忆青岛（节选）文/梁实秋 2019年英语世界翻译大赛参考译文1,2对照版

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忆青岛（节选）文/梁实秋 

2019年英语世界翻译大赛参考译文1,2对照版

Some Recollections of Qingdao (excerpt) by Liang Shiqiu

我是北平人，从不以北平为理想的地方。北平从繁华而破落，从高雅而庸俗、而恶劣，几经沧桑，早已无复旧观。我虽然足迹不广，但北自辽东，南至百粤，也走过了十几省，窃以为真正令人流连不忍去的地方应推青岛。

译文1 张军厚先生译

Although I was born and bred in Peiping, I have never regarded it as the best place to call my home. This once prosperous and elegant city has gone through untold vicissitudes over the years, falling into decline and vulgarity and even into depravity; few traces of its former self are now recognizable. Whilst I do not claim to have travelled far and wide in my life, I have been to a dozen or so provinces across China, from Liaoning in the far North to Baiyue in the South. Tsingtao of Shantung Province among those, in my eyes, truly tops the list of the most unforgettable places to visit.

译文2 黄少政译

A native of Peiping, I have never deemed my hometown worth putting in a good word or two. If anything, its dismal trajectory of degeneration and decline, in a matter of a few decades, from what it used to be—such a fabulous abode of wealth and culture of the nation—into sheer pandemonium shocks and dismays admirers. Not much traveled, I’ve nevertheless set foot in a dozen provinces, along the coast and in the interior—Liaoning the farthest to the Northeast and Guangdong to the southeast—and I think I’d rank Tsingtao at the top of my itinerary, to visit or to dwell.

青岛位于东海之滨，在胶州湾之入口处，背山面海，形势天成。光绪二十三年（一八九七）德国强租胶州湾，辟青岛为市场，大事建设。直到如今，青岛的外貌仍有德国人的痕迹。例如房屋建筑，屋顶一律使用红瓦片，山坡起伏绿树葱茏之间，红绿掩映，饶有情趣。　

译文1 张军厚先生译

Tsingtao lies at the mouth of the Jiaozhou Bay on the coast of East China Sea. With such a vast sea in the east and a panorama of gorgeous mountains right behind, what a heavenly blessed place the city is! In 1897, or the 23rd year of the reign of Emperor Guangxu, Germany seized Tsingtao through a lease agreement imposed upon the Qing court and thereafter turned the city into its big marketplace. A massive spree of construction soon ensued across the city. Even today, vestiges of Germany’s influence are visible from the city’s architecture. It is notable, for example, that houses uniformly feature red-tile rooftops. The nearby sloping hillsides, on the other hand, are clothed in luxuriant greenery. What a delightful and captivating contrast the two sides form!

译文2 黄少政译

Tsingtao sits in a blessed locale where Jiaozhou Bay opens on the East China Sea. Mountains rear right behind, and the waters in the bay are as deep as they are high, making Tsingtao an ideal port. In the 23rd year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1897) , no sooner had Kaiser Wilhelm II forced the feeble Qing court into an agreement to lease Tsingtao (a small ,quiet fishing village at the time) than his countrymen moved in to start a construction spree to the extent that even today Tsingtao retains a Teutonic architectural look, most evident in the city’s ubiquitous red-tiled roofing, in a striking contrast with the azure of the sea. It remains one of China’s coziest and most charming cities as all the architecture inhabits a forested terrain of undulating hills and its streets shelter under a canopy of trees—peaches, pines, magnolias and ginkgos.

民国三年青岛又被日本夺占，民国十一年才得收回。迩后虽然被几个军阀盘据，表面上没有遭到什么破坏。当初建设的根柢牢固，就是要糟蹋一时也糟蹋不了。青岛的整齐清洁的市容一直维持了下来。我想在全国各都市里，青岛是最干净的一个。“无风三尺土，有雨一街泥”的北平不能比。

译文1 张军厚先生译

In 1914, or the 3rd year of the Republic of China, Qingdao fell under Japanese occupation until its return to China in the 11th year of the Republic of China. In the following years, the political scene of Tsingtao was dominated by several warlords, but the city managed to emerge physically intact from the ravages wrought during this period. The buildings had been built with foundations so strong and sturdy that they could have surely withstood any attempts to undermine or destroy them. Also, Tsingtao has ever since remained tidy and clean in appearance, and I believe it leads all the metropolises across China on the measure of cleanness. In this regard, Peiping pales miserably in comparison. Its streets are said to be “covered in dust of three chi on windless days and strewn with mud on rainy days”.

译文2 黄少政译

In the 3rd year of the Republic of China (1913), the booming harbor was taken off by the Japanese, and it was not ceded back until 1924, when it fell into the clutches of warlords. Surprisingly ,decades of political anarchy and war’s desolation did not wreak much havoc, at least on the surface, thanks to the solid foundations laid down by the meticulous German architects. After all, what is done to last in the first place cannot be undone in a day. The result is we’re all justifiably proud of living in Tsingtao, possibly the cleanest and neatest and loveliest in all China. Peiping certainly compares poorly with Tsingtao as the former has been dismissed proverbially as somewhere “one gets dust all over even when there is no sign of wind and spattered with mud whenever comes down a rain.”

青岛的天气属于大陆气候，但是有海湾的潮流调剂，四季的变化相当温和。称得上是“春有百花秋有月，夏有凉风冬有雪”的好地方。冬天也有过雪，但是很少见，屋里面无需升火不会结冰。夏天的凉风习习，秋季的天高气爽，都是令人喜的，而春季的百花齐放，更是美不胜收。

译文1 张军厚先生译

Tsingtao is located in the temperate continental climate zone, but, under the influence of the tidal currents in Jiaozhou Bay, its weather is mild all year round. It is worthy to be called an idyllic place where “in Spring there are hundreds of flowers in blossom; in Autumn the silver moon shines; in Summer there is bracing breeze; and in Winter there is white snowfall”. In winter, snow may fall, but only as a rare occurrence; there is no need to make a fire in the living room to get warm as water never reaches the point of freezing. One never misses cool breeze in summer, nor crisp air and clear skies in autumn. Aren’t these seasons pleasant? Best of all, Tsingtao bursts into a riot of color in the Springtime as all kinds of flowers blossom everywhere.

译文2 黄少政译

With its continental climate, yet modified by surges of bay currents, Tsingtao is mild all the time in a year, notably its four distinct seasons—on the round as in the calendar , making the port city mostly livable where “one can expect to see timely flowers in spring, savour the full moon in mid-autumn, feel cool breeze in summer and enjoy the snow scene in winter”. Snow falls occasionally in winter, but rarely to the point of freezing that dictates a stove be lit to warm the house. Summer is, as a rule, and cool and pleasant; in autumn one inhales crisp air; best of all, spring envelopes the town in a riot of blossoms.

一般山东人的特性是外表倔强豪迈，内心敦厚温和。宦场中人，大部分肉食者鄙，各地皆然，固无足论。观风问俗，宜对庶民着眼。青岛民风淳厚，每于细民中见之。我初到青岛，看到人力车夫从不计较车资，乘客下车一律付与一角，路程远则付二角，无争论者。这是全国所没有的现象。

译文1 张军厚先生译

Shantung people are generally known for being stubborn, forthright, and bold outwardly, and for being honest, sincere, and kind-hearted inwardly. As for those amongst Shantung people who are part of the national officialdom, that is, those in power, most of them are portrayed as being short-sighted and inept, or “good for nothing” in more plain language. In fact, this is true of people all over the country who belong to the officialdom; therefore, I dismiss this breed as being unworthy of my attention or discussion here. If one wants to get acquainted with the local customs and manners of a place, one should start by approaching the common folks there. Simplicity and honesty best describe the prevailing local way of life in Tsingtao, and one can see these virtues being exemplified and quietly practiced by these common folks every day. Upon my arrival when I first visited Tsingtao, I learned that the rickshaw pullers stuck to the rule of charging a uniform fare of ten jiao for all rides, with the exception of extended ones in which a fare of 20 jiao applied. Bargaining or arguing with passengers over payments was unheard of. That I had not seen happening for once thus far throughout the rest of China.

译文2 黄少政译

Local residents appear, by and large, bold, even blunt, but good-hearted and benevolent inside. I am speaking of commoners, not those in the officialdom. That mandarins are everywhere a despicable class is a truism, as the pervasiveness of the observation suggests. To form a correct opinion of the character of the inhabitants of a town, one must go forth and associate with ordinary folk in all their conditions, habits, and humors. And I congratulate myself once amidst a bunch of uniquely honest and good-hearted souls on earth. When I first arrived in town, I was struck that one got charged one of two fares for a rickshaw ride: ten cents for nearby and twenty cents for a anywhere distant. Never have I met a rickshaw puller in Tsingtao who haggled over the price with the client—a practice all too common in the rest of China.

有人说这是德国人留下的无形的制度，无论如何这种作风能维持很久便是难能可贵。青岛市面上绝少讨价还价的恶习。虽然小事一端，代表意义很大。无怪乎有人感叹，齐鲁本是圣人之邦，青岛焉能不绍其馀绪？

译文1 张军厚先生译

Some say that what is recounted above testifies, intangibly, for Tsingtao’s German heritage. It is remarkable that such a heritage has persevered for so long a time, for better or for worse. Haggling over prices—often cast in a bad light—occurs rarely in Tsingtao. A trivial matter as this may seem to be, it significantly speaks for matters much bigger. Since Shantung is commonly called “the land of Qi and Lu”—the birthplace of Confucius and Mencius, some contend justifiably, isn’t it a matter of course that the offspring of these ancient philosophers and sages are carrying their legacy forward? 

译文2 黄少政译

Whether this instance of honesty and simplicity of former times is, as some might protest, attributable to the lingering salutary influences of the port’s colonial past, I can’t tell. The point is that such customs do persist to our day speaks volumes about the character of the local populace which partially accounts for the conspicuous absence of the above national mania for a bargain. A trifling matter this might sound, it could mean much more than meets the eye. Since Shandong province (where Tsingtao lies) was once two vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty—Qi and Lu，ie, the birthplace of two of China’s wisest men—Confucius and Mencius, it does make sense if their compatriots, soaking up the sanctified and rarefied air through millennia, come off as morally exemplary and as worthy of being marveled at and emulated.