难句译注
1. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
【结构简析】 虚拟条件句,主句中to compare it with… know是插入语,也有假设之意。
【参考译文】 如果人们坚持只观察现实,不让自己被蒙蔽,那么生活,把它和我们知道的事情相比较,就象神话,象一千零一夜中描述的一切。
2. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality.
【结构简析】 主句中两个that. 第一个是perceive 的宾语从句。破折号的第二个 that从句是说明,对比前一个that 句。
【参考译文】 在我们冷静和明智时,我们会感到只有伟大的和有价值的东西才能永恒绝对地存在,而那些微不足道的恐惧和欢乐仅仅是现实的阴影而已。