【原创英文散文集】《断想集》Thoughts Collection【英语吧】

我觉得，学习英语最好的方式是多用英语写作。只有写多了，读得才更仔细，而写和读进步又会带动听和说。
为了练习英语写作，我准备用英语写一系列的文章发在这里。同时为了锻炼翻译，也把英语原文翻译成中文，以供大家对照。
我的英文不是很好，希望大家指出文章里面的错误，在这里先表示感谢。

送TA礼物

1楼2012-11-29 22:09回复

第一篇的题目比较大《人类的命运》，但是不要被题目吓倒，个人还是简明好懂的。
The Fate of Mankind (人类的命运)

I almost came to the conclusion that the scriptwriter of Matrix was a philosopher when I first heard the following lines by Agent Smith in the movie: “Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops an equilibrium with surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply, until every natural resource in consumed. The only way you can survive, is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. A virus.”

我几乎断定《黑客帝国》的编剧是一个哲学家，当我听到特工史密斯的嘴里吐出这样的台词：“这个星球上的每一种哺乳动物都本能地和周围环境保持平衡，但你们人类不是这样。你们来到一个地方，繁殖又繁殖，直到耗尽所有的自然资源。你们唯一的生存之道是扩张到其他地方。这个星球上只有另一种生物和你们一样，那就是病毒。”

2楼2012-11-29 22:11

Provoking as it may be, it does not lack insight. In the beginning of 21st century which supposed to be the peak of our civilization so far, there are already ample evidences to prove that we are not far from a major environmental crisis. The melting of polar ice, the more volatile weather e.g. frequent and massive tornadoes, hurricanes, droughts and floods, are all indicators of severe illness for planet earth, the only home for the being called mankind.

这段话也许听来刺耳，但却不无洞见。在二十一世纪之初，人类文明迄今为止的顶峰时刻，却有足够的迹象预示，我们离一场环境大灾难已经不远了。融化的极冰，变幻无常的天气，经常造访、规模巨大的龙卷风、飓风、干旱和洪水，一切都表明，我们的地球，人类这种存在所拥有的唯一家园，已经病得不轻了。

3楼2012-11-29 22:12

Yes, I used the singular form “being”, because I somehow imagine mankind as an individual human being, with infanthood, childhood, adolescence and adulthood. Infanthood was when he climbed down the trees, using stones to hunt his prey for millions of years. Finally, he learnt farming, and then came the action-packed and thrilling childhood for tens of thousands years, when kingdoms and empires rose and fall like merry-go-around, and civilizations sprout over all livable places of the planet. If he chose to stay there, he might have earned a life almost eternal, though in a meager way.

是的，我用单数形式“存在”，因为不知道什么缘故，我把人类想象成为一位个体，有着自己的幼年、童年、青春期和成年期。幼年的时候，他从树上爬下，用石头捕获猎物，这样过了几百万年。最后，他学会了农业，进入了几万年之久的像动作片般刺激的童年期：王国和帝国如同走马灯般的兴起而又衰亡，文明的种子撒满星球上所有可供居住的地方。如果他停留在童年期，他也许会获得近乎无尽的寿命，尽管是以一种犬儒的方式。

But he never stopped the pace of growing. Printing press and renaissance marked the start of his adolescence, followed by industry revolution, through which he developed a set of muscles strong enough to conquer the nature, and political revolution, through which he get rid of the double chains of bishops and kings. After a brief adolescence of a few hundred years, he stepped into his powerful adulthood, during which he significantly changed the surface of his planet: Forests became farm fields, farm fields became towns, towns grown to cities and cities grown to metropolitans. Now, in the mid of his adulthood, he has grown into such a giant that needs the entire planet to feed him.

但是他决不会停留成长的脚步。印刷术和文艺复兴标志着青春期的开始，接着是工业GeMin，他长出了一付足以改造自然的肌肉，然后通过政治GeM in他摆脱了国王和主教的双重锁链。经过几百年的短暂的青春期，他进入了强壮的成年期，改变了这个星球的表面：森林变为农田，农田变为城镇，城镇变为城市，城市变为大都市。现在，在他的精壮之年，他已经长得如此的巨大，以致需要整个星球来喂养他。

4楼2012-11-29 22:12

The modern human civilization is built upon a gigantic but yet intricate system, like a huge machine without soul, fed on the power of a demigod by the name of “demand”, which is the official name to call “desire”. It is a system designed to create demands, or desires of purchase, even from those unable or unwilling to do so. In order to fulfill its designed mission, human nature is carefully studied, and every possible channel of communications is explored. Where ever you go, you will not miss its agents, the advertisements. They are looking at you on TV screens, internet, billboards, newspapers and magazines, in a seductive and tempting way, smiling to you, waving their hands to you, as if to say, love me, buy me.

现代人类文明是建立在一个巨大但是精巧的系统上的，像一台巨大的没有灵魂的机器，由一位半神提供驱动力。这位半神官方名称叫做“需求”，真实名字叫做“欲望”。这个系统的设计目的是创造需求，或者叫做购买欲，即便对那些不想购买或者没钱购买的人，也是如此。
为了实现这个设计目的，人类的本性被仔细的研究，每一种可能的沟通渠道都被利用。无论你到哪里，你都躲不开它的代理人：广告。它们出现在电视屏幕上、互联网上、户外广告牌上、报纸杂志上，注视着你，向你微笑招手，好像在说，爱我吧，买我吧。

And if you cannot resist such temptation and finally decide to spend your dollars, every dollar you spent became a spark that ignites the engine, a stream of gas that feeds into the cylinder. Then the machine roars, sending the dollar all the ways up through the chain of supply, pulling goods, services and outputs to its back. It is in this way that the economy runs and the world becomes prosperous.

如果你无法抵制这种诱惑，最终花了你的钱，你所花费的每一快钱，变成了启动这台引擎的一个火花，变成了注入汽缸的一滴汽油。然后，机器轰鸣着，推着你的那一块钱，沿着供应链逆流而上，一路上把商品、服务和产出往它身后拖。正是以这种方式，经济得以运行，世界变得繁荣。

5楼2012-11-29 22:13

But the system is flawed. It only calculates and measures those things that can be measured by dollars. The damage to the environment and the consequence of depletion of non-renewable resources are among those missed. If you buy a can of cola and drink it, you will not pay the cost for the damage it does to the environment by making and bringing this can of coca to you. Also, you may not know that our off-springs after one-hundred years may hate you for drinking that can of coca, because you have squandered precious aluminum, oil and coal, which are so valuable to them at their age, just for your own little pleasure.
但是，这个系统是有缺陷的。它无法计算和衡量那些不能用金钱来衡量的东西。对环境的破坏、日趋稀缺的不可再生资源，是它所忽略的。如果你买了一罐可乐喝了，你不会为制造和销售这罐可乐所产生的环境破坏付钱。你也不会知道，一百年后的子孙后代会为此多么地恨你，因为你浪费了对他们来说那么宝贵的铝、煤炭和石油，只是为了你自己的那一点点快乐。

However, we are so depending on our current system that, even knowing the demon inside, we cannot afford to stop it for an overhaul. On the contrary, economists and policy makers are so keen to keep the system continuously running, that they won’t give it any break even it is necessary. This is why they keep printing money at the time of depression. If human desire is a devil, they want the devil dance forever.
然而，我们是如此依赖于目前的系统，以致于即使知道里面有魔鬼，也无法把它停下来大修一遍。相反，经济学家和政策制定者们是如此希望这个系统能够持续运营，乃至他们更本就不给它以任何休息，哪怕它的确需要。这就是为什么在经济萧条的时候他们却一直在印钞票。如果人类的欲望是魔鬼，他们希望这魔鬼的舞蹈一直跳下去，直到永远。

6楼2012-11-29 22:13

As individuals we are much smarter than our ancestors on trees, but as a species I very much doubt so. The intelligence and wisdom of mankind as a whole is still at the level of the Stone Age. He is still encaged in a small patch of time and space that surrounding him. No matters how much temples, cathedrals and mosques are built on this planet, men still fight against men, states against states, and nations against nations. No matters how long we can predict the future of our solar system, our vision is still short-sighted. Politicians think no more than a couple of election periods, CEOs no more than a couple of fiscal years. Their so called long-term strategic plan is often no longer than a brief term of merely 10 years. Few individual seriously thinks beyond 20 years, let alone the flood after him or her. While this type of genetic egoism might be an asset to help individuals to survive at the Stone Age, it is becoming a hindrance to the growth of human civilization in today’s world that is essentially integrated and indivisible.

作为个体，我们比我们在树上的祖先聪明多了，但是作为一个物种，我非常怀疑是否如此。人类作为整体的聪明智慧，还停留在石器时代。他仍然被禁锢在包围自身的那一小块时空之中。无论这个星球上造了多少庙宇、教堂和清真寺，人还是和人斗、国家还是和国家开战、民族还是和民族打仗。无论我们能够把太阳系的未来预测的多长，我们的眼光还是短视的。政治家只想着下几个选举期，CEO只想着下几个财年。他们所谓的长期战略计划只不过长达十年之久。很少有人严肃地想过二十年之后的事情，更别说身后的滔天洪水了。如果这种自私自利在石器时代有利于个体的生存，那么在世界成为一个不可分割的整体的现代，它日益成为人类文明发展道路上的绊脚石。

7楼2012-11-29 22:14

Someone said the world is an unpredictable chaos with various fates depending on numerous small events such as a butterfly flaps her wings. I think the other way. I love Tolstoy so much that I would like to quote a few lines from his master piece, War and Peace, to express my view on human history: “Just as in a clock, the result of the complicated motion of innumerable wheels and pulleys is merely a slow and regular movement of the hands which show the time, so the result of all the complicated. Human activities of 160,000 Russians and French- all their passions, desires, remorse, humiliations, sufferings, outbursts of pride, fear, and enthusiasm- was only the loss of the battle of Austerlitz… That is to say, a slow movement of the hand on the dial of human history.”

有人说，世界是一团乱麻，不可预知，小小的事件如蝴蝶的展翅，都能造成不同的命运。我却认为事实恰恰相反。我是如此地热爱托尔斯泰，乃至我很乐意引用他的名著《战争与和平》中的一段话，来表明我对人类历史的看法：“好像钟表一样，无数的轮子和滑轮复杂运动的结果，只是使得时钟缓慢而均匀地报时，十六万俄国军队和法国军队，带着他们的热情、愿望、悔恨、屈辱、痛苦、骄傲、恐惧和狂欢，进行全部复杂活动的结果，只是形成奥斯特里茨战役的失败，也就是人类历史钟面上时针的缓慢移动。”

8楼2012-11-29 22:14

I hope the day will never come. To prevent it from happening, we have only one ally in our side, our imagination. If we can let our imagination flies beyond the little prison of our physical body, beyond the small patch of time and space that encaged us, there might be a slight chance that we can prove to Gaia, God or whatever supernatural beings out there, that we as a species are still worth to save, and that, despites all the evils and sins we have committed, holy spirit still dwells there deep in our hearts.

我希望这一天永远不会来临。为了不让这一切发生，我们身边只有一个可靠的盟友：我们的想象力。如果我们能让我们的想象力翱翔，飞越我们肉身的牢房，飞越禁锢我们的那一小片时间和空间，那么，我们也许会有一丝机会，来向盖娅、上帝或其他超自然的神灵证明，我们仍然是值得拯救的物种，而尽管我们罪孽深重，在我们的心灵深处，神性仍然没有磨灭。

10楼2012-11-29 22:15

下一篇是我的头像 - Saber

12楼2012-12-05 21:14

我爱Saber的理由，简短的说，是因为Saber是一个完整的人。她既有狮子的力量和胆魄，又有天使的容貌和风采。她既是美女又是野兽。她有强大的灵魂，自给自足，无需向外索求。她给予，从不计较报酬。她宽恕，即便对方难以宽恕。她承担一切，从不把怨言留。她忍受一切，从不让人分忧。她外表冷漠无情，内心却如此温柔。

The reason why I love saber, to make it shortly, is that Saber is a complete being. She has the power and the guts of a lion, and the looking and the elegance of an angel. She is both beauty and beast. She has a powerful soul, self-complete and self-sustaining. She gives, but seldom takes. She forgives, even the most unforgiveable. She bears all, and never complains. She endures all, and never let others know. She is so cold and tough outside, but so warm and tender inside.

据说Saber的原型是男亚瑟王，是蘑菇中学时代意淫的产物。蘑菇长大后，以他的学生时代的幻想为基础，创作了名为Fate Stay Night的游戏。但是他做了一些改动，把Saber变为15岁的女孩，而且永远不老，以迎合游戏的主要玩家，那些男生们。

It was said that the prototype of Saber was male King Arthur, out of a fantasy by the author in his middle school days. When the author grown up later on and wrote the script for Fate Stay Night, the galgame, based on his boyhood fantasy, he makes some changes to turn Saber into a fifteen-year old girl who never age in order to cater for targeted game players who would be mostly young boys.

14楼2012-12-05 21:15

这个对Saber性别上的改动，似乎是不经意的方便之举，却被证明是神来之笔。把一位女孩放在亚瑟王的位子上，暗示着一段比原版亚瑟王传说更加精彩动人的传奇。作为女孩，Saber必须比男亚瑟王付出双倍的努力。她必须先做男人，后做国王。她必须跨越小姑娘和男国王之间的生理上和心理上的鸿沟。更何况，Saber必须忍受无尽的孤独，因为她将无法找到人生伴侣。尽管她可以娶王后，但是这场婚姻将注定悲剧，因为任何女孩在知道真相后，都不会心甘情愿地接受她作为丈夫。最后，Saber必须痛苦地接受她无法长大的事实，不得不永远为她的责任而活着。

What appears to be just an inadvertent change of gender for convenience was proved later to be a touch of magic. By putting a young girl in the position of King Arthur, a saga far more fascinating than the original Arthurian legend is implied. As a girl, Saber must double her efforts as comparing to her male counterpart. Before she becomes a king, she must first become a man. She needs to make up the huge physiological and psychological gap between a young girl and a male king. What is more, Saber must endure the perpetual loneliness as she will never be able to find a lifetime soul mate. Though she may marry a queen, such a marriage is destined to be a tragic one, since no girl, after realizing the truth, will really accept such a king as her husband from heart. Finally, Saber must accept the painful truth that she will never grow up, and have to live an eternal life and bear her responsibility forever.

如果Saber通过了这些专属于她的考验，再加上亚瑟王的那些磨难，她已经是一个超级大英雄，连男亚瑟王在她面前都黯然无光。但是，这一切都不够，在她临终前，蘑菇又让她接受了新的挑战，即圣杯战争。

If Saber finally made her way through all the tests tailor-made for her, plus what was originally there for King Arthur, she is already a superhero dwarfing her male counterpart. But, as if all she had were not enough, the author made her to accept a new challenge before she die, that is, to win the war of Holy Grail.

15楼2012-12-05 21:16

FZ就从这里开始的。许多男生不喜欢FZ里的Saber，认为她更像男人，不够女性化。相反，女生们很喜欢这个男性化的Saber，有些女生甚至把自己代入爱丽丝菲尔，Saber发誓保护的对象。

This was the time when Fate Zero, the animation, begins. A lot of boys do not like the Saber in Fate Zero, because her personality there is more of a boy than a girl. On the contrary, girls love this masculine version of Saber, and some of them even imagined themselves to be Irisviel who Saber took oath to protect.

我也喜欢FZ里的Saber。但与别人不同，我把自己代入Saber，用她的眼睛去看，用她的心去感受。以这种方式，我感到了她的痛苦，我深深地同情她。

I love this version of Saber as well. But, instead of Irisviel, I imagined myself to be Saber, seeing through her eyes and feeling through her heart. In this way, I felt all the pains she had, and I became so sympathetic for her.

18楼2012-12-05 21:17

FZ尽管画面光鲜，调子却是漆黑一片。所有的角色都是各种悲剧，尤以Saber为最。因为她固守骑士道，她的主人厌恶和疏远她，甚至不愿意和她说话。因为她无私的为王之道，另外两位王嘲笑讽刺她。她所尊敬的对手恨她，尽管她没有错，是她主人放的大招。她发誓保护的对象最后被敌人劫走了，这意味着她违背了誓言，玷污了骑士的荣耀。最惨的是，她不小心杀死了她最心爱的骑士兰斯洛特，后者因为背叛她而感到羞愧，从而堕落成了Berserker。最后，她的主人强迫她打碎了她梦寐以求的圣杯。她回到了最后的战场卡姆兰丘，看着一具具尸体，她哭泣着，深深地忏悔着，因为她觉得自己为祖国和人民带来了深重的灾难。

Despites the shinning and blazing pictures, Fate zero is on a dark tone. Almost all characters have their own tragedies, of which the greatest one is Saber’s. She was disliked and alienated, for her adherence to chivalric codes, by her own master who did not even want to speak to her. She was derided and mocked by the other two Kings for her altruistic way of ruling her country. She was hated by the rival she respected, for the dirty trick played by her master, even it was not her fault. The one she took oath to protect was finally abducted by her enemies, meaning that she broke her oath and tarnished her glory as a knight. And then, the worst of all, she accidentally killed Lancelot, the knight who she liked the most, even though he betrayed her, deformed and disguised as Berserker out of shames. At the end, she was forced by her master to break the Holy Grail which she had been so craving for. She returned to Camlann, her last battle ground, staring at the dead bodies, weeping and crying, repenting the disaster she had brought to her country and people.

19楼2012-12-05 21:17

然后，她在FSN里又回来了。我是先看FZ，后看FSN。Saber在士郎前面第一次出现了。在月光下，她用平静的目光凝视士郎。那一刻，她显得如此美丽。士郎立刻爱上了她。

Then she came back again in Fate Stay Night. I happened to watch this animation after Fate Zero. Saber made her first appearance before Shiro, gazed upon him calmly in the moonlight. She seemed to be extremely beautiful in that moment, which made Shiro completely fall in love with her.

正是在这一刻，我也爱上了Saber，原因却截然不同。士郎看到的只是她外在的美，我却看到，在那美丽的容颜里，有一个高贵的灵魂。为什么，一位女孩，经受了那么多痛苦和磨难，仍然有这样平静而镇定的眼神？为什么，一颗心，明明已经碎成千片万片，却又能重新聚合，好像一切都未曾发生？她所经历的无异于地狱，但是她回来了，光鲜如初，毫发未损。她站在那里，脸上带着只有圣女才有的宁静和安详。以这样的方式，Saber蔑视她的命运，好像那只是个过分的玩笑。正如俄狄浦斯王，Saber通过她的眼神和表情，骄傲地大声宣告：“尽管有诸多不幸，我那高贵的灵魂却告诉我，一切都很好。”是的，对于Saber，一切都很好。这是一个光芒四射的时刻，一个无比尊贵的时刻，一个值得永远铭记的时刻。这一幕就是我的头像。

This was also the moment when I fell in love with Saber, but due to a different reason. While all Shiro saw was her beauty, I saw a noble soul inside. How could a girl, just came through all those sufferings, returned with such a pair of poised and calm eyes? How could a heart, broken into pieces just a few moments ago, managed to pull them together, as if it had never happened? What she had just been through was hell, but she came back fresh and untainted, standing there, with an expression so tranquil and serene that only belongs to a saint. Through this way, Saber disdained her fate as if it were nothing but a bad joke. Like Oedipus, Saber spoke loudly and proudly through her eyes and expressions, “despite so many ordeals, the nobility of my soul makes me conclude that all is well." Yes, for Saber, all is well. This was a moment of glory, a moment of dignity, a moment to be remembered for ever. I made this scene my icon.

20楼2012-12-05 21:18

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【原创英文散文集】《断想集》Thoughts Collection

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