见闻札记
作者自叙
我平生最喜游览新境,考察种种异地人物及其风习。早在童稚时期,我 的旅行即已开始,观察区域之广,遍及我出生城镇的各个偏僻之所与罕至之地;此事固曾使我的父母饱受虚惊,市镇报讯人却也赖以沾益颇丰。及长, 我观察的范围继续扩大。无数假日下午尽行消磨在郊垌的漫游之中。那里一切在历史上或传说上有名的地方,我无不十分熟悉。我知道那里的每一处杀人越货之所与鬼魂出现之地。我继而访问了许多邻村,观察其地的风俗习惯, 并与当地的圣贤与伟人接谈, 因而极大增加了我的原有见闻。一次,在一个漫长的夏日,我竟漫游到了一座远山之巅,登临纵目,望见了数不尽的无名 广土, 因而惊悟所居天地之宽。

这种浪游的习性在我竟随着年龄而俱增。描写海与陆的游记成了我的酷 嗜,寝馈其中,致废课业。在天气晴和的日子里,我往往怀着多么渴慕的心 情漫步在码头周围,凝视着一艘艘离去的船只驶赴迢迢的远方;我曾以何等希羡的眼神目送着那渐渐消逝的桅帆,并在想象之中自己也随风飘越至地角天边!

此后进一步的阅读与思考虽使这种渺茫的向往稍就理性之范,却适足以使之更其固定。我游历了自己国土的各个地方;而如果我的爱好仅限于妍丽景物的追逐, 则快心悦目,尽可以无须远求,因为纯以大自然的妩媚而论,此邦却可谓得天独厚,世罕其俦。试想她那银波荡漾、与海相若的浩渺湖面;那晴光耀眼、顶作天青的巍峨群山;那粗犷而富饶盈衍的峡岸溪谷;那雷鸣喧豗于阒寂之中的巨大飞瀑急湍;那绿色葱茏、好风阵阵的无际平原;那庄严静谧、滚滚入海的深广江流;那万木争荣、无径可循的茂密森林;那夏云丽日、谲诡幻变的灿烂天空;——不,在自然景物的壮丽方面,美国人从不需要舍本土而远求。

然而在传奇与诗意的联想方面,欧洲却具有着它特殊的魅力。在那里人们可以见到艺术上的名作巨制,上流社会的精致娴雅以及古今风尚的种种特 点。欧洲蕴蓄着世代聚集的珍奇宝藏,就连那里的遗址废墟也尽是过去历史的记载,每块残砖烂石都是一部史册。我渴望到那些有过丰功伟业的故地去漫游——仿佛是去追寻往古的足迹——留连于废堡颓垣之侧,低徊于圮塔欹楼之中——总之,暂时忘情于眼前的凡庸现实,而沉缅在过去繁华胜事的幻影里去。

除此以外,我还殷切期望有幸去瞻仰瞻仰世上的伟人。诚然,美国自有 它自己的伟人,这种人物广布各个城中,不知凡几。我平生也颇厕身其间, 而且常被他们弄得黯无颜色;因为一位伟人——尤其是一位城市的伟人—— 的光焰往往有为小人物所难堪者。但是欧洲的伟人我却久思一睹风采;因为 我就曾在不止一位哲学家的著作里读到过这种说法,即大凡动物一入美洲, 即有出现退化之患,当然连人也不例外。因此我想,欧洲的伟人之于美国的 伟人,大概也犹如阿尔卑斯山的高峰之于哈得逊河边的高地那样,而这种认 识,在饱看了不少英国旅客在我们中间所流露的那种优越神情与倨傲态度之 后,乃益信其不妄;而其实这些人,据我听说,在其本国之中也不过是凡庸 之辈而已。因此我立志要恭游上国,亲历奇境,以便见见我这已经凋残的后 裔所自出的那个巨人种族。

不管好运厄运,我这漂泊的热望总算宿愿得偿了。我漫游了许多不同的国家,阅历了不少变动不居的人生世相。我不敢妄称对于这形形色色的世相, 我曾以哲人的目光作了观照;而仅仅是徘徊于众多画店窗前的探幽寻胜的谦 卑癖嗜者的一种闲眺:时而美物写生,勾勒微妙;时而谐谑漫画,突梯滑稽; 时而山水风景, 意境悠然,因而令人迷恋不置。既然当今的旅行家一出门便 须画笔在手,地不虚至,以便将来图稿盈箧,满载而归,因此我也不免要拣 出几件,以博友人一粲。然而当我重检自己为此而作的种种札记日志时,我 却发现,由于素性疏懒,我对每位立志著述的正规旅行家照例列入其研究范围的种种重大事物,竟然多有脱漏,因而惶惧无已。我担心,我之必然令人 失望,将不下于下述之山水画家。其人也确曾旅游过欧陆,然而终不胜其烟 霞癖之驱遣,每有所作,辄得之于穷乡僻壤之中。因而充溢其画册的东西则茅屋也,山水也,无名之故地废墟也,但是圣彼得大堂他却漏掉;迦利辛斗 兽场他却漏掉;特尔尼瀑布或那波里海湾他也都漏掉;甚至连冰川与火山之 巨观,他的全部作品中也都没有一笔提到。 (高健译)

The Sketch Book
The Author's Account of Himself
I was always fond of visiting new scenes, and observing strange characters and manners. Even when a mere child I began my travels, and made many tours of discovery into foreign parts and unknown regions of my native city, to the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier. As I grew into boyhood, I extended the range of my observations. My holiday afternoons were spent in rambles about the surrounding country. I made myself familiar with all its places famous in history or fable. I knew every spot where a murder or robbery had been committed, or a ghost seen. I visited the neighboring villages, and added greatly to my stock of knowledge, by noting their habits and customs, and conversing with their sages and great men. I even journeyed one long summer's day to the summit of the most distant hill, whence I stretched my eye over many a mile of terra incognita, and was astonished to find how vast a globe I inhabited.
第一段写作者少年时代的游历及感受，第一句开门见山写出了全段的主题，对整个篇章也有着提纲挈领的作用。作者乐此不疲的有三个方面：景（scenes），人（characters），俗（manners）。高译较得原作旨意。To the frequent alarm of my parents, and the emolument of the town-crier 林译“二亲颇为我忧，辄倩人四出侦我；受倩者转用以取资于我家”，运用了语用引申的方法，使原文潜在的意义表面化，便于汉语读者理解。高译“此事固曾使我的父母饱受虚惊,市镇报讯人却也赖以沾益颇丰”虽在脚注中写明市镇报讯人是“美国过去在接头向人宣告公文告示等的公差”，意义终不如林译显豁，不过town-crier林译为“人”太泛。最后一句林译疏漏较多。

This rambling propensity strengthened with my years. Books of voyages and travels became my passion, and in devouring their contents, I neglected the regular exercises of the school. How wistfully would I wander about the pier-heads in fine weather, and watch the parting ships, bound to distant climes; with what longing eyes would I gaze after their lessening sails, and waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth!
第二段第二句的books of voyage and travels 林译“古人之游记”不如高译“描写海陆的游记”确切。第三句林译疏漏较多，但把waft myself in imagination to the ends of the earth 译成“余一缕游魂，竟逐此船至于天涯地角”，颇能传达原作神韵。

Further reading and thinking, though they brought this vague inclination into more reasonable bounds, only served to make it more decided. I visited various parts of my own country; and had I been merely a lover of fine scenery, I should have felt little desire to seek elsewhere its gratification, for on no country had the charms of nature been more prodigally lavished. Her mighty lakes, her oceans of liquid silver; her mountains, with their bright aerial tints; her valleys, teeming with wild fertility; her tremendous cataracts, thundering in their solitudes; her boundless plains, waving with spontaneous verdure; her broad, deep rivers, rolling in solemn silence to the ocean; her trackless forests, where vegetation puts forth all its magnificence; her skies, kindling with the magic of summer clouds and glorious sunshine;--no, never need an American ok beyond his own country for the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery.
第三段第一句林译有些捕风捉影，高译属确译。第二句林译只说出了大意，高译勉励传达原句的完整意义。但charms of nature高译“大自然的妩媚”，用词不确。“妩媚”属阴柔之类，对照下文罗列的英国风光的佳处，妩媚者仅其中之一端，而非全部，林译较可取。
第三句是个很有特色的长句。作者用八个并列的短语勾勒出美不胜收的祖国风光。林译疏漏较多，不足为训。高译用排比短语，是不可多得的佳译。但是the sublime and beautiful of natural scenery 中的sublime和beautiful是两种美学范畴。高译误为一般形容词，笼统地译为“壮丽”，加之将上述的charms译成“妩媚”，使全段的内在联系变得很含糊。

But Europe held forth all the charms of storied and poetical association. There were to be seen the masterpieces of art, the refinements of highly cultivated society, the quaint peculiarities of ancient and local custom. My native country was full of youthful promise; Europe was rich in the accumulated treasures of age. Her very ruins told the history of the times gone by, and every mouldering stone was a chronicle. I longed to wander over the scenes of renowned achievement--to tread, as it were, in the footsteps of antiquity--to loiter about the ruined castle--to meditate on the falling tower--to escape, in short, from the commonplace realities of the present, and lose myself among the shadowy grandeurs of the past.
第四段转而写欧洲的魅力，第五句的longed后跟有五个并列的不定式短语，表达了作者的强烈渴望，高译的这句话是很成功的。

I had, besides all this, an earnest desire to see the great men of the earth. We have, it is true, our great men in America: not a city but has an ample share of them. I have mingled among them in my time, and been almost withered by the shade into which they cast me; for there is nothing so baleful to a small man as the shade of a great one, particularly the great man of a city. But I was anxious to see the great men of Europe; for I had read in the works of various philosophers, that all animals degenerated in America, and man among the number. A great man of Europe, thought I, must therefore be as superior to a great man of America, as a peak of the Alps to a highland of the Hudson; and in this idea I was confirmed by observing the comparative importance and swelling magnitude of many English travellers among us, who, I was assured, were very little people in their own country. I will visit this land of wonders, thought I, and see the gigantic race from which I am degenerated.
第五段作者在结束写对赏景观俗的爱好之后，转而写对拜会名人的热望。第一句林译将to see the great men of earth译为“访彼伟人”，曲解了愿意，作者这里是在笼统地说“世上的伟人”。第五句虽然结构复杂，但高译很成功。林译处理的也很好，只是“余故更欲觇其所谓大者”一句是原文所没有的，大概是从下句的gigantic race猜度来的。

It has been either my good or evil lot to have my roving passion gratified. I have wandered through different countries and witnessed many of the shifting scenes of life. I cannot say that I have studied them with the eye of a philosopher, but rather with the sauntering gaze with which humble lovers of the picturesque stroll from the window of one print-shop to another; caught sometimes by the delineations of beauty, sometimes by the distortions of caricature, and sometimes by the loveliness of landscape. As it is the fashion for modern tourists to travel pencil in hand, and bring home their portfolios filled with sketches, I am disposed to get up a few for the entertainment of my friends. When, however, I look over the hints and memorandums I have taken down for the purpose, my heart almost fails me, at finding how my idle humor has led me astray from the great object studied by every regular traveller who would make a book. I fear I shall give equal disappointment with an unlucky landscape-painter, who had travelled on the Continent, but following the bent of his vagrant inclination, had sketched in nooks, and corners, and by-places. His sketch-book was accordingly crowded with cottages, and landscapes, and obscure ruins; but he had neglected to paint St. Peter's, or the Coliseum, the cascade of Terni, or the bay of Naples, and had not a single glacier or volcano in his whole collection.
第六段仍以游字写起，巧妙地介绍了《见闻札记》一书的特点。第三句林译未能传达原作意义，高译前半句较好，“时而美物写生，勾勒美妙……”一部分亦未能很好体现原作者的意图。作者在这里不知识在讲画，而是在通过这个比喻介绍自己的观察方式与习惯。如果改成“时而在美不胜收的写生画前凝目，时而在奇形怪状的诙谐画前驻足，时而在意境悠然的风景画前流连”，效果似乎更好一些。第六句和第七句是以一个比喻紧密联系起来的句群，由于林译略去了第六句中的I shall give equal disappointment with an unlucky landscape-painter这一部分。直言“余”而非“画家”，接下来的译文从表面看还是自然的。高译未敢打破原局群的格局，译作“我担心,我之必然令人 失望,将不下于下述之山水画家。其人……”这种译法多少给人一种“不化”之感。

艺术风格
《作者自叙》有许多为人称道的艺术风格。
笔触轻盈，从容不迫，是《作者自叙》的第一个显著的风格特征。作品用词不事雕琢，句式参差有致，结构如行云流水。就古文论古文。林译在才换大原作风格方面做的相当成功，但林译属译述，常可避重就轻，绕着困难走，其成功经验对我们并无很大意义，这里不作深入分析。高健先生认为“欧文的散文以艾狄生与斯迪尔为楷模，但清丽与妩媚之处尚且过之”。他力图以切近原作形式来移植原作风格，加之用词有古雅倾向，一些句子显得过于刻板。
涉笔成趣，亦庄亦谐，是《作者自叙》的第二个风格。对于这一点林纾曾有过“描写山水美术，读之如览图画”，“至于调谐之笔墨，尤隽妙可人意”，“试观其词，若吐若茹，若颂若讽”之类的评论。这些见解都是很中肯的，而林译的许多句，段确也能体现出这些特色，如第一段，第四段，第五段等。未能体现这些特色的自然也很多，如第三段中原作对美国风光如诗如画的描述，林译疏漏较多，最后一段作者先以艺术爱好者自拟，后一风景画家自比，由于第二个比喻不易处理，林译径译为作者，结果原作的情趣便无迹可循了。
高译在体现原作情趣方面做的很出色，如写美国壮丽风光的一节，写欧洲典章人物的一段，深得原作三味。
需要指出的是，原作中“庄”有时并不是为庄而庄，而是庄而求谐。第一段中，作者用了不少大词来描绘童年经历，如observe, make tours of discovery, converse, summit, terra incognita, 作者并不是在沉醉于古奥，而是通过用词与思想的反差取得一种幽默效果。译者如果认识不到这一点，将手段误为目的，可以追求用词古雅，而不问其效果，译文的风格便很难保证了。