莎士比亚名著《仲夏夜之梦》

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空中美语




(一)

Shakespeare’s comedy,“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, takes place during the summer solstice. This day has long been thought of as a time of magic. In the spirit1 of this tradition, the play is set in a dark forest2 full of fairies.

In the play, Oberon, king of fairies, quarrels3 with his queen, Titania. Oberon tells his servant, Puck, to put a magic liquid on Titania’s eyes to make her fall in love with the first person she sees. At the same time, two young men and two young women are lost. Puck puts the liquid on the men’s eyes, and they both end up falling in love with one of the women.

Puck then sees an actor4 named Bottom. For fun, Puck decides to turn Bottom’s headsintosa donkey’s. Soon after, Titania sees Bottom and falls in love with him.

to be continued ...

翻译

莎士比亚的喜剧《仲夏夜之梦》发生在夏至，这一天一直被认为是一个神奇的时刻。这出戏就遵循着这个传统精神，将场景摆在众多精灵出没的幽暗森林当中。在剧中，精灵王奥伯龙与王后泰坦尼娅起了争执，奥伯龙就叫他的仆人帕克在泰坦尼娅的眼睛上点了一种魔液，使她会对(醒来后)所见的第一个人一见钟情。与此同时，有两对年轻男女(在森林中)迷路了。帕克将魔液点在两个男子的眼睛上，结果他们俩都同时爱上了其中一个女孩。之后帕克看到一个叫巴腾的演员，他一时兴起，决定把巴腾的头变成驴头。没过多久，泰坦尼娅看到巴腾就爱上了他。

Sentence_4u

take place“发生”，例如：

The accident took place at 4 o’clock.

事故发生在4点钟。

英语小教室

莎士比亚(1564~1616)不仅是一流的演员，也是文艺复兴时期英国最伟大的剧作家(a first-rate actor as well as the greatest playwright in Renaissance England)。据学者估算，莎士比亚的词汇量大约有三万两千个字左右(scholars have calculated that Shakespeare had a vocabulary of about 32000 words)。惊人吧！世界各地的人们至今仍以英语或其母语阅读他的剧本，或观看其演出(people all over the world have read his plays or seen their performance in English or in their own language)。

英语练功房

take place有两个意思：一为“举行”，一为“发生”，请注意，它们一律都以主动形式出现：

例如：

My sister’s wedding will take place next month.

我姐姐的婚礼将在下个月举行。

The earthquake took place when I was taking a bath.

地震发生时我正在洗澡。

练习:

1.奥运会每4年举行一次。

2.在这家书店门口发生了车祸。

英语练功房_答案:

1.The Olympic Games take place every four years.

2.The car accident took place in front of this bookstore.



(二)

Unhappy with the mess,1 Oberon orders Puck to change Bottom’s head back, and lifts the spell from Titania. He turns the four confused loverssintostwo happy couples. Everyone feels that the night’s strange events2 were just a dream.

At the end, Puck tells the audience3 that if they did not like the play, they should consider it as just that: a dream. In fact, many people have said that when the play ended, they were not sure whether what they saw was real, or whether they had shared the same dream.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”has stood the test of time. And likewise,4 there are people who still celebrate5 Midsummer. If you find yourself lost in a forest, lost in love, or lost in confusion on this day, perhaps Midsummer fairies will come to set things right for you, too.

翻译

奥伯龙对这混乱的局面感到很不高兴，就命令帕克把巴腾的头变回原状，再解除泰坦尼娅的魔咒。他又把四个意乱情迷的情人变成两对快乐的佳偶，每个人都认为这夜的奇遇只是一场梦。剧末，帕克告诉观众，如果他们不喜欢这出戏，就把它当成是一场梦。事实上，很多人都说，当剧终的时候，他们并不能确定自己所见的是事实，还是他们都做了同样的一场梦。《仲夏夜之梦》这出戏经住了时间的考验。同样，(至今)仍有人在庆祝仲夏。如果你在这天发现自己迷失于森林中，被爱冲昏了头，或是感到困惑不已，也许仲夏精灵会来帮你把事情理顺噢。

Sentence_4u

set ... right“弄正；解决问题”，例如：

If you give me a chance, I promise to set things right.

如果你给我机会，我保证会把问题解决。

英语小教室

莎士比亚的戏剧通常分为三大类：历史剧、悲剧、喜剧( histories, tragedies, and comedies)。历史剧中的角色，如亨利五世(King Henry V)或凯撒大帝(Julius Caesar)，对观众或读者而言都是非常真实的人物(realistic and believable characters)。悲剧中的角色，如麦克白(Macbeth)、哈姆雷特(Hamlet)，则常深陷于矛盾之中(trapped in dilemmas)，这显示莎翁对人性有深层的了解(showing his deep understanding of human nature)。他的喜剧则常嘲讽人们的谬误与愚蠢(making fun of people’s faults and stupidities)，如《威尼斯商人》(The Merchant of Venice)、《驯悍记》(The Taming of the Shrew)。《仲夏夜之梦》(A Midsummer Night’s Dream)这出喜剧则充满了活泼浪漫的氛围(lively and romantic aura)，把我们带入一个神奇的精灵世界(a magical world of fairies)。

英语练功房

stand当及物动词(V.t.)时，意思是“承受”，当不及物动词(V.i.)时意思是“站立”。

例如：

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream”had stood the test of time.

《仲夏夜之梦》经住了时间的考验。

The bus was so crowded that I had to stand all the way to Dongsi.

公车如此之拥挤以致我不得不一路站到东四。

练习:

1.你能承受阿拉斯加寒冷的气候吗？

2.不要站在那里无所事事。请过来帮助我们一下。

英语练功房_答案:

1.Can you stand the cold climate in Alaska?

2.Don’t stand there doing nothing. Please come and help us.