#乐读英文原版书 2022 年 - 第 19 本《漫长的告别》是美国硬汉派侦探文学作家雷蒙德・钱德勒(Raymond Chandler)最重要的一部小说,虽然表面上是一部侦探类型小说,但实际是一部严肃的文学小说。与菲茨杰拉德《了不起的盖茨比》、海明威《太阳照常升起》、凯鲁亚克《在路上》并列为世纪美国文学黄金时代四大杰作。读了本书的感觉,首先是特别 "硬汉",与海明威《太阳照常升起》一样,全书充满了男子汉刚阳之气,作者常常利用书中人物,把他自己的观点融入故事中,比如说对醉酒的评论,对金发美女的描写,对司法制度的评论,你常常能感觉到雷蒙德的内心吐槽。另外,特别 "美国" 和 "五十年代", 书具有浓重的洛杉矶地方气息和时代气息,读的时候会让你回到那个时代体验那时的场景。最重要的是雷蒙德的语言运用,人物描写极为生动,读英文原版特别过瘾,我是一连读了两遍, 一遍看情节,一遍重温语言。以下是一些金句:‘Alcohol is like love,’ he said. ‘The first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you take the girl’s clothes off.‘"酒精就像爱情," 他说,"第一个吻是魔法,第二个是亲密,第三个是例行公事。然后你就要脱姑娘的衣服了。"Right then a dream walked in. It seemed to me for an instant that there was no sound in the bar, that the sharpies stopped sharping and the drunk on the stool stopped burbling away, and it was like just after the conductor taps on his music stand and raises his arms and holds them poised. 就在这时,一个美梦走进酒吧。有一瞬间,我觉得酒吧里没有了任何声音,时代精英停下了唇枪舌剑,高脚凳上的醉汉停下了滔滔不绝,那情形就仿佛指挥轻轻敲打乐谱架,手臂举起来悬而未落的那个瞬间。It’s no real fun but the rich don‘t know that. They never had any. They never want anything very hard except maybe somebody else’s wife and that‘s a pretty pale desire compared with the way a plumber’s wife wants new curtains for the living-room. 但有钱人不知道。他们从没体验过真正的快乐。除了别人的老婆,他们从不特别想要什么东西,和水管工的老婆想给客厅添置新窗帘相比,这种欲望实在苍白得很。Time makes everything mean and shabby and wrinkled. The tragedy of life is not that the beautiful things die young, but that they grow old and mean. 时间让一切都变得低劣可鄙和充满遗憾。生命的悲剧不在于美丽的事物过早衰亡,而在于它们变得苍老和鄙俗。The stores along Hollywood Boulevard were already beginning to fill up with overpriced Christmas junk, and the daily papers were beginning to scream about how terrible it would be if you didn‘t get your Christmas shopping done early. 好莱坞大道的商店已经摆出了价钱虚高的圣诞破烂,报纸开始每天嚷嚷你要是不早点完成圣诞购物会有多糟糕。其实完不完成都一样糟糕。向来如此。Twenty-four hours a day somebody is running, somebody else is trying to catch him. Out there in the night of a thousand crimes people were dying, being maimed, cut by flying glass, crushed against steering wheels or under heavy car tyres. People were being beaten ,robbed, strangled, raped, and murdered. People were hungry, sick, bored, desperate with loneliness or remorse or fear, angry, cruel, feverish, shaken by sobs. A city no worse than others, a city rich and vigorous and full of pride, a city lost and beaten and full of emptiness. It all depends on where you sit and what your own private score is. I didn’t have one. I didn‘t care. 一天二十四小时,总有人在逃跑,总有人想抓他。外面千种罪恶的黑夜中,人们垂死,人们伤残,人们被横飞的玻璃割喉、撞死在方向盘上、碾死在重型轮胎下。人们被殴打、抢劫、勒死、强奸和谋杀;人们饥饿、生病;人们感到无聊,因为孤独或悔恨或恐惧感到绝望、愤怒、残忍、狂热,哭得浑身发抖。一个不比其他城市更糟糕的城市,一个富裕、繁荣、充满自尊的城市,一个失落、挫败、充满空虚的城市。完全取决于你的位置和你的个人成就。我没有。我不在乎。To say goodbye is to die a little 说一声再见,就是死去一点点。《漫长的告别》The long Good-ByeBy Raymond ChandlerPublished in 1953Page 4484.0