专业硕士

Peanuts

Xu Dishan

Behind our house there lay half a mou of vacant land. Mother said, “it’s a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?” that exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!

Mother said, “How about giving a party this evening to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?” We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.

It looked like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless. “Do you like peanuts?” asked father.

“Yes, we do!” we vied in giving the answer.

“Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?”

“Peanuts taste good,” said my elder sister.

“Peanuts produce edible oil,” said my elder brother.

“Peanuts are so cheap,” said I, “that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyone’s favourite. That’s why we call peanuts good.”

“It’s true that peanuts have many uses,” said father, “but they’re most beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win people’s admiration with their brilliant colours, tiny little peanuts bury themselves underground and remain unearthed until they’re ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bear any nuts until you touch them.”

“That’s true,” we said in unison. Mother also nodded. “So you must take after peanuts,” father continued, “because they’re useful though not great and nice- looking.”

“Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking,” I said.

“That’s what I expect of you,” father concluded. We kept chatting until the party broke up late at night. Today, though nothing is left of the goodies made of peanuts, father’s words remain engraved in my mind.

注释:

本文是许地山(1892-1941)的名篇。作者回忆自己童年时代一个小小片断，以朴实无华、清新自然的笔调，从花生的平凡而有用，谈到做人的道理，富于哲理，反映他身处旧社会的污泥浊流而洁身自好、不慕虚名的思想境界。

(1)原句也可译为why not have them planted here或why not make a peanut plot of it，但现译更直截了当，且避免在同一句中重复peanuts一词。

(2)“几姊弟”在下文将涉及，为防累赘，译为children。

(3)“做一个收获节”不宜直译为hold a harvest festival，现取意译。

(4)“食品”也可译为food，但不如goodies 贴切goodies指“好吃的东西”，常用于口语。

(5)“那晚上底天色不大好”译为It looked like rain that evening, 符合原意和英语习惯。

(6)“这小小的豆”译为tiny little peanuts。英语中常把tiny和little用在一起，有“小得可怜(爱)”等含意。

(7)“鲜红嫩绿”不宜直译，译brilliant colours即可。

(8)“瑟缩”意即“蜷曲而不舒展”，故有现译。

(9)“你们要像花生”译为you must take after peanuts，其中take after 是成语，意即take……as an example(学习……的榜样)。