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1、Mark Twain-the Mirror of AmericaMost Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finns idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyers endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nations best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as a
2、nyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well -one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画
3、意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。确实，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都到达了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was bor
4、n Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water - a
5、navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world.印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于梦想的乐天派、语言尖刻的挖苦家：马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，此后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为
6、两口寻(12 英尺)意即可以通航的信号语。 他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。The geographic core, in Twains early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nations heart. Keelboats ， flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, cor
7、n, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850s, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States.在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、 平底船
8、和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、 玉米、 烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、 棉花和威士忌酒等货物那么被运送到北方。在 19 世纪 50 年代， 西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat. The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a cosmos. He
9、 participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds, piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would resurface in his books, together with the colorful language that he soaked up with a memory that seemed phonographic1857 年，少年马克?吐温作为蒸汽船上的一名小领航员踏人了这
10、片天地。在这个新的工作岗位上，他接触到的是各式各样的人物，看到的是一个多姿多彩的大干世界。他完全地投身到这种生活之中，经常在操舵室里听着人们谈论民间争斗、海盗抢劫、私刑案件、游医卖药以及河边的一些化外民居的故事。所有这一切，连同他那像留声机般准确可靠的记忆所吸收的丰富多彩的语言，后来都有时机在他的作品中得以再现。Steamboat decks teemed not only with the main current of pioneering humanity, but its flotsam of hustlers, gamblers, and thugs as well. From th
11、em all Mark Twain gained a keen perception of the human race, of the difference between what people claim to be and what they really are. His four and a half year s in the steamboat trade marked the real beginning of his education, and the most lasting part of it. In later life Twain acknowledged th
12、at the river had acquainted him with every possible type of human nature. Those acquaintanceships strengthened all his writing, but he never wrote well than when he wrote of the people a-long the great stream.蒸汽船的甲板上不仅挤满了富有开拓精神的人们，而且也载着一些娼妓、赌棍和歹徒等社会渣滓。从所有这些形形色色的人身上，马克?吐温敏锐地认识了人类，认识了人们的言与行之间的差距。他在蒸汽船
13、上工作的四年半时间是他真正接受教育的开端，而且也是最具有深远意义的教育。到了晚年，马克?吐温还声言是密西西比河使他了解了各种各样的人的本性。 这种生活体验对他的全部创作都起了促进作用，然而他描写得最为成功的还是那些密西西比河上的人物。When railroads began drying up the demand for steam-boat pilots and the Civil War halted commerce, Mark Twain left the river country. He tried soldiering for two weeks with a motley b
14、and of Confederate guerrillas who diligently avoided contact with the enemy. Twain quit after deciding, . I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating. 随着铁路运输的开展，社会上对汽船领航员的需求日渐减少，而内战的爆发又阻碍了商业贸易的开展。这时，马克?吐温便离开了密西西比河流域。他在南方邦联游击队的一支杂牌队伍里当了两个星期的兵。那支队伍想方设法防止与敌军交战。在确信 “我比创造撤退的人更精通撤退之
15、后，马克?吐温离开了那支队伍。He went west by stagecoach and succumbed to the epidemic of gold and silver fever in Nevadas Washoe region. For eight months he flirted with the colossal wealth available to the lucky and the persistent, and was rebuffed. Broke and discouraged, he accepted a job as reporter with the V
16、irginia City Territorial Enterprise, to literatures enduring gratitude.他乘驿站马车来到西部，在内华达州的华苏地区受到当时正流行的淘金热的诱惑。同那只有既幸运而又锲而不舍的追求者才能取得的巨大财富三心二意地打了八个月交道之后，他遭到了失败。在破产和灰心之余，他接受了为弗吉尼亚市?领土开发报?当记者的工作，这 一行动将获得文学界永久的感谢。From the discouragement of his mining failures, Mark Twain began digging his way to regional fame as a newspaper reporter and humorist. T
