讀點好英文:Don Quixote 堂吉訶德

Don Quixote 堂吉訶德

[西班牙]米蓋兒·塞萬提斯（Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra）

《堂吉訶德》是一部諷刺騎士小說。主人公堂吉訶德因沉迷于騎士小說，決定外出歷險，做一名行俠仗義的騎士。他找來同村的農(nóng)民桑丘·潘沙做他的侍從，把鄰村的一位農(nóng)家女兒杜爾希尼亞作為他的意中人。他三次外出歷險，做了好多可笑的事。最后他被化裝成白月騎士的朋友打敗，放棄行俠游歷，回家不久后病倒。臨死前，他終于醒悟了。

In a village of La Mancha, the name of which I have no desire to call to mind, there lived not long since one of those gentlemen that keep a lance in the lance-rack, an old buckler, a lean hack, and a greyhound for coursing. An olla of rather more beef than mutton, a salad on most night, scraps on Saturdays, lentils on Fridays, and a pigeon or so extra on Sundays, made away with three-quarters of his income.The rest of it went in a doublet of fine cloth and velvet breeches and shoes to match for holidays, while on week-days he made a brave figure in his best homespun.He had in his house a housekeeper past forty, a niece under twenty, and a lad for the field and market-place, who used to saddle the hack as well as handle the bill-hook.The age of this gentleman of ours was bordering of fifty;he was of a hardy habit, spare, gauntfeatured, a very early riser and a great sportsman.They will have it his surname was Quixada or Quesada（for here there is some difference of opinion among the authors who write on the subject），although from reasonable conjectures it seems plain that he was called Quexana.This, however, is of but little importance to our tale;it will be enough not to stray a hair's breadth from the truth in the telling of it.

You must know, then, that the above-named gentleman whenever he was at leisure（which was mostly all the year round）gave himself up to reading books of chivalry with such ardour and avidity that he almost entirely neglected the pursuit of his field-sports, and even the management of his property;and to such a pitch did his eagerness and infatuation go that he sold many an acre of tillageland to buy books of chivalry to read, and brought home as many of them as he could get. But of all there were none he liked so well as those of the famous Feliciano de Silva's composition, for their lucidity of style and complicated conceits were as pearls in his sight, particularly when in his reading he came upon courtships and cartels, where he often found passages like“the reason of the unreason with which my reason is afflicted so weakens my reason that with reason I murmur at your beauty;”or again,“the high heavens, that of your divinity divinely fortify you with the stars, render you deserving of the desert your greatness deserves.”O(jiān)ver conceits of this sort the poor gentleman lost his wits, and used to lie awake striving to understand them and worm the meaning out of them;what Aristotle himself could not have made out or extracted had he come to life again for that special purpose.He was not at all easy about the wounds which Don Belianis gave and took, because it seemed to him that, great as were the surgeons who had cured him, he must have had his face and body covered all over with seams and scars.He commended, however, the author's way of ending his book with the promise of that interminable adventure, and many a time was he tempted to take up his pen and finish it properly as is there proposed, which no doubt he would have done, and made a successful piece of work of it too, had not greater and more absorbing thoughts prevented him.

Many an argument did he have with the curate of his village（a learned man, and a graduate of Siguenza）as to which had been the better knight, Palmerin of England or Amadis of Gaul. Master Nicholas, the village barber, however, used to say that neither of them came up to the Knight of Phoebus, and that if there was any that could compare with him it was Don Galaor, the brother of Amadis of Gaul, because he had a spirit that was equal to every occasion, and was no finikin knight, nor lachrymose like his brother, while in the matter of valour he was not a whit behind him.In short, he became so absorbed in his books that he spent his nights from sunset to sunrise, and his days from dawn to dark, poring over them;and what with little sleep and much reading his brains got so dry that he lost his wits.

His fancy grew full of what he used to read about in his books, enchantments, quarrels, battles, challenges, wounds, wooings, loves, agonies, and all sorts of impossible nonsense;and it so possessed his mind that the whole fabric of invention and fancy he read of was true, that to him no history in the world had more reality in it. He used to say the Cid Ruy Diaz was a very good knight, but that he was not to be compared with the Knight of the Burning Sword who with one backstroke cut in half two fierce and monstrous giants.He thought more of Bernardo del Carpio because at Roncesvalles he slew Roland in spite of enchantments, availing himself of the artifice of Hercules when he strangled Antaeus the son of Terra in his arms.He approved highly of the giant Morgante, because, although of the giant breed which is always arrogant and ill-conditioned, he alone was affable and well-bred.But above all he admired Reinaldos of Montalban, especially when he saw him sallying forth from his castle and robbing everyone he met, and when beyond the seas he stole that image of Mahomet which, as his history says, was entirely of gold.To have a bout of kicking at that traitor of a Ganelon he would have given his housekeeper, and his niece into the bargain.

曼查有個地方，地名就不提了，不久前住著一位貴族。他那類貴族，矛架上有一支長矛，還有一面皮盾、一匹瘦馬和一只獵兔狗。鍋里牛肉比羊肉多，晚餐常吃涼拌肉丁，星期六吃脂油煎雞蛋，星期五吃扁豆，星期日加一只野雛鴿，這就用去了他四分之三的收入，其余的錢買了節(jié)日穿的黑呢外套、長毛絨襪子和平底鞋，而平時，他總是得意揚揚地穿著上好的棕色粗呢衣。家里有一個40多歲的女管家，一個不到20歲的外甥女，還有一個能種地、能采購的小伙子，為他備馬、修剪樹枝。我們的這位貴族年近五旬，體格健壯，肌肉干癟，臉龐清瘦，每天起得很早，喜歡打獵。據(jù)說他還有一個別名，叫基哈達或克薩達（各種記載略有不同）。推論起來，他應該叫吉哈納。不過，這對我們的故事并不重要，只要我們談起他來不失真就行。

人家說這位貴族一年到頭閑的時候居多，閑時常讀騎士小說，而且讀得津津有味，幾乎忘記了習武和理財。他癡心不已，簡直走火入魔，居然賣掉了好多田地去買騎士小說。他把所有能弄到的騎士小說都搬回了家。不過，所有這些小說，他都覺得不如聞名遐邇的費利西亞諾·德席爾瓦寫得好，此人的平鋪直敘和煩冗陳述被他視為明珠，特別在讀到那些殷勤話和挑逗信時更是如此。許多地方這樣寫道：“以你無理對我有理之道理，使我自覺理虧，因此我埋怨你漂亮也有道理?！边€有：“高空以星星使你的神圣更加神圣，使你受之無愧地接受你受之無愧的偉大稱號而受之無愧。”這些話使得這位可憐的貴族惶惑不已。他夜不能寐，要理解這些即使亞里士多德再世也理解不了的句子。他對堂貝利亞尼斯打傷了別人而自己也受了傷略感不快，可以想象，即使是病被高明的外科醫(yī)生治好了，但是在臉上和身上也不免會留下累累傷疤。然而，他很欣賞書的末尾說故事還沒有完結(jié)，很多次，他甚至提筆續(xù)寫。如果不是其他更重要的想法不斷打擾他，他肯定會續(xù)寫，而且是會寫完的。

他常常和當?shù)氐纳窀福ㄒ晃恢R淵博的人，畢業(yè)于錫古恩薩）爭論誰是最優(yōu)秀的騎士，是英格蘭的帕爾梅林，還是高盧的阿馬迪斯？可是同村的理發(fā)師尼古拉斯師傅卻說，誰都比不上太陽神騎士。如果有人能夠與之相比，那么，只能是高盧的阿馬迪斯的兄弟加勞爾。他符合各方面的條件，不是矯揉造作的騎士，而且不像他兄弟那樣愛哭，論勇敢也不比他兄弟差。

總之，他沉湎于書，通宵達旦，讀得天昏地轉(zhuǎn)。這樣，睡得少，讀得多，終于思維枯竭，精神失常，滿腦袋都是書上虛構(gòu)的那些東西，都是想入非非的魔術(shù)、打斗、戰(zhàn)爭、挑戰(zhàn)、負傷、獻殷勤、愛情、暴風雨、胡言亂語等。他確信他在書上讀到的都是真的。對他來說，世界上只有那些故事才是實事。他說熙德·魯伊·迪亞斯是一位杰出的騎士，可是無法與火劍騎士比。火劍騎士反手一擊，就把兩個巨大的惡魔劈成了兩半。他最推崇卡皮奧的貝爾納多。在龍塞斯瓦列斯，貝爾納多借助赫拉克勒斯把地神之子安泰舉起扼死的方法，殺死了會魔法的羅爾丹。他十分稱贊巨人摩根達。因為其他巨人都傲慢無禮，唯有他文質(zhì)彬彬。不過，他最贊賞的是蒙塔爾萬的雷納爾多斯，特別是看到故事中說，他走出城堡，逢物便偷，而且還到海外偷了穆罕默德鍍金像的時候，更是贊嘆不止。為了能狠狠地踢一頓叛徒加拉隆，他情愿獻出他的女管家，甚至可以再加上他的外甥女。

Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image.

——Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

行為是一面鏡子，每個人都把自己的形象顯現(xiàn)于其中。

——德國詩人 歌德

實戰(zhàn)提升

作者介紹

米蓋兒·塞萬提斯（1547—1616）是文藝復興時期西班牙小說家、劇作家、詩人。他被譽為西班牙最偉大的作家。評論家們稱他的小說《堂吉訶德》是文學史上的第一部現(xiàn)代小說，同時也是世界文學的瑰寶之一。

單詞注解

chivalry[5FivElri]n.騎士精神；騎士制度

lucidity[lu:5siditi]n.清晰；清澈

fabric[5fAbrik]n.織物；結(jié)構(gòu)；組織

fierce[fiEs]adj.兇猛的；殘酷的；好斗的

名句大搜索

他癡心不已，簡直走火入魔，居然賣掉了許多田地去買騎士小說。他把所有能弄到的騎士小說都搬回了家。

對他來說，世界上只有那些故事才是實事。

因為其他巨人都傲慢無禮，唯有他文質(zhì)彬彬。