Shakespeare: Soul of the Age
莎士比亚：时代的灵魂
Shakespeare was born on the 23rd of April 1564, at Stratford-upon-Avon, a little town in the heart of England. He was the eldest son of the family and educated at the local grammar school, but his father’s business went from bad to worse, he had to leave school and begin to earn his living.
1564年4月23日，莎士比亚出生于英格兰中部的小镇斯特拉斯特福德。他是家中的长子，就读于当地的 文法学校，后来父亲的生意每况愈下，他被迫辍学，自 己赚钱谋生。
When eighteen, he was a married man to a local girl. At the age of twenty-one, he set off to seek his fortune in the great city of London. There, he was in turn a horse-keeper, a stage-boy, a play mender and finally a playwright.Afterwards Shakespeare joined as an actor one or several companies of players. By 1584 he became as a rising playwright in London, and became soon a central figure in London’s leading theater company. During that time he wrote many great plays for the group. He was known in his day as very rapid writer: “His mind and hand went together,” his publisher reported, “and what he thought, he uttered with that easiness that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers.”
18岁时，他与当地一个女孩结婚。21岁，他离家前 往大城市伦敦闯荡。在伦敦，他当过马夫，干过杂役，改 过剧本，最终他专职从事剧本创作。随后，他曾加入多家 公司，当过演员。到了 1584年，他在伦敦崭露头角，作 为剧作家而开始走红，不久便成为伦敦头号剧团的核心 人物。那段时间里，他为剧团写了很多了不起的剧本。当 时，他以思路敏捷见长，他的出版商这样评价他：“他所 构思的东西，马上就能跃然纸上，他一有灵感，便脱口而 出，他的剧本里找不到一丝涂改的痕迹。”
Shakespeare was also a great humanist. His interest in the life and people of his time made him watch with an observant eye the scenery of his native country, men and women in all walks of life, their appearances, habits and speech. He was familiar with the traditions of English folklore and showed deep concern for his people and his country’s destiny.
莎士比亚也是伟大的人文主义者。怀着对生活、对 世人的兴趣，他用善于观察的眼睛，捕捉故乡风物，观 察各行各业的男男女女，观察他们的相貌衣饰、生活习俗和谈吐习惯。他对英国的民间传统耳熟能详，对国家 和人民的命运也表现出深切的关怀。
His plays show us basic human flaws played out to their tragic conclusion. But Shakespeare doesn’t judge these faults. He doesn’t preach: he simply tells the story and we our own minds up. That is why they can be so effective because we as an audience draw our own conclusions. Recently, some people have even suggested that because of this, Shakespeare helped shape society.
他的戏剧以悲伤的结局向我们展示了人类最根本 的缺陷。但他没有对这些缺陷进行评判，他不是坐而论 道，而只是向我们娓娓道来一个个故事，让我们自己去 判断。这也是他的戏剧为何感人至深的原因，因为我们 观众可以得出自己的结论。最近有些人认为，基于这一 点，莎士比亚有助于构建社会。
What’s more, Shakespeare’s contribution went beyond writing some good plays and dramas. He also introduced several hundred works to the English language including: aerial, assassination, countless, hurry, disgraceful and sportive. Besides, he coined phrases and expressions we still use to this day, such as “fair play”，“a foregone conclusion” and “to wear your heart on your sleeve”.
此外，莎士比亚的贡献，不仅仅是写出了一些好的 剧本，他还将数以百计的单词引入了英语，例如：aerial (空气中的），assassination (暗杀），countless, hurry, disgraceful, sportive等等。他还创造了许多词组和短语， 如 “fair play”、“foregone conclusion (预料中的结局）”、 “to wear your heart on your sleeve (十分坦率）”等，它 们一直沿用到今天。
All these came from an ordinary man. He didn’t come from a rich background, and he didn’t go to the best schools. He was from the midlands, went to a good school, but in those days if you were to be taken seriously, as a writer you normally had to go to university. The fact that William Shakespeare’s influence extends from theatre to literature to the English language itself justifies of his famous quotes: “Be not afraid of greatness: some men are bom great, some are achieve greatness and some have greatness thrust upon them.”
所有这一切都源于一个普通人，他没有出生在富裕 的家庭，没有去最好的学校读书，他生于英格兰中部， 在一所不错的学校读过中学，但那个时候你要想成为真 正的作家，一般都得去读大学。莎士比亚的个人影响从 戏剧扩展到文学，再渗透到英语这门语言，这本身就印 证了他那句名言：“不必怵头伟大这个字眼：有的人生就 伟大，有的人成就伟大，有的人不得不伟大。” |