经典英文作品欣赏与诵读
（补充资料）
2014年2月
LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT
—Eugene O’Neill
ACT IV
(Excerpt)
EDMUND
[With a wry ironical sadness] It might be in an old trunk in the attic, along with Mama’s wedding dress.
[Then as his father stares at him, he adds quickly] For Pete’s sake, if we’re going to play cards, let’s play.
[He takes the card his father had played and leads. For a moment, they play the game, like mechanical chess players. Then Tyrone stops, listening to a sound upstairs]
TYRONE
She’s still moving around. God knows when she’ll go to sleep.
EDMUND
[Pleads tensely]For Christ’s sake, Papa, forget it!
[He reaches out and pours a drink. Tyrone starts to protest, then gives it up. Edmund drinks. He puts down the glass. His expression changes. When he speaks it is as if he were deliberately giving way to drunkenness and seeking to hide behind a maudlin manner]
Yes, she moves above and beyond us, a ghost haunting the past, and here we sit pretending to forget, but straining our ears listening for the slightest sound, hearing the fog drip from the eaves like the uneven tick of a rundown, crazy clock—or like the dreary tears of a trollop spattering in a puddle of stale beer on a honky-tonk table top!
[He laughs with maudlin appreciation]Not so bad, that last, eh? Original, not Baudelaire. Give me credit!
[Then with alcoholic talkativeness]You’ve just told me some high spots inyour memories. Want to hear mine? They’re all connected with the sea. Here’s one. When I was on the Squarehead square rigger, bound for Buenos Aires. Full moon in the Trades. The old hooker driving fourteen knots. I lay on the bowsprit, facing astern, with the water foaming into spume under me, the masts with every sail white in the moonlight, towering high above me. I became drunk with the beauty and singing rhythm of it, and for a moment I lost myself—actually lost my life. I was set free! Idissolved in the sea, became with sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and high dim-starred sky! I belonged, without past or future, within peace and unity and a wild joy, within something greater than my own life, or the life of Man, to Life itself! To God, if you want to put it that way. Then another time, on the American Line, when I was lookout on the crow’s nest in the dawn watch. A calm sea, that time. Only a lazy ground swell and a slow drowsy roll of the ship. The passengers asleep and none of the crew in sight. No sound of man. Black smoke pouring from the funnels behind and beneath me. Dreaming, not keeping lookout, feeling alone, and above, and apart, watching the dawn creep like a painted dream over the sky and sea which slept together. Then the moment of ecstatic freedom came. The peace, the end of the quest, the last harbor, the joy of belonging to a fulfillment beyond men’s lousy, pitiful, greedy fears and hopes and dreams! And several other times in my life, when I was swimming far out, or lying alone on the beach, I have had the same experience. Became the sun, the hot sand, green seaweed anchored to a veil of things as they seem drawn back by an unseen hand. For a second you see—and seeing the secret, are the secret. For a second there is meaning! Then the hand lets the veil fall and you are alone, lost in the fog again, and you stumble on toward nowhere, for no good reason. [He grins wryly]
It was a great mistake, my being born a man, I would have been much more successful as a sea gull or a fish. As it is, I will always be a stranger who never feels at home, who does not really want and is not really wanted, who can never belong, who must always be a little in love with death!
作者简介
尤金•奥尼尔（Eugene O’Neill 1888-1953），美国剧作家，生于纽约。父亲是一位很有名气的演员。奥尼尔从8岁起在寄宿学校读书，1906年考上普林斯顿大学，但只读了一年就中途辍学，后当过职员、水手、临时演员和新闻记者，到过洪都拉斯、阿根廷等地，经历过十分贫困潦倒的生活。1912年冬，奥尼尔因肺结核住院疗养，期间他开始剧本创作。
尤金•奥尼尔的戏剧涉及美国社会生活的不同方面，但他并不直接描写社会冲突，而是侧重描写这些冲突对人们内心的影响以及由此导致的悲剧。他的戏剧创作一方面受到古希腊悲剧的影响，另一方面又受到近代西方哲学、心理学的影响。他一生创作了50余部剧本，其中绝大多数都是悲剧。他曾四次荣获普利策戏剧奖，并于1936年荣膺诺贝尔文学奖，是迄今为止美国唯一一位获此殊荣的剧作家，也是颇具世界影响的剧作家。
作品简介
《进入黑夜的漫长旅程》是尤金•奥尼尔的传世之作。作品描写蒂龙一家度过的漫长而痛苦的一天，全剧的矛盾冲突集中在母亲的戒毒和次子埃德蒙患肺结核这两件事上。剧本具有很强的自传性，奥尼尔以自己的家庭成员为原型，揭示了他的家庭隐私，他本人说剧本是“用血和泪写成”。西方评论界把它誉为奥尼尔最伟大的创作之一。剧中没有激烈的动作，没有曲折的情节，没有紧张的戏剧冲突，但就在极其平凡、毫无惊心动魄事件发生的日常生活中奥尼尔创造出了悲剧的氛围，使其具有感人肺腑的艺术魅力。
佳句欣赏：
1.Then the moment of ecstatic freedom came. The peace, the end of the quest, the last harbor, the joy of belonging to a fulfillment beyond men’s lousy, pitiful, greedy fears and hopes and dreams!
2. Idissolved in the sea, became with sails and flying spray, became beauty and rhythm, became moonlight and the ship and high dim-starred sky!
参考译文：
进入黑夜的漫长旅程
尤金·奥尼尔
第四幕
（节选）
埃德蒙
（带着讽刺性的受伤口吻，打趣地说）可能藏在阁楼上的一只旧箱子里，跟妈妈的结婚礼服放在一起。（看到他父亲瞪眼看他，又迅速补充了一句）看在老天爷的分上，既然我们玩牌，我们就玩牌吧。（他把父亲打出来的一张牌赢了进去，自己又出了一张牌。两人像机器玩牌人那样继续玩了一会儿牌。接着，蒂龙忽然住手，细心倾听楼上的声响）
蒂龙
她还在来回地走动。天晓得什么时候她才去睡觉。
埃德蒙
（强烈地央求）看在老天爷的分上，爸爸，别管她了！（他伸手过去，倒了一杯酒。蒂龙起初想要制止，后来又作罢，埃德蒙喝酒。他把酒杯放下来，感情发生了变化。他开口说话的时候，好像有意借酒装疯，装出一副伤感的样子）不错，她在我们上面，离我们远远的，走来走去，诗歌纠缠着过去的鬼魂。我们却坐在这儿，一面装着忘记过去，一面却竖起耳朵来细听最微小的声音，只听见雾气从屋檐上一滴滴地淌下来，就像一座摇摇欲坠发条松弛的老钟，发出时断时续的滴答声—也像在下等低级的酒吧间里，意气消沉的娼妇在肮脏的桌面上掉下了伤心的眼泪，洒在一滩隔夜的啤酒上！（他带着酒后感伤的欣赏情绪哈哈大笑）刚才那句话不错吧，是吧？是我自己的创作，不是鲍特莱尔那儿引来的。我还值得称赞吧！（醉后多嘴）您刚才告诉了我你最值得回忆的几件事。我也有过，愿意听听我的吗？都是跟航海有关系的。记得有一次，我乘着一只“北欧人”号方头帆船开往布宜诺斯艾利斯去。天空一轮明月，迎面吹来贸易风。那只又老又破的船倒也乘风破浪每小时航行十四海里。我躺在船头斜桅上，面对着船尾，脚底下拖着的海水起着白沫的浪花，头顶上每根桅杆扬着帆，在月光里飘扬着一片片的白色。眼前的美景和船身歌声般有节奏的摆动使我完全陶醉了，一时忘记了自我—的的确确好像丧失了生命。我像是突破了人生的牢笼，获得了自身的自由！我和海洋溶为一体，化为白帆，变成飞溅的浪花，又变成美景和节奏，变成月光，船，和星光隐约的天空！我感到没有过去，也没有将来，只觉得在大自然的怀抱中平安，协调，欣喜若狂，超越了自己渺小的生命，或者说人类的生命，达到了永生的境界！如果你愿意也可以说是到达了上帝的境界。还有一次，我在美国船运公司的船上工作，在眺望台上值早班守望。那一次海上是风平浪静的，海洋中的波涛只是懒懒地一起一伏，船身似沉睡般的左右摇摆着。船上的乘客都在睡梦中，水手也没有一个在眼前，四周没有人的动静。在我的背后，在我的脚下，一堆堆黑烟从船上的烟囱冒出来。我在做梦，也不顾职守，只觉得孤零零一个人，高高在上，远离尘世，眼望晨光像彩色图画一样的美梦偷偷地潜进水天一色之中。就在那一刹那我又感到浑身自由，心醉神迷。我感到平安，好像到达了目的的彼岸，最后的一个港口，只有愿望的满意，不再需要追求。那种感觉超越了人生的丑恶、可鄙、贪婪的恐惧和希求以及梦幻！还有，在我人生的道路上不止一次，我游水远远地游到深海处，要么一个人躺在沙滩上，我也有同样的感觉。好像化身为太阳，热烘烘的沙，或者像岩石上碧绿的水藻随着浪潮飘荡，又像圣徒幻想见到了天堂，也像掩盖万物的帷幕，无形中有手把它拉开，让你一瞬之间看到了—看清了秘密，你本身就是秘密。一瞬之间，什么都有了意义！然后那只手又把帷幕垂了下来，你一个人孤零零留在外边，又迷失在雾中，人生坎坷，四处碰壁，不知往何处去，也不知道事情的源头！（苦笑）我生而为人，真是一个大错。要是生而为一只海鸥或是一条鱼，我会一帆风顺得多。作为一个人，我总是一个生活不惯的陌生人，一个自己并不真正需要，也不真正为别人所需要的人，一个永远无所皈依的人，心里总是存在一点儿想死的念头。
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