有关联的并非只是人类。”
评: ‘...但与其有关联的向来并非只是人类。 ’
-----------------
31. A Handful of Corn / 一把玉米粒
[br]
原文:'We expect them to respect their place in an unspoken social order.'
译:“我们期待它们在一种不言自明的社会秩序中各就其位。”
评: ‘...它们遵从一种不言自明的社会秩序,知道自己该呆在哪里。’
[br]
原文:'Back in the early days, proponents of bird-feeding had to fight against the conviction that animals would become ‘spoiled’ by artificial feeding and would ‘no longer do their work in nature’s household’.'
译:“早年间,喂鸟的倡导者不得不与这种信念斗争,。”
评: ‘总有人担心人工投喂会“宠坏”动物,让它们“无法在自然的家园里承担本分”。早年间,喂鸟的倡导者不得不与这种理念斗争 ’
----------------
32. Berries / 浆果
[br]
原文:'being deposited in droppings to take root and flourish. '
译:“随后在鸟粪中沉积下来,生根发芽。”
评: ‘然后随着鸟粪落地,... ’
[br]
原文:'It’s these berries that become the targets of the unpredictable visitations of a bird that more than any other means winter’s wonder to me. '
译:“出乎意料的是,有一种鸟探访的目标恰好是这些浆果,在我心目中这种鸟比其他种类更能代表冬日的惊奇。”
评: ‘这些浆果是一种鸟不定期的探访目标,而这种鸟在我心目中最能代表冬日的珍奇。’
[br]
原文:'低着头艰难地出入于各家店铺。'
译:“trudging stoically between shops. ”
评: ‘步履艰难而无怨地出入... ’ ?
[br]
原文:' I heard an unearthly trilling noise, like a carillon of silver bells, and like a gravity-stricken whirlwind a pack of fat birds swirled down'
译:“我听到一阵奇异的颤音,好像一串银铃奏出的乐曲。一群圆润的鸟儿像一阵坠地的旋风,”
评: ‘仿佛出自天外来客的颤音...像被重力击中的旋风 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'but something in between that’s no colour the way winter skies are no colour.'
译:“是一种介乎其间的颜色,好像冬季天空难以形容的颜色。”
评: ‘而是介乎其间,就像冬季天空那样,是一种没有归属的颜色。’
[br]
原文:'They’re both highly classy and fantastically trashy to look at; no Christmas decoration could ever approach their absurd, animate beauty. '
译:“它们看上去十分雅致,却不大真实,任何圣诞装饰都无法企及这种夸张生动的美。”
评: ‘... 既雅致非凡,又俗气得要命,任何圣诞装饰都无法企及这种荒谬生动的美。
---------------
33. Cherry Stones / 樱桃核
[br]
原文:'Caught in my headlights, its pied wings strobed through bright lines of falling water'
译:“车灯下它斑驳的翅膀在明亮的落雨中频频闪光,”
评: ‘...在明亮的雨线中 ’
[br]
原文:'I waved my hands in frustration as the bird continued to sing. '
译:“鸟儿继续鸣唱,我却郁闷地挥挥手。”
评: ‘听鸟儿鸣唱不停,我郁闷得甩手’
[br]
原文:'These spectacular refugees have eschewed the venerable treetops of stately homes to spend their time instead with sparrows'
译:“这些引人瞩目的难民远离贵族庄园中的古木树冠,转而与麻雀共度时光”
评: ‘...这次远离贵族庄园中的庄严树冠,转而与麻雀混迹一处’
-----------------
34. Birds, Tabled / 展台上的鸟
[br]
原文:'He told me it was a Hungarian Giant House Pigeon, and instantly my own house seemed the poorer for not having one.'
译:“我立刻觉得因为没有这一种,自己的家更寒酸了。”
评: ‘我立刻觉得自己家里得添上这种,才不至于太寒酸。 ’
[br]
原文:'but birdkeeping is considered by many to be morally dubious and, at its fringes, prone to lawlessness.'
译:“还容易出现打擦边球的不法行为。”
评: ‘...群体边缘人士往往有不法倾向 ’
[br]
原文:'a literal amputation to the nature of a migratory species'
译:“对这种迁徙的鸟类而言,这完全就是截肢,”
评: ‘... 这截肢/截断了它们的天性’ ?
[br]
原文:'‘The fondness of a whole body of artificers for any particular bird, animal, or flower, is remarkable,’ he concluded. It’s the term artificer that sings, here,'
译:“整个工匠群体对于某一种鸟、动物或花草的喜爱令人瞩目。”这里的工匠(artificer)一词铮铮作响,”
评: ‘...匠人群体’ --因为让人联想到artifice,故意让人看出来他们对自然的改造,和贵族们喜欢的润物细无声大相径庭。
[br]
原文:'Birdkeeping gestures towards the future as much as it does to those moments in the present when a goldfinch mule raises its head, puffs out its throat and pours forth song.'
译:“养鸟意味着未来,同样也意味着当下的这些时刻,比如一只“骡子”金翅雀抬起头,鼓起喉咙放声歌唱。”
评: ‘养鸟关乎当下,例如一只“骡子”金翅雀抬头鼓喉,放声歌唱的这刻,也同等地关乎未来。’ 反过来强调培育(将来的新鸟)也是养鸟的侧重点,和前后文衔接可能更好?
[br]
原文:'Obvious artifice is the issue: '
译:“显而易见的人工巧技是关键:”
评: ‘... 匠心’ 应对前一句
[br]
原文:'I stop and listen for a while to a bird that is calling a claim to the whole of its life. It sings of seeds and thistledown, of mates and flights and the fragility of eggs in a moss-and-cobweb nest, and of territorial battles and parasites and sparrowhawks and scarcity and stress.'
译:“这只鸟正在声张它全部的生命权利。”
评: ‘这只鸟正在声张对自己全部生命的所有权... ’
-----------------
35. Hiding / 隐蔽屋
[br]
原文:'Wildlife hides are not innocent of history. They evolved from photographic blinds,'
译:“野外隐蔽屋的背后没有清白的历史。”
评: ‘野外隐蔽屋的历史并不那么清白’ ?
[br]
原文:'There is a dubious satisfaction in the subterfuge of watching things that cannot see you, and it’s deeply embedded in our culture.'
译:“观看那些看不见你的东西,这种给人暧昧的满足感的秘密伎俩深植于我们的文化。”
评: ‘施伎俩观看那些看不见你的东西,其给人的满足感道德上有些嫌疑,同时也深植于我们的文化。’
[br]
原文:'they were compelled to use them even when they were entirely unnecessary.'
译:“即使是完全不需要的场合,也不得不用。”
评: ‘...他们还是打破不了这些习惯’
[br]
原文:' they are equally rewarding places to watch people who watch wildlife and to witness their strange social behaviour.'
译:“而屋里这些看野生动物的人,观察和目击他们奇怪的社会行为,”
评: ‘而在屋里观看这些观看野生动物的人,目击他们奇怪的社会行为’
[br]
原文:'Most people sit and scan the view with binoculars for a few minutes before deciding there is nothing of sufficient interest or rarity to keep them there.'
译:“大部分人会坐下来,拿望远镜扫视风景几分钟,再决定那里有趣或是罕见的生物是否多到足以让他们留下。”
评: ‘... ,然后决定那里没有足够有趣或是罕见的生物让他们驻留。’ (这样的大多数和后面耐心等着瞧的形成对比)
[br]
原文:'rushes striped with patterns of light and shade, '
译:“光影斑驳的灯芯草”
评: ‘光影交错的灯芯草 ’ 更搭striped??
-------------------
36. Eulogy / 悼词
[br]
原文:'when she’d found two just-born leverets, twin baby hares, tucked in the grass. '
译:“当时科迪发现了草丛里藏着两只刚出生的小野兔”
评: ‘当时科迪发现了两只刚刚出生的小野兔,青草盖在这对小兔子身上’ 稍微多花点笔墨?
[br]
原文:'Now, watching the slow diminishment of sense and detail around me, '
译:“这个时候,我注视着周遭的细节慢慢消减,”
评: ‘... 我看着感官退化,周遭的细节慢慢消减,’
[br]
原文:'with huge, black-ink anime eyes. '
译:“有墨黑生动的大眼睛。”
评: ‘...动漫人物般墨黑巨大的眼睛’
[br]
原文:'stricken with horror at the impossible fact of death.'
译:“人终有一死的事实让我恐惧。”
评: ‘...死亡这一事实荒诞无稽,让我被恐惧击倒’ ?
[br]
原文:'it was an act of such generosity that for a while I couldn’t find anything strong enough inside me to reply. '
译:“这是一种如此豁达的举动,”
评: ‘...如此慷慨’
-------------------
37. Rescue / 救助
[br]
原文:'We dislodge nests, soak seabirds in oil, hit hares and foxes with cars, pick up casualties from beneath glass windows and power lines. '
译:“我们拿走鸟窝,泄漏的原油浸透海鸟,开车撞到野兔和狐狸,在玻璃窗和高压线下捡起伤亡的生命。”
评: ‘挪走鸟窝,让海鸟被泄漏的原油浸透,...捡起各类伤员’
[br]
原文:'Rearing a single nest of finches in the 1980s didn’t halt the decline of British songbird populations. '
译:“在二十世纪八十年代,抚养一窝小雀无法阻挡英国鸣禽数量的减少,”
评: ‘二十世纪八十年代那回抚养一窝小雀没有阻挡英国鸣禽数量的减少,’
[br]
原文:'the dedication involved is immense: keepers of orphaned elephants in Kenya, for example, sleep next to the animals every night, but they take turns with others because too great an attachment to any one keeper risks the baby elephant being overcome by grief when he or she takes the night off.'
译:“他们都为此付出了巨大的心力。”
评: ‘抚养过程中会产生深厚的忠诚挚爱’ 这里应该是接近双向devotion的意思吧,因为后文是说小象多依恋陪夜人。
[br]
原文:'coming to know something quite unlike you, to understand it well enough not only to keep it alive but also to put it back, like a puzzle piece, into the gap in the world it left behind.'
译:“真正明白不仅要让它存活,还要放手让它回归自然,就像把一枚拼图碎片填入那个它遗留在身后的世界。”
评: ‘对它有足够的了解,不仅足够到能让它存活,还要足够到能让它回归自然,... ’ ?
[br]
原文:'a delicate construction of scalloped feathers and ungainly wings.'
译:“一个扇形羽毛和丑怪翅膀的精致组合。”
评: ‘...和笨拙翅膀的纤弱组合’
[br]
原文:' The sensitive filoplumes growing between the feathers of its wings and sleek sides are being brushed by the breeze, feeling their element for the first time.'
译:“它的飞羽和光滑的体侧之间那些敏感的纤羽随风轻拂,头一遭感受到自然的力量。”
评: ‘...,头一遭感受到它们生来就适应/为之而存在的环境’ 如鱼得水
[br]
原文:'where its claws had gripped tight before letting me go, gripped tight to the hand that was the last solid thing the bird would touch for years.'
译:“它紧抓着这只手,此后数年再也不会接触的,最后一样坚实的东西。”
评: ‘...,此后数年它再也不会接触到了这样坚实的东西了,这是最后一次。’
-------------------
38. Goats / 山羊
[br]
原文:'Because he puts his hand against the goat’s forehead, with everyone watching.'
译:“因为他把手背贴在山羊的额头上,而不是手心。”
评: ‘因为他在众目睽睽之下把把手贴在山羊的额头上’ 前文是You lay your hand flat on a billy goat’s forehead 搭在?应该主要就是力气不同。
-----------------
39. Dispatches from the Valleys / 山谷来信
[br]
原文:'eye-bending 1970s carpets that did bad things to you when you were drunk.'
译:“还有一块令人眼花缭乱的二十世纪七十年代的地毯,要是喝醉了酒它就会让你遭殃。”
评: ‘...让眼睛绕不过弯来的二十世纪七十年代的地毯,能够把醉鬼直接送上天’ 通篇幽默得2有点夸张,所以...
[br]
原文:'it was often cold enough in winter that I’d need to train a hairdryer into the cave of my duvet to make it sufficiently warm inside'
译:“常常冷到要把电吹风伸进羽绒被筒”
评: ‘...要把电吹风拉进羽绒被筒的深穴之内’
[br]
原文:'jet-washing shit-splattered aviaries with resigned good humour'
译:“每天好脾气地冲刷着沾满粪便的鸟舍。”
评: ‘...磨没了脾气/没脾气地 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'the ebullient son of a white Zimbabwean tobacco farmer '
译:“一个津巴布韦种烟草的白人农民的儿子,”
评: + ‘...,一天到晚兴致勃勃’
[br]
原文:' these were the sensible people I’d left academia for.'
译:“这些就是我离开学术圈投奔的达人。”
评: ‘我放弃学术圈投奔的,就是这么些达理之人/明智靠谱的人了。’ 达人一直理解成豁达或精通的人...
[br]
原文:'I snapped with whatever the equivalent of the red mist is when you’re just too frozen to deal. '
译:“我冷得实在无法忍受,满腔怨怒终于爆发”
评: ‘...,人家是杀红了眼,我是被冻红了眼理智全无了。’
[br]
原文:'often our own, young, poorly plucked, gristly cockerels bristling with filoplumes,'
译:“经常拿自己养的软骨头小公鸡,毛拔得很不干净,支棱着一些毛羽。”
评: ‘往往是自己养的小公鸡,毛拔得很不干净,支棱着一些毛羽,肉质筋筋拉拉的’ ?
[br]
原文:'The work we did there was fascinating and sobering.'
译:“我们的工作令人时而陶醉,时而清醒。”
评: ‘我们的工作引入入胜,也让人警醒’ 中文醉和醒的对比看起来有趣,但原文没这层意思的吧?
[br]
原文:'But the breeding season was brutal for the bird staff. '
译:“然而繁殖季对鸟类员工意味着残酷。”
评: ‘... 鸟类员工来说是最煎熬的’
[br]
原文:'filling small falcon mouths begging for food again and again and again.'
译:“把食物填到反反复复反反复复乞食的雏隼口中。”
评: ‘反反复复反反复复地把食物填到乞食的雏隼口中。’
[br]
原文:'Soon this breeders’ market would saturate and prices collapse along with most of the farms.'
译:“这个鸵鸟养殖市场很快就会饱和,和多数其他农场一样价格狂跌。”
评: ‘很快就会饱和,垮掉的价格会拖垮大多数农场’
[br]
原文:'The compound tibiotarsal fracture was so obscene'
译:“胫跗骨复合性骨折是如此污秽不堪的场面,”
评: ‘胫跗骨复合性骨折不堪入目 ’
[br]
原文:'the blankness of sheer necessity receding then to leave a wash of simple, overwhelming sadness in its wake.'
译:“势在必行的决绝感渐渐退却,”
评: ‘当务之急/万不得已带来的空白麻木渐渐退却... ’
[br]
原文:'The chain of command had fallen away. '
译:“指挥系统崩塌了。”
评: ‘指挥链/上下级关系被抛到脑后了’
[br]
原文:'There wasn’t so much cover that I couldn’t do it. '
译:“没有太多的掩蔽物,我可能无法成功。”
评: ‘林下植物/灌木丛不算太密,还是可以穿过的。’
[br]
原文:'this stalk to be absorbing. I did not expect it to be a truly mind-altering experience. Every time I stopped moving the world dipped and swung and held itself in suspension around me.'
译:“我预料到这会是一场引人入胜的追踪,但没有料到这种体验能真正地改变心智。每当我停止移动,世界便倾斜摇摆,悬浮在我四周。”
评: ‘我预料到这场追踪会吸收我全部注意力,但没有料到这种体验能真正地改写我的大脑。...,在我四周悬而不发。’
[br]
原文:'I knew the entire time that this was, hand to God, the most satisfying thing I had ever done in my whole life,'
译:“整个过程中,我向老天发誓,这是我一生中迄今为止最满意的一件事。”
评: ‘...,我都清楚地知道这是我一生中迄今为止最满意的一件事,我敢向老天担保。’
[br]
原文:'And it’s also true that all of us have the capacity to do things we think unimaginable until the moment they are not.'
译:“我们都有能力做到自己无法想象能做到的事,”
评: ‘我们都有能力做到自己直到那一刻之前都无法想象能做到的事’
[br]
原文:'But even so there was more to that exchange than an animal and a person looking at each other.'
译:“但即使如此,一只动物和一个人彼此的对视也是含义更为丰富的交流。”
评: ‘...,那回相遇都不仅仅是一只动物和一个人之间的对视。’
[br]
原文:'have shuttled them into separate epistemologies that are not supposed to touch. '
译:“让它们穿梭在彼此隔离、互不接触的认识论中。”
评: ‘把它们送进彼此隔离、互不接触的认识论/认知系统中’
[br]
原文:'each living species at the centre of a rich fabric of associations linking everything that was known about it with everything it meant to humans'
译:“每一个物种都能引发丰富多彩的联想,将人们获得的所有知识和它对人们所意味的一切相关联:”
评: ‘每一个物种都处于一块由丰富多彩的联想织成的锦缎中央,人类对其所知关联着它对人们所意味的一切:’ 保留比喻?
[br]
原文:'because reading the cards is too woo woo to discuss in polite company.'
译:“因为在高雅的场合解读塔罗显得太玄乎了。”
评: ‘因为在高雅场合讨论读塔罗牌显得自己神叨叨的太不讲科学了... ’
[br]
原文:'I wonder if we might also be readier to accept what animals’ emblematic selves are trying to tell us.'
译:“然而我想,我们是否也更有可能接受动物的象征意义。”
评: ‘...我们是否不妨多尝试接受动物的象征意义想向我们传达的信息’ might这里是一种很婉转的祈使句吧
[br]
原文:'It had been an inchoate attempt to knock them out of their contented composure.'
译:“是一种想把它们从安逸满足中敲醒的不成熟的尝试。”
评: ‘...不成形的尝试’
[br]
原文:'For I had seen myself as one of those steers, '
译:“因为那时的我就像其中一只肉牛,”
评: ‘因为当时我把自己代入成了肉牛中的一员’
------------------
40. The Numinous Ordinary / 神圣的平凡
[br]
原文:'the interval signal melody that slipped into the evenings of my everyday teenage life'
译:“在我十几岁时滑落在每个夜晚的电台节目幕间标志乐曲,”
评: ‘...潜入’
[br]
原文:'grace before mealtimes at the houses of friends. The great authorities of my childhood were National Geographic and New Scientist magazines, though I wasn’t ignorant of the Bible.'
译:“总为餐前祷告惊奇的孩子。我的祖母”
评: 补:‘我儿时的权威是《国家地理》和《新科学家》杂志,尽管我知道《圣经》这回事。’
[br]
原文:'men sweeping up frogs,'
译:“人们消灭青蛙,”
评: ‘...清扫 ’ 上帝降下青蛙灾
[br]
原文:'A slowly moving, purposive mirror that spoke things that weren’t words that I could feel in my bones, deep subsonics. '
译:“说出的不是我从内心感受到的话语,深沉的亚音速。”
评: ‘说出的不是语句,是我从骨头里感受到的,深沉到亚音速的振动’
[br]
原文:'I don’t recall that It had any regard for me in particular, nor why It should have been in my dream, but then, I suppose, I was not supposed to, and that was perhaps the point.'
译:“我不记得它对我有什么特别的关注,或是为什么出现在我的梦里,但在那时,虽然轮不到我做此想,但我猜那就是意义所在。”
评: ‘。不过话说回来,我想我不记得那些是应该的,而且那可能就是那个梦的意义所在。’ but then的then不是时间意义上的吧;作者理解的梦的意思是上帝并不特别关注她,也不是专门来访问她的。
[br]
原文:'You’ve probably had such experiences yourself – times in which the world stutters, turns and fills with unexpected meaning. When rapturousness claims a moment and transfigures it. '
译:“在那种时刻,世界艰难地缓缓行进,翻转又负载意料之外的含义。比如狂喜主宰了某一刻,让它焕发光彩。”
评: ‘...世界卡壳了,转向了,被意料之外的含义填满。那个时刻被心神狂喜所主宰,脱胎换骨/点石成金。’ rapture和transfigure都是宗教意味很浓的词汇,蛮难找到合适对应词的。
[br]
原文:'these moments open up a giddying glimpse into the inhuman systems of the world that operate on scales too small and too large and too complex for us to apprehend. '
译:“它们开启了一个机会,让我们匆匆一瞥这个世界非人类部分的系统,”
评: ‘...,我们得以对这个世界非人类部分的系统惊鸿一瞥’
[br]
原文:'There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply, & when it once is found
It Renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed.'
译:“发现了此刻,它将迅速增长。一旦发现,时机得当,这一刻会让所有的时刻复原。”
评: ‘一旦被发现,被放对地方,这一刻会让所有的时刻充满活力’ 按旧意 reinvigorate 理解?
[br]
原文:'The gift of the Radio Mayak interval melody was in how that melody reached me. '
译:“从灯塔电台的旋律抵达我的方式来看,那段幕间音乐是一种恩赐。”
评: ‘从灯塔电台来的幕间旋律之所以是一种恩赐,是源自它抵达我的方式’
[br]
原文:'and left it there for its pleasing creepiness.'
译:“为了某种诡异的趣味让它们一直留在那里。”
评: ‘因为喜欢其恐怖/阴森效果,让它们一直留在那里’
[br]
原文:'It stood even then for all the ways that age and distance corrode. '
译:“在那个时候,虽有岁月和距离的各种侵蚀,它也依然完好。”
评: ‘早在那时,它已经是岁月和距离各种侵蚀方式的样本’
--------------------------
41. What Animals Taught Me / 动物教给我的事
[br]
原文:'I was a child kneeling to extract a grasshopper from the closed cage of one hand, '
译:“我是一个会跪在地上,单手从封闭的笼子里取出一只蚱蜢的孩子,”
评: ‘...,一手围成蚱蜢笼子,一手将它取出的孩子’
[br]
原文:'abdomen as glossy and engineered as jewellery.'
译:“像宝石一样精致发光的腹部细节。”
评: ‘珠宝一样精细打磨过、闪亮的腹部’
[br]
原文:'I wasn’t good at teams. Or rules. Or any of the in-jokes and complicated allegiances of my peer group. '
译:“我无法适应团队活动或是规则,或是同龄人群的任何一种圈内笑话和复杂的效忠。”
评: ‘... ,也搞不懂同龄人群的任何一种圈内笑话或复杂的同盟关系。’
[br]
原文:'To know exactly when the hawk had had enough, '
译:“它让我准确地了解鹰隼何时已经饱腹,何时宁愿独处。”
评: ‘...鹰隼何时受够了我... ’
[br]
原文:'A photograph of the last passenger pigeon makes palpable the grief and fear of our own unimaginable extinction.'
译:“全世界最后一只旅鸽的照片,让我们对难以想象的灭绝的悲哀和恐惧变得真切可触。”
评: ‘我们自己的灭绝似乎难以想象,但全世界最后一只旅鸽的照片,让我们对此的悲哀和恐惧变得真切可触。’
[br]
原文:'You cannot know what it is like to be a bat by screwing your eyes tight, imagining membranous wings, finding your way through darkness by talking to it in tones that reply to you with the shape of the world. '
译:“紧闭双眼,想象拥有膜质的翅膀,以一种声调与黑暗对谈,它将以世界的形状来答复你,这样才能在黑暗中找到方向,但你不可能通过这些来了解身为蝙蝠的感觉。”
评: ‘紧闭双眼、想象拥有膜质的翅膀、以一种声调与黑暗对谈,收到关于世界形状的答复,从而在黑暗中找到方向——这些都不可能让你了解身为蝙蝠的感觉。’
[br]
原文:'all my self-absorbed anxiety vanished in that one fugitive moment, '
译:“我所有耿耿于怀的焦虑都消失了。”
评: ‘...围绕着自己的焦虑 ’
[br]
原文:'when a bird in the sky on its way somewhere else sent a glance across the divide and stitched me back into a world where both of us have equal billing.'
译:“天空中,一只飞往别处的鸟投来一个眼神,越过分歧,把我缝合在这个彼此拥有同等权利的世界。”
评: ‘...从人兽之隔的另一边投来一个眼神,把我缝回到这个我们不分主次、同等分摊的世界。’
2026/01/07 初读完毕
引子 / Introduction
[br]
原文:'The wonder these collections kindled came in part from the ways in which their disparate contents spoke to one another of their similarities and differences in form, their beauties and manifest obscurities. I hope that this book works a little like a Wunderkammer. It is full of strange things and it is concerned with the quality of wonder.'
译:“它们本质迥异,形态或相似或不同,各具其美,奥秘莫测,如此相互映衬,令人称奇。我希望我这本书也多少像个珍奇柜,满含不可思议的事物,让人为之惊叹。”
评: 一直觉得wonder这个词,尤其放在sense of wonder里面的时候很难翻到位:
‘这些收藏给人带来的惊奇倾动,部分源自其中物品之交杂,从形态到美感到各自的奥秘,或相似或迥异,相映成趣/相交辉映。...珍奇柜,充斥着奇异事物,探究惊奇感由何而来。’
[br]
原文:'Most of all I hope my work is about a thing that seems to me of the deepest possible importance in our present-day historical moment:'
译:“我更希望这本书传达了当下我最为重视的主题,”
评: ‘在当下这一历史性的时刻,我最大的希望是在书里传达我认为此刻最最值得重视的主题:... ’
[br]
原文:'And it reveals to us a planet that is beautifully and insistently not human'
译:“它为我们揭示了一个始终有别于人类的美丽星球。”
评: ‘它为我们揭示了一个始终有别于人类、因有别而分外美丽的星球。’
[br]
原文:'when your experience of a wood that is made of light and leaves and song becomes something less complex, less magical, just less, once the warblers have gone.'
译:“一旦林莺消失,来到一片由阳光、树叶和鸣唱构成的树林,我们的体验就会损失少许复杂,少许神奇,总之损失了一点东西。”
评: ‘... 原本由阳光、树叶和鸣唱构成的林中体验,就会损失少许复杂,少许魔力,总之损失了什么。’
-------------
1. 巢/Nests
[br]
[br]
原文:'a thing of horsehair and moss, pale scabs of lichen and moulted pigeon feathers; '
译:“巢中夹杂着马毛、苔藓、苍白的痂状地衣和脱落的鸽羽。”
评: ‘由马毛、苔藓、苍白的地衣痂片和脱落的鸽羽构成的巢 ’
[br]
原文:' For children, woods and fields and gardens are full of discrete, magical places: tunnels and dens and refuges in which you can hide and feel safe
译:“在孩子眼中,树林、田野和花园里遍布神奇之地,却又互不连通,有隧道、洞穴和避难所,藏在里面备感安全。'”
评: ‘...遍布星星点点的神奇之地——隧道、洞穴、和供人藏身让人安心的避难所。’
[br]
原文:'To have the presence of these birds shrunk down to that one point of attachment, the nest, made me anxious. '
译:“令我焦虑的是,鸟儿的存在缩减为心有所系的一个点——鸟巢。”
评: ‘... 鸟儿们的存在缩减为牵挂的单点’ ??
[br]
原文:'a mouse-sized bird, all streaks and spots and whispers. '
译:“老鼠大小的鸟,身上有条纹和斑点,鸣声如低语。”
评: ‘由条纹、斑点和轻言细语构成的,老鼠大小的一种鸟 ’
[br]
原文:'This was all a deeper mystery. It was a story about the way lives should go that was somehow like – but not anything like – the one I’d been handed as a child. '
译:“这些都是更深层次的神秘事物,是一个关于生命去往何处的故事,某种程度上像是我幼年被灌输的东西,但又完全不是一回事。”
评: ‘这些组成了更深层次的奥秘。这个关于生命去往何处的故事,.. ’
[br]
原文:'I didn’t know where birds fitted into all this. I didn’t know where I did. It was a narrative that even then gave me pause.'
译:“我不知道鸟类如何对应这些事,我也不知道自己该如何对应。那时候,这种人生叙事法已经让我踌躇不前。”
评: ‘我不知道这个图景中鸟类有什么样的位置。我也不知道自己的位置在哪里。早在那时,这种人生叙事已经让我起疑。’ (all this 指幼年被灌输的人生理所当然的结婚生子进程吧。)
[br]
原文:'I think differently of home now: it’s a place you carry within you, not simply a fixed location. Perhaps birds taught me that, or took me some of the way there. '
译:“现在我对家的看法不一样了:家可以随身携带,不只是一个固定地点。或许就是鸟儿将这想法传授给我,或是它们带我抵达此处。”
评: ‘家是随心携带的,而非固定于一处。或许这全是鸟儿教我的,也许它们对我形成这想法助了一臂之力。’
[br]
原文:'Rooks are rookeries – birds of feathers and bone that are also massed assemblages of twigs in February trees. '
译:“秃鼻乌鸦就是秃鼻乌鸦巢——它们的羽毛和骨架几乎是二月树上重重枝桠的集合。”
评: ‘...它们是羽毛和骨架构成的鸟,也是二月树上层叠的枝桠堆。 ’
[br]
原文:'t the word itself drifts and almost loses purchase.'
译:“连巢这个字都漂浮不定,几乎失去了基础。”
评: ‘... ,几乎无处立足。’
[br]
原文:'Another: a dark space under roof tiles where you can crawl on your mouse feet and your wings drag like feathered blades the colour of carbon steel.'
译:“还有一种:屋瓦下黑洞洞的空间,鸟儿有小鼠一般的足,拖曳着碳钢色刀片似的双翅,”
评: ‘...,你可以靠小鼠一般的足爬进去,身后拖曳着生羽的碳钢色双刃。’ (这个第二人称蛮可爱的)
[br]
原文:'It’s satisfying to consider the incorporation of human detritus into the creations of birds, but it is troubling, too. What have they made out of what we have made of this world? '
译:“创造鸟类的过程纳入了人类的废弃物,这种看法让人满意之余不免心忧。它们如何利用我们在这个世界上创造的东西?”
评: ‘想到人类的废弃物被纳入创造鸟类的过程,是让人满意的同时也让人心忧的。它们拿我们从环境中制造出来的东西,又制造出什么了呢?’ ‘看法’太偏于‘意见’了吧。
[br]
原文:'as birds use our things for their own ends, making our technologies redundant, slowed down, static, full of meaning that is no longer entirely our own.'
译:“鸟儿为了自己的目的而使用我们的东西,技术和设备因此变得多余、缓慢、凝滞,所具有的意义不再为我们独占。”
评: ‘鸟儿把我们的东西挪为己用,让我们的技术设备变得多余、迟缓、... ’
[br]
原文:'We are fascinated by the difference between skill and instinct, just as we police the differences between art and craft.'
译:“我们为技巧和本能之间的差异所吸引,正如艺术和工艺之间的差别需要调控。”
评: ‘...,正如我们监管艺术和工艺之间的差别’
[br]
原文:'If pigment is smeared on to a guillemot’s eggshell as it rotates before being laid in drip-splashes that resemble in their exuberance and finesse the paintings of Abstract Expressionists,'
译:“形成丰富灵动的图案,一如抽象表现主义画作,令人愉悦,”
评: ‘活泼灵巧的’?? 原句怎么都parse不明白。
[br]
原文:'I think of that need to collect that sometimes is billionaires hoarding de Koonings and Pollocks and sometimes tradesmen hiding plastic margarine tubs full of exquisitely marked red-backed shrike eggs beneath beds and floorboards.'
译:“正是出于一种收藏的需求,亿万富翁才会囤积德·库宁和波洛克的画作,而有些商人会把装黄油的塑料盒藏在在床和地板底下,里面装满了斑点精致的红背伯劳鸟蛋。”
评: ‘亿万富翁囤积德·库宁和波洛克的画作,抑或小生意人把斑点精致的红背伯劳鸟蛋装进黄油盒里,藏在床和地板底下,都是表达同一种收藏的需求。’
[br]
原文:'And I see interwar anxieties about marriage in Henry Eliot Howard’s work on bird behaviour;'
译:“我看到两次世界大战之间的他为婚姻焦虑,”
评: ‘...,我看到两次世界大战之间的人们对婚姻的焦虑 ’
[br]
原文:'exclaiming phrases like ‘Is me hat on straight?’ and ‘Crikey, this isn’t ’arf a do!’ White’s skeins of aristocratic pink-footed geese pass high over the slum, singing Scandinavian goose-themed sagas as they fly north.'
译:“这些海鸟喊叫着:“俺的帽子正吗?”“哎呀妈呀,还差得远呢!” 而怀特笔下的一群群贵族粉脚雁高高掠过崖上的贫民窟,吟唱着斯堪的纳维亚大雁史诗飞向北方。”
评: ‘这些海鸟用粗犷的底层人/低级口音喊叫:..。怀特笔下的粉脚雁则贵气十足,一群群高高掠过崖上的贫民窟,吟唱着以大雁为主人公的斯堪的纳维亚史诗,飞向北方。’
[br]
原文:'mostly have little truck with the mainstream rules of nature appreciation and the laws that enforce them. '
译:“和主流的自然鉴赏原则及执行法规鲜有交集。”
评: ‘不把主流的自然鉴赏原则及相关法规看在眼里 ’
[br]
原文:'Egg collecting in this tradition makes me wonder about the terms of ownership, investment and access to pleasure that economically deprived communities are allowed to have in the natural world. '
译:“在这种传统中,收集鸟蛋意味着什么?我想知道在哪些条件下,贫穷社区才能拥有自然资源,靠自然发财,也能享受自然。”
评: ‘这种收集鸟蛋的传统引人深思。我想知道,贫穷社区拥有自然资源、靠自然发财、以及享受自然的条件是什么。’
[br]
原文:'It can become an obsession for minds gripped with stilled beauty. It is a practice that halts time. The collectors grant themselves the power to withhold new lives and new generations. And egg collecting is also, at the same time, one in the eye for the elite and all their rules about what is and what is not an acceptable way to relate to nature.'
译:“那些为静物之美吸引的人可能为此上瘾。这种做法令时间中止,鸟蛋收藏者自认为有权撤销新生命和新世代。与此同时,鸟蛋收藏也令精英们不悦,因为他们规定的开启自然的所有正确方式都受到了挑战。”
评:前面stilled和still到底是有区别的吧;minimalist一点 ‘鸟蛋收藏也能令精英们不悦’估计那种主动性也能表达出来了。
‘那些人被按了暂停键的美吸引,可能为此痴迷。这是一种令时间中止的行为。... 精英们制定规矩,试图定义怎么和大自然打交道才是正确的。鸟蛋收藏是对他们和他们那些规矩的存心冒犯。’
[br]
原文:'gangs of egg protectors guarding the nests of rare birds were a true-life legacy of the war. '
译:“鸟蛋保护者共同守卫稀有鸟类的巢,这确实是战争留给现实生活的遗产。”
评: ‘鸟蛋保护者组队守卫稀有鸟类的巢,这确实是真实生活中战争留下的遗产。’
[br]
原文:'That was when I recognised the particular power of eggs to raise questions of human hurt and harm. '
译:“我意识到了鸟蛋特殊的力量,它和人类的伤害相关。”
评: ‘...,它能彰显/让相关人类伤害的问题浮出水面’ ??
[br]
原文:' but would soon take in the revealed coil and furl of a west-coast breeze and cloud of a hillside in one easy glide at sixty miles an hour, '
译:“但很快就会乘驭西海岸的微风和山顶舒卷的云气,以”
评: ‘...就会每小时96公里的速度轻盈地滑翔,感受到西海岸微风中空气的舒卷,徜徉于山侧的云岚,’
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2. Nothing Like a Pig/一点不像猪
[br]
原文:'The boy said he’d show me something I’d never seen before in the woods, which made me raise an eyebrow. But here we are.'
译:“男孩说,他要带我看看我在这林子里从未见过的东西,我很惊讶。而我们到了这个地方。”
评: ‘男孩说,他要带我到林子里看东西,保证是我从未见过的。我对此保持怀疑,但我们还是来了。’
[br]
原文:'a short, collapsing moment '
译:“短暂而突然的一刻,”
评: ‘...骤缩’
[br]
原文:'a thing I’d seen representations of '
译:“只见过复制品的”
评: ‘...图像或模型’
[br]
原文:'trophy photographs of twenty-first-century hunters kneeling over them with rifles'
译:“二十一世纪的获奖照片上猎人持步枪跪在它们身边”
评: ‘二十一世纪猎人们持步枪跪在它们身边的纪念照片’
[br]
原文:'There are animals that are mythological by virtue of being imaginary: basilisks, dragons, unicorns.'
译:“有一些神话中的动物是想象出来的:蛇怪、龙,独角兽。”
评: ‘有一些动物的神话性源于它们出自想象:蛇怪、龙,独角兽。’
[br]
原文:'still emblematic, still rich and passing strange. And now here one was, called into the real world.'
译:“依然有象征意味,有丰富奇特的含义。此时此地就有一只,它被召唤进真实的世界。”
评: ‘...,依然奇特得非同凡响。而此时此地就有一只,被召唤到真实的世界来了。’
[br]
原文:'listening apprehensively for the faintest sounds and scanning for signs of movement in the undergrowth. '
译:“会仔细聆听最轻微的声响,还在小路上搜寻它们行动的踪迹。”
评: ‘忧心忡忡地... 林下灌丛里’
[br]
原文:'are dying out over a hundred times as fast as they would in a world without humans.'
译:“如今灭绝的速度比它们在没有人类的世界时快了一百倍。”
评: ‘... 它们在假使没有人类的... ’
[br]
原文:'And being considered by a mind that is not human forces you to reconsider the limits of your own. As the boar looked up at me, it was obvious that my knowledge of boars was limited, '
译:“被一个并非人类的头脑审视时,你不得不反思自身的局限性。野猪抬头看我,而我对它的了解显然十分有限。”
评: ‘被一个并非人类的头脑审视,迫使你反思自己头脑的局限性。野猪抬头看我时,我清晰地意识到我对它的了解十分有限。 ’
[br]
原文:'and, oddly, what it thought of me. '
译:“它又如何看待我。”
评: ‘莫名地,想知道它又如何看待我’
[br]
原文:'felt, as the seconds passed, that some tiny skein of aggression in his heart was starting to thrum.'
译:“感觉到就在这几秒钟,它体内的攻击性开始微微颤动。”
评: ‘...它体内的攻击性如同细弦,开始微微颤动 ’
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3. Inspector Calls/督察来访
[br]
原文:'It seemed a logical means of preventing any complaints about coffee rings on the Ercol dining table.'
译:“起码这是一种合乎逻辑的方式,他将无法对实木餐桌上的咖啡杯印有任何怨言。”
评: ‘这么做当时看来合乎逻辑——... ’
[br]
原文:'my heart folds and falls, '
译:“我先是揪紧了心,随后又舒展了,”
评: ‘我的心揪紧又沉落,’
[br]
原文:'He frowns as if he’s assuming upon himself the responsibility of my being one of the elect.'
译:“他皱起眉头,似乎肩负着认定我为上帝选民的重任。”
评: ‘... ,似乎我从芸芸众生中入选了,他会为此担下重任。’ ??
[br]
原文:'They have decided the house is too small for them and their son. So much for my week of cleaning purgatory.'
译:“他们觉得这个房间太小了。我这一周的清洁苦刑到此为止。”
评: ‘...这房子太小了。我这一周的清洁苦刑由此尽付阙如。’
-------------------
4. Field Guides/野外指南
[br]
原文:'two-volume guide to British spiders, with its hairy, many-eyed line drawings,'
译:“书中有很多毛茸茸的眼睛素描,”
评: ‘书中的素描画满是细毛和眼睛,... ’
[br]
原文:'for field guides have closely tracked changes in the ways we interact with nature. '
译:“因为田野指南细细地追踪着我们和自然互动方式的变化。”
评: ‘因为田野指南的演变,紧跟我们与自然互动方式的变化... ’
[br]
原文:'a group of competitive, iconoclastic young naturalists. '
译:“他们富有才干,渴望打破陈规。”
评: ‘他们争先恐后... ’
[br]
原文:' pulling intricate variety out of a background blur of nameless grey and green.'
译:“在一片无名的灰绿色模糊背景中,各种精妙的生物跃然凸显。”
评: ‘原来无名的灰绿色模糊背景中,区分精细的不同种类凸显出来。’ ?
[br]
原文:'The first time I saw a silver-spotted skipper butterfly basking on bare chalk on high downland pasture, I instantly knew the name of this dusty-golden dart with pale, ragged patches on its wings. '
译:“我第一次在丘陵地牧场看到裸露的白垩土上一只晒太阳的银斑弄蝶,它像一枚土金色的飞镖,翅膀上有锯齿状的浅白色图案,立刻反应出了名字。”
评: ‘我第一次在丘陵地牧场看到裸露的白垩土上一只晒太阳的蝴蝶,像一枚土金色的飞镖,翅膀上有锯齿状的浅白色图案,立刻反应出它叫银斑弄蝶。’
-------------------
5. Tekels Park/泰克尔公园
[br]
原文:'the section of fence I’m searching for, running west and high under skies white as old ice.'
译:“那段围栏,围栏向西延伸,在天空下高高竖立,像古老的寒冰一样洁白。”
评: ‘...在白如古冰的天空下高高竖立’ ?玄冰?
[br]
原文:'the cradled mathematical branches of a monkey puzzle'
译:“一棵智利南洋杉颇具数学之美的弧形枝条,”
评: ‘分布得很有数学性的倒拱形枝条’ 看照片才知道cradle用得多形象
[br]
原文:'and my head blooms with an apprehension of lost space, because I know exactly all the land around those trees, or at least what it was like thirty years ago. '
译:“我为那个失去的时空满心忧惧,因为我完全了解那几棵树周围所有的土地,至少是三十年前它们的样子。”
评: ‘我的心为通晓那个失去的时空胀大,因为我对那几棵树周围所有的土地了然于心... ’ 后文说速读还用了一个apprehend,是明白/了然的意思。如果是双关,‘忧惧’ 应该是比较弱的那层意思。
[br]
原文:'And the feeling I had then, of wanting to apprehend something important that was passing by me very fast: that’s the feeling I have now when I look for the place behind the motorway fence where I grew up.'
译:“那时我想要了解飞掠而过的某个重要的东西,现在我也有这种感觉。此时,我正在寻找公路围栏后的那个地方,我是在那里长大的。”
评: ‘... ,现在寻找公路围栏后那个地方的我也有这种感觉。我是在那里长大的。 ’
[br]
原文:'others were the black sheep of good families: elderly women, mostly, who had refused the roles society had reserved for them: the quiet Lolly Willowes of Surrey Heath. '
译:“其他则是体面人家的不肖子女,多数是上年纪的女人,拒绝了社会为她们设定的角色——萨里郡石南荒原上娴静的“罗莉·威洛伊”[插图]。”
评: ‘...设定的角色;她们是萨里郡石南荒原上安静的“罗莉·威洛伊” ’ 说她们像罗莉·威洛伊,指的是她们的反叛精神。原文的破折号好像容易引起歧义,好像罗莉·威洛伊是符合社会期望的典型,尤其联系了‘娴静’这个词之后。她们并不娴淑,她们只是不张扬。
[br]
原文:'On discovering that I had gone to Cambridge, another, years later, inquired of me where I had stabled my horse – for he’d had dreadful trouble finding livery for his hunter while a student there in the 1930s.'
译:“另一个前住户得知我去了剑桥,问我校园哪里有马厩,因为他二十世纪三十年代也在剑桥读书,为了给他的猎狗找到食宿曾大费周折。”
评: ‘...问我用的是哪一处马厩,因为他二十世纪三十年代也在剑桥读书,为了给他的狩猎用马找寄养处曾大费周折。 ’
[br]
原文:'Everyone had lives and pasts of such luminous eccentricity '
译:“每个邻居的生活和往昔都如此独特古怪,”
评: ‘... 都古怪得光华流转’
[br]
原文:'specimen trees'
译:“园景树”
评: ‘吸引目光焦点的树’
[br]
原文:'an intermittently-broken fountain,'
译:“池中喷泉断断续续,”
评: ‘... 不定时罢工’
[br]
原文:'or walking past the guesthouse with a big grass snake, two feet of supple khaki and gold twined about my arms. '
译:“或是走过家庭旅馆,胳膊上绕着一条大草蛇,两英尺长卡其色和金色的家伙,”
评: ‘或是带着一条大草蛇走过家庭旅馆,那两英尺长柔软的卡其色和金色绕在我胳膊上 ’
[br]
原文:'I could hoist myself into and up,'
译:“我可以钻进枝丛,”
评: ‘...攀入 ’
[br]
原文:' that glittering, shifting particulate mound which moved from year to year '
译:“每年都改变位置的小土堆”
评: ‘那闪亮的、小颗粒形成的小土堆每年都改变位置,’
[br]
原文:'I’d prepare skeletons of the dead birds I found by folding them carefully in little cages of wire mesh '
译:“我收拾好发现的死鸟尸体,小心地把骨架折起来放在小铁丝笼子里,”
评: ‘捡到死鸟后为了获取它们的骨架,我小心地把它们折起来... ’ 这个prepare是蚂蚁代劳的吧
[br]
原文:' though I wasn’t half as posh as their protagonists.'
译:“只是我不及这些优雅的主人公一半。”
评: ‘只是那些主人公都来自上层社会,我的身份远不能相比。’
[br]
原文:'So much of what was there must have arrived in hay brought for long-dead horses, as seeds from lowland meadows:'
译:“那里出现了多少东西:为死去已久的马准备的干草,低地草甸的种子,”
评: ‘那里出现的许多植物原生于低地草甸,种子一定是混在为死去已久的马准备的干草里运来的。 ’
[br]
原文:'wavy hair grass brushed with fog by the sun'
译:“还有阳光下雾气轻拂的曲芒发草。”
评: ‘还有曲芒发草,阳光将它笼罩在氤氲里’
[br]
原文:' I sat in front of the mower to make it stop, then mutely, passively, held my ground in front of the bewildered driver, who came down to quite reasonably ask me what the hell I was doing, and I ran home crying.'
译:“我坐在割草机前面阻挡它。迷惑的司机下来,通情达理地询问我到底在干什么,我默然而被动地坚守自己的阵地,后来跑回家大哭。”
评: ‘...。面对迷惑的司机,我默然而消极地坚守自己的阵地。他下来合情合理地询问我到底在干什么,我就一路大哭地跑回家了。’ 过程这样顺一些?
[br]
原文:' the passing scenery possessed the disconcerting, diffuse, offscale and uncanny closeness of things in dreams. '
译:“一掠而过的风景仿佛梦境中逼近眼前弥漫开来的事物,令人困扰、不合比例、诡异。”
评: ‘一掠而过的风景仿佛梦中之物,逼近得弥漫四周、令人困扰、不合比例、诡异难状。’
[br]
原文:'He said, ‘We should be taking stock.’ I take stock. During this sixth extinction we who may not have time to do anything else must write what we now can, to take stock.'
译:“他说:“应当审时度势。” 我也需要如此。在第六次大灭绝的过程中,我们这种人可能无暇他顾,必须审时度势,尽自己所能写作。”
评: ‘他说:“应当盘点审查。” 我在照他说的做。在第六次大灭绝的进程中,我们这些人可能来不及干别的了,那就一定要把现在能写的都写下来,好好盘点审查。’
[br]
原文:'utterly and accidentally destroying things in the process '
译:“他们彻底地、出乎意料地毁灭了很多东西。”
评: ‘..无心中彻底毁灭 ’
----------------------
6. High-Rise / 高空
[br]
原文:'a spectacular sea of lights spilling far below.'
译:“盛大的灯光如一片汪洋,倾泻而下。”
评: ‘...,在遥远的下方迸流四溅’
[br]
原文:'Farnsworth saw a peregrine falcon drifting ominously around the building.'
译:“法恩斯沃思看见一只游隼在大厦上空飞旋”
评: +‘...,看起来不怀好意 ’
[br]
原文:'the same opportunities to stash a takeout meal'
译:“蕴藏着一份外卖大餐”
评: ‘保存一份现成大餐 ’
[br]
原文:'The spire is lit with pulsing rivulets of climbing colour like a candle tonight'
译:“螺旋塔冠被跃升跳动的彩色灯光点亮,像一枚蜡烛。”
评: ‘... 被脉动攀升的彩灯细流点亮’ ?
[br]
原文:'Disoriented by light and reflections on glass, they crash into obstacles, fly into windows, spiral down to the ground. '
译:“灯光和玻璃幕帘的反光打乱了方向,它们撞向窗户,螺旋式坠地。”
评: ‘灯光和玻璃幕帘的反光打乱了它们的方向感,让它们撞向窗户和其它障碍... ’
[br]
原文:'But you are set in another part of their habitual world, a nocturne of ice crystals and cloud and wind and darkness.'
译:“但是你可以置身于高楼常规世界的另一个部分——冰晶、云、风与黑暗构成的夜景。”
评: ‘...你身处于它们常规世界的另一个部分
----------------
7. The Human Flock / 人群
[br]
原文:'others shake their heads or utter profanities. '
译:“还有人摇头叹息,或是口出秽言”
评: ‘还有人摇头,有人爆粗口 ’
[br]
原文:'The snaking lines synchronise so that each bird raises its wings a fraction before the one behind it, each moving flock resolving itself into a filmstrip showing a single bird stretched through time.'
译:“蛇形的阵列如此同步,每只鸟前方的那只都稍稍抬起翅膀,每一个移动的鸟群分解成一张张呈现单只鸟的幻灯片,随着时间不断延伸”
评: ‘...每一只鸟的翅膀都比身后那只的略抬高一点点,每一个移动的鸟群呈现出来的,是幻灯片里单只鸟的连贯动作’ (?)
[br]
原文:'But then, part of the allure of flocking birds is their ability to create bewildering optical effects. '
译:“此外,群集的鸟所创造的光学效应令人迷惑,这也是它们的魅力所在。”
评: ‘话说回来,群集的鸟的部分魅力,就在于它们能够创造出令人缭乱的视觉效果。 ’
[br]
原文:'vanish and reappear in an instant as the birds turned their counter-shaded bodies in the air. '
译:“消失不见,下一刻它们在空中翻转背光一面的身体,重新显现。”
评: 查到counter-shaded 是保护色的一种,特指动物上一半颜色深,下一半颜色浅
[br]
原文:'Turns can propagate through a cloud of birds at speeds approaching ninety miles per hour, making murmurations look from a distance like a single pulsing, living organism.'
译:“一大群鸟的转向以接近每小时90英里的速度增殖,从远处看就像是一个自成一体的不断律动的生物。”
评: ‘...速度传播/散播,从远处看就像是一个不断律动、有生命的个体’
[br]
原文:'fear is the factor shaping the flocks, pressing and contorting them as they fly.'
译:“鸟儿飞行时,恐惧逼迫和扭曲着它们的群体。”
评: ‘... 挤压扭曲它们的阵列 ’
[br]
原文:'I go from seeing rushing patterns in the sky '
译:“从观看空中群鸟疾飞的模式,”
评: ‘从观看空中迅速变幻的图形,’
[br]
原文:'I marvel at how confusion can be resolved by focusing on the things from which it is made.'
译:“原来专注于鸟儿身体的构成元素,就能厘清这混乱的场景。”
评: ‘原来专注于构成这纷乱场景的元素,就能厘清它的混乱。 ’
[br]
原文:'visceral apprehension '
译:“内心的恐惧”
评: ‘发自内心的本能恐惧’ 强调非理性的?
---------------------
8. The Student’s Tale / 学生的故事
[br]
原文:'Even I know what happens. I am holding my breath just thinking of it.'
译:“即使我明白发生了什么,想到那种处置手段时依然屏住了呼吸。”
评: ‘就连我也明白会发生什么。光想想那种处置手段我就屏住了呼吸。’
[br]
原文:'you couldn’t blame her for expecting friendship when what was offered was its scorched obverse.'
译:“你无法责怪她,她期待友谊,迎来的却是刺痛人心的相反结果。”
评: ‘她期望友谊, 找上门的却是其刺痛人心的相反,但你不能为此责怪她。 ’
[br]
原文:'that loss pours from you, silent through the laughter, like a cold current of air that sinks to the floor and fills the room beneath everything light that is spoken here.'
译:“你满身写着失去这两个字,笑中的沉默像一股寒气沉到地面,充溢整个房间,潜伏在这里说出的每一句轻松的话语之下。”
评: ‘你失去的所有从你身上涌出,在笑声中像一股寒气,无声地沉到地面... ’
[br]
原文:'whose eyes are bright with unspilled tears'
译:“明亮的眼睛噙着的泪水不曾滴落,”
评: ‘噙着的泪水不曾滴落,让眼睛发亮’
[br]
原文:'But a hole is not just a pigeonhole. It’s the space between two things. '
译:“但是这格子不仅是放置分类档案的,它是两个事物之间的空间,”
评: ‘但是这格子不仅是归类放置用的,’
[br]
原文:'And you are also a man who tips back his head and laughs when we discover that the School has been closed for rebuilding, and the windows are boarded up and the palings mean we can’t see the building at all. '
译:“当我们发现医学院关门维修,窗户外竖起木板,脚手架让我们看不到教学楼,你向后微微转头,笑了起来。”
评: ‘... 脚手架挡住了教学楼,你微微仰头笑了起来。是的,那样笑起来的也是你。’ 保持排比?
--------------------
9. Ants/蚂蚁
[br]
原文:'a towering column of flying ants'
译:“飞蚁聚成的塔柱”
评: ‘... 悬空高柱’
[br]
原文:'The hitching curves of the gulls in a vault of sky crossed with thousands of different flightlines, warm airspace tense with predatory intent and the tiny hopes of each rising ant.'
译:“上千条不同的飞行轨迹划过苍穹,其下鸥鸟翻飞构成道道曲线,晴暖的空中充满张力,一方意在捕食,另一方是每一只升空的蚂蚁的渺小希望。”
评: ‘...鸥鸟痉挛性地/忽动忽停地勾勒出曲线...’
--------------------
10. Symptomatic /症状
[br]
原文:'something like a bullet that’s only chambered one morning days after the threat of violence. A slug that ratchets through and slots into your spine before the slow shot begins with an umbrella-towering nimbus of empty pressure'
译:“它是一条蛞蝓,像棘轮一样旋转切入,插进你的脊椎,之后是缓缓推进的注射器,起初如雨伞压顶的空虚压力令你觉得晕眩,”
评: ‘子弹像棘轮一样旋转切入...,之后是缓缓推进,... ’ slug和shot应该都是指子弹吧。
[br]
原文:'the interference in my brain runs sometimes along the lines of those delicate scrawls of blue-flowered decorations on ancient Chinese porcelain.'
译:“感觉到大脑中的干扰有时好像在沿着古代中国瓷器上那种精致的青花纹样游走。”
评: ‘干涉波’ ?
[br]
原文:'we’re not built with the solidity so many of us blithely assume.'
译:“多数人总以为自己的身体多么结实,”
评: ‘多数人没心没肺地以为自己的身体多结实’
[br]
原文:'a sweetly turned phrase more ableist than utopian. '
译:“这个美化过的定义比乌托邦更有健全中心主义的歧视色彩。”
评: ‘这条看着美好的定义与其说太乌托邦,不如说是过于以健全人为中心。’
[br]
原文:'causal molecular pathways'
译:“偶然的分子路径”
评: ‘因果性分子路径’ ?
[br]
原文:'There’s no mistaking their occurrence – I bleed, or I curl up in pain and weep – and both involve a suite of premonitory symptoms.'
译:“毫无疑问,流血,或是蜷起身体痛苦哭泣,这二者来临前都有一系列先兆症状。”
评: ‘它们的降临明确无疑——我流血,或蜷起身体痛苦哭泣,而二者来临前都有一系列先兆症状。’
[br]
原文:'these states are now something like old friends, and I greet them with a deal of archness.'
译:“这些状态现在如同老友,我以狡黠的手段与其周旋。”
评: ‘...,我戏谑地拿出一本正经的态度接待它们’
[br]
原文:'The premonitory symptoms of my migraines are exceedingly specific. '
译:“我对偏头痛的预感极其细微具体。”
评: ‘我的偏头痛的先兆症状... ’
[br]
原文:'There’s dust-and-ashes tiredness'
译:“我感觉幻灭般的疲倦,”
评: ‘万念俱灰的疲倦’
[br]
原文:'I never see it coming.'
译:“我从来觉察不到它的征兆。”
评: ‘我从来不能预知它什么时候来。’
[br]
原文:'occurring in its prodrome, that part of it which precedes the pain.'
译:“是发作之前的前驱症状。”
评: ‘是疼痛发作之前... ’
[br]
原文:'it tips me into days that seem newly forged and prone to surprising beauties. '
译:“将我轻轻推入似乎被重新铸造的日子,更轻易地为一片风景惊艳。”
评: ‘将我轻轻推入新铸/新出炉的日子,那里似乎有更多的美等着带给人惊喜。’
[br]
原文:'I was overcome by delight. '
译:“我满心欢悦,”
评: ‘我喜不自胜’
[br]
原文:'Hurricanes lining up across the Atlantic. '
译:“飓风在大西洋沿岸登陆。”
评: ‘飓风紧挨着在大西洋出现。... ’
[br]
原文:'We can’t connect the dots. We know we’re in trouble, '
译:“我们知道自己陷入困境,”
评: +‘我们察觉不出这些事件间的因果关系。’
[br]
原文:'conspiracies fluttering like millenarian pamphlets,'
译:“阴谋像千禧年宣传活页四处翻飞,”
评: ‘...基督教末世论者的宣传活页’ millenarian字典定义:denoting a religious or political group seeking solutions to present crises through rapid and radical transformation of politics and society.
[br]
原文:'makes it impossible to comprehend symptoms as premonitions? '
译:“致使我们无法将预感认作症状呢?”
评: ‘致使我们无法将症状认作预兆呢 ’
[br]
原文:' We’ve been led to believe we can make decisions that change the world in the supermarket; '
译:“可做出决定在超市里改变世界”
评: ‘在超市里做的那些选择可以改变世界’
[br]
原文:'But the systems of the wider world do not operate according to the temporalities of our human lives;'
译:“整个系统的运转并非围绕我们人类短暂的生命。”
评: ‘...并不把人类短暂的生命为时间刻度’ ?
[br]
原文:'For an apocalypse is not always a cataclysmic ending, and not always a disaster.'
译:“因为末日不一定是巨大的变动,不一定是大灾难。”
评: ‘因为启示录不一定有灾难的结局,不一定是毁灭性的。’
----------------------
11. Sex, Death, Mushrooms / 性、死亡、蘑菇
[br]
原文:'collect stinkhorns for the express purpose of bringing them back to be ‘burned in the deepest secrecy of the drawing-room fire, with the door locked; because of the morals of the maids’, '
译:“曾到林中专门采集白鬼笔,然后带回家中,“考虑到女仆的贞洁道德,锁上门,用客厅的炉火将其秘密烧尽”,”
评: ‘曾为了“保护女仆的贞德”,特地到林中采集白鬼笔,目的就是带回家中,“锁上门,用客厅的炉火将其秘密烧尽”’
[br]
原文:'Our continuing pieties about sex '
译:“性持续的虔敬,”
评: ‘我们依然避讳谈性’
[br]
原文:'a strong and strange conjuration of life-in-death'
译:“仿佛一种生死相依的魔咒,”
评: ‘... 一种死里返生的魔法’
[br]
原文:'thought to be the fingers of the god of the dead bursting through the ground to feed the poor.'
译:“蘑菇被视作死神伸出地面的手指,穷人以此为食”
评: ‘...是死神为了喂养穷人而伸出地面的手指’
[br]
原文:'eager to taste this souvenir from a place full of life hidden from our own.'
译:“迫不及待地想要尝尝滋味。这枚纪念品所在的世界里,满是从我们眼皮下躲藏起来的生命。”
评: ‘迫不及待地想要尝尝这枚纪念品的滋味。它所纪念的,是一个潜伏着诸多生命,不为我们所见的世界。’
-------------------
12. Winter Woods / 冬日树林
[br]
原文:'I’ve walked them in low sun, deep snow, rain, and in dank mist that clings to the skin and seems more water than air.'
译:“夕阳低垂的时分,在深深的雪地上,在雨中,在紧贴皮肤更像水而非气体的湿雾中,我在林间穿行。”
评: 分号??
[br]
原文:'wearing an expression of joyous, fierce concentration.'
译:“他脸上的表情愉悦而又极其专注。”
评: ‘...既沉浸,又享受 ’ 正好别处看来
[br]
原文:'Because life is less obvious in a winter wood, where it does subsist, as bright stars of moss, or fungal fruiting bodies enduring winter frosts with antifreeze-packed cells, it demands attention. '
译:“冬天的林中生命迹象不够明显,但它们确实存在。明亮的星芒状苔藓,或是经受严寒的真菌子实体,它们有“防冻液”细胞,都值得我们关注。”
评: ‘...,它们存在之处就更值得我们关注,无论是明亮的星芒状苔藓,还是... ’
[br]
原文:'their momentary purchase on this world. '
译:“它们对这个世界短暂的把握。”
评: ‘...在这个世界短暂的立足/落足’
[br]
原文:'they’re rich with a buzzing, glittering, shifting profusion of life. Everything seems manifested; there’s no obvious sense of potentiality. '
译:“它们充满嗡鸣、闪光、不断变换的丰富生命。所有的一切都昭然于世,难以感觉到潜藏的东西。”
评: ‘... 潜能则难以察觉。’
------------------
13. Eclipse / 日食
[br]
原文:'an event in which the sun and moon – and me – would line up '
译:“在我的想象中,日食的发生意味着太阳和月亮再加上我将会连成一线,”
评: ‘... 太阳和月亮——也加上我——将会连成一线’
[br]
原文:'The presence of other people would detract from the meaningfulness of it all,'
译:“我觉得其他人的在场将会抹杀所有的意义,”
评: ‘减损’
[br]
原文:'‘volatile Frenchman’ ‘stolid German’ '
译:““反复无常的法国人”“面无表情的德国人”
评: ‘情绪易变/冷漠麻木’
[br]
原文:'I’d always been nervous of crowds... Growing up watching television in Britain in the 1970s and ’80s was a primer in their dangers. '
译:“在上世纪七八十年代的英国看电视长大,这本身就是危险事件入门。”
评: ‘上世纪七八十年代在英国伴我长大的电视节目,是人群之危的入门教材。’
[br]
原文:'marvelling crowds newly assured of the singular grandeur and importance of their nation. '
译:“惊叹不已的人群以全新的眼光领略自己祖国的辉煌和意义。”
评: ‘...确信了自己祖国独有的辉煌和重要’
[br]
原文:'a passing shadow cast across the nation from celestial bodies above.'
译:“而是头顶上方的天体将一片流逝的阴影罩住整个国家。”
评: ‘...让一片移动的阴影穿越整个国家’ path of totality没有那么宽的
[br]
原文:'they’re entities defining themselves by virtue only of what they are against. '
译:“他们是这样一些实体,用以定义自身的德行恰恰是他们所反对的。”
评: ‘他们这样的存在,是完全通过他们所反对什么来定义的。’ (而没有主张、支持的东西吧)
[br]
原文:'New Age travellers and folks in fancy dress. '
译:“服饰花哨的新世纪旅行者”
评: ‘新世纪旅行者,和盛装的人们’
[br]
原文:'night slammed down on us. '
译:“夜晚骤然袭来,”
评: ‘黑夜劈头砸下来’
[br]
原文:'a wave of particulate light crashed along the dark beach... making the whole coast a glittering field of stars. '
译:“光点汇成一道光波,贯穿这片黑压压的海滩,...整片海岸仿佛星光闪烁的原野”
评: ‘...光浪,拍击... 星光闪烁的天幕’ ?
[br]
原文:'For a long while my brain tricks me. It has a vested interest in reassurance:'
译:“我的大脑将我捉弄了许久,因为得到安慰对它自有好处。”
评: ‘...哄骗了我很久,因为安慰我对它有利。’
[br]
原文:'Why everything, the luggage-strap leaves of dune grass under my toes, the broken walls, bay trees, the sea in front, the mountains behind, everything’s still darkly fine.'
译:“但是为什么所有的东西,脚趾下沙丘草那行李箱捆扎带一样的叶子,残墙,海湾的树,面前的大海,身后的山峦,它们依然如常,只是黑乎乎的?”
评: 这里的Why不是提问,是语气词——‘喏,所有的东西,...,黑乎乎的它们依然如常。然后我发现’ ,所以后面是句号。
[br]
原文:'the psychological equivalent of that discordant crash as I have a fraught little struggle with my brain. '
译:“和自己的大脑展开的小小的、紧张的斗争,导致的心理效应等同于那一声混乱的撞击”
评: ‘... 危机四伏的斗争,...刺耳的撞击 ’
[br]
原文:'apparently the blithe amphibian will fail to notice the incremental rise in temperature'
译:“表面上看,那只淡定的青蛙将不会注意到温度的递增”
评: ‘据说那只青蛙一直无忧无虑,不会注意到温度的递增’
[br]
原文:'that story’s creeping dread '
译:“那个故事的恐怖有几分诡异,”
评: ‘...恐怖悄然而至 ’ 不是creepy
[br]
原文:'But though their shapes are reassuring, the content isn’t. '
译:“虽然它们的形状令人安慰,实则不然,”
评: ‘...,轮廓之内的部分却非如此 ’
[br]
原文:'stymied in its search for thermals to soar upon. They’re all disappearing in the rapidly cooling air. '
译:“一只雀鹰飞过,它寻找上升气流的努力受挫,在空中下滑,不再居于高处。在迅速冷却的空气中,它们都在消失。”
评: ‘...,上升气流都在消失’ 因为语序调整,thermals离代指的they太远了,好像再重复一遍更易懂
[br]
原文:'Totality is so incomprehensible for your mental machinery'
译:“你的精神机制对此全然无法理解,”
评: ‘日全食是你的精神机制如此无从理解的事物,’
[br]
原文:'The exhilaration is barely contained terror.'
译:“兴高采烈其实是抑制不住的恐惧。”
评: ‘那刻的振奋狂喜是堪堪抑制住的恐惧’
[br]
原文:'A total eclipse makes history laughable,makes you feel both precious and disposable, '
译:“一场日全食令历史变得滑稽,让你感觉既珍贵又无用,”
评: ‘... 可笑,...又随时/轻易可以被扔掉’
[br]
原文:'like someone trying to engage a stone in discussions about the price of a celebrity magazine.'
译:“就像一个人想在名流杂志定价的讨论中加入石头的话题。”
评: ‘就像一个人想跟一块石头展开关于名流杂志定价的讨论。 ’
[br]
原文:'something (I blush to say it, but here it comes) like a word. And thus begins the world again. Instantly.'
译:“我羞于出口,但我想说,它就像一个词语。世界就这样重新开启。刹那之间,”
评: ‘... 于刹那之间。’ 这里word好像有所特指,让人联想到上帝创世时用的话
[br]
原文:'From a bay tree, struck into existence a moment ago, '
译:“在一棵片刻前赫然再现的月桂树上,”
评: ‘... 赫然出世 ’
-------------------------
14. In Her Orbit / 在她的轨道上
[br]
原文:'‘people who are passionate enough that they can put themselves into dire straits’.'
译:“:“还需要研究者有足够的激情,哪怕置身于凶险的海峡。””
评: ‘... 不惜将自己置身于凶险。’
[br]
原文:'I had brought a sleeping bag, altitude-sickness pills and a considerable amount of anxiety about the conditions we’d meet ahead.'
译:“我带着睡袋、高原反应药片,对即将面临的境况倍觉焦虑。”
评: ‘... 、以及对即将面临的境况的焦虑。’
[br]
原文:'a striking, finely carved handsomeness,'
译:“面孔轮廓分明,英气飒爽。”
评: ‘脸庞精致而英气’ ??
[br]
原文:'subsurface oceans on distant moons like Saturn’s Enceladus and Titan, for instance, could support microbial organisms. '
译:“比如土卫二和泰坦星这两颗土星的遥远卫星,它们的环境可以维系微生物。”
评: ‘...,它们的地下海 ’
[br]
原文:'A stiff Pacific breeze blows dead mimosa blossoms across the pavement as I climb inside a minibus to join them on the long drive to our first field site, '
译:“太平洋的烈风把枯萎的合欢花刮到人行道旁,我正钻进一辆小面包车和团队会合,抵达我们的第一个探测地点还要开很长的路。”
评: ‘我和团队会合时,太平洋的劲风正把枯萎的合欢花刮到人行道旁。小面包车抵达我们的第一个探测地点前... ’
[br]
原文:'Time drifts. Everything outside the windows is so featureless it seems like a theatrical backdrop.'
译:“时间在流逝。车窗外的一切如此平淡无奇,就像舞台的背景幕布。”
评: ‘时间变得飘荡无依。车窗外的景物平淡,完全没有记忆点... ’ (后一句是前一句的原因吧)
[br]
原文:'It’s dizzying to think of the scales her work spans: '
译:“想到卡布罗尔的工作范围尺度,为之心折,”
评: ‘...尺度之大,让人晕眩’
[br]
原文:'she created an imaginative, hermetic world of her own to live in'
译:“创造出一个自成一体的隐秘世界。”
评: ‘她以想象力创造出一个属于她一个人、隔绝于世的小世界’
[br]
原文:'‘For him, that was a phase, you know?’ she said wryly. '
译:“。“对他来说,这只是一个阶段,你明白吧?”她语带讽刺”
评: ‘调侃地/诙谐地’
[br]
原文:'to rest between hours of observing. '
译:“看上几小时以后休息。”
评: ‘在长达数小时的观测之间休息... ’
[br]
原文:'‘Because it is not so much what it is but the journey it took to get here.’'
译:“,“不是因为它本身,而是月球之旅。””
评: ‘...,而是它到达地球的旅程有多长’
[br]
原文:'‘I breathe it, imagine it every day of my life, and I dream about it at night,’ '
译:“我在人生的每一个白天呼吸和想象着探险之旅,夜晚做着探险的梦。””
评: ‘我每天呼吸的是它,想象的是它,夜里梦的也是它 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'a Ph.D. in astrophysics. ‘This is his thing,’ she told me. ‘When he has nothing to do, he plays with Einstein’s equations.’ '
译:“他就是这么厉害,没事的时候会琢磨爱因斯坦的方程式”,”
评: ‘这是他的特别爱好,... ’
[br]
原文:'‘That was it – it took us, you know?’ '
译:“感觉像是——我们俩都被击中了,你明白吗?””
评: ‘就这么简单 —— 我们两个都挣都没挣扎... ’
[br]
原文:'‘The two of us had to take a very big leap of faith,’ '
译:“那是我俩信心的一次飞跃”,”
评: ‘...我们全凭信仰的一次豪赌。 ’
[br]
原文:'She tilts her head to one side and doesn’t move for a long time. '
译:“她转过头去,很久都没有动,”
评: ‘她侧着头... ’
[br]
原文:'Even with that distance, that robotic mediation, she said, ‘the love story started’, '
译:“看到的是机器人的动作,她也觉得:“爱情故事开始了……”
评: ‘,尽管图像/信息是靠机器人中转来的,... 我就是一见钟情’
[br]
原文:'ephemeral points of fierce white light. '
译:“强烈的白色光点明灭不定”
评: ‘强烈的白色光点稍纵即逝’
[br]
原文:'Life is less easy to locate here. '
译:“生命想要在此落脚可不那么容易。”
评: ‘想在这里找到生命可不容易... ’
[br]
原文:'I stare up, frozen, and frozen in wonderment.'
译:“我抬头凝望,惊叹不已,而身体已经冻僵。”
评: ‘...,被惊得冻住了,身体也已冻僵。’
[br]
原文:'Cabrol has always been drawn to both volcanoes and lakes, to fire and water. They’re completely opposite, she says, ‘but if they work synergistically together, '
译:“火山与湖、水与火,这两个完全的极端一直深深吸引着卡布罗尔,她说:“如果二者协同作用,”
评: ‘火山与湖、水与火,这些组合一直深深吸引着卡布罗尔。她提到虽然它们是完全相反的极端,“如果二者协同作用, ’
[br]
原文:'For that very moment, you understand everything. And there is nothing to understand.’ '
译:“因为就在那一刻,一切如此分明,却又没有什么需要了解。””
评: ‘... ,你理解了一切,而并没有什么需要去理解。’
[br]
原文:'“Is it going to be all today?! Is there anything yet you can?!” '
译:“这就是一切吗?!你还有什么本事?”“”
评: ‘你今天完事了没有?!... ’
[br]
原文:'like delicate pine cones or the brittle pages of old books left in the sun.'
译:“看起来像干脆的松塔,或是阳光下晾晒的旧书脆薄的纸页。”
评: ‘看起来像易碎的松果,或是受阳光暴晒的旧书脆薄的纸页。 ’
[br]
原文:'‘It will survive whatever we throw at it. '
译:“不管我们抛给它什么,它都能够存续。”
评: ‘不管我们给它制造什么麻烦,... ’
[br]
原文:'but these miraged recollections were instantly telescoped and pleated together like a pack of cards all of the same suit flicked through with a thumb.'
译:“然而这些幻觉中的回忆被迅速压缩皱褶,就像拇指翻过一套同花色的扑克牌。”
评: ‘... 挤压成略微错开的一叠’ ?
[br]
原文:'As if I could free another reality by rubbing corners of air together like trying to open a recalcitrant plastic bag. '
译:“就好像试图揭开一个难弄的塑料袋”
评: ‘...捻开 ’
[br]
原文:'to ask questions of God '
译:“提出神灵的问题,”
评: ‘对神灵提问,... ’
[br]
原文:'also whether any of us should stay in camp at all.'
译:“也要决定是否该让某个队员留守营地。”
评: ‘... 能否让任何人呆在营地’
[br]
原文:'It’s been a long time since I’ve had none of the tools I need to judge a situation.'
译:“时间无比漫长,因为我没有任何工具用以判断形势。”
评: ‘很久以来,这是我第一次不能借助任何工具判断形势。 ’
[br]
原文:'It has bumbled its way on to my hand and rests there, quivering. '
译:“它笨拙地飞到我的手上,停下休息,微微颤动。”
评: ‘它误撞到我手上,... ’
-------------------
15. Hares / 野兔
[br]
原文:'So perfectly did this reading of their behaviour correspond with our societal mores, it had the force of absolute truth.'
译:“对野兔行为的这种解读如此契合我们社会的习俗,几乎成了强势的绝对真理。”
评: ‘... ,它拥有绝对真理的权威。’
[br]
原文:'The hares circling the fights, I thought, were does, carefully assessing the pugilists’ prowess,'
译:“我以为是雄兔的那几只野兔转着圈搏斗,小心地估量着其他拳击手的勇猛程度,”
评: ‘我以为围观搏斗的那几只野兔是雌兔,正在仔细地评估那些拳击手的勇猛程度 ’ (根据她起初错误的解读吧。)
[br]
原文:'They rise up and fight them off, an animal analogue to a form of violence just as much a feature of our society, '
译:“这种动物行为可类比为我们社会的某种暴力形式或特有现象,”
评: ‘这种动物行为可类比人类社会的某种暴力形式,而且这种暴力形式也是我们社会的一种特色’
[br]
原文:'you are sure must be a rock sunk in winter cereal'
译:“你还以为是冬麦田里石头压出的凹陷,”
评: ‘...一块陷进冬麦田里的石头 ’
[br]
原文:'so our firm ideas about spring belie what is happening to it.'
译:“同样,我们关于春天的固定看法也和实际的春天不符。”
评: ‘...和在春天发生的实际情况不符 ’
------------------
16. Lost, But Catching Up / 迷途的狗
[br]
原文:'Fate saw fit to make me allergic to horses, dogs and foxes. '
译:“命中注定,我对马、狗和狐狸过敏。”
评: ‘命运一早决定了我合适对... ’
[br]
原文:'I’ve lost the ability to concentrate on anything other than fighting for breath.'
译:“我无法再专注于任何东西,只能拼命呼吸。”
评: ‘除了苦苦地维持呼吸,我无法专注于任何别的事。’
[br]
原文:'So – quite apart from my moral qualms – it’s unsurprising that I’ve never ridden to hounds.'
译:“所以,我从来不曾接近猎犬也就不足为奇,此外还有道德疑虑。”
评: ‘所以,就算撇开道德上的顾虑不谈,我从来不曾参与过猎犬捕狐也不足为奇’
[br]
原文:'it seemed clear that the Hunt was drawing the covert at Ham Farm, '
译:“此时也明白捕猎队伍正向火腿农场的矮树林行进,”
评: ‘捕猎队伍在火腿农场的矮树林里放出猎犬,等它们撵出狐狸 ’
[br]
原文:' just across the road and away. '
译:“位置远离公路。”
评: ‘在公路另一边向远处延申’
[br]
原文:'The asphalt at my toes was running with water, '
译:“我脚趾边的沥青和雨水齐流,”
评: ‘我脚趾边的沥青地面上雨水横流,’
[br]
原文:'But being alone made him the type of all hounds that ever existed. '
译:“但是独自行进的它仿佛集中了世间所有猎犬的力量。”
评: ‘但是它的孑然一身也让它成为了世间、历来所有猎犬的代表。 ’
---------------------
17. Swan Upping / 数天鹅
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/spencer-swan-upping-at-cookham-t00525
[br]
原文:'a fretted iron bridge'
译:“一座铁桥的栏杆有圆形回纹装饰;”
评: ‘一座有铁艺栏杆的桥’
[br]
原文:'his familiar childhood landscape coursing with new and ominous strangeness.'
译:“他熟悉的童年风景所对接的新东西陌生且不祥。”
评: ‘...风景里注入了陌生且不祥的新东西’
[br]
原文:'The past was always conjured in Brexiteers’ dreams of the future, '
译:“脱欧派在对未来的幻梦中总有往昔的幽魂,”
评: ‘...对未来的梦想中总是召唤往昔’
[br]
原文:'faceless European Union bureaucrats,'
译:“无耻的欧盟官僚、”
评: ‘面目模糊的’
[br]
原文:'The quaintness of these conjured shibboleths was no accident: '
译:“这些无中生有的错误观点好像老调重弹,这并非偶然,”
评: ‘这些无中生有的故事里区分你我的风俗都是老掉牙的’
[br]
原文:'its evocation of deep English history, '
译:“人们对英国悠久历史的缅怀”
评: ‘它唤起久远的英国历史’ ?
[br]
原文:'Exquisitely inked manuscript records of these marks still exist: lines and crosses scribed across diagrammatic beaks.'
译:“今天依然保存着精细的墨色手绘原稿,鸟喙上划着线条和十字。”
评: ‘这些标志被记录在精细的墨色手绘原稿上,至今保存。平面示意图中的那些鸟喙上划着线条和十字。 ’
[br]
原文:'killing a swan still generates unexamined outrage: '
译:“杀死一只天鹅依然会引发不可遏制的愤怒”
评: ‘...不假思索的的愤怒 ’
[br]
原文:'is so commonly understood in Britain – emblems of the monarchy, and by extension the nation – that these birds have long been counters in the game of what is us and what is not. '
译:“人们普遍了解这种象征意义,因此这些鸟很久以来都是界定我们身份的游戏筹码。”
评: ‘...,由此在界定我们身份的游戏中,这些鸟历来是用来计分的。’
[br]
原文:'claimed that swans in the royal parks were killed and skinned and their remains tied to trees by Jewish feather traders.'
译:“皇家公园里的天鹅被犹太羽毛商杀死剥皮。”
评: +‘...,尸体被捆在树上。’
[br]
原文:'He thinks the culprits are as likely to be British as they are to be immigrants.'
译:“他认为罪犯既可能是难民,也可能是英国人自己。”
评: ‘...这些可能是难民干的,也很可能是英国人自己干的。’
[br]
原文:'It is just nice to have something that . . . What’s the word? Sustains?’ She shook her head at the tide of recent history'
译:“这种传统实在美好……有个词是怎么说的?维系?” 她摇着头说起近来的历史,”
评: ‘能够有……那词怎么说?维系?我们的东西可真好。“她对近来的历史潮流不住摇头,’
[br]
原文:'I clambered into the press boat, an elegant wooden umpire launch,'
译:“我登上媒体船,领头木船优雅地离岸下水,”
评: ‘...,一艘平时供赛船裁判用的优雅的木船’
[br]
原文:'into a shrinking patch of water.'
译:“操纵小船把天鹅围在一片浅水区。”
评: ‘...围在越来越小的一片水域’
[br]
原文:'The male swan raised his wings heraldically, defensively,'
译:“雄天鹅像个传令官,防卫地展开双翅,”
评: ‘雄天鹅防卫地展开双翅,像纹章里画的那样’
[br]
原文:'He thought it might have been a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty, years old.'
译:“在他眼里那根天鹅钩足足有一百年,甚至一百五十年的历史。”
评: ‘他觉得那根天鹅钩可能足足有... ’
[br]
原文:'The bird was a strange coincidence of solidity and air. '
译:“这只鸟是固体和气体的一种奇异的并存。”
评: ‘... 是密实和空灵的奇异巧合’
[br]
原文:'constellations of tiny fry darted through sunlit weeds. '
译:“极小的鱼苗游窜在阳光照亮的水草间,”
评: ‘...,像一群群星座’
[br]
原文:'sleek pleasure craft resembling 1920s Daimlers.'
译:“还有像上世纪二十年代的戴姆勒汽车的豪华游艇。”
评: ‘...戴姆勒汽车那样油光水滑的’
[br]
原文:'It was where the stories were written that taught me what it was to be English. '
译:“这些故事的背景教给我身为英格兰人意味着什么。”
评: ‘那些教给我身为英格兰人意味着什么的故事就设在这里。... ’ (???)
[br]
原文:'turned into a patriotic tale of plucky English derring-do.'
译:“成为宣扬英雄事迹的爱国故事。”
评: ‘...宣扬英国人无畏强敌胆量过人的爱国故事’ plucky是那种很朴实的勇敢,感觉有点像‘打不死的小强’?
[br]
原文:'what you read from the banks as you pass is part of what you choose to believe about your nation and who you are.'
译:“你从河岸经过,对国家和身份获得的理解是你选择相信的部分。”
评: ‘你所认定的对国家、对自身的定义,是你选择去相信的东西,而你从所经河岸解读出的内容,是此中的一部分。 ’
[br]
原文:'You might see only Dunkirk boats and lines in the air carved by ghostly Spitfires. '
译:“幽灵般的喷火式战斗机在空中划出的线条,”
评: ‘喷火战斗机幽灵... ’
[br]
原文:'choose to see only the things that speak to us of the way we are told the world should be, '
译:“想到我们选择只看那些告诉我们世界应当如何的事物,”
评: ‘我们听从别人告诉我们世界应当如何,并选择只看那些与之口径统一的事物,’
[br]
原文:'if swan upping could offer us something other than these exclusionist dreams of a sacrosanct Englishness deep-rooted in an imagined past. '
译:“神圣英国的排外主义梦想深植于想象中的往昔,除此之外,数天鹅是否能为我们提供其他的东西。”
评: ‘数天鹅给养一些人深植于想象中的往昔的排外主义梦想,好像有一个神圣不容亵渎的英国,但除此之外,... ’
[br]
原文:'These are craft knowledges, ones learned by apprenticeship, not from books, and universal in the very nature of their specificity. '
译:“这些是学徒学到的手工技艺,并非书本知识,正因为它性质特殊才具有一种普适性。”
评: ‘这些是手工技艺,通过学徒训练学到的,而不是通过书本,而正因为其具体及专属性,... ’
[br]
原文:'the most recondite of traditions'
译:“在最隐秘的传统中”
评: ‘最冷门晦涩的 ’
--------------------
18. Nestboxes / 巢箱
[br]
原文:'I bought these nestboxes to help birds in trouble. But only partly.'
译:“但是作用恐怕有限。”
评: ‘但那只是我动机的一部分。’ (后面讲的是买巢箱的另一部分是为了她自己。)
[br]
原文:'Inside, a blackout curtain kept the nest dark. After school, my brother and I would creep inside,'
译:“巢箱里面有一片遮光帘布,让巢穴保持黑暗。”
评: ‘... ’ 有帘布的应该是花园棚屋,所以后一句小孩子可以钻进去。
[br]
原文:'who recommend plain wooden ones. '
译:“他们推荐普通的木制品。”
评: ‘不上色的/不加装饰’
[br]
原文:'Making them cute and homely raises the spectre of anthropomorphism, something still anathema to bird protection organisations'
译:“可爱的家常款巢箱会让拟人论的幽魂重现,这种论调依然为鸟类保护组织所排斥,”
评: ‘巢箱做得可爱温馨会招来拟人倾向,这种把人类特性套用到动物身上的做法依然是让鸟类保护组织避之不及的。’
[br]
原文:'There’s a kind of performative largesse about the utilitarian ugliness of plain nestboxes in gardens, whereas decorative ones bespeak delight for people too.'
译:“可惜花园里朴素的巢箱透着实用主义的丑陋,似乎有种表演性质的施舍,装饰性的巢箱却让人们同怀喜悦之情。”
评: ‘极简的巢箱带有实用主义的丑陋,似乎在表演慷慨施舍,装饰性的巢箱却表明了它也是为了给人们带来喜悦。’
------------------------
19. Deer in the Headlights / 车灯下的鹿
[br]
原文:'For a while the road doesn’t seem real. Then it does, almost violently so'
译:“过后却又真实得令人震撼”
评: ‘... 真实得近乎暴力’
[br]
原文:'When a country is hurting it so often grasps for ideas of itself in a longed-for past'
译:“国家处于困境时,总想从曾经荣耀的往昔提取身份的意义。”
评: ‘...,往往想从追忆中的往昔里抓获/抓到一些关于自身的理念/信念。’
[br]
原文:'paragons of strength bound entire into unshakeable courses of action by virtue of being what they were.'
译:“它们是力量的典范,与不可撼动的行为方式完全绑定。”
评: ‘...,被自身的性质与不可撼动的行为方式完全绑定’ ?
[br]
原文:'In this tradition they’re slippery, spooky beings in possession of the deepest spiritual significance'
译:“在这个传统中,鹿是一种深具灵性的生物,难以捉摸,易受惊扰,”
评: ‘... 一种难以捉摸,幽灵般可怖的动物,是灵性的深刻象征。’
[br]
原文:'I moved closer and was treated to more incomprehensibility; a sweeping arc of something like upraised bone, something skeletal behind the leaves, '
译:“枝叶间有一道弯弧状的东西,好像隆起的骨头,似乎是一具骸骨,”
评: ‘...,好像是翘起来的骨头,纤瘦嶙峋’
[br]
原文:'I wish there was more magic in the world. And then the deer have appeared to say, Here it is.'
译:“但愿这世上有更多的神奇。而鹿的出现就像是神奇登场。”
评: ‘...然后鹿出现了,说,你要的神奇来了。’
[br]
原文:'I saw a deer in the road in front of me, stark and tense with shock, and then the deer lofted itself into the air, bright and somehow motionless, like the etiolated horses with outstretched legs in eighteenth-century hunting prints.'
译:“看到前方路面有一只鹿。它受到惊吓,呆滞又紧张,接着它腾空跃起,活力勃发,却又似乎是静止的,好像十八世纪狩猎题材的版画上那些伸出双腿的虚弱的马。”
评: ‘...受到惊吓,突兀而僵硬地站着,接着它腾空跃起,熠熠发光,又似乎是静止的,好像十八世纪狩猎题材的版画上那些四腿舒展、毛色苍白的马。’
[br]
原文:'What I remember most about that endless moment apart from the blind heat of it was '
译:“这漫长的一瞬间令人震动,此外我最记得”
评: ‘除了那茫然的灼热,这漫长的一瞬间中我最记得 ’
[br]
原文:'cross from their territory into our own, and with such brute physicality. '
译:“从它们的领地穿越到我们的领地,实打实的躯体,躲避不及。”
评: ‘... ,以明晃晃的血肉之躯’
[br]
原文:'DVCs on screen cast a fierce, traumatic light on the innermost hearts of the characters with the bad luck to experience them.'
译:“荧屏上这些角色遭遇了如此噩运,DVC事故在他们的内心世界投下一道强光,他们深受创伤。”
评: ‘对荧屏上不幸遭遇DVC的角色,这些事故重创他们,向他们的内心最深处投下一道强光,’
[br]
原文:'A deer in the road is part of the wager we all make and do our best to forget when we drive, as we make our way through life. '
译:“开车时我们尽力忘却这回事,就这样摸索前行,度过一生。”
评: ‘我们一天天地度日,开车时尽力忘却这回事。’
[br]
原文:'they speak of the collision as an event that does not admit the secular, the random, the rational.'
译:“他们说起撞车,就像是说起一个不承认世俗、偶然和理性的事件。”
评: ‘... 与世俗、偶然和理性完全绝缘的事件。’
[br]
原文:'glowing like a goddamned unicorn,'
译:“闪耀着,就像一头遭天谴的独角兽,”
评: ‘...就像一头该死的独角兽’ 语气词吧?
[br]
原文:'says the DVC, cutting through all that is quotidian, cutting it all away. '
译:“它割穿所有的庸常日子,将其全部割下。“”
评: ‘...,全部割去 ’
[br]
原文:'And because everything you see is ceaselessly pulled towards and under you, it’s easy to fall prey to the illusion that you are stationary and the world is flowing into you.'
译:“很容易产生一种幻觉,觉得你恒定不动,世界正向你奔涌而来,因为眼前的一切事物都在无休无止地靠近你,进入你的下方。”
评: ‘因为眼前的一切都被无休无止地拉近你,拉入你的轮下,你很容易陷入一种幻觉,觉得自己恒定不动,世界正奔流进你的怀抱 ’
[br]
原文:'of slicks of oil printed with hoofmarks,'
译:“汽油光滑的表面印着鹿蹄痕迹,”
评: ‘浮油表面... ’
[br]
原文:'the accidental coincidence of a deer with an offside fender. '
译:“比一只鹿和越位的汽车”
评: ‘...和驾座侧的保险杠’
[br]
原文:'with deer bursting into view so unexpectedly they seem ghostly artefacts on the screen'
译:“简直像是屏幕上幽灵般的人造物”
评: ‘... 屏幕上幽灵般的压缩失真效果’
[br]
原文:'spin balletically away in parabolae of antlers and flesh and bone. '
译:“或是以芭蕾舞般的动作翻到一侧,划出鹿角、血肉和骨头的抛物线。”
评: ‘或是跳芭蕾舞似的旋转到一侧’
[br]
原文:'tumbling end over end, limp and pathetic. '
译:“软弱又可怜”
评: ‘可怜地全无生机/瘫软又可怜 ’
[br]
原文:'I expect them to be grim and they are.'
译:“我以为会读到满腹担忧的评论,然而没有。”
评: ‘我想那些评论会很恶劣/糟心/不堪,我想对了’
[br]
原文:'Besides, inappropriate laughter is not an unusual response to emotional difficulty.'
译:“此外,不合时宜的发笑是情感表达困难时较为常见的反应。”
评: ‘... 是遇到负面情感时并不少见的反应’
[br]
原文:'Deer–vehicle collisions have gripped me so tightly because they are my own attitude to deer writ large and covered in blood and tattered fur and broken glass:'
译:“我为这些事故揪心不已,因为那覆满鲜血、破损的毛皮和碎玻璃的场面,表明的正是我对鹿的态度。”
评: ‘... ,是因为那以粗大字号写出了我对鹿的态度,并覆满鲜血、破损的毛皮和碎玻璃’
-------------------
20. The Falcon and the Tower / 游隼与高塔
[br]
原文:'a giant’s playset of brutal turbine halls facing the shining sands.'
译:“涡轮大厅像一个巨人的玩具组合,野蛮地直面着闪亮的沙滩。”
评: ‘线条粗犷的涡轮大厅像一套巨人的积木,直面闪亮的沙滩。 ’
[br]
原文:'He shakes his feathers into place and sits looking towards the estuary, flat-headed, an inverted bullet shape black against the sky.'
译:“坐在那里注视着河口,平齐的头顶像一颗倒置的子弹,黑色轮廓映衬着天空。”
评: ‘... 头顶平齐,天空的映衬下,黑色轮廓像一颗倒置的子弹。’ 感觉是整个身体是子弹形
[br]
原文:'the barred feathers of his chest, his black hood, a faint chromatic fringe ghosting him with suggestions of dust and rainbows.'
译:“胸部布满斑点的羽毛,黑色的头部,全身似有一道淡淡的彩色镶边,点燃着灰尘和虹彩。”
评: ‘胸部羽毛有条纹,黑色的头顶,全身有一道弱不可辨的彩色镶边,仿佛隐约自带灰尘和虹彩。’
[br]
原文:'an assumption that seems always one step towards turning our back on the natural world, abandoning it as something disappearing or already lost.'
译:“这种臆断再往前一步就是对自然界置之不理,把它当成正在消失或者已经消失的东西抛弃。”
评: ‘我总觉得这种臆断是向着对自然界置之不理走近了一步,... ’
[br]
原文:'The mountains and waterfall gorges where they chose to nest were sublime sites'
译:“它们选择营巢的山峰和瀑布高峡是气势恢宏的所在,”
评: ‘... 可让人们精神升华的去处’ ??
[br]
原文:'Falcons haunt landscapes that speak to us of mortality: mountains, by virtue of their eternity; '
译:“游隼出没于这片向我们昭示死亡的景观,山川亘古不变,”
评: ‘游隼出没于一些向我们昭示死亡的景观:山川以之亘古不变, ’
[br]
原文:'this is not a distant world, but one alongside you, a place of transient and graceful refuge. '
译:“而是一个你身边的世界,一个短暂而从容的避难处。”
评: ‘...平行世界, ’ ??
[br]
原文:'wincing at the difficulty of focusing them with frozen hands. '
译:“双手僵硬,想要瞄准太难了,脸上的肌肉也在抽紧。”
评: ‘为冻僵的手不听使唤咧嘴——要瞄准太难了’
[br]
原文:'It can’t have seen her. But she has seen it.'
译:“她不可能看见这只鸽子,但她确实看见了。”
评: ‘鸽子肯定没看见她,但她看到它了。’
[br]
原文:'Matters of life and death and a sense of our place in the world tied fast together in a shiver of wings across a scrap of winter sky.'
译:“生死之事,以及我们在世间的位置,这两种体会在颤抖的鸟翼划过冬日天空的这一瞬紧紧相系。”
评: ‘...这两种体会被划过冬日一小片天空的颤抖鸟翼紧紧相系’ ?
------------------
21. Vesper Flights / 黄昏飞行
[br]
原文:'as if it were an entity from an alternate universe whose senses couldn’t quite map on to our phenomenal world. '
译:“它的感觉无法投射在我们的物质世界,”
评: ‘...感官无法在我们所能感知的世界里找到很合适的对应’
[br]
原文:'It had something of the power of incantation, but it did not seem a compulsion, and it was not a prayer.'
译:“它多少有点咒语的力量,却又不是强迫症,也不是一种祈祷。”
评: ‘...神秘仪式的力量,但不像是出于强迫症,... ’ 文后以‘仪式’代it,这里也比‘咒语’好用吧,更强调是重复做的行为,和后面的‘强迫症’连接得上。
[br]
原文:'Listing them one by one built imaginative sanctuary between walls of unknowing knowns. '
译:“将它们一一列出,就是在未知的明确高墙之间搭建虚构的避难所。”
评: ‘...,就是把那些对我们一无所知的已知垒成高墙,在那搭建虚构的避难所。’ 联系前面here was so much up there above me, so much below, so many places and states that were implacable, unreachable, entirely uninterested in human affairs. ?
[br]
原文:'During the war, swifts in Denmark and Italy grabbed chaff, reflective scraps of tinfoil dropped from aircraft to confuse enemy radar, flashing and twirling as it fell. '
译:“飞机上飘落以迷惑敌方雷达的谷糠和反光锡纸碎片,它们随着落下的碎片轻掠回旋。”
评: ‘飞机上撒落俗名‘麸皮’的反光锡纸碎片,它们飘落时回旋闪亮,能迷惑敌方雷达。’
[br]
原文:'and one swift was pulled dead from the engine after the flight returned to earth. '
译:“在飞机降落地面后,从发动机上直接拿下一只雨燕。”
评: ‘... ,从发动机里取出了一只雨燕的尸体。’
[br]
原文:'and at the same time they can calibrate their magnetic compasses, getting their bearings according to the light polarisation patterns that are strongest and clearest in twilit skies. '
译:“同时还可以校准它们的磁罗盘,根据在光线微弱的空中最强且最清楚的偏振光模式来确定方位。”
评: ‘... ,再者,光线微弱的空中偏振光最强最清楚,亦可根据它来确定方位’
[br]
原文:'in the face of clouds that sit like dark rubble on our own horizon.'
译:“在深黑砾石般的浓云布满我们自己的地平线时,”
评: ‘浓云踞伏 ’
------------------
22 In Spight of Prisons / 尽管身陷囹圄
[br]
原文:'things both sublime and ridiculous: half intimations of remote stellar distance and half waggling beetle bums.'
译:“集非凡和滑稽于一身的东西,一半暗示着遥远的星际距离,一半晃动着甲虫的屁股。”
评: ‘... ,一半令人联想到浩渺的星际,一半是甲虫们晃动的屁股’
[br]
原文:'the ‘living lamps’ of Marvell’s Mower to the Glow-Worms, courteous beasts who guide wanderers home to safety.'
译:“也是安德鲁·马维尔《割草机致萤火虫》一诗中指引流浪者安全回家的文雅有礼的生灵。”
评: ‘...诗中的‘有生命的灯盏’,指引流浪者安全回家的文雅有礼的生灵 ’
[br]
原文:'find ways to reconnect people to a natural world more commonly encountered on television and video than in its living reality. '
译:“很难找到多少办法让人们和自然界重新建立联系,自然总在电视和视频中出现,却不是活生生的现实。”
评: ‘... ,自然更多是在电视和视频中出现,却不是活跃在现实中’ ?
-----------------------
23 Sun Birds and Cashmere Spheres / 太阳鸟和开司米球
[br]
原文:'They were legendary birds. '
译:“金黄鹂是传说中的鸟,”
评: ‘金黄鹂是鸟中的传奇’
[br]
原文:'I began to wonder if they could throw their voices.'
译:“我开始好奇它们的叫声是否来自别处。”
评: ‘...它们是否会特技,让叫声好像来自别处 ’
[br]
原文:'where they nested in trees in the Polders just like these. '
译:“它们就在类似此地的区域开辟家园,在树上营巢。”
评: ‘...在填海造田区域安家,在同一树种上营巢’
[br]
原文:'making the fens obliquely glorious with their song.'
译:“用歌声为东部的沼泽地增添隐约的荣耀。”
评: ‘用歌声给东部的沼泽地间接地营造了盛景’ ??
[br]
原文:'Unlike deserts and open water, they’re not inimical to supporting human life except in a very literal sense. '
译:“与沙漠和开阔水域不同,芦苇地的环境并非不利于人类生存,只是情况复杂。”
评: ‘... 芦苇地的环境并非让人类无法立足,除了字面意义上的立足。’ ?
[br]
原文:'and landed to catch like little spherical burrs in the reeds right in front of me. '
译:“在苇丛中着陆,恰好落在我面前。”
评: ‘恰好在我面前的苇丛中着陆,像一些小小的圆形苍耳 ’
[br]
原文:'the way that papery burnet moth cocoons adhere to stems of grass. '
译:“就像斑蛾纸质的茧附着在草茎上。”
评: ‘...如纸制的茧’
[br]
原文:'The telescope’s focus was slightly out for my shortsighted eyes, so it required physical effort to keep what I saw from derealising back into nonsense.'
译:“望远镜的焦点稍微有点偏离我的近视眼,所以需要刻意保持稳定,好让我看到的东西不会化为乌有。”
评: ‘对我的近视眼的来说,望远镜的焦点稍微有点偏离,所以维持我观看到的东西,不让它虚化成无意义的一团,是得耗力气的事。’
[br]
原文:'After thinking this, there was no question but that we needed to go into the wood and look for the chicks that might be underneath the tree.'
译:“想到这里,我们不再有疑问,必须走到林中寻找可能坠落树下的幼鸟。”
评: ‘... 我们不再迟疑,...’
[br]
原文:'Wade through and be damned.'
译:“费力跋涉过去就好。”
评: +‘...不管三七二十一 ’
[br]
原文:' It felt like river caving, tilting our chins upward to the foot and a half of air between water and rock.'
译:“这感觉就像河畔的洞穴探险,我们下巴斜倾,对着水和岩石之间那一英尺半的空间。”
评: ‘... 我们抬着下巴,以持续暴露在水和岩石之间那一英尺半的空气中。’
[br]
原文:'because I saw him only in stamped-out sections, small jigsaw pieces of a bird, but moving ones, animated mutoscope views. '
译:“因为此前只在现已绝迹的地区瞥见拼图碎片似的零散影踪,好像早期手摇动画机播放的移动景象,”
评: ‘因为他身体大部分都被遮住了,只能瞥见拼图碎片似的零散部分,但是会动,好像早期手摇动画机播放的画面。’
---------------------
24 The Observatory / 观测站
[br]
原文:'her snaky neck, black eye, her blank hauteur'
译:“弯曲的脖颈,黑色的眼睛,一派傲慢。”
评: ‘...目中无人的/漠然的傲慢 ’
[br]
原文:'Age has rendered them nicotine-yellow so they resemble the live birds outside the way smoked kippers resemble live herring.'
译:“里面陈列着天鹅标本,岁月为它染上烟碱黄,看起来更像外面的活鸟,类似于烟熏鲱鱼与活鲱鱼的关系。”
评: ‘...染上烟碱黄,让它与外面的活鸟的相似,类似于烟熏鲱鱼与活鲱鱼的关系。’
[br]
原文:'There are no shadows anywhere out there except in the moving lines between ripples that chase themselves across miles of shallow water.'
译:“水上没有一丝阴影,只有涟漪波动的线条,在数英里的浅水上互相追逐。”
评: ‘...没有一丝阴影,除了... ’
[br]
原文:'The lake is mercury-bright and patterned with thousands of birds as far as the eye can see:'
译:“湖面像水银一般闪亮,目之所及的地方足有上千只鸟,”
评: ‘...,目之所及的地方密缀着上千只鸟 ’
[br]
原文:'These aren’t the familiar mute swans of town parks and lakes, not the species that came up to me and made its presence known. '
译:“这些天鹅不是城市公园和湖泊常见的疣鼻天鹅,那天向我走来显示存在感的才是。”
评: ‘...疣鼻天鹅,不是那天向我走来引起我注意的那种’
[br]
原文:'who has come into the observatory to talk with us before the evening feed. '
译:“他到观察站来准备晚上的喂食,跟我们聊起来。”
评: ‘在晚上喂食之前,他到观察站来跟我们聊起来’
[br]
原文:'Every few seconds comes a carillon of new voices. The swans are coming home to roost in little family groups'
译:“每隔几秒钟,又一阵钟琴般的声音响起来。天鹅回到这里的家,以小家庭的集体结伴休息。”
评: ‘...,就有一组新的钟琴声降临。... ’
---------------------
25 Wicken / 威肯沼泽
[br]
原文:'a barn owl floated past us, '
译:“一只仓鸮掠过我们的头顶,”
评: ‘...飘着掠过’ ?
[br]
原文:'still haunted by my niece’s reasonable inability to understand that the life that is here was once everywhere. '
译:“心里仍在思忖小侄女的问题,她无法理解这里的生命曾经遍布各地,这种疑惑合乎情理,”
评: ‘小侄女合乎情理的困惑在我心中挥之不去,我很能理解她为何无法理解这里的生命曾经到处都是’
[br]
原文:'Fen landscapes are unstable places where familiar categories of water and land are disconcertingly confused, and they feel temporally unstable, too, rich with a sense of their layered ages. .'
译:“沼泽地的存在并不稳定,水和陆地的习惯分类被打乱。时间线也让人觉得不稳定,多少个世纪的层叠让它们具有极为丰富的特质,”
评: ‘沼泽地是一种不稳定的地形,扰乱了我们惯有的对水和陆地的分类。它的时间属性也让人觉得不稳定,年份层叠得繁博丰厚’
[br]
原文:'The wildlife and vegetation around me here are not frozen remnants of another time'
译:“我四周的野生动物和植被并非冻结在另一段时间中的残遗,”
评: ‘...并非被冻结的、来自早先时间的残遗,’
[br]
原文:'I learned to stop needing to see. '
译:“我学会了不刻意观看,学会了聆听,”
评: ‘我学会了不依靠观看,... ’
------------------
26 Storm / 暴雨
[br]
原文:'I could see the small crosses that were transatlantic jets steering their courses around the storm’s perimeter. '
译:“但能看到那些小小的十字,跨越大西洋的喷气式飞机,正绕开暴雨的周边驾驭航线。”
评: ‘但能看到一些小小的十字,那是跨越大西洋的喷气式飞机,正改变航线绕开暴雨的周边。’
[br]
原文:'and small turquoise pools of clear sky. '
译:“但也有小片小片松石蓝的晴空。”
评: ‘... 小洼/一汪’
[br]
原文:'Eventually lightning leaps across these differentials between the cloud’s top, its base and the ground, casting out shockwaves of superheated air that make the sound of thunder. ... '
译:“最终,闪电跃过云顶、云底和地面之间这些不同的区域,射穿过热空气的冲击波,雷声轰然迸响。”
评: ‘... 之间的电压差,投掷出过热空气形成的冲击波,造成轰然迸响的雷声’
[br]
原文:'Summer storms conjure distance and time but conjure, too, all the things that come towards us over which we have no control.'
译:“夏天的暴雨变幻了距离和时间,却也变幻出所有那些向我们袭来,令我们无法控制的东西。”
评: ‘...唤起我们对距离和时间的意识/营造...感知,却也让我们想起所有那些我们遭遇到的,全不受我们控制的事物’
[br]
原文:'when storm light makes luminous all roofs and fields and strands black silhouettes of trees on the horizon. '
译:“截开地平线上树木的黑色剪影,”
评: ‘...,让地平线上树木看起来孤零零的/孤立无援/形单影只/’
[br]
原文:'This is the storm as expectation. '
译:“这是期待中的暴雨,”
评: ‘这里的暴雨指代期待... ’
[br]
原文:'Waiting for hope, stranded in that strange light that stills our hearts before the storm of history.'
译:“等待希望——它困在那道令我们心跳静止的奇异的闪电光里,在历史的风暴来袭之前。”
评: ‘...它被孤零零地困在那道令我们心跳静止的奇异的闪电光里 ’ 呼应前面一句树木剪影
---------------------
27. Murmurations / 椋鸟群飞
[br]
原文:'because we were all to look skyward back then, for history had brought us wings and borders would fade into obsolescence. '
译:“因为那个年代我们都会仰望天空,历史已经为我们带来了翅膀,而边界将会湮灭消亡。”
评: ‘因为到那时我们都会往天际看了,... ’
[br]
原文:'a thousand shortwave radios tuning between circus stations out east, across the Baltic from whence they came.'
译:“一千个短波电台在东部的环形车站之间调频,直抵它们的来处——波罗的海。”
评: ‘一千台短波收音机在东部的主题电台之间调频, ... ’
[br]
原文:'Bunks and camps spooled out again in post-war ornithology. He christened it the principle of pecking distance.'
译:“铺位和营地这样的用语又出现在战后的鸟类学研究中。彼得将其正式命名为“啄序原则”。”
评: ‘...啄距原则 ’
[br]
原文:'And before that, after the First World War had made caustic maps of Flanders fields and woods, built no man’s land, built fields of mines and wire and ingraved trenches of men and filthy water, a man called Henry Eliot Howard decided that birds held territories too. '
译:“是在第一次世界大战中绘制了佛兰德斯田野和林地的焦散效果图,打造了无人区,布下雷区,竖起铁丝网,深挖的战壕里容纳着士兵和污水,此后,一个名叫亨利·艾略特·霍华德的男人认为鸟儿也有自己的领地范围。”
评: ‘...竖起铁丝网,镌刻下盛着士兵和污水的战壕’ 保留排比好一点点? 查到caustic maps类似一种filter,是隔着水波纹看东西的效果
[br]
原文:'Perfect forms, held steady. Forms of sympathy.'
译:“完美的表格,稳稳拿住。同情心的表格。”
评: 存疑,不知道这里护照申请表格和同情心的联系
[br]
原文:'Every smudge of pencil tied myself closer to the birds and the garden. But it untied me too. It unfolded layers of other eyes'
译:“每一点铅笔笔迹都把我跟鸟儿和花园联结得更密切,但同时也松开了这种捆绑,因为它展现出不同的层次”
评: ‘... ,但这同时也是一种松绑,’ (松绑的是作者对世界的认知角度吧)
[br]
原文:'Birds were no longer to be watched. They were to be observed'
译:“鸟类不再是被注视的对象,它们将被一群目光锐利的公民科学家组成的志愿者团队密切观察。”
评: ‘鸟类不再被‘观看/观赏’,... ’
[br]
原文:'Your birds are feathered proxies, transcending human borders. '
译:“你的鸟是超越人类边界的羽翼化身”
评: ‘你的鸟是携羽的替身,超越人类之间的边界’
[br]
原文:'Doubts wheel and swarm. '
译:“我疑虑丛生,”
评: ‘疑虑纷沓而至’
[br]
原文:'The particulate beauty of unimagined hordes of lives that aren’t our own, tracked minute by minute across the sky and rising out of mystery. '
译:“未曾想象过的成群结队的生命的独特之美不属于我们,在跨越天空时被一分钟一分钟地追踪,它们的来处是未知的神秘。”
评: ‘那些不属于我们的,想象不到的诸多/成群生灵,来自未知的神秘,在分分钟钟的追踪下跨越天空,具有带颗粒感的美。’ ??
-----------------------------
28. A Cuckoo in the House / 房子里的大杜鹃
书名该是从 'Cuckoo in the nest'化出来的,而后者是‘is a figure of speech for an unwelcome intruder in a place or situation.’ https://www.quillsandquartos.com/post/a-cuckoo-in-the-nest
[br]
原文:'I wonder how satellite-tagged ‘sentinel animals’ such as these cuckoos fit into our surveillance-hungry world, '
译:“大杜鹃这样有卫星标记的“哨兵动物”将如何被纳入我们这个渴求监控的世界,”
评: ‘在我们这个对监控瘾头甚大的世界,我好奇...“哨兵动物”有什么样的位置 ’
[br]
原文:'But the BTO project spurred me to read it again, this time knowing more about Knight. '
译:“但是BTO项目促使我重读此书,对奈特有了更多了解。”
评: ‘...,而此时我已经对奈特有了更多了解。’
[br]
原文:'a writer of appalling thrillers, '
译:“惊悚小说作家,”
评: ‘写过几本烂得骇人的惊悚小说 ’
[br]
原文:'‘Kim’s Game’, tellingly named after the hero of Rudyard Kipling’s novel about a boy training to be a spy.'
译:“如何用“金姆的游戏”来磨炼观察技能,那个游戏名恰好来自鲁德亚德·吉卜林的一个小说,讲一个男孩接受训练成为间谍的故事。”
评: ‘...,意味深长的是,那个游戏名来自鲁德亚德·吉卜林的一个小说... ’
[br]
原文:'to impress your associates, and to spring surprises’. '
译:“还有如何给同事留下深刻印象,并令人称奇”
评: ‘...,如何出人意外’
[br]
原文:'First, he explained, animals might pass as tame, but not be; they might turn.'
译:“你也许会以为动物已被驯服,但事实并非如此,它们还会有变化。”
评: ‘动物可能看上去已经被驯服了,但事实并非如此,它们可能会徒然生变/叛逆...’
[br]
原文:'will accept us as well disposed towards it – '
译:“并接受我们对它的好感”
评: ‘... 对它的好意’ 这里语法蛮少见的,‘as people who are well disposed' 的简练说法?
[br]
原文:'One of its own kind. There’s a world of counter-subversion right there, a ghosting of the topologies of his secret life. '
译:“一名同类。这正是一个反颠覆的世界,奈特自己秘密人生的拓扑学的重影。”
评: ‘... 这里可不就有一个反颠覆的世界,虚虚地描摹着奈特自己秘密人生中的丘丘壑壑 ’
[br]
原文:'His animals were mirrors only so far as they reflected their keeper’s expertise, '
译:“动物的状况只是反映了饲养者的专业技能,”
评: ‘他眼中的动物当不了镜子,它们最多只能反映出饲养者是否专业’
[br]
原文:'animals had other uses: they were epistemological puzzles to solve. '
译:“动物还有其他用处:它们是有待解决的认识论难题,”
评: ‘... :它们可以被当作有关知识由何而来的谜题来解’
[br]
原文:'Parasitic, scientifically baffling, the cuckoo’s ambiguous moral status revolved around concepts of cuckoldry, duplicity, sexual confusion and even species boundaries themselves: '
译:“大杜鹃的寄生行为令研究者困惑,而它暧昧的道德地位也围绕着通奸、两面性、性混乱,甚至物种界限本身的概念。“”
评: ‘大杜鹃令研究者困惑,依赖寄生,它道德定位围绕着通奸、两面性、性混乱,甚至物种界限本身的概念,暧昧尴尬。’?其实这句语法也不太清晰...
[br]
原文:'The cuckoo also starred in a spectacular piece of popular science of the period.'
译:“大杜鹃也在同时期一部壮观的科普作品中亮相。”
评: ‘...令人震撼的科普作品中领衔主演’
[br]
原文:'The book is a sort of ornithological death-match, a series of staged fights, photographed in blow-by-blow detail, of well-known, well-loved British songbirds tearing apart stuffed cuckoos in a frenzy of defensive aggression and ‘extreme fury’.'
译:“在逐一拍摄的细节照片中,一些深受喜爱的常见英国鸣禽发起狂热的防御攻击,“极度愤怒”地撕碎大杜鹃模型,相当于一种死亡竞技,一系列分阶段的战斗。”
评: ‘书里描绘的可算是鸟类间的生死搏斗,一系列摆拍出来的,一些深受喜爱的常见英国鸣禽与‘大杜鹃’的交锋厮杀。那些照片一招一式呈现出了鸣禽如何发起狂热的防御攻击,“极度愤怒”地撕碎大杜鹃模型。’
[br]
原文:'a series of experiments born of cultural anxieties reflected on to a post-war nationalised avifauna. '
译:“这些实验的背后是战后被“民族主义化”的本土鸟类所折射的文化焦虑。”
评: ‘是战后的文化焦虑折射到被“民族主义化”的本土鸟类身上,催发了这些实验。’
[br]
原文:'What they discovered was that British birds were reassuringly adept at uncovering dissimulation'
译:“他们发现,英国的鸟类善于识破伪装,”
评: ‘他们安心地发现... ’
[br]
原文:' It is ‘mysterious’, he explained, with evident relish.'
译:“它“很神秘”,奈特对此玩味不已。”
评: ‘他津津乐道地说起它的“神秘” / 他对它的“神秘”显得津津乐道。’
[br]
原文:'He maintained that birds never knew they were cuckoos at all. Cuckoos lived their cover. '
译:“他认为鸟类根本认不出大杜鹃,它们带着假面。”
评: ‘...。大杜鹃始终躲在假身份后面。’
[br]
原文:'you sense his delight that this mysterious cuckoo has been turned,'
译:“读奈特这本书,能体会到他时而为这只神秘大杜鹃的转变而喜悦,”
评: ‘为杜鹃归附他’ 这里的turn也是间谍术语吧,类似‘投诚’的意思
[br]
原文:'but also his disconcerted half-knowledge that what it has turned into is a strange, feathered proxy for Knight himself. '
译:“时而因一知半解而不安,这只鸟似乎变成了奈特自己一个长羽毛的奇怪化身。”
评: ‘但同时不安地隐隐理解到,... ’
[br]
原文:'For the first time, Knight admits, troubled, he is not sure that the ‘gulf which exists between humans and other animals . . . is quite as wide as some people think’.'
译:“生平第一次,奈特承认了他的困惑,他不确定“人类和其他动物之间存在的鸿沟”
评: ‘尽管为此困扰,奈特生平第一次承认了他不确定... ’
[br]
原文:'It also reveals that the meanings we give animals can be strangely robust.'
译:“它还反映了我们赋予动物的意义。”
评: ‘...揭示了我们赋予动物的意义有时牢固得令人费解/奇怪’
------------
29. The Arrow-Stork / 箭矢鹳
[br]
原文:'which tracks the annual journeys of individual cuckoos between Britain and Africa as part of a larger project investigating the species’ rapid population decline in Britain: '
译:“该项目属于一个大规模的调查计划,追踪大杜鹃个体在英国和非洲之间一年一度的旅程,意在研究英国大杜鹃种群急速衰落的原因。”
评: ‘该项目追踪大杜鹃个体在英国和非洲之间一年一度的旅程,是一个大规模调查计划的一部分,意在研究英国大杜鹃种群急速衰落的原因。 ’
[br]
原文:'This notion of autonomous biological-sampling devices confuses the distinctions between technology and living organisms, quietly erasing the animal’s agency.'
译:“无声地抹除了动物的作用。”
评: ‘...动物的能动性’
[br]
原文:'a world where Defense Department researchers in the US are working on autonomous flying robots that mimic the flight of hawks and insects, where scientists fit electronic backpacks on giant flower beetles that enable them to be flown and steered by remote control.'
译:“美国国防部的研究员正在研发能够模仿鹰隼和昆虫飞行的自动飞行机器人,他们将“电子背包”安在大花金龟身上,便可以遥控它们的飞行。”
评: ‘这个世界里,美国国防部的研究员正在研发能够模仿鹰隼和昆虫飞行的自动飞行机器人,而科学家们将“电子背包”安在大花金龟身上,便可以遥控它们的飞行。’ (两批不同的人)
[br]
原文:'a draggled corpse of a stork that had become a poignant avatar for human fears and conflicts. '
译:“人类恐惧和冲突的惨痛化身。”
评: ‘... 辛酸化身’ ?
[br]
原文:'Media reports of his plight cast his story as one of almost comical paranoia. '
译:“媒体报道将它的困境叙述成一个偏执到几乎滑稽的故事。”
评: ‘...将它的悲催遭遇叙述成一个由近乎滑稽的妄想症带来的故事 ’
-------------------
30. Ashes / 欧洲白蜡树
[br]
原文:'their buoyant, ragged silhouettes'
译:“寻找它们遒劲粗犷的黑色轮廓。”
评: ‘...蓬勃粗犷’
[br]
原文:'while at the same time stripping familiar meaning from the places we live in. '
译:“也让我们一直生活的地方变得陌生。”
评: ‘也剥离掉了我们所居之处的熟悉含义’
[br]
原文:'People seek out these singular chestnut trees that have cheated death'
译:“人们找到这些死里逃生的非凡栗树”
评: ‘人们特意去拜访... ’
[br]
原文:'Increasingly, knowing your surroundings, recognising the species of animals and plants around you, means opening yourself to constant grief. '
译:“你越了解身处的环境,对周遭的动植物认识得越多,也就意味着让你悲伤的事情越来越常见。”
评: ‘发生得越来越多的是,你越了解身处的环境、对周遭的动植物认识得越多,意味着让自己每时每刻都身处哀伤的威胁中’ 更直译了些...
[br]
原文:'though they are caught up in stories about ourselves, trees are not ever just about us. '
译:“虽然树木和我们自身的故事纠缠在一起,但与其有关联的并非只是人类。”
评: ‘...但与其有关联的向来并非只是人类。 ’
-----------------
31. A Handful of Corn / 一把玉米粒
[br]
原文:'We expect them to respect their place in an unspoken social order.'
译:“我们期待它们在一种不言自明的社会秩序中各就其位。”
评: ‘...它们遵从一种不言自明的社会秩序,知道自己该呆在哪里。’
[br]
原文:'Back in the early days, proponents of bird-feeding had to fight against the conviction that animals would become ‘spoiled’ by artificial feeding and would ‘no longer do their work in nature’s household’.'
译:“早年间,喂鸟的倡导者不得不与这种信念斗争,。”
评: ‘总有人担心人工投喂会“宠坏”动物,让它们“无法在自然的家园里承担本分”。早年间,喂鸟的倡导者不得不与这种理念斗争 ’
----------------
32. Berries / 浆果
[br]
原文:'being deposited in droppings to take root and flourish. '
译:“随后在鸟粪中沉积下来,生根发芽。”
评: ‘然后随着鸟粪落地,... ’
[br]
原文:'It’s these berries that become the targets of the unpredictable visitations of a bird that more than any other means winter’s wonder to me. '
译:“出乎意料的是,有一种鸟探访的目标恰好是这些浆果,在我心目中这种鸟比其他种类更能代表冬日的惊奇。”
评: ‘这些浆果是一种鸟不定期的探访目标,而这种鸟在我心目中最能代表冬日的珍奇。’
[br]
原文:'低着头艰难地出入于各家店铺。'
译:“trudging stoically between shops. ”
评: ‘步履艰难而无怨地出入... ’ ?
[br]
原文:' I heard an unearthly trilling noise, like a carillon of silver bells, and like a gravity-stricken whirlwind a pack of fat birds swirled down'
译:“我听到一阵奇异的颤音,好像一串银铃奏出的乐曲。一群圆润的鸟儿像一阵坠地的旋风,”
评: ‘仿佛出自天外来客的颤音...像被重力击中的旋风 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'but something in between that’s no colour the way winter skies are no colour.'
译:“是一种介乎其间的颜色,好像冬季天空难以形容的颜色。”
评: ‘而是介乎其间,就像冬季天空那样,是一种没有归属的颜色。’
[br]
原文:'They’re both highly classy and fantastically trashy to look at; no Christmas decoration could ever approach their absurd, animate beauty. '
译:“它们看上去十分雅致,却不大真实,任何圣诞装饰都无法企及这种夸张生动的美。”
评: ‘... 既雅致非凡,又俗气得要命,任何圣诞装饰都无法企及这种荒谬生动的美。
---------------
33. Cherry Stones / 樱桃核
[br]
原文:'Caught in my headlights, its pied wings strobed through bright lines of falling water'
译:“车灯下它斑驳的翅膀在明亮的落雨中频频闪光,”
评: ‘...在明亮的雨线中 ’
[br]
原文:'I waved my hands in frustration as the bird continued to sing. '
译:“鸟儿继续鸣唱,我却郁闷地挥挥手。”
评: ‘听鸟儿鸣唱不停,我郁闷得甩手’
[br]
原文:'These spectacular refugees have eschewed the venerable treetops of stately homes to spend their time instead with sparrows'
译:“这些引人瞩目的难民远离贵族庄园中的古木树冠,转而与麻雀共度时光”
评: ‘...这次远离贵族庄园中的庄严树冠,转而与麻雀混迹一处’
-----------------
34. Birds, Tabled / 展台上的鸟
[br]
原文:'He told me it was a Hungarian Giant House Pigeon, and instantly my own house seemed the poorer for not having one.'
译:“我立刻觉得因为没有这一种,自己的家更寒酸了。”
评: ‘我立刻觉得自己家里得添上这种,才不至于太寒酸。 ’
[br]
原文:'but birdkeeping is considered by many to be morally dubious and, at its fringes, prone to lawlessness.'
译:“还容易出现打擦边球的不法行为。”
评: ‘...群体边缘人士往往有不法倾向 ’
[br]
原文:'a literal amputation to the nature of a migratory species'
译:“对这种迁徙的鸟类而言,这完全就是截肢,”
评: ‘... 这截肢/截断了它们的天性’ ?
[br]
原文:'‘The fondness of a whole body of artificers for any particular bird, animal, or flower, is remarkable,’ he concluded. It’s the term artificer that sings, here,'
译:“整个工匠群体对于某一种鸟、动物或花草的喜爱令人瞩目。”这里的工匠(artificer)一词铮铮作响,”
评: ‘...匠人群体’ --因为让人联想到artifice,故意让人看出来他们对自然的改造,和贵族们喜欢的润物细无声大相径庭。
[br]
原文:'Birdkeeping gestures towards the future as much as it does to those moments in the present when a goldfinch mule raises its head, puffs out its throat and pours forth song.'
译:“养鸟意味着未来,同样也意味着当下的这些时刻,比如一只“骡子”金翅雀抬起头,鼓起喉咙放声歌唱。”
评: ‘养鸟关乎当下,例如一只“骡子”金翅雀抬头鼓喉,放声歌唱的这刻,也同等地关乎未来。’ 反过来强调培育(将来的新鸟)也是养鸟的侧重点,和前后文衔接可能更好?
[br]
原文:'Obvious artifice is the issue: '
译:“显而易见的人工巧技是关键:”
评: ‘... 匠心’ 应对前一句
[br]
原文:'I stop and listen for a while to a bird that is calling a claim to the whole of its life. It sings of seeds and thistledown, of mates and flights and the fragility of eggs in a moss-and-cobweb nest, and of territorial battles and parasites and sparrowhawks and scarcity and stress.'
译:“这只鸟正在声张它全部的生命权利。”
评: ‘这只鸟正在声张对自己全部生命的所有权... ’
-----------------
35. Hiding / 隐蔽屋
[br]
原文:'Wildlife hides are not innocent of history. They evolved from photographic blinds,'
译:“野外隐蔽屋的背后没有清白的历史。”
评: ‘野外隐蔽屋的历史并不那么清白’ ?
[br]
原文:'There is a dubious satisfaction in the subterfuge of watching things that cannot see you, and it’s deeply embedded in our culture.'
译:“观看那些看不见你的东西,这种给人暧昧的满足感的秘密伎俩深植于我们的文化。”
评: ‘施伎俩观看那些看不见你的东西,其给人的满足感道德上有些嫌疑,同时也深植于我们的文化。’
[br]
原文:'they were compelled to use them even when they were entirely unnecessary.'
译:“即使是完全不需要的场合,也不得不用。”
评: ‘...他们还是打破不了这些习惯’
[br]
原文:' they are equally rewarding places to watch people who watch wildlife and to witness their strange social behaviour.'
译:“而屋里这些看野生动物的人,观察和目击他们奇怪的社会行为,”
评: ‘而在屋里观看这些观看野生动物的人,目击他们奇怪的社会行为’
[br]
原文:'Most people sit and scan the view with binoculars for a few minutes before deciding there is nothing of sufficient interest or rarity to keep them there.'
译:“大部分人会坐下来,拿望远镜扫视风景几分钟,再决定那里有趣或是罕见的生物是否多到足以让他们留下。”
评: ‘... ,然后决定那里没有足够有趣或是罕见的生物让他们驻留。’ (这样的大多数和后面耐心等着瞧的形成对比)
[br]
原文:'rushes striped with patterns of light and shade, '
译:“光影斑驳的灯芯草”
评: ‘光影交错的灯芯草 ’ 更搭striped??
-------------------
36. Eulogy / 悼词
[br]
原文:'when she’d found two just-born leverets, twin baby hares, tucked in the grass. '
译:“当时科迪发现了草丛里藏着两只刚出生的小野兔”
评: ‘当时科迪发现了两只刚刚出生的小野兔,青草盖在这对小兔子身上’ 稍微多花点笔墨?
[br]
原文:'Now, watching the slow diminishment of sense and detail around me, '
译:“这个时候,我注视着周遭的细节慢慢消减,”
评: ‘... 我看着感官退化,周遭的细节慢慢消减,’
[br]
原文:'with huge, black-ink anime eyes. '
译:“有墨黑生动的大眼睛。”
评: ‘...动漫人物般墨黑巨大的眼睛’
[br]
原文:'stricken with horror at the impossible fact of death.'
译:“人终有一死的事实让我恐惧。”
评: ‘...死亡这一事实荒诞无稽,让我被恐惧击倒’ ?
[br]
原文:'it was an act of such generosity that for a while I couldn’t find anything strong enough inside me to reply. '
译:“这是一种如此豁达的举动,”
评: ‘...如此慷慨’
-------------------
37. Rescue / 救助
[br]
原文:'We dislodge nests, soak seabirds in oil, hit hares and foxes with cars, pick up casualties from beneath glass windows and power lines. '
译:“我们拿走鸟窝,泄漏的原油浸透海鸟,开车撞到野兔和狐狸,在玻璃窗和高压线下捡起伤亡的生命。”
评: ‘挪走鸟窝,让海鸟被泄漏的原油浸透,...捡起各类伤员’
[br]
原文:'Rearing a single nest of finches in the 1980s didn’t halt the decline of British songbird populations. '
译:“在二十世纪八十年代,抚养一窝小雀无法阻挡英国鸣禽数量的减少,”
评: ‘二十世纪八十年代那回抚养一窝小雀没有阻挡英国鸣禽数量的减少,’
[br]
原文:'the dedication involved is immense: keepers of orphaned elephants in Kenya, for example, sleep next to the animals every night, but they take turns with others because too great an attachment to any one keeper risks the baby elephant being overcome by grief when he or she takes the night off.'
译:“他们都为此付出了巨大的心力。”
评: ‘抚养过程中会产生深厚的忠诚挚爱’ 这里应该是接近双向devotion的意思吧,因为后文是说小象多依恋陪夜人。
[br]
原文:'coming to know something quite unlike you, to understand it well enough not only to keep it alive but also to put it back, like a puzzle piece, into the gap in the world it left behind.'
译:“真正明白不仅要让它存活,还要放手让它回归自然,就像把一枚拼图碎片填入那个它遗留在身后的世界。”
评: ‘对它有足够的了解,不仅足够到能让它存活,还要足够到能让它回归自然,... ’ ?
[br]
原文:'a delicate construction of scalloped feathers and ungainly wings.'
译:“一个扇形羽毛和丑怪翅膀的精致组合。”
评: ‘...和笨拙翅膀的纤弱组合’
[br]
原文:' The sensitive filoplumes growing between the feathers of its wings and sleek sides are being brushed by the breeze, feeling their element for the first time.'
译:“它的飞羽和光滑的体侧之间那些敏感的纤羽随风轻拂,头一遭感受到自然的力量。”
评: ‘...,头一遭感受到它们生来就适应/为之而存在的环境’ 如鱼得水
[br]
原文:'where its claws had gripped tight before letting me go, gripped tight to the hand that was the last solid thing the bird would touch for years.'
译:“它紧抓着这只手,此后数年再也不会接触的,最后一样坚实的东西。”
评: ‘...,此后数年它再也不会接触到了这样坚实的东西了,这是最后一次。’
-------------------
38. Goats / 山羊
[br]
原文:'Because he puts his hand against the goat’s forehead, with everyone watching.'
译:“因为他把手背贴在山羊的额头上,而不是手心。”
评: ‘因为他在众目睽睽之下把把手贴在山羊的额头上’ 前文是You lay your hand flat on a billy goat’s forehead 搭在?应该主要就是力气不同。
-----------------
39. Dispatches from the Valleys / 山谷来信
[br]
原文:'eye-bending 1970s carpets that did bad things to you when you were drunk.'
译:“还有一块令人眼花缭乱的二十世纪七十年代的地毯,要是喝醉了酒它就会让你遭殃。”
评: ‘...让眼睛绕不过弯来的二十世纪七十年代的地毯,能够把醉鬼直接送上天’ 通篇幽默得2有点夸张,所以...
[br]
原文:'it was often cold enough in winter that I’d need to train a hairdryer into the cave of my duvet to make it sufficiently warm inside'
译:“常常冷到要把电吹风伸进羽绒被筒”
评: ‘...要把电吹风拉进羽绒被筒的深穴之内’
[br]
原文:'jet-washing shit-splattered aviaries with resigned good humour'
译:“每天好脾气地冲刷着沾满粪便的鸟舍。”
评: ‘...磨没了脾气/没脾气地 ’ ?
[br]
原文:'the ebullient son of a white Zimbabwean tobacco farmer '
译:“一个津巴布韦种烟草的白人农民的儿子,”
评: + ‘...,一天到晚兴致勃勃’
[br]
原文:' these were the sensible people I’d left academia for.'
译:“这些就是我离开学术圈投奔的达人。”
评: ‘我放弃学术圈投奔的,就是这么些达理之人/明智靠谱的人了。’ 达人一直理解成豁达或精通的人...
[br]
原文:'I snapped with whatever the equivalent of the red mist is when you’re just too frozen to deal. '
译:“我冷得实在无法忍受,满腔怨怒终于爆发”
评: ‘...,人家是杀红了眼,我是被冻红了眼理智全无了。’
[br]
原文:'often our own, young, poorly plucked, gristly cockerels bristling with filoplumes,'
译:“经常拿自己养的软骨头小公鸡,毛拔得很不干净,支棱着一些毛羽。”
评: ‘往往是自己养的小公鸡,毛拔得很不干净,支棱着一些毛羽,肉质筋筋拉拉的’ ?
[br]
原文:'The work we did there was fascinating and sobering.'
译:“我们的工作令人时而陶醉,时而清醒。”
评: ‘我们的工作引入入胜,也让人警醒’ 中文醉和醒的对比看起来有趣,但原文没这层意思的吧?
[br]
原文:'But the breeding season was brutal for the bird staff. '
译:“然而繁殖季对鸟类员工意味着残酷。”
评: ‘... 鸟类员工来说是最煎熬的’
[br]
原文:'filling small falcon mouths begging for food again and again and again.'
译:“把食物填到反反复复反反复复乞食的雏隼口中。”
评: ‘反反复复反反复复地把食物填到乞食的雏隼口中。’
[br]
原文:'Soon this breeders’ market would saturate and prices collapse along with most of the farms.'
译:“这个鸵鸟养殖市场很快就会饱和,和多数其他农场一样价格狂跌。”
评: ‘很快就会饱和,垮掉的价格会拖垮大多数农场’
[br]
原文:'The compound tibiotarsal fracture was so obscene'
译:“胫跗骨复合性骨折是如此污秽不堪的场面,”
评: ‘胫跗骨复合性骨折不堪入目 ’
[br]
原文:'the blankness of sheer necessity receding then to leave a wash of simple, overwhelming sadness in its wake.'
译:“势在必行的决绝感渐渐退却,”
评: ‘当务之急/万不得已带来的空白麻木渐渐退却... ’
[br]
原文:'The chain of command had fallen away. '
译:“指挥系统崩塌了。”
评: ‘指挥链/上下级关系被抛到脑后了’
[br]
原文:'There wasn’t so much cover that I couldn’t do it. '
译:“没有太多的掩蔽物,我可能无法成功。”
评: ‘林下植物/灌木丛不算太密,还是可以穿过的。’
[br]
原文:'this stalk to be absorbing. I did not expect it to be a truly mind-altering experience. Every time I stopped moving the world dipped and swung and held itself in suspension around me.'
译:“我预料到这会是一场引人入胜的追踪,但没有料到这种体验能真正地改变心智。每当我停止移动,世界便倾斜摇摆,悬浮在我四周。”
评: ‘我预料到这场追踪会吸收我全部注意力,但没有料到这种体验能真正地改写我的大脑。...,在我四周悬而不发。’
[br]
原文:'I knew the entire time that this was, hand to God, the most satisfying thing I had ever done in my whole life,'
译:“整个过程中,我向老天发誓,这是我一生中迄今为止最满意的一件事。”
评: ‘...,我都清楚地知道这是我一生中迄今为止最满意的一件事,我敢向老天担保。’
[br]
原文:'And it’s also true that all of us have the capacity to do things we think unimaginable until the moment they are not.'
译:“我们都有能力做到自己无法想象能做到的事,”
评: ‘我们都有能力做到自己直到那一刻之前都无法想象能做到的事’
[br]
原文:'But even so there was more to that exchange than an animal and a person looking at each other.'
译:“但即使如此,一只动物和一个人彼此的对视也是含义更为丰富的交流。”
评: ‘...,那回相遇都不仅仅是一只动物和一个人之间的对视。’
[br]
原文:'have shuttled them into separate epistemologies that are not supposed to touch. '
译:“让它们穿梭在彼此隔离、互不接触的认识论中。”
评: ‘把它们送进彼此隔离、互不接触的认识论/认知系统中’
[br]
原文:'each living species at the centre of a rich fabric of associations linking everything that was known about it with everything it meant to humans'
译:“每一个物种都能引发丰富多彩的联想,将人们获得的所有知识和它对人们所意味的一切相关联:”
评: ‘每一个物种都处于一块由丰富多彩的联想织成的锦缎中央,人类对其所知关联着它对人们所意味的一切:’ 保留比喻?
[br]
原文:'because reading the cards is too woo woo to discuss in polite company.'
译:“因为在高雅的场合解读塔罗显得太玄乎了。”
评: ‘因为在高雅场合讨论读塔罗牌显得自己神叨叨的太不讲科学了... ’
[br]
原文:'I wonder if we might also be readier to accept what animals’ emblematic selves are trying to tell us.'
译:“然而我想,我们是否也更有可能接受动物的象征意义。”
评: ‘...我们是否不妨多尝试接受动物的象征意义想向我们传达的信息’ might这里是一种很婉转的祈使句吧
[br]
原文:'It had been an inchoate attempt to knock them out of their contented composure.'
译:“是一种想把它们从安逸满足中敲醒的不成熟的尝试。”
评: ‘...不成形的尝试’
[br]
原文:'For I had seen myself as one of those steers, '
译:“因为那时的我就像其中一只肉牛,”
评: ‘因为当时我把自己代入成了肉牛中的一员’
------------------
40. The Numinous Ordinary / 神圣的平凡
[br]
原文:'the interval signal melody that slipped into the evenings of my everyday teenage life'
译:“在我十几岁时滑落在每个夜晚的电台节目幕间标志乐曲,”
评: ‘...潜入’
[br]
原文:'grace before mealtimes at the houses of friends. The great authorities of my childhood were National Geographic and New Scientist magazines, though I wasn’t ignorant of the Bible.'
译:“总为餐前祷告惊奇的孩子。我的祖母”
评: 补:‘我儿时的权威是《国家地理》和《新科学家》杂志,尽管我知道《圣经》这回事。’
[br]
原文:'men sweeping up frogs,'
译:“人们消灭青蛙,”
评: ‘...清扫 ’ 上帝降下青蛙灾
[br]
原文:'A slowly moving, purposive mirror that spoke things that weren’t words that I could feel in my bones, deep subsonics. '
译:“说出的不是我从内心感受到的话语,深沉的亚音速。”
评: ‘说出的不是语句,是我从骨头里感受到的,深沉到亚音速的振动’
[br]
原文:'I don’t recall that It had any regard for me in particular, nor why It should have been in my dream, but then, I suppose, I was not supposed to, and that was perhaps the point.'
译:“我不记得它对我有什么特别的关注,或是为什么出现在我的梦里,但在那时,虽然轮不到我做此想,但我猜那就是意义所在。”
评: ‘。不过话说回来,我想我不记得那些是应该的,而且那可能就是那个梦的意义所在。’ but then的then不是时间意义上的吧;作者理解的梦的意思是上帝并不特别关注她,也不是专门来访问她的。
[br]
原文:'You’ve probably had such experiences yourself – times in which the world stutters, turns and fills with unexpected meaning. When rapturousness claims a moment and transfigures it. '
译:“在那种时刻,世界艰难地缓缓行进,翻转又负载意料之外的含义。比如狂喜主宰了某一刻,让它焕发光彩。”
评: ‘...世界卡壳了,转向了,被意料之外的含义填满。那个时刻被心神狂喜所主宰,脱胎换骨/点石成金。’ rapture和transfigure都是宗教意味很浓的词汇,蛮难找到合适对应词的。
[br]
原文:'these moments open up a giddying glimpse into the inhuman systems of the world that operate on scales too small and too large and too complex for us to apprehend. '
译:“它们开启了一个机会,让我们匆匆一瞥这个世界非人类部分的系统,”
评: ‘...,我们得以对这个世界非人类部分的系统惊鸿一瞥’
[br]
原文:'There is a Moment in each Day that Satan cannot find
Nor can his Watch Fiends find it, but the Industrious find
This Moment & it multiply, & when it once is found
It Renovates every Moment of the Day if rightly placed.'
译:“发现了此刻,它将迅速增长。一旦发现,时机得当,这一刻会让所有的时刻复原。”
评: ‘一旦被发现,被放对地方,这一刻会让所有的时刻充满活力’ 按旧意 reinvigorate 理解?
[br]
原文:'The gift of the Radio Mayak interval melody was in how that melody reached me. '
译:“从灯塔电台的旋律抵达我的方式来看,那段幕间音乐是一种恩赐。”
评: ‘从灯塔电台来的幕间旋律之所以是一种恩赐,是源自它抵达我的方式’
[br]
原文:'and left it there for its pleasing creepiness.'
译:“为了某种诡异的趣味让它们一直留在那里。”
评: ‘因为喜欢其恐怖/阴森效果,让它们一直留在那里’
[br]
原文:'It stood even then for all the ways that age and distance corrode. '
译:“在那个时候,虽有岁月和距离的各种侵蚀,它也依然完好。”
评: ‘早在那时,它已经是岁月和距离各种侵蚀方式的样本’
--------------------------
41. What Animals Taught Me / 动物教给我的事
[br]
原文:'I was a child kneeling to extract a grasshopper from the closed cage of one hand, '
译:“我是一个会跪在地上,单手从封闭的笼子里取出一只蚱蜢的孩子,”
评: ‘...,一手围成蚱蜢笼子,一手将它取出的孩子’
[br]
原文:'abdomen as glossy and engineered as jewellery.'
译:“像宝石一样精致发光的腹部细节。”
评: ‘珠宝一样精细打磨过、闪亮的腹部’
[br]
原文:'I wasn’t good at teams. Or rules. Or any of the in-jokes and complicated allegiances of my peer group. '
译:“我无法适应团队活动或是规则,或是同龄人群的任何一种圈内笑话和复杂的效忠。”
评: ‘... ,也搞不懂同龄人群的任何一种圈内笑话或复杂的同盟关系。’
[br]
原文:'To know exactly when the hawk had had enough, '
译:“它让我准确地了解鹰隼何时已经饱腹,何时宁愿独处。”
评: ‘...鹰隼何时受够了我... ’
[br]
原文:'A photograph of the last passenger pigeon makes palpable the grief and fear of our own unimaginable extinction.'
译:“全世界最后一只旅鸽的照片,让我们对难以想象的灭绝的悲哀和恐惧变得真切可触。”
评: ‘我们自己的灭绝似乎难以想象,但全世界最后一只旅鸽的照片,让我们对此的悲哀和恐惧变得真切可触。’
[br]
原文:'You cannot know what it is like to be a bat by screwing your eyes tight, imagining membranous wings, finding your way through darkness by talking to it in tones that reply to you with the shape of the world. '
译:“紧闭双眼,想象拥有膜质的翅膀,以一种声调与黑暗对谈,它将以世界的形状来答复你,这样才能在黑暗中找到方向,但你不可能通过这些来了解身为蝙蝠的感觉。”
评: ‘紧闭双眼、想象拥有膜质的翅膀、以一种声调与黑暗对谈,收到关于世界形状的答复,从而在黑暗中找到方向——这些都不可能让你了解身为蝙蝠的感觉。’
[br]
原文:'all my self-absorbed anxiety vanished in that one fugitive moment, '
译:“我所有耿耿于怀的焦虑都消失了。”
评: ‘...围绕着自己的焦虑 ’
[br]
原文:'when a bird in the sky on its way somewhere else sent a glance across the divide and stitched me back into a world where both of us have equal billing.'
译:“天空中,一只飞往别处的鸟投来一个眼神,越过分歧,把我缝合在这个彼此拥有同等权利的世界。”
评: ‘...从人兽之隔的另一边投来一个眼神,把我缝回到这个我们不分主次、同等分摊的世界。’
2026/01/07 初读完毕