英语翻译作业TheChineseCharacter.docVIP

The Chinese Character 论中国人的性格 There is a theory among Occidentals that the Chinaman is inscrutable, full of secret thoughts, and impossible for us to understand. It may be that a greater experience of China would have brought me to share this opinion; but I could see nothing to support it during the time when I was working in that country. 西方人中间有一种论调：中国人不可思议，满脑子的神秘思想，我们难以理解。如果到中国去长期生活体验一下，可能也会使我抱这样的观点。但是，依我在那个国家讲学期间的所见所闻，并没有发现有任何迹象可以证明这种论点是正确的。 One of the most remarkable things about the Chinese is their power of securing the affection of foreigners. Almost all Europeans like China, both those who come only as tourists and those who live there for many years. In spite of the Anglo-Japanese Alliance, I can recall hardly a single Englishman in the Far East who liked the Japanese as well as the Chinese. Those who have lived long among them tend to acquire their outlook and their standards. New arrivals are struck by obvious evils: the beggars, the terrible poverty, the prevalence of disease, the anarchy and corruption in politics. Every energetic Westerner feels at first a strong desire to reform these evils, and of course they ought to be reformed. 中国人最博得人们赞赏的品质之一，是他们把握外国人感情的能力。不论是到中国去旅游的，还是多年居住在那儿的，几乎所有的外国人都喜爱中国人。尽管英日两国结成联盟，但是我想不起哪一个孤身在远东的英国人，会像喜爱中国人那样喜爱日本人。只有那些在他们中间长期生活的人，才能获得自己的看法和标准。初来乍到中国，一定对那里显而易见的弊端感到震惊：乞丐成群，贫穷惊人，疾病横行，社会混乱，政治腐败。每个有正义感的西方人，无不首先强烈地期待中国人能革除这些弊端。中国理所当然地应进行改革。 The Chinese, from the highest to the lowest, have an imperturbable quiet dignity, which is usually not destroyed even by a European education. They are not self-assertive, either individually or nationally; their pride is too profound for self-assertion. They admit China’s military weakness in comparison with foreign Powers, but they do not consider efficiency in homicide the most important quality in a man or a nation. I think that, at bottom, they almost all believe that China is the greatest nation in the world, and has the finest civilization. A Westerner cannot be expected to accept this