30年前的粗糙翻译练习（8）--我们为什么仇视虫子？

武夷山

当我们想到人类与动物在虫子手上----如果“手”这个词用对了的话----遭了多大的殃，那我们就会觉得，我们对这些如此不体谅人的造物做鬼脸是可以原谅的。但是，顶顶令人吃惊的是，给人造成最大伤害的虫子并不是最瘆人的。当黄蜂悬在空中，先视察一位太太的左太阳穴，又视察她的右太阳穴时，她可以安坐无妨，可是，一只无害的蜘蛛会使她退避三舍。另一位太太在马蝇面前可以保持镇定（虽然心生杀意），但是，看见并不嗜血的蛾子就会哆哆嗦嗦。显然，我们的恐惧与意识到的危险并不一一相称。有些虫子使我们感到很怪异，很多人都对蛾子有此种感觉。蛾子是昆虫界的鬼蜮。也许是它夜半时分不打招呼振翅而至的举止使我们害怕。它们拍击被照亮的窗子，就好像是外部黑暗给我们送来了信札。它们的坚持不懈也助长了恐怖气氛。它们比一个附属国还要麻烦。它们比缠扰不休的寡妇还难缠。不过，若我们突然看见飞蛾被光照亮时那红闪闪的眼睛，那最可怕了。人们会想到非洲森林一所庙宇中的夜祷仪式，想到恶毒女妖头上的闪耀珍珠----我们意识到，这些珍珠将会被一个愚蠢的白人偷走，于是成为一部耸人听闻的小说里面家族血仇的根由。人们感到，此时毛发倒竖都是有理由的，只不过毛发完不成这个任务罢了。我想，对于大多数人来说，能看见蛾子的眼睛是很难得的，飞蛾的闪闪红眼则是比房屋着火更加难忘的奇观。

----Robert Lynd，1879-1949，爱尔兰作家

这段话的原文如下，供参考。

When we think of the sufferings of humanbeings and animals at the hands--if that is the right word--of insects, we feelthat it is pardonable enough to make faces at creatures so inconsiderate. Butwhat strikes one as remarkable is that the insects that do man most harm arenot those that horrify him most. A lady who will sit bravely while a wasp hangsin the air and inspects first her right and then her left temple will run amile from a harmless spider. Another will remain collected (though murderous) inpresence of a horse-fly, but will shudder at sight of a moth that is innocentof blood. Our fears, it is evident, do not march in all respects with our senseof physical danger. There are insects that make us feel that we are in presenceof the uncanny. Many of us have this feeling about moths. Moths are the ghostsof the insect world. It may be the manner in which they flutter in unheraldedout of the night that terrifies us. They seem to tap against our lightedwindows as though the outer darkness had a message for us. And theirpersistence helps to terrify. They are more troublesome than a subject nation.They are more importunate than the importunate widow. But they are mostterrifying of all if one suddenly sees their eyes blazing crimson as they catchthe light. One thinks of nocturnal rites in an African forest temple and ofterrible jewels blazing in the head of an evil goddess--jewels to be stolen, werealise, by a foolish white man, thereafter to be the object of a vendetta in asensational novel. One feels that one's hair would be justified in standing onend, only that hair does not do such things. The sight of a moth's eye is, Ifancy, a rare one for most people. It is a sight one can no more forget than ahouse on fire.

出处：http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/6338/。

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