Pub Talk and the King's English中英对照

Pub Talk and the King

’

s English(

酒吧闲谈与标准英语

)

Henry Fairlie

(

亨利·费尔利

)

1.

Conversation

is

the

most

sociable

of

all

human

activities.

And

it

is

an

activity

only

of

humans.

However

intricate

the

way

in

which

animals

communicate with each other, they do not indulge in anything that deserves

the name of conversation.

< /p>

人类的一切活动中，闲谈是最具交际性的，也是

人类特有的。而动 物之间的信息交流，无论其方式何等复杂，也是称不上交

际的。

2.

The charm of conversation is that it does not really start from anywhere,

and no one has any idea where it will go as it meanders or leaps and sparkles

or

just

glows.

The

enemy

of

good

conversation

is

the

person

who

has

“

something to say.

”

Conversation is not for making a point. Argument may

often

be

a

part

of

it,

but

the

purpose

of

the

argument

is

not

to

convince.

There

is

no winning in conversation. In fact, the best conversationalists are

those who are prepared to lose. Suddenly they see the moment for one of their

best

anecdotes,

but

in

a

flash

the

conversation

has

moved

on

and

the

opportunity is lost. They are ready to let it go.

闲谈的引人入胜之处就在于

它没有一 个事先设定好的主题。它时而迂回前进，时而奔腾起伏，时而火花

四射，时而热情洋溢， 话题最终会扯到什么地方去谁也拿不准。感觉“有话

想说”的人是一个“完美闲谈”的最 大敌人。闲谈不是为了争论，尽管争论

常常是闲聊的一部分，不过其目的并不是为了说服 对方。闲谈之中是不存在

什么输赢胜负的。事实上，真正的闲聊高手往往是随时准备让步 的。他们也

许会偶然间觉得该把自己最得意的奇闻轶事选出一件插进来讲一讲，但一转< /p>

眼大家已谈到别处去了，插话的机会随之丧失，它们也就听之任之了。

3.

Perhaps

it

is

because

of

my

upbringing

in

English

pubs

that

I

think

bar

conversation has a charm of its own. Bar friends are not deeply involved in

each

other

’

s

lives.

They

are

companions,

not

intimates.

The

fact

that

their

marriages may be on the rock, or that their love affairs have broken or even

that they got out of bed on the wrong side is simply not a concern. They are

like the musketeers of Dumas who, although they lived side by side with each

other,

did

not

delve

into

each

other

’

s

lives

or

the

recesses

of

their

thoughts

and

feelings.

或许是从小混迹于英国小酒吧的缘 故吧，我觉得酒馆里的

闲聊是别有韵味的。酒馆里的朋友们对彼此的生活毫不了解，他们 只是临时

的伙伴，相互之间并无深交。这些人之中，也许有人的婚姻面临破裂，有人

恋爱受挫，有人碰到别的什么不顺心的事儿，但这些都无关紧要。他们就像

< br>大仲马笔下的三个火枪手一样，虽然朝夕相处，却从来不过问彼此的私事，

也不去 打探别人内心的秘密。

4.

It was on such an occasion the other evening, as the conversation moved

desultorily here and there, from the most commonplace to thoughts of Jupiter,

without

any

focus

and

with

no

need

for

one,

that

suddenly

the

alchemy

of

conversation took place, and all at once there was a focus. I do not remember

what made one of our companions say it

–

she clearly had not come into the

1

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

bar to say it, it was not something that was pressing on her mind

–

but her

remark fell quite naturally into the talk.

有一天晚上的情形正是如此。当

时人 们正在漫无边际地东拉西扯，从最普通的家常琐事聊得有关木星的科学

趣闻。完全没有一 个特定的主题。可突然间中心话题奇迹般地出现了，大伙

的话题都集中到了一处。我不记 得其中一个伙伴的那句话是什么情况下说出

来的

–

不过，显然她并没有特意地准备什 么，那也算不上是什么非说不可

的要紧话

–

那只不过是随着大伙儿的话题十分自然地脱口而出的。

“

Someone told me the other day that the phrase,

‘

the King

’

s English,

’

was

a

term

of

criticism,

that

it

means

language

which

one

should

not

properly

use

”

“就在前几天，有人告诉我说‘标准英语’这个词是带贬义色 彩的批

评用语，指的是人们应该尽量避免使用的英语。

”

The

glow

of

the

conversation

burst

into

flames.

There

were

affirmations

and

protests

and

denials,

and

of

course

the

promise,

made

in

all

such

conversation, that we would look it up on the morning. That would settle it;

but conversation does not need to be settled; it could still go ignorantly on.

此语一出，谈话氛围立即热烈起来 。有人表示赞成，也有人怒斥，还有人则

不以为然。最后，当然少不了像处理所有这种场 合下的意见分歧一样，大家

约好次日一早去查证一下。问题就这样解决了。不过，闲聊并 不需要解决什

么问题，大家仍旧可以糊里糊涂地继续闲扯下去。

It was

an

Australian who had given

her such a definition of

“

the king

’

s

English,

”

which

produced

some

rather

tart

remarks

about

what

one

could

expect from the descendants of convicts. We had traveled in five minutes to

Australia. Of course, there would be resistance to the King

’

s English in such

a society. There is always resistance in the lower classes to any attempt by an

upper class to lay down rules for

“English

as it should be spoken.

”

告诉她

“ 标准英语”应做这种解释的原来是个澳大利亚人。知道这个后，有些人便

说起刻薄话来了 ，说什么囚犯的后代这样说倒也不足为奇。就这样，不到

5

分钟 ，大家便扯到了澳大利亚。在那个地方，

“标准英语”自然是不受欢迎

< br>的。因为下层人民总是会抵制上流社会给“规范英语”制定的条条框框。

Look at the language barrier between the Saxon churls and their Norman

conquerors. The conversation had swung from Australian convicts of the 19

th

century to the English peasants of the 12

th

century. Who was right, who was

wrong, did not matter. The conversation was on wings.

想想撒克逊农民与

征服他们的诺曼统治者之间的语言隔阂吧。于 是闲聊的主题又从

19

世纪的

澳大利亚 囚犯转移到了

12

世纪的应该农民身上。谁对谁错，并没有关系 。

闲聊依旧热火朝天地进行着。

Someone

took

one

of

the

best

–

known

of

examples,

which

is

still always

worth the reconsidering. When we talk of meat on our tables we use French

words;

when

we

speak

of

the

animals

from

which

the

meat

comes

we

use

Anglo

–

Saxon words. It is a pig in its sty; it is pork (porc) on the table. They

are

cattle

in

the

fields,

but

we

sit

down

to

beef

(boeuf).

Chickens

become

poultry (poulet), and a calf becomes veal (veau ). Even if our menus were not

written in French out of snobbery, the English we used in them would still be

Norman English. What all this tells us is of a deep class rift in the culture of

2

English after the Norman Conquest.

有人举了一个众所周知但仍值得深 思

的例子。在谈到饭桌上的肉食时我们用法语词，而谈到提供这些肉食的牲畜