金庸：江湖不再

这篇文章共花去9个小时，不开赞赏。如果认可内容，帮我转发给朋友或朋友圈算是感激。

外刊精读 是本公众号下的精读栏目。 包含：

1. 语法点精析（用 se 色标记）；

2. 麦克米伦7000高频词汇（用 色标记）；

3. 长难句解析。

关注微博 赛门喵 ，可获得外刊精读 PDF 版本。

根据导读背景，先自己通读全文，尤其 特殊标记部分 。

为语法点

麦克米伦7000高频词

加粗 为难点

Louis Cha, who is ninety-four years old and lives in luxurious seclusion atop the jungled peak of Hong Kong Island, is one of the best-selling authors alive. Widely known by his pen name , Jin Yong, his work, in the Chinese-speaking world, has a cultural currency roughly equal to that of “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” combined. Cha began publishing wuxia epics—swashbuckling kung-fu fantasias—as newspaper serials, in the nineteen-fifties. Ever since, his fiction has kept children, and their parents, up past their bedtimes, reading about knights who test their martial-arts mettle with sparring matches in roadside ale-houses and princesses with dark secrets who moonlight as assassins. These characters travel through the jianghu, which literally translates as “rivers and lakes,” but metaphorically refers to an alluvial underworld of hucksters and heroes beyond the reach of the imperial government . Cha weaves the jianghu into Chinese history—it’s as if J. R. R. Tolkien had unleashed his creations into Charlemagne’s Europe.

Jin Yong novels are now largely known through their many TV, film, comic-book, and video-game adaptations. But the original books retain a powerful hold on China’s popular imagination. At one point, Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, turned Jin Yong into a corporate ethos, asking each of his employees to choose one of Cha’s characters as an avatar reflecting his or her personality, and to follow the “Six Vein Spirit Sword,” a wuxia-styled company credo: put the customer first, rely on teamwork, embrace change, and so on. Cha has more female fans than any other wuxia writer, perhaps, in part, because the books have an emotional complexity that is rare in the genre . “There are some remarkable love stories in Jin Yong,” Regina Ip, a senior Hong Kong politician and Cha superfan, told me. With his combination of erudition, sentiment, propulsive plotting, and vivid prose, he is widely regarded as the genre’s finest writer. “Of course, there were other wuxia writers, and there was kung-fu fiction before Jin Yong,” the publisher and novelist Chan Koonchung said. “Just as there was folk music before Bob Dylan.”

But Cha’s books have resisted translation into Western languages. Chinese literature, which traditionally prizes poetry over fiction, derives much of its emotional force from oblique allusions, drawing on a deep well of shared cultural texts, and Cha’s work is no exception. In February, the first installment of Cha’s most revered trilogy, “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” was published in English translation by Anna Holmwood by the U.K. publishing house Quercus. (An American edition is currently under negotiation.) It is the first time a trade publisher has attempted a translation of the trilogy, which begins in the year 1205, just before the Mongol conquest of China, and ends more than a hundred and fifty years later, after approximately two million eight hundred and sixty thousand Chinese characters—the equivalent of one and a half million English words. (Over three times the length of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series.) Holmwood’s translation offers the best opportunity yet for English-language readers to encounter one of the world’s most beloved writers—one whose influence and intentions remain incompletely understood.

Guo Jing, the hero of “Condors,” is a simpleton with a hero’s destiny, who perseveres through hard work and basic decency. As a child, he is protected by Genghis Khan, spending his boyhood honing martial-arts skills on the Mongolian grasslands, mentored by a tight circle of kung-fu adepts. A roving Taoist monk finds him practicing his moves on the steppe and offers him secret meditation lessons, atop a cliff, to improve his technique—on the condition that he not tell his other masters. This is a classic premise in Chinese literature: dueling loyalties, to one’s elders and one’s own ambitions, compounded by a clashing reverence for different teachers. Many of Cha’s plot points hinge on such conflicts, tucked between flashier punch-’em-up scenes. Later in “Condors,” when the adopted son of a nomadic-tribe aristocrat learns that he is ethnically Han Chinese, readers reared on stories of millennia-old conflicts between the Chinese and nomads from the north will register the tension between filial piety and patriotism. But the scenario may bewilder those approaching wuxia for the first time.

Louis Cha, who is ninety-four years old and lives in luxurious seclusion atop the jungled peak of Hong Kong Island, is one of the best-selling authors alive. Widely known by his pen name , Jin Yong, his work, in the Chinese-speaking world, has a cultural currency roughly equal to that of “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” combined. Cha began publishing wuxia epics—swashbuckling kung-fu fantasias—as newspaper serials, in the nineteen-fifties. Ever since, his fiction has kept children, and their parents, up past their bedtimes, reading about knights who test their martial-arts mettle with sparring matches in roadside ale-houses and princesses with dark secrets who moonlight as assassins. These characters travel through the jianghu, which literally translates as “rivers and lakes,” but metaphorically refers to an alluvial underworld of hucksters and heroes beyond the reach of the imperial government. Cha weaves the jianghu into Chinese history—it’s as if J. R. R. Tolkien had unleashed his creations into Charlemagne’s Europe.

导读

本段主要是介绍金庸，以及展示其作品多么受人喜爱。

精析

atop 介词，等于 on the top of 。有时候也可以当成副词使用。

stand atop (of) the garage 站在车库顶上，其中括号里的of可以省略，也可以保留。

pen name 笔名

currency

大部分人熟知的意思是 货币 ，如

The country devalued its currency by 15%.

该国让它的货币贬值了15%。

货币是一种通货，因此currency也有 流通 之意，文中cultural currency意为 文化上的接受度、流行度 。 同样，单词 current 除了 现在的 之意，还可以指 电流、水流，气流 等流通的东西。交流电即为 Alternating Current（AC），直流电为Direct Current （DC）。

…… than …… combined

这个句型有点我们常说的「我一个比你们两个人加起来也牛逼」，有时候会把combined放到前面去：

China has about 800 million mobile users, more than the combined populations of Britain, Germany and the United States.

也可以说成：

China has about 800 million mobile users, more than the populations of Britain, Germany and the United States combined .

中国有5亿手机用户，超过英国、德国和美国的合计人口。

50年代在《香港商报》连载的《射雕英雄传》

serial 连载出版物

A serial is a story which is broadcast on television or radio or is published in a magazine or newspaper in a number of parts over a period of time.

one of television's most popular serials

…… 最受欢迎的电视连续剧之一

Ever since, his fiction has kept children, and their parents, up past their bedtimes, reading about knights who test their martial-arts mettle with sparring matches in roadside ale-houses and princesses with dark secrets who moonlight as assassins.

这个句子的主干是 his fiction has kept children and their parents up past their bedtimes。 作者刻意用逗号将parents和up部分隔开是为了写作效果，有强调的意味。你不妨多读几遍，感受下有逗号和没有逗号的区别。

难读懂的是后面reading的分词状语，孩子和家长彻夜不眠在干什么呢？在reading，因此是一个伴随性质的状语。reading about后面有个and，前后是两个并列结构，孩子和家长读两个东西：

第1个 ：knights who test their martial-arts mettle with sparring matches in roadside ale-houses

第2个 ：princesses with dark secrets who moonlight as assassins

test their martial-arts mettle 测试自己的武力水平，mettle是一个名词，指能力

Moonlight 不是月光，这里根据句子结构也可以猜出来是做动词，moonlight作动词的只有一个意思：

If someone moonlights, they have a second job in addition to their main job, often without informing their main employers or the tax office.

暗地里从事的事

These characters travel through the jianghu, which literally translates as “rivers and lakes,” but metaphorically refers to an alluvial underworld of hucksters and heroes beyond the reach of the imperial government.

alluvial underworld 平行的地下世界

hucksters 贩夫走卒

imperial government 朝廷

思考一个问题：

上面句子中but后的部分，究竟是和主句（These characters）和是定语从句（which）并列？

上面的句子画成树形结构是：

红色部分为主干，蓝色部分为定语从句，可见，but后面的部分是属于定语从句的一部分。因此，它的主语是 which，也就是 jianghu。这里看懂了，句子的意思就很明白了。

Cha weaves the jianghu into Chinese history—it’s as if J. R. R. Tolkien had unleashed his creations into Charlemagne’s Europe.

J. R. R. Tolkien 托金斯，是《魔界》系列的作者

weave 编织，就是织布，织毛衣那个weave

这里的 creation 字面意思为创造，实际上是指托金斯的小说作品。

接触过金庸作品的都知道，故事都融贯在了真实的历史背景中。这和托金斯的作品一样，也是放在了查理曼大帝时期的欧洲的历史背景中。

第一段翻译

Louis Cha, who is ninety-four years old and lives in luxurious seclusion atop the jungled peak of Hong Kong Island, is one of the best-selling authors alive. Widely known by his pen name , Jin Yong, his work, in the Chinese-speaking world, has a cultural currency roughly equal to that of “Harry Potter” and “Star Wars” combined. Cha began publishing wuxia epics—swashbuckling kung-fu fantasias—as newspaper serials, in the nineteen-fifties. Ever since, his fiction has kept children, and their parents, up past their bedtimes, reading about knights who test their martial-arts mettle with sparring matches in roadside ale-houses and princesses with dark secrets who moonlight as assassins. These characters travel through the jianghu, which literally translates as “rivers and lakes,” but metaphorically refers to an alluvial underworld of hucksters and heroes beyond the reach of the imperial government. Cha weaves the jianghu into Chinese history—it’s as if J. R. R. Tolkien had unleashed his creations into Charlemagne’s Europe.

现年94岁，深居位于香港 山巅 ，绿叶葱茏中的豪宅的查良镛，是现今在世的最畅销的作家之一（注：本文刊登时金庸尚未去世）。人们更为熟知的是他的 笔名 ——金庸。在华人世界里，金庸作品的文化 流行度 大致等于西方世界里《哈利波特》和《星球大战》的总和。1950年代，金庸开始在报纸上以连载的方式创作武侠小说。武侠小说就是充满奇遇的功夫幻想。 自那时起，他的小说就令无数小孩和大人着迷，他们废寝忘食，沉浸在英雄们在街边酒馆比试拳脚，或心怀隐秘的公主化身刺客一类的故事里。这些人物行走于江湖，江湖的字面意思就是「大江」和「湖海」，但其实隐喻了一个脱离了朝廷，由贩夫走卒和英雄侠客们组成的另一个平行地下世界。 金庸将他的江湖世界 交织融贯 在中国历史中，这就和托尔金将他的故事放在查理曼大帝时期的欧洲历史中一样。

Jin Yong novels are now largely known through their many TV, film, comic-book, and video-game adaptations. But the original books retain a powerful hold on China’s popular imagination. At one point, Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, turned Jin Yong into a corporate ethos, asking each of his employees to choose one of Cha’s characters as an avatar reflecting his or her personality, and to follow the “Six Vein Spirit Sword,” a wuxia-styled company credo: put the customer first, rely on teamwork, embrace change, and so on. Cha has more female fans than any other wuxia writer, perhaps, in part, because the books have an emotional complexity that is rare in the genre . “There are some remarkable love stories in Jin Yong,” Regina Ip, a senior Hong Kong politician and Cha superfan, told me. With his combination of erudition, sentiment, propulsive plotting, and vivid prose, he is widely regarded as the genre’s finest writer. “Of course, there were other wuxia writers, and there was kung-fu fiction before Jin Yong,” the publisher and novelist Chan Koonchung said. “Just as there was folk music before Bob Dylan.”

导读

第一段描述了金庸小说后，这一段的重点是叙述其对中国人和社会的「影响力」。文中用了马云的例子，名人的评价为佐证。

精析

adaption 改编，动词为 adapt

At one point, Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, turned Jin Yong into a corporate ethos, asking each of his employees to choose one of Cha’s characters as an avatar reflecting his or her personality, and to follow the “Six Vein Spirit Sword,” a wuxia-styled company credo: put the customer first, rely on teamwork, embrace change, and so on.

作为英语学习者，在精读文章的时候，我们最应该留意和学习的就是上面这种句子。绝大部分中国学生没有能力写出类似上面句子的。如果要表达类似的意思，他们可能会拆分成好几个句子来写，这还不算最糟糕的，很多人为了写出长句子，会把上面的同位语（the chairman of Alibaba）和分词结构（asking each……）全都写成从句的形式。这就是属于从句的滥用，写出来的句子也会十份累赘。

相关阅读：

请你们不要再滥用定语从句了！！

corporate 形容词，公司的

很多人似乎只知道用company来指代公司，实际上还有corporation。corporate是形容词形式，比如 corporate financing 企业金融，corporate management 企业管理 。

avatar 代号，化身；电影《阿凡达》就是这个词的音译。

你在游戏里选择的人物形象、你的QQ皮肤等都属于你在网络世界里的化身，这些可以叫做avartar。原文是指在公司里的代号，当然也可以用avartar。

genre 类型

比如你喜欢看电影，那么电影还分为恐怖电影、爱情电影、文艺片等等，这每一种类就是一个genre，这个词的发音容易读错，务必查词并听一下读音。

emotional complexity 情绪复杂度，我的理解是更细腻、丰富的感情

第二段翻译

Jin Yong novels are now largely known through their many TV, film, comic-book, and video-game adaptations. But the original books retain a powerful hold on China’s popular imagination. At one point, Jack Ma, the chairman of Alibaba, turned Jin Yong into a corporate ethos, asking each of his employees to choose one of Cha’s characters as an avatar reflecting his or her personality, and to follow the “Six Vein Spirit Sword,” a wuxia-styled company credo: put the customer first, rely on teamwork, embrace change, and so on. Cha has more female fans than any other wuxia writer, perhaps, in part, because the books have an emotional complexity that is rare in the genre . “There are some remarkable love stories in Jin Yong,” Regina Ip, a senior Hong Kong politician and Cha superfan, told me. With his combination of erudition, sentiment, propulsive plotting, and vivid prose, he is widely regarded as the genre’s finest writer. “Of course, there were other wuxia writers, and there was kung-fu fiction before Jin Yong,” the publisher and novelist Chan Koonchung said. “Just as there was folk music before Bob Dylan.”

如今，金庸的小说通过被改编成的电视剧、电影、漫画和游戏等形式广为人知。 但是原著依然保持着对中国大众想象力的强大影响。曾经，阿里巴巴主席马云视金庸为 公司的 精神领袖。他让员工从金庸小说中，挑选一个能反应自己性格的人物名字作 代号 。他还以武侠味十足的「六脉神剑」作为公司信条要求员工：顾客第一、团队协作、拥抱变化等。和其他武侠小说作家比，金庸拥有更多的女性读者。部分原因可能是，他的作品拥有武侠小说 这一类作品 少有的 情感复杂度 。「金庸的小说有一些很不寻常的爱情」，叶刘淑仪对我说，她是香港的政治要员，同时也是金庸的忠实读者。他将渊博的学识、多情善感的情绪、跌宕起伏的情节和优美生动的文笔完美地融合在一起，被誉为最出色的武侠小说作家。「当然，还有其它的武侠小说家。在金庸之前也有武侠小说，就像在鲍勃迪伦之前就有民谣一样。」同为出版人和小说家的陈冠中说。

But Cha’s books have resisted translation into Western languages. Chinese literature, which traditionally prizes poetry over fiction, derives much of its emotional force from oblique allusions, drawing on a deep well of shared cultural texts, and Cha’s work is no exception. In February, the first installment of Cha’s most revered trilogy, “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” was published in English translation by Anna Holmwood by the U.K. publishing house Quercus. (An American edition is currently under negotiation.) It is the first time a trade publisher has attempted a translation of the trilogy, which begins in the year 1205, just before the Mongol conquest of China, and ends more than a hundred and fifty years later, after approximately two million eight hundred and sixty thousand Chinese characters—the equivalent of one and a half million English words. (Over three times the length of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series.) Holmwood’s translation offers the best opportunity yet for English-language readers to encounter one of the world’s most beloved writers—one whose influence and intentions remain incompletely understood.

导读

本段主要写金庸小说的文化基因所导致其不适合翻译为西方语言。

精析

But Cha’s books have resisted translation into Western languages.

这句话有点拟人化的意思，直接翻译过来是： 金庸的小说抗拒被翻译为西方语言。 是不是觉得很别扭？因为「拟人化」是英语和汉语最大的不同之一。汉语里，主语多为有生命的对象，比如人、动物，而英语里，主语可以是任何对象。在读英语的时候可能感觉不出来，但一旦直译过来，就会显得很别扭。在精读的时候，一定要多学习和借鉴这种表达。

作者在这里表达的实际意思是， 金庸的书并不适合翻译成西方语言 。接下来，他用了一整段在解释理由。

Chinese literature, which traditionally prizes poetry over fiction, derives much of its emotional force from oblique allusions, drawing on a deep well of shared cultural texts, and Cha’s work is no exception.

这句话是一个并列结构，主干为两个主谓结构，分别是 Chinese literature derives much of its emotional force from oblique allusions 和 Cha's work is no excerption 。

which是 非限定定语从句 ，修饰Chinese literature，意思是：中国文学重诗歌而轻小说

derives的 主语 为Chinese literature，即：中国文学获得（derive）其大部分的情感力量（much of its emotional force）从晦涩的用典中（from oblique allusions）

drawing …… 为 分词状语结构 ，deep well为深井，什么井呢？a deep well of shared culture texts，即「基于文化共识的文本」之深井。说简单一点，是说中国文学依赖于文化共识来表达感情，对于外国人，很难领略和欣赏。这就像我们听老外的笑话，有时候很难觉得好笑，因为我们没有理解的文化基础。

publishing house 出版社

Holmwood’s translation offers the best opportunity yet for English-language readers to encounter one of the world’s most beloved writers—one whose influence and intentions remain incompletely understood.

注意这里的副词 yet ，很多人会忽略掉。

当在 最高级后面用yet时 ，它的意思表示 迄今为止（最） ，Holwood的翻译为人们提供了一个迄今为止最好的接触金庸作品的方式。在翻译和理解的时候，一定要体现出来这个意思。

This is the network's worst idea yet.

这是到目前为止该网络最糟糕的电子。

Her latest novel is her best yet.

她的最新小说是到目前为止她最好的小说。

But Cha’s books have resisted translation into Western languages. Chinese literature, which traditionally prizes poetry over fiction, derives much of its emotional force from oblique allusions, drawing on a deep well of shared cultural texts, and Cha’s work is no exception. In February, the first installment of Cha’s most revered trilogy, “Legends of the Condor Heroes,” was published in English translation by Anna Holmwood by the U.K. publishing house Quercus. (An American edition is currently under negotiation.) It is the first time a trade publisher has attempted a translation of the trilogy, which begins in the year 1205, just before the Mongol conquest of China, and ends more than a hundred and fifty years later, after approximately two million eight hundred and sixty thousand Chinese characters—the equivalent of one and a half million English words. (Over three times the length of Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” series.) Holmwood’s translation offers the best opportunity yet for English-language readers to encounter one of the world’s most beloved writers—one whose influence and intentions remain incompletely understood.

但是金庸的小说不太适合翻译成西方语言。中国文学以诗歌为盛，小说为次，其情感力量多来源于晦涩的典故，并需要从「基于文化共识的文学作品」之井中汲取养分 。金庸的作品亦是如此。今年二月份，英国 出版公司 栎属推出了由Anna Holmwood翻译的，金庸最受推崇的射雕三部曲中的第一部《射雕英雄传》的英译版（美国版正在协商中）。这是首次一个商业出版商尝试翻译射雕三部曲。三部曲的故事始于蒙古族占领中国稍早之前的1205年，跨越150多年的时间，包含大约286万汉字，这相当于150万个英文单词（是托尔金《指环王》系列三倍多）。Holwood的翻译向英文读者提供了 迄今为止 最好的机会，使他们可以接触这位世界上最受欢迎作家的作品。而他的影响和创作动机依然尚未被世人完全领会。

Guo Jing, the hero of “Condors,” is a simpleton with a hero’s destiny, who perseveres through hard work and basic decency. As a child, he is protected by Genghis Khan, spending his boyhood honing martial-arts skills on the Mongolian grasslands, mentored by a tight circle of kung-fu adepts. A roving Taoist monk finds him practicing his moves on the steppe and offers him secret meditation lessons, atop a cliff, to improve his technique—on the condition that he not tell his other masters. This is a classic premise in Chinese literature: dueling loyalties, to one’s elders and one’s own ambitions, compounded by a clashing reverence for different teachers. Many of Cha’s plot points hinge on such conflicts, tucked between flashier punch-’em-up scenes. Later in “Condors,” when the adopted son of a nomadic-tribe aristocrat learns that he is ethnically Han Chinese, readers reared on stories of millennia-old conflicts between the Chinese and nomads from the north will register the tension between filial piety and patriotism. But the scenario may bewilder those approaching wuxia for the first time.

导读

介绍金庸作品中人物冲突的文化基础。

精析

decency 礼仪，这里是说郭靖遵仪守道

hone 就是磨刀石，作动词时为磨炼……技能

This is a classic premise in Chinese literature: dueling loyalties, to one’s elders and one’s own ambitions, compounded by a clashing reverence for different teachers.

premise 前提、设定

dueling 决斗、竞争。在这里修饰loyalties，其实是conflicting的意思，即 竞争的，彼此矛盾的衷心 。那么这个loyalties到底指什么呢？后面的句子就是在解释：

第一个：loyalty to one’s elders 对前辈的忠诚

第二个：loyalty to one's own ambitions 对自己雄心的追求

这两个loyalties会产生冲突，即dueling loyalties。举个例子，你想出国，你妈不让你出国，前者是你自己的ambitions，后者是对父母长辈的尊敬，二者产生冲突的时候，戏剧张力就显现出来了。

compounded by a clashing reverence for different teachers

前面那两个产生冲突的loyalites已经很麻烦了，现在情况变得更加复杂（compounded），因为郭靖有好几个师傅呀！

Many of Cha’s plot points hinge on such conflicts, tucked between flashier punch-’em-up scenes.

这里的 conflicts 就是指刚才的dueling loyalties。

这种冲突在小说中，贯穿（ tucked ）在一场场炫目的打斗（ punch-’em-up = punch them up ）情节中。

readers reared on stories of millennia-old conflicts between the Chinese and nomads from the north will register the tension between filial piety and patriotism.

注意，reared 不是谓语动词，而是分词 ，readers reared on = readers who were reared on

rear 在这里是 抚养 的意思，readers who were reared on stories ……，就是说这些 读者是从小读……故事长大的 。读什么故事呢？读汉族和北方游牧名族百年来冲突征伐史长大的。因此我们在看金庸小说时就不缺乏理解的文化基础，而外国读者没有这个基础，于是就会觉得 bewildered 。

Guo Jing, the hero of “Condors,” is a simpleton with a hero’s destiny, who perseveres through hard work and basic decency. As a child, he is protected by Genghis Khan, spending his boyhood honing martial-arts skills on the Mongolian grasslands, mentored by a tight circle of kung-fu adepts. A roving Taoist monk finds him practicing his moves on the steppe and offers him secret meditation lessons, atop a cliff, to improve his technique—on the condition that he not tell his other masters. This is a classic premise in Chinese literature: dueling loyalties, to one’s elders and one’s own ambitions, compounded by a clashing reverence for different teachers. Many of Cha’s plot points hinge on such conflicts, tucked between flashier punch-’em-up scenes. Later in “Condors,” when the adopted son of a nomadic-tribe aristocrat learns that he is ethnically Han Chinese, readers reared on stories of millennia-old conflicts between the Chinese and nomads from the north will register the tension between filial piety and patriotism. But the scenario may bewilder those approaching wuxia for the first time.