Mark Twain-Mirror of America
马克吐温-美国的一面镜子
Noel Grove
诺埃尔格罗夫
Most Americans remember Mark Twain as the father of Huck Finn's idyllic cruise through eternal boyhood and Tom Sawyer's endless summer of freedom and adventure. In-deed, this nation's best-loved author was every bit as ad-venturous, patriotic, romantic, and humorous as anyone has ever imagined. I found another Twain as well-one who grew cynical, bitter, saddened by the profound personal tragedies life dealt him, a man who became obsessed with the frailties of the human race, who saw clearly ahead a black wall of night.
在大多数美国人的心目中，马克o吐温是位伟大作家，他描写了哈克o费恩永恒的童年时代中充满诗情画意的旅程和汤姆o索亚在漫长的夏日里自由自在历险探奇的故事。的确，这位美国最受人喜爱的作家的探索精神、爱国热情、浪漫气质及幽默笔调都达到了登峰造极的程度。但我发现还有另一个不同的马克o吐温--一个由于深受人生悲剧的打击而变得愤世嫉俗、尖酸刻薄的马克o吐温，一个为人类品质上的弱点而忧心忡忡、明显地看到前途是一片黑暗的人。
Tramp printer, river pilot,Confederate guerrilla, prospector, starry-eyed optimist, acid-tongued cynic: The man who became Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he ranged across the nation for more than a third of his life, digesting the new American experience before sharing it with the world as writer and lecturer. He adopted his pen name from the cry heard in his steamboat days, signaling two fathoms (12 feet) of water-a navigable depth. His popularity is attested by the fact that more than a score of his books remain in print, and translations are still read around the world.
印刷工、领航员、邦联游击队员、淘金者、耽于幻想的乐天派、语言尖刻的讽刺家：马克吐温原名塞缪尔朗赫恩克莱门斯，他一生之中有超过三分之一的时间浪迹美国各地，体验着美国的新生活，尔后便以作家和演说家的身分将他所感受到的这一切介绍给全世界。他的笔名取自他在蒸汽船上做工时听到的报告水深为两口寻(12英尺)--意即可以通航的信号语。他的作品中有二十几部至今仍在印行，其外文译本仍在世界各地拥有读者，由此可见他的享誉程度。
The geographic core, in Twain's early years, was the great valley of the Mississippi River, main artery of transportation in the young nation's heart. Keelboats ，flatboats,and large rafts carried the first major commerce. Lumber, corn, tobacco, wheat, and furs moved downstream to the delta country; sugar, molasses,cotton, and whiskey traveled north. In the 1850's, before the climax of westward expansion, the vast basin drained three-quarters of the settled United States.
在马克吐温青年时代，美国的地理中心是密西西比河流域，而密西西比河是这个年轻国家中部的交通大动脉。龙骨船、平底船和大木筏载运着最重要的商品。木材、玉米、烟草、小麦和皮货通过这些运载工具顺流而下，运送到河口三角洲地区，而砂糖、糖浆、棉花和威士忌酒等货物则被运送到北方。在19世纪50年代，西部领土开发高潮到来之前，辽阔的密西西比河流域占美国已开发领土的四分之三。