中英互译：The Catcher in the Rye麦田里的守望者（节选）

The Catcher in the Rye

麦田里的守望者

Old Phoebe said something then，but I couldn’t hear her.She had the side of her mouth right smack on the pillow, and I couldn’t hear her.

老菲碧这时说了句什么话，我没听清。她把一个嘴角整个儿压在枕头上，所以我听不清她说的话。

“What?” I said. “Take your mouth away. I can’t hear you with your mouth that way.”

“什么?”我说，“把你的头拿开。你这样把嘴压着，我根本听不清你在说什么。”

“You don’t like anything that’ s happening.”

“你不喜欢正在发生的事情，所有的。”

It made me even more depressed when she said that.

她这么一说，我心里不由得更烦了。

“Yes I do. Yes I do. Sure I do. Don’t say that. Why the hell do you say that?”

“我喜欢，我喜欢，我当然喜欢。别说这种话。你干吗要说这种见鬼的话呢?”

“Because you don’t. You don’t like any schools. You don’t like a million things. You don’t.”

“因为你不喜欢。你讨厌上学。你讨厌好多东西。你不喜欢。”

“I do! That’ s where you’re wrong—that’s exactly where you’re wrong! Why the hell do you have to say that?” I said. Boy, was she depressing me.

“我喜欢!你错就错在这里—你完完全全错在这里!你为什么非要说这种见鬼的话呢?”我说。天哪，她真让我烦透了。

“Because you don’t,” she said. “Name one thing.”

“因为你不喜欢，”她说。“说一样东西让我听听。”

“One thing? One thing I like?0 I said. “Okay.”

“说一样东西?一样我喜欢的东西?”我说，“好吧。”

The trouble was, I couldn’t concentrate too hot. Sometimes it’ s hard to concentrate.

问题是，我没法集中思想。思想有时候是很难集中的。

“One thing I like a lot you mean?” I asked her.

“你是说，一样我非常喜欢的东西?”我问她。

She didn’t answer me，though. She was in a cock-eyed position way the hell over the other side of the bed. She was about a thousand miles away. “C’mon, answer me,” I said. “One thing I like a lot, or one thing I just like?”

她没作声。她躺在床的另一边，斜着眼看我。感觉好像离得很远。“喂，回答我，”我说。“是一样我非常喜欢的东西呢，还是我喜欢的东西就行?”

“You like a lot.”

“你非常喜欢的。”

“Anyway, I like it now,”I said. “I mean right now. Sitting here with you and just chewing the fat and horsing—”

“不管怎样，我喜欢现在这样，”我说。“我是说就像现在这样，跟你一起坐着，聊聊天，逗逗乐……”

“That isn’t anything really!”

“这可不是什么真正的东西!”

“It is so something realty! Certainly it is! Why the hell isn’t it? People never think anything is anything really. I’m getting goddam sick of it.”

“这是真正的东西!当然是的!他妈的为什么不是?人们就是不把真正的东西当东西看待。我他妈的都腻烦透这个了。”

“Stop swearing. All right，name something else. Name something you’d like to be. Like a scientist. Or a lawyer or something.”

“别骂啦。好吧，说些别的吧，说说你的理想吧。你是想当个科学家呢，还是想当个律师什么的。”

“l couldn’t be a scientist. I’m no good in science.”

“我当不了科学家，我不懂科学。”

“Well, a lawyer一like Daddy and all.”

“那，当个律师，像爸爸一样。”

“Lawyers are all right, I guess一but it doesn’t appel to me,” I said. “I mean they’re all right if they go around saving innocent guy’s lives all the time, and like that, but you don’t do that kind of stuff if you’re a lawyer. All you do is make a lot of dough and play golf and play bridge and buy cars and drink Martinis and look like a hotshot. And besides. Even if you did go around saving guys’ lives and all, how would you know if you did it because you really wanted to save guys’ lives, or because you did it because what you really wanted to do was be a terrific lawyer, with everybody slapping you on the back and congratulating you in court when the goddam trial was over, the reporters and everybody, the way it is in the dirty movies? How would you know you weren’t being a phony? The trouble is, you wouldn’t.”

“律师倒是不错，我想—可是不适合我，”我说。“我是说他们要是老出去搭救受冤枉的人的性命，那倒是不错，可你一旦当了律师，就不干那样的事了。你只知道挣大钱，打高尔夫球，打桥牌，买汽车，喝马提尼酒，摆臭架子。再说，即便你真的出去救人了，你怎么知道这样做到底是因为你真的想要救人性命呢，还是因为你真正的动机是想当一个大律师，等审判一结束，那些记者什么的就会向你涌来，向你道贺，就像那些下流电影里演的那样?你怎么知道自己不是个伪君子?问题是，你根本就不知道。”

I’m not too sure old Phoebe knew what the hell I was talking about. I mean she’s only a little child and all. But she was listening, at least. If somebody at least listens, it’s not too bad.

我不知道我说的那些话老菲碧到底听懂了多少，我是说她毕竟还是个小孩子。不过她至少在好好听着。只要对方在听，那就不错了。

“Daddy’s going to kill you. He’s going to kill you,”she said.

“爸爸会要了你的命。他会要了你的命，”她说。

I wasn’t listening, though. I was thinking about something else—something crary.”You know what I’d like to be?”I said.”You know what I’d like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?”

可我没在听，我在想一些别的事—一些异想天开的事。“你知道我将来想做什么吗?”我说。“你知道我将来想做什么吗?我是说将来要是能他妈的让我自由选择的话。”

“What? Stop swearing.”

“什么?别骂啦。”

“You know that song‘If a body catch a body comin’ through the rye’?I’d like—”

“你知道《你要是在麦田里捉到了我》这首歌吗?我将来想—”

“It’ s’If a body meet a body coming through the rye’!”old Phoebe said. “It’s a poem. By Robert Burns.”

“是《你要是在麦田里遇到了我》!”老菲碧说。“这是一首诗，罗伯特·彭斯写的。”

“I know it’ s a poem by Robert Burns.”

“我知道那是罗伯特·彭斯写的诗!”

She was right, though. It is “If a body meet a body coming through the rye.” I didn’t know it then, though.

她说得对。那的确是《你要是在麦田里遇到了我》。可我当时并不知道。

“I thought it was‘If a body catch a body’，”I said. “Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids，and nobody’s around-nobody big, I mean，except me. And I’m standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff-I mean if they’re running and they don’t look where they’re going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That’s all I’d do all day. I’ d just be the catcher in the rye and all.I know it’s crazy, but that’s the only thing I’d really like to be/know it’s crazy.”

“我还以为是《你要是在麦田里捉到了我》呢，”我说。“不管怎样，我老是在幻想着有那么一群小孩子在一大块麦田里做游戏，很多个小孩子，附近没有一个人，我是说，除了我以外，没有一个大人。我呢，就站在悬崖边。我做的就是在那儿守望，要是有哪个孩子往悬崖边奔来，我就把他拉住—我是说孩子们都在狂奔，也不知道自己是在往哪儿跑，我得从什么地方出来，把他们拉住。我整天就干这样的事。我只想当个麦田里的守望者。我知道这有点异想天开，可我真正喜欢干的就是这个。我知道这不像话。”

Old Phoebe didn’t say anything for a long time. Then, when she said something, all she said was, “Daddy’s going to kill you.”

老菲碧有好一会儿没吭声。后来她开口了，可她只说了句:“爸爸会要了你的命。”

作者介绍:

杰罗姆·大卫·塞林格(1919-)，美国作家，他的《麦田里的守望者》被认为是二十世纪美国文学的经典作品之一。塞林格在1942年从军，1944年他前往欧洲战场从事反间谍工作。1946年塞林格退伍，回到纽约开始专心创作。他的第一本长篇小说《麦田里的守望者》一经出版就大获成功。他的作品还有《弗兰尼与卓埃》、《木匠们，把屋梁升高》和《西摩:一个介绍》和收录了他的短篇故事的《九故事》。

本书以主人公霍尔顿自叙的语气讲述自己被学校开除后在纽约城游荡将近两昼夜的经历和感受。霍尔顿是个个性复杂而又矛盾的青少年的典型。他有一颗纯洁善良、追求美好生活和崇高理想的童心。他对那些热衷于女人和酒的人十分反感，对校长的虚伪势利非常厌恶，看到墙上的下流字眼便愤愤擦去，遇到修女为受难者募捐就慷慨解囊。他对妹妹菲碧真诚爱护，百般照顾。可是，愤世嫉俗思想引起的消极反抗，他抽烟、酗酒、打架、调情，甚至找妓女玩。他认为成人社会里没有一个人可信，全是“假仁假义的伪君子”。他看不惯现实社会中的那种世态人情，他渴望的是朴实和真诚，但遇到的全是虚伪和欺骗，而他又无力改变这种现状，只好苦闷、仿徨、放纵，最后甚至想逃离这个现实世界。