袁先生的翻譯只可當參考。改天有空再研究。
How Beastly the Bourgeois Is
How beastly the bourgeois is especially the male of the species-- Presentable, eminently presentable-- shall I make you a present of him? Isn’t he handsome? Isn’t he healthy? Isn’t he a fine specimen? Doesn’t he look the fresh clean Englishman, outside? Isn’t it God’s own image? tramping his thirty miles a day after partridges, or a little rubber ball? wouldn’t you like to be like that, well off, and quite the thing Oh, but wait! Let him meet a new emotion, let him be faced with another man’s need, let him come home to a bit of moral difficulty, let life face him with a new demand on his understanding and then watch him go soggy, like a wet meringue. Watch him turn into a mess, either a fool or a bully. Just watch the display of him, confronted with a new demand on his intelligence, a new life-demand. How beastly the bourgeois is especially the male of the species-- Nicely groomed, like a mushroom standing there so sleek and erect and eyeable-- and like a fungus, living on the remains of a bygone life sucking his life out of the dead leaves of greater life than his own. And even so, he’s stale, he’s been there too long. Touch him, and you’ll find he’s all gone inside just like an old mushroom, all wormy inside, and hollow under a smooth skin and an upright appearance. Full of seething, wormy, hollow feelings rather nasty-- How beastly the bourgeois is! Standing in their thousands, these appearances, in damp England what a pity they can’t all be kicked over like sickening toadstools, and left to melt back, swiftly into the soil of England.
勞倫斯一首比較規矩的詩《布爾喬亞，真他媽的—— 》
布爾喬亞，***的，
特別是那些男人們——
拿得出去，完全拿得出去——
我把他當禮物送你一個好嗎？
他不英俊嗎？他不健康嗎？他不是好樣的嗎？
外表上他不像個乾淨利落的英國佬嗎？
這不是上帝自己的形象？一天奔三十英里，
去打鷓鴣，去打小小的皮球？
你不想像他那樣，很有錢，像那麼回事兒？
噢，且慢！ 讓他碰上新感情，遇到另一個人的需求，
讓他回家碰上一點道德上的小麻煩，讓生活向他的 頭腦提出新要求，
你看他就鬆軟了，像一塊潮濕了的甜餅。
你看他弄的一團糟，變成個傻瓜或惡棍。
你看他怎麼個表演，當他的智力遇到新測驗，
遇到一個新生活的需求。
布爾喬亞，***的， 特別是那些男人們——
幹乾淨淨，像個蘑菇
站在那裡，那麼光潔，挺直而悅目——
像一個酵母菌，在過去生命的遺骸上生存，
從比他偉大的生命的枯葉中吮吸養料。
即使如此，他還是陳腐的，他活得太久了。
摸摸他，你就會發覺他內部已蛀空了，
就像一個老蘑菇，裡面給蟲蛀爛了，蛀空了，
在光滑的皮膚下，在筆直的外表下。
充滿了熾熱的。長滿蟲子的空洞感覺，
相當卑污—— 布爾喬亞，***的！
在潮濕的英國，這些形象成千上萬個站著。
真可惜，不能把他們全部踢翻，
象令人作嘔的毒菌，讓它們
在英國的泥土中迅速腐爛。
1929
袁可嘉譯
The central theme in "How Beastly the Bourgeois Is" addresses hypocrisy and corruption. D. H. Lawrence criticizes the "male of the species" for having the appearance of goodness and the substance of a "toadstool." According to Lawrence, the bourgeois male flourishes in simple times when life is successful and pleasant, when he can "go tramping thirty miles a day after partridges, or a little rubber ball" (7-8). Yet according to Lawrence, the bourgeois male cannot stand up to difficulty, and Lawrence's poem adopts an extremely critical tone to criticize these shortcomings, comparing the bourgeois to a floppy "wet meringue" with no substance.
"How Beastly the Bourgeois Is" attacks the lack of substance found within this particular group. Lawrence's poem criticizes their appearance of strength and goodness which so easily falls away to being a "mess, either a fool or a bully" (15).
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