四川外语学院第五届“语言桥杯”翻译大赛原文及获奖译文选登

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She was in a new school, and Cress Delahanty, age thirteen, wanted a new personality to go with it. What she needed, she thought, was a trademark, one that would get her immediate notice and popularity. The whole thing started when Cress heard that Bernadine Deevers, ‘just about the most populous girl in school,’ had referred to her as ‘deliciously amusing.’ Cress decided that amusing was not quite enough; funny or crazy would be better. Plotting carefully, Cress wrote out a plan of attack, a list of ideas, which she not-so-accidentally left where her parents would find it. For Mr. Delahanty, a maker of lists himself, it was a reminder of the year he was thirteen, when he had searched for a trademark. It was a time — and a trademark — he’d rather forget. For Mrs. Delahanty, who never made lists, life was bigger and better than words and to sum it up, in a series of lists was too restrictive. She had never needed to search for a personality. What was she to make of the list headed ‘My Trademark. Isn’t she crazy?’ Under it was ‘Useful Gags for Craziness. I. Clothes, A. Shoes, 1. Unmatched.’ But neither Cress nor her parents spoke openly for craziness as a trademark. Instead they spoke of things in general, of school and of classes and of Cress’s hope to be freshman editor of the yearbook — a job that traditionally led to being editor-in-chief of the senior yearbook. So Cress’s plan moved ahead without discussion, though not without concern.

B)

A great many worries can be diminished by realizing the unimportance of the matter which is causing the anxiety. I have done in my time a considerable amount of public speaking; at first every audience terrified me, and nervousness made me speak very badly; I dreaded the ordeal so much that I always hoped I might break my leg before I had to make a speech, and when it was over I was exhausted from the nervous strain. Gradually I taught myself to feel that it did not matter whether I spoke well or ill, the universe would remain much the same in either case. I found that the less I cared whether I spoke well or badly, the less badly I spoke, and gradually the nervous strain diminished almost to a vanishing point. A great deal of worry can be dealt with in this way. Our doings are not so important as we naturally suppose; our successes and failures do not after all matter very much. Even great sorrows can be survived; troubles which seem as if they must put an end to happiness for life fade with the lapse of time until it becomes almost impossible to remember their poignancy. But over and above these considerations is the fact that one’s ego is no very large part of the world. The man who can centre his thoughts and hopes upon something transcending self can find a certain peace in the ordinary troubles of life which is impossible to the pure egoist.