大学英语专业,英语高级散文课文翻译7

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2024年6月21日发(作者：)

Lesson Seven Plot

第七课 情节

E.M. Forster

E.M.福斯特

New words

sequence (n.) A number of things in or as if in line: series, chain, catena, course,

order

causality n. pl. causalities 1. The principle of or relationship between cause and

effect. 2. A causal agency, force, or quality.

preserve, keep

overshadow (v.) To surpass in power, importance, or influence: predominate,

dominate, govern, loom large, prevail

Underline the keywords

1 Let us define a plot. We have defined a story as a narrative of events

arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis

falling on causality. "The king died and then the queen dies," is a story. "The king

dies, and then the queen died of grief," is a plot. The time-sequence is preserved,

but the sense of causality overshadows it.

译文

让我们给情节 下一个定义，我们已经把故事定义为按时间叙事。情节也是叙事，只是

重点放在因果关系上。“国王死了后来王后死了”，是故事。“国王死了，而王后因悲痛国王

而死”，是情节。时间顺序没有变，但因果关系使它显得不重要了。

没有变，译成被保存不好。

显得不重要，译成在阴影下不好。

New words

suspend v. pause, hesitate, interrupt, delay, hold up, discontinue, break, wait,

mark time, intermit, falter, rest: He suspend for a moment to allow late-comers to

take their seats.

Underline the keywords

Or again; "The queen died, no one knew why, until it was discovered that it

was through grief at the death of the king." This is a plot with a mystery in it, a

form capable of high development. It suspends the time sequence, it moves as far

away from the story as its limitations will allow. Consider the death of the queen. If

it is in a story we say "and then?" If it is in a plot we ask "why?" That is the

fundamental difference between these two aspects of the novel.

译文

或者说，“王后死了，没人知道为什么。直到最后人们才发现，是死于对国王驾崩的哀

痛。”这是一个富有神秘色彩的情节，是一个能够向纵深发展的形式。它暂时不考虑时间顺

序，把它悬了起来。它在故事允许的范围内，远离了故事情节。看看王后的死。如果是故

事，我们说，“后来呢？”如果是情节，我们问，“为什么？”这是小说的两个方面的根本

区别。

New words

gaping Deep and wide open: a gaping wound; a gaping hole.

cave 山洞 A hollow or natural passage under or into the earth with an

opening to the surface.

Sultan 苏丹 A ruler of a Moslem country, especially of the former Ottoman

Empire.

Underline the keywords

A plot cannot be told to a gaping audience of cave men or to a tyrannical

sultan or to their modern descendant the movie-public. They can only be kept

awake by "and then — and then." they can only supply curiosity. But a plot

demands intelligence and memory also.

译文

情节不能对那些只知道傻呆呆咧大嘴的原始穴居人讲，也不能给专制的君主苏丹讲，

还不能讲给他们的后代，即那些现代影迷们听。因为这些人只知道问，“后来呢，后来呢？”

否则他们就会打瞌睡。他们只有好奇心。然而，读情节需要理解力和记忆力。

傻呆呆

原始穴居人

否则他们就会打瞌睡

Analysis of the text

Story is narrative of events in their time-sequence. It asks “and then?” For

example: the king died, and then the queen died.

Plot is narrative of events with emphasis on causality. It has a mystery in it. It

asks “why?” For example, the queen died, nobody knows why….”

Cave men, sultan and modern movie public who can only supply curiosity

cannot understand the plot because a plot demands intelligence and memory.

New words

sag 耷拉 To sink, droop, or settle from pressure or weight.

bulge 突出 To stick out; protrude

Underline the keywords

2 Curiosity is one of the lowest of the human faculties. You will have noticed in

daily life that when people are inquisitive they nearly always have bad memories

and are usually stupid at bottom. The man who begins by asking you how many

brothers and sisters you have, is never a sympathetic character, and if you meet

him in a year's time he will probably ask you how many brothers and sisters you

have, his mouth again sagging open, his eyes still bulging from his head.

Analysis of the text

译文

好奇心是人类最低的一种能力。你会注意到在日常生活中，那些好奇的人，通常记忆

力都很坏。他们蠢到了底。张口就问你有几个兄弟姐妹的人，永远不是富有同情心的人。

如果你一年以后再碰到他，他还是会问你，你有几个兄弟姐妹。他问你的时候,还是（象一

年前一样）嘴张得大大的，眼睛鼓得圆圆的。

New words

Underline the keywords

It is difficult to be friends with such a man, and for two inquisitive people to be

friends must be impossible. Curiosity by itself takes us a very little way, nor does it

take us far into the novel — only as far as the story. If we would grasp the plot we

must add intelligence and memory.

译文

和这样的人交朋友是很困难的。两个好奇的人几乎根本不能成为朋友。好奇只能使人

对事物有肤浅的了解，对小说的理解也深不了，只是听听故事而已。如果我们想抓住情节，

我们就要有理解力和记忆力。

précis

Curiosity is the lowest human faculty. It takes us little way, not far into the

novel. Inquisitive people have bad memory, and are stupid and not sympathetic,

not sociable.

Underline the keywords

3 Intelligence first. The intelligent novel-reader, unlike the inquisitive one who

just runs his eye over a new fact, mentally picks it up. He sees it from two points of

view; isolated, and related to the other facts that he has read on previous pages.

Probably he does not understand it, but he does not expect to so yet awhile. The

facts in a highly organized novel (like The Egoist) are often of the nature of

cross-correspondences and the ideal spectator cannot expect to view them

properly until he is sitting up on a hill at the end.

译文

先说理解力。聪明的读者,不象好奇的人，他不只是扫一眼新的事实，而是记住它。他

从二方面看它。一方面，它是孤立的；另一方面,它又和从前几页看到的事实有联系。现在

他可能还不理解它，而且也不企图马上就会理解它。在一个组织得很好的小说(如《自私自

利的人》)中，事实多半是相互交叉的。理想的读者不期望在最后达到高潮前理解它。

New words

crudely, Lacking tact, refinement, or taste.

subtle, adj. sensitive, finely tuned, delicate, responsive, acute, reactive,

receptive subtly adv.

dawn, 1. To begin to become light in the morning. 2. To begin to appear or

develop; emerge. 3. To begin to be perceived or understood: Realization of the

danger soon dawned on us.

appreciate, 1. To recognize the quality, significance, or magnitude of:

appreciated their freedom. 2. To be fully aware of or sensitive to; realize: I

appreciate your problems. 3. To be thankful or show gratitude for

brood, 1. To sit on or hatch eggs. 2. To hover envelopingly; loom. 3. a. To be

deep in thought; meditate. b. To focus the attention on a subject persistently and

moodily; worry:

Underline the keywords

This element of surprise or mystery — the detective element as it is sometimes

rather emptily called is of great importance in a plot. It occurs through a

suspension of the time-sequence; a mystery is a pocket in time, and it occurs

crudely, as in "Why did the queen die?" and more subtly in half-explained gestures

and words, the true meaning of which only dawns pages ahead. Mystery is

essential to a plot, and cannot be appreciated without intelligence. To the curious

it is just another "and then —" to appreciate a mystery, a part of the mind must be

left behind, brooding, while the other part goes marching on.

译文

这种惊奇和神秘的成分—有时人们干脆空洞地叫它“侦探成分”—对情节应是十分重

要的。它打断故事发展的思路。谜是时间上的一个口袋、一个包袱(相声上叫甩包袱)。它

出现得很唐突，就象“为什么王妃死了？”而在那有意安排，不讲明的动作和话语中，真

正的意思在前几页就已经提到了。神秘对情节是必须的。没有理解力就不能鉴赏它。对好

奇的人，只能是“后来呢”。而鉴赏神秘，一定要留一部分脑力来思索，而让其他部分继续

往下看事实。

précis

The intelligent novel-reader picks isolated facts, and relates them to the facts

on the previous pages. Because the element of surprise is of great importance in a

plot, he doesn't expect to understand it until at the end. To understand mystery,

one needs intelligence and part of his mind must be left behind to search for

relation while others march on to get new clues.

New words

Underline the keywords

4 That brings us to our second qualification: memory.

5 Memory and intelligence are closely connected, for unless we remember we

cannot understand. [for example] If by the time the queen dies we have forgotten

the existence of the king we shall never make out what killed her. The plot-maker

expects us to remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends. Every action or

word ought to count; it ought to be economical and spare; even when complicated

it should be organic and free from dead matter.

译文

这就把我们带到第二个条件上了：记忆力

记忆力和理解力密切相关。因为记不住，就懂不了。如果到王妃死时，我们忘记还有

过国王的事，我们就永远不知道她是为什么死的。编情节的人希望我们能够记住。我们希

望他把他讲的都能用上，不要留着断了的线头。情节应该简洁而留有余地。即使复杂，也

必须是有机地联系着。不应该生拉硬扯。

New words

unfold, develop 展开

aesthetically 美学上

compact, 紧凑 adj. short, shortened, brief, concise, compressed, compendious,

compact, pocket, (Am.) vest-pocket; abbreviated, abridged, cut

Underline the keywords

It may be difficult or easy, it may and should contain mysteries, but it ought

not to mislead. And over it, as it unfolds, will hover the memory [倒装句，这是主语]

of the reader (that dull glow of the mind of which intelligence is the bright

advancing edge) and will constantly rearrange and reconsider, seeing new clues,

new chains of cause and effect, and the final sense (if the plot has been a fine one)

will not be of clues or chains, but of something aesthetically compact, something

which might have been shown [注意虚拟语态] by the novelist straight away, only if

he had shown it straight away it would never have become beautiful.

译文

它可以曲折, 也可以平淡。它可以也应该有神秘的色彩。但它不应该误导读者。当它

展开的时候,记忆力应该围绕它转（在心灵的炭火中，理解力是闪亮的前进的动力）。记忆

力要不停顿地重新组织、重新考虑，找新线索，找新的因果关系。最后的感觉（如果情节

是好的话）,不应再是线索和一个个孤立的环节，而应是一种巧妙紧凑之美、是一种完全可

以被小说家直接了当讲出来的、但是又不能直言的美。因为他要是讲破了,它就不成其为美

了。(小说家不应该一味追求美，但是如果他没有把美表露出来，他却又失败了。)

New words

come up against

inquiry:

proper

Botticelli Sandro . Originally Alessandro di Mariano dei Filipepi. 1444?-1510

Italian painter of the Florentine school whose flowing draftsmanship is evident in

his masterpieces, Primavera (c. 1477) and Birth of Venus (c. 1485).

due

prima donna n. 1. The leading woman soloist in an opera company. 2. A

temperamental, conceited person.

Underline the keywords

We come up against beauty here — for the first time in our inquiry: beauty at

which a novelist should never aim, though he fails if he does not achieve it. I will

conduct to her proper place later on. Meanwhile please accept her as part of a

completed plot. She looks a little surprised at being there, but beauty ought to

look a little surprised: it is the emotion that best suits her face, as Botticelli knew

when he painted her risen from the waves, between the winds and the flowers. The

beauty who does not look surprised, who accepts her position as her due — she

reminds us too much of a prima donna.

(From Aspects of the Novel)

Analysis of the text

译文

在我们的研究中, 我们第一次谈到美。以后我们在适当的章节还会讨论美。现在请大

家先把它作为情节的一部分接受下来。美有时看上去有点意外。但美感本来就应该有一点

意外。意外是最适合她的颜面的一种面部表情。BOTTICELLI懂得这一点。所以他画的风与

花簇拥的出水维那斯,就带着一种意外的神情。如果美看上丝毫没有惊奇的神情,如果美被当

之无愧地接受,我们就不禁会联想到歌剧中高傲的女主角

précis

Unless we remember we cannot understand. The plot-maker expects us to

remember, we expect him to leave no loose ends. It may and should contain

mysteries, but it ought not to mislead. We will constantly rearrange and reconsider,

seeing new clues, new chains of cause and effect, and the final sense will be of

something aesthetically compact. This beauty looks a little surprised at being there,

but she ought to look a little surprised. Without surprise, in other words, if the

novelist had shown her directly she would never have become beautiful.

Reader and purpose

This is a lecture to the students at Cambridge. He does not assume they know

a lot about literature. They may know a lot about other fields and have read on

other subjects, so he makes mere literary allusions, not details references.

His purpose is also to teach the students to be intelligent novel readers, and to

convince the reader that mere stories are low class.

Ex. 2

The genus of plot is narrative.

Narratives can be cyclical stories, myth or mystical stories, travel accounts,

news reports, journals, and chronological records, etc.

Causality differentiates plot from the others.

Mr. Forster differentiates plot explicitly.

Ex. 3

The last two sentences are organizing sentences. Curiosity: the second

paragraph.

Intelligence: the third paragraph.

Memory: the fifth paragraph.

Ex. 4

Curiosity, intelligence and memory are not directly related to a plot, but they

are essential to the definition. They can be part of a definition of a plot.

A plot is … a narrative of events, the emphasis falling upon causality, which

requires of a reader not only curiosity but also intelligence and memory.

Ex. 5

The short sentence in line 50 serves as a transition.

Ex. 6

The creation of the earth, King Yu conquers the floods (《大禹治水》）， The

Arabian nights

If particular novels had been named, they should have puzzled those students

who haven't read them.

Ex. 7

Because it is a lecture, Mr. Forester uses rather loose structure (ll 57-67),

sentence fragment (e.g. Intelligence first), and short sentences (ll 1-18).

Mr. Foster begins by saying, ‘Let us define a plot.” Thus he declares right

away the topic of his lecture, catching the audience’s attention and helping them

concentrate their minds immediately on the point.

Without this imperative sentence, the audience would not know how to direct

their attention.

Mr. Foster varies his sentences by using hortatory （劝告，激励）： let us;

imperative: Consider the death…; fragmentary: intelligence first; periodic sentence:

ll 53-54; compound-complex: ll 51-52; and inverted sentence: ll 59-67

Look up

faculties, natural powers or abilities

cross-correspondence, a complicated pattern of relationships between a

group of people.

organic, of living things

Botticelli, Italian painter

Prima donna, a temperamental, conceited person.

Ex. 10

Tyrannical sultan indicates the sultan in Arabian Nights, a narrative without a

plot. This allusion, Mr. Forster thinks, is typically well-known to his listeners and

needs no explanation.

Although mystery is a key element of plot, a good plot is not just a mere

mystery or a detective story, its final sense must be something beautiful.

Mr. Foster uses some words of negative sense to describe those who have only

curiosity.

Ex.11

The tone of this article is highly discriminatory （辩别性的） and elitist （名流）

Mr. Foster writes it in the view point of an expert.

Its advantage is that he does not have to justify what he says, e.g. he does not

have to appeal to other authorities — he himself is the authoritative expert.

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