（辑自7月的微博 http://www.weibo.com/2138515221 ）

 

昨天出去，Mickey突然想买件格子衬衫，后来在“以纯”店买了一件，170元，回来报账只报80元。买了后才注意到格子衬衫真是流行啊，我跟Mickey经常“11点方向”、“3点钟方向”地提示穿着格子衬衫的男男女女，至少二十个人中就会有一人穿着这种衬衫。我们的眼睛经常习焉不察很多事情，这是一例。

 

He once said in reply that he carries two cameras with him at all time: his eyes. – Steven Millhauer

 

Keep your face to the sunshine and you can never see the shadow. - Helen Keller

 

If poetry comes not as naturally as the leaves to a tree, it better not come at all. - John Keats

 

The future must be seen in terms of what a person can do to contribute something, to make something better, to make it go where he believes with all his being it ought to go. - Frederick R. Kappel

 

Imagination is the eye of the soul. - Joseph Joubert

 

Only choose in marriage a woman whom you would choose as a friend if she were a man. - Joseph Joubert

 

Be a life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for. - David Starr Jordan

 

Don't compromise yourself. It's all you've got. - Janis Joplin

 

The snow itself is lonely or, if you prefer, self-sufficient. There is no other time when the whole world seems composed of one thing and one thing only. - Joseph Wood Krutch

 

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life. - J. Krishnamurti

 

Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end. - J. Krishnamurti

 

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstacy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed. - J. Krishnamurti

 

The individual is not a killer, but the group is, and by identifying with it the individual is transformed into a killer. - Arthur Koestler

 

It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me. But it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King

 

Our lives begin to end the day we are silent about things that matter. - Martin Luther King

 

You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face and show the world all the love in your heart. Then people are going to treat you better. You're going to find, yes you will, that you're beautiful as you feel. - Carole King

 

The beautiful thing about learning is that no one can take it away from you. - B.B. King

 

Don't knock your competitors. By boosting others you will boost yourself. A little competition is a good thing and severe competition is a blessing. Thank God for competition. - Jacob Kindleberger

 

Politicians are the same all over. They promise to build bridges, even where there are no rivers.

- Nikita Khrushchev

 

Marrying a man is like buying something you've been admiring for a long time in a shop window. You may love it when you get it home, but it doesn't always go with everything in the house. - Jean Kerr

 

Life is a succession of moments. To live each one is to succeed. - Corita Kent

 

He who angers you conquers you. - Elizabeth Kenny

 

小区里一张广告牌上没头没脑地有这俩词。其实我更中意更狠的一句：“Bite me！”可惜一直找不到机会用。

 

在某译作中看到这样一句：“我总是偷偷地觊觎那些可爱的斯堪的纳维亚金发女郎。”我觉得里面的“偷偷地”是多余了，因为“觊觎”（ji4,yu2）的意思指“希望得到（不应该得到的东西）”，而且这样有点文白杂糅，读着不对劲儿。

 

假如你得不到你喜欢的东西，那最好喜欢你得到的东西。— 萧伯纳

 

“如果你在19岁爱上一个男孩（女孩），那你必定要用尽全力去爱，哪怕只换回半身回忆。”“半身回忆”？不解。

 

在广州也能吃到鸭血粉丝汤，这是在黄埔的妯娌鸭血粉丝馆，12元。南京那边的应该最正宗了吧？可惜去过多次，却只吃过一次，只因来去匆匆，许多时候只能跟朋友们吃一顿大餐。09年去，终于在一个路口那里吃了一次，我对配餐间里的一筐筐鸭肠、鸭胗等印象深刻，真想一次吃个够啊吃个够！

 

I envy people who drink - at least they know what to blame everything on. - Oscar Levant

Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome. - Oscar Levant

 

Insanity is hereditary; you can get it from your children. - Sam Levenson

 

You must learn from the mistakes of others. You can't possibly live long enough to make them all yourself. - Sam Levenson

 

Statistics are like bikinis. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital. - Aaron Levenstein

 

青山七惠的书每本都看，除了喜欢她敏感、轻灵的文字，也是想欣赏竺家荣老师的译文。如这一句：“‘我这六个闺女中，就数这个嘴甜了，长得又好看，脑子又好使，最给我长脸了。’”这就是我眼里的好译文，生动、归化而不过分。

 

daisy，雏菊，可当人名。又有“上等的”、“第一流的”、“杰出的”之意，例句：It is a daisy!

 

quite unlike himself. 完全变了个人。

 

我必须赞一赞顺丰快递的服务：刚才下楼时，电梯里只有两个人，我和顺丰快递员。突然，背对着我的快递员说了声：“苦里美啦。”我一愣：“嗯？”他又清晰地说了一遍，这次我听懂了，他说的是：“裤链没拉。”我低头一看，果然！

 

相聚的时光像烟火，布满天空却转眼就消失。思念的心情却像种子，埋在最深的心底慢慢发芽。— 幾米，《走向春天的下午》

 

以前我以为，那些带给别人欢笑的人，从来不会有哀伤。现在我才知道，有些人在最难过的时候还是会努力带给别人快乐。— 幾米，《走向春天的下午》

 

The true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him absolutely no good.

- Ann Landers

 

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. - Louis L'Amour

 

One never realizes how much and how little he knows until he starts talking. - Louis L'Amour

 

The son offers the father his life as a vessel for carrying forth his father's dream. - Tony Kushner

 

If you concentrate on finding whatever is good in every situation, you will discover that your life will suddenly be filled with gratitude, a feeling that nurtures the soul. - Rabbi Harold Kushner

 

#追忆# 当时去非洲，根本没想学法语，但是去的三个国家都是主要说法语，总算学会了一句“帮主”（bonjour，“日安”，“上午好”，“下午好”），一天到晚老是用，后来才知道这个词只是白天可用，晚上得说“帮丝袜”（bonsoir，“晚上好））。于是就惭愧了，一知半解真的会丢人啊。

 

#追忆# 从刚果（布）的第一大城市黑角到第三大城市Dolisie开车要三个半小时，一半是走刚开通的四车道新路。此路为中国建筑工程总公司（中建）所修，有一百多公里，路边时不时会看到竖着的“中国建筑”的铁牌，大概是做广告。路上不时会遇到一群养路工，都为一两个中国人带队，其他为黑人。

 

2007年7月时，我在家里用了七年多的电脑寿终正寝，我写了篇文章表达感受，标题是借用E.B.怀特的那篇Farewell, My Lovely! 我想这不能算恋物癖吧。听说《三联生活周刊》用了，但我一直没看到杂志。

 

一直想为用过的上部笔记本写两句。原公司配的，联想X220i，去年6月开始用。它重量轻、散热好，使用的近一年时间里一直没出过问题。尤其是在非洲的那几个月里，它是我最可靠的伙伴，我想象不出没有它，我会怎样度过那段日子。内部调动后我就把它交了回去。万物有灵，就以这贴纪念跟它相伴的那段时间吧。

 

再说这个“葱”，比较正式一点的名字为scallion http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scallion 维基上这样记：also known as green onions, spring onions, salad onions, green shallots, onion sticks, long onions, baby onions, precious onions, yard onions, gibbons, or syboes，至于“spring onion”，我怀疑就像“spring chicken”（不曾有过性生活的鸡）一样，指的是“没有怀孕的洋葱”。

 

收到豆邮：“孙老师您好， 我突然想起来前些日子刚读完《上来透口气》您的译本，有个‘春天的洋葱’出现。 我想说我刚从英国回来不久，英国超市里卖的spring onion就是咱们平时吃的葱。 ”我一查，果然。我在书里译为“春洋葱”。这位豆友真是我的“一字师”，下次重版（应在2014年）会改过来。

 

Love is sunshine, hate is shadow, life is checkered shade and sunshine. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

pontoon bridge，浮桥。赣州的浮桥和潮州的湘子桥都是延续千载的有名浮桥。

 

We fear things in proportion to our ignorance of them. - Livy

 

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior. - Henry C. Link

 

This very moment is a seed from which the flowers of tomorrow's happiness grow. - Margaret Lindsey

 

The little things are most worthwhile -- quiet word, a look, a smile. - Margaret Lindsey

 

The past is an illusion. You must learn to live in the present and accept yourself for what you are now. What you lack in flexibility and agility you must make up with knowledge and constant practice. - Bruce Lee

 

The world does not pay for what a person knows. But it pays for what a person does with what he knows. - Laurence Lee

 

The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt. - Max Lerner

 

When we cannot bear to be alone, it means we do not properly value the only companion we will have from birth to death - ourselves. - Eda LeShan

 

The great secret that all old people share is that you really haven't changed in seventy or eighty years. Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion. - Doris Lessing

 

That is what learning is. You suddenly understand something you've understood all your life, but in a new way. - Doris Lessing

 

A good teacher is one who helps you become who you feel yourself to be. A good teacher is also one who says something you won't understand until ten years later. - Julius Lester

 

如果说我的作品有一个主题，我怀疑这个主题并不复杂，那就是绝大多数人都生活在一种无法逃脱的孤独中，他们的悲剧也在于此。— 理查德·耶茨

 

无聊时，彼得偶尔会打开这个抽屉，希望那些东西能让他想到什么主意或者用来玩游戏，从来没能。什么都凑不起来，什么都没联系。要是一百万个猴子把这个抽屉摇晃一百万年，里面的内容也许能拼凑成一台收音机，但是肯定永远也收听不到节目，也永远不会被扔掉。— 伊恩·麦克尤恩，《消失膏》

 

Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. - Martin Luther

 

Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under the trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time. - Sir John Lubbock

 

Not failure, but low aim, is crime. - James Russel Lowell

 

Want to release your potential? Help others release theirs. - Pat Lynch

 

There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. When you learn to tap into this source, you will truly have defeated age. - Sophia Loren

 

Men of genius are often dull and inert in society, as a blazing meteor when it descends to earth, is only a stone. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

The talent of success is nothing more than doing what you do well, and doing well whatever you do, without a thought of fame. - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

如果说我的生活有一个中心，那就是翻译。如果我不睡觉、不吃饭、不工作、不出游、不看书、不看电影、不应酬、不刷微博及豆瓣等等，都会在翻译，但问题是，种种其他事情做下来，我已经没有时间去翻译啦！

 

前两天Mickey回到老家，上到核桃树上，人家指给他这些带青皮的玩意儿，他说：“这怎么是核桃？”还记得那年暑假在校园多待了两天，跟宿舍里的老三去校园里的核桃树上偷了一包又一包，去青皮去成了“黑手党”，吃嫩核桃仁吃得上火。后来都堆在床底，过了暑假再看，全长毛了。

 

曼哈顿的“百老汇”大名鼎鼎，其实原文不过是“Broadway”，“宽街”之意。许多别的城市也有“Broadway”，译成“百老汇”吧，怕引起不必要的联想，于是有次在译到另一座城市的“Broadway”时，音译为“布洛德街”，眼尖的读者也许觉得可笑，但是谁又能理解译者的为难呢？

 

突然想起伍迪·艾伦某部电影里的台词。他说：“你开车别这么快，会撞到校车的。”对方说：“晚上哪有校车？！”他说：“那夜校的呢？”

 

#追忆# 这张照片是1月初刚到赤几首都马拉博的时候，在开业不久的希尔顿拍的。马拉博跟大陆上的巴塔气候有很大差异。马拉博位于比奥科火山岛上，早晚都有雾，我对这幅景象一直记得很清楚，看到这张照片就觉得好像回到了那里。

 

想起1月份在马拉博看一场非洲杯赛事那次，从体育场出来，外面的小贩跟前有冷藏箱，皆大声叫道：“Friá!” 这个词是“冷的”意思，他们卖的是冷冻饮料。前两天在广州火车站，见不到不少人卖康师傅瓶装水，都是在一个白色透明的塑料箱里放一大块冰和许多瓶水，只要一块五，挺便宜，但不知道是不是真货。

 

The smallest effort is not lost. Each wavelet on the ocean tost aids the ebb-tide or the flow; Each rain-drop makes some floweret blow; Each struggle lessens human woe. - Charles Mackay

 

How perilous it is to free a people who deserve slavery. - Niccolo Machiavelli

 

Ambition is so powerful a passion in the human breast, that however high we reach we are never satisfied.- Niccolo Machiavelli

 

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved. - George MacDonald

 

我后悔跟这么多人说过，我所知道的，差不多就是我有点想念起我提到过的每一个人，例如甚至斯特拉雷德和阿克利这两个家伙。我觉得我甚至想念那个混蛋莫里斯呢，有意思。千万别跟人说事儿，说了你就会想念起每一个人。— J.D.塞林格，《麦田里的守望者》

 

man经常用作感叹词：(非正式，主北美)（表示惊讶、赞美、高兴或强调等）啊；呀；哈；啊呀；喂；嗨；嘿。例如：Man, what are you doing？西班牙语中的“hombre”（男人）也可以这样用，不知道两种语言中这种用法，是哪种影响了哪种。

 

corn silk，玉米穗丝，我们老家那里叫“苞谷胡子”。从网上查的图片看，国外有以玉米穗丝为原料的营养品、袋泡茶等，我们这里好像没有开发这方面的产品。

 

Our worth is determined by the good deeds we do, rather than by the fine emotions we feel. - Elias L. Magoon

 

Do we not all spend the greater part of our lives under the shadow of an event that has not yet come to pass? - Maurice Maeterlinck

 

Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our Government the real power lies in the majority of the community... - James Madison

 

The more I traveled the more I realized that fear makes strangers of people who should be friends.

- Shirley Maclaine

 

The person who knows how to laugh at himself will never cease to be amused. - Shirley Maclaine

 

Are you worried about pressure? I look at it this way: Pressure is having to do something you are not totally prepared to do. - Harvey Mackay

 

Often the difference between a successful man and a failure is not one's better abilities or ideas, but the courage that one has to bet on his ideas, to take a calculated risk-and to act. - Maxwell Maltz

 

What shall we do with out daughters? In the night, we wake uneasily and tiptoe to their doors, pausing with our hands outstretched, unable to advance or retreat. We think of the long years of childhood, the party frocks and lollipops, the shimmer of trembling bubbles in blue summer air. We dream of better times. – Steven Millhauser, The Sisterhood of Night

 

I will smile at friend and foe alike and make every effort to find, in him or her, a quality to praise, now that I realize the deepest yearning of human nature is the craving to be appreciated. - Og Mandino

 

Happy is the man with a wife to tell him what to do and a secretary to do it. - Lord Mancroft

 

Stand up to crises. Don't let them throw you! Fight to stay calm... even surmount the crisis completely and turn it into an opportunity. Refuse to renounce your self-image. No matter what happens, you must keep your good opinion of yourself. No matter what happens, you must hold your past successes in your imagination, ready for showing in the motion picture screen of your mind. No matter what happens, no matter what you lose, no matter what failures you must endure, you must keep faith in yourself. Then you can stand up to crises, with calm and courage, refusing to buckle; then you will not fall through the floor. You will be able to support yourself. - Maxwell Maltz

 

Happy is the man with a wife to tell him what to do and a secretary to do it. - Lord Mancroft

 

Low self-esteem is like driving through life with your hand-break on. - Maxwell Maltz

 

homburg, 霍姆堡毡帽, ORIGIN late 19th cent.: named after Homburg, a town in western Germany, where such hats were first worn

 

作家各有特点（废话！），想来译者更有体会。译的上一位作家喜欢用副词，几乎任何一个动作都要配上一个副词，现在译的这位是喜欢连续用近义词，例如这句：“She doted on him, spoiled him, listened to him with earnest attention.” dote和 spoil就是近义词，译者还非得选择近义词来译。真想像葛优一样吵作者一句：“有这个必要吗？！”

 

来这间湛江餐馆主要想吃沙虫。这是跟萝卜丝一起煮汤，白色的即沙虫。厦门那里的著名小吃土笋冻就是以沙虫为主要原料。我问章老师敢不敢吃，一直研究人类学的章老师说当然要吃。

 

中午在三元里大道北金莎大酒店附近一间湛江餐馆跟结交近十年，但还是头一次见面的章戈浩兄(@媒文化的章伯) 见面，言谈甚欢。话说这里有两间湛江菜餐馆，我每年至少会来一次，因为金莎大酒店是广交会河南团驻地，每年郝同学参会时，我都会来这里请他吃饭。图为湛江鸡，我主要是喜欢旁边那盘沙姜蘸料。

 

这些房子通常又直又窄，可能只有三间房宽，但却有五层楼高，外面通常贴着白瓷砖，还装上罩有绿色遮光窗帘的大玻璃窗。那种绿在现代中国的建筑中司空见惯，总让我想起《大亨小传》里从黛西的船坞尽头发出的光晕。— 彼得·海斯勒，《甲骨文》

 

有些日子，党要纪念它，有些日子，党想把它遗忘。有些日子，某些事情一定得发生，有些日子，则什么事也不要有。— 彼得·海斯勒，《甲骨文》