译者 JACKIEXIA
Chinese people are just like mice…
中国人就像老鼠...
A week or so ago I stumbled upon a Chinese language version of Animal Farm in a local bookshop. I was slightly surprised to see it, but the back cover described it as being about 1950’s England, so perhaps the censors signed off on it as a criticism of the west. It was only 9rmb, so I bought it as a gift for one of my co-workers to see how she would react.
大概一周前，我无意中在本地书店发现了一本中文版的《动物农场》，在这看到这本书我感到有点惊讶，但是书的封底将其描述为一本关于“20世纪50年代的英国”的书，所以也许审查机构放行是因为将其视作一本批评西方的书。这本书售价只有九块钱，所以我买了一本，作为送给我一个同事的礼物，想看看她作何反应。
After she turned the last page yesterday afternoon, we dove into discussion. “It’s a good book,” she said, “but when you think about its connection with (Chinese) society, it’s a little sad.” She explained that the whole book represented what happened in China so well that it was hard to imagine that it had been written before 1949. There was a sense of anger too; that people had known that this was the trajectory of Communism, but had allowed it to happen.
昨天下午，当她合上这本书的最后一页后，我们进行了深入的讨论。“这是本好书”她说，“但是当你想到它与(X国)社会的关联时，就不免有些伤感了。”她解释说整本书完美的体现了X国社会的状况，以至于你无法想象这本书是在1949年之前写的。看完这本书后也让人有些愤怒；人们知道这就是共X主义的轨迹，但是却任其发生。
She stated that in her opinion, it would be impossible for a Chinese person to write such a book about capitalism, or what was happening in the US. She also found it upsetting that the Party was represented by pigs, which in her mind are stupid creatures. She doesn’t believe that the Party is actually thoughtless in their actions, but instead disregard the individual value of the people they rule.
她说，在她看来，一个中国人以资本主义，或者美国的历史事件，为主题的话是写不出来这样的书的。她也失望的看到这个派对的领导就是一些猪，她认为的愚蠢生物。她不相信派对的行为都是未经考虑的，只不过是他们无视统治下的人民的个人价值而已。
She put the book back on my desk and said, “It’s not a happy thing,” and then asked what other books Orwell had written, and wondered where she could buy them.
她把书放到我桌上，“看完真憋屈”，她说道，然后问我奥威尔还写过什么书，想知道在哪能买到。
At this point she realized that she hadn’t yet read Murong Xuecun’s speech that I had printed for her. “That’s not really a happy thing either,” I warned. Before she started, she wanted to know if the author was Chinese, and once I assured her he was, she dug in.
这时候她才想起来她还没读我给她打印的慕容雪村的演讲。“读完这个你也不会开心的”，我警告她。在她开始读之前，她想知道这个作者是不是中国人，当我确认后，她马上开始认真的读。
The next several minutes was a stead stream of “Ai yo” (a close relative of Ai ya, but with a negative connotation), and the slow shaking of her head. When she completed reading this, she turned to me and began, “Chinese people are just like mice…” but a stranger’s entrance interrupted her. I worried for a moment that she was going to dismiss the whole essay as some kind of foreign push against China. In several recent conversations, Chinese friends have told me that they are keenly aware of the difference between loving the Party and loving their country, and that these loyalties are often at odds.
接下来的几分钟,她不断的发出“哎呦”(一个与“哎呀”相近的语气词，但是有消极的意味)的声音，她的头缓缓的晃动。当她读完时，她转向我，说：“中国人就像老鼠…”但是一个陌生人的进入打断了她。我有一瞬间担心她会认为这是国外势力在向中国施压。在最近的几次谈话中，中国朋友们告诉我他们强烈的认识到爱党和爱国之间的不同，但这种愚忠却经常成为惯性思维。
The stranger left the door open as he exited the office, but she made sure it was completely shut before she began her thought again. “Chinese people are just like mice,” she whispered, “It’s like the government just wants to see what kind of chemicals we can eat and still survive. Or they test to find out if we will be crushed when the buildings collapse. We are just hoping that we can persist through it all.”
陌生人离开办公室的时候留着门，但是我的同事在她可以再次说话前去确保门已经关上了。“中国人就像老鼠”，她轻声说道，“现在这社会，就好像是ZF想看看我们到底能吃过什么化学品后还死不了。或者是他们想试试大楼坍塌的时候我们是不是会被压扁”
She told me that she worries that they’ll have to send their kids to study abroad just so they can have a decent life. I half expected her to cry after she said, “Chinese parents would sacrifice all of their happiness for their children.”
她告诉我人们都担心是不是必须把孩子送到国外去学习，才能保证孩子们长大后至少能过上体面正派的生活。我有点怀疑她在说完“中国的父母们为了孩子会牺牲自己的一切幸福”这句话后是不是哭了。
Throughout the conversation I noticed a heavy use of words like “eventually,” “someday,” and “hopefully.” It was good to hear that even as she considers sending her precious 5-year-old thousands of miles away, she hasn’t given up.
在对话过程中我注意到“最终”，“总有一天”，“希望是”这些词的频繁使用，尽管她考虑将5岁的小宝贝送到几千英里外的异国，她却没有失去希望，这让我很欣慰。
It reminded me of a conversation that I overheard this weekend between two Chinese college students who were discussing a recent scandal. One had said, “Oh, you know, I really just don’t care about politics.” To which the other replied, “You should care, this is your country. This is your home. If we don’t care, than these things will just keep happening.”
这让我想起了这周末我无意中听到的两个中国大学生关于最近一起丑闻的对话。其中一个说：“你知道我不关心政治的”(操，装TM清高，谁TMD关心政治)。而另一个则回应到：“你应该关心，这是你的国家，这是你的家园，如果你不关心，这些事情就会无止境的发生下去”
from 译言-每日精品译文推荐 http://article.yeeyan.org/view/161775/237340