皇家大战（6，双语）

Tierra520 2017-09-26

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皇家大战（6，双语）

拉尔夫-埃里森著罗金佑翻译

"Gentlemen, you see that I did not overpraise the boy. He makes a good speech and some day he'll lead his people in the proper paths. And I don't have to tell you that this is important in these days and times. This is a good, smart boy, and so to encourage him in the right direction, in the name of the Board of Education I wish to present him a prize in the form of this . . ."

“先生们，你们看，我没有过奖这男孩。他做了一个很好的演讲，有一天他会带领他的人民走上适当的道路的。我没有告诉你们，这在这个时期是很重要的。这是一个很好的聪明的男孩，所以要鼓励他向着正确的方向走，我想以教育局的名义奖给他这个款式的......”

He paused, removing the tissue paper and revealing a gleaming calfskin briefcase.

他停顿了一下，去除薄纸而露出一个闪闪发光的小牛皮公文包。

". . . in the form of this first-class article from Shad Whitmore's shop."

“......这种一流的物品的款式来自色德惠特莫尔商店。”

"Boy," he said, addressing me, "take this prize and keep it well. Consider it a badge of office. Prize it. Keep developing as you are and some day it will be filled with important papers that will help shape the destiny of your people."

“孩子，”他转向我说，“拿着这个奖，把它保管好。考虑到把它作为办公的标志。奖了你这个。像你这样继续发展下去，有一天它就会装满重要的文件，那将有助于成就你的人民的命运。”

I was so moved that I could hardly express my thanks. A rope of bloody saliva forming a shape like an undiscovered continent drooled upon the leather and I wiped it quickly away. I felt an importance that I had never dreamed.

我如此感动，以至于我无法表达我的感谢。一串带血的唾液线形成的形状像一个未知的大陆流在了皮革上，于是我就很快地擦掉了它。我感觉到一种我从未梦想过的重要性。

"Open it and see what's inside," I was told.

“打开它，看看里面有什么，”我说。

My fingers a-tremble, I complied, smelling fresh leather and finding an official-looking document inside. It was a scholarship to the state college for Negroes. My eyes filled with tears and I ran awkwardly off the floor.

我的手指全发抖了，我答应了，闻着清新的皮革，找到里面一份官方样子的文件。这是一个州立大学给黑人学生的奖学金。我的眼睛里充满了泪水，我笨拙地从地板上跑开了。

I was overjoyed; I did not even mind when I discovered the gold pieces I had scrambled for were brass pocket tokens advertising a certain make of automobile. When I reached home everyone was excited. Next day the neighbors came to congratulate me. I even felt safe from grandfather, whose deathbed curse usually spoiled my triumphs. I stood beneath his photograph with my briefcase in hand and smiled triumphantly into his stolid black peasant's face. It was a face that fascinated me. The eyes seemed to follow everywhere I went.

我非常高兴；当我发现了我为之争夺的金币是某个特定的汽车制造商做广告用的铜制硬币状的纪念品时我甚至也不介意。当我到家时，每个人都很兴奋。第二天，邻居都来祝贺我。我甚至觉得安全是缘于祖父临死前的诅咒，那通常会毁了我的成功。我站在他的照片下方，手里拿着公文包，成功的喜悦融入他那不动声色的黑人农民的脸庞。这是一张让我着迷的脸庞。那双眼睛跟着我，我走到哪里，那双眼睛就跟到哪里。

That night I dreamed I was at a circus with him and that he refused to laugh at the clowns no matter what they did. Then later he told me to open my briefcase and read what was inside and I did, finding an official envelope stamped with the state seal: and inside the envelope I found another and another, endlessly, and I thought I would fall of weariness. "Them's years," he said. "Now open that one." And I did and in it I found an engraved stamp containing a short message in letters of gold. "Read it," my grandfather said. "Out loud."

那天晚上，我梦见我和他在一个马戏团里，他拒绝对那几个小丑笑，不管他们做了什么。后来他让我打开我的公文包，读里面的东西，我给他读了，找到一个正式的信封，上面加盖着国玺图章：在信封里面我找到了一个又一个，无止境的，而我想我会厌倦的。“他们的那个年代，”他说。”现在打开的那一个。”我打开了，在里面我发现了一个含有黄金信件的短消息的刻章。“读它，”爷爷说。“大声读。”

"To Whom It May Concern," I intoned. "Keep This Nigger-Boy Running."

“这可能与谁有关的，”我说道。“让这个黑人男孩一直跑下去。”

I awoke with the old man's laughter ringing in my ears.

我醒来时，老人的笑声还回荡在我的耳边。

(It was a dream I was to remember and dream again for many years after. But at the time I had no insight into its meaning. First I had to attend college.)

（这是一个梦，我记着的并且多年后再次做了这个梦。但当时我没有意识到它的意义。首先我要上大学。）

BATTLE ROYAL First published in 1947,five years later,with the addition of a brief transitional paragraph at the end, it appeared as chapter 1 of Ellison's novel The Invisible Man (1952). Ralph Ellison was born in Oklahoma City in 1914 and attended high school there. He then studied for three years as a scholarship student at Tuskegee Institute, in Alabama, founded in 1881 by the Negro leader and educator booker T. Washington (1856_1915),whose famous speech at the opening of an exposition at Atlanta in 1895 is quoted from by the protagonist on page 438. After leaving Tuskegee, Ellison wen to New York City, where he has mostly lived since.

*About eighty-five years ago:The Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1863.

题注：《皇家大战》（有时又译为《混战》），首次出版于1947年，五年后，在结束简短的过渡段落外，它表现为埃里森的小说《看不见的人》的1章（1952）。拉尔夫埃里森1914年出生在俄克拉荷马城，并就读那里的的中学。后来他在塔斯基吉学院作为拿奖学金的学生学了三年，塔斯基吉学院位于阿拉巴马州，它成立于1881年，是由黑人领袖、教育家布克T.华盛顿（1856_1915）创建的，其著名的演说在1895年亚特兰大博览会开幕式上由主要人物引用，见438页。在离开塔斯基吉学院后，埃里森文到了纽约市，在那里他的余生大部分时间就居住于此。