The Souls of Black Folk — Page 10
战争的浩劫、三K党的恐怖、地毯商的谎言、工业的瓦解,以及朋友和敌人相互矛盾的忠告,使迷茫的农奴除了那句对自由的呼喊之外,再也找不到新的口号。
The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom.
然而,随着时光流逝,他开始领悟到一个新的思想。
As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea.
自由的理想要求强有力的手段来实现,而第十五条修正案便给了他这样的手段。
The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him.
选票,这在从前他视为自由的有形象征,如今他却将其看作获得并完善那由战争赋予他的自由的主要手段。
The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.
这又何尝不合理呢?
And why not?
选票难道没有促成战争、解放百万人口吗?
Had not votes made war and emancipated millions?
选票难道没有给予自由民选举权吗?
Had not votes enfranchised the freedmen?
对于一股能成就这一切的力量,还有什么是不可能的呢?
Was anything impossible to a power that had done all this?
百万黑人以焕然一新的热情,开始用选票将自己投入那自由的国度。
A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.
就这样,那个十年匆匆而过,1876年的革命到来了,留下了那疲惫而困惑、却仍充满激情的半自由农奴。
So the decade flew away, the revolution of 1876 came, and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired.
在随后的岁月里,缓慢而坚定地,一个新的愿景开始逐渐取代政治权力的梦想——一场强大的运动,另一种理想的兴起,在阴云密布的白昼过后,如同黑夜中的火柱,引领着那些迷途的人们。
Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power,—a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day.
那便是"书本学问"的理想;那是由强制性的蒙昧中孕育出的好奇心,渴望了解并检验白人那神秘文字的力量,渴望去认知。
It was the ideal of "book-learning"; the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know.
Vocabulary
- holocaust
- 大规模毁灭或屠杀,尤指战争或种族灭绝
- terrors
- 极度恐惧;令人恐惧的事物或行为
- Ku-Klux
- 三K党的前缀,美国白人至上主义秘密组织
- Klan
- 三K党,美国种族歧视极端组织
- carpet-baggers
- 内战后南下谋取私利的北方投机者
- disorganization
- 混乱无序,缺乏组织
- contradictory
- 相互矛盾的,对立的
- foes
- 敌人,对手
- bewildered
- 困惑的,茫然不知所措的
- serf
- 农奴,被束缚于土地的劳动者
- watchword
- 口号,指导原则或行动纲领
- grasp
- 掌握,理解,抓住
- ideal
- 理想,完美的目标或标准
- liberty
- 自由,特指政治或人身自由
- demanded
- 需要,要求,迫切需要
- attainment
- 达到,实现目标或成就
- Amendment
- 宪法修正案,对法律的修改
- ballot
- 选票,投票权
- visible
- 可见的,看得见的
- regarded
- 视为,认为,看待
- chief
- 主要的,最重要的
- perfecting
- 使完善,不断改进完美
- partially
- 部分地,不完全地
- endowed
- 被赋予,拥有某种天赋或权利
- emancipated
- 被解放的,获得自由的
- enfranchised
- 被赋予选举权的,获得公民权的
- freedmen
- 获释的奴隶,被解放的黑人
- renewed
- 重新焕发的,恢复的
- zeal
- 热情,热忱,积极进取的劲头
- decade
- 十年,一个十年时期
- revolution
- 革命,重大变革
- half-free
- 半自由的,未完全获得自由的
- weary
- 疲惫的,厌倦的
- inspired
- 受到鼓舞的,充满灵感的
- steadily
- 稳定地,持续地
- vision
- 愿景,远见,对未来的想象
- gradually
- 逐渐地,慢慢地
- movement
- 运动,社会运动或行动
- unguided
- 无人引导的,缺乏指引的
- pillar
- 柱子;支柱,重要支撑
- clouded
- 被遮蔽的,阴暗的,模糊的
- book-learning
- 书本知识,从书本获得的学问
- curiosity
- 好奇心,求知欲
- compulsory
- 强制性的,被迫的
- ignorance
- 无知,缺乏知识或教育
- cabalistic
- 神秘的,难以理解的,隐秘的
- longing
- 渴望,强烈的愿望或思念
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