chestnut girl的部落格

奧威爾 (George Orwell) 的〈政治與英語〉(Politics and the English Language)，跟他的《一九八四》一樣，永不過時。無論何時閱讀，也能找到發人深省之處。

作者指出，現代英語彷似霧中身影，教人看得迷濛不清。究其原因，是罐頭語句令文意失準，但更多時是因為作者對自己的文字不感興趣 (the writer is not interested in what he is saying)。為甚麼會這樣？一、作者成了政治宣傳機器，一切按黨的要求辦事；二、作者抱著「不求有功，但求無過」的心態，得過且過！

作者在文中列舉的劣例，在六十多年後的今天，依然俯拾皆是。是語言反映了社會狀況，還是人的劣根性恆久不變？

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

奧威爾的惡搞之作，用現代英語翻譯《傳道書》九章十一節：

King Jame's version
I returned and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all. (我又轉念，見日光之下，快跑的未必能贏；力戰的未必得勝；智慧的未必得糧食；明哲的未必得資財；靈巧的未必得喜悅。所臨到眾人的是在乎當時的機會。)

奧威爾的翻譯
Objective considerations of contemporary phenomena compel the conclusion that success or failure in competitive activities exhibits no tendency to be commensurate with innate capacity, but that a considerable element of the unpredictable must invariably be taken into account.

各位不妨細想，現代英語確實充斥奧威爾譯文中那些似是而非的詞語！

~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~

謝謝林沛理先生。不是他在專欄中提到，栗才不會下決心看。(懶得要命)