中英法翻譯的走跳生活

蕭伯納的中譯名很特別，因為他的全名其實是George Bernard Shaw，所以「伯納」其實是他的中間名(middle name)，而不是一般翻譯原則的翻first name。
蕭伯納是1925諾貝爾文學獎得主，英國劇作家，以「黑色幽默」聞名，劇作「賣花女」(Pymalion)改編成由奧黛莉赫本主演的《窈窕淑女》(My Fair Lady)。還記得當初在大一發音課時，老師指名要我們看My Fair Lady，因為劇中講述，若要晉身「名媛」，那就要美姿美儀像「名媛」，講話的口音、用字遣詞也需要著墨，大概就像「讓講話不標準的美女上正音班」的感覺吧？但那時的我並不知道，原來這部電影是改編自蕭伯納的大作。
1884年蕭伯納加入費邊社(Fabius)，提倡社會改革，晚年的蕭伯納走向極左派，推崇共產主義，與早期所提倡的社會主義形成鮮明對比，故也遭受詬病，成為備受爭議的話題人物。儘管如此，也不能否認他的文學造詣，出身清寒，為拜師求藝或得到相關背景的教育，透過自學，奠定他在劇作與文學界的地位。

 32歲的蕭伯納，應該還算是玉樹臨風吧？

今天要分享的是《蕭伯納精言集：真相，是世上最荒誕的笑話》，其實就是蕭伯納語錄中英對照版，目前已絕版了，我由台北市圖書館借得。

以下是自己讀完覺得心有戚戚焉的語句摘錄：

一個人對世界的興趣，源於他對自身興趣的擴散。
A man's interest in the world is only the overflow from his interest in himself.

一個腦袋清醒且自知的人，勝過十個腦袋空空又毫無自知的人。
One man that has a mind and knows it can always heat ten men who haven't and don't.

病人眼中毛骨悚然的手術，外科醫生卻說它美。多愁善感者認為冷硬的測量法，物理學家卻說它美。毀掉當事人一生的案件，律師說它美。癡情迷醉的愛慕對象，戀人也說它美。美與不美，本就是旁觀者清，當局者迷。
The epithet beautiful is used by surgeons to describe operations which their patients describe as ghastly, by physicists to describe methods of measurement which leave sentimentalists cold, by lawyers to describe cases which ruin all the parties to them, and ly lovers to describe the objects of their infatuation, however unattractive they may appear to the unaffected spectators.

過得悲慘的秘訣，在於得賢者苦惱自己快不快樂。這類憂慮的解藥，就是找份差事做。因為工作需要全神貫注，而全神貫注的人無所謂快樂與否，只是單純朝氣蓬勃，這遠比任何快樂更教人愉悅。
The secret of being miserable is to have leisuew to bother about whether you are happy or not. THe cure for it is occupation, because occupation means pre-occupation: and the preoccupied person is neither hapy nor unhappy, but simply alive and active, which is pleasanter than any happiness.

「健全的心靈寓於健康的身體」是胡說八道。先有健全的才會有健康的身體。
Mens sana in corpore sano is a foolish saying. The sound body is a product of the sound mind.

影響人智慧比例的，不在他的經驗多寡，而在他從經驗中學到什麼。
Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.

行動是通往知識的唯一道路。
Activity is the only road to knwoledge.

世人總愛把己身的遭遇歸咎給環境。我不相信環境決定一切。世上那些成功者，每天一睜眼，便開始尋找得其所哉的地方，如果找不到，乾脆自己創造。
People are always blaming their curcumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them.

凡事有條件，因此凡事有代價。
Nothing can be unconditional: consequently nothing can be free.

沒有人能優秀到成為他人的主宰。
No man is good enough to be another man's master.

罪犯並非死於法律之手，而是世人之手。
Criminals do not die by the hands of the law. They die by the hands of other men.

沒有什麼感情會比人對食物的愛更真實。
There is no love sincerer than the love of food.

不懂如何生活的人，應當把死看做好事一件。
Those who do not know how to live must make a merit of dying.

人可以登峰造極，卻不可能屹立不搖。
Man can climb to the highest summits; but he cannot dwell there long.

一旦擁有的超過了自身需要，人就會益發憂心忡忡。
The more a man possesses over and above what he uses, the more careworn he becomes.

世上最重要的金科玉律，就是世上沒有金科玉律。
The golden rule is that there are no golden rules.

推薦不喜歡雞湯系列的人，可以讀蕭伯納的黑色幽默另類雞湯！