-
What life means to me?
BY JACK LONDON
1.I
was
born
in
the
working
class.
I
early
discovered
enthusiasm,
ambition,
and ideals; and to
satisfy these became the problem of my childlife.
My
environment was crude and rough and
raw. I had no outlook, but an uplook
rather. My place in
society
was
at
the bottom. Here life
offered nothing
but sordidness and
wretchedness, both of the flesh and the spirit;
for
here flesh and spirit were alike
starved and tormented.
1
、我出生
于工人阶级。小时候我有激情，雄心和理想，如何实现这些是我童年
的困惑。我生存的环
境是原始的，粗糙的和艰难的。我看不到前途，但可以向上
看。我生活在社会的底层。在
这里，无论在身体上和精神上，生活都是肮脏的和
不幸的，因为身体上和精神都饱受饥渴
和折磨。
me towered
the colossal edifice of society, and to my mind
the
only
way
out
was
up.
Into
this
edifice
I
early
resolved
to
climb.
Up
above,
men
wore
black
clothes
and
boiled
shirts,
and
women
dressed
in beautiful
gowns. Also,
there were good things to eat, and there was
plenty to eat.
This
much
for
the
flesh.
Then
there
were
the
things
of
the
spirit.
Up
above
me,
I
knew,
were
unselfishnesses
of
the
spirit,
clean
and
noble
thinking,
keen
intellectual
living.
I
knew
all
this
because
I
read
Library
novels, in
which, with the exception of the villains and
adventuresses,
all men and women
thought beautiful thoughts, spoke a beautiful
tongue,
and performed glorious deeds.
In short, as I accepted the rising of the
sun, I accepted that up above me was
all that was fine and noble and
gracious, all that gave decency and
dignity to life, all that made life
worth living and that remunerated one
for his travail and misery.
2
、我头顶之上高耸着巨大的社会建筑，在我看来，只有向上爬才有出路，很
小的时候我决心爬进这座高楼。
我头顶上，
男人
们穿着白衬衣黑礼服，
女人们则
华衣锦服，还有佳肴，这是身体
上的享受。然后还有精神上的享受。我知道，在
我之上是慷慨无私的精神，
纯净和崇高的思想，
敏锐的智力的生活。
我熟悉这些
是因为我读过“海滨图书馆”的系列小说。
小说里，
除了恶棍和女冒险家，
所有
的男男女女都思考着美
好的思想，说着动听的话，做着光荣的事。总之，就像接
受太阳升起一样，我接受了这些
。在我之上一切都是美好的，崇高的，优雅的，
都给生命以体面和尊严，都使生活有意义
。都能补偿人们的辛劳和痛苦。
it is not
particularly easy for one to climb up out of the
working
class
—
especially
if he is handicapped by the possession of ideals
and
illusions. I lived on a ranch in
California, and I was hard put to find
the ladder whereby to climb. I early
inquired the rate of interest on
invested
money,
and
worried
my
child's
brain
into
an
understanding
of
the
virtues and excellencies
of that remarkable invention of man, compound
interest. Further, I ascertained the
current rates of wages for workers
of
all ages, and the cost of living. From all this
data I concluded that
if I began
immediately and worked and saved until I was fifty
years of
age, I could then stop working
and enter into participation in a fair
portion
of
the
delights
and
goodnesses
that
would
then
be
open
to
me
higher
up in society. Of
course, I resolutely determined not to marry,
while I
quite
forgot
to
consider
at
all
that
great
rock
of
disaster
in
the
working
class
world
—
sickness.
3
、但是以工人阶级的社会底层走出是极不容易的——尤其是受
到理想和幻想
制约时。
那时我生活在加利福利亚的大农场，
很难找到向上爬的梯子。
一开始我
询问投资
的利率，绞尽了我的小脑壳，才明白人类了不起的创造——复合利率
——的好处和优势。
后来我弄清了各年龄层的工人的现行工资和生活开销，
从这
些数字中，我得出结论：如果我马上就开始工作存钱，直到五十岁我才能退休，
开始享受到那个时候才向我开放的上层社会的乐趣和妙处。
当然，
我坚决不结婚，
可是我完全忘记考虑到工人阶层最大的灾难——疾病。
But the life that was in me
demanded more than a meager existence of
scraping and scrimping. Also, at ten
years of age, I became a newsboy on
the
streets of a city and found myself with a changed
uplook. All about
me were still the
same sordidness and wretchedness, and up above me
was
still the same paradise waiting to
be gained; but the ladder whereby to
climb was a different one. It was now
the ladder of business. Why save
my
earnings
and
invest
in
government
bonds,
when,
by
buying
two
newspapers
for five cents, with a turn of the
wrist I could sell them for ten cents
and double my capital? The business
ladder was the ladder for me, and I
had
a vision of myself becoming a baldheaded and
successful merchant
prince.
但是，
这是在我的生活要求多了微薄的存在刮抠的。
此外，
在十几年的
年龄，我成了一个城市的街头报童，发现自己有改变
uplook
。所有关于我的人
还是一样的
卑鄙和可怜，
以及高达上面我还是一样的天堂等待上涨，
但梯子
据此
攀登是不同的。现在是业务的阶梯。为什么要救我的收益，投资于国债的时候，
通过购买两份报纸五毛钱，用手腕一转，我可以把它们卖出去
10<
/p>
美分，加倍我
的资金？业务梯是梯子我，我有自己的愿景成为一个
光头和成功的商业巨子。
Alas for
visions! When I was sixteen I had already earned
the title of
But
this
title
was
given
me
by
a
gang
of
cut-throats
and
thieves,
by
whom
I
was
called
Prince
of
the
Oyster
Pirates.
And
at
that
time
I had
climbed the first rung of the business ladder. I
was a capitalist.
I owned a boat and a
complete oyster-pirating outfit. I had begun to
exploit
my
fellow
creatures.
I
had
a
crew
of
one
man.
As
captain
and
owner
I took two-thirds
of the
spoils, and
gave the crew one-third,
though
the
crew worked just
as hard as I did and risked just as much his life
and
liberty.
唉，愿景！当我十六岁那年，我已
经赢得了标题为“王子”。但这个称号是给我
用的切割喉咙，盗贼团伙，由谁来我被称为
“牡蛎海盗王子。”那时，我已经爬
到了梯子业务的第一个梯级。
我是一个资本家。
我拥有一条船，
一个完整的牡蛎
盗版装备。
我开始利用我的同胞的生物。
我只好一
个人船员。
作为队长和所有者
我把三分之二的战利品，
并给船员三分之一，
虽然剧组的工作只是很难，
因为我
没有和冒险一样多，他的生命和自由。
This
one
rung
was
the
heights
I
climbed
up
the
business
ladder.
One
night
I
went
on
a
raid
amongst
the
Chinese
fishermen.
Ropes
and
nets
were
worth
dollars
and
cents.
It
was
robbery,
I
grant,
but
it
was
precisely
the
spirit
of capitalism. The
capitalist takes away the possessions of his
fellow-creatures by means of a rebate,
or of a betrayal of trust, or by
the
purchase of senators and supreme-court judges. I
was merely crude.
That was the only
difference. I used a gun.
这一个梯级是我爬上梯子业务
的高度。
一天晚上，
我去了一个突袭跻身中国渔民。
绳索和网是值得美元和美分。这是抢劫，我承认，但恰恰是资本主义的精神。资
本主义带走了他的同类的财产通过回扣的方式，
或信任的背叛，
或由购买参议员
和最高法庭的法官。我只是粗。这是唯一的区别。我用了枪。
But my crew that night was one
of those inefficients against whom the
capitalist is wont to fulminate,
because, forsooth, such inefficients
increase expenses and reduce dividends.
My crew did both. What of his
carelessness he set fire to the big
mainsail and totally destroyed it.
There weren't any dividends that night,
and the Chinese fishermen were
richer
by the nets and ropes we did not get. I was
bankrupt, unable just
then
to
pay
sixty-five
dollars
for
a
new
mainsail.
I
left
my
boat
at
anchor
and
went
off
on
a
bay-pirate
boat
on
a
raid
up
the
Sacramento
River.
While
away
on
this
trip,
another
gang
of
bay
pirates
raided
my
boat.
They
stole
everything,
even
the
anchors;
and
later
on,
when
I
recovered
the
drifting
hulk,
I
sold
it
for
twenty
dollars.
I
had
slipped
back
the
one rung
I
had
climbed, and never again
did I attempt the business ladder.
但是我的
船员，当晚是那些
inefficients
针对的人的资本主
义是惯于雷酸盐之
一，因为抽了，这样
inefficient
s
增加支出，减少股息。我的团队做了两个。
他的粗心大意是什
么，
他放火烧了大主帆和完全摧毁它。
没有发现任何股息当晚，
中国渔民们更丰富的渔网和绳索，我们没有得到。我破产了，只是无法再支付
65
美元买了一个新的主帆。我离开了我的船停泊，去了在海湾海盗船袭击
了萨
克拉门托河。
虽然远在这次旅行中，
海盗湾的另一团伙袭击了我的船。
他们偷走
了一切，甚至锚<
/p>
;
，后来，当我恢复了废船漂流，我卖了
20
块钱。我已经溜背了
一个梯级我已攀升，并从此却再没有我
尝试了业务阶梯。
From then on I
was mercilessly
exploited by
other capitalists. I
had the
muscle,
and
they
made
money
out
of
it
while
I
made
but
a
very
indifferent
living out of
it. I was a sailor before the mast, a
longshoreman, a
roustabout;
I
worked
in
canneries,
and
factories,
and
laundries;
I
mowed
lawns, and cleaned
carpets,
and washed windows.
And I never
got the full
product
of
my
toil.
I
looked
at
the
daughter
of
the
cannery
owner,
in
her
carriage,
and
knew
that
it
was
my
muscle,
in
part,
that
helped
drag
along
that
carriage
on
its
rubber
tires.
I
looked
at
the
son
of
the
factory
owner,
going to college, and
knew that it was my muscled that helped, in part,
to pay for the wine and good-fellowship
he enjoyed.
从那时起，我被其他资本家无情地剥削。我有肌肉，而他们赚
了钱了它，而我做
了，但很淡然的生活了吧。我是一个水手在桅杆上，一个码头工人，码
头工人之
前，我曾在罐头厂，和工厂和洗衣店，我修剪草坪，并清洗地毯，洗窗户。我从
未得到我劳碌的完整产品。
我看着罐头厂老板的女儿，
在她的马车，
知道这是我
的肌肉，
在某种程度上，
帮拖沿着马车上的橡胶轮胎。
我看着
厂老板的儿子要上
大学，并知道这是我的肌肉，帮助，部分支付葡萄酒和优质的奖学金，
他享用。
But I did not resent
this. It was all in the game. They were the
strong.
Very well, I was strong. I
would carve my way to a place amongst them,
and
make
money
out
of
the
muscles
of
other
men.
I
was
not
afraid
of
work.
I
loved
hard
work.
I
would
pitch
in
and
work
harder
than
ever
and
eventually
become a pillar
of society.
但我并没有感到不平。这是所有在游戏中。他们是强大的。非
常好，我很坚强。
我刻我的方式到一个地方在他们之中，
赚钱了
其他男人的肌肉。
我并不害怕工作。
我喜欢努力工作。
我会球场和工作比以往任何时候都更加努力，
最终成为社会的
支柱。
And
just
then,
as
luck
would
have
it,
I
found
an
employer
that
was
of
the
same
mind.
I
was
willing
to
work,
and
he
was
more
than
willing
that
I
should
work. I thought I was learning a trade.
In reality, I had displaced two
men.
I
thought
he
was
making
an
electrician
out
of
me;
as
a
matter
of
fact,
he
was
making
fifty
dollars
per
month
out
of
me.
The
two
men
I
had
displaced
had received forty dollars each per
month; I was doing the work of both
for
thirty dollars per month.
就在这时，
< br>因为幸运的是，
我发现了一个雇主，
这是同样的心态。<
/p>
我是愿意工作，
他更愿意说我应该工作。
我想我是学贸易。
在现实中，
我已经流离失所的两名男
子。我以为他是在一名电工在我外面，因为事实上，他是在每月
50
块钱了我。
两个男人我已经流离失所已收到
40
每月每美元
;
我在做双方的工作，
每月
30
美
元。
This employer worked me nearly to
death. A man may love oysters, but too
many
oysters
will
disincline
him
toward
that
particular
diet.
And
so
with
me. Too much work sickened me. I did
not wish ever to see work again. I
fled
from work. I became a tramp, begging my way from
door to door,
wandering
over
the
United
States,
and
sweating
bloody
sweats
in
slums
and
prisons.
这个雇主
工作我几乎死。一个人可以爱蚝，但太多的生蚝会
disincline
他走向
那个特定的饮食。等我。太辛苦了厌恶我。我不希望以后还会见到工作。
我下班
逃离。我成了一个流浪汉，乞讨我的方式从门到门，游荡在美国，和出汗流血流<
/p>
汗在贫民窟和监狱。
I
had
been
born
in
the
working
class,
and
I
was
now,
at
the
age
of
eighteen,
beneath the point
at which I had started. I was down in the cellar
of
society, down in the subterranean
depths of misery about which it is
neither nice nor proper to speak. I was
in the pit, the abyss, the human
cesspool, the shambles and the charnel
house of our civilization. This
is
the
part
of
the
edifice
of
society
that
society
chooses
to
ignore.
Lack
of
space
compels
me
here
to
ignore
it,
and
I
shall
say
only
that
the
things
I there saw gave me a
terrible scare.
我出生于工人阶级，而我现在，在十八岁的时候，在
我已经开始点下方。我跌在
社会中的地窖里，
倒在苦难的地下深
处关于它既不太好，
也不恰当发言的。
我是
在坑的深渊，
人类的污水池，
在混乱和我们文明的藏尸家。
这是社会的大厦是社
会选择忽略的一部分。
空间不足迫使我这里忽略它，
我就只说我没有看到的东西
给
了我一个可怕的恐慌。
I was scared into
thinking I saw the naked simplicities of
complicated
civilization in which I
lived. Life was a matter of food and shelter. In
order to get food and shelter men sold
things. The merchant sold shoes,
the
politician sold his manhood, and the
representative of the people,
with
exceptions, of course, sold his trust; while
nearly all sold their
honor. Women,
too, whether on the street or in the holy bond of
wedlock,
were prone to sell their
flesh. All things were commodities, all people
bought
and
sold.
The
one
commodity
that
labor
had
to
sell
was
muscle.
The
honor
of labor had no price in the market place. Labor
had muscle, and
muscle alone, to sell.
我很害怕，
以为我看到了复杂的文明赤裸的纯朴在我居住的地方
。
生活是食品和
住房的问题。
为了得到
食物和住所的人卖的东西。
商家卖鞋，
政治家卖掉了他的
男子气概，和人民的代表，但有例外，当然，卖掉了他的信任，而几乎所有卖自
己的荣誉。
女性也一样，
无论是在街头还是在婚姻神圣
的债券，
取俯卧出售自己
的肉体。所有的东西都是商品，所有的
人购买和出售。一个商品，劳动力不得不
卖掉了肌肉。
劳动的荣
誉有没有价格在市场上。
劳工有肌肉，
而肌肉孤独，
销售。
But
there
was
a
difference,
a
vital
difference.
Shoes
and
trust
and
honor
had
a
way
of
renewing
themselves.
They
were
imperishable
stocks.
Muscle,
on the other hand,
did not renew. As the shoe merchant sold shoes, he
continued to replenish his stock. But
there was no way of replenishing
the
laborer's stock of muscle. The more he sold of his
muscle, the less
of it remained to him.
It was his one commodity, and each day his stock
of it diminished. In the end, if he did
not die before, he sold out and
put up
his shutters. He was a muscle bankrupt, and
nothing remained to
him but to go down
into the cellar of society and perish miserably. <
/p>
但有一个区别，
一个重要的区别。
鞋类及
信任和荣誉有自我更新的一种方式。
他
们是不朽的股票。肌肉，
而另一方面，没有续约。随着鞋商卖鞋，他继续补充他
的股票。
但没有办法补充肌肉的劳动者的股票。
越是他卖掉了自己的肌肉，
它的
减留给他。这是他的一种商品，每一天，他的这股减少。最后，如果他没有死之<
/p>
前，他卖了，把他的百叶窗。他是一个肌肉破产，并没有留给他，而是下到社会
的酒窖和灭亡草草收场。
I learned,
further, that brain was likewise a commodity. It,
too, was
different from muscle. A brain
seller was only at his prime when he was
fifty or sixty years old,
and
his wares were
fetching higher prices
than
ever.
But
a
laborer
was
worked
out
or
broken
down
at
forty-five
or
fifty.
I had been in the
cellar of society, and I did not like the place as
a
habitation. The pipes
and
drains were
unsanitary, and
the air was
bad to
breathe.
If I could not live on the parlor floor of
society, I could, at
any rate, have a
try at the attic. It was true, the diet there was
slim,
but the air at least was pure. So
I resolved to sell no more muscle, and
to become a vendor of brains.
我学会了，而且，大脑是同样一种商品。它也来自不同的肌肉。而脑卖家只是在
他的
全盛时期，
当他是五六十岁，
他的商品比以往任何时候获取更高
的价格。
但
劳动者已制定或细分为四十五或五十名。
我已经在社会的酒窖，
和我不喜欢的地
方作为居住
。
管道和排水沟是不卫生的，
空气是坏的呼吸。
如果我不能生活在社
会的客厅地板上，我可以，无论如何，有一试的阁楼。它是
真实的，饮食上有苗
条，
但空气至少是纯粹的。
所以，
我决定不卖更多的肌肉，
而成为大脑的供应商。
Then began a frantic
pursuit of knowledge. I returned to California and
opened
the
books.
While
thus
equipping
myself
to
become
a
brain
merchant,
it was inevitable that I should delve
into sociology. There I found, in
a
certain class of books, scientifically formulated,
the simple
sociological concepts I had
already worked out for myself. Other and