"I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift,nor the battle to the strong,neither yet bread to the wise,nor yet riches to men of understanding,nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. 翻译很优美: 我又发现一件事,在这世上,善于赛跑的不一定得奖,勇敢的不一定打胜仗,聪明的人不一定有饭吃 ,机智的人不一定"
"....there is no real need for any of the hundreds of foreign phrases now current in the English language. Bad writers, and especially scientific, political, and sociological writers, are nearly always haunted by the notion that Latin or Greek words are grander than Saxon ones"
"In certain kinds of writing, particularly in art criticism and literary criticism, it is normal to come across long passages which are almost completely lacking in meaning.† Words like romantic, plastic, values, human, dead, sentimental, natural, vitality, as used in art criticism, are strictly mean"
"In the case of a word like democracy, not only is there no agreed definition, but the attempt to make one is resisted from all sides.Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he m"
"When the general atmosphere is bad, language must suffer."
"A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put i"
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting our ink. In our age there is no such thing as “keeping out of politics.” All issues a"
"If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupts thought."
作者简介
奥威尔原名埃里克阿瑟布莱尔(Eric Arthur Blair),1903年生于印度。
1907年他举家迁回到英格兰。1917年,他进入伊顿公学。1921年后来到缅甸加入Indianimperial Police,1928年辞职。随后的日子里他贫病交加,此间他当过教师、书店店员,直到1940年,他成为New English Weekly 的小说评论员,他才有了稳定的收入养家糊口。1936年间,他访问了兰开夏郡和约克郡,1936年底,他来到西班牙参加西班牙内战,其间他受伤。二战期间(1940-1943),他为BBS Eastern Service工作,并在此间写了大量政治和文学评论。1945年起他成为Observer的战地记者和Machester Evening News的固定撰稿人。
1945年,他出版了《动物农场》,1949年出版了《1984》。奥威尔患有肺结核,于1950年死去。
这本书收录了上海译文出的奥威尔杂文集里不曾收录的 英国,您的英国。这篇非常好,字字珠玑,句句刻薄。只是翻译的有有些瑕疵,不尽完美。例如 with all its cupboards bursting with skeletons.译者就是直译成食柜里塞满了枯骨。。。即使小时候没学过新概念第三册好像都应该知道这个英式习语吧。。。
读《Politics and the English language》时,我这个只会考试的英语豆腐渣工程菜鸡还没习惯读全英的文章,就一句一句摘抄,一边抄一边英英翻译,一共花了三小时才慢慢适应作者的句法和表达、、作者的暗喻很形象,印象很深的是论述“因果”可以相互转换时,作者用一个人因为挫败而酗酒、而挫败感只增不减又继续酗酒的“恶性循环”来形容改善语言现状的重要性、、好恰当我什么时候写文章也能举这么形象生动的例子!
读《England,your England》时,讽刺又幽默的语言把我逗笑了。怎么说,读下来感觉到作者对英国爱之深责之切,在上个世纪他对英国的未来已经有了很准确的预见感知,我又去找了相关时政纪录片了解英国现状,发现今天的英国确实还在这些泥潭里反复无常,甚至越陷越深。哀其不幸哉!