2024年4月16日发(作者：)

Mark Twain-the Mirror of America

Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic

cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom

and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as

ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I

found another Twain as well – one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the

profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the

frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.

在大多数美国人的心目中，马克?吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克?费恩永恒的童年

时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆?索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，

这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造

极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克?吐温——一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得

愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克?吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途

是一片黑暗的人。

Tramp printer, river pilot , Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed

optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel

Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his

life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as

writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat

days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water -- a navigable depth. His popularity

is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and

translations are still read around the world.

印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：

马克?吐温原名塞缪尔?朗赫恩?克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各

地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全

世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)——意即可以

通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，

由此可见他的享誉程度。

The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the

Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart.

Keelboats ， flatboats , and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber,

corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar,

molasses , cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of

westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United

States.

在马克?吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻

国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟

草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉

花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，

辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。

Young Mark Twain entered that world in 1857 as a cub pilot on a steamboat.

The cast of characters set before him in his new profession was rich and varied a

cosmos. He participated abundantly in this life, listening to pilothouse talk of feuds,

piracies, lynchings ,medicine shows, and savage waterside slums. All would