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英国维多利亚时代数学家刘易斯·卡罗尔（Lewis Carrol）创作于1862年的小说 Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland 一问世就成为英国最畅销的儿童读物，并已成为现代儿童文学中的经典。1922年著名语言学家赵元任翻译了该书的第一个中译本。赵译本《阿丽思漫游奇境记》问世以后的九十多年中，有众多的译本出版，其中有一些是根据赵译本改写的，有一些是重新翻译的，但赵译本仍是公认的最佳译本。这部作品有许多双关语、藏头诗、典故和文字游戏等，翻译难度相当大。赵元任却将绝大部分成功地转化成了简洁平易且丰富有趣的汉语，表现出一代大师深厚的中英文功底和高超的翻译技巧。
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped [1] into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, “and what is the use of a book,” thought Alice, “without pictures or conversation?”
阿丽思陪着她姊姊闲坐在河边上没有事做，坐得好不耐烦。她有时候偷偷地瞧她姊姊看的是什么书，可是书里又没有画儿，又没有说话，她就想道：“一本书里又没有画儿，又没有说话，那样书要它干什么呢？”
So she was considering in her own mind(as well as she could, for the hot day made her feel very sleepy and stupid), whether the pleasure of making a daisy-chain [2] would be worth the trouble of getting up and picking the daisies, when suddenly a White Rabbit with pink eyes ran close by her.
所以她就无精打采地自己在心里盘算——（她也不过勉强地醒着，因为这热天热得她昏昏地要睡）——到底还是做一枝野菊花圈儿好呢，还是为着这种玩意儿不值得站起来去找花的麻烦呢？她正在纳闷的时候，忽然来了一只淡红眼睛的白兔子，在她旁边跑过。
There was nothing so VERY remarkable in that: nor did Alice think it so VERY much out of the way to hear the Rabbit say to itself,“Oh dear! Oh dear! I shall be late!” (when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this,but at the time it all seemed quite natural); but when the Rabbit actually TOOK A WATCH OUT OF ITS WAISTCOAT [3] POCKET, and looked at it, and then hurried on, Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it, and burning with curiosity, she ran across the field after it, and fortunately was just in time to see it pop down a large rabbit-hole under the hedge.
就是看见一只淡红眼睛的白兔子，本来也不是件怎么大了不得的事情，并且就是阿丽思听见那兔子自言自语地说，“嗳呀，啊噫呀！我一定要去晚了！”她也不觉得这算什么十二分出奇的事情（事后想起来她才觉得这是应当诧异的事，不过当时她觉得样样事情都像很平常似的）；但是等到那兔子当真在它背心袋里摸出一只表来，看了一看时候，连忙又往前走，阿丽思想道，“那不行！”顿时就站了起来，因为阿丽思心里忽然记得她从来没有见过兔子有背心袋的，并且有只表可以从袋子里摸出来的。她忍不住好奇的心，就紧追着那兔子，快快地跑过一片田场，刚刚赶得上看见它从一个篱笆底下的一个大洞里钻进去。
（赵元任译）
这是本书的开场，原作用极其浅易的语言，从一开始就制造出一个悬念，紧紧地抓住读者。在百无聊赖的日常生活中，突然跑出一只既会说话又会看表还穿着背心的兔子，谁都会有兴趣读下去。译本的文字也非常浅近，但难得的是，在短短的三段话中，赵译本却把整个开场处理得极为流畅自然，活灵活现，令人完全觉察不到翻译的痕迹。一些细节把原作幽默风趣的语调处理得恰到好处，例如：儿化音（画儿、圈儿）、语气词（嗳呀、啊噫呀）、适度增词（无精打采、那不行、十二分出奇）、幽默笔法（她也不过勉强醒着）等处理手法。
Presently she began again. “I wonder if I shall fall right THROUGH the earth!How funny it’ll seem to come out among the people that walk with their heads downward! The Antipathies, I think—”(she was rather glad there WAS no one listening, this time, as it didn’t sound at all the right word) “—but I shall have to ask them what the name of the country is, you know. Please, Ma’am, is this New Zealand or Australia?” (and she tried to curtsey as she spoke—fancy CURTSEYING as you’re falling through the air! Do you think you could manage it?) “And what an ignorant little girl she’ll think me for asking! No, it’ll never do to ask: perhaps I shall see it written up somewhere.”
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一会儿她又说话了。她道，“我倒不知道会不会一直掉穿了地球嘞，那怎么呢？掉到那边，遇见了许多倒着站的人，一定很好玩儿！叫倒猪世界，不是吗？”——她这回倒觉得幸亏没有人听着，因为她想不起来书里那个“倒足世界”的名字，又觉“倒猪世界”又不大像——“但是你想我不是得要问他们贵国的名字叫什么吗？泼里寺、麻达姆，这是新西兰啊，还是澳大利亚啊？”（说着就一头向空中请安——你想想看，在半空中一头往下掉，一头又要请安，你能办得到吗？）“可是要这样问，他们一定把我当个傻孩子，连自己在什么国里都会不知道。不行，这个一定不好意思问人的；或者我会看见在哪儿墙上或是柱上写着：这是新西兰，或者：这是澳大利亚。”
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“The unexamined life is not worth living.” Socrates said when he was tried for heresy and sedition for encouraging his students to ask tough questions about themselves and society. Upon examining his life and situation, he chose to die for dignity rather than live out the rest of life in disgrace and humiliation. Socrates was seeking truth to live a life of high station. According to him, as to many including me as well, the unexamined existence is of no discipline, no freedom and void of dignity.
To begin with, the unexamined life is a life without discipline. Put it another way,a life that has not been subjected to certain codes and purposes is doomed to moral looseness, human alienation and insatiable indulgence. It is such a life style that, to many of us, leads to a lack of sense of justice or direction of values. A case in point is Dorian Gray in Oscar Wilde’s novel, The Portrait of Dorian Gray . Dorian Gray is a young man who takes advantages of his beauty and ruins many pure women. It is his unexamined life and loose lifestyle that lead to his hurt of others and his own final downfall.
Contrariwise, the examined life can provide one with a chance for a more thorough and better understanding of life and the world—an understanding which can bring us maximum freedom in thought. Leading an examined life, Emerson is believed by many to understand the world better even than most people do today. His words “To be great is to be misunderstood” show that an independent individual needs to trust himself even if people around doubt and question his life. Few could live a life as sober and examined as Emerson did in that his realm of thought enjoys such a degree of freedom and independence that it can even tolerate the misunderstanding of the rest of the world.
Last but not least, the unexamined life may amount to the absence of dignity.In order to be a true man of integrity, one should subject his life and beliefs to examination and introspection or else his life will degenerate into a life of moral frivolity and waywardness. As Socrates himself put it, “I eat to live while others live to eat.” This chiasma embodies his contempt for those who live an unexamined life with no dignity. However, the examined life is not confined to such a learned man or woman as a teacher or philosopher. A working class man can also have a clear purpose in life. Santiago, Hemingway code hero, has such a quality. He clings to a life of dignity even in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. He has been regarded as the embodiment of indomitable spirit of humanity.
To sum up, Socrates’ decision to die is the logical consequence of his outlook on life. If he had chosen otherwise, he would have felt he was robbed of the only thing that made life meaningful: examining the world around him, the universe and life itself.Where an “examined life” is, there are discipline, freedom and dignity that highlight the essence of life.
[1] peep: look furtively 偷看
[2] daisy-chain: flower chain consisting of a string of daisies linked by their stems 菊花链
[3] waistcoat: a sleeveless piece of clothing with buttons that people usually wear over a shirt (西装) 背心；马甲