The Sad Young Men中英文版

The Sad Young Men

1

No

aspect

of

life

in

the

Twenties

has

been

more

commented

upon

and

sensationally romanticized than the so-called Revolt of the Younger Generation.

二

十年代社会生活 的各个方面中，被人们评论得最多、渲染得最厉害的，莫过于

青年一代的叛逆之行了。< /p>

The

slightest

mention

of

the

decade

brings

nostalgic

recollections to the middle-aged and curious questionings by the young:

只要有只

言片语提到那个时期，就会勾起中年人 怀旧的回忆和青年人好奇的提问。

memories of the deliciously illicit thrill of the first visit to a speakeasy, of the brave

denunciation of Puritan morality, and of the fashionable experimentations in amour

in the parked sedan on a country road;

中年人会回忆起第一次光顾非法 酒店时的

那种既高兴又不安的违法犯罪的刺激感，回忆起对清教徒式的道德规范的勇猛< /p>

抨击，回忆起停在乡间小路上的小轿车里颠鸾倒凤的时髦爱情试验方式；

< br>questions about the naughty, jazzy parties, the flask-toting

stylistic vagaries of the

青年人则会问起有

关那时的一些纵情狂欢的爵士舞会，问起那成 天背着酒葫芦、勾引得女人团团

转的

“

美男子

”

，

问起那些

< br>“

时髦少女

”

和

“

闲荡牛仔

”

的奇装异服和古 怪行为等等的

情况。

teachers .

那时的青年果真这样狂放不羁吗

?”

今天的青年学生们不禁好奇地向他

们的师长问起这样的问题。

那

时真的有过青年一代的问题吗

?”T he answers to such inquiries must of necessity be

a

Younger

Generation

Problem;

对这类问题的回答必然只能是既

“

对

”

又

“

不

对

”——

说

“

对 ，

，是因为人的成长过程中一贯就存在着所谓青年一代的问题；

说

“

不对

”

是因为在当时的社会看来似乎是那

么狂野 。

irresponsible, and immoral in social behavior at the time can now be seen in

perspective as being something considerably less sensational than the degenerauon of

our jazzmad youth.

那么不负责任，

那么不讲道德的行为，

若是用今天的正确眼光

< br>去看的话，却远远没有今天的一些迷恋爵士乐的狂荡青年的堕落行为那么耸人

听闻 。

2 Actually, the revolt of the young people was a logical outcome of conditions

in the age:

实际上，

青年 一代的叛逆行为是当时的时代条件的必然结果。

First of

all, it must be remembered that the rebellion was not confined to the Unit- ed States,

but affected the entire Western world as a result of the aftermath of the first serious

war in a century.

首先，

< br>值得记住的是，

这种叛逆行为并不局限于美国，

而是作为

百年之中第一次惨烈的战争的后遗症影响到整个西方世界。

Second,

in

the

United States it was reluctantly realized by some- subconsciously if not openly

其

次，

在美国，

有一 些人已经很不情愿地认识到

——

如果不是明明白白地认识到，< /p>

至少是下意识地认识到

-- that our country was no longer isolated in either politics

or

tradition

and

that

we

had

reached

an

international

stature

that

would

forever

prevent us from retreating behind the artificial walls of a provincial morality or the

geographical

protection

of

our

two

bordering

oce ans.

——

无论在政治方面还是在

传 统方面，我们的国家已不再是与世隔绝的了；我们所取得的国际地位使我们

永远也不能再 退缩到狭隘道德规范的人造围墙之后，或是躲在相邻的两大洋的

地理保护之中了。

3 The rejection of Victorian gentility was, in any case, inevitable.

在当时的美

国，摒弃维多利亚式的温 文尔雅无论如何都已经是无可避免的了。

The booming

of American industry, with its gigantic, roaring factories, its corporate impersonality,

and

its

largescale

aggressiveness,

no

longer

left

any

room

for

the

code

of

polite

behavior and well- bred morality fashioned in a quieter and less competitive age.

美

国工业的飞速发展及其 所带来的庞大的、机器轰鸣的工厂的出现，社会化大生

产的非人格性，以及争强好胜意识 的空前高涨，使得在较为平静而少竞争的年

代里所形成的温文尔雅的礼貌行为和谦谦忍让 的道德风范完全没有半点栖身之

地。

War or no war, as the generations passed, it became increasingly difficult for our

young people to accept standards of behavior that bore no relationship to the bustling

business medium in which they were expected to battle for success.

不论是否发生< /p>

战争，随着时代的变化．要我们的年轻一代接受与他们必须在其中拼搏求胜的

这个喧嚣的商业化社会格格不入的行为准则已经变得越来越难了。

The war acted

merely as a catalytic agent in this breakdown of the Victorian social structure,

战争

只不过起了一种催化剂的作用，加 速了维多利亚式社会结构的崩溃。

and

by

precipitating

our

young

people

into

a

pattern

of

mass

murder

it

released

their

inhibited

violent

energies

which,

after

the

shooting

was

over,

were

turned

in

both

Europe and America to the destruction of an obsolescent nineteenth-century society.

战争把年轻一代一下子推向 一种大规模的屠杀战场，从而使他们体内潜藏的压

抑已久的狂暴力量得以释放出来，待到 战争一结束，这些被释放出来的狂暴力

量便在欧洲和美国掉转矛头，去摧毁那日渐衰朽的 十九世纪的社会了。

4 Thus in a changing world youth was faced with the challenge of bringing our

mores up to date.

这样一来，在一个千变 万化的世界中，青年一代便面临着使我

们的道德习惯与时代合拍这一挑战。

But

at

the

same

time

it

was

tempted,

in

America at

least,

to

escape its responsibilities

and retreat

behind

an air of naughty

alcoholic sophistication and a pose of Bohemian immorality.

而与此同时，青年人。

< br>——

至少美国的青年人

——

又表 现出这样一种倾向：

他们试图逃避自己的责任。

沉溺于一种老于 世故、以酒自娱的生活作风之中，装出一副波希米亚式的放荡

不羁的样子。

The faddishness , the wild spending of money on transitory pleasures

and momentary novelties , the hectic air of gaiety, the experimentation in sensation --

sex, drugs, alcohol, perversions -- were all part of the pattern of escape, an escape

made possible by a general prosperity and a post-war fatigue with politics, economic

restrictions,

and

international

responsibilities.

追求时尚，为了短暂的 快乐和一时

的新奇而大肆挥霍，纵情地狂欢，寻求各种各样的感官刺激

< br>——

性行为，吸毒，

酗酒以及各种各样的堕落行为

——

这些都是他们逃避责任的表现形式，是一种

由社会的普遍繁荣及战后人们对于政治、经济限制和国际义务所产生的厌烦情

绪所造成 的逃避方式。

Prohibition afforded the young the additional opportunity of

making

their

pleasures

illicit

,

禁酒法令使青年 人有了更多的机会寻求违禁取乐

的刺激。

and the much-publicized orgies and defiant manifestoes of the intellectuals

crowding into Greenwich Village gave them a pattern and a philosophic defense for

their escapism.

文人墨客纷纷涌人格林威治村，

他们那些被大肆渲染的放纵行为

和挑战性言论也为青年人的逃避主义提供了一种表现形式和一套哲学辩护辞。