-
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。
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；
questions about the
naughty, jazzy parties, the flask-toting
and
the
moral
and
stylistic
vagaries
of
the
and
the
cowboy.
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“时髦少女”和“闲荡
牛仔”的奇装异服和古怪行为等等的情况。
wild
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。
青年一代的问题吗”The answers to such inquiries
must of necessity be
is
always
accompanied by a Younger
Generation Problem;
对这类问题的回答必然只能
< br>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；
在当时的社会看来似乎是那么狂野。
irresponsi
ble, 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，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，
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
oceans.
——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<
/p>
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。——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——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。
And like most escapist sprees,
this one
lasted until the money ran
out, until the crash of the world economic
structure
at
the
end of
the
decade
called the
party
to
a
halt
and
forced
the
revelers to sober up and face the problems of the
new age.
这种逃
避主义者的纵情狂欢，像大多数逃避主
义者的纵情狂欢一样，一直要持续到狂
欢者囊空如洗为止。到二十年代末世界经济结构总
崩溃之时，这种狂欢宴会便
告停歇，那些寻欢作乐者也只得从酣醉中清醒过来，去面对新
时代的各种难题
了。
5 The rebellion
started with World War I.
青年人的叛逆行为是随着
第一次世界大战而开始的。
The prolonged
stalemate of 1915 -- 1916, the
increasing insolence of Germany toward
the United States, 1915
—
1916
年间那旷日持久的僵持局面。德国对美国所表现出的越来越傲慢无礼的态度，
and
our
official
reluctance
to declare
our status as a
belligerent
were
intolerable to many of our
idealistic citizens,
以及我国政府迟迟不愿
< br>宣布参战的作法，都使我们理想主义的公民觉得无法忍受。
and with
typical
American
adventurousness
enhanced
somewhat
by
the
strenuous
jingoism
of
Theodore
Roosevelt,
our
young
men
began
to
enlist
under
foreign
flags.
我们
的青年，本身已怀着典型的美国式冒险精神，又多少受到西奥多·罗斯福
的狂热沙文主义
思想的怂恿，
于是便开始在外国旗帜下入伍参战。
In
the
words
of Joe
Williams, in John Dos Passos' U. S. A., they
the fun before the whole thing turned
belly up.
用约翰·多斯·帕索斯
的《美利坚合众国》
中的人物乔·威廉斯的话说，他们“是想趁着战争还没结
束就参加到这场游戏中去”。<
/p>
For military service, in 1916-- 1917,
was
still a romantic occupation.
因为在
1916
—
1917
年间，入伍当兵还是一种
富于浪漫色彩的职业。
The young men of college age in 1917 knew
nothing
of modern warfare.
在
1917
年正处于上大学年龄的年轻人对于现代战争还一
无所知。
The
strife
of
1861
--1865
had
popularly
become,
in
motion
picture
and story, a
magnolia-scented soap opera, 1861
—
1865
年间的那场战争早
已通俗地在电影和小说
中成了一部散发出木兰花香的连续剧。
while the one
hundred-days' fracas with Spain in 1898
had dissolved into a one-sided
victory
at Manila and a cinematic charge up San Juan Hill.
而
1898
年同
西班牙之间的百日战争在影剧故事中总是被描写成美军在马尼拉大获全胜或是
冲上圣胡
安山顶的电影镜头式场面。
Furthermore, there were
enough high
school assembly orators
proclaiming the character-forming force of the
strenuous
life
to
convince
more
than
enough
otherwise
sensible
boys
that
service
in the European conflict would be of great
personal value, in
addition to being
idealistic and exciting. .
此外，更有许多演说家们在<
/p>
中学生集会上大肆渲染战场上的紧张生活在培养性格方面的力量，使得那些本
来还算有头脑的年轻小伙子们都信以为真，以为到欧洲战场上去服役不仅是一
件令人兴奋的理想化的美事，而且具有巨大的人生价值。
Accordingly,
they
began
to
join
the
various
armies
in
increasing
numbers,
the
in
the
ambulance
corps,
others
in
the
infantry,
merchant
marine, or wherever
else they could find a place.
因此，越来越多的年
轻人便开始加入各兵种，“知识分子型的人”加入救护兵团．其余的人则分别
加入步兵部队、商船队．或到其他任何有其用武之地的单位去服役。
Tho
se
who
were
reluctant
to
serve
in
a
foreign
army
talked
excitedly
about
Preparedness,
occasionally considered joining the National
Guard, and
rushed to enlist when we
finally did enter the conflict.
那些不愿到外<
/p>
国军队里去服役的人则慷慨陈辞，表示自己随时“待命出征”；间或也有考虑
参加国民自卫队的，待到我国最终决定参战时．他们便踊跃地报名参军。
So
tremendous
was
the
storming
of
recruitment
centers
that
harassed
sergeants
actually pleaded
with volunteers to
for the
draft,
but
since
no
self-respecting
person
wanted
to
suffer
the
disgrace
of being drafted,
the enlistment craze continued unabated
各征兵站的
报名者都是人如潮涌，弄得主管征兵事务的军曹们焦头烂额，实在无法应付，
以至于恳求志愿报名者“且先归家，静待征召”．然而，有自尊心的人谁也不
愿蒙受“被征召入伍”的耻辱，因此，青年人的参军热潮持久不衰。
6
Naturally, the spirit of carnival and the
enthusiasm for high
military adventure
were soon dissipated once the eager young men had
received a good taste of twentieth-
century warfare.
旦这些满腔热血的
年轻人
饱尝了二十世纪战争的滋味以后，那种纵情狂欢的兴致和要从事轰轰烈
烈的军事冒险的热
情自然很快就烟消云散了。
To their lasting glory,
they
fought
with
distinction,
but
it
was
a
much
altered
group
of
soldiers
who
returned from the
battlefields in 1919.
他们可以永远感到光荣，因为他
们在战场上表现得很出色，
但是
1919
年从战场上回来的却是一批已经发生了很
大变化的士兵。
Especially
was
this
true
of
the
college
contingent,
whose
idealism had led them
to enlist early and who had generally seen a
considerable amount of action.
< br>大学兵团的士兵们更是如此。他们在理想主
义的感召下很早就到军中服役，可渭是
屡经沙场。
To them, it was bitter to
return
to
a
home
town
virtually
untouched
by
the
conflict,
where
citizens
still talked with the naive Fourth-of-
duly bombast they themselves had
been
guilty of two or three years earlier.
对
他们来说，回到几乎没有受
到战争的任何影响的故乡是一件痛苦的事，因为在那里，人们
仍在像庆祝独立
日时那样天真地大唱爱国的高调，而这是他们自己两三年前也曾犯过的错
误。
It was even more bitter to find that
their old jobs had been taken by
the
stay-at-homes,
that
business
was
suffering
a
recession
that
prevented
the opening up
of new
jobs, and
that veterans were considered
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