2022年经济学人 启发性文学体裁的终结：常用语手册的消亡(2)

The consequences of eating are of abiding¹ interest to British travellers of old.

用餐后的感受一直是旧时英国旅行者感兴趣的问题。

After the food, Leek’s Italian offers the regretful: “I feel qualmish, sick.”

吃完饭后，利克用意大利语表达了失望：“我感到不安、恶心。”

No destination is without its particular intestinal² anxiety.

不同旅行的目的地都有其独特的“肠道焦虑”。

“After vomiting⁴ his food,” explains one physiologically⁵ intriguing⁶ entry in an old Korean manual, “his constipation was relieved.”

“在呕吐之后，”很久以前的韩语手册中一条有趣的生理学条目写道，“他的便秘缓解了。”

A 1903 medical phrasebook for Luganda, a Bantu language, offers the unexplained but authoritative⁷: “Keep everything you vomit³.”

1903年，一本班图语系卢甘达语的医学术语手册中写到了一句原因不明但看起来十分笃定的话：“把你的呕吐物都留下。”

To judge by these publications, the Briton abroad must have cut a strange figure.

从这些出版物来判断，海外的英国人一定塑造了什么奇怪的形象。

Many position themselves as aids to conversation.

许多常用语手册对自己的定位是“对话的助手”。

The 1909 “Manual of Palestinian Arabic”, for example, explains that its sample sentences “will, it is hoped, be useful to the traveller in his hotel” and “may conceivably be of use in daily life”.

例如，1909年的《巴勒斯坦阿拉伯语手册》表示其例句“或许能帮助旅行者顺利住店”，并“相信其可以在日常生活中使用”。

The book’s phrases include: “We reached the precipice⁸ and saw him fall down”; “He died before we found him”; and the gnomic “Gargle twice daily.”

这本书中提到的常用语包括：“我们到了悬崖边，看到他摔了下去”；“他在我们找到他之前就死了”；以及发人深省的“每天刷两次牙”。

Conversation will have hung heavy in the foyers of Jerusalem.

对话会在耶路撒冷的门厅里缓慢进行。

Books from the colonial era are unintentionally telling.

殖民时代的书籍无意中证明了这一点。

History books tend to concentrate on the obvious moments of imperial brutality¹⁰ - on war and rebellion.

历史书籍往往会关注帝国的残暴时刻——战争和叛乱。

Phrasebooks offer the chance to eavesdrop¹¹ on quieter colonial cruelties in the drawing rooms of empire.

常用语书籍则让我们可以有机会窥见帝国的客厅里更平静的殖民暴行。

“Hold your tongue!”

“闭嘴！

barks one phrase in a 1908 “Hindustani Self-Taught” manual.

1908年的一本《印度斯坦语自学手册》中有一句话叫道。

“Beat that lazy boy” snaps an entry in another guide.

另一本指南书中有一句写道：“打败那个懒汉”。

Many phrasebooks remained in use for a surprisingly long time.

许多常用语书流传了很长时间。

When Elisabeth Kendall, the mistress of Girton College, Cambridge, studied Arabic at Oxford¹² University in the early 1990s, she did so using grammar books that dated back to 1859 (“The cow’s tongue is long” was a typical phrase).

上世纪90年代初，剑桥大学吉顿学院的女教师伊丽莎白·肯德尔在牛津大学学习阿拉伯语时，使用的是可追溯到1859年的语法书(“牛的舌头很长”是一个常用短语)。

She retains a linguist’s affection for their methodology.

作为语言学家，她喜欢这些作者编写书籍的方法。

Some phrases may have lacked practical utility but often illustrated¹³ “a grammatical construction in the simplest possible way” - and they were memorable¹⁴.

有些短语可能缺乏实用价值，但往往“以最简单的方式说明了一种语法结构”，并且令人记忆深刻。

Steven Pinker, a professor of psychology¹⁵ at Harvard University, agrees.

哈佛大学心理学教授史蒂文·平克对此表示赞同。

A language, he says, “is not a list of phrases”.

他说，一门语言“不是一系列短语的组合”。

The impracticality¹⁶ of some entries may have been intentional⁹ so “speakers would not be locked into canned expressions in stereotyped¹⁷ situations”.

有些词条可能是故意写得很不切实际，这样“在说话时就不会因为刻板印象而拘于格式化的表达”。

The fading genre¹⁸ of the phrasebook is unlikely to be missed.

常用语手册不会静悄悄地消亡。

But something will be lost when it is gone.

但随着它的消失，其它一些东西也会跟着逝去。

Poetry, Robert Frost supposedly said, is what gets lost in translation.

据说罗伯特·弗罗斯特曾说过，诗就是在翻译中丧失掉的东西。

Read these books’ dislocated phrases and poetry can be found in it, too.

这些书中错位的短语间也可以找到诗意。

“Owing to the road being slippery I nearly fell / Ten years ago / Come here,” runs one T.S.Eliotish section in a 1894 Tai-Khamti Grammar.

“由于路滑，我差点摔倒/十年前/来这里，”这是1894年《坎底傣语文法》中T.S.艾略特风格的一小部分内容。

The last words go to entries in an English-Kashmiri manual: “I am now composing a grammar/ I don’t exactly comprehend this…/ It is time to conclude.”

最后这句话出现在一本英语-克什米尔语手册中：“我现在正在编写语法规则/并不能完全理解……/是时候结束了。”

1 abiding   

adj.永久的，持久的，不变的

参考例句：

• He had an abiding love of the English countryside.他永远热爱英国的乡村。
• He has a genuine and abiding love of the craft.他对这门手艺有着真挚持久的热爱。

2 intestinal   

adj.肠的；肠壁；肠道细菌

参考例句：

• A few other conditions are in high intestinal obstruction. 其它少数情况是高位肠梗阻。 来自辞典例句
• This complication has occasionally occurred following the use of intestinal antiseptics. 这种并发症偶而发生在使用肠道抗菌剂上。 来自辞典例句

3 vomit   

v.呕吐，作呕；n.呕吐物，吐出物

参考例句：

• They gave her salty water to make her vomit.他们给她喝盐水好让她吐出来。
• She was stricken by pain and began to vomit.她感到一阵疼痛，开始呕吐起来。

4 vomiting   

吐

参考例句：

• Symptoms include diarrhoea and vomiting. 症状有腹泻和呕吐。
• Especially when I feel seasick, I can't stand watching someone else vomiting." 尤其晕船的时候，看不得人家呕。”

5 physiologically   

ad.生理上，在生理学上

参考例句：

• Therefore, the liver and gallbladder cannot be completely separated physiologically and pathologically. 因此，肝胆在生理和病理上不能完全分离。
• Therefore, the liver and gallbladder are closely related physiologically and pathologically. 因此，肝胆在生理和病理上紧密联系。

6 intriguing   

adj.有趣的；迷人的v.搞阴谋诡计(intrigue的现在分词)；激起…的好奇心

参考例句：

• These discoveries raise intriguing questions. 这些发现带来了非常有趣的问题。
• It all sounds very intriguing. 这些听起来都很有趣。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 authoritative   

adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的

参考例句：

• David speaks in an authoritative tone.大卫以命令的口吻说话。
• Her smile was warm but authoritative.她的笑容很和蔼，同时又透着威严。

8 precipice   

n.悬崖，危急的处境

参考例句：

• The hut hung half over the edge of the precipice.那间小屋有一半悬在峭壁边上。
• A slight carelessness on this precipice could cost a man his life.在这悬崖上稍一疏忽就会使人丧生。

9 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

10 brutality   

n.野蛮的行为，残忍，野蛮

参考例句：

• The brutality of the crime has appalled the public. 罪行之残暴使公众大为震惊。
• a general who was infamous for his brutality 因残忍而恶名昭彰的将军

11 eavesdrop   

v.偷听，倾听

参考例句：

• He ensconced himself in the closet in order to eavesdrop.他藏在壁橱里，以便偷听。
• It is not polite to eavesdrop on the conversation of other people.偷听他人说话是很不礼貌的。

12 Oxford   

n.牛津（英国城市）

参考例句：

• At present he has become a Professor of Chemistry at Oxford.他现在已是牛津大学的化学教授了。
• This is where the road to Oxford joins the road to London.这是去牛津的路与去伦敦的路的汇合处。

13 illustrated   

adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• His lecture was illustrated with slides taken during the expedition. 他在讲演中使用了探险时拍摄到的幻灯片。
• The manufacturing Methods: Will be illustrated in the next chapter. 制作方法将在下一章说明。

14 memorable   

adj.值得回忆的，难忘的，特别的，显著的

参考例句：

• This was indeed the most memorable day of my life.这的确是我一生中最值得怀念的日子。
• The veteran soldier has fought many memorable battles.这个老兵参加过许多难忘的战斗。

15 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

16 impracticality   

n.不切实际, 办不到

参考例句：

• I resent comments on the impracticality of small cars. 我反对说小骄车不实用的说法。

17 stereotyped   

adj.(指形象、思想、人物等)模式化的

参考例句：

• There is a sameness about all these tales. They're so stereotyped -- all about talented scholars and lovely ladies. 这些书就是一套子，左不过是些才子佳人，最没趣儿。
• He is the stereotyped monster of the horror films and the adventure books, and an obvious (though not perhaps strictly scientific) link with our ancestral past. 它们是恐怖电影和惊险小说中的老一套的怪物，并且与我们的祖先有着明显的（虽然可能没有科学的）联系。

18 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。