英文书摘精选 名家日记04：同行者

Fellow Travelers



同行者



August 28th, 1931



1931年8月28日



The next day in the afternoon four of us started out for the hop-fields. The most interesting of the men with me was a youth named Ginger 1, who is still my mate when I write this. He is a strong, athletic 2 youth of twenty six, almost illiterate 3 and quite brainless, but daring enough for anything. Except when in prison, he has probably broken the law every day for the last five years. As a boy he did three years in Borstal，came out, married at eighteen on the strength of a successful burglary, and shortly afterwards enlisted 4 in the artillery 5. His wife died, and a little while afterwards he had an accident to his left eye and was invalided 6 out of the service. They offered him a pension or a lump sum, and of course he chose the lump sum and blew it alle in about a week. After that he took to burglary again' and has been in prison six times, but never for a long sentence, as they have only caught him for small jobs; he has done one or two jobs which brought him over ￡ 500. He has always been perfectly 7 honest towards me, as his partner, but in a general way he will steal anything that is not tied down. I doubt his ever being a successful burglar, though, for he is too stupid to be able to foresee risks. It is all a great pity, for he could earn a decent living for he chose. He has a gift for street selling, and has done a lot of jobs at selling on commission, but when he has had a good day he bolts instantly with the takings. He is a marvelous hand at picking up bargains and can always, for instance, persuade the butcher to give him a pound of eatable meat for two pence, yet at the same time he is an absolute fool about money, and never saves a halfpenny. He is given to singing songs of the Little Grey Home in the West type, and he speaks of his dead wife and mother in terms of the most touching 8 sentimentality. I should think he is a fairly typical petty criminal.



第二天下午我们一行四人开始启程，前往种植着蛇麻草的田地。和我同行的人 中最有趣的一个叫金格，当我写下这些文字的时候他仍然和我在一起。他26岁，体 格强健，朝气蓬勃，几乎一字不识，笨头笨脑，但是敢于冒险，敢做任何事。除了 在监狱的日子，他在过去5年中可能天天都在干着违法的勾当。年少时，他在少年 犯感化院待了3年，出来后凭借一次成功的盗窃在18岁时娶了妻子，后来当了炮兵。 他妻子死后不久，由于一次事故，他左眼受伤，不能继续留在军中，从此伤残退 役。军队给他提供抚恤金，有月付和一次付清两种选择，他选了后者，一周不到就 挥霍耗尽。此后他又重操旧业，开始行窃，到如今已经蹲过6次监狱，但每次都判 刑不长，因为他们只是因为小偷小摸而逮捕他。他曾经抢劫一两次，捞到了500多 英镑。因为我是他的同伴，他向来都对我开诚布公。总的说来，任何东西他都会顺手牵羊。但我怀疑他是否是一位成功的窃賊，因为他过于愚蠢，无法预知风险。我 觉得只要他愿意，他是可以过上体面生活的，这实属一大憾事。他天生擅长做街头 买卖，曾经好些次得到了销售提成呢。但是一旦有点好日子，他立即逃之夭夭。他 还是一个能买到便宜货的顶级好手，例如，他总能说服屠夫给他一磅肉，而只花两 分钱。但与此同时，对于钱财他却是一个十足的傻瓜，从来不会存得半分半子儿。 他会倾情演唱和《西边的灰色小屋》类似的感伤歌曲，当他提起死去的妻子和母亲 时，也总是声泪俱下，悲痛万分。我想他是一个极为典型的小罪犯。



Of the other two, one was a boy of twenty named Young Ginger, who seemed rather a likely lad, but he was an orphan 9 and had had no kind of upbringing, and lived the last year chiefly on Trafalgar Square. The other was a little Liverpool Jew of eighteen, a thorough guttersnipe. I do not know when I have seen anyone who disgusted me so much as this boy. He was as greedy as a pig about food, perpetually scrounging around dustbins, and he had a face that recalled some low-down carrion-eating beast. And we could never persuade him to wash more of himself than his nose and a small circle round it, and he mentioned quite casually 10 that he had several different kinds of louse on him. He too was an orphan, and had been “on the toby" almost from infancy 11.



至于其他两个同伴，一个20岁，名叫小金格，他看上去像个放荡不羁的小伙， 他是个孤儿，没有多少教养，过去一年主要在特拉法加广场上度过。另外一个是一 个利物浦的犹太人，18岁，完全是个流浪汉。在我见过的所有人中，我不知道是否 还有比他更令我作呕的人了。他对食物贪婪得像猪一般，总是不停地在垃圾桶边转 悠’他的脸让我想起某种低贱的以腐肉为生的野兽。我们绝不可能劝服他把自己洗 漱干净，他洗脸时总是只洗自己的鼻子和鼻子周围一圈的范围。他非常若无其事地 跟我们讲他身上长着几种不同类别的虱子。他也是一个孤儿，几乎从婴儿起就流落 街头。



课堂笔记：

1.在英国历史上，肯特郡的波斯特尔镇（Borstal)建立了一套通过惩罚、教育和职业训练 来改良少年犯的体系，1982年英国通过了《犯罪分子公正法案》，后该体系被青少年拘 留中心（youth custody 12 centers )取而代之。

2.“blow”在此表示“挥霍钱财”的意思，与此同义的英文表达还有：to spend extravagantly 13 ； to spend money like water； to play ducks and drakes with Sth.等。

3.常用搭配“take to sth./doing sth.”表示“养成某种习惯”之意。

4.常用搭配 “be a good / great / marvelous / splendid hand at sth. / doing sth.” 的意思为“是某方面的好手”。词组“pick up”在此表示“够买，买到”之意，“bargain”表示“便宜 货”的含义。

5.歌曲“Little Grey Home in the West”(《西边的灰色小屋》）创作于1911年，是一首曾经流行于第一次世界大战期间的感伤歌曲。句子“sb. be given to doing sth.”表示“某人 尽全力做某事”。

6.特拉法尔加广场（Trafalgar Square)，英国伦敦著名的广场，坐落在伦敦市中心，不远 处是王宫。适中的地理位置和美丽的广场建筑，使它成为伦敦的名胜之一。特拉法尔加 广场是为纪念著名的特拉法尔加港海战而修建的。

7.toby是“街道，道路”之意，“on the toby”即“流落街头”的意思。