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写在前面:

早就对自己七八年前写的那本书看不惯了,所以,想好好修订一下,尤其是所有考研真题的全文译文。下决心,好好修改修改。于是乎,从今天开始,我每天校对一篇。这里发布的译文,是经过认真校对之后,发布给大家的,但仍然担心有错。尤其是有些句子,可能还应该翻译得更精彩,热烈欢迎大家批评指正。让我们一起做翻译吧。

2011年英译汉全文翻译

8月15日修改版(仍在修改中,有错误请指正)
With its theme that "Mind is the master weaver,"
creating our inner character and outer circumstances, the book As a
Man Thinking by James Allen is an in-depth exploration of the
central idea of
self-help writing.

詹姆斯·艾伦的《作为一名思想者》[1]

深入探讨了自助类书籍的核心概念。该书的主要观点是"意识是编织大师",意识塑造了我们的内在性格和外在环境。
(46) Allen's contribution was to take
an assumption we all share-that because we are not robots we
therefore control our thoughts-and reveal its erroneous nature.
Because most of us believe that mind is separate from matter, we
think that thoughts can be hidden and made powerless; this allows
us to think one way and act another. However, Allen believed that
the unconscious mind generates as much action as the conscious
mind, and (47) while we may be able to sustain the illusion of
control through the conscious mind alone, in reality we are
continually faced with a question: "Why cannot I make myself do
this or achieve that? "

艾伦的贡献在于,他探讨了一个公认的假设"因为我们不是机器人,所以我们能控制自己的想法",并揭示了其错误的本质。我们大多数人相信,意识与物质是割裂的;因此我们认为,思想可以隐藏起来,可以变得毫无影响力;这使得我们可以思行不一。但艾伦相信,潜意识和意识能对行为造成同样大的影响;我们或许只靠意识就能维持"掌控一切"的幻觉,但事实上我们一直面临一个问题:"为什么我不能让自己做到这件事或实现那个目标?"
Since desire and will are damaged by the
presence of thoughts that do not accord with desire, Allen
concluded: "We do not attract what we want, but what we are."
Achievement happens because you as a person embody the external
achievement; you don't "get" success but become it. There is no gap
between mind and matter。

和欲望不相符的想法会摧毁我们的欲望和希冀。艾伦得出的结论是:"我们不能吸引自己想要的东西,只能做好自己。"你之所以能取得成就,是因为你这个人体现出了成就;你并非"取得"成功,而是"变得"成功。意识与物质并不割裂。
Part of the fame of Allen's book is its
contention that "Circumstances do not make a person, they reveal
him." (48) This seems a justification for neglect of those in
need, and a rationalization of exploitation, of the superiority of
those at the top and the inferiority of those at the
bottom.

艾伦这本书的亮点还在于指出了"环境不会造就人,而是反映人。"这似乎为忽视需要帮助的人找到了借口,使剥削变得有合理化了,使富人优越、穷人卑微变得有道理了。
This, however, would be a knee-jerk
reaction to a subtle argument. Each set of circumstances, however
bad, offers a unique opportunity for growth. If circumstances
always determined the life and prospects of people, then
humanity would never have
progressed. In fact, (49)circumstances seem to
be designed to bring out the best in us and if we feel that we have
been "wronged" then we are unlikely to begin a conscious effort to
escape from our situation. Nevertheless, as any biographer
knows, a person's early life and its conditions are often the
greatest gift to an individual。

但这不过是对一个模棱两可的论点的本能回应。每一种环境,无论多么恶劣,都提供了独一无二的成长机遇。如果环境总是决定人们的生活和希冀,那么人类永远不会进步。事实上,环境似乎诣在激发我们最大的潜能;如果我们感到"上天不公",就不太可能有意识地试图脱离现状。但正如任何一位传记作家都知道的那样,一个人的早年生活和周遭际遇往往是他最大的财富。
The sobering aspect of Allen's book is
that we have no one else to blame for our present condition except
ourselves. (50) The upside is the possibilities contained in
knowing that everything is up to us; where before we were experts
in the array of limitations, now we become authorities of what is
possible.

艾伦这本书令人警醒之处在于--对于我们当下的处境,我们不能怪罪别人,只能归咎于自己。从积极的方面看,既然万事都取决于我们自己,那么就有无限可能;过去,我们是应对种种局限性的专家;现在,我们成了掌控所有可能性的权威。


[1]

根据爱默生的说法,"思想者"(Man Thinking)不同于"思考者"(Thinker)。Thinker是被动思考、靠吸吮他人思想活着的人,而Man Thinking
要形成自己的思想。



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