手机APP下载

您现在的位置: 首页 > 英语听力 > 英语演讲 > TED-Ed教育演讲 > 正文

阅读《坎特伯雷故事集》需要了解的知识

来源:可可英语 编辑:max   可可英语APP下载 |  可可官方微信:ikekenet

A portly Miller, barely sober enough to sit on his horse,

一位发福的磨坊主,勉强清醒地坐在他的马上,
rambles on about the flighty wife of a crotchety old carpenter and the scholar she takes as her lover.
唠叨着一位坏脾气老木匠的轻浮妻子和她的学者情人。
To get some time alone together,
为了获得独处的时间,
the scholar and the wife play various tricks that involve feigning madness, staging a biblical flood, and exposing themselves in public.
这位学者和木匠的妻子耍了各种花招,比如假装发疯,上演圣经中洪水的场景,以及在公共场合赤身裸体。
But the parish clerk is also lusting after the wife, and comes by every night to sing outside her house.
但是一位牧师也垂涎这名妻子,并且每晚都来她家门外唱歌。
This becomes so tiresome that she tries to scare him away by hanging her rear end out the window for him to kiss.
当她忍无可忍时,她试图吓走他,于是她把屁股伸出窗外让他亲吻,但是这并不管用。
When this appears not to work, her scholar decides to try farting in the same position, but this time, the clerk is waiting with a red-hot poker.
她的学者情人决定用同样的姿势放屁,但是这次,牧师准备了烧红的拔火棍。
This might all sound like a bawdy joke, but it's part of one of the most esteemed works of English literature ever created:
这故事听起来像是个低俗笑话,但它其实是来自英国文学史上最令人尊敬的作品之一:
The Canterbury Tales, which seamlessly blends the lofty and the lowly.
《坎特伯雷故事集》,它完美融合了高雅与低俗。
The work consists of 24 stories, each told by one of Chaucer's spirited characters.
这部作品包含了24个故事,每个故事都由乔叟笔下生动的角色讲述。
Narrators include familiar Medieval figures such as a Knight, a Clerk, and a Nun, and the less recognizable Reeve, and Mancible, and others.
讲述者包括了我们所熟悉的中世纪形象,比如骑士,牧师和修女,还有少为人知的城镇长官,伙食管理员和其他一些角色等。
The Tales are written in Middle English, which often looks entirely different from the language spoken today.
这些故事是用中古英语所写,这和我们今天所讲的英语看起来完全不同。
It was used between the 12th and 15th centuries,
它在12至15世纪期间使用,
and evolved from Old English due to increased contact with European romantic languages after the Norman Conquest of 1066.
由古英语演变而来,主要是由于在1066年诺曼人征服英格兰后,古英语与欧洲罗曼语族的接触增多而导致的演变。
Most of the Middle English alphabet is still familiar today,
大部分的中古英语字母和现代英语很相似,
with the inclusion of a few archaic symbols, such as yogh, which denotes the y, j, or gh sound.
包括一些古老的符号,比如yogh中这些符号,分别代表了y,j,或是gh的发音。

阅读《坎特伯雷故事集》需要了解的知识

The loquacious cast of the Tales first meet at the Tabard Inn in Southwark.

这些健谈的讲述者们第一次会面是在在萨瑟克的塔巴德旅馆。
They have a journey in common: a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Beckett,
他们来这里的目的相同:那就是去坎特伯雷朝圣,拜访圣托马斯·贝克特的神庙。
a martyred archbishop who was murdered in his own Cathedral.
这位大主教是一位在自己教堂里被谋杀的殉道者。
Eager and nosy for some personal details, the host of the Inn proposes a competition: whoever tells the best tale will be treated to dinner.
好管闲事的旅馆主人,为了探听这些人的私事,提议举办一场比赛:谁能讲出最棒的故事,他就请谁吃晚餐。
If not for their pilgrimage, many of these figures would never have had the chance to interact.
如果不是因为这次朝圣之旅,这之中的大多数人都不会有交集。
This is because Medieval society followed a feudal system that divided the clergy and nobility from the working classes, made up of peasants and serfs.
因为中世纪社会采用封建制度,神职和贵族与工人阶层是严格分开的,工人阶层由农民和奴隶组成。
By Chaucer's time, a professional class of merchants and intellectuals had also emerged.
在乔叟生活的年代,商人和知识分子阶层也已经产生了。
Chaucer spent most of his life as a government official during the Hundred Years' War,
乔叟生在百年战争期间,一生任职政府官员,
traveling throughout Italy and France, as well as his native England.
游历于意大利和法国,还有他的祖国英格兰。
This may have influenced the panoramic vision of his work, and in the Tales, no level of society is above mockery.
这使得他的作品具有全景性,在《坎特伯雷故事集》中,他讽刺了所有社会阶层。
Chaucer uses the quirks of the characters' language
乔叟利用人物语言的特点,
the ribald humor of the Cook, the solemn prose of the Parson, and the lofty notions of the Squire -- to satirize their worldviews.
厨子的粗鄙幽默,牧师的严肃乏味,还有乡绅的高尚信念,来嘲讽他们的世界观。
The varied dialects, genres, and literary tropes also make the work a vivid record of the different ways Medieval audiences entertained themselves.
乔叟作品中丰富的方言、体裁和文学比喻,生动地展现了中世纪读者们各种娱乐方式。
For instance, the Knight's tale of courtly love, chivalry, and destiny riffs on romance,
比如,骑士所讲的宫廷爱情,骑士精神和命运曲折的爱情故事。
while the tales of working-class narrators are generally comedies filled with scatological language, sexual deviance, and slapstick.
而工人阶层讲述者们的故事大多是喜剧,充斥着粗俗语言,出轨的性趣和滑稽的表演。
This variation includes something for everyone, and that's one reason why readers continue to delight in the work in both Middle English and translation.
这些故事的多样化满足了不同的读者群体,这就是该作品中古英语和翻译版都广受读者赞誉的原因。
While the narrative runs to over 17,000 lines, it's apparently unfinished,
虽然乔叟的叙述超过一万七千行,但很明显这部作品没有完结,
as the prologue ambitiously introduces 29 pilgrims and promises four stories apiece, and the innkeeper never crowns a victor.
他在序章里曾野心勃勃地介绍了29位朝圣者,并保证每人都有4个故事,不仅如此,旅馆主人最终也没宣布比赛的赢家。
It's possible that Chaucer was so caught up in his sumptuous creations that he delayed picking a winner
也许,乔叟因过于沉浸于他的创作盛宴,才迟迟无法为这场比赛选一个赢家,
or perhaps he was so fond of each character that he just couldn't choose.
亦或是因为他喜欢每一个角色,所以才难以抉择。
Whatever the reason, this means that every reader is free to judge; the question of who wins is up to you.
不论是何原因,对读者而言,这意味着我们能自由决定心中的赢家。

重点单词   查看全部解释    
prose [prəuz]

想一想再看

adj. 散文的
n. 散文

 
satirize ['sætəraiz]

想一想再看

vt. 挖苦;讽刺 vi. 写讽刺作品

 
recognizable ['rekəgnaizəbl]

想一想再看

adj. 可认识的,可承认的,可辨别的

 
cathedral [kə'θi:drəl]

想一想再看

n. 大教堂

联想记忆
involve [in'vɔlv]

想一想再看

vt. 包含,使陷入,使忙于,使卷入,牵涉

联想记忆
ribald ['ribəld]

想一想再看

adj. 说话猥亵的,下流的 n. 说话猥亵的人

联想记忆
alphabet ['ælfəbit]

想一想再看

n. 字母表,基本原理(元素),符号系统

 
knight [nait]

想一想再看

n. 骑士,爵士,武士 vt. 授以爵位

 
carpenter ['kɑ:pintə]

想一想再看

n. 木匠
v. 做木工活

联想记忆
pilgrimage ['pilgrimidʒ]

想一想再看

n. 朝圣之旅,人生历程 vi. 朝圣

联想记忆

发布评论我来说2句

    最新文章

    可可英语官方微信(微信号:ikekenet)

    每天向大家推送短小精悍的英语学习资料.

    添加方式1.扫描上方可可官方微信二维码。
    添加方式2.搜索微信号ikekenet添加即可。