黄少政汉译英梁实秋 青岛杂忆 英文回译

Some Recollections of Qingdao (excerpt) by Liang Shiqiu

黄少政英译   Anative of Peiping, I have never deemed my hometown worth putting in a good wordor two. If anything, its dismal trajectory of degeneration and decline, in amatter of a few decades, from what it used to be—such a fabulous abode ofwealth and culture of the nation—into sheer pandemonium shocks and dismaysadmirers. 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 andGuangdong to the southeast—and I think I’d rank Tsingtao at the top of myitinerary, to visit or to dwell.

黄少政回译：虽是北平人，我却从未觉得故地值得一夸。正相反，这个曾经的物华天宝俊彦糜集的首善之城，不出几十年，政权易迭、法纪废弛，败落不堪，令人扼腕叹息。虽说足迹不广，从沿海到内陆，最北边的辽宁与最南边的广东，我也曾踏遍十几个省份。拙见最适合游玩乃至定居，青岛当之无愧。

   梁实秋原文   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。

黄少政英译    Tsingtao sits in a blessed locale whereJiaozhou Bay opens on the Eastern China Sea. Mountains rear right behind, andthe waters in the bay are as deep as they are high, making Tsingtao an idealport. In the 23rd year of Emperor Guangxu’s reign (1897) , no sooner had KaiserWilhelm II forced the feeble Qing court into an agreement to lease Tsingtao (asmall ,quiet fishing village at the time) than his countrymen moved in to starta construction spree to the extent that even today Tsingtao retains a Teutonicarchitectural look, most evident in the city’s ubiquitous red-tiled roofing, ina striking contrast with the azure of the sea. It remains one of China’scoziest and most charming cities as all the architecture inhabits a forestedterrain of undulating hills and its streets shelter under a canopy oftrees—peaches, pines, magnolias and ginkgos.

黄少政回译：青岛地处我国东海之滨，背山面海，得天独厚，胶州湾海水深湛，青岛日后建成良港，应是题中应有之义。光绪二十三年（1897年），德国威廉二世皇帝迫使焦头烂额的清廷租借青岛（当时不过一平静小渔村），殖民者们开始了一场建筑狂潮，直到今天，青岛仍然保留着日耳曼式的建筑风格，处处都是红瓦屋顶，与大海蔚蓝适成鲜明对比。青岛一直是是中国最舒适迷人的城市之一，冈峦起伏，房屋错落有致，街道遍植桃树、松树、木兰和银杏，蔚蔚婷婷，浓阴蔽日。

梁实秋原文   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。

黄少政英译  Inthe 3rd year of the Republic of China (1913), the booming harbor was takenoff  by the Japanese, and it was notceded 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, atleast on the surface, thanks to the solid foundations laid down from the outsetby meticulous German architects. After all, what is done in the first place tolast cannot be easily undone. The result is we’re all justifiably proud ofliving in Tsingtao, possibly the cleanest and neatest and loveliest in allChina. Peiping certainly compares poorly with Tsingtao as the former has beendismissed proverbially as somewhere “one gets dust all over even when there isno sign of wind and spattered with mud whenever comes down a rain.

黄少政回译：民国三年（1913年），紧随德国人撤离，日本人夺占一片欣欣向荣的青岛港，不出十年，又落入若干军阀之手。令人大出意外，持续几十年来的政治动荡和乃至内战并没有对市面造成多大的破坏，这就得益于一丝不苟的德国人奠定了坚实的市政建设基础。毕竟，积几十年之功不能说毁就毁了。如今，我们都有理由为生活在青岛而自豪，青岛或许是全中国最干净、最整洁、最迷人的地方。北平荣景不再，屡屡遭人诟病，有民谚为证“无风三尺土，有雨一街泥”。

梁实秋原文   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。

黄少政英译  With its continental climate, yet modified bysurges of bay currents, Tsingtao is mild all the time in a year, notably itsfour distinct seasons—on the round as in the calendar , making the port citymostly livable where “one can expect to see timely flowers in spring, savourthe full moon in mid-autumn, feel cool breeze in summer and enjoy the snowscene in winter”. Snow falls occasionally in winter, but rarely to the point offreezing 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 envelopesthe town in a riot of blossoms.

黄少政回译：青岛的天气属于大陆气候，但有潮流调剂，一年四季都很温和，尤其是四季分明，“春暖花开，中秋赏月，夏风习习，冬日雪景尽收眼底”—最为宜居。冬天偶尔会下雪，但很少达到冰点，需要生火御寒。通常夏天凉爽宜人；秋天天高气爽；最美的季节还属春天，全城俨然就是花的世界。

梁实秋原文    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。

黄少政英译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 classis a truism, as the pervasiveness of the observation suggests. To form acorrect opinion of the character of the inhabitants of a town, one must goforth and associate with ordinary folk in all their conditions, habits, andhumors. And I congratulate myself once amidst a bunch of uniquely honest andgood-hearted souls on earth. When I first arrived in town, I was struck thatone got charged one of two fares for a rickshaw ride: ten cents for nearby andtwenty cents for a anywhere distant. Never have I met a rickshaw puller in Tsingtaowho haggled over the price with the client—a practice all too common in therest of China.

黄少政回译：总体而言，本地人性格豪爽，甚至直率，但内心敦厚温和。此说应指平民百姓，宦场中人不在其列。此等人类，为正人君子不齿，天下皆然。若想体察世道人心，必须走进市井，和升斗小民同光同尘。一想到自己曾出没交际一群人世间最最实诚的芸芸众生，私心倍感欣慰。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。不禁叹道世所罕见。

梁实秋原文   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。

黄少政英译   Whetherthis instance of honesty and simplicity of former times is, as some mightprotest, attributable to the lingering salutary influences of the port’scolonial past, I can’t tell. The point is that such customs do persist to ourday speaks volumes about the character of the local populace because they knowthe simplicity and honesty of true wisdom. A trifling matter this might sound,it could mean much more than meets the eye. Since Shandong province (where Tsingtaolies) was once two vassal states of the Zhou Dynasty—Qi and Lu—and it was thebirthplace of two of China’s wisest men—Confucius and Mencius, it  does make sense if their compatriots, soakingup the sanctified and rarefied air through millennia, come off as morallyexemplary and as worthy of being marveled at and emulated.

黄少政回译：或有人叨议，民风如此，恍然上古之德再世，怕不是话里有话德国殖民有功有理？对此我无从置啄。关键是这种习俗绵绵不绝，这就充分说明本地人心淳朴冠绝中国。虽然小事一端，但意义绝不止眼前所见。山东省（青岛所在地）曾经是周天子册封两个诸侯的领地，而齐鲁恰恰是中华两位圣贤—孔子和孟子的故乡，这就不难理解为什么圣人的乡党同袍，世世代代沉浸在神圣清洁的氛围中，相濡相染，久而久之，人人明道，足堪国人叹服效法。

梁实秋原文   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？