The Souls of Black Folk — Page 8

这位有志成为黑人学者的人面临着一个悖论：他的族人所需要的知识，对他的白人邻居来说不过是老生常谈，而那些能够启迪白人世界的知识，对他自己的骨肉同胞来说却如同天书。

The would-be black savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people needed was a twice-told tale to his white neighbors, while the knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own flesh and blood.

他族人灵魂深处对和谐与美的天生热爱，驱使那些较为质朴的心灵载歌载舞，却在这位黑人艺术家的心中只激起了困惑与怀疑；

The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but confusion and doubt in the soul of the black artist;

因为向他揭示的那种美，是他更广大的观众所鄙视的那个种族的灵魂之美，而他又无法传达另一个民族的心声。

for the beauty revealed to him was the soul-beauty of a race which his larger audience despised, and he could not articulate the message of another people.

这种身兼双重目标的内耗，这种试图同时满足两种难以调和的理想的挣扎，给千千万万人的勇气、信念与事业带来了惨重的创伤，——

This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—

它常常使他们转而追奉虚假的神灵，借助错误的救赎方式，有时甚至似乎将要使他们以自身为耻。

has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation, and at times has even seemed about to make them ashamed of themselves.

早在奴役岁月里，他们曾以为能在某一神圣的时刻，看到一切疑惑与失望的终结；

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment;

几乎没有哪个民族曾像美国黑人那样，用两个世纪的时间，以如此毫不置疑的虔诚去崇拜自由。

few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.

在他的思想与梦想中，奴隶制确实是一切罪恶之源、一切悲苦之因、一切偏见之根；

To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice;

而解放，则是通往一片应许之地的钥匙，那片土地比疲惫的以色列人眼前所曾展现的一切都更加美丽动人。

Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites.