《追忆似水年华》英文版

For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say “I’m going to sleep.” And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between François I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a reincarnated spirit; the subject of my book would separate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to which it appeared incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark indeed.

在很长一段时期里，我都是早早就躺下了。有时候，蜡烛才灭，我的眼皮儿随即合上，都来不及咕哝一句：“我要睡着了。”半小时之后，我才想到应该睡觉；这一想，我反倒清醒过来。我打算把自以为还捏在手里的书放好，吹灭灯火。睡着的那会儿，我一直在思考刚才读的那本书，只是思路有点特别；我总觉得书里说的事儿，什么教堂呀，四重奏呀，弗朗索瓦一世和查理五世争强斗胜呀，全都同我直接有关。这种念头直到我醒来之后还延续了好几秒钟；它倒与我的理性不很相悖，只是象眼罩似的蒙住我的眼睛，使我一时觉察不到烛火早已熄灭。后来，它开始变得令人费解，好像是上一辈子的思想，经过还魂转世来到我的面前，于是书里的内容同我脱节，愿不愿意再挂上钩，全凭我自己决定；这一来，我的视力得到恢复，我惊讶地发现周围原来漆黑一片，这黑暗固然使我的眼睛十分受用，但也许更使我的心情感到亲切而安详；它简直象是没有来由、莫名其妙的东西，名副其实他让人摸不到头脑。

前段时间有小伙伴提到让我读个意识流作品, 我一下就想到了”意识流”文学的先驱, 法国作家马赛尔·普鲁斯特(Marcel Proust), 的代表作, 《追忆似水年华》. 

后来我还在”语法综述”视频里引用了书中的一个长句, 所以这次就朗读一下它的开篇.

《追忆似水年华》原作是法语, À la recherche du temps perdu, 一开始的英文翻译为Remembrance of Things Past, 后来改为更主流的翻译In Search of Lost Time, 直译中文名为《追寻逝去的时光》, 不过更主流的译名是《追忆似水年华》, 大概是因为后者更有诗意.

“意识流”这种文学类型你多半听过. 它的英文是stream of consciousness. 

stream一般指小溪, 河流. 不过也不一定非要是水流. 你也可以说a stream of cars in the street街上的车流. 

consciousness就是我们的”意识”.

所以”意识流”就是这么来的.

说来不好意思, 英语兔当初我误以为”意识流”的”流”是”流派”的意思, 你可千万别也这么认为.

而且呢, 我一直觉得, 这所谓”意识流”不就是想到哪儿写到哪儿嘛! 就和中学老师给我的作文评语一样, “没有中心思想”啊!

如果你也收到过这样的评语, 请在公屏上打”中心思想呢?”

所以呢, 如果你以后再被老师说”写作没有中心思想”, 你就可以说你写的是”意识流”风格~ 

《追忆似水年华》这本书在英语兔我看来, 还真的是随便挑哪一页开始看都无所谓~

不过刚才咱们读的这个开篇还算好的, 至少可读性非常高.

我再给你读一下另一个”意识流”代表, 爱尔兰作家詹姆斯·乔伊斯(James Joyce)的《尤利西斯》(Ulysses)的结尾. 那才叫真正的”意识流”!

the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

咱们就看一下最后几句吧:

O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

还有海洋 深红的海洋 有时候真像火一样的红 夕阳西下 太壮观了 还有阿拉梅达那写花园里的无花果 真的 哪些别致的小街 还有一幢幢桃红的蓝的黄的房子 还有一座座玫瑰花园 还有茉莉花 天竺葵 仙人掌 少女时代的直布罗陀 我在哪儿确是山间的花朵 真的 我常像安达卢西亚姑娘们那样在头上插一朵玫瑰花 要不我佩戴一朵红的吧 好的还想到他在摩尔城墙下吻我的情形 我想 好吧 他比别人也不差呀 于是 我用目光叫他再求 真的 于是他又一次问我愿意不愿意 真的 你就说愿意吧 我的花朵 我呢 先伸出两手搂住了他 真的 我把他搂得紧紧的 让他的胸膛感到我的乳房的芳香 真的 他的心在狂跳 然后 真的 我才开口答应 愿意 我愿意 真的

你看, 就这本书的末尾有个句号, 前面一整段都是没有标点的. 绝对意识流吧.