The Souls of Black Folk

黑人的灵魂

1903 · W.E.B. Du Bois · 原文

黑人的灵魂

by W.

由 W.

Du Bois

杜波依斯

Herein is Written

这里写着

The Forethought I.

远见 I.

Of Our Spiritual Strivings II.

论我们的精神追求 II.

Of the Dawn of Freedom III.

自由黎明 III.

Of Mr. Booker T.

布克·T.

Washington and Others IV.

华盛顿等人 IV．

Of the Meaning of Progress V.

论进步的意义 V.

Of the Wings of Atalanta VI.

亚特兰大之翼六号。

Of the Training of Black Men VII.

黑人的训练 VII.

Of the Black Belt VIII.

黑带八段。

Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece IX.

金羊毛九号任务。

Of the Sons of Master and Man X.

师父和Man X的儿子们。

Of the Faith of the Fathers XI.

论教父的信仰 XI.

Of the Passing of the First-Born XII.

关于长子十二的去世。

Of Alexander Crummell XIII.

亚历山大·克鲁梅尔十三世。

Of the Coming of John XIV.

约翰十四的到来。

Of the Sorrow Songs The Afterthought

悲伤歌曲的事后思考

To Burghardt and Yolande The Lost and the Found

致失物招领处的布格哈特和约兰德

The Forethought

深谋远虑

Herein lie buried many things which if read with patience may show the strange meaning of being black here at the dawning of the Twentieth Century.

这里埋藏着许多东西，如果耐心地阅读，可能会显示出二十世纪初这里的黑人的奇怪含义。

This meaning is not without interest to you, Gentle Reader; for the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.

亲爱的读者，您对这个含义并非没有兴趣；因为二十世纪的问题就是肤色界限的问题。

I pray you, then, receive my little book in all charity, studying my words with me, forgiving mistake and foible for sake of the faith and passion that is in me, and seeking the grain of truth hidden there.

那么，我祈求你，以全部的仁慈接受我的小书，和我一起研究我的话，为了我内心的信仰和热情而原谅错误和缺点，并寻找隐藏在那里的真理。

I have sought here to sketch, in vague, uncertain outline, the spiritual world in which ten thousand thousand Americans live and strive.

我试图在这里以模糊、不确定的轮廓勾勒出一万美国人生活和奋斗的精神世界。

First, in two chapters I have tried to show what Emancipation meant to them, and what was its aftermath.

首先，我在两章中试图展示解放对他们意味着什么，以及其后果是什么。

In a third chapter I have pointed out the slow rise of personal leadership, and criticized candidly the leader who bears the chief burden of his race to-day.

在第三章中，我指出了个人领导力的缓慢崛起，并坦率地批评了当今承担着种族主要负担的领导人。

Then, in two other chapters I have sketched in swift outline the two worlds within and without the Veil, and thus have come to the central problem of training men for life.

然后，在另外两章中，我快速勾勒出了面纱内外的两个世界，从而谈到了为生活而训练人的中心问题。

Venturing now into deeper detail, I have in two chapters studied the struggles of the massed millions of the black peasantry, and in another have sought to make clear the present relations of the sons of master and man.

现在冒险进入更深入的细节，我在两章中研究了数以百万计的黑人农民的斗争，并在另一章中试图阐明主人和人类之间目前的关系。

Leaving, then, the white world, I have stepped within the Veil, raising it that you may view faintly its deeper recesses,—the meaning of its religion, the passion of its human sorrow, and the struggle of its greater souls.

那么，离开白色的世界，我踏入了面纱，掀起它，让你可以隐约地看到它更深处的深处——它的宗教的意义，它的人类悲伤的激情，以及它更伟大的灵魂的斗争。

All this I have ended with a tale twice told but seldom written, and a chapter of song.

我以一个讲了两遍但很少写出来的故事和一章歌曲来结束这一切。

Some of these thoughts of mine have seen the light before in other guise.

我的一些想法以前曾以其他形式出现过。

For kindly consenting to their republication here, in altered and extended form, I must thank the publishers of the Atlantic Monthly, The World’s Work, the Dial, The New World, and the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

我必须感谢《大西洋月刊》、《世界工作》、《日晷》、《新世界》和《美国政治与社会科学院年鉴》的出版商们，感谢他们同意以修改和扩展的形式在此重印。

Before each chapter, as now printed, stands a bar of the Sorrow Songs,—some echo of haunting melody from the only American music which welled up from black souls in the dark past.

现在印刷的每一章之前都有一段《悲伤之歌》，这是黑暗过去黑人灵魂中唯一涌出的美国音乐中令人难以忘怀的旋律的回声。

And, finally, need I add that I who speak here am bone of the bone and flesh of the flesh of them that live within the Veil?

最后，我需要补充一下，在这里说话的我是生活在帷幕内的人们的骨中之骨、肉中之肉吗？

W.E.B.

Du B.

杜 B.

Atlanta, Ga., Feb.

佐治亚州亚特兰大，二月

1, 1903.

我。

Of Our Spiritual Strivings

我们的精神追求

O water, voice of my heart, crying in the sand, All night long crying with a mournful cry, As I lie and listen, and cannot understand The voice of my heart in my side or the voice of the sea, O water, crying for rest, is it I, is it I?

水啊，我心的声音，在沙子里哭泣，整夜都在悲痛地哭泣，当我躺着倾听，却无法理解我心的声音在我身边还是大海的声音，水啊，哭着要求休息，是我吗，是我吗？

All night long the water is crying to me.

整夜，水都在向我哭泣。

Unresting water, there shall never be rest Till the last moon droop and the last tide fail, And the fire of the end begin to burn in the west; And the heart shall be weary and wonder and cry like the sea, All life long crying without avail, As the water all night long is crying to me.

不安的水，永远不会休息，直到最后的月亮落下，最后的潮水退去，最后的火焰开始在西方燃烧；心将疲倦、惊奇、哭泣，像大海一样，终生哭泣却无济于事，就像水整夜向我哭泣。

ARTHUR SYMONS.

阿瑟·西蒙斯。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: unasked by some through feelings of delicacy; by others through the difficulty of rightly framing it.

在我和另一个世界之间，一直有一个未问的问题：有些人出于微妙的感觉而没有问；其他人通过正确构建它的困难来解决它。

All, nevertheless, flutter round it.

然而，一切都在它周围扑腾。

They approach me in a half-hesitant sort of way, eye me curiously or compassionately, and then, instead of saying directly, How does it feel to be a problem?

他们以半犹豫的方式接近我，好奇或同情地看着我，然后，而不是直接说，成为问题感觉如何？

they say, I know an excellent colored man in my town; or, I fought at Mechanicsville; or, Do not these Southern outrages make your blood boil?

他们说，我在我们的镇上认识一个优秀的黑人；或者，我在梅卡尼克斯维尔战斗；或者，这些南方的暴行难道没有让你热血沸腾吗？

At these I smile, or am interested, or reduce the boiling to a simmer, as the occasion may require.

看到这些，我会微笑，或者感兴趣，或者根据场合的需要将沸腾程度降低到小火。

To the real question, How does it feel to be a problem?

对于真正的问题，成为问题感觉如何？

I answer seldom a word.

我很少回答一个字。

And yet, being a problem is a strange experience,—peculiar even for one who has never been anything else, save perhaps in babyhood and in Europe.

然而，成为一个问题是一种奇怪的经历，即使对于一个从来没有做过其他事情的人来说也是很奇怪的，也许除了婴儿期和在欧洲。

It is in the early days of rollicking boyhood that the revelation first bursts upon one, all in a day, as it were.

正是在快乐的童年的早期，这个启示第一次突然降临到一个人身上，这一切都是在一天之内发生的。

I remember well when the shadow swept across me.

我清楚地记得阴影掠过我的时候。

I was a little thing, away up in the hills of New England, where the dark Housatonic winds between Hoosac and Taghkanic to the sea.

我是一个小东西，在新英格兰的山上，黑暗的休萨托尼克风从胡萨克和塔卡尼奇之间吹向大海。

In a wee wooden schoolhouse, something put it into the boys’ and girls’ heads to buy gorgeous visiting-cards—ten cents a package—and exchange.

在一座狭小的木制校舍里，男孩和女孩们萌生了购买精美名片（一包十美分）并进行交换的念头。

The exchange was merry, till one girl, a tall newcomer, refused my card,—refused it peremptorily, with a glance.

交流很愉快，直到一个女孩，一个身材高大的新来的人，拒绝了我的卡片，——断然拒绝了它，扫了一眼。

Then it dawned upon me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others; or like, mayhap, in heart and life and longing, but shut out from their world by a vast veil.

然后我突然意识到我和其他人不同。或者也许，在内心、生活和渴望中，但被一层巨大的面纱与他们的世界隔绝。

I had thereafter no desire to tear down that veil, to creep through; I held all beyond it in common contempt, and lived above it in a region of blue sky and great wandering shadows.

此后，我再也不想撕下那层纱，爬进去；我对它之外的一切都抱有普遍的蔑视，并生活在它之上的一片蓝天和巨大的游荡阴影的地区。

That sky was bluest when I could beat my mates at examination-time, or beat them at a foot-race, or even beat their stringy heads.

当我能在考试时击败我的同学，或在赛跑中击败他们，甚至击败他们的绳索头时，那片天空是最蓝的。

Alas, with the years all this fine contempt began to fade; for the words I longed for, and all their dazzling opportunities, were theirs, not mine.

唉，随着岁月的流逝，所有这些美好的蔑视都开始消失了。因为我渴望的话语，以及所有令人眼花缭乱的机会，都是他们的，而不是我的。

But they should not keep these prizes, I said; some, all, I would wrest from them.

但我说，他们不应该保留这些奖品；一些，全部，我会从他们手中夺取。

Just how I would do it I could never decide: by reading law, by healing the sick, by telling the wonderful tales that swam in my head,—some way.

我永远无法决定如何去做：通过阅读法律，通过治愈病人，通过讲述在我脑海中游动的精彩故事，某种方式。

With other black boys the strife was not so fiercely sunny: their youth shrunk into tasteless sycophancy, or into silent hatred of the pale world about them and mocking distrust of everything white; or wasted itself in a bitter cry, Why did God make me an outcast and a stranger in mine own house?

与其他黑人男孩相比，冲突并不那么激烈：他们的青春萎缩成无品位的阿谀奉承，或者陷入对周围苍白世界的无声仇恨，以及对一切白色的嘲笑和不信任；或者在痛苦的呼喊中浪费了时间：为什么上帝让我成为一个被遗弃的人，让我成为自己家里的陌生人？

The shades of the prison-house closed round about us all: walls strait and stubborn to the whitest, but relentlessly narrow, tall, and unscalable to sons of night who must plod darkly on in resignation, or beat unavailing palms against the stone, or steadily, half hopelessly, watch the streak of blue above.

监狱的阴影将我们所有人包围起来：墙壁狭窄而顽固，直到最白，但对黑夜之子来说却是无情的狭窄、高大和不可攀登，他们必须在逆境中艰难地前行，或者用手掌敲打石头，或者坚定地、半绝望地看着上面的蓝色条纹。

After the Egyptian and Indian, the Greek and Roman, the Teuton and Mongolian, the Negro is a sort of seventh son, born with a veil, and gifted with second-sight in this American world,—a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world.

继埃及人和印度人、希腊人和罗马人、日耳曼人和蒙古人之后，黑人可以说是第七个儿子，生来就带着面纱，在这个美洲世界中拥有第二视觉的天赋——这个世界不给他真正的自我意识，而只是让他通过另一个世界的启示来看到自己。

It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity.

这是一种奇特的感觉，这种双重意识，这种总是通过他人的眼睛来看待自己的感觉，一种用一个带着有趣的轻蔑和怜悯的世界的卷尺来衡量一个人的灵魂的感觉。

One ever feels his twoness,—an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.

一个人曾经感受到自己的双重性——一个美国人，一个黑人；两个灵魂，两种思想，两种不可调和的努力；两个交战的理想集中在一个黑暗的身体里，只有它顽强的力量才使它不至于被撕裂。

The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife,—this longing to attain self-conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self.

美国黑人的历史就是这种斗争的历史，这种对获得自觉的男子气概、将双重自我融入更好、更真实的自我的渴望。

In this merging he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost.

在这种融合中，他不希望旧的自己都不会丢失。

He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa.

他不会让美国非洲化，因为美国有太多东西可以教给世界和非洲。

He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.

他不会在白人美国主义的洪流中漂白自己的黑人灵魂，因为他知道黑人的血统向世界传递着信息。

He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face.

他只是希望让一个人能够同时成为黑人和美国人，而不会被同胞咒骂和吐口水，机会之门不会在他面前粗暴地关闭。

This, then, is the end of his striving: to be a co-worker in the kingdom of culture, to escape both death and isolation, to husband and use his best powers and his latent genius.

那么，这就是他奋斗的终点：成为文化王国的同事，逃离死亡和孤立，发挥并利用他最好的力量和潜在的天才。

These powers of body and mind have in the past been strangely wasted, dispersed, or forgotten.

这些身体和心灵的力量在过去都被奇怪地浪费、分散或遗忘了。

The shadow of a mighty Negro past flits through the tale of Ethiopia the Shadowy and of Egypt the Sphinx.

强大的黑人过去的影子掠过埃塞俄比亚的影子和埃及的狮身人面像的故事。

Through history, the powers of single black men flash here and there like falling stars, and die sometimes before the world has rightly gauged their brightness.

纵观历史，单身黑人的力量就像流星一样闪烁，有时在世界正确衡量他们的亮度之前就消失了。

Here in America, in the few days since Emancipation, the black man’s turning hither and thither in hesitant and doubtful striving has often made his very strength to lose effectiveness, to seem like absence of power, like weakness.

在美国，解放后的几天里，黑人在犹豫不决和怀疑的努力中东奔西走，常常使他的力量失去效力，看起来缺乏力量，像软弱。

And yet it is not weakness,—it is the contradiction of double aims.

但这并不是弱点，而是双重目标的矛盾。

The double-aimed struggle of the black artisan—on the one hand to escape white contempt for a nation of mere hewers of wood and drawers of water, and on the other hand to plough and nail and dig for a poverty-stricken horde—could only result in making him a poor craftsman, for he had but half a heart in either cause.

黑人工匠的双重目标斗争——一方面是为了逃避白人对一个仅是伐木工和提水工的国家的蔑视，另一方面是为贫困的部落犁地、钉钉子和挖掘——只能导致他成为一个贫穷的工匠，因为他对这两个原因都没有半心。

By the poverty and ignorance of his people, the Negro minister or doctor was tempted toward quackery and demagogy; and by the criticism of the other world, toward ideals that made him ashamed of his lowly tasks.

由于人民的贫穷和无知，黑人牧师或医生很容易受到骗术和煽动的诱惑。以及来自另一个世界的批评，走向让他为自己卑微的任务感到羞耻的理想。

The would-be black savant was confronted by the paradox that the knowledge his people needed was a twice-told tale to his white neighbors, while the knowledge which would teach the white world was Greek to his own flesh and blood.

这位想成为黑人学者的人面临着这样一个悖论：他的人民需要的知识对他的白人邻居来说是重复的故事，而向白人世界传授的知识对他自己的血肉来说却是希腊语。

The innate love of harmony and beauty that set the ruder souls of his people a-dancing and a-singing raised but confusion and doubt in the soul of the black artist; for the beauty revealed to him was the soul-beauty of a race which his larger audience despised, and he could not articulate the message of another people.

对和谐与美与生俱来的热爱，让他的人民的粗鲁灵魂开始跳舞和唱歌，却在黑人艺术家的灵魂中引起了困惑和怀疑；因为向他展示的美丽是一个种族的灵魂之美，而他的广大观众却鄙视这一种族，而他无法清楚地表达另一个民族的信息。

This waste of double aims, this seeking to satisfy two unreconciled ideals, has wrought sad havoc with the courage and faith and deeds of ten thousand thousand people,—has sent them often wooing false gods and invoking false means of salvation, and at times has even seemed about to make them ashamed of themselves.

这种双重目标的浪费，这种为了满足两个不可调和的理想而寻求的做法，对成千上万人的勇气、信仰和行为造成了可悲的破坏，使他们经常追求虚假的神灵，援引虚假的救赎手段，有时甚至似乎让他们为自己感到羞耻。

Away back in the days of bondage they thought to see in one divine event the end of all doubt and disappointment; few men ever worshipped Freedom with half such unquestioning faith as did the American Negro for two centuries.

早在受奴役的日子里，他们就认为通过一件神圣的事件就能消除所有的怀疑和失望。两个世纪以来，很少有人能像美国黑人那样对自由怀有如此坚定的信念。

To him, so far as he thought and dreamed, slavery was indeed the sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of all prejudice; Emancipation was the key to a promised land of sweeter beauty than ever stretched before the eyes of wearied Israelites.

对他来说，就他的想法和梦想而言，奴隶制确实是所有罪恶的总和，是所有悲伤的根源，是所有偏见的根源。解放是通往疲惫的以色列人眼前的一片比以往任何时候都更加甜美美丽的应许之地的关键。

In song and exhortation swelled one refrain—Liberty; in his tears and curses the God he implored had Freedom in his right hand.

歌声和劝告中充斥着一首副歌——自由；他流着泪，咒骂着上帝，祈求上帝右手握有自由。

At last it came,—suddenly, fearfully, like a dream.

终于，它来了——突然、可怕，就像一场梦。

With one wild carnival of blood and passion came the message in his own plaintive cadences:—

伴随着一场热血与激情的疯狂狂欢，他以哀伤的节奏传达了这样的信息：

“Shout, O children!

“呼喊吧，孩子们！

Shout, you’re free!

喊一声，你自由了！

For God has bought your liberty!”

因为上帝已经买了你的自由！”

Years have passed away since then,—ten, twenty, forty; forty years of national life, forty years of renewal and development, and yet the swarthy spectre sits in its accustomed seat at the Nation’s feast.

从那时起，已经过去了很多年——十年、二十年、四十年；四十年的国家生活，四十年的更新和发展，然而，这个黝黑的幽灵却坐在国家盛宴上它惯用的座位上。

In vain do we cry to this our vastest social problem:—

我们徒劳地为这个我们最大的社会问题哭泣：——

“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves Shall never tremble!”

“除此之外，无论采取任何形状，我坚定的神经都不会颤抖！”

The Nation has not yet found peace from its sins; the freedman has not yet found in freedom his promised land.

这个国家还没有从罪恶中找到安宁；自由人还没有在自由中找到他的应许之地。

Whatever of good may have come in these years of change, the shadow of a deep disappointment rests upon the Negro people,—a disappointment all the more bitter because the unattained ideal was unbounded save by the simple ignorance of a lowly people.

无论在这些年的变革中可能发生什么好事，深深的失望的阴影笼罩在黑人身上——这种失望更加痛苦，因为除了卑微人民的简单无知之外，未实现的理想是无限的。

The first decade was merely a prolongation of the vain search for freedom, the boon that seemed ever barely to elude their grasp,—like a tantalizing will-o’-the-wisp, maddening and misleading the headless host.

第一个十年只不过是对自由的徒劳追求的延长，这种恩惠似乎几乎无法逃脱他们的掌握，就像诱人的鬼火一样，让无头的主人感到疯狂和误导。

The holocaust of war, the terrors of the Ku-Klux Klan, the lies of carpet-baggers, the disorganization of industry, and the contradictory advice of friends and foes, left the bewildered serf with no new watchword beyond the old cry for freedom.

战争的大屠杀、三K党的恐怖、地毯式装袋者的谎言、工业的瓦解以及朋友和敌人相互矛盾的建议，让困惑的农奴除了对自由的古老呼声之外没有新的口号。

As the time flew, however, he began to grasp a new idea.

然而，随着时间的流逝，他开始有了新的想法。

The ideal of liberty demanded for its attainment powerful means, and these the Fifteenth Amendment gave him.

自由的理想需要强大的手段来实现，而第十五修正案给了他这些手段。

The ballot, which before he had looked upon as a visible sign of freedom, he now regarded as the chief means of gaining and perfecting the liberty with which war had partially endowed him.

以前他将投票视为自由的明显标志，现在他将其视为获得和完善战争部分赋予他的自由的主要手段。

And why not?

为什么不呢？

Had not votes made war and emancipated millions?

选票不是引发了战争并解放了数百万人吗？

Had not votes enfranchised the freedmen?

选票不是赋予了自由民选举权吗？

Was anything impossible to a power that had done all this?

对于一个创造了这一切的力量来说，还有什么是不可能的吗？

A million black men started with renewed zeal to vote themselves into the kingdom.

一百万黑人开始以新的热情投票进入王国。

So the decade flew away, the revolution of 1876 came, and left the half-free serf weary, wondering, but still inspired.

十年就这样过去了，1876 年的革命到来了，半自由的农奴感到疲倦、疑惑，但仍然充满灵感。

Slowly but steadily, in the following years, a new vision began gradually to replace the dream of political power,—a powerful movement, the rise of another ideal to guide the unguided, another pillar of fire by night after a clouded day.

在接下来的几年里，一种新的愿景缓慢而稳定地开始逐渐取代政治权力的梦想——一场强大的运动，另一个指导无知者的理想的兴起，阴云密布的夜晚后的另一根火柱。

It was the ideal of “book-learning”; the curiosity, born of compulsory ignorance, to know and test the power of the cabalistic letters of the white man, the longing to know.

这是“书本学习”的理想；出于强制无知而产生的好奇心，想要了解和测试白人神秘字母的力量，渴望知道。

Here at last seemed to have been discovered the mountain path to Canaan; longer than the highway of Emancipation and law, steep and rugged, but straight, leading to heights high enough to overlook life.

似乎终于在这里发现了通往迦南的山路。比解放和法律的高速公路还要长，陡峭崎岖，但又笔直，通向足以俯瞰生活的高度。

Up the new path the advance guard toiled, slowly, heavily, doggedly; only those who have watched and guided the faltering feet, the misty minds, the dull understandings, of the dark pupils of these schools know how faithfully, how piteously, this people strove to learn.

先锋队在新的道路上艰难地、缓慢地、沉重地、顽强地走着。只有那些亲眼目睹并引导过这些学校黑暗学生的脚步蹒跚、头脑模糊、理解迟钝的人才知道，这个民族是多么忠实、多么可怜地努力学习。

It was weary work.

这是一项令人疲惫的工作。

The cold statistician wrote down the inches of progress here and there, noted also where here and there a foot had slipped or some one had fallen.

冷酷的统计学家记下了这里那里的进步，也记下了这里那里脚滑倒的地方，或者有人跌倒的地方。

To the tired climbers, the horizon was ever dark, the mists were often cold, the Canaan was always dim and far away.

对于疲惫的登山者来说，地平线永远是黑暗的，雾气常常是寒冷的，迦南永远是昏暗而遥远的。

If, however, the vistas disclosed as yet no goal, no resting-place, little but flattery and criticism, the journey at least gave leisure for reflection and self-examination; it changed the child of Emancipation to the youth with dawning self-consciousness, self-realization, self-respect.

然而，如果说远景还没有目标，没有休息的地方，只有奉承和批评，那么这段旅程至少给了反思和自我审视的时间；它把解放的孩子变成了自我意识、自我实现和自尊的青年。

In those sombre forests of his striving his own soul rose before him, and he saw himself,—darkly as through a veil; and yet he saw in himself some faint revelation of his power, of his mission.

在他奋斗的那些阴暗的森林里，他自己的灵魂在他面前升起，他看到了自己，——黑暗得像透过面纱；然而，他在自己身上看到了自己的力量和使命的隐约显露。

He began to have a dim feeling that, to attain his place in the world, he must be himself, and not another.

他开始有一种隐隐的感觉，为了在世界上获得自己的地位，他必须做他自己，而不是别人。

For the first time he sought to analyze the burden he bore upon his back, that dead-weight of social degradation partially masked behind a half-named Negro problem.

他第一次试图分析他背上的负担，社会退化的沉重负担部分掩盖在一个半名黑人问题的背后。

He felt his poverty; without a cent, without a home, without land, tools, or savings, he had entered into competition with rich, landed, skilled neighbors.

他感到自己的贫穷；他身无分文，没有房屋，没有土地、工具或积蓄，他不得不与富有、有土地、技术熟练的邻居竞争。

To be a poor man is hard, but to be a poor race in a land of dollars is the very bottom of hardships.

做一个穷人是艰难的，但在金钱的土地上做一个贫穷的种族则是最底层的苦难。

He felt the weight of his ignorance,—not simply of letters, but of life, of business, of the humanities; the accumulated sloth and shirking and awkwardness of decades and centuries shackled his hands and feet.

他感到自己无知的沉重——不仅仅是对文学的无知，而且对生活、商业和人文学科的无知。数十年、数百年积累的懒惰、逃避和笨拙束缚了他的手脚。

Nor was his burden all poverty and ignorance.

他的负担也不全是贫穷和无知。

The red stain of bastardy, which two centuries of systematic legal defilement of Negro women had stamped upon his race, meant not only the loss of ancient African chastity, but also the hereditary weight of a mass of corruption from white adulterers, threatening almost the obliteration of the Negro home.

两个世纪以来对黑人妇女系统性的法律玷污在他的种族上留下了私生子的红色污点，这不仅意味着古代非洲贞操的丧失，而且还意味着白人通奸者的大量腐败的遗传负担，几乎威胁着黑人家庭的毁灭。

A people thus handicapped ought not to be asked to race with the world, but rather allowed to give all its time and thought to its own social problems.

一个如此残疾的民族不应该被要求与世界赛跑，而应该被允许把所有的时间和思想都花在自己的社会问题上。

But alas!

但唉！

while sociologists gleefully count his bastards and his prostitutes, the very soul of the toiling, sweating black man is darkened by the shadow of a vast despair.

当社会学家兴高采烈地数着他的私生子和妓女时，这位辛苦劳作、汗流浃背的黑人的灵魂却被巨大绝望的阴影所笼罩。

Men call the shadow prejudice, and learnedly explain it as the natural defence of culture against barbarism, learning against ignorance, purity against crime, the “higher” against the “lower” races.

人们将阴影称为偏见，并博学地将其解释为文化对抗野蛮、学习对抗无知、纯洁对抗犯罪、“高等”种族对抗“低等”种族的自然防御。

To which the Negro cries Amen!

黑人对此呼喊阿门！

and swears that to so much of this strange prejudice as is founded on just homage to civilization, culture, righteousness, and progress, he humbly bows and meekly does obeisance.

并发誓，对于这种建立在对文明、文化、正义和进步的敬意之上的奇怪偏见，他谦卑地鞠躬，温顺地顶礼膜拜。

But before that nameless prejudice that leaps beyond all this he stands helpless, dismayed, and well-nigh speechless; before that personal disrespect and mockery, the ridicule and systematic humiliation, the distortion of fact and wanton license of fancy, the cynical ignoring of the better and the boisterous welcoming of the worse, the all-pervading desire to inculcate disdain for everything black, from Toussaint to the devil,—before this there rises a sickening despair that would disarm and discourage any nation save that black host to whom “discouragement” is an unwritten word.

但在超越这一切的无名偏见面前，他感到无助、沮丧，几乎说不出话来。在个人的不尊重和嘲笑、嘲笑和系统性的羞辱、对事实的歪曲和肆意的幻想、对更好的人的愤世嫉俗的忽视和对更坏的人的喧闹欢迎、对一切黑人的蔑视的普遍愿望——从杜桑到魔鬼——在此之前，出现了一种令人作呕的绝望，这种绝望会解除任何国家的武装和灰心，除了那个黑人东道主，“灰心丧气”对他们来说是一个不成文的词。

But the facing of so vast a prejudice could not but bring the inevitable self-questioning, self-disparagement, and lowering of ideals which ever accompany repression and breed in an atmosphere of contempt and hate.

但面对如此巨大的偏见，不可避免地会带来自我质疑、自我贬低和理想的降低，这些都伴随着镇压，并在蔑视和仇恨的气氛中滋生。

Whisperings and portents came home upon the four winds: Lo!

低语和预兆乘着四风而来：瞧！

we are diseased and dying, cried the dark hosts; we cannot write, our voting is vain; what need of education, since we must always cook and serve?

我们病了，快要死了，黑暗主宰喊道；我们不会写，我们的投票是徒劳的；既然我们必须总是做饭和服务，还需要什么教育呢？

And the Nation echoed and enforced this self-criticism, saying: Be content to be servants, and nothing more; what need of higher culture for half-men?

全国响应并强化了这种自我批评，说：满足于做仆人，仅此而已；半人需要什么高等文化？

Away with the black man’s ballot, by force or fraud,—and behold the suicide of a race!

通过武力或欺诈手段剥夺黑人的选票——看看一个种族的自杀吧！

Nevertheless, out of the evil came something of good,—the more careful adjustment of education to real life, the clearer perception of the Negroes’ social responsibilities, and the sobering realization of the meaning of progress.

然而，邪恶中也有一些美好的东西——教育更加仔细地适应现实生活，对黑人的社会责任有了更清晰的认识，对进步意义的清醒认识。

So dawned the time of _Sturm und Drang:_ storm and stress to-day rocks our little boat on the mad waters of the world-sea; there is within and without the sound of conflict, the burning of body and rending of soul; inspiration strives with doubt, and faith with vain questionings.

狂风骤雨的时代就这样到来了：今天的风暴和压力使我们的小船在世界海洋的疯狂水域上摇晃；内外有冲突之声，肉体的燃烧，灵魂的撕裂；灵感与怀疑抗争，信仰与徒劳的质疑抗争。

The bright ideals of the past,—physical freedom, political power, the training of brains and the training of hands,—all these in turn have waxed and waned, until even the last grows dim and overcast.

过去的光明理想——身体自由、政治权力、大脑的训练和双手的训练——所有这些都依次盛衰，直到最后一点也变得暗淡和阴暗。

Are they all wrong,—all false?

难道它们全都错了——全都是假的吗？

No, not that, but each alone was over-simple and incomplete,—the dreams of a credulous race-childhood, or the fond imaginings of the other world which does not know and does not want to know our power.

不，不是那样，但每一个都过于简单和不完整——轻信的种族童年的梦想，或者另一个世界的美好想象，它不知道也不想知道我们的力量。

To be really true, all these ideals must be melted and welded into one.

要真正做到这一点，所有这些理想必须融为一体。

The training of the schools we need to-day more than ever,—the training of deft hands, quick eyes and ears, and above all the broader, deeper, higher culture of gifted minds and pure hearts.

我们今天比以往任何时候都更需要学校的培训——灵巧的双手、敏捷的眼睛和耳朵的培训，尤其是对有天赋的思想和纯洁的心灵的更广泛、更深入、更高层次的文化的培训。

The power of the ballot we need in sheer self-defence,—else what shall save us from a second slavery?

我们需要选票的力量纯粹是为了自卫，否则还有什么可以拯救我们免遭第二次奴役呢？

Freedom, too, the long-sought, we still seek,—the freedom of life and limb, the freedom to work and think, the freedom to love and aspire.

自由也是我们一直在追求的，我们仍在追求——生命和肢体的自由，工作和思考的自由，爱和渴望的自由。

Work, culture, liberty,—all these we need, not singly but together, not successively but together, each growing and aiding each, and all striving toward that vaster ideal that swims before the Negro people, the ideal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of the Negro, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the American Republic, in order that some day on American soil two world-races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack.

工作、文化、自由——所有这些我们都需要，不是单独的而是一起的，不是连续的而是一起的，每一个都在成长，互相帮助，所有这些都在努力实现黑人人民面前的更广阔的理想，即通过种族统一理想而获得的人类兄弟情谊的理想；培养和发展黑人的特质和才能的理想，不是反对或蔑视其他种族，而是在很大程度上符合美利坚共和国的更伟大理想，以便有一天在美国的土地上，两个世界种族可以赋予彼此所悲哀地缺乏的特征。

We the darker ones come even now not altogether empty-handed: there are to-day no truer exponents of the pure human spirit of the Declaration of Independence than the American Negroes; there is no true American music but the wild sweet melodies of the Negro slave; the American fairy tales and folklore are Indian and African; and, all in all, we black men seem the sole oasis of simple faith and reverence in a dusty desert of dollars and smartness.

即使现在，我们这些黑暗的人也并非完全空手而归：今天，没有人比美国黑人更能真正体现《独立宣言》中纯粹的人类精神了。除了黑人奴隶狂野甜美的旋律之外，没有真正的美国音乐；美国的童话故事和民间传说是印度和非洲的；总而言之，我们黑人似乎是金钱和聪明的尘土飞扬的沙漠中唯一的简单信仰和崇敬的绿洲。

Will America be poorer if she replace her brutal dyspeptic blundering with light-hearted but determined Negro humility?

如果她用轻松但坚定的黑人谦逊取代她残酷的消化不良的错误，美国会变得更贫穷吗？

or her coarse and cruel wit with loving jovial good-humor?

还是她粗俗残忍的机智和充满爱意、快活的幽默感？

or her vulgar music with the soul of the Sorrow Songs?

还是她那带有灵魂的庸俗音乐《悲歌》？

Merely a concrete test of the underlying principles of the great republic is the Negro Problem, and the spiritual striving of the freedmen’s sons is the travail of souls whose burden is almost beyond the measure of their strength, but who bear it in the name of an historic race, in the name of this the land of their fathers’ fathers, and in the name of human opportunity.

黑人问题只是对伟大共和国基本原则的具体考验，自由民子孙的精神奋斗是灵魂的艰辛，他们的负担几乎超出了他们的力量范围，但他们以历史种族的名义，以他们祖先的土地的名义，以人类机会的名义承担了这一重担。

And now what I have briefly sketched in large outline let me on coming pages tell again in many ways, with loving emphasis and deeper detail, that men may listen to the striving in the souls of black folk.

现在，我已经简要概述了大纲，让我在接下来的几页中以多种方式再次讲述，带着爱的强调和更深入的细节，人们可以倾听黑人灵魂中的奋斗。

II.

二.

Of the Dawn of Freedom

自由的黎明

Careless seems the great Avenger; History’s lessons but record One death-grapple in the darkness ’Twixt old systems and the Word; Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne; Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown Standeth God within the shadow Keeping watch above His own.

粗心似乎是伟大的复仇者；历史的教训只是记录了旧制度与道之间黑暗中的一场死亡搏斗；真理永远在断头台上，错误永远在宝座上；然而那断头台却摇曳着未来，在昏暗的未知背后，上帝站在阴影中，守护着他自己的一切。

LOWELL.

洛厄尔。

[Illustration]

[图示]

The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line,—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea.

二十世纪的问题是肤色界限问题，即亚洲、非洲、美洲和海岛肤色较深的人种与肤色较浅的人种的关系。

It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War; and however much they who marched South and North in 1861 may have fixed on the technical points, of union and local autonomy as a shibboleth, all nevertheless knew, as we know, that the question of Negro slavery was the real cause of the conflict.

正是这个问题的一个阶段引发了内战。无论 1861 年南北进军的人们如何将工会和地方自治作为陈词滥调，但所有人都知道，正如我们所知，黑人奴隶制问题是冲突的真正原因。

Curious it was, too, how this deeper question ever forced itself to the surface despite effort and disclaimer.

同样令人好奇的是，尽管付出了努力和免责声明，这个更深层次的问题是如何强迫自己浮出水面的。

No sooner had Northern armies touched Southern soil than this old question, newly guised, sprang from the earth,—What shall be done with Negroes?

北方军队一踏入南方土地，这个新提出的老问题就从大地上冒出来：“黑人该怎么办？”

Peremptory military commands this way and that, could not answer the query; the Emancipation Proclamation seemed but to broaden and intensify the difficulties; and the War Amendments made the Negro problems of to-day.

武断的命令这样那样，不能回答询问；《解放黑人奴隶宣言》似乎只是扩大和加剧了困难。战争修正案造成了今天的黑人问题。

It is the aim of this essay to study the period of history from 1861 to 1872 so far as it relates to the American Negro.

本文的目的是研究 1861 年至 1872 年与美国黑人相关的历史时期。

In effect, this tale of the dawn of Freedom is an account of that government of men called the Freedmen’s Bureau,—one of the most singular and interesting of the attempts made by a great nation to grapple with vast problems of race and social condition.

事实上，这个关于自由黎明的故事是对被称为“自由民局”的人类政府的描述——这是一个伟大国家为解决种族和社会状况的巨大问题所做的最独特和最有趣的尝试之一。

The war has naught to do with slaves, cried Congress, the President, and the Nation; and yet no sooner had the armies, East and West, penetrated Virginia and Tennessee than fugitive slaves appeared within their lines.

国会、总统和国家都喊道，战争与奴隶无关；战争与奴隶无关。然而，东西方军队一渗透到弗吉尼亚州和田纳西州，逃亡的奴隶就出现在他们的战线上。

They came at night, when the flickering camp-fires shone like vast unsteady stars along the black horizon: old men and thin, with gray and tufted hair; women with frightened eyes, dragging whimpering hungry children; men and girls, stalwart and gaunt,—a horde of starving vagabonds, homeless, helpless, and pitiable, in their dark distress.

他们是在晚上来的，当时闪烁的营火像巨大的不稳定的星星沿着黑色的地平线闪耀：老人和瘦弱的人，灰色的和簇状的头发；妇女们眼神惊恐，拖着哭泣的饥饿儿童；男人和女孩，魁梧而憔悴，——一群饥饿的流浪汉，无家可归，无助而可怜，处于黑暗的痛苦之中。

Two methods of treating these newcomers seemed equally logical to opposite sorts of minds.

对于不同类型的人来说，对待这些新来者的两种方法似乎同样合乎逻辑。

Ben Butler, in Virginia, quickly declared slave property contraband of war, and put the fugitives to work; while Fremont, in Missouri, declared the slaves free under martial law.

弗吉尼亚州的本·巴特勒很快宣布奴隶财产为战争违禁品，并让逃亡者去工作；而密苏里州的弗里蒙特则在戒严令下宣布奴隶获得自由。

Butler’s action was approved, but Fremont’s was hastily countermanded, and his successor, Halleck, saw things differently.

巴特勒的行动获得了批准，但弗里蒙特的行动被匆忙撤销，他的继任者哈勒克对事情有不同的看法。

“Hereafter,” he commanded, “no slaves should be allowed to come into your lines at all; if any come without your knowledge, when owners call for them deliver them.” Such a policy was difficult to enforce; some of the black refugees declared themselves freemen, others showed that their masters had deserted them, and still others were captured with forts and plantations.

“从今以后，”他命令道，“任何奴隶都不得进入你的行列；如果有任何奴隶在你不知情的情况下进来，当主人召唤他们时，就把他们交出来。”这样的政策很难执行；一些黑人难民宣称自己是自由人，另一些则表明他们的主人抛弃了他们，还有一些则被俘虏并占领了堡垒和种植园。

Evidently, too, slaves were a source of strength to the Confederacy, and were being used as laborers and producers.

显然，奴隶也是联邦的力量源泉，被用作劳工和生产者。

“They constitute a military resource,” wrote Secretary Cameron, late in 1861; “and being such, that they should not be turned over to the enemy is too plain to discuss.” So gradually the tone of the army chiefs changed; Congress forbade the rendition of fugitives, and Butler’s “contrabands” were welcomed as military laborers.

“它们构成了一种军事资源，”国务卿卡梅伦在 1861 年末写道； “既然如此，他们不应该被移交给敌人，这是显而易见的，无法讨论。”于是渐渐地，军队首领的语气就变了；国会禁止引渡逃犯，巴特勒的“违禁品”作为军事劳工受到欢迎。

This complicated rather than solved the problem, for now the scattering fugitives became a steady stream, which flowed faster as the armies marched.

这不但没有解决问题，反而使问题变得更加复杂，现在分散的逃亡者变成了源源不断的人流，随着军队的行进，流得越来越快。

Then the long-headed man with care-chiselled face who sat in the White House saw the inevitable, and emancipated the slaves of rebels on New Year’s, 1863.

然后，坐在白宫里、面容轮廓分明的长头男人看到了不可避免的情况，并在 1863 年新年解放了叛乱分子的奴隶。

A month later Congress called earnestly for the Negro soldiers whom the act of July, 1862, had half grudgingly allowed to enlist.

一个月后，国会真诚地呼吁招募黑人士兵，1862 年 7 月的法案半勉强地允许他们入伍。

Thus the barriers were levelled and the deed was done.

这样，障碍就被铲平了，行动也完成了。

The stream of fugitives swelled to a flood, and anxious army officers kept inquiring: “What must be done with slaves, arriving almost daily?

逃亡者如潮水般涌来，焦虑的军官不断询问：“几乎每天都来的奴隶该怎么办？

Are we to find food and shelter for women and children?”

我们要为妇女和儿童寻找食物和住所吗？”

It was a Pierce of Boston who pointed out the way, and thus became in a sense the founder of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

波士顿的皮尔斯指出了道路，因此在某种意义上成为了自由民局的创始人。

He was a firm friend of Secretary Chase; and when, in 1861, the care of slaves and abandoned lands devolved upon the Treasury officials, Pierce was specially detailed from the ranks to study the conditions.

他是蔡斯国务卿的挚友。 1861 年，当奴隶和废弃土地的管理权移交给财政部官员时，皮尔斯专门从队伍中详细了解了情况。

First, he cared for the refugees at Fortress Monroe; and then, after Sherman had captured Hilton Head, Pierce was sent there to found his Port Royal experiment of making free workingmen out of slaves.

首先，他照顾门罗要塞的难民；然后，谢尔曼占领希尔顿头岛后，皮尔斯被派往那里进行他的皇家港实验，即从奴隶中解放出来的工人。

Before his experiment was barely started, however, the problem of the fugitives had assumed such proportions that it was taken from the hands of the over-burdened Treasury Department and given to the army officials.

然而，在他的实验刚刚开始之前，逃犯问题就已经从负担过重的财政部手中转移到了军队官员身上。

Already centres of massed freedmen were forming at Fortress Monroe, Washington, New Orleans, Vicksburg and Corinth, Columbus, Ky., and Cairo, Ill., as well as at Port Royal.

华盛顿州门罗堡、新奥尔良、维克斯堡、科林斯、肯塔基州哥伦布、伊利诺伊州开罗以及皇家港等地已经形成了聚集的自由民中心。

Army chaplains found here new and fruitful fields; “superintendents of contrabands” multiplied, and some attempt at systematic work was made by enlisting the able-bodied men and giving work to the others.

陆军牧师在这里发现了新的、富饶的土地； “违禁品监管者”成倍增加，并进行了一些系统化工作的尝试，即招贤纳士。

Then came the Freedmen’s Aid societies, born of the touching appeals from Pierce and from these other centres of distress.

随后，自由民援助协会诞生了，它们是在皮尔斯和其他受灾中心的感人呼吁下诞生的。

There was the American Missionary Association, sprung from the Amistad, and now full-grown for work; the various church organizations, the National Freedmen’s Relief Association, the American Freedmen’s Union, the Western Freedmen’s Aid Commission,—in all fifty or more active organizations, which sent clothes, money, school-books, and teachers southward.

美国传教士协会是从阿米斯塔德发展起来的，现在已经成熟，可以开展工作了。各种教会组织，全国自由民救济协会，美国自由民联盟，西部自由民援助委员会，总共有五十个或更多活跃的组织，它们向南方运送衣服、金钱、教科书和教师。

All they did was needed, for the destitution of the freedmen was often reported as “too appalling for belief,” and the situation was daily growing worse rather than better.

他们所做的一切都是必要的，因为自由民的贫困经常被报道为“令人难以置信”，而且情况每天都在变得更糟而不是更好。

And daily, too, it seemed more plain that this was no ordinary matter of temporary relief, but a national crisis; for here loomed a labor problem of vast dimensions.

每天，情况似乎都更加明显，这不是一般的暂时缓解问题，而是一场国家危机；因为这里隐含着一个大规模的劳动力问题。

Masses of Negroes stood idle, or, if they worked spasmodically, were never sure of pay; and if perchance they received pay, squandered the new thing thoughtlessly.

大量黑人无所事事，或者，如果他们断断续续地工作，就永远不确定工资；即使他们得到了报酬，也会不假思索地浪费掉新东西。

In these and other ways were camp-life and the new liberty demoralizing the freedmen.

集中营生活和新自由以这些和其他方式使自由民士气低落。

The broader economic organization thus clearly demanded sprang up here and there as accident and local conditions determined.

因此，显然要求更广泛的经济组织随着偶然事件和当地条件的确定而到处涌现。

Here it was that Pierce’s Port Royal plan of leased plantations and guided workmen pointed out the rough way.

在这里，皮尔斯的皇家港租赁种植园和指导工人的计划指出了粗略的道路。

In Washington the military governor, at the urgent appeal of the superintendent, opened confiscated estates to the cultivation of the fugitives, and there in the shadow of the dome gathered black farm villages.

在华盛顿，军事总督在警长的紧急呼吁下，开放了没收的庄园来种植逃亡者，在圆顶的阴影下聚集了黑人农场。

General Dix gave over estates to the freedmen of Fortress Monroe, and so on, South and West.

迪克斯将军将庄园交给了门罗要塞等南部和西部的自由民。

The government and benevolent societies furnished the means of cultivation, and the Negro turned again slowly to work.

政府和慈善团体提供了耕种的手段，黑人慢慢地又开始工作了。

The systems of control, thus started, rapidly grew, here and there, into strange little governments, like that of General Banks in Louisiana, with its ninety thousand black subjects, its fifty thousand guided laborers, and its annual budget of one hundred thousand dollars and more.

由此开始的控制体系，到处迅速发展成奇怪的小政府，就像路易斯安那州的班克斯将军政府，有九万名黑人臣民，五万名受指导的劳工，每年预算十万美元甚至更多。

It made out four thousand pay-rolls a year, registered all freedmen, inquired into grievances and redressed them, laid and collected taxes, and established a system of public schools.

它每年发放四千份工资单，对所有自由民进行登记，调查不满并予以纠正，征收税收，并建立公立学校系统。

So, too, Colonel Eaton, the superintendent of Tennessee and Arkansas, ruled over one hundred thousand freedmen, leased and cultivated seven thousand acres of cotton land, and fed ten thousand paupers a year.

同样，田纳西州和阿肯色州的州长伊顿上校统治着十万名自由民，租赁并种植了七千英亩的棉花地，每年养活一万名穷人。

In South Carolina was General Saxton, with his deep interest in black folk.

在南卡罗来纳州，萨克斯顿将军对黑人有着浓厚的兴趣。

He succeeded Pierce and the Treasury officials, and sold forfeited estates, leased abandoned plantations, encouraged schools, and received from Sherman, after that terribly picturesque march to the sea, thousands of the wretched camp followers.

他接替了皮尔斯和财政部官员，出售了被没收的庄园，租用了废弃的种植园，鼓励学校建设，并在风景如画的出海行军之后从谢尔曼那里接收了数千名可怜的集中营追随者。

Three characteristic things one might have seen in Sherman’s raid through Georgia, which threw the new situation in shadowy relief: the Conqueror, the Conquered, and the Negro.

在谢尔曼对佐治亚州的突袭中，人们可能会看到三个特征性的东西：征服者、被征服者和黑人，这让新的局势变得更加模糊。

Some see all significance in the grim front of the destroyer, and some in the bitter sufferers of the Lost Cause.

有些人在毁灭者的严峻前线中看到了所有的意义，而另一些人则在失败事业的痛苦受害者身上看到了一切意义。

But to me neither soldier nor fugitive speaks with so deep a meaning as that dark human cloud that clung like remorse on the rear of those swift columns, swelling at times to half their size, almost engulfing and choking them.

但对我来说，无论是士兵还是逃亡者，都没有像那团黑色的人云那样深刻，它像悔恨一样紧贴在那些快速纵队的后方，有时膨胀到他们的一半大小，几乎吞没和窒息他们。

In vain were they ordered back, in vain were bridges hewn from beneath their feet; on they trudged and writhed and surged, until they rolled into Savannah, a starved and naked horde of tens of thousands.

他们被命令返回，但徒劳无功；他们脚下的桥梁也徒劳无功；他们艰难前行，翻腾翻滚，汹涌澎湃，直到滚入萨凡纳，成为数万人饥饿、赤身裸体的大军。

There too came the characteristic military remedy: “The islands from Charleston south, the abandoned rice-fields along the rivers for thirty miles back from the sea, and the country bordering the St. John’s River, Florida, are reserved and set apart for the settlement of Negroes now made free by act of war.” So read the celebrated “Field-order Number Fifteen.”

还出现了典型的军事补救措施：“查尔斯顿南部的岛屿，距大海三十英里的河边废弃稻田，以及佛罗里达州圣约翰河沿岸的国家，都被保留下来，供现在通过战争行动获得自由的黑人定居。”因此，请阅读著名的“第十五号现场命令”。

All these experiments, orders, and systems were bound to attract and perplex the government and the nation.

所有这些实验、命令和制度必然会吸引和困扰政府和国家。

Directly after the Emancipation Proclamation, Representative Eliot had introduced a bill creating a Bureau of Emancipation; but it was never reported.

《解放黑奴宣言》发布后，众议员艾略特立即提出了一项法案，成立了解放黑奴局；但从未被报道过。

The following June a committee of inquiry, appointed by the Secretary of War, reported in favor of a temporary bureau for the “improvement, protection, and employment of refugee freedmen,” on much the same lines as were afterwards followed.

接下来的六月，一个由战争部长任命的调查委员会报告支持设立一个临时局，负责“难民自由民的改善、保护和就业”，其方针与后来遵循的方针大致相同。

Petitions came in to President Lincoln from distinguished citizens and organizations, strongly urging a comprehensive and unified plan of dealing with the freedmen, under a bureau which should be “charged with the study of plans and execution of measures for easily guiding, and in every way judiciously and humanely aiding, the passage of our emancipated and yet to be emancipated blacks from the old condition of forced labor to their new state of voluntary industry.”

尊敬的公民和组织向林肯总统提交了请愿书，强烈要求制定一个全面、统一的计划来对待自由民，该局应该“负责研究计划和执行措施，以便轻松地指导，并以各种明智和人道的方式帮助我们已解放和尚未解放的黑人从强迫劳动的旧状况过渡到自愿工业的新状况。”

Some half-hearted steps were taken to accomplish this, in part, by putting the whole matter again in charge of the special Treasury agents.

为了实现这一目标，采取了一些半心半意的措施，部分是将整个事件重新交由财政部特工负责。

Laws of 1863 and 1864 directed them to take charge of and lease abandoned lands for periods not exceeding twelve months, and to “provide in such leases, or otherwise, for the employment and general welfare” of the freedmen.

1863 年和 1864 年的法律指示他们负责管理和租赁废弃土地，期限不超过 12 个月，并“在此类租赁中或以其他方式提供自由民的就业和普遍福利”。

Most of the army officers greeted this as a welcome relief from perplexing “Negro affairs,” and Secretary Fessenden, July 29, 1864, issued an excellent system of regulations, which were afterward closely followed by General Howard.

大多数军官对此表示欢迎，认为这是从令人困惑的“黑人事务”中解脱出来的一种受欢迎的解脱，而费森登部长于 1864 年 7 月 29 日颁布了一套出色的法规体系，霍华德将军随后密切遵循。

Under Treasury agents, large quantities of land were leased in the Mississippi Valley, and many Negroes were employed; but in August, 1864, the new regulations were suspended for reasons of “public policy,” and the army was again in control.

在财政部官员的领导下，密西西比河流域大量土地被出租，许多黑人被雇用。但1864年8月，新条例因“公共政策”原因暂停，军队再次掌权。

Meanwhile Congress had turned its attention to the subject; and in March the House passed a bill by a majority of two establishing a Bureau for Freedmen in the War Department.

与此同时，国会也将注意力转向了这个话题。 3月，众议院以两人多数通过了一项法案，在陆军部设立自由民局。

Charles Sumner, who had charge of the bill in the Senate, argued that freedmen and abandoned lands ought to be under the same department, and reported a substitute for the House bill attaching the Bureau to the Treasury Department.

参议院负责该法案的查尔斯·萨姆纳 (Charles Sumner) 认为，自由民和废弃土地应归同一部门管辖，并报告了众议院法案的替代方案，将该局隶属于财政部。

This bill passed, but too late for action by the House.

该法案获得通过，但众议院采取行动为时已晚。

The debates wandered over the whole policy of the administration and the general question of slavery, without touching very closely the specific merits of the measure in hand.

辩论围绕着政府的整个政策和奴隶制的一般问题展开，没有非常密切地触及当前措施的具体优点。

Then the national election took place; and the administration, with a vote of renewed confidence from the country, addressed itself to the matter more seriously.

然后举行了全国选举；政府在全国重新投下信任票后，更加认真地对待这个问题。

A conference between the two branches of Congress agreed upon a carefully drawn measure which contained the chief provisions of Sumner’s bill, but made the proposed organization a department independent of both the War and the Treasury officials.

国会两个部门之间的一次会议商定了一项精心制定的措施，其中包含萨姆纳法案的主要条款，但使拟议的组织成为一个独立于战争和财政部官员的部门。

The bill was conservative, giving the new department “general superintendence of all freedmen.” Its purpose was to “establish regulations” for them, protect them, lease them lands, adjust their wages, and appear in civil and military courts as their “next friend.” There were many limitations attached to the powers thus granted, and the organization was made permanent.

该法案是保守的，赋予新部门“对所有自由民的总体监督权”。其目的是为他们“制定规则”，保护他们，租赁他们的土地，调整他们的工资，并作为他们的“下一个朋友”出现在民事和军事法庭上。由此授予的权力有许多限制，并且该组织是永久性的。

Nevertheless, the Senate defeated the bill, and a new conference committee was appointed.

尽管如此，参议院还是否决了该法案，并任命了一个新的会议委员会。

This committee reported a new bill, February 28, which was whirled through just as the session closed, and became the act of 1865 establishing in the War Department a “Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands.”

该委员会于 2 月 28 日报告了一项新法案，该法案在会议结束时迅速获得通过，并成为 1865 年在陆军部设立“难民、自由民和废弃土地局”的法案。

This last compromise was a hasty bit of legislation, vague and uncertain in outline.

最后的妥协是一项仓促的立法，轮廓模糊且不确定。

A Bureau was created, “to continue during the present War of Rebellion, and for one year thereafter,” to which was given “the supervision and management of all abandoned lands and the control of all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen,” under “such rules and regulations as may be presented by the head of the Bureau and approved by the President.” A Commissioner, appointed by the President and Senate, was to control the Bureau, with an office force not exceeding ten clerks.

设立了一个局，“在当前的叛乱战争期间以及此后一年”，根据“局局长可能提出并经总统批准的规则和条例”，该局被赋予“对所有废弃土地的监督和管理以及对与难民和自由民有关的所有主题的控制”。由总统和参议院任命的专员负责控制该局，办公室人员不超过十名职员。

The President might also appoint assistant commissioners in the seceded States, and to all these offices military officials might be detailed at regular pay.

总统还可以在脱离联邦的州任命助理专员，并且可以向所有这些办公室派驻按固定工资任职的军事官员。

The Secretary of War could issue rations, clothing, and fuel to the destitute, and all abandoned property was placed in the hands of the Bureau for eventual lease and sale to ex-slaves in forty-acre parcels.

战争部长可以向穷人发放口粮、衣物和燃料，所有废弃的财产都交到战争局手中，最终以四十英亩的土地出租和出售给前奴隶。

Thus did the United States government definitely assume charge of the emancipated Negro as the ward of the nation.

因此，美国政府明确地承担起对被解放的黑人的责任，作为国家的监护人。

It was a tremendous undertaking.

这是一项艰巨的任务。

Here at a stroke of the pen was erected a government of millions of men,—and not ordinary men either, but black men emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of slavery, centuries old; and now, suddenly, violently, they come into a new birthright, at a time of war and passion, in the midst of the stricken and embittered population of their former masters.

在这里，大笔一挥，就建立了一个由数百万人民组成的政府，而且也不是普通人，而是被一个有着数百年历史的、特别完整的奴隶制所阉割的黑人。现在，在战争和激情的时刻，在他们前任主人饱受打击和痛苦的人民中间，他们突然猛烈地获得了新的与生俱来的权利。

Any man might well have hesitated to assume charge of such a work, with vast responsibilities, indefinite powers, and limited resources.

任何人都可能会犹豫是否要承担这样一项责任重大、权力无限、资源有限的工作。

Probably no one but a soldier would have answered such a call promptly; and, indeed, no one but a soldier could be called, for Congress had appropriated no money for salaries and expenses.

除了士兵之外，可能没有人会立即回应这样的召唤。事实上，除了一名士兵之外，没有人可以被召集，因为国会没有拨款用于工资和开支。

Less than a month after the weary Emancipator passed to his rest, his successor assigned Major-Gen.

这位疲惫不堪的解放者安息后不到一个月，他的继任者被任命为少将。

Oliver O.

奥利弗·O.

Howard to duty as Commissioner of the new Bureau.

霍华德出任新局局长。

He was a Maine man, then only thirty-five years of age.

他是缅因州男子，当时只有三十五岁。

He had marched with Sherman to the sea, had fought well at Gettysburg, and but the year before had been assigned to the command of the Department of Tennessee.

他曾与谢尔曼一起出海，在葛底斯堡打过仗，但前一年被分配到田纳西州指挥部。

An honest man, with too much faith in human nature, little aptitude for business and intricate detail, he had had large opportunity of becoming acquainted at first hand with much of the work before him.

他是一个诚实的人，对人性抱有太多的信心，对商业和复杂的细节缺乏天赋，他有很大的机会直接熟悉他面前的大部分工作。

And of that work it has been truly said that “no approximately correct history of civilization can ever be written which does not throw out in bold relief, as one of the great landmarks of political and social progress, the organization and administration of the Freedmen’s Bureau.”

关于这部作品，有人确实说过，“任何大致正确的文明史都不能不大胆地提出自由民局的组织和管理，作为政治和社会进步的伟大里程碑之一。”

On May 12, 1865, Howard was appointed; and he assumed the duties of his office promptly on the 15th, and began examining the field of work.

1865年5月12日，霍华德被任命； 15日他迅速走马上任，开始考察工作领域。

A curious mess he looked upon: little despotisms, communistic experiments, slavery, peonage, business speculations, organized charity, unorganized almsgiving,—all reeling on under the guise of helping the freedmen, and all enshrined in the smoke and blood of the war and the cursing and silence of angry men.

他看到了一种奇怪的混乱：小专制、共产主义实验、奴隶制、苦役、商业投机、有组织的慈善机构、无组织的施舍——所有这些都在帮助自由民的幌子下继续发展，所有这些都被铭刻在战争的硝烟和血腥以及愤怒的人们的咒骂和沉默中。

On May 19 the new government—for a government it really was—issued its constitution; commissioners were to be appointed in each of the seceded states, who were to take charge of “all subjects relating to refugees and freedmen,” and all relief and rations were to be given by their consent alone.

5 月 19 日，新政府——对于真正的政府而言——颁布了宪法；每个脱离联邦的州都将任命专员，负责“与难民和自由民有关的所有主题”，所有救济和口粮都必须在他们同意的情况下提供。

The Bureau invited continued cooperation with benevolent societies, and declared: “It will be the object of all commissioners to introduce practicable systems of compensated labor,” and to establish schools.

该局邀请继续与慈善团体合作，并宣布：“引入切实可行的补偿劳动制度将是所有委员的目标”，并建立学校。

Forthwith nine assistant commissioners were appointed.

立即任命了九名助理专员。

They were to hasten to their fields of work; seek gradually to close relief establishments, and make the destitute self-supporting; act as courts of law where there were no courts, or where Negroes were not recognized in them as free; establish the institution of marriage among ex-slaves, and keep records; see that freedmen were free to choose their employers, and help in making fair contracts for them; and finally, the circular said: “Simple good faith, for which we hope on all hands for those concerned in the passing away of slavery, will especially relieve the assistant commissioners in the discharge of their duties toward the freedmen, as well as promote the general welfare.”

他们要赶紧赶往自己的工作地点；逐步关闭救助机构，实现特困人员自给自足；在没有法院或黑人不被承认为自由的地方充当法院；建立前奴隶之间的婚姻制度并保存记录；确保自由民可以自由选择雇主，并帮助他们制定公平的合同；最后，通知说：“我们希望所有关心废除奴隶制的人们的简单真诚，将特别减轻助理专员履行对自由民的职责，并促进普遍福利。”

No sooner was the work thus started, and the general system and local organization in some measure begun, than two grave difficulties appeared which changed largely the theory and outcome of Bureau work.

工作刚刚开始，总的系统和地方组织在某种程度上开始了，两个严重的困难就出现了，这在很大程度上改变了局工作的理论和结果。

First, there were the abandoned lands of the South.

首先是南方的废弃土地。

It had long been the more or less definitely expressed theory of the North that all the chief problems of Emancipation might be settled by establishing the slaves on the forfeited lands of their masters,—a sort of poetic justice, said some.

长期以来，北方或多或少明确表达了一种理论，即解放的所有主要问题都可以通过将奴隶安置在主人被没收的土地上来解决——一些人说，这是一种诗意的正义。

But this poetry done into solemn prose meant either wholesale confiscation of private property in the South, or vast appropriations.

但这种诗歌变成庄严的散文意味着要么大规模没收南方的私有财产，要么意味着巨额拨款。

Now Congress had not appropriated a cent, and no sooner did the proclamations of general amnesty appear than the eight hundred thousand acres of abandoned lands in the hands of the Freedmen’s Bureau melted quickly away.

现在国会还没有拨款一分钱，大赦令一出，自由民局手中的八十万英亩废弃土地很快就消失了。

The second difficulty lay in perfecting the local organization of the Bureau throughout the wide field of work.

第二个困难在于完善该局在广泛工作领域的地方组织。

Making a new machine and sending out officials of duly ascertained fitness for a great work of social reform is no child’s task; but this task was even harder, for a new central organization had to be fitted on a heterogeneous and confused but already existing system of relief and control of ex-slaves; and the agents available for this work must be sought for in an army still busy with war operations,—men in the very nature of the case ill fitted for delicate social work,—or among the questionable camp followers of an invading host.

制造一台新机器并派出经过适当确定适合的官员来进行一项伟大的社会改革工作，这绝非小孩子的任务。但这项任务更加艰巨，因为一个新的中央组织必须适应一个异构且混乱但已经存在的前奴隶救济和控制系统；可以从事这项工作的代理人必须在一支仍然忙于战争行动的军队中寻找——就这种情况而言，这些人不适合从事微妙的社会工作——或者在入侵东道国的可疑的阵营追随者中寻找。

Thus, after a year’s work, vigorously as it was pushed, the problem looked even more difficult to grasp and solve than at the beginning.

于是，经过一年的努力，在大力推动下，问题显得比刚开始时更加难以把握和解决。

Nevertheless, three things that year’s work did, well worth the doing: it relieved a vast amount of physical suffering; it transported seven thousand fugitives from congested centres back to the farm; and, best of all, it inaugurated the crusade of the New England schoolma’am.

尽管如此，这一年的工作还是做了三件事，非常值得去做：减轻了身体上的巨大痛苦；它把七千名逃犯从拥挤的中心运回农场；最重要的是，它开启了新英格兰女学生的十字军东征。

The annals of this Ninth Crusade are yet to be written,—the tale of a mission that seemed to our age far more quixotic than the quest of St. Louis seemed to his.

第九次十字军东征的史册尚未被书写——在我们这个时代看来，这个使命的故事比他对圣路易斯的探索更加不切实际。

Behind the mists of ruin and rapine waved the calico dresses of women who dared, and after the hoarse mouthings of the field guns rang the rhythm of the alphabet.

在废墟和掠夺的迷雾后面，勇敢的女人们挥舞着印花布连衣裙，在野战炮嘶哑的声音之后，响起了字母的节奏。

Rich and poor they were, serious and curious.

他们或富有或贫穷，严肃又好奇。

Bereaved now of a father, now of a brother, now of more than these, they came seeking a life work in planting New England schoolhouses among the white and black of the South.

他们时而失去了父亲，时而失去了兄弟，时而又失去了更多的人，他们来到这里寻求终生的工作，在南方的白人和黑人中建造新英格兰校舍。

They did their work well.

他们的工作做得很好。

In that first year they taught one hundred thousand souls, and more.

在第一年，他们教导了十万个灵魂，甚至更多。

Evidently, Congress must soon legislate again on the hastily organized Bureau, which had so quickly grown into wide significance and vast possibilities.

显然，国会必须尽快就匆忙组建的主席团再次立法，该主席团已如此迅速地变得具有广泛的重要性和巨大的可能性。

An institution such as that was well-nigh as difficult to end as to begin.

这样的制度结束起来几乎和开始一样困难。

Early in 1866 Congress took up the matter, when Senator Trumbull, of Illinois, introduced a bill to extend the Bureau and enlarge its powers.

1866 年初，伊利诺伊州参议员特朗布尔提出了一项扩大该局并扩大其权力的法案，国会开始讨论这个问题。

This measure received, at the hands of Congress, far more thorough discussion and attention than its predecessor.

这项措施在国会手中得到了比其前任更彻底的讨论和关注。

The war cloud had thinned enough to allow a clearer conception of the work of Emancipation.

战争的阴云已经足够稀薄，可以让人们对解放工作有了更清晰的概念。

The champions of the bill argued that the strengthening of the Freedmen’s Bureau was still a military necessity; that it was needed for the proper carrying out of the Thirteenth Amendment, and was a work of sheer justice to the ex-slave, at a trifling cost to the government.

该法案的拥护者认为，加强自由民局仍然是军事上的必要；它是正确执行第十三修正案所必需的，并且对前奴隶来说是纯粹的正义之举，而政府的成本微不足道。

The opponents of the measure declared that the war was over, and the necessity for war measures past; that the Bureau, by reason of its extraordinary powers, was clearly unconstitutional in time of peace, and was destined to irritate the South and pauperize the freedmen, at a final cost of possibly hundreds of millions.

该措施的反对者宣称战争已经结束，战争措施的必要性已经过去；该局由于其非凡的权力，在和平时期显然是违宪的，注定会激怒南方并使自由民陷入贫困，最终的代价可能是数亿美元。

These two arguments were unanswered, and indeed unanswerable: the one that the extraordinary powers of the Bureau threatened the civil rights of all citizens; and the other that the government must have power to do what manifestly must be done, and that present abandonment of the freedmen meant their practical reenslavement.

这两个论点没有得到答复，实际上是无法回答的：一是该局的非凡权力威胁到所有公民的公民权利；二是该局的非凡权力威胁到了所有公民的公民权利；另一方面，政府必须有权力去做显然必须做的事情，而目前对自由民的抛弃意味着他们实际上重新受到奴役。

The bill which finally passed enlarged and made permanent the Freedmen’s Bureau.

最终通过的法案扩大并永久设立了自由民局。

It was promptly vetoed by President Johnson as “unconstitutional,” “unnecessary,” and “extrajudicial,” and failed of passage over the veto.

该法案立即被约翰逊总统以“违宪”、“不必要”和“法外”为由否决，并且未能通过否决。

Meantime, however, the breach between Congress and the President began to broaden, and a modified form of the lost bill was finally passed over the President’s second veto, July 16.

然而与此同时，国会和总统之间的分歧开始扩大，最终在总统的第二次否决（7 月 16 日）下通过了一份修改后的法案。

The act of 1866 gave the Freedmen’s Bureau its final form,—the form by which it will be known to posterity and judged of men.

1866 年的法案赋予了自由民局最终的形式——后人将以此形式来了解它并受到人们的评判。

It extended the existence of the Bureau to July, 1868; it authorized additional assistant commissioners, the retention of army officers mustered out of regular service, the sale of certain forfeited lands to freedmen on nominal terms, the sale of Confederate public property for Negro schools, and a wider field of judicial interpretation and cognizance.

它将该局的存在期限延长至 1868 年 7 月；它授权增设助理专员、保留非正规服役的军官、以名义条件向自由民出售某些没收的土地、为黑人学校出售南部邦联的公共财产，以及更广泛的司法解释和认定领域。

The government of the unreconstructed South was thus put very largely in the hands of the Freedmen’s Bureau, especially as in many cases the departmental military commander was now made also assistant commissioner.

因此，未重建的南方政府很大程度上掌握在自由民局的手中，特别是在许多情况下，部门军事指挥官现在也被任命为助理专员。

It was thus that the Freedmen’s Bureau became a full-fledged government of men.

就这样，自由民局成为了一个成熟的男人政府。

It made laws, executed them and interpreted them; it laid and collected taxes, defined and punished crime, maintained and used military force, and dictated such measures as it thought necessary and proper for the accomplishment of its varied ends.

它制定、执行并解释法律；它征收和征收税收，界定和惩罚犯罪，维持和使用军事力量，并规定其认为必要和适当的措施来实现其不同的目标。

Naturally, all these powers were not exercised continuously nor to their fullest extent; and yet, as General Howard has said, “scarcely any subject that has to be legislated upon in civil society failed, at one time or another, to demand the action of this singular Bureau.”

当然，所有这些权力都不是持续行使的，也不是充分行使的；然而，正如霍华德将军所说，“公民社会中几乎没有任何需要立法的主题都曾要求这个单一的主席团采取行动。”

To understand and criticise intelligently so vast a work, one must not forget an instant the drift of things in the later sixties.

要明智地理解和批评如此浩大的著作，我们不能片刻忘记六十年代后期的潮流。

Lee had surrendered, Lincoln was dead, and Johnson and Congress were at loggerheads; the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, the Fourteenth pending, and the Fifteenth declared in force in 1870.

李投降了，林肯死了，约翰逊和国会陷入了争执；第十三修正案获得通过，第十四修正案悬而未决，第十五修正案于 1870 年宣布生效。

Guerrilla raiding, the ever-present flickering after-flame of war, was spending its forces against the Negroes, and all the Southern land was awakening as from some wild dream to poverty and social revolution.

游击队袭击，永远存在的战争余火，正在将其力量用于对付黑人，整个南方土地正在从某种疯狂的梦想中苏醒，走向贫困和社会革命。

In a time of perfect calm, amid willing neighbors and streaming wealth, the social uplifting of four million slaves to an assured and self-sustaining place in the body politic and economic would have been a herculean task; but when to the inherent difficulties of so delicate and nice a social operation were added the spite and hate of conflict, the hell of war; when suspicion and cruelty were rife, and gaunt Hunger wept beside Bereavement,—in such a case, the work of any instrument of social regeneration was in large part foredoomed to failure.

在一个完全平静的时代，在自愿的邻居和源源不断的财富的陪伴下，将四百万奴隶提升到政治和经济上有保障和自给自足的地位将是一项艰巨的任务；但是，当如此微妙和美好的社会运作的固有困难加上冲突的怨恨和仇恨时，战争的地狱；当猜疑和残酷盛行，枯萎的饥饿在丧亲之痛旁边哭泣时，——在这种情况下，任何社会复兴工具的工作在很大程度上注定会失败。

The very name of the Bureau stood for a thing in the South which for two centuries and better men had refused even to argue,—that life amid free Negroes was simply unthinkable, the maddest of experiments.

该局的名字本身就代表了南方的一件事，两个世纪以来，甚至有更好的人都拒绝争论，那就是自由黑人的生活简直是不可想象的，是最疯狂的实验。

The agents that the Bureau could command varied all the way from unselfish philanthropists to narrow-minded busybodies and thieves; and even though it be true that the average was far better than the worst, it was the occasional fly that helped spoil the ointment.

该局可以指挥的特工五花八门，从无私的慈善家到心胸狭隘的爱管闲事的人和小偷。尽管平均水平确实比最差水平要好得多，但偶尔出现的苍蝇却让美中不足。

Then amid all crouched the freed slave, bewildered between friend and foe.

然后，被释放的奴隶蹲在所有人中间，在朋友和敌人之间感到困惑。

He had emerged from slavery,—not the worst slavery in the world, not a slavery that made all life unbearable, rather a slavery that had here and there something of kindliness, fidelity, and happiness,—but withal slavery, which, so far as human aspiration and desert were concerned, classed the black man and the ox together.

他是从奴隶制中走出来的——不是世界上最糟糕的奴隶制，不是让所有生命都难以忍受的奴隶制，而是一种到处都有仁慈、忠诚和幸福的奴隶制——但就人类的愿望和应得而言，奴隶制将黑人和牛归为一类。

And the Negro knew full well that, whatever their deeper convictions may have been, Southern men had fought with desperate energy to perpetuate this slavery under which the black masses, with half-articulate thought, had writhed and shivered.

黑人非常清楚，无论他们的更深层次的信念是什么，南方人都以绝望的力量进行了斗争，以维持这种奴役制度，在这种奴役制度下，黑人群众在思想不清晰的情况下翻滚和颤抖。

They welcomed freedom with a cry.

他们用哭声迎接自由。

They shrank from the master who still strove for their chains; they fled to the friends that had freed them, even though those friends stood ready to use them as a club for driving the recalcitrant South back into loyalty.

他们在主人面前退缩，而主人仍然在争夺他们的锁链。他们逃往释放了他们的朋友那里，尽管这些朋友随时准备利用他们作为迫使顽固的南方重新忠诚的俱乐部。

So the cleft between the white and black South grew.

因此，南方白人和黑人之间的鸿沟越来越大。

Idle to say it never should have been; it was as inevitable as its results were pitiable.

懒得说它不应该是这样；这是不可避免的，但其结果却是可怜的。

Curiously incongruous elements were left arrayed against each other,—the North, the government, the carpet-bagger, and the slave, here; and there, all the South that was white, whether gentleman or vagabond, honest man or rascal, lawless murderer or martyr to duty.

奇怪的是，不协调的因素相互对立——北方、政府、地毯贩子和奴隶，在这里；在那里，所有的南方都是白人，无论是绅士还是流浪汉，诚实的人还是无赖，无法无天的杀人犯还是殉道者。

Thus it is doubly difficult to write of this period calmly, so intense was the feeling, so mighty the human passions that swayed and blinded men.

因此，要冷静地描写这一时期是非常困难的，因为当时的感情如此强烈，人类的激情如此强大，动摇了人们，蒙蔽了人们。

Amid it all, two figures ever stand to typify that day to coming ages,—the one, a gray-haired gentleman, whose fathers had quit themselves like men, whose sons lay in nameless graves; who bowed to the evil of slavery because its abolition threatened untold ill to all; who stood at last, in the evening of life, a blighted, ruined form, with hate in his eyes;—and the other, a form hovering dark and mother-like, her awful face black with the mists of centuries, had aforetime quailed at that white master’s command, had bent in love over the cradles of his sons and daughters, and closed in death the sunken eyes of his wife,—aye, too, at his behest had laid herself low to his lust, and borne a tawny man-child to the world, only to see her dark boy’s limbs scattered to the winds by midnight marauders riding after “damned Niggers.” These were the saddest sights of that woful day; and no man clasped the hands of these two passing figures of the present-past; but, hating, they went to their long home, and, hating, their children’s children live today.

在这一切之中，有两个人物永远代表了这一天，一个是一位白发绅士，他的父亲像男人一样放弃了自己，他的儿子们躺在无名的坟墓里；另一个是一位头发花白的绅士，他的父亲像男人一样放弃了自己，他的儿子们躺在无名的坟墓里；另一个是一位头发花白的绅士，他的父亲像男人一样放弃了自己，他的儿子们躺在无名的坟墓里。他们屈服于奴隶制的罪恶，因为奴隶制的废除对所有人构成了难以言表的伤害；她终于站在了生命的黄昏，一个枯萎、毁灭的躯体，眼中充满仇恨；而另一个，一个像母亲一样在黑暗中盘旋的躯体，她那可怕的脸因几个世纪的迷雾而变黑，以前曾在那位白人主人的命令下感到畏缩，曾在他儿子和女儿的摇篮上弯下腰，在死亡中闭上了他妻子凹陷的眼睛，是的，也是在他的要求下，她屈服于他的妻子。她怀着欲望，生了一个黄褐色的男孩来到这个世界，结果却看到她黑皮肤男孩的四肢被追赶“该死的黑鬼”的午夜掠夺者散落在风中。这些是那个悲惨日子里最悲伤的景象。没有人握住这两个过去的过去人物的手。但是，他们怀恨在心，回到了他们长久以来的家；他们怀恨在心，他们的孩子的孩子却活在今天。

Here, then, was the field of work for the Freedmen’s Bureau; and since, with some hesitation, it was continued by the act of 1868 until 1869, let us look upon four years of its work as a whole.

那么，这里就是自由民事务局的工作范围。由于 1868 年法案犹豫不决地将该法案延续到 1869 年，因此让我们回顾一下其四年的整体工作。

There were, in 1868, nine hundred Bureau officials scattered from Washington to Texas, ruling, directly and indirectly, many millions of men.

1868 年，有 900 名局级官员分散在从华盛顿到得克萨斯州的各地，直接或间接统治着数百万人。

The deeds of these rulers fall mainly under seven heads: the relief of physical suffering, the overseeing of the beginnings of free labor, the buying and selling of land, the establishment of schools, the paying of bounties, the administration of justice, and the financiering of all these activities.

这些统治者的行为主要分为七个方面：减轻肉体痛苦、监督自由劳动的开始、买卖土地、建立学校、支付赏金、司法行政以及为所有这些活动提供资助。

Up to June, 1869, over half a million patients had been treated by Bureau physicians and surgeons, and sixty hospitals and asylums had been in operation.

截至 1869 年 6 月，该局内科医生和外科医生已治疗了超过 50 万患者，并且有 60 家医院和庇护所投入运营。

In fifty months twenty-one million free rations were distributed at a cost of over four million dollars.

在 50 个月内，共分发了 2100 万份免费口粮，成本超过 400 万美元。

Next came the difficult question of labor.

接下来是劳动力的难题。

First, thirty thousand black men were transported from the refuges and relief stations back to the farms, back to the critical trial of a new way of working.

首先，三万黑人从避难所和救济站被运回农场，回到对新工作方式的严格试验。

Plain instructions went out from Washington: the laborers must be free to choose their employers, no fixed rate of wages was prescribed, and there was to be no peonage or forced labor.

华盛顿发出了明确的指示：劳动者必须自由选择雇主，没有规定固定的工资标准，并且不得有苦工或强迫劳动。

So far, so good; but where local agents differed _toto cælo_ in capacity and character, where the _personnel_ was continually changing, the outcome was necessarily varied.

到目前为止，一切都很好;但是，如果当地代理人的能力和性格不同，人员不断变化，结果必然会有所不同。

The largest element of success lay in the fact that the majority of the freedmen were willing, even eager, to work.

成功的最大因素在于大多数自由民愿意，甚至渴望工作。

So labor contracts were written,—fifty thousand in a single State,—laborers advised, wages guaranteed, and employers supplied.

于是就签订了劳动合同——一个州有五万人——工人提供建议，工资得到保证，雇主提供。

In truth, the organization became a vast labor bureau,—not perfect, indeed, notably defective here and there, but on the whole successful beyond the dreams of thoughtful men.

事实上，该组织变成了一个庞大的劳工局——事实上，并不完美，到处都有明显的缺陷，但总的来说，它的成功超出了有思想的人的梦想。

The two great obstacles which confronted the officials were the tyrant and the idler,—the slaveholder who was determined to perpetuate slavery under another name; and, the freedman who regarded freedom as perpetual rest,—the Devil and the Deep Sea.

官员们面临的两大障碍是暴君和游手好闲的人，即决心以另一个名义延续奴隶制的奴隶主；还有，视自由为永恒安息的自由人——魔鬼与深海。

In the work of establishing the Negroes as peasant proprietors, the Bureau was from the first handicapped and at last absolutely checked.

在使黑人成为自耕农的工作中，该局从一开始就受到阻碍，最后又受到彻底的遏制。

Something was done, and larger things were planned; abandoned lands were leased so long as they remained in the hands of the Bureau, and a total revenue of nearly half a million dollars derived from black tenants.

有些事情已经完成，更大的事情正在计划中；废弃的土地只要仍在该局手中就可以出租，黑人佃户的总收入近五十万美元。

Some other lands to which the nation had gained title were sold on easy terms, and public lands were opened for settlement to the very few freedmen who had tools and capital.

国家获得所有权的其他一些土地以宽松的条件出售，公共土地向极少数拥有工具和资本的自由民开放定居。

But the vision of “forty acres and a mule”—the righteous and reasonable ambition to become a landholder, which the nation had all but categorically promised the freedmen—was destined in most cases to bitter disappointment.

但“四十英亩一头骡子”的愿景——成为土地所有者的正义合理的野心，国家几乎明确地向自由民许诺——在大多数情况下注定会令人痛苦失望。

And those men of marvellous hindsight who are today seeking to preach the Negro back to the present peonage of the soil know well, or ought to know, that the opportunity of binding the Negro peasant willingly to the soil was lost on that day when the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau had to go to South Carolina and tell the weeping freedmen, after their years of toil, that their land was not theirs, that there was a mistake—somewhere.

那些具有惊人的后见之明的人今天正在寻求劝说黑人回到现在的土地上，他们清楚地知道，或者应该知道，当自由民局局长不得不前往南卡罗来纳州，告诉哭泣的自由民，经过多年的辛劳，他们的土地不属于他们时，他们的土地不属于他们，在某个地方出了一个错误。

If by 1874 the Georgia Negro alone owned three hundred and fifty thousand acres of land, it was by grace of his thrift rather than by bounty of the government.

如果到 1874 年，仅佐治亚黑人就拥有了三十五万英亩的土地，那是由于他的节俭，而不是政府的慷慨。

The greatest success of the Freedmen’s Bureau lay in the planting of the free school among Negroes, and the idea of free elementary education among all classes in the South.

自由民局的最大成功在于在黑人中建立免费学校，以及在南方所有阶层中实行免费初等教育的想法。

It not only called the school-mistresses through the benevolent agencies and built them schoolhouses, but it helped discover and support such apostles of human culture as Edmund Ware, Samuel Armstrong, and Erastus Cravath.

它不仅通过仁慈的机构召集女校长并为她们建造校舍，而且还帮助发现和支持了埃德蒙·韦尔（Edmund Ware）、塞缪尔·阿姆斯特朗（Samuel Armstrong）和埃拉斯特·克拉瓦斯（Erastus Cravath）等人类文化的使徒。

The opposition to Negro education in the South was at first bitter, and showed itself in ashes, insult, and blood; for the South believed an educated Negro to be a dangerous Negro.

南方对黑人教育的反对最初是激烈的，并以灰烬、侮辱和鲜血的形式表现出来。因为南方人认为受过教育的黑人是危险的黑人。

And the South was not wholly wrong; for education among all kinds of men always has had, and always will have, an element of danger and revolution, of dissatisfaction and discontent.

南方也并非完全错误。因为对各类人的教育过去和将来都存在着危险和革命、不满和不满的因素。

Nevertheless, men strive to know.

尽管如此，人们仍努力求知。

Perhaps some inkling of this paradox, even in the unquiet days of the Bureau, helped the bayonets allay an opposition to human training which still to-day lies smouldering in the South, but not flaming.

或许，即使在该局不安宁的日子里，对这一悖论的一些暗示也有助于刺刀缓解对人类训练的反对，这种反对至今仍在南方闷烧，但并未熊熊燃烧。

Fisk, Atlanta, Howard, and Hampton were founded in these days, and six million dollars were expended for educational work, seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars of which the freedmen themselves gave of their poverty.

菲斯克、亚特兰大、霍华德和汉普顿都是在这些日子里建立的，教育工作花费了六百万美元，其中七十五万美元是自由民自己从贫困中捐献出来的。

Such contributions, together with the buying of land and various other enterprises, showed that the ex-slave was handling some free capital already.

这些贡献，加上购买土地和其他各种企业，表明前奴隶已经在处理一些自由资本。

The chief initial source of this was labor in the army, and his pay and bounty as a soldier.

其最初的主要来源是军队中的劳动力以及他作为士兵的薪水和赏金。

Payments to Negro soldiers were at first complicated by the ignorance of the recipients, and the fact that the quotas of colored regiments from Northern States were largely filled by recruits from the South, unknown to their fellow soldiers.

起初，由于接受者的无知，以及来自北方各州的有色人种军团的配额大部分由来自南方的新兵填补，而他们的战友不知道，向黑人士兵的付款一开始变得复杂。

Consequently, payments were accompanied by such frauds that Congress, by joint resolution in 1867, put the whole matter in the hands of the Freedmen’s Bureau.

因此，付款伴随着欺诈行为，以至于国会于 1867 年通过联合决议，将整个问题交给了自由民局。

In two years six million dollars was thus distributed to five thousand claimants, and in the end the sum exceeded eight million dollars.

两年内，六百万美元分给了五千名索赔人，最后总金额超过了八百万美元。

Even in this system fraud was frequent; but still the work put needed capital in the hands of practical paupers, and some, at least, was well spent.

即使在这个系统中，欺诈行为也很常见；但这项工作仍然把所需的资金送到了实际的穷人手中，而且至少有些人花得值。

The most perplexing and least successful part of the Bureau’s work lay in the exercise of its judicial functions.

该局工作中最令人困惑和最不成功的部分在于行使司法职能。

The regular Bureau court consisted of one representative of the employer, one of the Negro, and one of the Bureau.

常规的局法庭由一名雇主代表、一名黑人代表和一名局成员组成。

If the Bureau could have maintained a perfectly judicial attitude, this arrangement would have been ideal, and must in time have gained confidence; but the nature of its other activities and the character of its _personnel_ prejudiced the Bureau in favor of the black litigants, and led without doubt to much injustice and annoyance.

如果该局能够保持完美的司法态度，这种安排就是理想的，并且一定会及时赢得信任；但其其他活动的性质及其人员的性格使该局对黑人诉讼当事人产生了偏见，并且无疑导致了许多不公正和烦恼。

On the other hand, to leave the Negro in the hands of Southern courts was impossible.

另一方面，将黑人交给南方法院是不可能的。

In a distracted land where slavery had hardly fallen, to keep the strong from wanton abuse of the weak, and the weak from gloating insolently over the half-shorn strength of the strong, was a thankless, hopeless task.

在奴隶制尚未倒塌的这片心烦意乱的土地上，要防止强者肆意虐待弱者，防止弱者对强者半剪的力量幸灾乐祸，这是一项吃力不讨好、毫无希望的任务。

The former masters of the land were peremptorily ordered about, seized, and imprisoned, and punished over and again, with scant courtesy from army officers.

以前的土地主人被一次又一次地强行下令、抓捕、监禁和惩罚，而军官们却毫不客气。

The former slaves were intimidated, beaten, raped, and butchered by angry and revengeful men.

以前的奴隶遭到愤怒和报复心强的人的恐吓、殴打、强奸和屠杀。

Bureau courts tended to become centres simply for punishing whites, while the regular civil courts tended to become solely institutions for perpetuating the slavery of blacks.

局级法院往往成为仅仅惩罚白人的中心，而普通民事法院则往往成为专门维持黑人奴隶制的机构。

Almost every law and method ingenuity could devise was employed by the legislatures to reduce the Negroes to serfdom,—to make them the slaves of the State, if not of individual owners; while the Bureau officials too often were found striving to put the “bottom rail on top,” and gave the freedmen a power and independence which they could not yet use.

几乎所有巧妙的法律和方法都被立法机关用来将黑人降为农奴，使他们成为国家的奴隶，即使不是个人所有者的奴隶；而局里的官员却常常试图把“底部的栏杆放在顶部”，并赋予自由民一种他们尚无法使用的权力和独立性。

It is all well enough for us of another generation to wax wise with advice to those who bore the burden in the heat of the day.

对于我们这一代人来说，向那些在炎热的天气里承担重担的人提出明智的建议就足够了。

It is full easy now to see that the man who lost home, fortune, and family at a stroke, and saw his land ruled by “mules and niggers,” was really benefited by the passing of slavery.

现在很容易看出，这个一下子失去了家园、财富和家人，看到自己的土地被“骡子和黑鬼”统治的人，确实因奴隶制的废除而受益。

It is not difficult now to say to the young freedman, cheated and cuffed about who has seen his father’s head beaten to a jelly and his own mother namelessly assaulted, that the meek shall inherit the earth.

现在，对这个被欺骗和被铐住的年轻自由民说，他亲眼目睹了他父亲的头被打成果冻，他自己的母亲被无名地殴打，现在不难对他说，温顺的人将继承土地。

Above all, nothing is more convenient than to heap on the Freedmen’s Bureau all the evils of that evil day, and damn it utterly for every mistake and blunder that was made.

最重要的是，没有什么比把那个邪恶日子的所有罪恶都归咎于自由民局更方便的了，并为所犯的每一个错误和失误而彻底诅咒它。

All this is easy, but it is neither sensible nor just.

这一切都很容易，但却既不明智也不公正。

Someone had blundered, but that was long before Oliver Howard was born; there was criminal aggression and heedless neglect, but without some system of control there would have been far more than there was.

有人犯了错误，但那是在奥利弗·霍华德出生之前很久。存在犯罪侵略和粗心疏忽，但如果没有某种控制系统，情况将会远远超过现在。

Had that control been from within, the Negro would have been re-enslaved, to all intents and purposes.

如果这种控制来自内部，那么无论出于何种意图和目的，黑人都会重新被奴役。

Coming as the control did from without, perfect men and methods would have bettered all things; and even with imperfect agents and questionable methods, the work accomplished was not undeserving of commendation.

正如来自外部的控制一样，完美的人和方法会使一切变得更好。即使代理人不完善、方法有问题，所完成的工作也并非不值得赞扬。

Such was the dawn of Freedom; such was the work of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which, summed up in brief, may be epitomized thus: for some fifteen million dollars, beside the sums spent before 1865, and the dole of benevolent societies, this Bureau set going a system of free labor, established a beginning of peasant proprietorship, secured the recognition of black freedmen before courts of law, and founded the free common school in the South.

这就是自由的曙光；这就是自由民局的工作，简而言之，可以这样概括：除了 1865 年之前的支出和慈善团体的救济之外，该局还花费了大约 1500 万美元，建立了自由劳工制度，建立了农民私有制的开端，确保了黑人自由民在法庭上得到承认，并在南方建立了免费的普通学校。

On the other hand, it failed to begin the establishment of good-will between ex-masters and freedmen, to guard its work wholly from paternalistic methods which discouraged self-reliance, and to carry out to any considerable extent its implied promises to furnish the freedmen with land.

另一方面，它未能开始在前主人和自由民之间建立善意，未能使其工作完全不受阻碍自力更生的家长式方法的影响，也未能在相当大的程度上履行其向自由民提供土地的默示承诺。

Its successes were the result of hard work, supplemented by the aid of philanthropists and the eager striving of black men.

它的成功是辛勤工作的结果，辅之以慈善家的援助和黑人的热切奋斗。

Its failures were the result of bad local agents, the inherent difficulties of the work, and national neglect.

它的失败是由于当地代理人的不良行为、工作固有的困难以及国家的忽视造成的。

Such an institution, from its wide powers, great responsibilities, large control of moneys, and generally conspicuous position, was naturally open to repeated and bitter attack.

这样的机构，权力广泛、责任重大、掌控资金大、地位普遍显赫，自然容易受到反复猛烈的攻击。

It sustained a searching Congressional investigation at the instance of Fernando Wood in 1870.

1870 年，国会对费尔南多·伍德 (Fernando Wood) 案进行了彻底的调查。

Its archives and few remaining functions were with blunt discourtesy transferred from Howard’s control, in his absence, to the supervision of Secretary of War Belknap in 1872, on the Secretary’s recommendation.

1872 年，在霍华德不在的情况下，根据战争部长贝尔纳普的建议，它的档案和剩余的几项职能被无礼地从他的控制权转移到了战争部长贝尔纳普的监督之下。

Finally, in consequence of grave intimations of wrong-doing made by the Secretary and his subordinates, General Howard was court-martialed in 1874.

最后，由于国务卿及其下属严重暗示有不当行为，霍华德将军于 1874 年被送上军事法庭。

In both of these trials the Commissioner of the Freedmen’s Bureau was officially exonerated from any wilful misdoing, and his work commended.

在这两次审判中，自由民局局长均被正式免除任何故意不当行为，他的工作也受到赞扬。

Nevertheless, many unpleasant things were brought to light,—the methods of transacting the business of the Bureau were faulty; several cases of defalcation were proved, and other frauds strongly suspected; there were some business transactions which savored of dangerous speculation, if not dishonesty; and around it all lay the smirch of the Freedmen’s Bank.

然而，许多不愉快的事情还是暴露出来了：局里处理事务的方法有问题；多起挪用公款案件得到证实，其他欺诈案件被强烈怀疑；有些商业交易即便不是不诚实，也带有危险的投机色彩；周围都是自由民银行的污点。

Morally and practically, the Freedmen’s Bank was part of the Freedmen’s Bureau, although it had no legal connection with it.

在道义上和实际上，自由民银行是自由民局的一部分，尽管它与自由民局没有法律联系。

With the prestige of the government back of it, and a directing board of unusual respectability and national reputation, this banking institution had made a remarkable start in the development of that thrift among black folk which slavery had kept them from knowing.

有了政府威望的支持，以及一个异常受人尊敬和国家声誉的指导委员会，这家银行机构在黑人的节俭意识的发展方面取得了显着的进步，而奴隶制却让他们不知道这一点。

Then in one sad day came the crash,—all the hard-earned dollars of the freedmen disappeared; but that was the least of the loss,—all the faith in saving went too, and much of the faith in men; and that was a loss that a Nation which to-day sneers at Negro shiftlessness has never yet made good.

然后在一个悲伤的日子里，崩溃发生了——自由民辛苦赚来的所有钱都消失了；但这是最小的损失——所有对得救的信心，以及对人的大部分信心都消失了。这是一个今天嘲笑黑人无能的国家从未弥补过的损失。

Not even ten additional years of slavery could have done so much to throttle the thrift of the freedmen as the mismanagement and bankruptcy of the series of savings banks chartered by the Nation for their especial aid.

即使是再多十年的奴隶制，也无法像国家特许为他们提供特殊援助的一系列储蓄银行管理不善和破产那样，对自由民的节俭造成如此大的打击。

Where all the blame should rest, it is hard to say; whether the Bureau and the Bank died chiefly by reason of the blows of its selfish friends or the dark machinations of its foes, perhaps even time will never reveal, for here lies unwritten history.

很难说所有的责任该归咎于何处。联邦调查局和银行的消亡主要是由于自私朋友的打击还是敌人的黑暗阴谋，也许连时间也永远不会揭晓，因为这里有不成文的历史。

Of the foes without the Bureau, the bitterest were those who attacked not so much its conduct or policy under the law as the necessity for any such institution at all.

在没有该局的敌人中，最激烈的人与其说是攻击该局的行为或政策，不如说是攻击任何此类机构的必要性。

Such attacks came primarily from the Border States and the South; and they were summed up by Senator Davis, of Kentucky, when he moved to entitle the act of 1866 a bill “to promote strife and conflict between the white and black races…

此类袭击主要来自边境各州和南方；肯塔基州参议员戴维斯总结了这些观点，当时他提议将 1866 年的法案定为一项法案，“以促进白人和黑人种族之间的争斗和冲突……

by a grant of unconstitutional power.” The argument gathered tremendous strength South and North; but its very strength was its weakness.

通过授予违宪权力。”南方和北方的争论聚集了巨大的力量；但它的优点正是它的缺点。

For, argued the plain common-sense of the nation, if it is unconstitutional, unpractical, and futile for the nation to stand guardian over its helpless wards, then there is left but one alternative,—to make those wards their own guardians by arming them with the ballot.

因为，国家的简单常识认为，如果国家守护其无助的被监护人是违宪、不切实际和徒劳的，那么就只剩下一种选择，那就是用选票武装这些被监护人，让他们成为自己的监护人。

Moreover, the path of the practical politician pointed the same way; for, argued this opportunist, if we cannot peacefully reconstruct the South with white votes, we certainly can with black votes.

此外，务实的政治家的道路也指向同样的方向。这位机会主义者认为，如果我们不能用白人选票来和平重建南方，我们当然可以用黑人选票来和平重建南方。

So justice and force joined hands.

于是正义与武力携手并进。

The alternative thus offered the nation was not between full and restricted Negro suffrage; else every sensible man, black and white, would easily have chosen the latter.

由此为国家提供的选择不是在充分的黑人选举权和有限的黑人选举权之间；而是在黑人的选举权之间进行选择。否则，每个明智的人，无论黑人还是白人，都会轻易选择后者。

It was rather a choice between suffrage and slavery, after endless blood and gold had flowed to sweep human bondage away.

在无尽的鲜血和黄金流淌以扫除人类的束缚之后，这更像是选举权和奴隶制之间的选择。

Not a single Southern legislature stood ready to admit a Negro, under any conditions, to the polls; not a single Southern legislature believed free Negro labor was possible without a system of restrictions that took all its freedom away; there was scarcely a white man in the South who did not honestly regard Emancipation as a crime, and its practical nullification as a duty.

没有一个南方立法机构愿意在任何条件下允许黑人参加投票；没有一个南方立法机关相信，如果没有剥夺黑人所有自由的限制制度，自由黑人劳动是可能的；在南方，几乎没有一个白人不诚实地认为解放奴隶是一种犯罪，而实际上废除奴隶制则是一种义务。

In such a situation, the granting of the ballot to the black man was a necessity, the very least a guilty nation could grant a wronged race, and the only method of compelling the South to accept the results of the war.

在这种情况下，给予黑人选票是必要的，至少有罪的国家可以给予一个受冤屈的种族，也是迫使南方接受战争结果的唯一方法。

Thus Negro suffrage ended a civil war by beginning a race feud.

因此，黑人选举权通过引发种族仇恨结束了内战。

And some felt gratitude toward the race thus sacrificed in its swaddling clothes on the altar of national integrity; and some felt and feel only indifference and contempt.

有些人对在民族完整的祭坛上襁褓中牺牲的种族表示感激；而有些人却只感到冷漠和蔑视。

Had political exigencies been less pressing, the opposition to government guardianship of Negroes less bitter, and the attachment to the slave system less strong, the social seer can well imagine a far better policy,—a permanent Freedmen’s Bureau, with a national system of Negro schools; a carefully supervised employment and labor office; a system of impartial protection before the regular courts; and such institutions for social betterment as savings-banks, land and building associations, and social settlements.

如果政治上的紧迫性不那么紧迫，对政府对黑人监护的反对不那么激烈，对奴隶制度的依恋不那么强烈，那么社会先知完全可以想象出一个更好的政策——一个永久的自由民局，一个全国性的黑人学校系统；受到严格监督的就业和劳工办公室；在普通法庭上提供公正保护的制度；以及储蓄银行、土地和建筑协会以及社会安置等社会改善机构。

All this vast expenditure of money and brains might have formed a great school of prospective citizenship, and solved in a way we have not yet solved the most perplexing and persistent of the Negro problems.

所有这些巨大的金钱和智力支出可能会形成一所未来公民身份的伟大学校，并以我们尚未解决的最复杂和最持久的黑人问题的方式解决。

That such an institution was unthinkable in 1870 was due in part to certain acts of the Freedmen’s Bureau itself.

这样一个机构在 1870 年是不可想象的，部分原因是自由民局本身的某些行为。

It came to regard its work as merely temporary, and Negro suffrage as a final answer to all present perplexities.

它开始认为自己的工作只是暂时的，而黑人选举权是解决当前所有困惑的最终答案。

The political ambition of many of its agents and _protégés_ led it far afield into questionable activities, until the South, nursing its own deep prejudices, came easily to ignore all the good deeds of the Bureau and hate its very name with perfect hatred.

该局许多特工和门生的政治野心导致该局在很远的地方从事可疑的活动，直到南方抱着自己根深蒂固的偏见，很容易忽视该局的所有善行，并对它的名字怀有极大的仇恨。

So the Freedmen’s Bureau died, and its child was the Fifteenth Amendment.

于是，自由民局消亡了，它的孩子就是第十五修正案。

The passing of a great human institution before its work is done, like the untimely passing of a single soul, but leaves a legacy of striving for other men.

一个伟大的人类机构在其工作完成之前就去世了，就像一个灵魂的过早去世一样，但留下了为其他人奋斗的遗产。

The legacy of the Freedmen’s Bureau is the heavy heritage of this generation.

自由民局的遗产是这一代人的厚重遗产。

To-day, when new and vaster problems are destined to strain every fibre of the national mind and soul, would it not be well to count this legacy honestly and carefully?

今天，当新的、更广泛的问题注定要折磨国民的思想和灵魂的每一根纤维时，诚实而仔细地计算这一遗产不是很好吗？

For this much all men know: despite compromise, war, and struggle, the Negro is not free.

所有人都知道这一点：尽管有妥协、战争和斗争，黑人仍然没有自由。

In the backwoods of the Gulf States, for miles and miles, he may not leave the plantation of his birth; in well-nigh the whole rural South the black farmers are peons, bound by law and custom to an economic slavery, from which the only escape is death or the penitentiary.

在海湾国家的边远地区，绵延数里，他可能无法离开他出生的种植园；在几乎整个南方农村地区，黑人农民都是苦工，受法律和习俗的束缚，沦为经济奴隶，唯一的出路就是死亡或监狱。

In the most cultured sections and cities of the South the Negroes are a segregated servile caste, with restricted rights and privileges.

在南方最有文化的地区和城市，黑人是一个被隔离的奴役种姓，其权利和特权受到限制。

Before the courts, both in law and custom, they stand on a different and peculiar basis.

在法庭上，无论是在法律上还是在习惯上，它们都处于不同且特殊的基础上。

Taxation without representation is the rule of their political life.

没有代表权的税收是他们政治生活的规则。

And the result of all this is, and in nature must have been, lawlessness and crime.

所有这一切的结果是，而且本质上必然是，无法无天和犯罪。

That is the large legacy of the Freedmen’s Bureau, the work it did not do because it could not.

这是自由民局的巨大遗产，它没有做的工作是因为它做不到。

I have seen a land right merry with the sun, where children sing, and rolling hills lie like passioned women wanton with harvest.

我看到一片阳光明媚的土地，孩子们在那里歌唱，连绵起伏的山丘像热情的妇女肆意收获。

And there in the King’s Highways sat and sits a figure veiled and bowed, by which the traveller’s footsteps hasten as they go.

在国王的大道上，坐着一个戴着面纱、鞠躬的人影，旅行者的脚步随着他们的脚步而加快。

On the tainted air broods fear.

被污染的空气中弥漫着恐惧。

Three centuries’ thought has been the raising and unveiling of that bowed human heart, and now behold a century new for the duty and the deed.

三个世纪的思想一直在提升和揭示那颗低下的人心，现在我们看到一个新的世纪的责任和行动。

The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line.

二十世纪的问题就是肤色问题。

III.

三．

Of Mr. Booker T.

布克·T.

Washington and Others

华盛顿及其他

From birth till death enslaved; in word, in deed, unmanned!

从出生到死亡都被奴役；在言语上，在行动上，无人！

****** Hereditary bondsmen!

****** 世袭奴仆！

Know ye not Who would be free themselves must strike the blow?

你们不知道谁要获得自由就必须出击吗？

BYRON.

拜伦。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Easily the most striking thing in the history of the American Negro since 1876 is the ascendancy of Mr. Booker T.

自 1876 年以来，美国黑人历史上最引人注目的事情无疑是布克·T·布克 (Booker T.) 先生的崛起。

Washington.

华盛顿。

It began at the time when war memories and ideals were rapidly passing; a day of astonishing commercial development was dawning; a sense of doubt and hesitation overtook the freedmen’s sons,—then it was that his leading began.

它开始于战争记忆和理想迅速消失的时期；商业发展惊人的一天即将到来。一种怀疑和犹豫的感觉笼罩着自由民的儿子们——然后他的领导就开始了。

Mr. Washington came, with a simple definite programme, at the psychological moment when the nation was a little ashamed of having bestowed so much sentiment on Negroes, and was concentrating its energies on Dollars.

华盛顿先生带着一个简单明确的计划来到了这个心理时刻，当时这个国家对给予黑人如此多的情感感到有点羞愧，并将其精力集中在美元上。

His programme of industrial education, conciliation of the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights, was not wholly original; the Free Negroes from 1830 up to war-time had striven to build industrial schools, and the American Missionary Association had from the first taught various trades; and Price and others had sought a way of honorable alliance with the best of the Southerners.

他的工业教育、安抚南方以及对公民权利和政治权利的屈服和沉默等计划并不完全是原创的。从 1830 年到战时，自由黑人一直致力于建立工业学校，美国传教士协会从一开始就教授各种行业；普赖斯和其他人寻求与南方最优秀的人建立光荣联盟的方式。

But Mr. Washington first indissolubly linked these things; he put enthusiasm, unlimited energy, and perfect faith into his programme, and changed it from a by-path into a veritable Way of Life.

但华盛顿先生首先将这些事情牢牢地联系在一起；他将热情、无限的精力和完美的信念融入到他的计划中，并将其从一条旁路变成了真正的生活方式。

And the tale of the methods by which he did this is a fascinating study of human life.

他所采用的方法的故事是对人类生活的有趣研究。

It startled the nation to hear a Negro advocating such a programme after many decades of bitter complaint; it startled and won the applause of the South, it interested and won the admiration of the North; and after a confused murmur of protest, it silenced if it did not convert the Negroes themselves.

在经历了几十年的苦涩抱怨之后，听到一个黑人提倡这样一个计划，全国都感到震惊。南方人震惊而喝彩，北方人感兴趣而钦佩。在一片混乱的抗议声之后，如果黑人本身没有皈依的话，它就会安静下来。

To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington’s first task; and this, at the time Tuskegee was founded, seemed, for a black man, well-nigh impossible.

华盛顿先生的首要任务是获得南方白人各阶层的同情与合作。在塔斯基吉成立时，这对于黑人来说几乎是不可能的。

And yet ten years later it was done in the word spoken at Atlanta: “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.” This “Atlanta Compromise” is by all odds the most notable thing in Mr. Washington’s career.

然而十年后，在亚特兰大所说的一句话却做到了这一点：“在所有纯粹社交的事情上，我们可以像五个手指一样分开，但在所有对共同进步至关重要的事情上，我们可以像一只手一样分开。”这次“亚特兰大妥协”无疑是华盛顿先生职业生涯中最引人注目的事情。

The South interpreted it in different ways: the radicals received it as a complete surrender of the demand for civil and political equality; the conservatives, as a generously conceived working basis for mutual understanding.

南方以不同的方式解释它：激进分子认为这是对公民和政治平等要求的彻底放弃；保守派，作为相互理解的慷慨构想的工作基础。

So both approved it, and to-day its author is certainly the most distinguished Southerner since Jefferson Davis, and the one with the largest personal following.

因此，两人都批准了它，而今天，它的作者无疑是继杰斐逊·戴维斯之后最杰出的南方人，也是拥有最多个人追随者的人。

Next to this achievement comes Mr. Washington’s work in gaining place and consideration in the North.

除了这一成就之外，华盛顿还努力在朝鲜赢得地位和考虑。

Others less shrewd and tactful had formerly essayed to sit on these two stools and had fallen between them; but as Mr. Washington knew the heart of the South from birth and training, so by singular insight he intuitively grasped the spirit of the age which was dominating the North.

其他不那么精明和机智的人以前曾试图坐在这两个凳子上，结果倒在了它们之间。但由于华盛顿先生从出生和训练起就了解南方的内心，因此他凭借独特的洞察力直观地掌握了统治北方的时代精神。

And so thoroughly did he learn the speech and thought of triumphant commercialism, and the ideals of material prosperity, that the picture of a lone black boy poring over a French grammar amid the weeds and dirt of a neglected home soon seemed to him the acme of absurdities.

他如此彻底地了解了商业主义胜利的言论和思想，以及物质繁荣的理想，以至于一个孤独的黑人男孩在一个被忽视的家庭的杂草和泥土中钻研法语语法的画面很快在他看来是荒谬的极致。

One wonders what Socrates and St. Francis of Assisi would say to this.

人们想知道苏格拉底和阿西西的圣方济各对此会怎么说。

And yet this very singleness of vision and thorough oneness with his age is a mark of the successful man.

然而，正是这种单一的视野和与他的年龄的彻底一致才是成功人士的标志。

It is as though Nature must needs make men narrow in order to give them force.

就好像大自然必须使人变得狭窄才能赋予他们力量。

So Mr. Washington’s cult has gained unquestioning followers, his work has wonderfully prospered, his friends are legion, and his enemies are confounded.

因此，华盛顿先生的崇拜已经赢得了毫无疑问的追随者，他的工作非常繁荣，他的朋友众多，而他的敌人则令人困惑。

To-day he stands as the one recognized spokesman of his ten million fellows, and one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy millions.

如今，他是一千万同胞中公认的代言人，也是这个七千万人口的国家中最著名的人物之一。

One hesitates, therefore, to criticise a life which, beginning with so little, has done so much.

因此，人们会犹豫是否要批评这样一种从一开始就少得可怜却取得了如此大成就的生活。

And yet the time is come when one may speak in all sincerity and utter courtesy of the mistakes and shortcomings of Mr. Washington’s career, as well as of his triumphs, without being thought captious or envious, and without forgetting that it is easier to do ill than well in the world.

然而，总有一天，人们可以真诚地、完全礼貌地谈论华盛顿先生职业生涯中的错误和缺点，以及他的胜利，而不会被认为是挑剔或嫉妒，并且不会忘记，在这个世界上，做坏事比做好事容易。

The criticism that has hitherto met Mr. Washington has not always been of this broad character.

迄今为止，华盛顿先生所受到的批评并不总是如此广泛。

In the South especially has he had to walk warily to avoid the harshest judgments,—and naturally so, for he is dealing with the one subject of deepest sensitiveness to that section.

尤其是在南方，他必须小心翼翼地行走，以避免最严厉的判断——这是自然的，因为他正在处理对该部分最敏感的一个主题。

Twice—once when at the Chicago celebration of the Spanish-American War he alluded to the color-prejudice that is “eating away the vitals of the South,” and once when he dined with President Roosevelt—has the resulting Southern criticism been violent enough to threaten seriously his popularity.

两次——一次是在芝加哥庆祝美西战争时，他提到了“正在蚕食南方的生命力”的肤色偏见；一次是当他与罗斯福总统共进晚餐时——由此引起的南方批评的暴力程度足以严重威胁到他的声望。

In the North the feeling has several times forced itself into words, that Mr. Washington’s counsels of submission overlooked certain elements of true manhood, and that his educational programme was unnecessarily narrow.

在北方，这种感觉多次强行诉诸言语：华盛顿先生的服从建议忽视了真正男子气概的某些要素，而且他的教育计划过于狭隘。

Usually, however, such criticism has not found open expression, although, too, the spiritual sons of the Abolitionists have not been prepared to acknowledge that the schools founded before Tuskegee, by men of broad ideals and self-sacrificing spirit, were wholly failures or worthy of ridicule.

然而，这种批评通常不会公开表达，尽管废奴主义者的精神之子也不准备承认在塔斯基吉之前由具有远大理想和自我牺牲精神的人创办的学校是完全失败的或值得嘲笑的。

While, then, criticism has not failed to follow Mr. Washington, yet the prevailing public opinion of the land has been but too willing to deliver the solution of a wearisome problem into his hands, and say, “If that is all you and your race ask, take it.”

尽管华盛顿先生也受到了批评，但美国的普遍舆论却非常愿意将一个令人厌烦的问题的解决方案交到他手中，并说：“如果这就是你和你的种族所要求的一切，那就接受吧。”

Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition, amounting at times to bitterness, and even today continuing strong and insistent even though largely silenced in outward expression by the public opinion of the nation.

然而，华盛顿先生在自己的人民中遇到了最强烈和最持久的反对，有时甚至达到了痛苦的地步，即使在今天，尽管国家公众舆论在很大程度上压制了对外的表达，但他的反对仍然强烈和坚持。

Some of this opposition is, of course, mere envy; the disappointment of displaced demagogues and the spite of narrow minds.

当然，这种反对有些只是出于嫉妒，但也有一些是出于嫉妒。流离失所的煽动者的失望和狭隘思想的怨恨。

But aside from this, there is among educated and thoughtful colored men in all parts of the land a feeling of deep regret, sorrow, and apprehension at the wide currency and ascendancy which some of Mr. Washington’s theories have gained.

但除此之外，全国各地受过教育、有思想的有色人种对华盛顿先生的一些理论的广泛流行和优势感到深深的遗憾、悲伤和忧虑。

These same men admire his sincerity of purpose, and are willing to forgive much to honest endeavor which is doing something worth the doing.

这些人钦佩他的真诚目标，并且愿意原谅他所做的值得做的诚实努力。

They cooperate with Mr. Washington as far as they conscientiously can; and, indeed, it is no ordinary tribute to this man’s tact and power that, steering as he must between so many diverse interests and opinions, he so largely retains the respect of all.

他们尽其所能地与华盛顿先生合作；事实上，他必须在如此多不同的利益和观点之间游走，他在很大程度上保留了所有人的尊重，这对他的机智和力量来说并不是普通的赞扬。

But the hushing of the criticism of honest opponents is a dangerous thing.

但压制诚实反对者的批评是一件危险的事情。

It leads some of the best of the critics to unfortunate silence and paralysis of effort, and others to burst into speech so passionately and intemperately as to lose listeners.

不幸的是，它导致一些最优秀的批评家陷入沉默和努力瘫痪，而另一些批评家则热情、无节制地发表演讲，以至于失去了听众。

Honest and earnest criticism from those whose interests are most nearly touched,—criticism of writers by readers,—this is the soul of democracy and the safeguard of modern society.

来自最切身利益者的诚实而恳切的批评——读者对作家的批评——这是民主的灵魂，也是现代社会的保障。

If the best of the American Negroes receive by outer pressure a leader whom they had not recognized before, manifestly there is here a certain palpable gain.

如果最优秀的美国黑人在外部压力下接受了一位他们以前不认识的领导人，那么显然这里有某种明显的收获。

Yet there is also irreparable loss,—a loss of that peculiarly valuable education which a group receives when by search and criticism it finds and commissions its own leaders.

然而，也存在着无法挽回的损失，即失去了一个团体在通过搜索和批评找到并委托自己的领导人时所接受的特别有价值的教育。

The way in which this is done is at once the most elementary and the nicest problem of social growth.

实现这一目标的方式既是社会发展中最基本也是最好的问题。

History is but the record of such group-leadership; and yet how infinitely changeful is its type and character!

历史不过是这种群体领导的记录而已。然而它的类型和特征却是多么千变万化！

And of all types and kinds, what can be more instructive than the leadership of a group within a group?—that curious double movement where real progress may be negative and actual advance be relative retrogression.

在所有类型和种类中，还有什么比群体内群体的领导力更有启发性的呢？——这种奇怪的双重运动，真正的进步可能是负面的，而实际的进步却是相对倒退的。

All this is the social student’s inspiration and despair.

这一切都是社会学生的灵感与绝望。

Now in the past the American Negro has had instructive experience in the choosing of group leaders, founding thus a peculiar dynasty which in the light of present conditions is worth while studying.

过去美国黑人在选择群体领袖、从而建立一个独特的王朝方面有着有益的经验，这一经验在目前的情况下值得研究。

When sticks and stones and beasts form the sole environment of a people, their attitude is largely one of determined opposition to and conquest of natural forces.

当棍棒、石头和野兽构成一个民族的唯一环境时，他们的态度很大程度上是一种坚决反对和征服自然力量的态度。

But when to earth and brute is added an environment of men and ideas, then the attitude of the imprisoned group may take three main forms,—a feeling of revolt and revenge; an attempt to adjust all thought and action to the will of the greater group; or, finally, a determined effort at self-realization and self-development despite environing opinion.

但是，当在尘世和野蛮之中加上一个充满人和思想的环境时，被囚禁群体的态度可能会呈现出三种主要形式：——反抗和报复的感觉；尝试调整所有思想和行动以适应更大群体的意愿；或者，最后，不顾周围环境的意见，坚定地努力实现自我实现和自我发展。

The influence of all of these attitudes at various times can be traced in the history of the American Negro, and in the evolution of his successive leaders.

所有这些态度在不同时期的影响都可以在美国黑人的历史及其历任领导人的演变中追溯。

Before 1750, while the fire of African freedom still burned in the veins of the slaves, there was in all leadership or attempted leadership but the one motive of revolt and revenge,—typified in the terrible Maroons, the Danish blacks, and Cato of Stono, and veiling all the Americas in fear of insurrection.

1750年之前，虽然非洲自由之火仍在奴隶的血管中燃烧，但所有的领导或企图领导的动机都只有一个：反抗和复仇，典型的例子有可怕的马龙人、丹麦黑人和斯托诺的卡托，他们使整个美洲笼罩在对叛乱的恐惧之中。

The liberalizing tendencies of the latter half of the eighteenth century brought, along with kindlier relations between black and white, thoughts of ultimate adjustment and assimilation.

十八世纪后半叶的自由化趋势，连同黑人和白人之间更加友好的关系，带来了最终调整和同化的思想。

Such aspiration was especially voiced in the earnest songs of Phyllis, in the martyrdom of Attucks, the fighting of Salem and Poor, the intellectual accomplishments of Banneker and Derham, and the political demands of the Cuffes.

这种渴望尤其在菲利斯的真诚歌曲、阿塔克斯的殉难、塞勒姆和普尔的战斗、班纳克和德勒姆的智力成就以及卡夫的政治要求中得到体现。

Stern financial and social stress after the war cooled much of the previous humanitarian ardor.

战后严峻的金融和社会压力使之前的人道主义热情降温了很多。

The disappointment and impatience of the Negroes at the persistence of slavery and serfdom voiced itself in two movements.

黑人对奴隶制和农奴制持续存在的失望和不耐烦通过两个运动表达出来。

The slaves in the South, aroused undoubtedly by vague rumors of the Haytian revolt, made three fierce attempts at insurrection,—in 1800 under Gabriel in Virginia, in 1822 under Vesey in Carolina, and in 1831 again in Virginia under the terrible Nat Turner.

南方的奴隶无疑是受到海蒂起义的模糊谣言的刺激，进行了三次猛烈的起义尝试——1800年在弗吉尼亚州加布里埃尔领导下，1822年在卡罗来纳州维西领导下，以及1831年在可怕的纳特·特纳领导下再次在弗吉尼亚州。

In the Free States, on the other hand, a new and curious attempt at self-development was made.

另一方面，在自由国家，人们进行了一种新的、奇怪的自我发展尝试。

In Philadelphia and New York color-prescription led to a withdrawal of Negro communicants from white churches and the formation of a peculiar socio-religious institution among the Negroes known as the African Church,—an organization still living and controlling in its various branches over a million of men.

在费城和纽约，肤色规定导致黑人圣餐者退出白人教堂，并在黑人中形成了一种特殊的社会宗教机构，称为非洲教会，该组织仍然在其各个分支中生活和控制着超过一百万人。

Walker’s wild appeal against the trend of the times showed how the world was changing after the coming of the cotton-gin.

沃克对时代潮流的狂野呼吁表明了轧棉机问世后世界正在发生怎样的变化。

By 1830 slavery seemed hopelessly fastened on the South, and the slaves thoroughly cowed into submission.

到 1830 年，奴隶制似乎无可救药地在南方扎根，奴隶们彻底屈服了。

The free Negroes of the North, inspired by the mulatto immigrants from the West Indies, began to change the basis of their demands; they recognized the slavery of slaves, but insisted that they themselves were freemen, and sought assimilation and amalgamation with the nation on the same terms with other men.

北方的自由黑人受到来自西印度群岛的混血儿移民的启发，开始改变他们的要求的基础；他们承认奴隶制，但坚持认为自己是自由人，并以与其他人相同的条件寻求与国家的同化和融合。

Thus, Forten and Purvis of Philadelphia, Shad of Wilmington, Du Bois of New Haven, Barbadoes of Boston, and others, strove singly and together as men, they said, not as slaves; as “people of color,” not as “Negroes.” The trend of the times, however, refused them recognition save in individual and exceptional cases, considered them as one with all the despised blacks, and they soon found themselves striving to keep even the rights they formerly had of voting and working and moving as freemen.

因此，费城的福滕和珀维斯、威尔明顿的沙德、纽黑文的杜波依斯、波士顿的巴巴多斯等人，他们说，作为男人而不是奴隶，单独或一起奋斗；作为“有色人种”，而不是“黑人”。然而，时代潮流拒绝承认他们，除非在个别和特殊情况下，将他们视为所有受鄙视的黑人的一员，他们很快发现自己甚至在努力保留以前作为自由人拥有的投票权、工作权和迁徙权。

Schemes of migration and colonization arose among them; but these they refused to entertain, and they eventually turned to the Abolition movement as a final refuge.

其中出现了移民和殖民计划。但他们拒绝接受这些，最终转向废奴运动作为最后的避难所。

Here, led by Remond, Nell, Wells-Brown, and Douglass, a new period of self-assertion and self-development dawned.

在雷蒙德、内尔、威尔斯-布朗和道格拉斯的领导下，一个自我主张和自我发展的新时期开始了。

To be sure, ultimate freedom and assimilation was the ideal before the leaders, but the assertion of the manhood rights of the Negro by himself was the main reliance, and John Brown’s raid was the extreme of its logic.

诚然，最终的自由和同化是领导人面前的理想，但黑人自己主张男子气概权利才是主要依靠，而约翰·布朗的突袭则是其逻辑的极端。

After the war and emancipation, the great form of Frederick Douglass, the greatest of American Negro leaders, still led the host.

战争和解放后，美国最伟大的黑人领袖弗雷德里克·道格拉斯的伟人仍然领导着东道主。

Self-assertion, especially in political lines, was the main programme, and behind Douglass came Elliot, Bruce, and Langston, and the Reconstruction politicians, and, less conspicuous but of greater social significance, Alexander Crummell and Bishop Daniel Payne.

自我主张，尤其是在政治路线上，是主要纲领，在道格拉斯背后是埃利奥特、布鲁斯和兰斯顿以及重建时期的政治家，还有不太引人注目但具有更大社会意义的亚历山大·克鲁梅尔和丹尼尔·佩恩主教。

Then came the Revolution of 1876, the suppression of the Negro votes, the changing and shifting of ideals, and the seeking of new lights in the great night.

然后是1876年的革命，对黑人选票的镇压，理想的改变和转变，以及在伟大的夜晚中寻找新的光明。

Douglass, in his old age, still bravely stood for the ideals of his early manhood,—ultimate assimilation _through_ self-assertion, and on no other terms.

道格拉斯在年老时，仍然勇敢地坚持他早期男子气概的理想——通过自我主张实现最终的同化，除此之外别无其他。

For a time Price arose as a new leader, destined, it seemed, not to give up, but to re-state the old ideals in a form less repugnant to the white South.

有一段时间，普赖斯作为新领导人崛起，似乎注定不会放弃，而是以南方白人不那么反感的形式重申旧的理想。

But he passed away in his prime.

但他在鼎盛时期就去世了。

Then came the new leader.

然后新的领导来了。

Nearly all the former ones had become leaders by the silent suffrage of their fellows, had sought to lead their own people alone, and were usually, save Douglass, little known outside their race.

几乎所有以前的人都是通过同胞们的默默选举而成为领导者的，他们都试图独自领导自己的人民，而且通常，除了道格拉斯之外，在他们的种族之外鲜为人知。

But Booker T.

但布克·T.

Washington arose as essentially the leader not of one race but of two,—a compromiser between the South, the North, and the Negro.

华盛顿本质上不是一个种族的领导者，而是两个种族的领导者，是南方、北方和黑人之间的妥协者。

Naturally the Negroes resented, at first bitterly, signs of compromise which surrendered their civil and political rights, even though this was to be exchanged for larger chances of economic development.

当然，黑人一开始对放弃公民权利和政治权利的妥协迹象感到非常不满，尽管这是为了换取更大的经济发展机会。

The rich and dominating North, however, was not only weary of the race problem, but was investing largely in Southern enterprises, and welcomed any method of peaceful cooperation.

然而，富裕而占主导地位的北方不仅厌倦了种族问题，而且大量投资于南方企业，并欢迎任何和平合作方式。

Thus, by national opinion, the Negroes began to recognize Mr. Washington’s leadership; and the voice of criticism was hushed.

因此，在全国舆论中，黑人开始承认华盛顿先生的领导地位。批评的声音也安静了。

Mr. Washington represents in Negro thought the old attitude of adjustment and submission; but adjustment at such a peculiar time as to make his programme unique.

华盛顿先生在黑人思想中代表了适应和屈服的旧态度；但在如此特殊的时间进行调整，使他的计划独一无二。

This is an age of unusual economic development, and Mr. Washington’s programme naturally takes an economic cast, becoming a gospel of Work and Money to such an extent as apparently almost completely to overshadow the higher aims of life.

这是一个非同寻常的经济发展时代，华盛顿先生的计划自然而然地带有经济色彩，成为工作和金钱的福音，以至于显然几乎完全掩盖了更高的生活目标。

Moreover, this is an age when the more advanced races are coming in closer contact with the less developed races, and the race-feeling is therefore intensified; and Mr. Washington’s programme practically accepts the alleged inferiority of the Negro races.

而且，现在是一个高级种族与低级种族接触越来越密切的时代，种族感也因此而增强。华盛顿先生的计划实际上接受了所谓的黑人种族的劣等性。

Again, in our own land, the reaction from the sentiment of war time has given impetus to race-prejudice against Negroes, and Mr. Washington withdraws many of the high demands of Negroes as men and American citizens.

同样，在我们自己的土地上，战争时期情绪的反应助长了针对黑人的种族偏见，华盛顿先生撤销了黑人作为男人和美国公民的许多高要求。

In other periods of intensified prejudice all the Negro’s tendency to self-assertion has been called forth; at this period a policy of submission is advocated.

在其他偏见加剧的时期，黑人所有的自我主张倾向都被激发出来。此时提倡服从政策。

In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.

在几乎所有其他种族和民族的历史中，在此类危机中宣扬的教义都是，男子气概的自尊比土地和房屋更有价值，而自愿放弃这种尊重或停止争取这种尊重的民族不值得文明化。

In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission.

作为对此的回答，有人声称黑人只有通过屈服才能生存。

Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things,—

华盛顿先生明确要求黑人至少在目前放弃三件事：

First, political power,

第一，政治权力，

Second, insistence on civil rights,

第二，坚持公民权利，

Third, higher education of Negro youth,—and concentrate all their energies on industrial education, and accumulation of wealth, and the conciliation of the South.

第三，黑人青年的高等教育——并将他们的全部精力集中在工业教育、财富积累以及南方的和解上。

This policy has been courageously and insistently advocated for over fifteen years, and has been triumphant for perhaps ten years.

这个政策已经勇敢地、坚持地倡导了十五年，并且取得了大概十年的胜利。

As a result of this tender of the palm-branch, what has been the return?

棕榈枝的温柔，带来了什么回报？

In these years there have occurred:

这些年发生了：

The disfranchisement of the Negro.

剥夺黑人的选举权。

The legal creation of a distinct status of civil inferiority for the Negro.

从法律上为黑人创造了明显的公民劣等地位。

The steady withdrawal of aid from institutions for the higher training of the Negro.

黑人高等教育机构的援助不断撤回。

These movements are not, to be sure, direct results of Mr. Washington’s teachings; but his propaganda has, without a shadow of doubt, helped their speedier accomplishment.

可以肯定的是，这些运动并不是华盛顿先生教诲的直接结果；而是。但毫无疑问，他的宣传帮助他们更快地取得了成就。

The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men?

那么问题来了：如果九百万人被剥夺了政治权利，沦为奴仆种姓，并且只允许最微弱的机会发展他们的杰出人才，那么他们是否有可能并且很可能在经济方面取得有效进步？

If history and reason give any distinct answer to these questions, it is an emphatic _No_.

如果历史和理性对这些问题给出任何明确的答案，那肯定是“不”。

And Mr. Washington thus faces the triple paradox of his career:

华盛顿先生因此面临着他职业生涯的三重悖论：

He is striving nobly to make Negro artisans business men and property-owners; but it is utterly impossible, under modern competitive methods, for workingmen and property-owners to defend their rights and exist without the right of suffrage.

他正在高尚地努力使黑人工匠成为商人和财产所有者；但在现代竞争方式下，工人和财产所有者在没有选举权的情况下根本不可能捍卫自己的权利和存在。

He insists on thrift and self-respect, but at the same time counsels a silent submission to civic inferiority such as is bound to sap the manhood of any race in the long run.

他坚持节俭和自尊，但同时建议人们默默屈服于公民自卑感，从长远来看，这种自卑感必然会削弱任何种族的男子气概。

He advocates common-school and industrial training, and depreciates institutions of higher learning; but neither the Negro common-schools, nor Tuskegee itself, could remain open a day were it not for teachers trained in Negro colleges, or trained by their graduates.

他提倡普通学校和工业培训，贬低高等院校；但是，如果没有在黑人学院接受过培训或由其毕业生培训的教师，黑人普通学校和塔斯基吉本身都无法保持开放。

This triple paradox in Mr. Washington’s position is the object of criticism by two classes of colored Americans.

华盛顿先生立场中的三重悖论是美国两类有色人种批评的对象。

One class is spiritually descended from Toussaint the Savior, through Gabriel, Vesey, and Turner, and they represent the attitude of revolt and revenge; they hate the white South blindly and distrust the white race generally, and so far as they agree on definite action, think that the Negro’s only hope lies in emigration beyond the borders of the United States.

一类人在精神上是救世主杜桑的后裔，经过加布里埃尔、维西和特纳，他们代表着反抗和复仇的态度；另一类人则代表着反抗和复仇的态度。他们盲目地憎恨南方白人，普遍不信任白人，就他们就具体行动达成一致而言，他们认为黑人唯一的希望在于移民到美国境外。

And yet, by the irony of fate, nothing has more effectually made this programme seem hopeless than the recent course of the United States toward weaker and darker peoples in the West Indies, Hawaii, and the Philippines,—for where in the world may we go and be safe from lying and brute force?

然而，具有讽刺意味的是，没有什么比美国最近对西印度群岛、夏威夷和菲律宾的软弱和黑暗人民采取的行动更让这个计划看起来毫无希望了——我们到底该去哪里才能免受谎言和暴力的侵害呢？

The other class of Negroes who cannot agree with Mr. Washington has hitherto said little aloud.

另一类不能同意华盛顿先生观点的黑人迄今为止很少大声说话。

They deprecate the sight of scattered counsels, of internal disagreement; and especially they dislike making their just criticism of a useful and earnest man an excuse for a general discharge of venom from small-minded opponents.

他们不赞成看到分散的意见和内部分歧；他们尤其不喜欢把对一个有用而真诚的人的公正批评当作心胸狭隘的对手普遍恶毒的借口。

Nevertheless, the questions involved are so fundamental and serious that it is difficult to see how men like the Grimkes, Kelly Miller, J.

然而，所涉及的问题是如此根本和严重，以至于很难看出像格里姆克斯、凯利·米勒、J·等人是如何看待的。

Bowen, and other representatives of this group, can much longer be silent.

鲍文和这个群体的其他代表可以再保持沉默了。

Such men feel in conscience bound to ask of this nation three things:

这些人凭良心感到有必要向这个国家提出三件事：

The right to vote.

投票权。

Civic equality.

公民平等。

The education of youth according to ability.

对青少年实行因材施教。

They acknowledge Mr. Washington’s invaluable service in counselling patience and courtesy in such demands; they do not ask that ignorant black men vote when ignorant whites are debarred, or that any reasonable restrictions in the suffrage should not be applied; they know that the low social level of the mass of the race is responsible for much discrimination against it, but they also know, and the nation knows, that relentless color-prejudice is more often a cause than a result of the Negro’s degradation; they seek the abatement of this relic of barbarism, and not its systematic encouragement and pampering by all agencies of social power from the Associated Press to the Church of Christ.

他们承认华盛顿先生在建议人们在此类要求中保持耐心和礼貌方面所提供的宝贵服务；当无知的白人被禁止时，他们不要求无知的黑人投票，也不要求对选举权施加任何合理的限制；他们知道，种族大众的社会地位低下是造成黑人歧视的原因，但他们也知道，整个国家都知道，无情的肤色偏见往往是黑人堕落的原因，而不是结果；他们寻求消除这种野蛮行为的残余，而不是从美联社到基督教会的所有社会权力机构系统性的鼓励和纵容。

They advocate, with Mr. Washington, a broad system of Negro common schools supplemented by thorough industrial training; but they are surprised that a man of Mr. Washington’s insight cannot see that no such educational system ever has rested or can rest on any other basis than that of the well-equipped college and university, and they insist that there is a demand for a few such institutions throughout the South to train the best of the Negro youth as teachers, professional men, and leaders.

他们与华盛顿先生一样主张建立一个广泛的黑人普通学校体系，并辅之以彻底的工业培训；但他们感到惊讶的是，像华盛顿先生这样有洞察力的人看不到这样的教育体系除了设备精良的学院和大学之外，没有任何其他基础，而且他们坚持认为，整个南方需要一些这样的机构来培训最优秀的黑人青年作为教师、职业人士和领导者。

This group of men honor Mr. Washington for his attitude of conciliation toward the white South; they accept the “Atlanta Compromise” in its broadest interpretation; they recognize, with him, many signs of promise, many men of high purpose and fair judgment, in this section; they know that no easy task has been laid upon a region already tottering under heavy burdens.

这群人尊敬华盛顿先生对南方白人的和解态度。他们接受“亚特兰大妥协”最广泛的解释；他们在这一部分中与他一起认识到许多有希望的迹象，许多具有崇高目标和公正判断力的人；他们知道，对于一个已经在重担下摇摇欲坠的地区来说，任务绝非易事。

But, nevertheless, they insist that the way to truth and right lies in straightforward honesty, not in indiscriminate flattery; in praising those of the South who do well and criticising uncompromisingly those who do ill; in taking advantage of the opportunities at hand and urging their fellows to do the same, but at the same time in remembering that only a firm adherence to their higher ideals and aspirations will ever keep those ideals within the realm of possibility.

但尽管如此，他们坚持认为，通往真理和正确的道路在于坦率的诚实，而不是不分青红皂白的奉承；赞扬南方做得好的人，毫不妥协地批评做得不好的人；利用手头的机会并敦促他们的同胞也这样做，但同时记住，只有坚定地坚持他们的更高理想和愿望，才能使这些理想保持在可能的范围内。

They do not expect that the free right to vote, to enjoy civic rights, and to be educated, will come in a moment; they do not expect to see the bias and prejudices of years disappear at the blast of a trumpet; but they are absolutely certain that the way for a people to gain their reasonable rights is not by voluntarily throwing them away and insisting that they do not want them; that the way for a people to gain respect is not by continually belittling and ridiculing themselves; that, on the contrary, Negroes must insist continually, in season and out of season, that voting is necessary to modern manhood, that color discrimination is barbarism, and that black boys need education as well as white boys.

他们并不期望自由的投票权、享受公民权和受教育权会在一瞬间实现；他们不希望看到多年来的偏见和成见随着号角的吹响而消失；但他们绝对确信，一个民族获得合理权利的方法不是自愿抛弃这些权利并坚持认为他们不想要这些权利；一个民族获得尊重的方法不是不断地贬低和嘲笑自己；相反，无论何时，黑人都必须不断坚持，投票对于现代男子气概是必要的，肤色歧视是野蛮行为，黑人男孩和白人男孩一样需要教育。

In failing thus to state plainly and unequivocally the legitimate demands of their people, even at the cost of opposing an honored leader, the thinking classes of American Negroes would shirk a heavy responsibility,—a responsibility to themselves, a responsibility to the struggling masses, a responsibility to the darker races of men whose future depends so largely on this American experiment, but especially a responsibility to this nation,—this common Fatherland.

即使不惜以反对一位受人尊敬的领袖为代价，美国黑人的思想阶层也无法清楚、明确地表达人民的合法要求，从而逃避了一项沉重的责任——对他们自己的责任，对奋斗群众的责任，对黑暗种族的责任，他们的未来在很大程度上取决于美国的这一实验，尤其是对这个国家——这个共同祖国的责任。

It is wrong to encourage a man or a people in evil-doing; it is wrong to aid and abet a national crime simply because it is unpopular not to do so.

鼓励一个人或一个民族作恶是错误的；仅仅因为不这样做不受欢迎而协助和教唆国家犯罪是错误的。

The growing spirit of kindliness and reconciliation between the North and South after the frightful difference of a generation ago ought to be a source of deep congratulation to all, and especially to those whose mistreatment caused the war; but if that reconciliation is to be marked by the industrial slavery and civic death of those same black men, with permanent legislation into a position of inferiority, then those black men, if they are really men, are called upon by every consideration of patriotism and loyalty to oppose such a course by all civilized methods, even though such opposition involves disagreement with Mr. Booker T.

经过上一代人的可怕分歧之后，北南之间日益增长的友善与和解精神应该引起所有人的深切祝贺，特别是那些因虐待而导致战争的人；但是，如果这种和解的标志是这些黑人的工业奴役和公民死亡，并通过永久立法使他们处于劣势地位，那么这些黑人，如果他们真的是男人，就会出于爱国主义和忠诚的一切考虑，以一切文明的方式反对这种做法，即使这种反对涉及与布克·T·先生的分歧。

Washington.

华盛顿。

We have no right to sit silently by while the inevitable seeds are sown for a harvest of disaster to our children, black and white.

当我们的孩子们，无论是黑人还是白人，不可避免地播下灾难的种子时，我们没有权利袖手旁观。

First, it is the duty of black men to judge the South discriminatingly.

首先，黑人有责任歧视性地评判南方。

The present generation of Southerners are not responsible for the past, and they should not be blindly hated or blamed for it.

现在这一代南方人不对过去负责，也不应该因此而被盲目地仇恨或指责。

Furthermore, to no class is the indiscriminate endorsement of the recent course of the South toward Negroes more nauseating than to the best thought of the South.

此外，对任何阶层来说，对南方最近对黑人的不加区别的认可，都比南方最好的思想更令人恶心。

The South is not “solid”; it is a land in the ferment of social change, wherein forces of all kinds are fighting for supremacy; and to praise the ill the South is today perpetrating is just as wrong as to condemn the good.

南方并不“坚固”；这是一片社会变革不断发酵的土地，各种势力都在争夺霸权；赞扬南方今天所犯下的恶行与谴责善行一样都是错误的。

Discriminating and broad-minded criticism is what the South needs,—needs it for the sake of her own white sons and daughters, and for the insurance of robust, healthy mental and moral development.

南方需要有辨别力和宽泛的批评——为了她自己的白人儿女，为了保证强健、健康的心理和道德发展，需要它。

Today even the attitude of the Southern whites toward the blacks is not, as so many assume, in all cases the same; the ignorant Southerner hates the Negro, the workingmen fear his competition, the money-makers wish to use him as a laborer, some of the educated see a menace in his upward development, while others—usually the sons of the masters—wish to help him to rise.

今天，即使是南方白人对黑人的态度也并不像许多人所认为的那样在所有情况下都是一样的。无知的南方人讨厌黑人，工人们害怕他的竞争，赚钱的人希望利用他作为劳工，一些受过教育的人看到他向上发展的威胁，而其他人——通常是主人的儿子——希望帮助他上升。

National opinion has enabled this last class to maintain the Negro common schools, and to protect the Negro partially in property, life, and limb.

民族舆论使最后一个阶级得以维持黑人普通学校，并部分保护黑人的财产、生命和肢体。

Through the pressure of the money-makers, the Negro is in danger of being reduced to semi-slavery, especially in the country districts; the workingmen, and those of the educated who fear the Negro, have united to disfranchise him, and some have urged his deportation; while the passions of the ignorant are easily aroused to lynch and abuse any black man.

在赚钱者的压力下，黑人面临着沦为半奴隶的危险，特别是在乡村地区；工人和那些害怕黑人的受过教育的人联合起来剥夺他的选举权，有些人敦促将他驱逐出境。而无知的人很容易激起私刑和虐待黑人的热情。

To praise this intricate whirl of thought and prejudice is nonsense; to inveigh indiscriminately against “the South” is unjust; but to use the same breath in praising Governor Aycock, exposing Senator Morgan, arguing with Mr. Thomas Nelson Page, and denouncing Senator Ben Tillman, is not only sane, but the imperative duty of thinking black men.

赞扬这种错综复杂的思想和偏见的漩涡是无稽之谈。对“南方”肆意攻击是不公正的；但同时赞扬艾科克州长、揭露摩根参议员、与托马斯·纳尔逊·佩吉先生争论、谴责本·蒂尔曼参议员，不仅是理智的，而且是有思想的黑人的当务之急。

It would be unjust to Mr. Washington not to acknowledge that in several instances he has opposed movements in the South which were unjust to the Negro; he sent memorials to the Louisiana and Alabama constitutional conventions, he has spoken against lynching, and in other ways has openly or silently set his influence against sinister schemes and unfortunate happenings.

华盛顿先生如果不承认他曾多次反对南方对黑人不公正的运动，那将是不公正的。他向路易斯安那州和阿拉巴马州的制宪会议寄送了奏折，他反对私刑，并以其他方式公开或默默地发挥自己的影响力来反对险恶的计划和不幸的事件。

Notwithstanding this, it is equally true to assert that on the whole the distinct impression left by Mr. Washington’s propaganda is, first, that the South is justified in its present attitude toward the Negro because of the Negro’s degradation; secondly, that the prime cause of the Negro’s failure to rise more quickly is his wrong education in the past; and, thirdly, that his future rise depends primarily on his own efforts.

尽管如此，同样正确的是，华盛顿先生的宣传总体上给人留下的明显印象是，首先，南方对黑人的态度是合理的，因为黑人的堕落；其次，黑人未能更快崛起的主要原因是他们过去接受的错误教育；第三，他未来的崛起主要取决于他自己的努力。

Each of these propositions is a dangerous half-truth.

这些主张中的每一个都是危险的半真半假。

The supplementary truths must never be lost sight of: first, slavery and race-prejudice are potent if not sufficient causes of the Negro’s position; second, industrial and common-school training were necessarily slow in planting because they had to await the black teachers trained by higher institutions,—it being extremely doubtful if any essentially different development was possible, and certainly a Tuskegee was unthinkable before 1880; and, third, while it is a great truth to say that the Negro must strive and strive mightily to help himself, it is equally true that unless his striving be not simply seconded, but rather aroused and encouraged, by the initiative of the richer and wiser environing group, he cannot hope for great success.

决不能忽视补充的事实：首先，奴隶制和种族偏见是黑人立场的有力原因，即使不是充分原因；其次，工业和普通学校的种植必然缓慢，因为它们必须等待高等教育机构培训的黑人教师——是否可能有任何本质上不同的发展是非常值得怀疑的，当然塔斯基吉人在1880年之前是不可想象的；第三，虽然说黑人必须努力奋斗来帮助自己，这是一个伟大的真理，但同样正确的是，除非他的努力不仅得到更富有、更明智的周围群体的主动支持，而且得到激发和鼓励，否则他就不能指望取得巨大成功。

In his failure to realize and impress this last point, Mr. Washington is especially to be criticised.

华盛顿先生尤其应该受到批评，因为他未能认识到这一点并给人们留下深刻的印象。

His doctrine has tended to make the whites, North and South, shift the burden of the Negro problem to the Negro’s shoulders and stand aside as critical and rather pessimistic spectators; when in fact the burden belongs to the nation, and the hands of none of us are clean if we bend not our energies to righting these great wrongs.

他的学说倾向于让白人，无论北方还是南方，将黑人问题的重担转移到黑人的肩上，并作为批评和相当悲观的旁观者站在一边；事实上，这个负担属于国家，如果我们不竭尽全力纠正这些巨大的错误，我们就没有人是干净的。

The South ought to be led, by candid and honest criticism, to assert her better self and do her full duty to the race she has cruelly wronged and is still wronging.

南方应该在坦诚和诚实的批评的引导下，维护自己更好的自我，并对她曾经残酷地冤枉过并且仍然在冤枉的种族履行全部责任。

The North—her co-partner in guilt—cannot salve her conscience by plastering it with gold.

北方——她的罪孽同伙——无法通过用黄金来安慰她的良心。

We cannot settle this problem by diplomacy and suaveness, by “policy” alone.

我们不能仅靠外交和温文尔雅、仅靠“政策”来解决这个问题。

If worse come to worst, can the moral fibre of this country survive the slow throttling and murder of nine millions of men?

如果情况变得更糟，这个国家的道德品质能否经受住对九百万人的缓慢扼杀和谋杀？

The black men of America have a duty to perform, a duty stern and delicate,—a forward movement to oppose a part of the work of their greatest leader.

美国黑人有一项义务要履行，一项严厉而微妙的义务——一项反对他们最伟大领袖的部分工作的前进运动。

So far as Mr. Washington preaches Thrift, Patience, and Industrial Training for the masses, we must hold up his hands and strive with him, rejoicing in his honors and glorying in the strength of this Joshua called of God and of man to lead the headless host.

就华盛顿先生向大众宣扬节俭、耐心和实业训练而言，我们必须举起他的手，与他一起奋斗，为他的荣誉而欢欣鼓舞，为上帝和人类召唤的约书亚领导无头大军的力量而自豪。

But so far as Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds,—so far as he, the South, or the Nation, does this,—we must unceasingly and firmly oppose them.

但是，只要华盛顿先生为北方或南方的不公正行为道歉，没有正确地重视投票的特权和义务，贬低种姓差异的阉割效果，并反对我们更聪明的头脑的更高的训练和雄心——只要他、南方或国家这样做，我们就必须不断地坚决反对他们。

By every civilized and peaceful method we must strive for the rights which the world accords to men, clinging unwaveringly to those great words which the sons of the Fathers would fain forget: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

我们必须以一切文明与和平的方式争取世界赋予人类的权利，坚定不移地坚持那些父辈们很容易忘记的伟大话语：“我们认为这些真理是不言而喻的：人人生而平等；造物主赋予他们某些不可剥夺的权利；其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。”

IV.

四．

Of the Meaning of Progress

论进步的意义

Willst Du Deine Macht verkünden, Wähle sie die frei von Sünden, Steh’n in Deinem ew’gen Haus!

Willst Du Deine Macht verkünden，Wähle sie die frei von Sünden，Steh'n in Deinem ew'gen Haus！

Deine Geister sende aus!

Deine Geister 发送！

Die Unsterblichen, die Reinen, Die nicht fühlen, die nicht weinen!

Die Unsterblichen，die Reinen，Die nicht fühlen，die nicht weinen！

Nicht die zarte Jungfrau wähle, Nicht der Hirtin weiche Seele!

Nicht die zarte Jungfrau wähle，Nicht der Hirtin weiche Seele！

SCHILLER.

席勒。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Once upon a time I taught school in the hills of Tennessee, where the broad dark vale of the Mississippi begins to roll and crumple to greet the Alleghanies.

曾几何时，我在田纳西州的山上教书，那里密西西比河宽阔、黑暗的河谷开始翻滚起伏，迎接阿利根尼山脉。

I was a Fisk student then, and all Fisk men thought that Tennessee—beyond the Veil—was theirs alone, and in vacation time they sallied forth in lusty bands to meet the county school-commissioners.

那时我是菲斯克的学生，所有菲斯克人都认为面纱之外的田纳西州是他们自己的，在假期里，他们成群结队地出动，去见县学校委员。

Young and happy, I too went, and I shall not soon forget that summer, seventeen years ago.

年轻而快乐的我也去了，我不会很快忘记十七年前的那个夏天。

First, there was a Teachers’ Institute at the county-seat; and there distinguished guests of the superintendent taught the teachers fractions and spelling and other mysteries,—white teachers in the morning, Negroes at night.

首先，县城有一个师范学院；校长的尊贵客人在那里教老师们分数、拼写和其他奥秘——早上是白人老师，晚上是黑人老师。

A picnic now and then, and a supper, and the rough world was softened by laughter and song.

时不时地野餐，吃顿晚饭，欢笑和歌声让粗糙的世界变得柔和。

I remember how— But I wander.

我记得如何——但我徘徊。

There came a day when all the teachers left the Institute and began the hunt for schools.

有一天，所有的老师都离开了学院，开始寻找学校。

I learn from hearsay (for my mother was mortally afraid of firearms) that the hunting of ducks and bears and men is wonderfully interesting, but I am sure that the man who has never hunted a country school has something to learn of the pleasures of the chase.

我从传闻中得知（因为我母亲非常害怕火器），狩猎鸭子、熊和人非常有趣，但我确信，从未在乡村学校狩猎过的人应该学到一些狩猎的乐趣。

I see now the white, hot roads lazily rise and fall and wind before me under the burning July sun; I feel the deep weariness of heart and limb as ten, eight, six miles stretch relentlessly ahead; I feel my heart sink heavily as I hear again and again, “Got a teacher?

现在，我看到白色、炎热的道路在七月灼热的阳光下，在我面前懒洋洋地起伏、蜿蜒；当十英里、八英里、六英里无情地向前延伸时，我感到内心和四肢深深的疲倦。当我一次又一次听到“有老师吗？

Yes.” So I walked on and on—horses were too expensive—until I had wandered beyond railways, beyond stage lines, to a land of “varmints” and rattlesnakes, where the coming of a stranger was an event, and men lived and died in the shadow of one blue hill.

是的。”于是我一直走啊走啊——马太贵了——直到我走出了铁路、舞台线，来到了一片充满“恶鼠”和响尾蛇的地方，在那里，陌生人的到来是一件大事，人们在一座蓝色山丘的阴影下生活和死亡。

Sprinkled over hill and dale lay cabins and farmhouses, shut out from the world by the forests and the rolling hills toward the east.

小木屋和农舍星罗棋布地分布在山峦之间，东部的森林和连绵起伏的山丘将他们与世隔绝。

There I found at last a little school.

我终于在那里找到了一所小学校。

Josie told me of it; she was a thin, homely girl of twenty, with a dark-brown face and thick, hard hair.

乔西告诉了我这件事；她是一个瘦削、相貌平庸的二十岁女孩，有着一张深棕色的脸和浓密而坚硬的头发。

I had crossed the stream at Watertown, and rested under the great willows; then I had gone to the little cabin in the lot where Josie was resting on her way to town.

我在沃特敦渡过小溪，在大柳树下休息。然后我去了乔西进城途中休息的空地上的小木屋。

The gaunt farmer made me welcome, and Josie, hearing my errand, told me anxiously that they wanted a school over the hill; that but once since the war had a teacher been there; that she herself longed to learn,—and thus she ran on, talking fast and loud, with much earnestness and energy.

那个憔悴的农民热情地欢迎了我，乔西听到我的任务后，焦急地告诉我，他们想要在山那边建一所学校。自从战后以来，只有一次老师来过那里；她自己也渴望学习——因此她继续跑，语速又快又响亮，充满了真诚和精力。

Next morning I crossed the tall round hill, lingered to look at the blue and yellow mountains stretching toward the Carolinas, then plunged into the wood, and came out at Josie’s home.

第二天一早，我翻过那座高大的圆山，驻足眺望那座向卡罗莱纳州延伸的蓝黄相间的山脉，然后一头扎进树林里，来到了乔西的家。

It was a dull frame cottage with four rooms, perched just below the brow of the hill, amid peach-trees.

这是一座有四个房间的平淡的小屋，坐落在山脊下方的桃树丛中。

The father was a quiet, simple soul, calmly ignorant, with no touch of vulgarity.

父亲是一个安静、朴素的灵魂，平静无知，没有一丝粗俗。

The mother was different,—strong, bustling, and energetic, with a quick, restless tongue, and an ambition to live “like folks.” There was a crowd of children.

母亲则不同，她坚强、忙碌、精力充沛，说话敏捷、不安分，并渴望“像普通人一样”生活。那里有一群孩子。

Two boys had gone away.

两个男孩已经走了。

There remained two growing girls; a shy midget of eight; John, tall, awkward, and eighteen; Jim, younger, quicker, and better looking; and two babies of indefinite age.

剩下两个正在成长的女孩。一个害羞的八岁侏儒；约翰，身材高大，笨拙，十八岁；吉姆，更年轻，更快，也更帅；以及两个年龄不定的婴儿。

Then there was Josie herself.

然后是乔西本人。

She seemed to be the centre of the family: always busy at service, or at home, or berry-picking; a little nervous and inclined to scold, like her mother, yet faithful, too, like her father.

她似乎是家庭的中心：总是忙于服务，或在家，或采摘浆果；有点紧张，喜欢责骂，就像她的母亲一样，但也像她的父亲一样忠诚。

She had about her a certain fineness, the shadow of an unconscious moral heroism that would willingly give all of life to make life broader, deeper, and fuller for her and hers.

她身上有一种优雅的气质，一种无意识的道德英雄主义的影子，这种英雄主义愿意奉献全部生命，让她和她的家人的生活变得更广阔、更深刻、更充实。

I saw much of this family afterwards, and grew to love them for their honest efforts to be decent and comfortable, and for their knowledge of their own ignorance.

后来我经常见到这个家庭，并且越来越爱他们，因为他们诚实地努力让自己过得体面、舒适，也因为他们了解自己的无知。

There was with them no affectation.

他们没有做作。

The mother would scold the father for being so “easy”; Josie would roundly berate the boys for carelessness; and all knew that it was a hard thing to dig a living out of a rocky side-hill.

母亲会骂父亲太“随便”；乔西会严厉斥责男孩们的粗心大意。所有人都知道，在岩石边的山坡上挖地谋生是一件很困难的事情。

I secured the school.

我保护了学校。

I remember the day I rode horseback out to the commissioner’s house with a pleasant young white fellow who wanted the white school.

我记得那天，我和一位想要白人学校的令人愉快的年轻白人一起骑马去专员家。

The road ran down the bed of a stream; the sun laughed and the water jingled, and we rode on.

这条路沿着一条小溪的河床延伸。太阳笑了，水叮当作响，我们继续前行。

“Come in,” said the commissioner,—“come in.

“请进，”专员说，“请进。

Have a seat.

请坐。

Yes, that certificate will do.

是的，那个证书就可以了。

Stay to dinner.

留下来吃晚饭。

What do you want a month?” “Oh,” thought I, “this is lucky”; but even then fell the awful shadow of the Veil, for they ate first, then I—alone.

一个月你想要什么？” “哦，”我想，“这真是幸运”；但即便如此，面纱的可怕阴影还是降临了，因为他们先吃东西，然后是我——独自一人。

The schoolhouse was a log hut, where Colonel Wheeler used to shelter his corn.

校舍是一座小木屋，惠勒上校曾在那里存放玉米。

It sat in a lot behind a rail fence and thorn bushes, near the sweetest of springs.

它坐落在铁栅栏和荆棘丛后面的一块空地上，靠近最甘甜的泉水。

There was an entrance where a door once was, and within, a massive rickety fireplace; great chinks between the logs served as windows.

入口处曾经是一扇门，里面有一个摇摇欲坠的巨大壁炉。原木之间的大缝隙充当了窗户。

Furniture was scarce.

家具很稀缺。

A pale blackboard crouched in the corner.

角落里蹲着一块苍白的黑板。

My desk was made of three boards, reinforced at critical points, and my chair, borrowed from the landlady, had to be returned every night.

我的桌子是用三块木板做成的，关键部位还进行了加固，而我的椅子是从女房东那里借来的，每晚都必须归还。

Seats for the children—these puzzled me much.

孩子们的座位——这让我很困惑。

I was haunted by a New England vision of neat little desks and chairs, but, alas!

整洁的小桌椅的新英格兰景象一直困扰着我，但是，唉！

the reality was rough plank benches without backs, and at times without legs.

现实是粗糙的木板凳，没有靠背，有时甚至没有腿。

They had the one virtue of making naps dangerous,—possibly fatal, for the floor was not to be trusted.

它们的一个优点就是让小睡变得危险，甚至可能致命，因为地板不可靠。

It was a hot morning late in July when the school opened.

学校开学时，是七月底一个炎热的早晨。

I trembled when I heard the patter of little feet down the dusty road, and saw the growing row of dark solemn faces and bright eager eyes facing me.

当我听到尘土飞扬的道路上传来小脚的嗒嗒声，看到越来越多的一排黝黑严肃的面孔和明亮而渴望的眼睛正对着我时，我浑身发抖。

First came Josie and her brothers and sisters.

首先是乔西和她的兄弟姐妹。

The longing to know, to be a student in the great school at Nashville, hovered like a star above this child-woman amid her work and worry, and she studied doggedly.

对知识的渴望，对成为纳什维尔这所伟大学校的学生的渴望，像一颗星星一样盘旋在这个在工作和忧虑中的童女上方，她顽强地学习。

There were the Dowells from their farm over toward Alexandria,—Fanny, with her smooth black face and wondering eyes; Martha, brown and dull; the pretty girl-wife of a brother, and the younger brood.

道威尔一家从他们的农场前往亚历山大，——范妮，有着光滑的黑脸和好奇的眼睛；玛莎，棕色，暗淡；兄弟的漂亮女妻和弟弟妹妹。

There were the Burkes,—two brown and yellow lads, and a tiny haughty-eyed girl.

那里有伯克一家——两个棕色和黄色的小伙子，还有一个眼神傲慢的小女孩。

Fat Reuben’s little chubby girl came, with golden face and old-gold hair, faithful and solemn.

胖子鲁本的胖乎乎的小姑娘来了，金色的脸庞，古金色的头发，忠诚而庄严。

’Thenie was on hand early,—a jolly, ugly, good-hearted girl, who slyly dipped snuff and looked after her little bow-legged brother.

蒂尼很早就到了——一个快乐、丑陋、心地善良的女孩，她狡猾地吸着鼻烟，照顾着她罗圈腿的小弟弟。

When her mother could spare her, ’Tildy came,—a midnight beauty, with starry eyes and tapering limbs; and her brother, correspondingly homely.

当她的母亲可以饶恕她时，蒂尔迪来了，她是一位午夜美人，有着星星般的眼睛和逐渐变细的四肢；和她的兄弟，相应地也很朴素。

And then the big boys,—the hulking Lawrences; the lazy Neills, unfathered sons of mother and daughter; Hickman, with a stoop in his shoulders; and the rest.

然后是大男孩——身材魁梧的劳伦斯；懒惰的尼尔一家，母女无父的儿子；希克曼，肩膀驼着；和其余的。

There they sat, nearly thirty of them, on the rough benches, their faces shading from a pale cream to a deep brown, the little feet bare and swinging, the eyes full of expectation, with here and there a twinkle of mischief, and the hands grasping Webster’s blue-black spelling-book.

他们坐在那里，将近三十个人，坐在粗糙的长凳上，他们的脸从苍白的奶油色变成了深棕色，小脚光着，摇摆着，眼睛里充满了期待，时而闪烁着顽皮的光芒，双手紧握着韦伯斯特的蓝黑色拼写书。

I loved my school, and the fine faith the children had in the wisdom of their teacher was truly marvellous.

我爱我的学校，孩子们对老师智慧的坚定信念真是太棒了。

We read and spelled together, wrote a little, picked flowers, sang, and listened to stories of the world beyond the hill.

我们一起读书、拼写、写一点、摘花、唱歌、聆听山那边世界的故事。

At times the school would dwindle away, and I would start out.

有时学校会逐渐缩小，我就会开始。

I would visit Mun Eddings, who lived in two very dirty rooms, and ask why little Lugene, whose flaming face seemed ever ablaze with the dark-red hair uncombed, was absent all last week, or why I missed so often the inimitable rags of Mack and Ed.

我会去拜访蒙·艾丁斯，他住在两间非常脏的房间里，问为什么小卢金上周缺席，他那张火红的脸似乎永远在燃烧，深红色的头发乱糟糟的，为什么我总是缺席麦克和埃德的独特破烂衣服。

Then the father, who worked Colonel Wheeler’s farm on shares, would tell me how the crops needed the boys; and the thin, slovenly mother, whose face was pretty when washed, assured me that Lugene must mind the baby.

然后，以股份形式在惠勒上校的农场工作的父亲会告诉我庄稼如何需要男孩们；那个瘦弱、邋遢的母亲，洗完脸后很漂亮，她向我保证，卢金必须照顾这个孩子。

“But we’ll start them again next week.” When the Lawrences stopped, I knew that the doubts of the old folks about book-learning had conquered again, and so, toiling up the hill, and getting as far into the cabin as possible, I put Cicero “pro Archia Poeta” into the simplest English with local applications, and usually convinced them—for a week or so.

“但我们下周会再次开始。”当劳伦斯夫妇停下来时，我知道老人们对书本学习的疑虑又被征服了，于是，我费力地爬上山，尽可能地走进小屋，用当地的应用程序把西塞罗的“pro Archia Poeta”翻译成最简单的英语，通常会说服他们——持续一周左右。

On Friday nights I often went home with some of the children,—sometimes to Doc Burke’s farm.

周五晚上，我经常和一些孩子一起回家，有时去伯克医生的农场。

He was a great, loud, thin Black, ever working, and trying to buy the seventy-five acres of hill and dale where he lived; but people said that he would surely fail, and the “white folks would get it all.” His wife was a magnificent Amazon, with saffron face and shining hair, uncorseted and barefooted, and the children were strong and beautiful.

他是一个身材高大、声音洪亮、瘦弱的黑人，一直在工作，并试图买下他所居住的七十五英亩的山地和山谷；但人们说他肯定会失败，而“白人会得到一切”。他的妻子是一位美丽的亚马逊人，有着藏红花般的脸庞和闪亮的头发，没有穿紧身衣，赤着脚，孩子们强壮而美丽。

They lived in a one-and-a-half-room cabin in the hollow of the farm, near the spring.

他们住在农场空地里靠近泉水的一间一间半房间的小屋里。

The front room was full of great fat white beds, scrupulously neat; and there were bad chromos on the walls, and a tired centre-table.

前屋里摆满了又大又白的床，收拾得一丝不苟。墙上的色彩很差，中央的桌子也很破旧。

In the tiny back kitchen I was often invited to “take out and help” myself to fried chicken and wheat biscuit, “meat” and corn pone, string-beans and berries.

在狭小的后厨房里，我经常被邀请“出去帮忙”吃炸鸡和小麦饼干、“肉”和玉米饼、四季豆和浆果。

At first I used to be a little alarmed at the approach of bedtime in the one lone bedroom, but embarrassment was very deftly avoided.

起初，我对在一间孤独的卧室里就寝时间的临近感到有点惊慌，但很巧妙地避免了尴尬。

First, all the children nodded and slept, and were stowed away in one great pile of goose feathers; next, the mother and the father discreetly slipped away to the kitchen while I went to bed; then, blowing out the dim light, they retired in the dark.

首先，所有的孩子都点点头，睡着了，然后被藏在一大堆鹅毛里。接下来，当我上床睡觉时，父母小心翼翼地溜进厨房。然后，吹灭微弱的灯光，他们在黑暗中退去。

In the morning all were up and away before I thought of awaking.

早上，在我想醒来之前，所有人都已经起床离开了。

Across the road, where fat Reuben lived, they all went outdoors while the teacher retired, because they did not boast the luxury of a kitchen.

马路对面，胖子鲁本住的地方，老师退休的时候，他们都去户外了，因为他们没有豪华的厨房。

I liked to stay with the Dowells, for they had four rooms and plenty of good country fare.

我喜欢住在道威尔一家，因为他们有四个房间，还有很多美味的乡村美食。

Uncle Bird had a small, rough farm, all woods and hills, miles from the big road; but he was full of tales,—he preached now and then,—and with his children, berries, horses, and wheat he was happy and prosperous.

鸟叔叔有一个简陋的小农场，全是树林和山丘，距离大路有几英里。但他充满了故事——他时不时地讲道——和他的孩子、浆果、马和小麦一起，他感到幸福和繁荣。

Often, to keep the peace, I must go where life was less lovely; for instance, ’Tildy’s mother was incorrigibly dirty, Reuben’s larder was limited seriously, and herds of untamed insects wandered over the Eddingses’ beds.

为了保持平静，我常常必须去那些生活不那么美好的地方。例如，蒂尔迪的母亲脏得不可救药，鲁本的食品储藏室严重有限，成群的未驯服的昆虫在艾丁斯夫妇的床上徘徊。

Best of all I loved to go to Josie’s, and sit on the porch, eating peaches, while the mother bustled and talked: how Josie had bought the sewing-machine; how Josie worked at service in winter, but that four dollars a month was “mighty little” wages; how Josie longed to go away to school, but that it “looked like” they never could get far enough ahead to let her; how the crops failed and the well was yet unfinished; and, finally, how “mean” some of the white folks were.

最重要的是，我喜欢去乔西家，坐在门廊上吃桃子，而母亲则忙碌地谈论着：乔西是如何买缝纫机的；乔西是如何买缝纫机的；乔西在冬天如何从事服务工作，但每月四美元的工资“微乎其微”；乔西多么渴望去上学，但“看起来”他们永远无法让她走得足够远；庄稼歉收，而井却尚未打完；最后，一些白人是多么“卑鄙”。

For two summers I lived in this little world; it was dull and humdrum.

两个夏天我都生活在这个小世界里；一切都平淡无奇。

The girls looked at the hill in wistful longing, and the boys fretted and haunted Alexandria.

女孩们满怀渴望地望着这座山，男孩们则焦躁不安，萦绕在亚历山大港。

Alexandria was “town,”—a straggling, lazy village of houses, churches, and shops, and an aristocracy of Toms, Dicks, and Captains.

亚历山大是一个“城镇”——一个散乱、懒惰的村庄，有房屋、教堂和商店，还有汤姆斯、迪克斯和船长的贵族。

Cuddled on the hill to the north was the village of the colored folks, who lived in three- or four-room unpainted cottages, some neat and homelike, and some dirty.

依偎在北边山上的是有色人种的村庄，他们住着三四间未粉刷的小屋，有的整洁如家，有的肮脏不堪。

The dwellings were scattered rather aimlessly, but they centred about the twin temples of the hamlet, the Methodist, and the Hard-Shell Baptist churches.

这些住宅相当漫无目的地分散，但它们集中在村庄的双子寺庙、卫理公会教堂和硬壳浸信会教堂周围。

These, in turn, leaned gingerly on a sad-colored schoolhouse.

这些，反过来，小心翼翼地靠在一座颜色悲伤的校舍上。

Hither my little world wended its crooked way on Sunday to meet other worlds, and gossip, and wonder, and make the weekly sacrifice with frenzied priest at the altar of the “old-time religion.” Then the soft melody and mighty cadences of Negro song fluttered and thundered.

周日，我的小世界蜿蜒曲折地来到这里，与其他世界相遇，闲聊，好奇，并与疯狂的牧师一起在“旧时宗教”的祭坛上进行每周的祭祀。然后，黑人歌曲的柔和旋律和强有力的节奏响起，雷鸣般地响起。

I have called my tiny community a world, and so its isolation made it; and yet there was among us but a half-awakened common consciousness, sprung from common joy and grief, at burial, birth, or wedding; from a common hardship in poverty, poor land, and low wages; and, above all, from the sight of the Veil that hung between us and Opportunity.

我把我的小社区称为一个世界，因此它与世隔绝。然而，我们中间还存在着一种半觉醒的共同意识，源于葬礼、出生或婚礼时共同的欢乐和悲伤；来自贫困、土地贫瘠和工资低等普遍困难；最重要的是，从我们和机遇号之间悬挂的面纱的视角来看。

All this caused us to think some thoughts together; but these, when ripe for speech, were spoken in various languages.

这一切引起了我们共同的思考；但当这些言论成熟时，就会以多种语言表达。

Those whose eyes twenty-five and more years before had seen “the glory of the coming of the Lord,” saw in every present hindrance or help a dark fatalism bound to bring all things right in His own good time.

那些在二十五年或更多年前亲眼目睹过“主再来的荣耀”的人，在当前的每一个阻碍或帮助中都看到了一种黑暗的宿命论，注定会在他自己的好时光里让一切都好起来。

The mass of those to whom slavery was a dim recollection of childhood found the world a puzzling thing: it asked little of them, and they answered with little, and yet it ridiculed their offering.

对于那些童年时期对奴隶制有着模糊记忆的人来说，大多数人都觉得这个世界是一件令人费解的事情：这个世界对他们提出的要求很少，而他们的回答也很少，然而这个世界却嘲笑他们的奉献。

Such a paradox they could not understand, and therefore sank into listless indifference, or shiftlessness, or reckless bravado.

他们无法理解这样的悖论，因此陷入无精打采的冷漠，或麻木不仁，或鲁莽的虚张声势。

There were, however, some—such as Josie, Jim, and Ben—to whom War, Hell, and Slavery were but childhood tales, whose young appetites had been whetted to an edge by school and story and half-awakened thought.

然而，也有一些人——比如乔西、吉姆和本——对他们来说，战争、地狱和奴隶制只是童年故事，他们幼小的胃口被学校、故事和半醒的思想激发到了极限。

Ill could they be content, born without and beyond the World.

如果他们出生于世界之外并超越世界，他们会感到满足吗？

And their weak wings beat against their barriers,—barriers of caste, of youth, of life; at last, in dangerous moments, against everything that opposed even a whim.

他们虚弱的翅膀撞击着他们的障碍——种姓、青年、生命的障碍；最后，在危险的时刻，反对一切反对哪怕一时兴起的事情。

The ten years that follow youth, the years when first the realization comes that life is leading somewhere,—these were the years that passed after I left my little school.

青春之后的十年，第一次意识到生活正在走向某个地方的那些年，这些是我离开我的小学校之后过去的那些年。

When they were past, I came by chance once more to the walls of Fisk University, to the halls of the chapel of melody.

当他们过去时，我再次偶然来到菲斯克大学的围墙，来到旋律教堂的大厅。

As I lingered there in the joy and pain of meeting old school-friends, there swept over me a sudden longing to pass again beyond the blue hill, and to see the homes and the school of other days, and to learn how life had gone with my school-children; and I went.

当我在与老同学见面的喜悦和痛苦中徘徊时，我突然渴望再次越过蓝色的山丘，看看以前的家庭和学校，了解我的学童们的生活是如何度过的；我去了。

Josie was dead, and the gray-haired mother said simply, “We’ve had a heap of trouble since you’ve been away.” I had feared for Jim.

乔西死了，白发苍苍的母亲简单地说：“自从你离开后，我们遇到了很多麻烦。”我曾为吉姆担心。

With a cultured parentage and a social caste to uphold him, he might have made a venturesome merchant or a West Point cadet.

凭借有教养的出身和社会阶层的支持，他可能会成为一名富有冒险精神的商人或一名西点军校学员。

But here he was, angry with life and reckless; and when Fanner Durham charged him with stealing wheat, the old man had to ride fast to escape the stones which the furious fool hurled after him.

但他却在这里，对生活感到愤怒，鲁莽；当范纳·达勒姆指控他偷小麦时，老人不得不快速骑行，以躲避愤怒的傻瓜向他扔来的石头。

They told Jim to run away; but he would not run, and the constable came that afternoon.

他们让吉姆逃跑；但他不肯逃跑，警察当天下午就来了。

It grieved Josie, and great awkward John walked nine miles every day to see his little brother through the bars of Lebanon jail.

这让乔西很伤心，而笨拙的约翰每天都要步行九英里才能穿过黎巴嫩监狱的铁栅栏看望他的弟弟。

At last the two came back together in the dark night.

终于，两人在漆黑的夜色中重归于好。

The mother cooked supper, and Josie emptied her purse, and the boys stole away.

母亲煮了晚饭，乔西掏空了钱包，孩子们就偷偷溜走了。

Josie grew thin and silent, yet worked the more.

乔西变得瘦弱、沉默寡言，但工作却越来越多。

The hill became steep for the quiet old father, and with the boys away there was little to do in the valley.

对于这位安静的老父亲来说，山变得陡峭了，孩子们不在了，山谷里也没什么可做的。

Josie helped them to sell the old farm, and they moved nearer town.

乔西帮助他们卖掉了旧农场，他们搬到了离城镇更近的地方。

Brother Dennis, the carpenter, built a new house with six rooms; Josie toiled a year in Nashville, and brought back ninety dollars to furnish the house and change it to a home.

木匠丹尼斯弟兄建造了一座有六个房间的新房子；乔西在纳什维尔辛苦了一年，带回来九十美元来装修房子，把它改造成一个家。

When the spring came, and the birds twittered, and the stream ran proud and full, little sister Lizzie, bold and thoughtless, flushed with the passion of youth, bestowed herself on the tempter, and brought home a nameless child.

当春天来了，鸟儿叽叽喳喳，小溪骄傲地流淌时，小妹妹莉齐大胆而无忧无虑，满脸青春的激情，把自己交给了诱惑者，带回了一个无名的孩子。

Josie shivered and worked on, with the vision of schooldays all fled, with a face wan and tired,—worked until, on a summer’s day, some one married another; then Josie crept to her mother like a hurt child, and slept—and sleeps.

乔西瑟瑟发抖，继续工作，学校时光的景象全都消失了，脸色苍白而疲倦，——一直工作到，在一个夏日，有人娶了另一个人；然后乔西像一个受伤的孩子一样爬到她母亲身边，睡着了——睡着了。

I paused to scent the breeze as I entered the valley.

当我进入山谷时，我停下来闻闻微风的味道。

The Lawrences have gone,—father and son forever,—and the other son lazily digs in the earth to live.

劳伦斯一家已经走了——永远的父子——另一个儿子懒洋洋地挖地生活。

A new young widow rents out their cabin to fat Reuben.

一位年轻的新寡妇将自己的小屋出租给肥胖的鲁本。

Reuben is a Baptist preacher now, but I fear as lazy as ever, though his cabin has three rooms; and little Ella has grown into a bouncing woman, and is ploughing corn on the hot hillside.

鲁本现在是一名浸信会传教士，但我担心他还是一如既往的懒惰，尽管他的小屋有三个房间；小艾拉已经长成了一个活泼的女人，正在炎热的山坡上犁玉米。

There are babies a-plenty, and one half-witted girl.

有很多婴儿，还有一个傻女孩。

Across the valley is a house I did not know before, and there I found, rocking one baby and expecting another, one of my schoolgirls, a daughter of Uncle Bird Dowell.

山谷对面有一座我以前不认识的房子，我在那里发现了一个婴儿，正在摇晃着，等待着另一个婴儿，她是我的女学生，伯德·道威尔叔叔的女儿。

She looked somewhat worried with her new duties, but soon bristled into pride over her neat cabin and the tale of her thrifty husband, and the horse and cow, and the farm they were planning to buy.

她看上去对自己的新职责有些担心，但很快她就对自己整洁的小屋、她节俭的丈夫、马和牛以及他们计划购买的农场的故事感到自豪。

My log schoolhouse was gone.

我的原木校舍不见了。

In its place stood Progress; and Progress, I understand, is necessarily ugly.

取而代之的是进步；我明白，进步必然是丑陋的。

The crazy foundation stones still marked the former site of my poor little cabin, and not far away, on six weary boulders, perched a jaunty board house, perhaps twenty by thirty feet, with three windows and a door that locked.

疯狂的基石仍然标志着我可怜的小木屋的旧址，不远处，在六块疲惫的巨石上，栖息着一座漂亮的板房，大约二十英尺乘三十英尺，有三扇窗户和一扇锁着的门。

Some of the window-glass was broken, and part of an old iron stove lay mournfully under the house.

一些窗玻璃被打碎了，一个旧铁炉子的一部分悲惨地躺在房子下面。

I peeped through the window half reverently, and found things that were more familiar.

我半恭敬地透过窗户往里看，发现了一些更熟悉的东西。

The blackboard had grown by about two feet, and the seats were still without backs.

黑板长了大约两英尺，座位仍然没有靠背。

The county owns the lot now, I hear, and every year there is a session of school.

我听说现在这块地属于县里，而且每年都有一次学校开学。

As I sat by the spring and looked on the Old and the New I felt glad, very glad, and yet—

当我坐在泉水边看着新旧事物时，我感到很高兴，非常高兴，但是——

After two long drinks I started on.

喝了两杯大酒后，我开始了。

There was the great double log-house on the corner.

拐角处有一座巨大的双木屋。

I remembered the broken, blighted family that used to live there.

我记得曾经住在那里的那个支离破碎的家庭。

The strong, hard face of the mother, with its wilderness of hair, rose before me.

母亲那张坚强而冷酷的脸，以及一头乱发的头发，浮现在我的面前。

She had driven her husband away, and while I taught school a strange man lived there, big and jovial, and people talked.

她把她的丈夫赶走了，当我在学校教书时，那里住着一个陌生的男人，身材高大，性格开朗，人们互相交谈。

I felt sure that Ben and ’Tildy would come to naught from such a home.

我确信本和蒂尔迪在这样的家庭中将会一事无成。

But this is an odd world; for Ben is a busy farmer in Smith County, “doing well, too,” they say, and he had cared for little ’Tildy until last spring, when a lover married her.

但这是一个奇怪的世界；因为本是史密斯县一位忙碌的农民，他们说“也过得很好”，他一直照顾小蒂尔迪，直到去年春天，一位情人娶了她。

A hard life the lad had led, toiling for meat, and laughed at because he was homely and crooked.

这小伙子过着艰苦的生活，为吃肉而辛苦劳作，却因为长相丑陋而被人嘲笑。

There was Sam Carlon, an impudent old skinflint, who had definite notions about “niggers,” and hired Ben a summer and would not pay him.

山姆·卡隆是个无礼的老吝啬鬼，他对“黑鬼”有明确的概念，他雇佣了本一个夏天，但不肯付钱给他。

Then the hungry boy gathered his sacks together, and in broad daylight went into Carlon’s corn; and when the hard-fisted farmer set upon him, the angry boy flew at him like a beast.

然后，饥饿的男孩收拾好麻袋，在光天化日之下走进了卡隆的玉米地里。当那个铁拳的农夫向他袭来时，愤怒的男孩像野兽一样向他扑来。

Doc Burke saved a murder and a lynching that day.

伯克医生那天挽救了一起谋杀案和一场私刑。

The story reminded me again of the Burkes, and an impatience seized me to know who won in the battle, Doc or the seventy-five acres.

这个故事再次让我想起了伯克一家，我不耐烦地想知道谁在这场战斗中获胜，是医生还是那七十五英亩土地。

For it is a hard thing to make a farm out of nothing, even in fifteen years.

因为即使在十五年内，从无到有建立一个农场也是一件困难的事情。

So I hurried on, thinking of the Burkes.

于是我赶紧继续前行，心里想着伯克夫妇。

They used to have a certain magnificent barbarism about them that I liked.

他们身上有一种我喜欢的宏伟的野蛮风格。

They were never vulgar, never immoral, but rather rough and primitive, with an unconventionality that spent itself in loud guffaws, slaps on the back, and naps in the corner.

他们从来不粗俗，从来不不道德，而是相当粗鲁和原始，带着一种非传统的态度，表现为大声大笑、拍背、在角落里打盹。

I hurried by the cottage of the misborn Neill boys.

我匆匆经过那两个流产的尼尔男孩的小屋。

It was empty, and they were grown into fat, lazy farm-hands.

那里空空如也，而他们却长成了又胖又懒的农场工人。

I saw the home of the Hickmans, but Albert, with his stooping shoulders, had passed from the world.

我看到了希克曼一家的家，但艾伯特驼着肩膀，已经与世隔绝了。

Then I came to the Burkes’ gate and peered through; the enclosure looked rough and untrimmed, and yet there were the same fences around the old farm save to the left, where lay twenty-five other acres.

然后我来到伯克家的大门前，向里面张望。围墙看起来很粗糙，没有修剪过，但除了左边还有另外二十五英亩土地外，老农场周围还有同样的栅栏。

And lo!

瞧！

the cabin in the hollow had climbed the hill and swollen to a half-finished six-room cottage.

洼地里的小屋已经爬上山坡，膨胀成了一座半完工的六居室小屋。

The Burkes held a hundred acres, but they were still in debt.

伯克家族拥有一百英亩土地，但他们仍然负债累累。

Indeed, the gaunt father who toiled night and day would scarcely be happy out of debt, being so used to it.

确实，日日夜夜辛苦劳作的憔悴父亲，如果没有债务，已经习惯了，很难感到高兴。

Some day he must stop, for his massive frame is showing decline.

总有一天他必须停下来，因为他庞大的身躯正在衰退。

The mother wore shoes, but the lion-like physique of other days was broken.

母亲穿着鞋子，但往日狮子般的体格却被打破了。

The children had grown up.

孩子们已经长大了。

Rob, the image of his father, was loud and rough with laughter.

罗布就像他父亲的形象，笑声响亮而粗暴。

Birdie, my school baby of six, had grown to a picture of maiden beauty, tall and tawny.

伯蒂是我学校里六岁的宝贝，现在已经长得像少女一样美丽，身材高大，皮肤呈黄褐色。

“Edgar is gone,” said the mother, with head half bowed,—“gone to work in Nashville; he and his father couldn’t agree.”

“埃德加走了，”母亲半低着头说，“去纳什维尔工作了；他和他父亲意见不一致。”

Little Doc, the boy born since the time of my school, took me horseback down the creek next morning toward Farmer Dowell’s.

小医生，从我上学时起就出生的男孩，第二天早上带我骑马沿着小溪朝农夫道威尔家走去。

The road and the stream were battling for mastery, and the stream had the better of it.

道路和溪流正在争夺主导权，溪流占了上风。

We splashed and waded, and the merry boy, perched behind me, chattered and laughed.

我们溅起水花，涉水而过，那个快乐的男孩坐在我身后，叽叽喳喳地笑着。

He showed me where Simon Thompson had bought a bit of ground and a home; but his daughter Lana, a plump, brown, slow girl, was not there.

他带我看了西蒙·汤普森在哪里买了一块地和一套房子；但他的女儿拉娜不在那儿，她是一个胖乎乎、棕色皮肤、行动迟缓的女孩。

She had married a man and a farm twenty miles away.

她嫁给了一个男人和二十英里外的一个农场。

We wound on down the stream till we came to a gate that I did not recognize, but the boy insisted that it was “Uncle Bird’s.” The farm was fat with the growing crop.

我们沿着小溪蜿蜒而下，直到来到一扇我不认识的大门前，但男孩坚持说那是“鸟叔叔的”。农场里的庄稼长得很肥沃。

In that little valley was a strange stillness as I rode up; for death and marriage had stolen youth and left age and childhood there.

当我骑马往上走时，那个小山谷里出现了一种奇怪的寂静。因为死亡和婚姻偷走了青春，把老年和童年留在那里。

We sat and talked that night after the chores were done.

那天晚上，家务事做完后，我们坐下来聊天。

Uncle Bird was grayer, and his eyes did not see so well, but he was still jovial.

鸟叔的脸色更灰了，眼睛看不清了，但他仍然很高兴。

We talked of the acres bought,—one hundred and twenty-five,—of the new guest-chamber added, of Martha’s marrying.

我们谈论了购买的一百二十五英亩土地、新增的客房、玛莎的婚礼。

Then we talked of death: Fanny and Fred were gone; a shadow hung over the other daughter, and when it lifted she was to go to Nashville to school.

然后我们谈到了死亡：范妮和弗雷德走了；另一个女儿笼罩着阴影，当阴影消散时，她要去纳什维尔上学。

At last we spoke of the neighbors, and as night fell, Uncle Bird told me how, on a night like that, ’Thenie came wandering back to her home over yonder, to escape the blows of her husband.

最后我们谈到了邻居，夜幕降临时，鸟叔叔告诉我，在那样的一个夜晚，“Thenie”是如何徘徊回到那边的家，以躲避她丈夫的打击。

And next morning she died in the home that her little bow-legged brother, working and saving, had bought for their widowed mother.

第二天早上，她死在她那罗圈腿的小弟弟工作和攒钱为寡妇买的房子里。

My journey was done, and behind me lay hill and dale, and Life and Death.

我的旅程结束了，身后是山峦叠嶂，生与死。

How shall man measure Progress there where the dark-faced Josie lies?

在黑脸乔西躺着的地方，人们该如何衡量进步呢？

How many heartfuls of sorrow shall balance a bushel of wheat?

一斗麦子要多少心的悲伤才能平衡？

How hard a thing is life to the lowly, and yet how human and real!

对于卑微的人来说，生活是多么艰难，但又是多么人性化和真实啊！

And all this life and love and strife and failure,—is it the twilight of nightfall or the flush of some faint-dawning day?

这一切的生活、爱情、冲突和失败——是夜幕降临的黄昏，还是黎明时分的红晕？

Thus sadly musing, I rode to Nashville in the Jim Crow car.

我悲伤地沉思着，乘坐吉姆·克劳汽车前往纳什维尔。

五、

Of the Wings of Atalanta

亚特兰大之翼

O black boy of Atlanta!

亚特兰大的黑人男孩啊！

But half was spoken; The slave’s chains and the master’s Alike are broken; The one curse of the races Held both in tether; They are rising—all are rising— The black and white together.

但只说了一半；奴隶的锁链和主人的锁链都折断了；种族的同一个诅咒两者都被束缚；他们正在上升——所有人都在上升——黑色和白色在一起。

WHITTIER.

惠蒂尔。

[Illustration]

[图示]

South of the North, yet north of the South, lies the City of a Hundred Hills, peering out from the shadows of the past into the promise of the future.

北方以南，南方以北，坐落着百山之城，从过去的阴影中窥视着未来的希望。

I have seen her in the morning, when the first flush of day had half-roused her; she lay gray and still on the crimson soil of Georgia; then the blue smoke began to curl from her chimneys, the tinkle of bell and scream of whistle broke the silence, the rattle and roar of busy life slowly gathered and swelled, until the seething whirl of the city seemed a strange thing in a sleepy land.

我在早上见过她，当时第一缕潮红把她惊醒了。她一动不动地躺在佐治亚州深红色的土地上，头发灰白。然后蓝色的烟雾开始从她的烟囱里袅袅升起，铃声和汽笛的叮当声打破了宁静，忙碌生活的嘎嘎声和轰鸣声慢慢聚集和膨胀，直到城市的沸腾旋转在这片沉睡的土地上显得很奇怪。

Once, they say, even Atlanta slept dull and drowsy at the foot-hills of the Alleghanies, until the iron baptism of war awakened her with its sullen waters, aroused and maddened her, and left her listening to the sea.

他们说，曾经，就连亚特兰大也在阿利根尼山麓沉沉地睡着，直到战争的钢铁洗礼用阴沉的海水唤醒了她，唤醒了她，让她发疯，让她听着大海的声音。

And the sea cried to the hills and the hills answered the sea, till the city rose like a widow and cast away her weeds, and toiled for her daily bread; toiled steadily, toiled cunningly,—perhaps with some bitterness, with a touch, of _réclame_,—and yet with real earnestness, and real sweat.

大海向小山呼喊，小山回应大海，直到这座城市像寡妇一样崛起，抛弃了她的杂草，为她每日的食物而劳作。稳定地、狡猾地辛勤劳作，也许带着一些苦涩，带着一点_réclame_，但是带着真正的认真和真正的汗水。

It is a hard thing to live haunted by the ghost of an untrue dream; to see the wide vision of empire fade into real ashes and dirt; to feel the pang of the conquered, and yet know that with all the Bad that fell on one black day, something was vanquished that deserved to live, something killed that in justice had not dared to die; to know that with the Right that triumphed, triumphed something of Wrong, something sordid and mean, something less than the broadest and best.

被不真实的梦境的幽灵所困扰而生活是一件很难的事情。看到帝国的广阔视野逐渐化为灰烬和污垢；感受到被征服者的痛苦，但也知道，在一个黑色的日子里，有那么多坏事降临，一些值得生存的东西被征服了，一些在正义上不敢死的东西被杀了；要知道，随着正义的胜利，也战胜了一些错误的东西，一些肮脏和卑鄙的东西，一些不那么广泛和最好的东西。

All this is bitter hard; and many a man and city and people have found in it excuse for sulking, and brooding, and listless waiting.

这一切都是苦涩的；许多人和城市和人民都在其中找到了生闷气、沉思和无精打采的等待的借口。

Such are not men of the sturdier make; they of Atlanta turned resolutely toward the future; and that future held aloft vistas of purple and gold:—Atlanta, Queen of the cotton kingdom; Atlanta, Gateway to the Land of the Sun; Atlanta, the new Lachesis, spinner of web and woof for the world.

这些人并不是坚强的人。亚特兰大的人们坚定地转向未来；未来呈现出紫色和金色的远景：——亚特兰大，棉花王国的女王；亚特兰大，通往太阳之国的门户；亚特兰大，新的拉克西斯，为世界编织网络和纬纱。

So the city crowned her hundred hills with factories, and stored her shops with cunning handiwork, and stretched long iron ways to greet the busy Mercury in his coming.

于是，这座城市在她的百座山丘上布满了工厂，用精巧的手工艺品储存了她的商店，并拉开了长长的铁道，迎接忙碌的水星的到来。

And the Nation talked of her striving.

全国人民都在谈论她的努力。

Perhaps Atlanta was not christened for the winged maiden of dull Boeotia; you know the tale,—how swarthy Atalanta, tall and wild, would marry only him who out-raced her; and how the wily Hippomenes laid three apples of gold in the way.

也许亚特兰大并不是以迟钝的维奥蒂亚的长着翅膀的少女命名的。你知道这个故事——皮肤黝黑、高大而狂野的阿塔兰忒只愿意嫁给比她更胜一筹的人；狡猾的希波墨涅斯如何在路上放了三个金苹果。

She fled like a shadow, paused, startled over the first apple, but even as he stretched his hand, fled again; hovered over the second, then, slipping from his hot grasp, flew over river, vale, and hill; but as she lingered over the third, his arms fell round her, and looking on each other, the blazing passion of their love profaned the sanctuary of Love, and they were cursed.

她像影子一样逃跑，停了下来，被第一个苹果吓了一跳，但就在他伸出手的时候，她又逃跑了；盘旋在第二个上空，然后从他炽热的手中滑落，飞过河流、山谷和山丘。但当她在第三个人身上徘徊时，他的双臂搂住了她，互相看着对方，他们炽热的爱情亵渎了爱的圣殿，他们受到了诅咒。

If Atlanta be not named for Atalanta, she ought to have been.

如果亚特兰大不是以亚特兰大命名的，那么她应该是这样的。

Atalanta is not the first or the last maiden whom greed of gold has led to defile the temple of Love; and not maids alone, but men in the race of life, sink from the high and generous ideals of youth to the gambler’s code of the Bourse; and in all our Nation’s striving is not the Gospel of Work befouled by the Gospel of Pay?

阿塔兰忒并不是第一个也不是最后一个因为对黄金的贪婪而玷污了爱神殿的少女。不仅是女仆，就连在人生的赛跑中的男人也从青年时崇高而慷慨的理想堕落到了交易所的赌徒准则。在我们国家的所有奋斗中，工作的福音不是被报酬的福音玷污了吗？

So common is this that one-half think it normal; so unquestioned, that we almost fear to question if the end of racing is not gold, if the aim of man is not rightly to be rich.

这种现象如此普遍，一半人认为这是正常现象；一半人认为这是正常现象。如此不容置疑，以至于我们几乎不敢质疑赛车的终点是否不是黄金，是否人类的目标不是正确地致富。

And if this is the fault of America, how dire a danger lies before a new land and a new city, lest Atlanta, stooping for mere gold, shall find that gold accursed!

如果这是美国的错，那么新的土地和新的城市面前将面临多么可怕的危险，唯恐为了黄金而屈尊的亚特兰大，会发现黄金是可诅咒的！

It was no maiden’s idle whim that started this hard racing; a fearful wilderness lay about the feet of that city after the War,—feudalism, poverty, the rise of the Third Estate, serfdom, the re-birth of Law and Order, and above and between all, the Veil of Race.

这场艰苦的比赛并不是少女心血来潮的开始。战后，这座城市的脚下是一片可怕的荒野——封建主义、贫困、第三等级的崛起、农奴制、法律和秩序的重生，以及最重要的是，种族的面纱。

How heavy a journey for weary feet!

对于疲惫的双脚来说，这是多么沉重的旅程啊！

what wings must Atalanta have to flit over all this hollow and hill, through sour wood and sullen water, and by the red waste of sun-baked clay!

亚特兰大必须有怎样的翅膀才能飞过这一切山谷和山丘，穿过酸木和阴沉的水，穿过被太阳晒干的红色粘土荒地！

How fleet must Atalanta be if she will not be tempted by gold to profane the Sanctuary!

亚特兰大必须多么敏捷，才不会受到黄金的诱惑而亵渎圣所！

The Sanctuary of our fathers has, to be sure, few Gods,—some sneer, “all too few.” There is the thrifty Mercury of New England, Pluto of the North, and Ceres of the West; and there, too, is the half-forgotten Apollo of the South, under whose aegis the maiden ran,—and as she ran she forgot him, even as there in Boeotia Venus was forgot.

可以肯定的是，我们祖先的庇护所里的神很少——有人嘲笑，“太少了”。有新英格兰节俭的水星、北方的冥王星和西方的谷神星；在那里，还有半被遗忘的南方阿波罗，少女在他的庇护下奔跑，——当她奔跑时，她忘记了他，就像在维奥蒂亚维纳斯被忘记一样。

She forgot the old ideal of the Southern gentleman,—that new-world heir of the grace and courtliness of patrician, knight, and noble; forgot his honor with his foibles, his kindliness with his carelessness, and stooped to apples of gold,—to men busier and sharper, thriftier and more unscrupulous.

她忘记了南方绅士的古老理想——贵族、骑士和贵族的优雅和礼貌的新世界继承人；他忘记了他的荣誉和他的缺点，他的善良和他的粗心，他屈尊于金苹果——对那些更忙碌、更敏锐、更节俭、更肆无忌惮的人。

Golden apples are beautiful—I remember the lawless days of boyhood, when orchards in crimson and gold tempted me over fence and field—and, too, the merchant who has dethroned the planter is no despicable parvenu.

金苹果是美丽的——我记得童年时无法无天的日子，当时深红色和金色的果园诱惑我越过栅栏和田野——而且，废黜种植园主的商人也不是卑鄙的暴发户。

Work and wealth are the mighty levers to lift this old new land; thrift and toil and saving are the highways to new hopes and new possibilities; and yet the warning is needed lest the wily Hippomenes tempt Atalanta to thinking that golden apples are the goal of racing, and not mere incidents by the way.

工作和财富是提升这片古老的新土地的强大杠杆；节俭、辛劳和节约是通向新希望和新可能性的高速公路；然而，我们还是需要发出警告，以免狡猾的希波墨涅斯诱使亚特兰大队认为金苹果是比赛的目标，而不仅仅是偶然事件。

Atlanta must not lead the South to dream of material prosperity as the touchstone of all success; already the fatal might of this idea is beginning to spread; it is replacing the finer type of Southerner with vulgar money-getters; it is burying the sweeter beauties of Southern life beneath pretence and ostentation.

亚特兰大决不能引领南方梦想以物质繁荣作为一切成功的试金石；这种想法的致命威力已经开始蔓延；它正在用粗俗的赚钱者取代了优秀的南方人；它把南方生活的甜蜜之美埋藏在伪装和炫耀之下。

For every social ill the panacea of Wealth has been urged,—wealth to overthrow the remains of the slave feudalism; wealth to raise the “cracker” Third Estate; wealth to employ the black serfs, and the prospect of wealth to keep them working; wealth as the end and aim of politics, and as the legal tender for law and order; and, finally, instead of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness, wealth as the ideal of the Public School.

对于每一种社会弊病，人们都提倡财富的灵丹妙药——用财富推翻奴隶制封建制度的残余；筹集“疯狂”第三产业的财富；雇佣黑人农奴的财富，以及让他们继续工作的财富前景；财富是政治的目的和目的，也是法律和秩序的法定货币；最后，公立学校的理想不是真、美、善，而是财富。

Not only is this true in the world which Atlanta typifies, but it is threatening to be true of a world beneath and beyond that world,—the Black World beyond the Veil.

这不仅适用于亚特兰大所代表的世界，而且也威胁着这个世界之下和之外的世界，即面纱之外的黑色世界。

Today it makes little difference to Atlanta, to the South, what the Negro thinks or dreams or wills.

如今，对于南方的亚特兰大来说，黑人的想法、梦想或意愿已经没有什么区别了。

In the soul-life of the land he is to-day, and naturally will long remain, unthought of, half forgotten; and yet when he does come to think and will and do for himself,—and let no man dream that day will never come,—then the part he plays will not be one of sudden learning, but words and thoughts he has been taught to lisp in his race-childhood.

今天，他在这片土地的灵魂生活中，并且自然地会长期存在，不被想到，半被遗忘；然而，当他真正开始为自己思考、意志和行动时——不要让任何人梦想那一天永远不会到来——那么他所扮演的角色将不是突然学习的角色，而是他在童年时被教导要口齿不清的词语和思想。

To-day the ferment of his striving toward self-realization is to the strife of the white world like a wheel within a wheel: beyond the Veil are smaller but like problems of ideals, of leaders and the led, of serfdom, of poverty, of order and subordination, and, through all, the Veil of Race.

今天，他为实现自我而奋斗的发酵，对于白人世界的冲突来说，就像一个轮子里的一个轮子：在面纱之外，有一些更小的问题，但就像理想、领导者和被领导、农奴制、贫困、秩序和从属的问题，以及种族面纱的问题。

Few know of these problems, few who know notice them; and yet there they are, awaiting student, artist, and seer,—a field for somebody sometime to discover.

很少有人知道这些问题，也很少有人注意到它们；然而它们就在那里，等待着学生、艺术家和预言家——一个有朝一日有人去发现的领域。

Hither has the temptation of Hippomenes penetrated; already in this smaller world, which now indirectly and anon directly must influence the larger for good or ill, the habit is forming of interpreting the world in dollars.

希波墨涅斯的诱惑就渗透到这里了；在这个较小的世界中，用美元解释世界的习惯正在形成，现在它必须间接或直接地影响更大的世界，无论好坏。

The old leaders of Negro opinion, in the little groups where there is a Negro social consciousness, are being replaced by new; neither the black preacher nor the black teacher leads as he did two decades ago.

在具有黑人社会意识的小团体中，黑人舆论的旧领导人正在被新领导人所取代；黑人传教士和黑人教师都不像二十年前那样领导。

Into their places are pushing the farmers and gardeners, the well-paid porters and artisans, the business-men,—all those with property and money.

农民和园丁、高薪搬运工和工匠、商人——所有那些拥有财产和金钱的人——都被推到了他们的位置上。

And with all this change, so curiously parallel to that of the Other-world, goes too the same inevitable change in ideals.

随着所有这些变化，与另一个世界的变化如此奇怪地平行，理想也不可避免地发生变化。

The South laments to-day the slow, steady disappearance of a certain type of Negro,—the faithful, courteous slave of other days, with his incorruptible honesty and dignified humility.

今天，南方哀叹某种类型的黑人的缓慢而稳定的消失，这种黑人是昔日忠实、有礼貌的奴隶，具有廉洁的诚实和庄严的谦逊。

He is passing away just as surely as the old type of Southern gentleman is passing, and from not dissimilar causes,—the sudden transformation of a fair far-off ideal of Freedom into the hard reality of bread-winning and the consequent deification of Bread.

他的去世与旧式南方绅士的去世一样，其原因也不尽相同——遥远的自由理想突然转变为谋取面包的艰难现实，并随之而来的面包神化。

In the Black World, the Preacher and Teacher embodied once the ideals of this people—the strife for another and a juster world, the vague dream of righteousness, the mystery of knowing; but to-day the danger is that these ideals, with their simple beauty and weird inspiration, will suddenly sink to a question of cash and a lust for gold.

在黑色世界中，传教士和导师曾经体现了这个民族的理想——对另一个公正世界的争夺，对正义的模糊梦想，对认知的神秘；但今天的危险在于，这些具有简单之美和怪异灵感的理想将突然陷入现金问题和对黄金的渴望。

Here stands this black young Atalanta, girding herself for the race that must be run; and if her eyes be still toward the hills and sky as in the days of old, then we may look for noble running; but what if some ruthless or wily or even thoughtless Hippomenes lay golden apples before her?

这里站着这位年轻的黑人亚特兰大，为必须参加的比赛做好准备；如果她的目光仍像古时候一样望向群山和天空，那么我们就可以寻找高贵的奔跑；但如果某些冷酷、狡猾、甚至轻率的希波墨涅斯将金苹果放在她面前呢？

What if the Negro people be wooed from a strife for righteousness, from a love of knowing, to regard dollars as the be-all and end-all of life?

如果黑人出于对正义的斗争、出于对求知的热爱而将金钱视为生命的全部和最终目标，那会怎样呢？

What if to the Mammonism of America be added the rising Mammonism of the re-born South, and the Mammonism of this South be reinforced by the budding Mammonism of its half-wakened black millions?

如果美国的拜金主义加上重生的南方不断兴起的拜金主义，而南方的拜金主义又因数百万半觉醒的黑人萌芽中的拜金主义而得到加强，结果会怎样呢？

Whither, then, is the new-world quest of Goodness and Beauty and Truth gone glimmering?

那么，新世界对善、美和真理的追求在哪里消失了呢？

Must this, and that fair flower of Freedom which, despite the jeers of latter-day striplings, sprung from our fathers’ blood, must that too degenerate into a dusty quest of gold,—into lawless lust with Hippomenes?

难道这朵美丽的自由之花，尽管受到当今年轻人的嘲笑，从我们祖先的血统中长出来，也必须堕落为对黄金的尘埃追求——堕落为对希波墨涅斯无法无天的欲望吗？

The hundred hills of Atlanta are not all crowned with factories.

亚特兰大的百座山丘上并不全都是工厂。

On one, toward the west, the setting sun throws three buildings in bold relief against the sky.

其中一处，向西，夕阳将三座建筑映衬在天空中，形成鲜明的浮雕。

The beauty of the group lies in its simple unity:—a broad lawn of green rising from the red street and mingled roses and peaches; north and south, two plain and stately halls; and in the midst, half hidden in ivy, a larger building, boldly graceful, sparingly decorated, and with one low spire.

这个群体的美丽在于其简单的统一：——红色街道上升起宽阔的绿色草坪，玫瑰和桃子交相辉映；南北两座古朴庄严的殿堂；中间有一座较大的建筑，一半隐藏在常春藤之中，大胆而优雅，装饰简洁，只有一个低矮的尖顶。

It is a restful group, —one never looks for more; it is all here, all intelligible.

这是一个宁静的团体，——人们从不寻求更多；一切都在这里，一切都可以理解。

There I live, and there I hear from day to day the low hum of restful life.

我住在那里，日复一日地听到宁静生活的低沉嗡嗡声。

In winter’s twilight, when the red sun glows, I can see the dark figures pass between the halls to the music of the night-bell.

冬天的暮色里，当红日照耀时，我可以看到黑色的人影伴随着夜钟的音乐在大厅之间穿行。

In the morning, when the sun is golden, the clang of the day-bell brings the hurry and laughter of three hundred young hearts from hall and street, and from the busy city below,—children all dark and heavy-haired,—to join their clear young voices in the music of the morning sacrifice.

早晨，当太阳升起金色时，晨钟的叮当声从大厅和街道以及下面繁忙的城市带来了三百名年轻心灵的匆忙和欢笑——孩子们都黑黑的、头发浓密——将他们清澈的年轻声音加入到晨祭的音乐中。

In a half-dozen class-rooms they gather then,—here to follow the love-song of Dido, here to listen to the tale of Troy divine; there to wander among the stars, there to wander among men and nations,—and elsewhere other well-worn ways of knowing this queer world.

然后，他们聚集在六间教室里——在这里聆听狄多的情歌，在这里聆听特洛伊神圣的故事；在那里漫步在群星之间，在那里漫步在人类和国家之间，以及在其他地方以其他陈旧的方式了解这个奇怪的世界。

Nothing new, no time-saving devices,—simply old time-glorified methods of delving for Truth, and searching out the hidden beauties of life, and learning the good of living.

没有什么新鲜事，没有节省时间的设备，只是古老的、被时间美化的探索真理的方法，寻找生活中隐藏的美丽，并学习生活的美好。

The riddle of existence is the college curriculum that was laid before the Pharaohs, that was taught in the groves by Plato, that formed the _trivium_ and _quadrivium_, and is to-day laid before the freedmen’s sons by Atlanta University.

存在之谜是大学课程，它曾摆在法老王面前，柏拉图在树林里教授，形成了_trivium_和_quadrivium_，今天又被亚特兰大大学摆在自由民的儿子们面前。

And this course of study will not change; its methods will grow more deft and effectual, its content richer by toil of scholar and sight of seer; but the true college will ever have one goal,—not to earn meat, but to know the end and aim of that life which meat nourishes.

并且这个学习过程不会改变；通过学者的辛劳和先见之明，它的方法会变得更加灵巧和有效，它的内容会更加丰富；但真正的大学永远有一个目标，不是为了挣肉，而是为了了解肉所滋养的生活的目的和目标。

The vision of life that rises before these dark eyes has in it nothing mean or selfish.

在这些黑色的眼睛面前升起的生活景象没有任何卑鄙或自私的成分。

Not at Oxford or at Leipsic, not at Yale or Columbia, is there an air of higher resolve or more unfettered striving; the determination to realize for men, both black and white, the broadest possibilities of life, to seek the better and the best, to spread with their own hands the Gospel of Sacrifice,—all this is the burden of their talk and dream.

在牛津或莱比西克，不在耶鲁或哥伦比亚，没有一种更坚定的决心或更无拘无束的奋斗气氛；决心为人类，无论黑人还是白人，实现生命最广泛的可能性，寻求更好和最好的，用自己的双手传播牺牲的福音，这一切都是他们的谈话和梦想的负担。

Here, amid a wide desert of caste and proscription, amid the heart-hurting slights and jars and vagaries of a deep race-dislike, lies this green oasis, where hot anger cools, and the bitterness of disappointment is sweetened by the springs and breezes of Parnassus; and here men may lie and listen, and learn of a future fuller than the past, and hear the voice of Time:

在这里，在种姓和禁令的广阔沙漠中，在令人心痛的轻视、罐子和变幻莫测的种族厌恶之中，有这片绿洲，炽热的愤怒在这里冷却，失望的苦涩被帕纳塞斯山的泉水和微风变得甜蜜；人们可以在这里躺着聆听，了解比过去更美好的未来，聆听时间的声音：

“Entbehren sollst du, sollst entbehren.”

“Entbehren sollst du，sollst entbehren。”

They made their mistakes, those who planted Fisk and Howard and Atlanta before the smoke of battle had lifted; they made their mistakes, but those mistakes were not the things at which we lately laughed somewhat uproariously.

他们犯了错误，那些在战争硝烟散去之前就安插了菲斯克、霍华德和亚特兰大的人；他们犯了错误。他们犯了错误，但我们最近并没有因为这些错误而大笑。

They were right when they sought to found a new educational system upon the University: where, forsooth, shall we ground knowledge save on the broadest and deepest knowledge?

当他们试图在大学上建立一个新的教育体系时，他们是对的：那么，除了最广泛和最深入的知识之外，我们应该在哪里建立知识呢？

The roots of the tree, rather than the leaves, are the sources of its life; and from the dawn of history, from Academus to Cambridge, the culture of the University has been the broad foundation-stone on which is built the kindergarten’s A B C.

树的生命之源是根，而不是叶子；自历史之初，从 Academus 到剑桥，大学文化一直是幼儿园 A B C 基础的广泛基石。

But these builders did make a mistake in minimizing the gravity of the problem before them; in thinking it a matter of years and decades; in therefore building quickly and laying their foundation carelessly, and lowering the standard of knowing, until they had scattered haphazard through the South some dozen poorly equipped high schools and miscalled them universities.

但这些建设者确实犯了一个错误，他们忽视了摆在他们面前的问题的严重性。认为这只是几年和几十年的事情；因此，他们迅速兴建，草率地奠定基础，降低了认识标准，直到他们在南方随意散布了几十所设备简陋的高中，并错误地将它们称为大学。

They forgot, too, just as their successors are forgetting, the rule of inequality:—that of the million black youth, some were fitted to know and some to dig; that some had the talent and capacity of university men, and some the talent and capacity of blacksmiths; and that true training meant neither that all should be college men nor all artisans, but that the one should be made a missionary of culture to an untaught people, and the other a free workman among serfs.

他们也忘记了，正如他们的继任者忘记了不平等的规则：——对于数以百万计的黑人青年来说，有些人适合了解，有些人适合挖掘；有些人有大学人的才能和能力，有些人有铁匠的才能和能力；真正的训练并不意味着所有人都应该是大学生，也不意味着所有人都应该是工匠，而是意味着一个人应该成为向未受过教育的人民传播文化的传教士，另一个人应该成为农奴中的自由工人。

And to seek to make the blacksmith a scholar is almost as silly as the more modern scheme of making the scholar a blacksmith; almost, but not quite.

试图让铁匠成为一名学者几乎和让学者成为铁匠的更现代的计划一样愚蠢。几乎，但不完全是。

The function of the university is not simply to teach bread-winning, or to furnish teachers for the public schools or to be a centre of polite society; it is, above all, to be the organ of that fine adjustment between real life and the growing knowledge of life, an adjustment which forms the secret of civilization.

大学的功能不仅仅是教授养家糊口的知识，或者为公立学校提供教师，或者成为上流社会的中心；最重要的是，它是现实生活和不断增长的生活知识之间进行精细调整的器官，这种调整形成了文明的秘密。

Such an institution the South of to-day sorely needs.

今天的南方迫切需要这样一个机构。

She has religion, earnest, bigoted:—religion that on both sides the Veil often omits the sixth, seventh, and eighth commandments, but substitutes a dozen supplementary ones.

她有宗教信仰，真诚而偏执：——面纱两边经常省略第六、第七和第八诫命的宗教，而是用十几个补充性的诫命代替。

She has, as Atlanta shows, growing thrift and love of toil; but she lacks that broad knowledge of what the world knows and knew of human living and doing, which she may apply to the thousand problems of real life to-day confronting her.

正如亚特兰大所表明的那样，她越来越节俭并且热爱辛劳。但她缺乏关于世界所知道的以及人类生活和行为的广泛知识，而她可以将这些知识应用于她今天面临的现实生活中的数千个问题。

The need of the South is knowledge and culture,—not in dainty limited quantity, as before the war, but in broad busy abundance in the world of work; and until she has this, not all the Apples of Hesperides, be they golden and bejewelled, can save her from the curse of the Boeotian lovers.

南方需要的是知识和文化——不是像战前那样数量有限，而是在工作世界中广泛而忙碌的丰富；在她拥有这个之前，并不是所有的赫斯珀里得斯苹果，无论它们是金色的还是镶有宝石的，都能将她从维奥蒂亚情人的诅咒中拯救出来。

The Wings of Atalanta are the coming universities of the South.

亚特兰大之翼是即将到来的南方大学。

They alone can bear the maiden past the temptation of golden fruit.

只有他们才能让少女经受住金色果实的诱惑。

They will not guide her flying feet away from the cotton and gold; for—ah, thoughtful Hippomenes!—do not the apples lie in the very Way of Life?

他们不会引导她飞翔的双脚离开棉花和黄金；因为——啊，深思熟虑的希波墨涅斯！——苹果不正是生命之道吗？

But they will guide her over and beyond them, and leave her kneeling in the Sanctuary of Truth and Freedom and broad Humanity, virgin and undefiled.

但他们会引导她超越他们，让她跪在真理、自由和博大人性的圣殿里，纯洁无瑕。

Sadly did the Old South err in human education, despising the education of the masses, and niggardly in the support of colleges.

可悲的是，老南方在人类教育方面犯了错误，蔑视大众的教育，对大学的支持也很吝啬。

Her ancient university foundations dwindled and withered under the foul breath of slavery; and even since the war they have fought a failing fight for life in the tainted air of social unrest and commercial selfishness, stunted by the death of criticism, and starving for lack of broadly cultured men.

她古老的大学基础在奴隶制的恶毒气息下逐渐萎缩和枯萎。即使自战后，他们在社会动荡和商业自私的污染空气中为生存而进行的斗争也以失败告终，批评的消亡阻碍了他们的发展，并且缺乏有广泛文化的人才。

And if this is the white South’s need and danger, how much heavier the danger and need of the freedmen’s sons!

如果这就是南方白人的需要和危险，那么自由民之子的危险和需要又是多么沉重啊！

how pressing here the need of broad ideals and true culture, the conservation of soul from sordid aims and petty passions!

这里多么迫切需要远大的理想和真正的文化，保护灵魂免受肮脏的目标和琐碎的激情的影响！

Let us build the Southern university—William and Mary, Trinity, Georgia, Texas, Tulane, Vanderbilt, and the others—fit to live; let us build, too, the Negro universities:—Fisk, whose foundation was ever broad; Howard, at the heart of the Nation; Atlanta at Atlanta, whose ideal of scholarship has been held above the temptation of numbers.

让我们建设适合居住的南方大学——威廉玛丽大学、三一大学、佐治亚大学、德克萨斯大学、杜兰大学、范德比尔特大学以及其他大学；让我们也建立黑人大学：菲斯克，其基础一直很广泛；霍华德，国家的核心；亚特兰大就亚特兰大，其奖学金的理想始终高于数字的诱惑。

Why not here, and perhaps elsewhere, plant deeply and for all time centres of learning and living, colleges that yearly would send into the life of the South a few white men and a few black men of broad culture, catholic tolerance, and trained ability, joining their hands to other hands, and giving to this squabble of the Races a decent and dignified peace?

为什么不在这里，或许在其他地方，深深地建立起永远的学习和生活中心，每年都会向南方的生活输送一些具有广泛文化、天主教宽容和训练有素的白人和黑人，他们联起手来，为这场种族争吵带来体面而有尊严的和平？

Patience, Humility, Manners, and Taste, common schools and kindergartens, industrial and technical schools, literature and tolerance,—all these spring from knowledge and culture, the children of the university.

耐心、谦虚、礼貌和品味、普通学校和幼儿园、工业和技术学校、文学和宽容——这一切都源于知识和文化，大学的孩子们。

So must men and nations build, not otherwise, not upside down.

人类和国家也必须如此建设，而不是相反，也不是颠倒过来。

Teach workers to work,—a wise saying; wise when applied to German boys and American girls; wiser when said of Negro boys, for they have less knowledge of working and none to teach them.

教导工人工作——一句至理名言；当应用于德国男孩和美国女孩时，这是明智的；当说到黑人男孩时，他们就更聪明了，因为他们对工作的了解较少，也没有人可以教他们。

Teach thinkers to think,—a needed knowledge in a day of loose and careless logic; and they whose lot is gravest must have the carefulest training to think aright.

教导思想家思考——在逻辑松散、粗心的时代所需要的知识；命运最悲惨的人必须经过最仔细的训练才能正确思考。

If these things are so, how foolish to ask what is the best education for one or seven or sixty million souls!

如果真是这样，那么问对于一、七、六千万灵魂来说最好的教育是什么是多么愚蠢啊！

shall we teach them trades, or train them in liberal arts?

我们应该教他们手艺，还是训练他们文科？

Neither and both: teach the workers to work and the thinkers to think; make carpenters of carpenters, and philosophers of philosophers, and fops of fools.

二者皆非：教工人如何工作，教思想家如何思考；让木匠变成木匠，让哲学家变成哲学家，让花花公子变成傻瓜。

Nor can we pause here.

我们也不能在这里暂停。

We are training not isolated men but a living group of men,—nay, a group within a group.

我们训练的不是孤立的人，而是一群活生生的人，不，是一个群体中的一个群体。

And the final product of our training must be neither a psychologist nor a brickmason, but a man.

而我们训练的最终产物一定不是心理学家，也不是砖瓦匠，而是一个人。

And to make men, we must have ideals, broad, pure, and inspiring ends of living,—not sordid money-getting, not apples of gold.

为了造就男人，我们必须有理想，广阔的、纯洁的、鼓舞人心的生活目标——而不是肮脏的金钱，不是金苹果。

The worker must work for the glory of his handiwork, not simply for pay; the thinker must think for truth, not for fame.

工人必须为了他的手工作品的荣耀而工作，而不仅仅是为了报酬；思想家必须为真理而思考，而不是为名誉而思考。

And all this is gained only by human strife and longing; by ceaseless training and education; by founding Right on righteousness and Truth on the unhampered search for Truth; by founding the common school on the university, and the industrial school on the common school; and weaving thus a system, not a distortion, and bringing a birth, not an abortion.

而这一切只能通过人类的斗争和渴望才能获得；通过不断的培训和教育；将权利建立在正义之上，将真理建立在对真理不受阻碍的追求之上；在大学上设立普通学校，在普通学校上设立工业学校；因此编织了一个系统，而不是扭曲，带来了诞生，而不是堕胎。

When night falls on the City of a Hundred Hills, a wind gathers itself from the seas and comes murmuring westward.

百山城夜幕降临，一阵风从海中汇聚，呼啸西袭。

And at its bidding, the smoke of the drowsy factories sweeps down upon the mighty city and covers it like a pall, while yonder at the University the stars twinkle above Stone Hall.

在它的指挥下，昏昏欲睡的工厂的烟雾席卷了这座强大的城市，像一层薄纱一样覆盖了它，而在大学那边，星星在石堂上空闪烁。

And they say that yon gray mist is the tunic of Atalanta pausing over her golden apples.

他们说那灰色的薄雾是亚特兰大的外衣，停在她的金苹果上。

Fly, my maiden, fly, for yonder comes Hippomenes!

飞吧，我的少女，飞吧，因为希波墨涅斯来了！

VI.

六．

Of the Training of Black Men

论黑人的训练

Why, if the Soul can fling the Dust aside, And naked on the Air of Heaven ride, Were’t not a Shame—were’t not a Shame for him In this clay carcase crippled to abide?

为什么，如果灵魂能把尘埃抛到一边，赤身裸体地乘坐在天堂的空气中，这不是一种耻辱——这对他来说不是一种耻辱吗？

OMAR KHAYYÁM (FITZGERALD).

奥马尔·海亚姆（菲茨杰拉德）。

[Illustration]

[图示]

From the shimmering swirl of waters where many, many thoughts ago the slave-ship first saw the square tower of Jamestown, have flowed down to our day three streams of thinking: one swollen from the larger world here and overseas, saying, the multiplying of human wants in culture-lands calls for the world-wide cooperation of men in satisfying them.

从波光粼粼的漩涡中，奴隶船第一次看到詹姆斯敦的方塔之前，有许多许多的思想流淌到了今天，三种思想流淌到了今天：一种来自国内外更大的世界，说，人类在文化土地上的需求的倍增需要世界范围内的人们合作来满足它们。

Hence arises a new human unity, pulling the ends of earth nearer, and all men, black, yellow, and white.

因此，出现了一种新的人类团结，将地球的两端拉得更近，所有的人，无论是黑人、黄种人还是白人。

The larger humanity strives to feel in this contact of living Nations and sleeping hordes a thrill of new life in the world, crying, “If the contact of Life and Sleep be Death, shame on such Life.” To be sure, behind this thought lurks the afterthought of force and dominion,—the making of brown men to delve when the temptation of beads and red calico cloys.

更大的人类努力在生机勃勃的国家和沉睡的群体的接触中感受到世界上新生命的激动，喊道：“如果生命和睡眠的接触就是死亡，那么这样的生命可耻。”可以肯定的是，这种想法的背后潜藏着对武力和统治的事后思考——当珠子和红色印花布的诱惑令人厌恶时，棕色人种就会去探索。

The second thought streaming from the death-ship and the curving river is the thought of the older South,—the sincere and passionate belief that somewhere between men and cattle, God created a _tertium quid_, and called it a Negro,—a clownish, simple creature, at times even lovable within its limitations, but straitly foreordained to walk within the Veil.

从死亡之船和弯曲的河流中涌出的第二个想法是古老的南方的想法——真诚而热情的信念，认为上帝在人和牛之间的某个地方创造了一种“tertium quid”，并称其为黑人——一种滑稽、简单的生物，有时甚至在其局限性范围内可爱，但注定要在面纱中行走。

To be sure, behind the thought lurks the afterthought,—some of them with favoring chance might become men, but in sheer self-defence we dare not let them, and we build about them walls so high, and hang between them and the light a veil so thick, that they shall not even think of breaking through.

诚然，这个想法的背后潜藏着事后的想法——他们中的一些人有机会成为人类，但出于纯粹的自卫，我们不敢让他们成为人类，我们在他们周围筑起如此高的围墙，在他们和光线之间挂上一层厚厚的面纱，以至于他们根本不会想到突破。

And last of all there trickles down that third and darker thought,—the thought of the things themselves, the confused, half-conscious mutter of men who are black and whitened, crying “Liberty, Freedom, Opportunity—vouchsafe to us, O boastful World, the chance of living men!” To be sure, behind the thought lurks the afterthought,—suppose, after all, the World is right and we are less than men?

最后，第三个更黑暗的想法缓缓流下，对事物本身的思考，黑人和白人的混乱、半意识的低语，高喊着“自由，自由，机会——请保佑我们，自夸的世界，活着的人的机会！”可以肯定的是，这个想法的背后潜藏着事后的想法——毕竟，假设世界是对的，而我们不如人呢？

Suppose this mad impulse within is all wrong, some mock mirage from the untrue?

假设这种内心的疯狂冲动是完全错误的，是某种来自不真实的假象？

So here we stand among thoughts of human unity, even through conquest and slavery; the inferiority of black men, even if forced by fraud; a shriek in the night for the freedom of men who themselves are not yet sure of their right to demand it.

因此，我们站在人类团结的思想之中，即使是通过征服和奴役；黑人的自卑，即使是被欺诈所迫；夜晚，人们为自由而尖叫，但他们自己还不确定自己是否有权要求自由。

This is the tangle of thought and afterthought wherein we are called to solve the problem of training men for life.

这是思想和事后思考的纠缠，我们被要求解决终身训练人的问题。

Behind all its curiousness, so attractive alike to sage and _dilettante_, lie its dim dangers, throwing across us shadows at once grotesque and awful.

在它所有的好奇心的背后，隐藏着它对圣人和外行如此有吸引力的暗淡危险，在我们身上投下既怪诞又可怕的阴影。

Plain it is to us that what the world seeks through desert and wild we have within our threshold,—a stalwart laboring force, suited to the semi-tropics; if, deaf to the voice of the Zeitgeist, we refuse to use and develop these men, we risk poverty and loss.

对我们来说，显而易见的是，世界在沙漠和荒野中所寻求的东西，我们已经在我们的门槛之内，——一支适合亚热带地区的强大的劳动力；如果我们对时代精神的声音充耳不闻，拒绝使用和培养这些人，我们就会面临贫困和损失的风险。

If, on the other hand, seized by the brutal afterthought, we debauch the race thus caught in our talons, selfishly sucking their blood and brains in the future as in the past, what shall save us from national decadence?

另一方面，如果我们被残酷的事后想法所抓住，使被我们的爪子抓住的种族变得堕落，在未来像过去一样自私地吸吮他们的血液和大脑，那么什么才能使我们免于民族的衰落呢？

Only that saner selfishness, which Education teaches, can find the rights of all in the whirl of work.

只有教育所教导的那种理智的自私，才能在忙碌的工作中找到所有人的权利。

Again, we may decry the color-prejudice of the South, yet it remains a heavy fact.

我们可能会再次谴责南方的肤色偏见，但这仍然是一个沉重的事实。

Such curious kinks of the human mind exist and must be reckoned with soberly.

人类思想中存在着这种奇怪的怪癖，必须清醒地加以考虑。

They cannot be laughed away, nor always successfully stormed at, nor easily abolished by act of legislature.

它们不能被一笑置之，也不能总是成功地受到攻击，也不能轻易地被立法机关的行为废除。

And yet they must not be encouraged by being let alone.

然而，他们绝不能因无所事事而受到鼓励。

They must be recognized as facts, but unpleasant facts; things that stand in the way of civilization and religion and common decency.

它们必须被视为事实，但却是令人不快的事实；妨碍文明、宗教和共同礼仪的事物。

They can be met in but one way,—by the breadth and broadening of human reason, by catholicity of taste and culture.

它们只能通过一种方式来满足：通过人类理性的广度和扩展，通过品味和文化的普遍性。

And so, too, the native ambition and aspiration of men, even though they be black, backward, and ungraceful, must not lightly be dealt with.

同样，人类的野心和抱负，即使是黑人、落后的、不优雅的人，也不能轻易对待。

To stimulate wildly weak and untrained minds is to play with mighty fires; to flout their striving idly is to welcome a harvest of brutish crime and shameless lethargy in our very laps.

刺激极度软弱和未经训练的头脑就像玩大火；蔑视他们无所事事的努力，就是在我们的膝上迎接野蛮犯罪和无耻昏睡的收获。

The guiding of thought and the deft coordination of deed is at once the path of honor and humanity.

思想的引导和行动的巧妙协调既是荣誉之路又是人性之路。

And so, in this great question of reconciling three vast and partially contradictory streams of thought, the one panacea of Education leaps to the lips of all:—such human training as will best use the labor of all men without enslaving or brutalizing; such training as will give us poise to encourage the prejudices that bulwark society, and to stamp out those that in sheer barbarity deafen us to the wail of prisoned souls within the Veil, and the mounting fury of shackled men.

因此，在这个调和三个巨大且部分相互矛盾的思想流派的重大问题上，教育的灵丹妙药跃入了所有人的口中：——这种人类培训将最好地利用所有人的劳动，而不是奴役或残酷；这样的训练将使我们能够镇静地鼓励阻碍社会的偏见，并消除那些纯粹的野蛮行为，使我们对面纱内被囚禁的灵魂的哀号和被束缚的人日益增长的愤怒感到耳聋。

But when we have vaguely said that Education will set this tangle straight, what have we uttered but a truism?

但是，当我们含糊地说教育将解决这个问题时，我们所说的不是老生常谈吗？

Training for life teaches living; but what training for the profitable living together of black men and white?

生命训练教导生活；但是，对于黑人和白人有利可图的共同生活进行什么培训呢？

A hundred and fifty years ago our task would have seemed easier.

一百五十年前，我们的任务似乎更容易。

Then Dr. Johnson blandly assured us that education was needful solely for the embellishments of life, and was useless for ordinary vermin.

然后约翰逊博士温和地向我们保证，教育只是为了点缀生活而需要的，对普通害虫来说毫无用处。

To-day we have climbed to heights where we would open at least the outer courts of knowledge to all, display its treasures to many, and select the few to whom its mystery of Truth is revealed, not wholly by birth or the accidents of the stock market, but at least in part according to deftness and aim, talent and character.

今天，我们已经攀登到了这样的高度，我们至少可以向所有人开放知识的外部庭院，向许多人展示其宝藏，并选择向少数人揭示其真理的奥秘，这不完全是由于出生或股票市场的偶然事件，而是至少部分地根据灵巧和目标、才能和品格。

This programme, however, we are sorely puzzled in carrying out through that part of the land where the blight of slavery fell hardest, and where we are dealing with two backward peoples.

然而，我们对在奴隶制祸害最严重、我们正在与两个落后民族打交道的那片土地上执行这一计划感到非常困惑。

To make here in human education that ever necessary combination of the permanent and the contingent—of the ideal and the practical in workable equilibrium—has been there, as it ever must be in every age and place, a matter of infinite experiment and frequent mistakes.

在人类教育中，要使永久性与偶然性、理想与实践在可行的平衡中永远必要地结合起来，就像在每个时代和地方一样，需要进行无限的实验和频繁的错误。

In rough approximation we may point out four varying decades of work in Southern education since the Civil War.

粗略地估计，我们可以指出自内战以来南方教育四个不同十年的工作。

From the close of the war until 1876, was the period of uncertain groping and temporary relief.

从战争结束到1876年，是不确定的摸索和暂时缓解的时期。

There were army schools, mission schools, and schools of the Freedmen’s Bureau in chaotic disarrangement seeking system and co-operation.

军校、教会学校、自由民局学校，一片混乱，寻求制度和合作。

Then followed ten years of constructive definite effort toward the building of complete school systems in the South.

接下来的十年里，为在南方建设完整的学校系统做出了建设性的、明确的努力。

Normal schools and colleges were founded for the freedmen, and teachers trained there to man the public schools.

为自由民建立了师范学校和学院，并在那里接受培训的教师担任公立学校的教师。

There was the inevitable tendency of war to underestimate the prejudices of the master and the ignorance of the slave, and all seemed clear sailing out of the wreckage of the storm.

战争不可避免地会低估主人的偏见和奴隶的无知，而一切似乎都在风暴的残骸中一帆风顺。

Meantime, starting in this decade yet especially developing from 1885 to 1895, began the industrial revolution of the South.

与此同时，从这十年开始，特别是从1885年到1895年，南方的工业革命开始了。

The land saw glimpses of a new destiny and the stirring of new ideals.

这片土地看到了新命运的曙光，新理想的激荡。

The educational system striving to complete itself saw new obstacles and a field of work ever broader and deeper.

努力完善自身的教育体系遇到了新的障碍，工作领域也变得更加广阔和深入。

The Negro colleges, hurriedly founded, were inadequately equipped, illogically distributed, and of varying efficiency and grade; the normal and high schools were doing little more than common-school work, and the common schools were training but a third of the children who ought to be in them, and training these too often poorly.

仓促建立的黑人学院，设备简陋，分布不合理，办学效率和等级参差不齐；普通学校和高中所做的只不过是普通学校的工作，而普通学校只训练了应就读的学生的三分之一，而且这些学生的训练往往很糟糕。

At the same time the white South, by reason of its sudden conversion from the slavery ideal, by so much the more became set and strengthened in its racial prejudice, and crystallized it into harsh law and harsher custom; while the marvellous pushing forward of the poor white daily threatened to take even bread and butter from the mouths of the heavily handicapped sons of the freedmen.

与此同时，南方白人由于突然放弃了奴隶制理想，其种族偏见更加根深蒂固和强化，并将其具体化为严厉的法律和更严厉的习俗。而可怜的白人每天的惊人进步甚至威胁着从自由民的严重残疾儿子嘴里夺走面包和黄油。

In the midst, then, of the larger problem of Negro education sprang up the more practical question of work, the inevitable economic quandary that faces a people in the transition from slavery to freedom, and especially those who make that change amid hate and prejudice, lawlessness and ruthless competition.

那么，在黑人教育这个更大问题的中间，出现了更实际的工作问题，这是一个从奴隶制向自由过渡的人民，特别是那些在仇恨和偏见、无法无天和无情竞争中做出这种转变的人们所面临的不可避免的经济困境。

The industrial school springing to notice in this decade, but coming to full recognition in the decade beginning with 1895, was the proffered answer to this combined educational and economic crisis, and an answer of singular wisdom and timeliness.

工业学校在这十年中突然引起人们的注意，但在 1895 年开始的十年中得到了充分的认可，这是对这场教育和经济危机相结合的答案，也是一个独特的智慧和及时性的答案。

From the very first in nearly all the schools some attention had been given to training in handiwork, but now was this training first raised to a dignity that brought it in direct touch with the South’s magnificent industrial development, and given an emphasis which reminded black folk that before the Temple of Knowledge swing the Gates of Toil.

几乎所有的学校从一开始就对手工艺培训给予了一定的关注，但现在这种培训首先被提升到了一种尊严，使其与南方宏伟的工业发展直接接触，并强调提醒黑人，在知识殿堂之前，劳动之门即将开启。

Yet after all they are but gates, and when turning our eyes from the temporary and the contingent in the Negro problem to the broader question of the permanent uplifting and civilization of black men in America, we have a right to inquire, as this enthusiasm for material advancement mounts to its height, if after all the industrial school is the final and sufficient answer in the training of the Negro race; and to ask gently, but in all sincerity, the ever-recurring query of the ages, Is not life more than meat, and the body more than raiment?

然而，毕竟它们只是大门，当我们把目光从黑人问题上的暂时性和偶然性转向美国黑人的永久进步和文明这一更广泛的问题时，随着对物质进步的热情达到顶峰，我们有权询问，工业学校是否毕竟是训练黑人种族的最终和充分的答案？并温柔地但真诚地问，历代以来不断出现的问题：生命难道不比肉更重要，身体不比衣服更重要吗？

And men ask this to-day all the more eagerly because of sinister signs in recent educational movements.

由于最近教育运动中出现的不祥迹象，今天的人们更加迫切地提出这个问题。

The tendency is here, born of slavery and quickened to renewed life by the crazy imperialism of the day, to regard human beings as among the material resources of a land to be trained with an eye single to future dividends.

这里的趋势是从奴隶制中诞生的，并在当今疯狂的帝国主义的推动下加速了新生，将人类视为这片土地的物质资源之一，需要对其进行训练，着眼于未来的红利。

Race-prejudices, which keep brown and black men in their “places,” we are coming to regard as useful allies with such a theory, no matter how much they may dull the ambition and sicken the hearts of struggling human beings.

种族偏见使棕色人和黑人保持在他们的“位置”，我们逐渐将这种理论视为有用的盟友，无论它们会如何削弱人们的雄心并使挣扎的人类感到恶心。

And above all, we daily hear that an education that encourages aspiration, that sets the loftiest of ideals and seeks as an end culture and character rather than bread-winning, is the privilege of white men and the danger and delusion of black.

最重要的是，我们每天都听说，鼓励抱负、将最崇高的理想和追求作为最终文化和品格而不是养家糊口的教育，是白人的特权，也是黑人的危险和妄想。

Especially has criticism been directed against the former educational efforts to aid the Negro.

尤其是对以前援助黑人的教育努力的批评。

In the four periods I have mentioned, we find first, boundless, planless enthusiasm and sacrifice; then the preparation of teachers for a vast public-school system; then the launching and expansion of that school system amid increasing difficulties; and finally the training of workmen for the new and growing industries.

在我提到的四个时期中，我们首先看到的是无限的、无计划的热情和牺牲；然后为庞大的公立学校系统培养教师；然后在日益困难的情况下启动和扩大该学校系统；最后是新兴行业和成长型行业的工人培训。

This development has been sharply ridiculed as a logical anomaly and flat reversal of nature.

这种发展被尖锐地嘲笑为逻辑异常和自然的逆转。

Soothly we have been told that first industrial and manual training should have taught the Negro to work, then simple schools should have taught him to read and write, and finally, after years, high and normal schools could have completed the system, as intelligence and wealth demanded.

我们很平静地被告知，首先工业和手工培训应该教会黑人工作，然后简单的学校应该教他读书和写作，最后，多年后，高中和师范学校可以按照智力和财富的要求完成这个系统。

That a system logically so complete was historically impossible, it needs but a little thought to prove.

一个逻辑上如此完整的系统在历史上是不可能的，只需要一点点思考就能证明。

Progress in human affairs is more often a pull than a push, a surging forward of the exceptional man, and the lifting of his duller brethren slowly and painfully to his vantage-ground.

人类事务的进步更多地是一种拉力而不是推动力，杰出人物的奋勇前进，以及缓慢而痛苦地将他的迟钝同胞提升到他的有利地位。

Thus it was no accident that gave birth to universities centuries before the common schools, that made fair Harvard the first flower of our wilderness.

因此，大学比普通学校早几个世纪诞生，使公平的哈佛成为我们荒野中的第一朵花，这绝非偶然。

So in the South: the mass of the freedmen at the end of the war lacked the intelligence so necessary to modern workingmen.

在南方也是如此：战争结束时的大量自由民缺乏现代工人所必需的智力。

They must first have the common school to teach them to read, write, and cipher; and they must have higher schools to teach teachers for the common schools.

他们首先必须有共同的学校来教他们阅读、写作和密码；他们必须有高等学校为普通学校教授教师。

The white teachers who flocked South went to establish such a common-school system.

涌入南方的白人教师就是为了建立这样的普通学校制度。

Few held the idea of founding colleges; most of them at first would have laughed at the idea.

很少有人有创办大学的想法；他们中的大多数人一开始都会嘲笑这个想法。

But they faced, as all men since them have faced, that central paradox of the South,—the social separation of the races.

但正如自他们以来的所有人所面临的那样，他们面临着南方的核心悖论——种族的社会隔离。

At that time it was the sudden volcanic rupture of nearly all relations between black and white, in work and government and family life.

那时，黑人和白人之间、工作、政府和家庭生活中的几乎所有关系都突然爆发了火山爆发。

Since then a new adjustment of relations in economic and political affairs has grown up,—an adjustment subtle and difficult to grasp, yet singularly ingenious, which leaves still that frightful chasm at the color-line across which men pass at their peril.

从那时起，经济和政治事务中的关系出现了新的调整，这种调整微妙而难以把握，但又异常巧妙，在种族界限上留下了可怕的鸿沟，跨越时人们将面临危险。

Thus, then and now, there stand in the South two separate worlds; and separate not simply in the higher realms of social intercourse, but also in church and school, on railway and street-car, in hotels and theatres, in streets and city sections, in books and newspapers, in asylums and jails, in hospitals and graveyards.

因此，过去和现在，南方存在着两个不同的世界。分离不仅在社会交往的更高领域，而且在教堂和学校、铁路和有轨电车、旅馆和剧院、街道和城市区域、书籍和报纸、收容所和监狱、医院和墓地。

There is still enough of contact for large economic and group cooperation, but the separation is so thorough and deep that it absolutely precludes for the present between the races anything like that sympathetic and effective group-training and leadership of the one by the other, such as the American Negro and all backward peoples must have for effectual progress.

对于大规模的经济和团体合作来说，仍然有足够的接触，但是分离是如此彻底和深刻，以至于目前种族之间绝对排除了任何像美国黑人和所有落后民族为了取得有效进步而必须进行的富有同情心和有效的团体训练和领导的行为。

This the missionaries of ’68 soon saw; and if effective industrial and trade schools were impracticable before the establishment of a common-school system, just as certainly no adequate common schools could be founded until there were teachers to teach them.

68 年的传教士很快就看到了这一点；如果说在普通学校制度建立之前，有效的工业和贸易学校是不切实际的，那么，在没有教师来教学之前，就不可能建立足够的普通学校。

Southern whites would not teach them; Northern whites in sufficient numbers could not be had.

南方白人不会教他们；无法拥有足够数量的北方白种人。

If the Negro was to learn, he must teach himself, and the most effective help that could be given him was the establishment of schools to train Negro teachers.

黑人要学习，就必须自学，而对他最有效的帮助就是建立学校来培训黑人教师。

This conclusion was slowly but surely reached by every student of the situation until simultaneously, in widely separated regions, without consultation or systematic plan, there arose a series of institutions designed to furnish teachers for the untaught.

每个了解情况的学生慢慢但肯定地得出了这个结论，直到同时，在相距甚远的地区，在没有协商或系统计划的情况下，出现了一系列旨在为未受过教育的人提供教师的机构。

Above the sneers of critics at the obvious defects of this procedure must ever stand its one crushing rejoinder: in a single generation they put thirty thousand black teachers in the South; they wiped out the illiteracy of the majority of the black people of the land, and they made Tuskegee possible.

批评者对这一程序的明显缺陷的嘲笑必须经受住它的一个令人震惊的反驳：在一代人的时间里，他们在南方安置了三万名黑人教师；他们消灭了这片土地上大多数黑人的文盲，他们使塔斯基吉成为可能。

Such higher training-schools tended naturally to deepen broader development: at first they were common and grammar schools, then some became high schools.

这些高等学校自然倾向于深化更广泛的发展：起初它们是普通学校和文法学校，然后有些变成了高中。

And finally, by 1900, some thirty-four had one year or more of studies of college grade.

最后，到 1900 年，大约有 34 人接受了一年或更长的大学学习。

This development was reached with different degrees of speed in different institutions: Hampton is still a high school, while Fisk University started her college in 1871, and Spelman Seminary about 1896.

这种发展在不同的机构中以不同程度的速度实现：汉普顿仍然是一所高中，而菲斯克大学于 1871 年开始她的学院，斯佩尔曼神学院大约在 1896 年。

In all cases the aim was identical,—to maintain the standards of the lower training by giving teachers and leaders the best practicable training; and above all, to furnish the black world with adequate standards of human culture and lofty ideals of life.

在所有情况下，目标都是相同的，即通过为教师和领导者提供最佳可行的培训来维持较低培训的标准；最重要的是，为黑人世界提供足够的人类文化标准和崇高的生活理想。

It was not enough that the teachers of teachers should be trained in technical normal methods; they must also, so far as possible, be broad-minded, cultured men and women, to scatter civilization among a people whose ignorance was not simply of letters, but of life itself.

仅仅对教师中的教师进行技术常规方法的培训是不够的；他们还必须尽可能是心胸宽广、有教养的男女，以便在一个不仅对文学无知，而且对生活本身无知的民族中传播文明。

It can thus be seen that the work of education in the South began with higher institutions of training, which threw off as their foliage common schools, and later industrial schools, and at the same time strove to shoot their roots ever deeper toward college and university training.

由此可见，南方的教育工作是从高等学校开始的，以普通学校为枝叶，后来又发展为工业学校，同时又努力向学院和大学教育扎根。

That this was an inevitable and necessary development, sooner or later, goes without saying; but there has been, and still is, a question in many minds if the natural growth was not forced, and if the higher training was not either overdone or done with cheap and unsound methods.

不言而喻，这是迟早不可避免和必要的发展。但是，许多人心中一直存在并且仍然存在这样一个问题：自然成长是否不是被迫的，高等训练是否过度或使用廉价且不健全的方法进行。

Among white Southerners this feeling is widespread and positive.

在南方白人中，这种感觉广泛而积极。

A prominent Southern journal voiced this in a recent editorial.

南方一家著名期刊在最近的一篇社论中表达了这一点。

“The experiment that has been made to give the colored students classical training has not been satisfactory.

“对有色人种学生进行古典训练的实验并不令人满意。

Even though many were able to pursue the course, most of them did so in a parrot-like way, learning what was taught, but not seeming to appropriate the truth and import of their instruction, and graduating without sensible aim or valuable occupation for their future.

尽管许多人能够学习这门课程，但他们中的大多数人都以鹦鹉学舌的方式这样做，学习所教授的内容，但似乎没有掌握其教学的真理和重要性，并且在没有明智的目标或对未来有价值的职业的情况下毕业。

The whole scheme has proved a waste of time, efforts, and the money of the state.”

事实证明，整个计划是浪费时间、精力和国家的金钱。”

While most fair-minded men would recognize this as extreme and overdrawn, still without doubt many are asking, Are there a sufficient number of Negroes ready for college training to warrant the undertaking?

虽然大多数公正的人都会认为这是极端和透支的，但毫无疑问，许多人仍然在问，是否有足够数量的黑人准备好接受大学培训以保证这项事业？

Are not too many students prematurely forced into this work?

是不是有太多的学生过早地被迫从事这项工作？

Does it not have the effect of dissatisfying the young Negro with his environment?

难道这不会导致年轻黑人对他的环境感到不满吗？

And do these graduates succeed in real life?

这些毕业生在现实生活中取得成功吗？

Such natural questions cannot be evaded, nor on the other hand must a Nation naturally skeptical as to Negro ability assume an unfavorable answer without careful inquiry and patient openness to conviction.

这些自然问题是无法回避的，另一方面，一个对黑人能力自然持怀疑态度的国家也不能在没有仔细询问和耐心开放的信念的情况下做出不利的答案。

We must not forget that most Americans answer all queries regarding the Negro a priori, and that the least that human courtesy can do is to listen to evidence.

我们绝不能忘记，大多数美国人先验地回答了所有有关黑人的问题，而人类礼貌至少能做的就是倾听证据。

The advocates of the higher education of the Negro would be the last to deny the incompleteness and glaring defects of the present system: too many institutions have attempted to do college work, the work in some cases has not been thoroughly done, and quantity rather than quality has sometimes been sought.

黑人高等教育的倡导者将是最后一个否认现行制度的不完整性和明显缺陷的人：太多的机构试图开展大学工作，在某些情况下工作尚未彻底完成，有时只追求数量而不是质量。

But all this can be said of higher education throughout the land; it is the almost inevitable incident of educational growth, and leaves the deeper question of the legitimate demand for the higher training of Negroes untouched.

但这一切都适用于全国范围内的高等教育。这是教育发展几乎不可避免的事件，并且没有触及黑人接受高等教育的合法需求这一更深层次的问题。

And this latter question can be settled in but one way,—by a first-hand study of the facts.

后一个问题只能通过一种方式来解决——通过对事实的第一手研究。

If we leave out of view all institutions which have not actually graduated students from a course higher than that of a New England high school, even though they be called colleges; if then we take the thirty-four remaining institutions, we may clear up many misapprehensions by asking searchingly, What kind of institutions are they?

如果我们把那些实际上没有从比新英格兰高中更高的课程毕业的学生排除在外，即使它们被称为学院；如果我们再拿剩下的三十四个机构来说，我们可以通过探究性的问题消除许多误解：它们是什么类型的机构？

what do they teach?

他们教什么？

and what sort of men do they graduate?

他们毕业了什么样的人？

And first we may say that this type of college, including Atlanta, Fisk, and Howard, Wilberforce and Claflin, Shaw, and the rest, is peculiar, almost unique.

首先我们可以说，这种类型的大学，包括亚特兰大学院、菲斯克学院、霍华德学院、威尔伯福斯学院、克拉夫林学院、肖学院以及其他学院，是奇特的，几乎是独一无二的。

Through the shining trees that whisper before me as I write, I catch glimpses of a boulder of New England granite, covering a grave, which graduates of Atlanta University have placed there,—

当我写作时，透过在我面前低语的闪亮树木，我瞥见了一块新英格兰花岗岩巨石，覆盖着一座坟墓，这是亚特兰大大学的毕业生放置在那里的，——

“IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THEIR FORMER TEACHER AND FRIEND AND OF THE UNSELFISH LIFE HE LIVED, AND THE NOBLE WORK HE WROUGHT; THAT THEY, THEIR CHILDREN, AND THEIR CHILDREN’S CHILDREN MIGHT BE BLESSED.”

“怀念他们以前的老师和朋友，怀念他无私的生活，以及他所做的崇高工作；愿他们、他们的孩子以及他们孩子的孩子得到祝福。”

This was the gift of New England to the freed Negro: not alms, but a friend; not cash, but character.

这是新英格兰送给获得自由的黑人的礼物：不是施舍，而是朋友；不是金钱，而是品格。

It was not and is not money these seething millions want, but love and sympathy, the pulse of hearts beating with red blood;—a gift which to-day only their own kindred and race can bring to the masses, but which once saintly souls brought to their favored children in the crusade of the sixties, that finest thing in American history, and one of the few things untainted by sordid greed and cheap vainglory.

这些沸腾的数百万人想要的不是金钱，也不是金钱，而是爱和同情，是红色血液跳动的心脏的脉搏；这种礼物今天只有他们自己的亲属和种族才能带给大众，但在六十年代的十字军东征中，神圣的灵魂曾经把它带给他们最喜爱的孩子，这是美国历史上最美好的事情，也是少数没有被肮脏的贪婪和廉价的虚荣所玷污的东西之一。

The teachers in these institutions came not to keep the Negroes in their place, but to raise them out of the defilement of the places where slavery had wallowed them.

这些机构中的老师不是为了让黑人留在他们的地方，而是为了让他们摆脱奴隶制所带来的污秽。

The colleges they founded were social settlements; homes where the best of the sons of the freedmen came in close and sympathetic touch with the best traditions of New England.

他们创办的大学是社会聚居地；在这些家园里，最优秀的自由民子弟与新英格兰的最佳传统有着密切而富有同情心的接触。

They lived and ate together, studied and worked, hoped and harkened in the dawning light.

他们一起生活、一起吃饭、一起学习、一起工作、一起希望、一起倾听黎明的曙光。

In actual formal content their curriculum was doubtless old-fashioned, but in educational power it was supreme, for it was the contact of living souls.

在实际的形式内容上，他们的课程无疑是过时的，但在教育力量上，它是至高无上的，因为它是活生生的灵魂的接触。

From such schools about two thousand Negroes have gone forth with the bachelor’s degree.

大约有两千名黑人从这些学校获得了学士学位。

The number in itself is enough to put at rest the argument that too large a proportion of Negroes are receiving higher training.

这个数字本身就足以平息“太多黑人接受更高层次训练”的争论。

If the ratio to population of all Negro students throughout the land, in both college and secondary training, be counted, Commissioner Harris assures us “it must be increased to five times its present average” to equal the average of the land.

如果计算全国所有黑人学生在大学和中学培训中所占的人口比例，哈里斯专员向我们保证“必须增加到目前平均水平的五倍”，以等于土地的平均水平。

Fifty years ago the ability of Negro students in any appreciable numbers to master a modern college course would have been difficult to prove.

五十年前，很难证明任何数量的黑人学生掌握现代大学课程的能力。

To-day it is proved by the fact that four hundred Negroes, many of whom have been reported as brilliant students, have received the bachelor’s degree from Harvard, Yale, Oberlin, and seventy other leading colleges.

今天，有四百名黑人获得了哈佛大学、耶鲁大学、奥柏林大学和其他七十所顶尖大学的学士学位，其中许多人被认为是优秀的学生，这一事实证明了这一点。

Here we have, then, nearly twenty-five hundred Negro graduates, of whom the crucial query must be made, How far did their training fit them for life?

那么，我们这里有近两千五百名黑人毕业生，我们必须对他们提出一个关键的问题：他们的训练在多大程度上适合他们的生活？

It is of course extremely difficult to collect satisfactory data on such a point,—difficult to reach the men, to get trustworthy testimony, and to gauge that testimony by any generally acceptable criterion of success.

当然，在这一点上收集令人满意的数据是极其困难的——很难接触到这些人，很难获得值得信赖的证词，也很难用任何普遍接受的成功标准来衡量该证词。

In 1900, the Conference at Atlanta University undertook to study these graduates, and published the results.

1900年，亚特兰大大学会议对这些毕业生进行了研究，并公布了结果。

First they sought to know what these graduates were doing, and succeeded in getting answers from nearly two-thirds of the living.

首先，他们试图了解这些毕业生在做什么，并成功地从近三分之二的生者那里得到了答案。

The direct testimony was in almost all cases corroborated by the reports of the colleges where they graduated, so that in the main the reports were worthy of credence.

几乎所有的直接证词都得到了他们毕业院校的报告的证实，因此这些报告基本上是值得相信的。

Fifty-three per cent of these graduates were teachers,—presidents of institutions, heads of normal schools, principals of city school-systems, and the like.

这些毕业生中 53% 是教师，如各机构的校长、师范学校的校长、城市学校系统的校长等。

Seventeen per cent were clergymen; another seventeen per cent were in the professions, chiefly as physicians.

百分之十七是牧师；另外百分之十七从事职业，主要是医生。

Over six per cent were merchants, farmers, and artisans, and four per cent were in the government civil-service.

超过百分之六是商人、农民和工匠，百分之四是政府公务员。

Granting even that a considerable proportion of the third unheard from are unsuccessful, this is a record of usefulness.

即使第三个未曾听说过的项目中有相当一部分是不成功的，这也是一个有用的记录。

Personally I know many hundreds of these graduates, and have corresponded with more than a thousand; through others I have followed carefully the life-work of scores; I have taught some of them and some of the pupils whom they have taught, lived in homes which they have builded, and looked at life through their eyes.

就我个人而言，我认识数百名这样的毕业生，并与一千多人通信过。通过其他人，我仔细地跟踪了乐谱的一生工作。我教过他们中的一些人和他们教过的一些学生，住在他们建造的房屋中，并通过他们的眼睛看待生活。

Comparing them as a class with my fellow students in New England and in Europe, I cannot hesitate in saying that nowhere have I met men and women with a broader spirit of helpfulness, with deeper devotion to their life-work, or with more consecrated determination to succeed in the face of bitter difficulties than among Negro college-bred men.

将他们与我在新英格兰和欧洲的同学进行比较，我毫不犹豫地说，我遇到过的男男女女们，比那些受过大学教育的黑人更具有更广泛的乐于助人的精神，对他们一生的工作有更深入的奉献，或者在面对痛苦的困难时有更坚定的成功决心。

They have, to be sure, their proportion of ne’er-do-wells, their pedants and lettered fools, but they have a surprisingly small proportion of them; they have not that culture of manner which we instinctively associate with university men, forgetting that in reality it is the heritage from cultured homes, and that no people a generation removed from slavery can escape a certain unpleasant rawness and gaucherie, despite the best of training.

诚然，他们中也有一些无所事事的人、学究们和有学识的傻瓜，但他们所占的比例却少得出奇。他们没有我们本能地与大学生联系在一起的那种举止文化，忘记了事实上这是来自有教养的家庭的遗产，而且没有一个摆脱奴隶制的一代人可以逃脱某种令人不快的原始和粗俗，尽管受过最好的训练。

With all their larger vision and deeper sensibility, these men have usually been conservative, careful leaders.

这些人拥有更广阔的视野和更深刻的情感，通常都是保守、谨慎的领导者。

They have seldom been agitators, have withstood the temptation to head the mob, and have worked steadily and faithfully in a thousand communities in the South.

他们很少成为煽动者，经受住了领导暴民的诱惑，并在南方的一千个社区中稳定而忠实地工作。

As teachers, they have given the South a commendable system of city schools and large numbers of private normal-schools and academies.

作为教师，他们为南方带来了值得称赞的城市学校系统和大量私立师范学校和学院。

Colored college-bred men have worked side by side with white college graduates at Hampton; almost from the beginning the backbone of Tuskegee’s teaching force has been formed of graduates from Fisk and Atlanta.

在汉普顿，有色人种大学毕业生与白人大学毕业生并肩工作；塔斯基吉大学的教学队伍几乎从一开始就由来自菲斯克和亚特兰大的毕业生组成。

And to-day the institute is filled with college graduates, from the energetic wife of the principal down to the teacher of agriculture, including nearly half of the executive council and a majority of the heads of departments.

如今，学院里挤满了大学毕业生，从精力充沛的校长夫人到农学老师，其中包括近一半的执行委员会成员和大部分部门负责人。

In the professions, college men are slowly but surely leavening the Negro church, are healing and preventing the devastations of disease, and beginning to furnish legal protection for the liberty and property of the toiling masses.

在职业中，大学生正在缓慢而坚定地渗透黑人教会，治愈和预防疾病的破坏，并开始为劳动群众的自由和财产提供法律保护。

All this is needful work.

所有这些都是必要的工作。

Who would do it if Negroes did not?

如果黑人不这样做，谁会这样做呢？

How could Negroes do it if they were not trained carefully for it?

如果黑人没有经过认真的训练，他们怎么能做到这一点呢？

If white people need colleges to furnish teachers, ministers, lawyers, and doctors, do black people need nothing of the sort?

如果白人需要大学来培养教师、部长、律师和医生，那么黑人就不需要这样的东西吗？

If it is true that there are an appreciable number of Negro youth in the land capable by character and talent to receive that higher training, the end of which is culture, and if the two and a half thousand who have had something of this training in the past have in the main proved themselves useful to their race and generation, the question then comes, What place in the future development of the South ought the Negro college and college-bred man to occupy?

如果这片土地上确实有相当数量的黑人青年有能力接受更高等的教育，其目的是文化，如果过去接受过这种教育的二千五百人基本上证明了自己对他们的种族和一代人有用，那么问题就来了，黑人大学和受过大学教育的人在南方的未来发展中应该占据什么位置？

That the present social separation and acute race-sensitiveness must eventually yield to the influences of culture, as the South grows civilized, is clear.

随着南方文明的发展，目前的社会隔离和严重的种族敏感性最终必然屈服于文化的影响，这是显而易见的。

But such transformation calls for singular wisdom and patience.

但这种转变需要非凡的智慧和耐心。

If, while the healing of this vast sore is progressing, the races are to live for many years side by side, united in economic effort, obeying a common government, sensitive to mutual thought and feeling, yet subtly and silently separate in many matters of deeper human intimacy,—if this unusual and dangerous development is to progress amid peace and order, mutual respect and growing intelligence, it will call for social surgery at once the delicatest and nicest in modern history.

如果在这个巨大的伤口愈合过程中，不同种族能够并肩生活很多年，在经济上团结起来，服从一个共同的政府，对相互的思想和感情敏感，但在人类更深层的亲密关系的许多问题上微妙而默默地分开——如果这种不寻常和危险的发展是在和平与秩序、相互尊重和不断增长的智慧中取得进展，那么它将立即要求进行现代历史上最微妙和最美好的社会手术。

It will demand broad-minded, upright men, both white and black, and in its final accomplishment American civilization will triumph.

它将需要心胸宽广、正直的人，无论是白人还是黑人，在其最终成就中，美国文明将取得胜利。

So far as white men are concerned, this fact is to-day being recognized in the South, and a happy renaissance of university education seems imminent.

就白人而言，这一事实如今已在南方得到承认，大学教育的幸福复兴似乎迫在眉睫。

But the very voices that cry hail to this good work are, strange to relate, largely silent or antagonistic to the higher education of the Negro.

但奇怪的是，那些为这项好工作欢呼的声音却在很大程度上对黑人的高等教育保持沉默或敌对。

Strange to relate!

联系起来很奇怪！

for this is certain, no secure civilization can be built in the South with the Negro as an ignorant, turbulent proletariat.

因为这是肯定的，如果黑人是无知的、骚乱的无产阶级，南方就不可能建立起安全的文明。

Suppose we seek to remedy this by making them laborers and nothing more: they are not fools, they have tasted of the Tree of Life, and they will not cease to think, will not cease attempting to read the riddle of the world.

假设我们试图通过让他们成为劳动者来弥补这一点，仅此而已：他们不是傻瓜，他们已经尝到了生命之树的滋味，他们不会停止思考，不会停止尝试解读世界之谜。

By taking away their best equipped teachers and leaders, by slamming the door of opportunity in the faces of their bolder and brighter minds, will you make them satisfied with their lot?

通过带走他们最有能力的老师和领导者，通过在他们更大胆和更聪明的头脑面前关上机会之门，你会让他们对自己的命运感到满意吗？

or will you not rather transfer their leading from the hands of men taught to think to the hands of untrained demagogues?

或者你不愿意将他们的领导权从受过训练的人手中转移到未经训练的煽动者手中？

We ought not to forget that despite the pressure of poverty, and despite the active discouragement and even ridicule of friends, the demand for higher training steadily increases among Negro youth: there were, in the years from 1875 to 1880, 22 Negro graduates from Northern colleges; from 1885 to 1890 there were 43, and from 1895 to 1900, nearly 100 graduates.

我们不应该忘记，尽管面临贫困的压力，尽管朋友们的积极劝阻甚至嘲笑，黑人青年对高等教育的需求却稳步增长：从1875年到1880年，有22名黑人从北方大学毕业； 1885年至1890年有43名毕业生，1895年至1900年有近100名毕业生。

From Southern Negro colleges there were, in the same three periods, 143, 413, and over 500 graduates.

在这三个时期内，南方黑人学院的毕业生分别为 143 名、413 名和 500 多名。

Here, then, is the plain thirst for training; by refusing to give this Talented Tenth the key to knowledge, can any sane man imagine that they will lightly lay aside their yearning and contentedly become hewers of wood and drawers of water?

那么，这就是对训练的明显渴望；拒绝给予这位天才第十人知识的钥匙，任何理智的人能想象他们会轻轻地放下渴望，心满意足地成为伐木者和汲水者吗？

No. The dangerously clear logic of the Negro’s position will more and more loudly assert itself in that day when increasing wealth and more intricate social organization preclude the South from being, as it so largely is, simply an armed camp for intimidating black folk.

不。到了那一天，随着财富的增加和社会组织的更加复杂，南方不再只是一个恐吓黑人的武装营地，黑人立场中危险而清晰的逻辑将越来越响亮地得到体现。

Such waste of energy cannot be spared if the South is to catch up with civilization.

如果南方要赶上文明，就不能避免这种能源浪费。

And as the black third of the land grows in thrift and skill, unless skilfully guided in its larger philosophy, it must more and more brood over the red past and the creeping, crooked present, until it grasps a gospel of revolt and revenge and throws its new-found energies athwart the current of advance.

随着黑人三分之一的土地在节俭和技能方面不断增长，除非在其更大的哲学中得到巧妙的指导，否则它必须越来越多地沉思红色的过去和蠕动的、扭曲的现在，直到它掌握了反抗和复仇的福音，并将其新发现的能量投入到前进的潮流中。

Even to-day the masses of the Negroes see all too clearly the anomalies of their position and the moral crookedness of yours.

即使在今天，广大黑人也清楚地看到了他们立场的反常和你们道德的扭曲。

You may marshal strong indictments against them, but their counter-cries, lacking though they be in formal logic, have burning truths within them which you may not wholly ignore, O Southern Gentlemen!

你们可以对他们提出强烈的控诉，但他们的反驳虽然缺乏形式逻辑，但其中蕴含着灼热的真理，你们不能完全忽视这些真理，南方的先生们！

If you deplore their presence here, they ask, Who brought us?

如果你对他们的存在感到遗憾，他们会问，谁带我们来的？

When you cry, Deliver us from the vision of intermarriage, they answer that legal marriage is infinitely better than systematic concubinage and prostitution.

当你呼喊“让我们摆脱异族通婚的幻象”时，他们回答说，合法婚姻比系统性的纳妾和卖淫要好得多。

And if in just fury you accuse their vagabonds of violating women, they also in fury quite as just may reply: The rape which your gentlemen have done against helpless black women in defiance of your own laws is written on the foreheads of two millions of mulattoes, and written in ineffaceable blood.

如果你在愤怒中指责他们的流浪汉侵犯妇女，他们也会在愤怒中公正地回答：你们的绅士们无视你们自己的法律，对无助的黑人妇女实施的强奸，已经写在两百万混血儿的额头上，是用不可磨灭的鲜血写成的。

And finally, when you fasten crime upon this race as its peculiar trait, they answer that slavery was the arch-crime, and lynching and lawlessness its twin abortions; that color and race are not crimes, and yet it is they which in this land receive most unceasing condemnation, North, East, South, and West.

最后，当你将犯罪视为这个种族的独特特征时，他们回答说，奴隶制是主要犯罪，私刑和无法无天是其孪生堕胎；肤色和种族不是犯罪，但在这片土地上，无论是北方、东方、南方还是西方，他们却受到了最持续不断的谴责。

I will not say such arguments are wholly justified,—I will not insist that there is no other side to the shield; but I do say that of the nine millions of Negroes in this nation, there is scarcely one out of the cradle to whom these arguments do not daily present themselves in the guise of terrible truth.

我不会说这样的论点是完全合理的——我不会坚持认为盾牌没有另一面；但我确实要说的是，在这个国家的九百万黑人中，几乎每个人从摇篮里出来的时候，这些论点每天都以可怕的事实为幌子呈现在他们面前。

I insist that the question of the future is how best to keep these millions from brooding over the wrongs of the past and the difficulties of the present, so that all their energies may be bent toward a cheerful striving and cooperation with their white neighbors toward a larger, juster, and fuller future.

我坚持认为，未来的问题是如何最好地让这数百万人不再沉思过去的错误和现在的困难，以便他们的所有精力都可以集中在与白人邻居的愉快奋斗和合作上，以实现更广阔、更公正和更充实的未来。

That one wise method of doing this lies in the closer knitting of the Negro to the great industrial possibilities of the South is a great truth.

做到这一点的一个明智方法在于让黑人与南方巨大的工业可能性更加紧密地联系在一起，这是一个伟大的真理。

And this the common schools and the manual training and trade schools are working to accomplish.

普通学校以及手工培训和贸易学校正在努力实现这一目标。

But these alone are not enough.

但仅这些还不够。

The foundations of knowledge in this race, as in others, must be sunk deep in the college and university if we would build a solid, permanent structure.

如果我们要建立一个坚实、永久的结构，这场比赛的知识基础就必须深深扎根于学院和大学。

Internal problems of social advance must inevitably come, —problems of work and wages, of families and homes, of morals and the true valuing of the things of life; and all these and other inevitable problems of civilization the Negro must meet and solve largely for himself, by reason of his isolation; and can there be any possible solution other than by study and thought and an appeal to the rich experience of the past?

社会进步的内部问题必然会出现——工作和工资问题、家庭问题、道德问题和对生活事物的真正评价问题；由于黑人的孤立性，所有这些以及其他不可避免的文明问题都必须由黑人自己来应对和解决。除了学习思考、借鉴过去的丰富经验之外，还有什么可能的解决办法吗？

Is there not, with such a group and in such a crisis, infinitely more danger to be apprehended from half-trained minds and shallow thinking than from over-education and over-refinement?

对于这样一个群体，在这样的危机中，半途而废的头脑和肤浅的思维所带来的危险难道不是比过度教育和过度教化所带来的危险要大得多吗？

Surely we have wit enough to found a Negro college so manned and equipped as to steer successfully between the _dilettante_ and the fool.

当然，我们有足够的智慧来建立一所黑人学院，人员配备齐全，设备齐全，可以成功地在业余爱好者和傻瓜之间导航。

We shall hardly induce black men to believe that if their stomachs be full, it matters little about their brains.

我们很难让黑人相信，如果他们的胃填饱了，他们的大脑就无关紧要了。

They already dimly perceive that the paths of peace winding between honest toil and dignified manhood call for the guidance of skilled thinkers, the loving, reverent comradeship between the black lowly and the black men emancipated by training and culture.

他们已经隐隐约约地意识到，在诚实的辛劳和有尊严的男子气概之间蜿蜒的和平道路需要熟练的思想家的指导，需要低等黑人与通过训练和文化解放的黑人之间充满爱心和虔诚的同志情谊。

The function of the Negro college, then, is clear: it must maintain the standards of popular education, it must seek the social regeneration of the Negro, and it must help in the solution of problems of race contact and cooperation.

那么，黑人学院的职能就很明确了：它必须维持大众教育的标准，它必须寻求黑人的社会复兴，它必须帮助解决种族接触与合作的问题。

And finally, beyond all this, it must develop men.

最后，除此之外，还必须培养人。

Above our modern socialism, and out of the worship of the mass, must persist and evolve that higher individualism which the centres of culture protect; there must come a loftier respect for the sovereign human soul that seeks to know itself and the world about it; that seeks a freedom for expansion and self-development; that will love and hate and labor in its own way, untrammeled alike by old and new.

在我们的现代社会主义之上，出于对大众的崇拜，必须坚持和发展文化中心所保护的更高的个人主义；必须对寻求了解自身和周围世界的人类主权灵魂怀有更加崇高的敬意；寻求扩张和自我发展的自由；它将以自己的方式爱、恨、劳动，不受新旧束缚。

Such souls aforetime have inspired and guided worlds, and if we be not wholly bewitched by our Rhinegold, they shall again.

这些灵魂以前曾启发和引导过世界，如果我们没有完全被我们的莱茵金所迷惑，他们将会再次。

Herein the longing of black men must have respect: the rich and bitter depth of their experience, the unknown treasures of their inner life, the strange rendings of nature they have seen, may give the world new points of view and make their loving, living, and doing precious to all human hearts.

在这一点上，黑人的渴望必须得到尊重：他们丰富而痛苦的经历、他们内心生活中未知的宝藏、他们所看到的自然的奇怪撕裂，可能会给世界带来新的观点，并使他们的爱、生活和行为对所有人来说都是珍贵的。

And to themselves in these the days that try their souls, the chance to soar in the dim blue air above the smoke is to their finer spirits boon and guerdon for what they lose on earth by being black.

对他们来说，在这些考验灵魂的日子里，在烟雾上方的昏暗蓝色空气中翱翔的机会对他们的精神来说是一种恩赐，因为他们在地球上因身为黑人而失去了一切。

I sit with Shakespeare and he winces not.

我和莎士比亚坐在一起，他没有退缩。

Across the color line I move arm in arm with Balzac and Dumas, where smiling men and welcoming women glide in gilded halls.

我与巴尔扎克和大仲马手挽着手，越过肤色界限，微笑的男人和热情的女人在镀金的大厅里滑行。

From out the caves of evening that swing between the strong-limbed earth and the tracery of the stars, I summon Aristotle and Aurelius and what soul I will, and they come all graciously with no scorn nor condescension.

从在强健的大地和星星的窗饰之间摇摆的傍晚洞穴中，我召唤亚里士多德和奥勒留以及我愿意的任何灵魂，他们都亲切地到来，没有蔑视或居高临下。

So, wed with Truth, I dwell above the Veil.

所以，与真理结婚，我居住在面纱之上。

Is this the life you grudge us, O knightly America?

哦，骑士般的美国，这就是你对我们不满的生活吗？

Is this the life you long to change into the dull red hideousness of Georgia?

这就是你渴望变成佐治亚州暗红色丑陋的生活吗？

Are you so afraid lest peering from this high Pisgah, between Philistine and Amalekite, we sight the Promised Land?

你是否如此害怕，唯恐我们从非利士人和亚玛力人之间的毗斯迦高处看到应许之地？

VII.

七．

Of the Black Belt

黑带

I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

耶路撒冷的众女子啊，我虽黑却秀美，如同基达的帐幕，如同所罗门的幔子。

Look not upon me, because I am black, Because the sun hath looked upon me: My mother’s children were angry with me; They made me the keeper of the vineyards; But mine own vineyard have I not kept.

不要看着我，因为我是黑色的，因为太阳已经看着我：我母亲的孩子们对我生气；他们任命我为葡萄园的看守人；但我自己的葡萄园却没有保留。

THE SONG OF SOLOMON.

所罗门之歌。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Out of the North the train thundered, and we woke to see the crimson soil of Georgia stretching away bare and monotonous right and left.

火车轰隆隆地从北方驶出，我们醒来时看到佐治亚州的深红色土壤向左右延伸，光秃秃、单调乏味。

Here and there lay straggling, unlovely villages, and lean men loafed leisurely at the depots; then again came the stretch of pines and clay.

到处都是零散、不可爱的村庄，精瘦的男人在车站悠闲地闲逛。然后又是一片松树和泥土。

Yet we did not nod, nor weary of the scene; for this is historic ground.

但我们并没有点头，也没有厌倦这个场景；因为这是历史性的基础。

Right across our track, three hundred and sixty years ago, wandered the cavalcade of Hernando de Soto, looking for gold and the Great Sea; and he and his foot-sore captives disappeared yonder in the grim forests to the west.

三百六十年前，埃尔南多·德·索托（Hernando de Soto）的队伍就在我们的足迹对面徘徊，寻找黄金和大海；他和他的脚痛的俘虏消失在西边阴森的森林里。

Here sits Atlanta, the city of a hundred hills, with something Western, something Southern, and something quite its own, in its busy life.

这里坐落着亚特兰大，这座百山之城，在忙碌的生活中既有西方的一面，也有南方的一面，还有自己独特的一面。

Just this side Atlanta is the land of the Cherokees and to the southwest, not far from where Sam Hose was crucified, you may stand on a spot which is to-day the centre of the Negro problem,—the centre of those nine million men who are America’s dark heritage from slavery and the slave-trade.

亚特兰大的这一边是切罗基人的土地，而在西南方，距离萨姆·霍斯被钉死在十字架上的地方不远，你所站的地方可能是今天黑人问题的中心——这九百万人是美国奴隶制和奴隶贸易的黑暗遗产的中心。

Not only is Georgia thus the geographical focus of our Negro population, but in many other respects, both now and yesterday, the Negro problems have seemed to be centered in this State.

因此，格鲁吉亚不仅是我们黑人人口的地理中心，而且在许多其他方面，无论是现在还是昨天，黑人问题似乎都集中在这个州。

No other State in the Union can count a million Negroes among its citizens,—a population as large as the slave population of the whole Union in 1800; no other State fought so long and strenuously to gather this host of Africans.

联邦中没有任何一个州的公民有 100 万黑人——这一人口数量与 1800 年整个联邦的奴隶人口一样多；没有哪个国家为聚集这群非洲人而进行了如此漫长而艰苦的斗争。

Oglethorpe thought slavery against law and gospel; but the circumstances which gave Georgia its first inhabitants were not calculated to furnish citizens over-nice in their ideas about rum and slaves.

奥格尔索普认为奴隶制违反法律和福音；但是，格鲁吉亚第一批居民的生存环境并没有让公民对朗姆酒和奴隶产生过分好感。

Despite the prohibitions of the trustees, these Georgians, like some of their descendants, proceeded to take the law into their own hands; and so pliant were the judges, and so flagrant the smuggling, and so earnest were the prayers of Whitefield, that by the middle of the eighteenth century all restrictions were swept away, and the slave-trade went merrily on for fifty years and more.

尽管受到受托人的禁止，这些格鲁吉亚人像他们的一些后代一样，继续将法律掌握在自己手中。法官如此顺从，走私如此明目张胆，怀特菲尔德的祈祷如此恳切，以至于到了十八世纪中叶，所有限制都被一扫而光，奴隶贸易愉快地进行了五十年甚至更长的时间。

Down in Darien, where the Delegal riots took place some summers ago, there used to come a strong protest against slavery from the Scotch Highlanders; and the Moravians of Ebenezer did not like the system.

在达连（Darien），几年前的夏天，德莱格尔骚乱就发生在那里，苏格兰高地人曾对奴隶制进行过强烈抗议。埃比尼泽的摩拉维亚人不喜欢这个制度。

But not till the Haytian Terror of Toussaint was the trade in men even checked; while the national statute of 1808 did not suffice to stop it.

但直到图森特的海蒂恐怖事件之后，人才贸易才得以遏制。而1808年的国家法令并不足以阻止它。

How the Africans poured in!—fifty thousand between 1790 and 1810, and then, from Virginia and from smugglers, two thousand a year for many years more.

非洲人是多么涌入啊！1790 年至 1810 年间有五万人涌入，此后的许多年里，每年有两千人从弗吉尼亚和走私者那里涌入。

So the thirty thousand Negroes of Georgia in 1790 doubled in a decade,—were over a hundred thousand in 1810, had reached two hundred thousand in 1820, and half a million at the time of the war.

因此，1790 年格鲁吉亚的 3 万黑人在十年内翻了一番——1810 年超过 10 万，1820 年达到 20 万，战争时达到 50 万。

Thus like a snake the black population writhed upward.

因此，黑人人口像一条蛇一样盘旋向上。

But we must hasten on our journey.

但我们必须加快旅程。

This that we pass as we near Atlanta is the ancient land of the Cherokees,—that brave Indian nation which strove so long for its fatherland, until Fate and the United States Government drove them beyond the Mississippi.

当我们靠近亚特兰大时，我们经过的这片土地是切罗基人的古老土地，这个勇敢的印第安民族为自己的祖国奋斗了很长时间，直到命运和美国政府将他们赶出了密西西比河。

If you wish to ride with me you must come into the “Jim Crow Car.” There will be no objection,—already four other white men, and a little white girl with her nurse, are in there.

如果你想和我一起乘坐，你必须乘坐“吉姆·克劳汽车”。不会有人反对——那里已经有另外四个白人，还有一个白人小女孩和她的护士。

Usually the races are mixed in there; but the white coach is all white.

通常种族是混合在那里的；但白色教练却是全白的。

Of course this car is not so good as the other, but it is fairly clean and comfortable.

当然，这辆车不如另一辆车好，但相当干净、舒适。

The discomfort lies chiefly in the hearts of those four black men yonder—and in mine.

这种不适主要存在于那边那四个黑人的心中——也存在于我的心中。

We rumble south in quite a business-like way.

我们以相当公事公办的方式向南行驶。

The bare red clay and pines of Northern Georgia begin to disappear, and in their place appears a rich rolling land, luxuriant, and here and there well tilled.

乔治亚州北部光秃秃的红土和松树开始消失，取而代之的是一片肥沃的连绵起伏的土地，郁郁葱葱，到处都耕种得很好。

This is the land of the Creek Indians; and a hard time the Georgians had to seize it.

这是克里克印第安人的土地；格鲁吉亚人不得不度过一段艰难的时期。

The towns grow more frequent and more interesting, and brand-new cotton mills rise on every side.

城镇变得更加频繁和有趣，全新的棉纺厂在各处拔地而起。

Below Macon the world grows darker; for now we approach the Black Belt,—that strange land of shadows, at which even slaves paled in the past, and whence come now only faint and half-intelligible murmurs to the world beyond.

梅肯下方的世界变得更加黑暗；现在我们正在接近黑带——那片陌生的阴影之地，过去连奴隶都面色苍白，而现在从那里传来的只有微弱的、难以理解的低语声。

The “Jim Crow Car” grows larger and a shade better; three rough field-hands and two or three white loafers accompany us, and the newsboy still spreads his wares at one end.

“吉姆·克劳汽车”变得更大、遮阳更好；三个粗鲁的田野工人和两三双白色乐福鞋陪着我们，报童仍然把他的商品摊在一端。

The sun is setting, but we can see the great cotton country as we enter it,—the soil now dark and fertile, now thin and gray, with fruit-trees and dilapidated buildings,—all the way to Albany.

太阳正在落山，但当我们进入时，我们可以看到伟大的棉花之乡——土壤现在黑暗而肥沃，现在稀疏而灰色，有果树和破旧的建筑物，一直到奥尔巴尼。

At Albany, in the heart of the Black Belt, we stop.

在黑带中心的奥尔巴尼，我们停下来。

Two hundred miles south of Atlanta, two hundred miles west of the Atlantic, and one hundred miles north of the Great Gulf lies Dougherty County, with ten thousand Negroes and two thousand whites.

多尔蒂县位于亚特兰大以南 200 英里、大西洋以西 200 英里、大湾以北 100 英里处，拥有一万名黑人和两千名白人。

The Flint River winds down from Andersonville, and, turning suddenly at Albany, the county-seat, hurries on to join the Chattahoochee and the sea.

弗林特河从安德森维尔蜿蜒而下，在县城奥尔巴尼突然转向，匆匆汇入查塔胡奇河和大海。

Andrew Jackson knew the Flint well, and marched across it once to avenge the Indian Massacre at Fort Mims.

安德鲁·杰克逊对弗林特河很熟悉，曾一度跨过弗林特河，为米姆斯堡的印第安人大屠杀报仇。

That was in 1814, not long before the battle of New Orleans; and by the Creek treaty that followed this campaign, all Dougherty County, and much other rich land, was ceded to Georgia.

那是 1814 年，新奥尔良战役前不久。根据这场战役之后签订的克里克条约，整个多尔蒂县和许多其他富饶的土地都被割让给佐治亚州。

Still, settlers fought shy of this land, for the Indians were all about, and they were unpleasant neighbors in those days.

尽管如此，定居者还是回避了这片土地，因为这里到处都是印第安人，而且他们在当时是令人不快的邻居。

The panic of 1837, which Jackson bequeathed to Van Buren, turned the planters from the impoverished lands of Virginia, the Carolinas, and east Georgia, toward the West.

杰克逊将 1837 年的恐慌留给了范布伦，使得种植园主们从弗吉尼亚州、卡罗来纳州和佐治亚州东部的贫困土地转向了西方。

The Indians were removed to Indian Territory, and settlers poured into these coveted lands to retrieve their broken fortunes.

印第安人被迁往印第安领地，定居者涌入这些令人垂涎的土地，以夺回他们破碎的财富。

For a radius of a hundred miles about Albany, stretched a great fertile land, luxuriant with forests of pine, oak, ash, hickory, and poplar; hot with the sun and damp with the rich black swamp-land; and here the corner-stone of the Cotton Kingdom was laid.

奥尔巴尼周围方圆一百英里的范围内，有一片肥沃的土地，长满了松树、橡树、白蜡树、山核桃树和白杨树。阳光灼热，肥沃的黑色沼泽地潮湿；棉花王国的基石就在这里奠定了。

Albany is to-day a wide-streeted, placid, Southern town, with a broad sweep of stores and saloons, and flanking rows of homes,—whites usually to the north, and blacks to the south.

今天的奥尔巴尼是一座街道宽阔、平静的南方小镇，拥有大量商店和酒吧，两侧是一排排房屋——白人通常在北边，黑人在南边。

Six days in the week the town looks decidedly too small for itself, and takes frequent and prolonged naps.

一周中的六天，这个小镇看起来显然太小了，而且需要频繁且长时间的小睡。

But on Saturday suddenly the whole county disgorges itself upon the place, and a perfect flood of black peasantry pours through the streets, fills the stores, blocks the sidewalks, chokes the thoroughfares, and takes full possession of the town.

但周六，整个县突然涌入这个地方，大批黑人农民涌入街道，挤满商店，堵塞人行道，堵塞主干道，完全占领了整个城镇。

They are black, sturdy, uncouth country folk, good-natured and simple, talkative to a degree, and yet far more silent and brooding than the crowds of the Rhine-pfalz, or Naples, or Cracow.

他们是黑人、粗壮、粗鲁的乡下人，性情善良、单纯，在一定程度上健谈，但比莱茵普法尔茨、那不勒斯或克拉科夫的人群更加沉默和沉思。

They drink considerable quantities of whiskey, but do not get very drunk; they talk and laugh loudly at times, but seldom quarrel or fight.

他们喝大量的威士忌，但不会喝得很醉；他们有时大声说笑，但很少吵架或打架。

They walk up and down the streets, meet and gossip with friends, stare at the shop windows, buy coffee, cheap candy, and clothes, and at dusk drive home—happy?

他们在街上走来走去，与朋友见面并闲聊，盯着商店橱窗，买咖啡、廉价糖果和衣服，然后在黄昏开车回家——开心吗？

well no, not exactly happy, but much happier than as though they had not come.

嗯，不，不完全是高兴，但比他们没有来要高兴得多。

Thus Albany is a real capital,—a typical Southern county town, the centre of the life of ten thousand souls; their point of contact with the outer world, their centre of news and gossip, their market for buying and selling, borrowing and lending, their fountain of justice and law.

因此，奥尔巴尼是一个真正的首都，一个典型的南方县城，一万个灵魂的生活中心；他们与外部世界的接触点，他们的新闻和八卦中心，他们的买卖、借贷市场，他们的正义和法律的源泉。

Once upon a time we knew country life so well and city life so little, that we illustrated city life as that of a closely crowded country district.

曾几何时，我们对乡村生活如此了解，而对城市生活却知之甚少，以至于我们将城市生活描述为拥挤不堪的乡村地区。

Now the world has well-nigh forgotten what the country is, and we must imagine a little city of black people scattered far and wide over three hundred lonesome square miles of land, without train or trolley, in the midst of cotton and corn, and wide patches of sand and gloomy soil.

现在，世界几乎忘记了这个国家是什么，我们必须想象一个黑人小城市，分散在三百平方英里的偏僻土地上，没有火车或电车，在棉花和玉米以及大片沙子和阴暗的土壤中。

It gets pretty hot in Southern Georgia in July,—a sort of dull, determined heat that seems quite independent of the sun; so it took us some days to muster courage enough to leave the porch and venture out on the long country roads, that we might see this unknown world.

七月的佐治亚州南部天气非常炎热——一种沉闷而坚定的炎热，似乎完全不受阳光的影响；于是我们花了好几天才鼓起勇气离开门廊，踏上漫长的乡间小路，去看看这个未知的世界。

Finally we started.

终于我们开始了。

It was about ten in the morning, bright with a faint breeze, and we jogged leisurely southward in the valley of the Flint.

上午十点左右，天气晴朗，微风徐徐，我们在弗林特山谷中悠闲地向南慢跑。

We passed the scattered box-like cabins of the brickyard hands, and the long tenement-row facetiously called “The Ark,” and were soon in the open country, and on the confines of the great plantations of other days.

我们经过砖厂工人散落的盒子状小屋，还有被戏称为“方舟”的长长的公寓楼，很快就来到了空旷的乡村，来到了以前的大种植园的范围内。

There is the “Joe Fields place”; a rough old fellow was he, and had killed many a “nigger” in his day.

那里有“乔·菲尔兹家”；他是个粗鲁的老家伙，在他那个时代杀过许多“黑鬼”。

Twelve miles his plantation used to run,—a regular barony.

他的种植园曾经有十二英里——一个普通的男爵领地。

It is nearly all gone now; only straggling bits belong to the family, and the rest has passed to Jews and Negroes.

现在一切几乎都消失了；只有零散的部分属于家庭，其余的都传给了犹太人和黑人。

Even the bits which are left are heavily mortgaged, and, like the rest of the land, tilled by tenants.

即使是剩下的土地也被大量抵押，并且像其他土地一样由佃户耕种。

Here is one of them now,—a tall brown man, a hard worker and a hard drinker, illiterate, but versed in farmlore, as his nodding crops declare.

现在是他们中的一个，一个高个子的棕色男人，一个勤劳的人，一个酗酒的人，文盲，但精通农艺，正如他点头的庄稼所宣称的那样。

This distressingly new board house is his, and he has just moved out of yonder moss-grown cabin with its one square room.

这间新得令人痛苦的木屋是他的，他刚刚从那边长满青苔、只有一间方形房间的小屋里搬出来。

From the curtains in Benton’s house, down the road, a dark comely face is staring at the strangers; for passing carriages are not every-day occurrences here.

路那头，本顿家的窗帘后面，一张黝黑而美丽的脸正盯着陌生人。因为这里并不是每天都会有经过的马车。

Benton is an intelligent yellow man with a good-sized family, and manages a plantation blasted by the war and now the broken staff of the widow.

本顿是一个聪明的黄种人，有一个大家庭，管理着一个被战争摧毁的种植园，现在寡妇的工作人员已经折断了。

He might be well-to-do, they say; but he carouses too much in Albany.

他们说，他可能很富裕。但他在奥尔巴尼纵酒过度。

And the half-desolate spirit of neglect born of the very soil seems to have settled on these acres.

从土壤中产生的半荒凉的忽视精神似乎已经在这片土地上扎根了。

In times past there were cotton-gins and machinery here; but they have rotted away.

过去这里有轧棉机和机器；现在这里有轧棉机和机器。但它们已经腐烂了。

The whole land seems forlorn and forsaken.

整片土地都显得荒凉、被遗弃。

Here are the remnants of the vast plantations of the Sheldons, the Pellots, and the Rensons; but the souls of them are passed.

这里是谢尔登家族、佩洛家族和伦森家族的大片种植园的遗迹；但他们的灵魂已经过去了。

The houses lie in half ruin, or have wholly disappeared; the fences have flown, and the families are wandering in the world.

房屋已半毁，或完全消失。篱笆已飞，一家人在世间漂泊。

Strange vicissitudes have met these whilom masters.

这些奇思妙想的大师遭遇了奇怪的沧桑。

Yonder stretch the wide acres of Bildad Reasor; he died in war-time, but the upstart overseer hastened to wed the widow.

那边绵延数英亩的比勒达德雷索 (Bildad Reasor)；他死于战时，但这位暴发户的监工赶紧娶了寡妇。

Then he went, and his neighbors too, and now only the black tenant remains; but the shadow-hand of the master’s grand-nephew or cousin or creditor stretches out of the gray distance to collect the rack-rent remorselessly, and so the land is uncared-for and poor.

然后他走了，他的邻居也走了，现在只剩下黑人佃户了。但主人的侄孙、表弟或债权人的影子手从灰色的远方伸出来，无情地收取架租，因此土地荒芜而贫瘠。

Only black tenants can stand such a system, and they only because they must.

只有黑人租户才能忍受这样的制度，他们只是因为他们必须忍受。

Ten miles we have ridden to-day and have seen no white face.

今天我们已经骑了十英里，没有看到白人的脸。

A resistless feeling of depression falls slowly upon us, despite the gaudy sunshine and the green cottonfields.

尽管阳光灿烂，棉田碧绿，但一种无法抗拒的压抑感慢慢降临在我们身上。

This, then, is the Cotton Kingdom,—the shadow of a marvellous dream.

那么，这就是棉花王国——一个奇妙梦想的影子。

And where is the King?

国王在哪里？

Perhaps this is he,—the sweating ploughman, tilling his eighty acres with two lean mules, and fighting a hard battle with debt.

也许这就是他——那个满头大汗的农夫，用两头瘦骡子耕耘着八十英亩土地，与债务作着艰苦的斗争。

So we sit musing, until, as we turn a corner on the sandy road, there comes a fairer scene suddenly in view,—a neat cottage snugly ensconced by the road, and near it a little store.

于是我们坐着沉思，直到在沙路上转过一个拐角时，一幅更美丽的景象突然映入眼帘——一座整洁的小屋紧贴在路边，旁边有一家小商店。

A tall bronzed man rises from the porch as we hail him, and comes out to our carriage.

当我们向他打招呼时，一个高大的古铜色男人从门廊站起来，来到我们的马车上。

He is six feet in height, with a sober face that smiles gravely.

他身高六英尺，面容严肃，笑容严肃。

He walks too straight to be a tenant,—yes, he owns two hundred and forty acres.

他走路太直了，不能当佃户——是的，他拥有两百四十英亩土地。

“The land is run down since the boom-days of eighteen hundred and fifty,” he explains, and cotton is low.

“自从一千八百五十年的繁荣时期以来，土地就被耗尽了，”他解释道，棉花价格也很低。

Three black tenants live on his place, and in his little store he keeps a small stock of tobacco, snuff, soap, and soda, for the neighborhood.

三个黑人房客住在他的房子里，他在他的小商店里储备了少量烟草、鼻烟、肥皂和苏打水，供邻居使用。

Here is his gin-house with new machinery just installed.

这是他的杜松子酒厂，刚刚安装了新机器。

Three hundred bales of cotton went through it last year.

去年有三百包棉花经过此处理。

Two children he has sent away to school.

他送两个孩子去上学。

Yes, he says sadly, he is getting on, but cotton is down to four cents; I know how Debt sits staring at him.

是的，他悲伤地说，他正在进步，但棉花价格降到了四美分；我知道德布特坐在那儿盯着他。

Wherever the King may be, the parks and palaces of the Cotton Kingdom have not wholly disappeared.

无论国王在哪里，棉花王国的公园和宫殿都没有完全消失。

We plunge even now into great groves of oak and towering pine, with an undergrowth of myrtle and shrubbery.

即使现在，我们仍陷入了大片橡树林和高耸的松树丛中，灌木丛中长满了桃金娘和灌木丛。

This was the “home-house” of the Thompsons,—slave-barons who drove their coach and four in the merry past.

这里是汤普森一家的“家”，奴隶贵族们在过去快乐地驾驶着他们的马车和四人。

All is silence now, and ashes, and tangled weeds.

现在一切都寂静无声，只有灰烬和杂草丛生。

The owner put his whole fortune into the rising cotton industry of the fifties, and with the falling prices of the eighties he packed up and stole away.

店主将全部财产投入到五十年代兴起的棉花工业中，随着八十年代价格的下跌，他收拾起来偷走了。

Yonder is another grove, with unkempt lawn, great magnolias, and grass-grown paths.

那边是另一片小树林，草坪蓬乱，有大木兰和长满青草的小路。

The Big House stands in half-ruin, its great front door staring blankly at the street, and the back part grotesquely restored for its black tenant.

大房子已半毁，巨大的前门茫然地望着街道，后面的部分则为黑人房客进行了怪诞的修复。

A shabby, well-built Negro he is, unlucky and irresolute.

他是一个衣衫褴褛、身材魁梧的黑人，不幸且优柔寡断。

He digs hard to pay rent to the white girl who owns the remnant of the place.

他辛辛苦苦地挖地，以便向拥有这片土地的白人女孩支付租金。

She married a policeman, and lives in Savannah.

她嫁给了一名警察，住在萨凡纳。

Now and again we come to churches.

我们时不时地来到教堂。

Here is one now,—Shepherd’s, they call it,—a great whitewashed barn of a thing, perched on stilts of stone, and looking for all the world as though it were just resting here a moment and might be expected to waddle off down the road at almost any time.

现在这里有一个——牧羊人的，他们称之为——一个巨大的粉刷过的谷仓，栖息在石柱上，放眼望去，仿佛它只是在这里休息片刻，几乎随时都会摇摇晃晃地沿着路走下去。

And yet it is the centre of a hundred cabin homes; and sometimes, of a Sunday, five hundred persons from far and near gather here and talk and eat and sing.

然而它却是一百座小屋的中心；有时，周日，五百人从远近聚集到这里聊天、吃饭、唱歌。

There is a schoolhouse near,—a very airy, empty shed; but even this is an improvement, for usually the school is held in the church.

附近有一所校舍——一个非常通风的空棚子；但即便如此，这也是一种进步，因为学校通常是在教堂里举办的。

The churches vary from log-huts to those like Shepherd’s, and the schools from nothing to this little house that sits demurely on the county line.

教堂多种多样，从木屋到牧羊人教堂，学校从什么都没有到坐落在县界线上的这座小房子。

It is a tiny plank-house, perhaps ten by twenty, and has within a double row of rough unplaned benches, resting mostly on legs, sometimes on boxes.

这是一座小木板房，大约十乘二十，里面有两排粗糙的未刨平的长凳，大部分靠腿，有时放在箱子上。

Opposite the door is a square home-made desk.

门对面是一张自制的方形书桌。

In one corner are the ruins of a stove, and in the other a dim blackboard.

一个角落里有一个炉子的废墟，另一个角落里有一块昏暗的黑板。

It is the cheerfulest schoolhouse I have seen in Dougherty, save in town.

这是我在多尔蒂见过的最令人愉快的校舍，除了城里的校舍。

Back of the schoolhouse is a lodgehouse two stories high and not quite finished.

校舍后面是一座两层楼高的小屋，尚未完工。

Societies meet there,—societies “to care for the sick and bury the dead”; and these societies grow and flourish.

各个社团在那里聚会——“照顾病人、埋葬死者”的社团；这些社会不断发展壮大。

We had come to the boundaries of Dougherty, and were about to turn west along the county-line, when all these sights were pointed out to us by a kindly old man, black, white-haired, and seventy.

我们已经到了多尔蒂的边界，正要沿着县界向西拐，这时一位和蔼可亲的七十岁老人向我们指出了所有这些景象。

Forty-five years he had lived here, and now supports himself and his old wife by the help of the steer tethered yonder and the charity of his black neighbors.

他在这里住了四十五年，现在靠拴在那边的小牛的帮助和黑人邻居的施舍养活自己和他的老妻。

He shows us the farm of the Hills just across the county line in Baker,—a widow and two strapping sons, who raised ten bales (one need not add “cotton” down here) last year.

他向我们展示了贝克县界线对面的山区农场，一位寡妇和两个身材魁梧的儿子，去年养了十包（这里不需要添加“棉花”）。

There are fences and pigs and cows, and the soft-voiced, velvet-skinned young Memnon, who sauntered half-bashfully over to greet the strangers, is proud of his home.

这里有栅栏、猪和牛，声音轻柔、皮肤光滑的年轻门农半羞涩地走过来迎接陌生人，他为自己的家感到自豪。

We turn now to the west along the county line.

我们现在沿着县界线向西行驶。

Great dismantled trunks of pines tower above the green cottonfields, cracking their naked gnarled fingers toward the border of living forest beyond.

巨大的被拆除的松树树干耸立在绿色的棉田上方，它们裸露的、多节的手指噼啪作响，伸向远处生机勃勃的森林的边界。

There is little beauty in this region, only a sort of crude abandon that suggests power,—a naked grandeur, as it were.

这个地区几乎没有什么美丽之处，只有一种暗示着权力的粗鲁的放弃——可以说是一种赤裸裸的宏伟。

The houses are bare and straight; there are no hammocks or easy-chairs, and few flowers.

房屋光秃秃的，笔直的；没有吊床或安乐椅，也没有鲜花。

So when, as here at Rawdon’s, one sees a vine clinging to a little porch, and home-like windows peeping over the fences, one takes a long breath.

因此，就像在罗登这里一样，当人们看到一棵藤蔓攀附在小门廊上，以及像家一样的窗户从栅栏上窥视时，人们会长长地吸一口气。

I think I never before quite realized the place of the Fence in civilization.

我想我以前从未完全意识到栅栏在文明中的地位。

This is the Land of the Unfenced, where crouch on either hand scores of ugly one-room cabins, cheerless and dirty.

这里是无围栏的土地，那里蹲伏着数十间丑陋的单间小屋，阴暗而肮脏。

Here lies the Negro problem in its naked dirt and penury.

这就是黑人问题的赤裸裸的肮脏和贫困。

And here are no fences.

这里没有栅栏。

But now and then the crisscross rails or straight palings break into view, and then we know a touch of culture is near.

但时不时地，纵横交错的铁轨或笔直的栅栏映入眼帘，我们就知道某种文化的气息就在眼前。

Of course Harrison Gohagen,—a quiet yellow man, young, smooth-faced, and diligent,—of course he is lord of some hundred acres, and we expect to see a vision of well-kept rooms and fat beds and laughing children.

当然，哈里森·戈哈根——一个安静的黄种人，年轻，面容光滑，勤奋——当然，他是数百英亩土地的领主，我们期待看到整洁的房间、宽大的床和欢笑的孩子们的景象。

For has he not fine fences?

难道他没有修好的栅栏吗？

And those over yonder, why should they build fences on the rack-rented land?

而那边的人，为什么要在租架子的土地上建栅栏呢？

It will only increase their rent.

这只会增加他们的租金。

On we wind, through sand and pines and glimpses of old plantations, till there creeps into sight a cluster of buildings,—wood and brick, mills and houses, and scattered cabins.

我们蜿蜒前行，穿过沙地和松树，瞥见古老的种植园，直到看到一群建筑——木头和砖块、磨坊和房屋，以及分散的小屋。

It seemed quite a village.

这看起来确实是一个村庄。

As it came nearer and nearer, however, the aspect changed: the buildings were rotten, the bricks were falling out, the mills were silent, and the store was closed.

然而，随着距离越来越近，情况发生了变化：建筑物腐烂，砖块掉落，磨坊一片寂静，商店关门了。

Only in the cabins appeared now and then a bit of lazy life.

只有小木屋里时不时地出现一点慵懒的生活。

I could imagine the place under some weird spell, and was half-minded to search out the princess.

我可以想象这个地方被某种奇怪的咒语所笼罩，所以我心不在焉地去寻找公主。

An old ragged black man, honest, simple, and improvident, told us the tale.

一个衣衫褴褛的老黑人向我们讲述了这个故事，他诚实、单纯、缺乏远见。

The Wizard of the North—the Capitalist—had rushed down in the seventies to woo this coy dark soil.

北方巫师——资本家——在七十年代冲到了这片羞涩的黑暗土地上。

He bought a square mile or more, and for a time the field-hands sang, the gins groaned, and the mills buzzed.

他买了一平方英里或更多，一时间田间工人歌唱，杜松子酒呻吟，磨坊嗡嗡作响。

Then came a change.

然后发生了变化。

The agent’s son embezzled the funds and ran off with them.

经纪人的儿子贪污了资金并携款逃跑。

Then the agent himself disappeared.

然后经纪人本人就消失了。

Finally the new agent stole even the books, and the company in wrath closed its business and its houses, refused to sell, and let houses and furniture and machinery rust and rot.

最后，新代理人甚至偷走了书籍，公司愤怒地关闭了业务和房屋，拒绝出售，让房屋、家具和机械生锈腐烂。

So the Waters-Loring plantation was stilled by the spell of dishonesty, and stands like some gaunt rebuke to a scarred land.

因此，沃特斯-洛林种植园因不诚实的咒语而陷入了停滞，就像对这片伤痕累累的土地进行了严厉的谴责。

Somehow that plantation ended our day’s journey; for I could not shake off the influence of that silent scene.

不知怎的，那个种植园结束了我们一天的旅程。因为我无法摆脱那个寂静场景的影响。

Back toward town we glided, past the straight and thread-like pines, past a dark tree-dotted pond where the air was heavy with a dead sweet perfume.

我们滑行回到城镇，经过笔直、像线一样的松树，经过一个树木星罗棋布的深色池塘，那里的空气中弥漫着死一般的甜香。

White slender-legged curlews flitted by us, and the garnet blooms of the cotton looked gay against the green and purple stalks.

白色的细腿麻鹬从我们身边飞过，石榴红色的棉花花在绿色和紫色的茎秆的映衬下显得鲜艳夺目。

A peasant girl was hoeing in the field, white-turbaned and black-limbed.

一个戴着白头巾、黑四肢的农家姑娘正在田里锄地。

All this we saw, but the spell still lay upon us.

这一切我们都看到了，但咒语仍然笼罩在我们身上。

How curious a land is this,—how full of untold story, of tragedy and laughter, and the rich legacy of human life; shadowed with a tragic past, and big with future promise!

这是一片多么奇妙的土地，充满了不为人知的故事、悲剧和欢笑，以及人类生活的丰富遗产；悲惨的过去笼罩着阴影，未来充满希望！

This is the Black Belt of Georgia.

这是乔治亚州的黑带。

Dougherty County is the west end of the Black Belt, and men once called it the Egypt of the Confederacy.

多尔蒂县是黑带的西端，人们曾将其称为南方联盟的埃及。

It is full of historic interest.

它充满了历史趣味。

First there is the Swamp, to the west, where the Chickasawhatchee flows sullenly southward.

首先是西边的沼泽，奇卡萨瓦奇河在那里阴沉地向南流淌。

The shadow of an old plantation lies at its edge, forlorn and dark.

一个古老种植园的阴影就在它的边缘，荒凉而黑暗。

Then comes the pool; pendent gray moss and brackish waters appear, and forests filled with wildfowl.

然后是游泳池；出现了悬垂的灰色苔藓和微咸水，森林里充满了野禽。

In one place the wood is on fire, smouldering in dull red anger; but nobody minds.

一处的木头着火，在暗红色的愤怒中闷烧；另一处的木头正在燃烧。但没人介意。

Then the swamp grows beautiful; a raised road, built by chained Negro convicts, dips down into it, and forms a way walled and almost covered in living green.

然后沼泽变得美丽；一条由被铁链锁住的黑人囚犯修建的高架道路向下延伸，形成一条有围墙的道路，几乎覆盖着生机勃勃的绿色。

Spreading trees spring from a prodigal luxuriance of undergrowth; great dark green shadows fade into the black background, until all is one mass of tangled semi-tropical foliage, marvellous in its weird savage splendor.

茂盛的灌木丛中蔓延开来的树木；巨大的深绿色阴影逐渐消失在黑色的背景中，直到一切都变成一团纠缠在一起的亚热带树叶，其怪异的野蛮辉煌令人惊叹。

Once we crossed a black silent stream, where the sad trees and writhing creepers, all glinting fiery yellow and green, seemed like some vast cathedral,—some green Milan builded of wildwood.

有一次我们穿过一条黑色寂静的小溪，那里悲伤的树木和扭动的爬山虎，都闪烁着火黄色和绿色的光芒，看起来就像一座巨大的大教堂，一座用野木建造的绿色米兰。

And as I crossed, I seemed to see again that fierce tragedy of seventy years ago.

而当我穿越的时候，我似乎又看到了七十年前那场惨烈的悲剧。

Osceola, the Indian-Negro chieftain, had risen in the swamps of Florida, vowing vengeance.

印度黑人酋长奥西奥拉在佛罗里达州的沼泽中崛起，发誓要报仇。

His war-cry reached the red Creeks of Dougherty, and their war-cry rang from the Chattahoochee to the sea.

他的战吼传到了多尔蒂的红溪，他们的战吼从查塔胡奇河传到了大海。

Men and women and children fled and fell before them as they swept into Dougherty.

当他们冲进多尔蒂时，男人、女人和儿童纷纷逃跑，倒在他们面前。

In yonder shadows a dark and hideously painted warrior glided stealthily on,—another and another, until three hundred had crept into the treacherous swamp.

在那边的阴影里，一个漆黑、画着丑陋的战士悄悄地向前滑行——一个又一个，直到三百人爬进了这片危险的沼泽。

Then the false slime closing about them called the white men from the east.

然后，包围他们的虚假粘液召唤了来自东方的白人。

Waist-deep, they fought beneath the tall trees, until the war-cry was hushed and the Indians glided back into the west.

他们在齐腰深的高大树木下战斗，直到战吼平息，印第安人滑回西方。

Small wonder the wood is red.

难怪木头是红色的。

Then came the black slaves.

然后是黑人奴隶。

Day after day the clank of chained feet marching from Virginia and Carolina to Georgia was heard in these rich swamp lands.

日复一日，在这些富饶的沼泽地里，都能听到从弗吉尼亚州和卡罗来纳州向佐治亚州行进的脚步声。

Day after day the songs of the callous, the wail of the motherless, and the muttered curses of the wretched echoed from the Flint to the Chickasawhatchee, until by 1860 there had risen in West Dougherty perhaps the richest slave kingdom the modern world ever knew.

日复一日，冷酷无情的歌声、失去母亲的哀号和可怜人的低声咒骂，从弗林特河一直回响到奇卡萨瓦奇河，直到 1860 年，西多尔蒂崛起了，也许是现代世界有史以来最富有的奴隶王国。

A hundred and fifty barons commanded the labor of nearly six thousand Negroes, held sway over farms with ninety thousand acres tilled land, valued even in times of cheap soil at three millions of dollars.

一百五十名男爵指挥着近六千名黑人的劳动力，控制着九万英亩耕地的农场，即使在土地廉价的时代，这些土地的价值也高达三百万美元。

Twenty thousand bales of ginned cotton went yearly to England, New and Old; and men that came there bankrupt made money and grew rich.

每年有两万包皮棉运往英国，无论是新的还是旧的。来到那里的人破产了，发了财，变得富有了。

In a single decade the cotton output increased four-fold and the value of lands was tripled.

十年间，棉花产量增加了四倍，土地价值增加了两倍。

It was the heyday of the _nouveau riche_, and a life of careless extravagance among the masters.

那是暴发户的鼎盛时期，也是大师们挥霍无度的生活。

Four and six bobtailed thoroughbreds rolled their coaches to town; open hospitality and gay entertainment were the rule.

四六匹短尾纯种马开着马车进城。开放式的招待和同性恋娱乐是规则。

Parks and groves were laid out, rich with flower and vine, and in the midst stood the low wide-halled “big house,” with its porch and columns and great fireplaces.

公园和树林布满了鲜花和藤蔓，中间矗立着一座低矮、宽阔的“大房子”，有门廊、柱子和大壁炉。

And yet with all this there was something sordid, something forced,—a certain feverish unrest and recklessness; for was not all this show and tinsel built upon a groan?

然而，尽管如此，还是有一些肮脏的东西，一些被迫的东西——某种狂热的不安和鲁莽；因为这一切的表演和装饰不都是建立在呻吟之上的吗？

“This land was a little Hell,” said a ragged, brown, and grave-faced man to me.

“这片土地简直就是一个小地狱，”一个衣衫褴褛、棕色皮肤、表情严肃的男人对我说。

We were seated near a roadside blacksmith shop, and behind was the bare ruin of some master’s home.

我们坐在路边一家铁匠铺附近，后面是某位师傅家的光秃秃的废墟。

“I’ve seen niggers drop dead in the furrow, but they were kicked aside, and the plough never stopped.

“我见过黑人死在犁沟里，但他们被踢到一边，而犁从未停止。

Down in the guard-house, there’s where the blood ran.”

下面的警卫室里，就是血流淌的地方。”

With such foundations a kingdom must in time sway and fall.

有了这样的基础，一个王国迟早会动摇和崩溃。

The masters moved to Macon and Augusta, and left only the irresponsible overseers on the land.

主人们搬到了梅肯和奥古斯塔，土地上只留下了不负责任的监工。

And the result is such ruin as this, the Lloyd “home-place”:—great waving oaks, a spread of lawn, myrtles and chestnuts, all ragged and wild; a solitary gate-post standing where once was a castle entrance; an old rusty anvil lying amid rotting bellows and wood in the ruins of a blacksmith shop; a wide rambling old mansion, brown and dingy, filled now with the grandchildren of the slaves who once waited on its tables; while the family of the master has dwindled to two lone women, who live in Macon and feed hungrily off the remnants of an earldom.

结果就是劳埃德的“家乡”变成了这样的废墟：——巨大的摇曳的橡树，大片的草坪，桃金娘和栗子，都破烂不堪，荒芜；曾经是城堡入口的地方矗立着一根孤零零的门柱；铁匠铺废墟中，一把生锈的旧铁砧躺在腐烂的风箱和木头中；一座宽阔、杂乱的老宅邸，棕色而肮脏，现在住满了曾经在其餐桌上侍候的奴隶的孙子。而主人的家庭已经减少到只剩下两个孤独的女人，她们住在梅肯，靠着伯爵领地的残余食物过着饥肠辘辘的生活。

So we ride on, past phantom gates and falling homes,—past the once flourishing farms of the Smiths, the Gandys, and the Lagores,—and find all dilapidated and half ruined, even there where a solitary white woman, a relic of other days, sits alone in state among miles of Negroes and rides to town in her ancient coach each day.

于是我们继续前行，经过幽灵般的大门和倒塌的房屋，经过曾经繁荣的史密斯农场、甘迪农场和拉戈尔斯农场，发现一切都已破败不堪，甚至半毁了，甚至在那里，有一个孤独的白人妇女，过去的遗迹，独自坐在绵延数英里的黑人中间，每天乘坐她古老的马车进城。

This was indeed the Egypt of the Confederacy,—the rich granary whence potatoes and corn and cotton poured out to the famished and ragged Confederate troops as they battled for a cause lost long before 1861.

这确实是南部邦联的埃及——一个富裕的粮仓，土豆、玉米和棉花源源不断地涌向饥饿、衣衫褴褛的南部邦联军队，他们正在为 1861 年之前早已失败的事业而战。

Sheltered and secure, it became the place of refuge for families, wealth, and slaves.

它受到庇护和安全，成为家庭、财富和奴隶的避难所。

Yet even then the hard ruthless rape of the land began to tell.

然而即便如此，对这片土地的残酷掠夺也开始显现出来。

The red-clay sub-soil already had begun to peer above the loam.

红粘土底土已经开始露出壤土。

The harder the slaves were driven the more careless and fatal was their farming.

奴隶们被驱赶得越辛苦，他们的耕作就越粗心和致命。

Then came the revolution of war and Emancipation, the bewilderment of Reconstruction,—and now, what is the Egypt of the Confederacy, and what meaning has it for the nation’s weal or woe?

然后是战争和解放的革命，重建的困惑，——现在，联邦的埃及是什么，它对国家的福祸有什么意义？

It is a land of rapid contrasts and of curiously mingled hope and pain.

这是一片反差强烈、希望与痛苦奇妙地交织在一起的土地。

Here sits a pretty blue-eyed quadroon hiding her bare feet; she was married only last week, and yonder in the field is her dark young husband, hoeing to support her, at thirty cents a day without board.

这里坐着一个漂亮的蓝眼睛四人组，隐藏着她的赤脚；她上周才结婚，那边地里是她皮肤黝黑、年轻的丈夫，正在锄地养活她，每天只吃三十美分，不吃东西。

Across the way is Gatesby, brown and tall, lord of two thousand acres shrewdly won and held.

对面是盖茨比，棕色皮肤，身材高大，是精明地赢得并占据了两千英亩土地的领主。

There is a store conducted by his black son, a blacksmith shop, and a ginnery.

有一家由他的黑人儿子经营的商店、一家铁匠铺和一家轧棉厂。

Five miles below here is a town owned and controlled by one white New Englander.

下面五英里处有一个小镇，由一位新英格兰白人拥有和控制。

He owns almost a Rhode Island county, with thousands of acres and hundreds of black laborers.

他几乎拥有罗德岛州的一个县，拥有数千英亩土地和数百名黑人劳工。

Their cabins look better than most, and the farm, with machinery and fertilizers, is much more business-like than any in the county, although the manager drives hard bargains in wages.

他们的小屋看起来比大多数都好，农场里有机械和化肥，比县里的任何农场都商业化得多，尽管经理在工资上极力讨价还价。

When now we turn and look five miles above, there on the edge of town are five houses of prostitutes,—two of blacks and three of whites; and in one of the houses of the whites a worthless black boy was harbored too openly two years ago; so he was hanged for rape.

现在，当我们转身看向上方五英里处时，在城镇边缘有五间妓院，其中两间是黑人，三间是白人。两年前，在其中一所白人的房子里，一个毫无价值的黑人男孩被公开地藏匿起来。所以他因强奸罪被绞死。

And here, too, is the high whitewashed fence of the “stockade,” as the county prison is called; the white folks say it is ever full of black criminals,—the black folks say that only colored boys are sent to jail, and they not because they are guilty, but because the State needs criminals to eke out its income by their forced labor.

这里也是县监狱的“栅栏”，粉刷成高高的栅栏。白人说那里充满了黑人罪犯，黑人说只有黑人男孩才会被送进监狱，他们不是因为他们有罪，而是因为国家需要罪犯通过强迫劳动来维持收入。

The Jew is the heir of the slave baron in Dougherty; and as we ride westward, by wide stretching cornfields and stubby orchards of peach and pear, we see on all sides within the circle of dark forest a Land of Canaan.

犹太人是多尔蒂奴隶男爵的继承人；当我们向西骑行时，经过宽阔的玉米地和矮矮的桃子和梨果园，我们在黑暗的森林圈内看到了迦南地的四面八方。

Here and there are tales of projects for money-getting, born in the swift days of Reconstruction,—“improvement” companies, wine companies, mills and factories; most failed, and the Jew fell heir.

到处都有在重建的迅速日子里诞生的赚钱项目的故事——“改良”公司、葡萄酒公司、磨坊和工厂；大多数人都失败了，犹太人成为继承人。

It is a beautiful land, this Dougherty, west of the Flint.

这是一片美丽的土地，这就是弗林特河以西的多尔蒂。

The forests are wonderful, the solemn pines have disappeared, and this is the “Oakey Woods,” with its wealth of hickories, beeches, oaks and palmettos.

森林很美，庄严的松树消失了，这就是“橡树森林”，生长着丰富的山核桃、山毛榉、橡树和棕榈树。

But a pall of debt hangs over the beautiful land; the merchants are in debt to the wholesalers, the planters are in debt to the merchants, the tenants owe the planters, and laborers bow and bend beneath the burden of it all.

但这片美丽的土地上却笼罩着债务的阴影；商人欠批发商的债，种植园主欠商人的债，佃户欠种植园主的债，而劳动者则在这一切的重担下低头屈服。

Here and there a man has raised his head above these murky waters.

到处都有一个人把头抬起到这片浑浊的水面上。

We passed one fenced stock-farm with grass and grazing cattle, that looked very home-like after endless corn and cotton.

我们经过一个用栅栏围起来的牧场，里面有青草和放牧的牛，在种植了无尽的玉米和棉花之后，这里看起来非常像家。

Here and there are black free-holders: there is the gaunt dull-black Jackson, with his hundred acres.

到处都有黑人自耕农：有憔悴、暗黑的杰克逊，他拥有一百英亩的土地。

“I says, ‘Look up!

“我说，‘抬头看！

If you don’t look up you can’t get up,’” remarks Jackson, philosophically.

如果你不抬头，你就无法站起来。”杰克逊充满哲理地说。

And he’s gotten up.

他已经站起来了。

Dark Carter’s neat barns would do credit to New England.

黑暗卡特整洁的谷仓将为新英格兰增光添彩。

His master helped him to get a start, but when the black man died last fall the master’s sons immediately laid claim to the estate.

他的主人帮助他起步，但当黑人去年秋天去世后，主人的儿子们立即声称拥有这片遗产。

“And them white folks will get it, too,” said my yellow gossip.

“那些白人也会得到它，”我的黄色八卦说。

I turn from these well-tended acres with a comfortable feeling that the Negro is rising.

当我离开这些精心照料的土地时，我有一种舒适的感觉，黑人正在崛起。

Even then, however, the fields, as we proceed, begin to redden and the trees disappear.

然而，即便如此，当我们继续前行时，田野开始变红，树木也消失了。

Rows of old cabins appear filled with renters and laborers,—cheerless, bare, and dirty, for the most part, although here and there the very age and decay makes the scene picturesque.

一排排旧小屋里挤满了租客和劳工，大部分都是冷清、空荡、肮脏的，尽管到处都是岁月和腐朽，使景色如画。

A young black fellow greets us.

一位年轻的黑人向我们打招呼。

He is twenty-two, and just married.

他今年二十二岁，刚刚结婚。

Until last year he had good luck renting; then cotton fell, and the sheriff seized and sold all he had.

直到去年，他的租房运气还算不错。然后棉花下跌，治安官没收并卖掉了他所有的东西。

So he moved here, where the rent is higher, the land poorer, and the owner inflexible; he rents a forty-dollar mule for twenty dollars a year.

于是他搬到了这里，这里的租金更高，土地更贫瘠，业主也不灵活；他每年花二十美元租一头四十美元的骡子。

Poor lad!—a slave at twenty-two.

可怜的小伙子！——二十二岁的奴隶。

This plantation, owned now by a foreigner, was a part of the famous Bolton estate.

这个种植园现在由外国人拥有，是著名的博尔顿庄园的一部分。

After the war it was for many years worked by gangs of Negro convicts,—and black convicts then were even more plentiful than now; it was a way of making Negroes work, and the question of guilt was a minor one.

战后的许多年里，这里都是由黑人囚犯帮派干活的——当时的黑人囚犯比现在还要多。这是让黑人工作的一种方式，而内疚问题是次要的。

Hard tales of cruelty and mistreatment of the chained freemen are told, but the county authorities were deaf until the free-labor market was nearly ruined by wholesale migration.

人们讲述了被锁住的自由民遭受残酷和虐待的残酷故事，但县当局充耳不闻，直到自由劳动力市场几乎被大规模移民摧毁。

Then they took the convicts from the plantations, but not until one of the fairest regions of the “Oakey Woods” had been ruined and ravished into a red waste, out of which only a Yankee or an immigrant could squeeze more blood from debt-cursed tenants.

然后他们把囚犯从种植园里带走，但直到“奥基森林”最美丽的地区之一被毁坏，变成了红色荒地，只有北方佬或移民才能从负债累累的佃户身上榨取更多的血。

No wonder that Luke Black, slow, dull, and discouraged, shuffles to our carriage and talks hopelessly.

难怪卢克·布莱克缓慢、迟钝、沮丧地拖着脚步走上我们的马车，绝望地说话。

Why should he strive?

他为什么要努力？

Every year finds him deeper in debt.

他的债务逐年加深。

How strange that Georgia, the world-heralded refuge of poor debtors, should bind her own to sloth and misfortune as ruthlessly as ever England did!

格鲁吉亚这个举世闻名的贫穷债务人的避难所，竟然像英国那样无情地把自己的债务人束缚在懒惰和不幸之中，这是多么奇怪啊！

The poor land groans with its birth-pains, and brings forth scarcely a hundred pounds of cotton to the acre, where fifty years ago it yielded eight times as much.

这片贫瘠的土地因产痛而呻吟，每英亩的棉花产量只有一百磅，而五十年前的产量是五十年前的八倍。

Of his meagre yield the tenant pays from a quarter to a third in rent, and most of the rest in interest on food and supplies bought on credit.

租客用微薄的收益支付四分之一到三分之一的租金，其余大部分用于赊购食品和用品的利息。

Twenty years yonder sunken-cheeked, old black man has labored under that system, and now, turned day-laborer, is supporting his wife and boarding himself on his wages of a dollar and a half a week, received only part of the year.

二十年前，这位脸颊凹陷的老黑人一直在这种制度下工作，现在，他变成了临时工，养活他的妻子，靠每周一美元半的工资养活自己，一年中只领到一部分工资。

The Bolton convict farm formerly included the neighboring plantation.

博尔顿囚犯农场以前包括邻近的种植园。

Here it was that the convicts were lodged in the great log prison still standing.

这里是囚犯们被关押在至今仍矗立着的大木监狱里的地方。

A dismal place it still remains, with rows of ugly huts filled with surly ignorant tenants.

它仍然是一个令人沮丧的地方，有一排排丑陋的小屋，里面住满了乖戾无知的房客。

“What rent do you pay here?” I inquired.

“你们这里的房租是多少？”我询问道。

“I don’t know,—what is it, Sam?” “All we make,” answered Sam.

“我不知道——那是什么，山姆？” “都是我们做的，”山姆回答。

It is a depressing place,—bare, unshaded, with no charm of past association, only a memory of forced human toil,—now, then, and before the war.

这是一个令人沮丧的地方——光秃秃的，没有遮荫的，没有过去联想的魅力，只有人类被迫劳作的记忆——现在、过去和战前。

They are not happy, these black men whom we meet throughout this region.

我们在这个地区遇到的这些黑人并不高兴。

There is little of the joyous abandon and playfulness which we are wont to associate with the plantation Negro.

这里几乎没有我们习惯于与种植园黑人联系在一起的欢乐的放纵和嬉戏。

At best, the natural good-nature is edged with complaint or has changed into sullenness and gloom.

最好的情况是，天生的善良带着抱怨，或者变成了阴郁和忧郁。

And now and then it blazes forth in veiled but hot anger.

有时它会爆发出隐藏但炽热的愤怒。

I remember one big red-eyed black whom we met by the roadside.

我记得我们在路边遇见了一位红眼睛的黑人。

Forty-five years he had labored on this farm, beginning with nothing, and still having nothing.

他在这个农场劳动了四十五年，一无所有，现在仍然一无所有。

To be sure, he had given four children a common-school training, and perhaps if the new fence-law had not allowed unfenced crops in West Dougherty he might have raised a little stock and kept ahead.

可以肯定的是，他已经让四个孩子接受了普通学校的培训，如果新的围栏法不允许在西多尔蒂种植无围栏的作物，也许他可能会积累一点库存并保持领先地位。

As it is, he is hopelessly in debt, disappointed, and embittered.

事实上，他负债累累、失望而痛苦。

He stopped us to inquire after the black boy in Albany, whom it was said a policeman had shot and killed for loud talking on the sidewalk.

他拦住我们询问奥尔巴尼那个黑人男孩的情况，据说他因在人行道上大声说话而被一名警察开枪打死。

And then he said slowly: “Let a white man touch me, and he dies; I don’t boast this,—I don’t say it around loud, or before the children,—but I mean it.

然后他慢慢地说：“让一个白人碰我，他就会死；我不会夸耀这一点，我不会大声说出来，也不会在孩子们面前说，但我是认真的。

I’ve seen them whip my father and my old mother in them cotton-rows till the blood ran; by—” and we passed on.

我见过他们在棉花行里鞭打我的父亲和老母亲，直到血流成河。由——”然后我们继续前行。

Now Sears, whom we met next lolling under the chubby oak-trees, was of quite different fibre.

现在，我们接下来遇到的西尔斯（Sears）懒洋洋地躺在胖乎乎的橡树下，他的性格却截然不同。

Happy?—Well, yes; he laughed and flipped pebbles, and thought the world was as it was.

快乐吗？——嗯，是的；他一边笑，一边翻转鹅卵石，心想世界就是这样。

He had worked here twelve years and has nothing but a mortgaged mule.

他在这里工作了十二年，除了一头抵押的骡子之外一无所有。

Children?

孩子们？

Yes, seven; but they hadn’t been to school this year,—couldn’t afford books and clothes, and couldn’t spare their work.

是的，七个；但今年他们没有上学，买不起书本和衣服，也无法放下工作。

There go part of them to the fields now,—three big boys astride mules, and a strapping girl with bare brown legs.

现在，他们中的一部分人已经去田里了——三个大男孩骑着骡子，还有一个身材魁梧、光着棕色腿的女孩。

Careless ignorance and laziness here, fierce hate and vindictiveness there;—these are the extremes of the Negro problem which we met that day, and we scarce knew which we preferred.

这里是粗心的无知和懒惰，那里是激烈的仇恨和报复——这些都是我们那天遇到的黑人问题的极端，我们几乎不知道我们更喜欢哪一个。

Here and there we meet distinct characters quite out of the ordinary.

我们到处都会遇到不同寻常的独特人物。

One came out of a piece of newly cleared ground, making a wide detour to avoid the snakes.

其中一只从一块新清理过的土地上走出来，绕了一大圈以避开蛇。

He was an old, hollow-cheeked man, with a drawn and characterful brown face.

他是一位双颊凹陷的老人，一张棕色的脸，表情憔悴，很有特色。

He had a sort of self-contained quaintness and rough humor impossible to describe; a certain cynical earnestness that puzzled one.

他有一种难以形容的自成一体的古怪和粗俗的幽默感。一种令人困惑的愤世嫉俗的认真态度。

“The niggers were jealous of me over on the other place,” he said, “and so me and the old woman begged this piece of woods, and I cleared it up myself.

“那边的黑鬼嫉妒我，”他说，“所以我和老妇人向我讨要这片树林，我自己把它清理干净了。

Made nothing for two years, but I reckon I’ve got a crop now.” The cotton looked tall and rich, and we praised it.

两年来什么也没收获，但我想我现在已经有收获了。”棉花看上去又高又肥，我们称赞不已。

He curtsied low, and then bowed almost to the ground, with an imperturbable gravity that seemed almost suspicious.

他低低地行了个屈膝礼，然后几乎跪倒在地，镇定自若，严肃得几乎让人怀疑。

Then he continued, “My mule died last week,”—a calamity in this land equal to a devastating fire in town,—“but a white man loaned me another.” Then he added, eyeing us, “Oh, I gets along with white folks.” We turned the conversation.

然后他继续说道，“我的骡子上周死了，”——这片土地上的一场灾难相当于镇上一场毁灭性的火灾——“但是一个白人借给了我另一匹骡子。”然后他看着我们补充道，“哦，我和白人相处得很好。”我们话锋一转。

“Bears?

“熊？

deer?” he answered, “well, I should say there were,” and he let fly a string of brave oaths, as he told hunting-tales of the swamp.

鹿？”他回答说：“好吧，我应该说有。”当他讲述沼泽的狩猎故事时，他发出了一连串勇敢的誓言。

We left him standing still in the middle of the road looking after us, and yet apparently not noticing us.

我们让他一动不动地站在路中间看着我们，但显然没有注意到我们。

The Whistle place, which includes his bit of land, was bought soon after the war by an English syndicate, the “Dixie Cotton and Corn Company.” A marvellous deal of style their factor put on, with his servants and coach-and-six; so much so that the concern soon landed in inextricable bankruptcy.

战后不久，一个英国财团“迪克西棉花和玉米公司”买下了哨子庄园，其中包括他的一小块土地。他们的仆人和六人马车的表演风格非常出色。如此之多以至于该公司很快就陷入了无法摆脱的破产境地。

Nobody lives in the old house now, but a man comes each winter out of the North and collects his high rents.

现在没人住在老房子里，但每年冬天都会有一个人从北方来收取高额租金。

I know not which are the more touching,—such old empty houses, or the homes of the masters’ sons.

我不知道哪个更感人，是那些空荡荡的老房子，还是主人儿子的家。

Sad and bitter tales lie hidden back of those white doors,—tales of poverty, of struggle, of disappointment.

那些白色的门后面隐藏着悲伤和痛苦的故事——贫穷、奋斗、失望的故事。

A revolution such as that of ’63 is a terrible thing; they that rose rich in the morning often slept in paupers’ beds.

像 63 年这样的革命是一件可怕的事情；那些早上发财的人常常睡在穷人的床上。

Beggars and vulgar speculators rose to rule over them, and their children went astray.

乞丐和庸俗投机者起来统治他们，他们的孩子就误入歧途。

See yonder sad-colored house, with its cabins and fences and glad crops!

看看那边那座颜色悲伤的房子，里面有小屋、栅栏和欣欣向荣的庄稼！

It is not glad within; last month the prodigal son of the struggling father wrote home from the city for money.

内心不高兴；上个月，苦苦挣扎的父亲的浪子从城里写信回家要钱。

Money!

钱！

Where was it to come from?

它是从哪里来的？

And so the son rose in the night and killed his baby, and killed his wife, and shot himself dead.

于是，儿子夜里起来，杀死了自己的孩子，杀死了自己的妻子，然后开枪自杀了。

And the world passed on.

世界过去了。

I remember wheeling around a bend in the road beside a graceful bit of forest and a singing brook.

我记得我在路的一个弯道上转了转，旁边是一片优美的森林和一条歌唱的小溪。

A long low house faced us, with porch and flying pillars, great oaken door, and a broad lawn shining in the evening sun.

我们对面是一座长长的低矮房子，有门廊和飞翔的柱子，巨大的橡木门，还有在傍晚的阳光下闪闪发光的宽阔草坪。

But the window-panes were gone, the pillars were worm-eaten, and the moss-grown roof was falling in.

但窗玻璃不见了，柱子被虫蛀了，长满青苔的屋顶也塌陷了。

Half curiously I peered through the unhinged door, and saw where, on the wall across the hall, was written in once gay letters a faded “Welcome.”

我有点好奇地透过那扇没有铰链的门往里看，看到大厅对面的墙上，用曾经欢快的字母写着一个褪了色的“欢迎”。

Quite a contrast to the southwestern part of Dougherty County is the northwest.

与多尔蒂县西南部形成鲜明对比的是西北部。

Soberly timbered in oak and pine, it has none of that half-tropical luxuriance of the southwest.

它由橡树和松树构成，朴素，没有西南部那种半热带的茂盛。

Then, too, there are fewer signs of a romantic past, and more of systematic modern land-grabbing and money-getting.

此外，浪漫过去的迹象也越来越少，而系统性的现代掠夺土地和金钱的迹象却越来越多。

White people are more in evidence here, and farmer and hired labor replace to some extent the absentee landlord and rack-rented tenant.

白人在这里更为明显，农民和雇佣劳工在某种程度上取代了缺席的房东和租用机架的租户。

The crops have neither the luxuriance of the richer land nor the signs of neglect so often seen, and there were fences and meadows here and there.

农作物既没有肥沃土地上的茂盛，也没有常见的被忽视的迹象，到处都有栅栏和草地。

Most of this land was poor, and beneath the notice of the slave-baron, before the war.

战前，这片土地的大部分地区都很贫穷，不受奴隶男爵的关注。

Since then his poor relations and foreign immigrants have seized it.

从那时起，他的穷亲戚和外国移民就占领了它。

The returns of the farmer are too small to allow much for wages, and yet he will not sell off small farms.

农民的收益太少，不足以支付工资，但他不会卖掉小农场。

There is the Negro Sanford; he has worked fourteen years as overseer on the Ladson place, and “paid out enough for fertilizers to have bought a farm,” but the owner will not sell off a few acres.

有黑人桑福德；他在莱德森庄园当了十四年的监工，“付的化肥钱足以买下一座农场”，但农场主不会卖掉几英亩土地。

Two children—a boy and a girl—are hoeing sturdily in the fields on the farm where Corliss works.

两个孩子——一个男孩和一个女孩——正在科利斯工作的农场的田里用力锄地。

He is smooth-faced and brown, and is fencing up his pigs.

他脸色光滑，皮肤黝黑，正在用栅栏围住他的猪。

He used to run a successful cotton-gin, but the Cotton Seed Oil Trust has forced the price of ginning so low that he says it hardly pays him.

他曾经经营过一家成功的轧棉厂，但棉籽油信托基金将轧棉价格压得如此之低，以至于他说这几乎无法给他带来报酬。

He points out a stately old house over the way as the home of “Pa Willis.” We eagerly ride over, for “Pa Willis” was the tall and powerful black Moses who led the Negroes for a generation, and led them well.

他指出路对面一栋庄严的老房子是“帕·威利斯”的家。我们急切地骑马过去，因为“帕·威利斯”就是那个高大有力的黑人摩西，他领导了一代黑人，而且领导得很好。

He was a Baptist preacher, and when he died, two thousand black people followed him to the grave; and now they preach his funeral sermon each year.

他是一名浸信会传教士，当他去世时，有两千黑人跟随他来到坟墓。现在他们每年都会为他做葬礼布道。

His widow lives here,—a weazened, sharp-featured little woman, who curtsied quaintly as we greeted her.

他的遗孀就住在这里，一位面容虚弱、五官锐利的小女人，当我们迎接她时，她古怪地行了屈膝礼。

Further on lives Jack Delson, the most prosperous Negro farmer in the county.

再远的地方住着杰克·德尔森，他是该县最富有的黑人农民。

It is a joy to meet him,—a great broad-shouldered, handsome black man, intelligent and jovial.

很高兴见到他——一个宽肩膀、英俊的黑人，聪明而快乐。

Six hundred and fifty acres he owns, and has eleven black tenants.

他拥有六百五十英亩土地，并有十一名黑人佃户。

A neat and tidy home nestled in a flower-garden, and a little store stands beside it.

干净整洁的家坐落在花园里，旁边有一家小商店。

We pass the Munson place, where a plucky white widow is renting and struggling; and the eleven hundred acres of the Sennet plantation, with its Negro overseer.

我们经过曼森家，那里有一位勇敢的白人寡妇正在租房子里挣扎。还有占地一千一百英亩的塞尼特种植园，还有黑人监工。

Then the character of the farms begins to change.

然后农场的特征开始发生变化。

Nearly all the lands belong to Russian Jews; the overseers are white, and the cabins are bare board-houses scattered here and there.

几乎所有土地都属于俄罗斯犹太人；监工都是白人，小屋是散落各处的光秃秃的木板房。

The rents are high, and day-laborers and “contract” hands abound.

租金很高，临时工和“合同工”比比皆是。

It is a keen, hard struggle for living here, and few have time to talk.

在这里生活是一场激烈而艰苦的斗争，很少有人有时间说话。

Tired with the long ride, we gladly drive into Gillonsville.

由于厌倦了长途旅行，我们很高兴开车前往吉伦斯维尔。

It is a silent cluster of farmhouses standing on the crossroads, with one of its stores closed and the other kept by a Negro preacher.

这是一片寂静的农舍群，矗立在十字路口，其中一间商店关着门，另一间由一位黑人传教士掌管。

They tell great tales of busy times at Gillonsville before all the railroads came to Albany; now it is chiefly a memory.

他们讲述了所有铁路到达奥尔巴尼之前吉伦斯维尔繁忙时期的精彩故事；现在它主要是一个记忆。

Riding down the street, we stop at the preacher’s and seat ourselves before the door.

我们沿着街道骑行，在牧师家停下来，在门前坐下。

It was one of those scenes one cannot soon forget:—a wide, low, little house, whose motherly roof reached over and sheltered a snug little porch.

这是一个让人无法很快忘记的场景：一座宽阔、低矮的小房子，其慈母般的屋顶伸出来，庇护着一个舒适的小门廊。

There we sat, after the long hot drive, drinking cool water,—the talkative little storekeeper who is my daily companion; the silent old black woman patching pantaloons and saying never a word; the ragged picture of helpless misfortune who called in just to see the preacher; and finally the neat matronly preacher’s wife, plump, yellow, and intelligent.

经过长途炎热的驾驶后，我们坐在那里，喝着清凉的水——那个健谈的小店主是我每天的伴侣；沉默寡言的黑人老妇正在修补裤子，一句话也不说；一幅破破烂烂的画面，描绘了一个无助的不幸者打电话来只是为了见传道人；最后是整洁的主妇传教士的妻子，丰满，黄皮肤，聪明。

“Own land?” said the wife; “well, only this house.” Then she added quietly.

“自己的土地？”妻子说； “好吧，只有这栋房子。”然后她小声补充道。

“We did buy seven hundred acres across up yonder, and paid for it; but they cheated us out of it.

“我们确实在那边买了七百英亩土地，并付了钱；但他们欺骗了我们。

Sells was the owner.” “Sells!” echoed the ragged misfortune, who was leaning against the balustrade and listening, “he’s a regular cheat.

卖的是主人。” “卖了！”靠在栏杆上听着的衣衫褴褛的不幸者附和道，“他是个经常作弊的人。

I worked for him thirty-seven days this spring, and he paid me in cardboard checks which were to be cashed at the end of the month.

今年春天我为他工作了三十七天，他用纸板支票支付我工资，月底兑现。

But he never cashed them,—kept putting me off.

但他从来没有兑现过——一直拖延着我。

Then the sheriff came and took my mule and corn and furniture—” “Furniture?

然后治安官来了，拿走了我的骡子、玉米和家具——” “家具？

But furniture is exempt from seizure by law.” “Well, he took it just the same,” said the hard-faced man.

但法律规定家具不受扣押。” “好吧，他还是照样接受了。”面无表情的男人说道。

VIII.

八．

Of the Quest of the Golden Fleece

寻找金羊毛

But the Brute said in his breast, “Till the mills I grind have ceased, The riches shall be dust of dust, dry ashes be the feast!

但野兽在心中说道：“直到我磨的磨坊停止，财富将化为尘埃，干灰将成为盛宴！

“On the strong and cunning few Cynic favors I will strew; I will stuff their maw with overplus until their spirit dies; From the patient and the low I will take the joys they know; They shall hunger after vanities and still an-hungered go.

“我会对少数坚强而狡猾的愤世嫉俗者施以恩惠；我将把多余的东西塞进他们的胃里，直到他们的灵魂死去；我将从耐心和卑微的人那里获得他们所知道的快乐；他们将饥肠辘辘地追求虚荣，但仍然饥肠辘辘。

Madness shall be on the people, ghastly jealousies arise; Brother’s blood shall cry on brother up the dead and empty skies.”

人们将陷入疯狂，可怕的嫉妒将出现；兄弟的鲜血将在死亡和空虚的天空中为兄弟哭泣。”

WILLIAM VAUGHN MOODY.

威廉·沃恩·穆迪。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Have you ever seen a cotton-field white with harvest,—its golden fleece hovering above the black earth like a silvery cloud edged with dark green, its bold white signals waving like the foam of billows from Carolina to Texas across that Black and human Sea?

你可曾见过一片收获的白色棉田——它的金色羊毛像一朵银色的云彩盘旋在黑色的土地上，边缘是深绿色的，它大胆的白色信号像波浪的泡沫一样从卡罗来纳州到德克萨斯州穿过黑海和人类海？

I have sometimes half suspected that here the winged ram Chrysomallus left that Fleece after which Jason and his Argonauts went vaguely wandering into the shadowy East three thousand years ago; and certainly one might frame a pretty and not far-fetched analogy of witchery and dragons’ teeth, and blood and armed men, between the ancient and the modern quest of the Golden Fleece in the Black Sea.

有时我有点怀疑，三千多年前，长着翅膀的公羊克里索马勒斯在这里留下了那根羊毛，之后伊阿宋和他的阿尔戈英雄们模糊地漫步到了阴暗的东方；当然，人们可以在古代和现代对黑海金羊毛的探索之间，用巫术和龙牙、鲜血和武装人员来进行一个漂亮而不牵强的类比。

And now the golden fleece is found; not only found, but, in its birthplace, woven.

现在金羊毛已经找到了；不仅被发现，而且在其诞生地被编织。

For the hum of the cotton-mills is the newest and most significant thing in the New South to-day.

因为棉纺厂的嗡嗡声是当今新南方最新、最重要的事情。

All through the Carolinas and Georgia, away down to Mexico, rise these gaunt red buildings, bare and homely, and yet so busy and noisy withal that they scarce seem to belong to the slow and sleepy land.

穿过卡罗莱纳州和佐治亚州，一直延伸到墨西哥，矗立着这些憔悴的红色建筑，光秃秃的，朴素的，但又如此繁忙和喧闹，以至于它们似乎不属于这片缓慢而沉睡的土地。

Perhaps they sprang from dragons’ teeth.

也许它们是从龙的牙齿中诞生的。

So the Cotton Kingdom still lives; the world still bows beneath her sceptre.

所以棉花王国依然存在；世界仍然屈服于她的权杖之下。

Even the markets that once defied the parvenu have crept one by one across the seas, and then slowly and reluctantly, but surely, have started toward the Black Belt.

即使是那些曾经藐视暴发户的市场，也一一跨越重洋，慢慢地、不情愿地、但肯定地开始走向黑带。

To be sure, there are those who wag their heads knowingly and tell us that the capital of the Cotton Kingdom has moved from the Black to the White Belt,—that the Negro of to-day raises not more than half of the cotton crop.

可以肯定的是，有些人故意摇着头告诉我们，棉花王国的首都已经从黑带转移到了白带，今天的黑人种植的棉花产量不超过一半。

Such men forget that the cotton crop has doubled, and more than doubled, since the era of slavery, and that, even granting their contention, the Negro is still supreme in a Cotton Kingdom larger than that on which the Confederacy builded its hopes.

这些人忘记了，自奴隶制时代以来，棉花产量已经翻了一番，而且不止一倍，而且，即使他们的论点成立，黑人在一个比南部邦联赖以生存的棉花王国还要大的棉花王国中仍然占据着至高无上的地位。

So the Negro forms to-day one of the chief figures in a great world-industry; and this, for its own sake, and in the light of historic interest, makes the field-hands of the cotton country worth studying.

因此，今天黑人已成为世界伟大工业的主要人物之一。就其本身而言，并考虑到历史意义，棉花之乡的田间劳动者值得研究。

We seldom study the condition of the Negro to-day honestly and carefully.

我们很少诚实而仔细地研究当今黑人的状况。

It is so much easier to assume that we know it all.

假设我们知道一切就容易多了。

Or perhaps, having already reached conclusions in our own minds, we are loth to have them disturbed by facts.

或者，也许我们已经在自己的头脑中得出了结论，因此不愿意让它们受到事实的干扰。

And yet how little we really know of these millions,—of their daily lives and longings, of their homely joys and sorrows, of their real shortcomings and the meaning of their crimes!

然而，我们对这数百万人——他们的日常生活和渴望，他们平凡的欢乐和悲伤，他们真正的缺点和他们的罪行的意义——了解得实在太少了！

All this we can only learn by intimate contact with the masses, and not by wholesale arguments covering millions separate in time and space, and differing widely in training and culture.

所有这一切，我们只能通过与群众的密切接触来了解，而不是通过涵盖数百万人在时间和空间上不同、在训练和文化上存在巨大差异的大规模争论来了解。

To-day, then, my reader, let us turn our faces to the Black Belt of Georgia and seek simply to know the condition of the black farm-laborers of one county there.

那么，今天，我的读者，让我们把目光转向佐治亚州的黑带，只是想了解那里一个县的黑人农场工人的状况。

Here in 1890 lived ten thousand Negroes and two thousand whites.

1890 年这里居住着一万名黑人和两千名白人。

The country is rich, yet the people are poor.

国家富裕了，人民却贫穷了。

The keynote of the Black Belt is debt; not commercial credit, but debt in the sense of continued inability on the part of the mass of the population to make income cover expense.

黑带的基调是债务；不是商业信贷，而是债务，即大多数民众持续无力以收入支付支出。

This is the direct heritage of the South from the wasteful economies of the slave _régime;_ but it was emphasized and brought to a crisis by the Emancipation of the slaves.

这是南方从奴隶制度的浪费性经济中直接继承下来的遗产；但它被奴隶解放所强调并陷入危机。

In 1860, Dougherty County had six thousand slaves, worth at least two and a half millions of dollars; its farms were estimated at three millions,—making five and a half millions of property, the value of which depended largely on the slave system, and on the speculative demand for land once marvellously rich but already partially devitalized by careless and exhaustive culture.

1860 年，多尔蒂县有六千名奴隶，价值至少二百五十万美元；它的农场估计有三百万，创造了五百五十万财产，其价值很大程度上取决于奴隶制，以及对曾经非常丰富但已经因粗心和穷尽的文化而部分丧失活力的土地的投机需求。

The war then meant a financial crash; in place of the five and a half millions of 1860, there remained in 1870 only farms valued at less than two millions.

战争意味着金融崩溃； 1870 年，农场价值低于 200 万，取代了 1860 年的 550 万农场。

With this came increased competition in cotton culture from the rich lands of Texas; a steady fall in the normal price of cotton followed, from about fourteen cents a pound in 1860 until it reached four cents in 1898.

随之而来的是来自德克萨斯州富饶土地的棉花种植竞争的加剧。随后棉花的正常价格稳步下跌，从 1860 年的每磅约 14 美分一直下降到 1898 年的每磅 4 美分。

Such a financial revolution was it that involved the owners of the cotton-belt in debt.

正是这样的金融革命让棉带的所有者负债累累。

And if things went ill with the master, how fared it with the man?

如果主人出了问题，那么这个人又怎么样呢？

The plantations of Dougherty County in slavery days were not as imposing and aristocratic as those of Virginia.

奴隶制时期多尔蒂县的种植园并不像弗吉尼亚的种植园那样雄伟和贵族。

The Big House was smaller and usually one-storied, and sat very near the slave cabins.

大房子较小，通常是一层，离奴隶小屋很近。

Sometimes these cabins stretched off on either side like wings; sometimes only on one side, forming a double row, or edging the road that turned into the plantation from the main thoroughfare.

有时，这些小屋像翅膀一样向两侧伸展；有时，这些小屋像翅膀一样向两侧伸展。有时仅在一侧，形成双排，或位于从主干道转入种植园的道路边缘。

The form and disposition of the laborers’ cabins throughout the Black Belt is to-day the same as in slavery days.

如今，整个黑带地区劳工小屋的形式和布局与奴隶制时代相同。

Some live in the self-same cabins, others in cabins rebuilt on the sites of the old.

有些人住在同一个小屋里，另一些人则住在旧址上重建的小屋里。

All are sprinkled in little groups over the face of the land, centering about some dilapidated Big House where the head-tenant or agent lives.

所有这些都以小群的形式散布在这片土地上，以主租户或经纪人居住的一些破旧的大房子为中心。

The general character and arrangement of these dwellings remains on the whole unaltered.

这些住宅的一般特征和布局总体上保持不变。

There were in the county, outside the corporate town of Albany, about fifteen hundred Negro families in 1898.

1898 年，在奥尔巴尼企业城外的县里，大约有 1500 个黑人家庭。

Out of all these, only a single family occupied a house with seven rooms; only fourteen have five rooms or more.

其中，只有一户人家拥有七间房的房子；只有十四人拥有五个或更多房间。

The mass live in one- and two-room homes.

大多数人住在一居室和两居室的房屋中。

The size and arrangements of a people’s homes are no unfair index of their condition.

人们房屋的大小和布局并不是他们状况的不公平指标。

If, then, we inquire more carefully into these Negro homes, we find much that is unsatisfactory.

那么，如果我们更仔细地调查这些黑人家庭，我们会发现许多不尽如人意的地方。

All over the face of the land is the one-room cabin,—now standing in the shadow of the Big House, now staring at the dusty road, now rising dark and sombre amid the green of the cotton-fields.

地面上到处都是一间间的小屋——时而矗立在大房子的阴影下，时而凝视着尘土飞扬的道路，时而在绿色的棉田中升起黑暗和阴沉。

It is nearly always old and bare, built of rough boards, and neither plastered nor ceiled.

它几乎总是陈旧而光秃秃的，由粗糙的木板建造，既没有抹灰，也没有天花板。

Light and ventilation are supplied by the single door and by the square hole in the wall with its wooden shutter.

光线和通风由单扇门和墙上的方孔及其木制百叶窗提供。

There is no glass, porch, or ornamentation without.

没有玻璃、门廊或装饰品就没有。

Within is a fireplace, black and smoky, and usually unsteady with age.

里面有一个壁炉，黑乎乎的，冒着烟，而且随着时间的推移通常不稳定。

A bed or two, a table, a wooden chest, and a few chairs compose the furniture; while a stray show-bill or a newspaper makes up the decorations for the walls.

家具是一两张床、一张桌子、一个木箱和几把椅子；而墙上的装饰则是零散的演出单或报纸。

Now and then one may find such a cabin kept scrupulously neat, with merry steaming fireplaces and hospitable door; but the majority are dirty and dilapidated, smelling of eating and sleeping, poorly ventilated, and anything but homes.

人们时不时会发现这样一间小屋保持得一丝不苟，壁炉里冒着热气，门也热情好客。但大多数都又脏又破，有吃饭和睡觉的味道，通风很差，什么都不是家。

Above all, the cabins are crowded.

最重要的是，船舱很拥挤。

We have come to associate crowding with homes in cities almost exclusively.

我们几乎只将拥挤与城市中的房屋联系在一起。

This is primarily because we have so little accurate knowledge of country life.

这主要是因为我们对乡村生活缺乏准确的了解。

Here in Dougherty County one may find families of eight and ten occupying one or two rooms, and for every ten rooms of house accommodation for the Negroes there are twenty-five persons.

在多尔蒂县，人们可能会发现八口和十口的家庭占据一两个房间，而每十个房间的黑人住房就有二十五个人。

The worst tenement abominations of New York do not have above twenty-two persons for every ten rooms.

纽约最糟糕的公寓里每十个房间的人口也不超过二十二人。

Of course, one small, close room in a city, without a yard, is in many respects worse than the larger single country room.

当然，城市里一间又小又密的房间，没有院子，在很多方面都比乡村里的大房间差。

In other respects it is better; it has glass windows, a decent chimney, and a trustworthy floor.

其他方面都比较好；它有玻璃窗、像样的烟囱和值得信赖的地板。

The single great advantage of the Negro peasant is that he may spend most of his life outside his hovel, in the open fields.

黑人农民唯一的巨大优势是，他一生的大部分时间都可以在茅屋外的空旷田野里度过。

There are four chief causes of these wretched homes: First, long custom born of slavery has assigned such homes to Negroes; white laborers would be offered better accommodations, and might, for that and similar reasons, give better work.

造成这些破烂房屋的主要原因有四个：首先，奴隶制产生的长期习俗将这些房屋分配给了黑人；白人劳工将获得更好的住宿条件，并且可能出于这个或类似的原因提供更好的工作。

Secondly, the Negroes, used to such accommodations, do not as a rule demand better; they do not know what better houses mean.

其次，习惯了这种便利条件的黑人通常不会要求更好的条件。他们不知道更好的房子意味着什么。

Thirdly, the landlords as a class have not yet come to realize that it is a good business investment to raise the standard of living among labor by slow and judicious methods; that a Negro laborer who demands three rooms and fifty cents a day would give more efficient work and leave a larger profit than a discouraged toiler herding his family in one room and working for thirty cents.

第三，地主阶级还没有认识到，通过缓慢而明智的方法来提高劳动者的生活水平是一项很好的商业投资；一个要求三个房间、每天 50 美分的黑人劳工，会比一个灰心丧气、把家人赶在一个房间、每天只拿 30 美分工作的苦力者，工作效率会更高，利润也会更高。

Lastly, among such conditions of life there are few incentives to make the laborer become a better farmer.

最后，在这样的生活条件下，几乎没有动力让劳动者成为更好的农民。

If he is ambitious, he moves to town or tries other labor; as a tenant-farmer his outlook is almost hopeless, and following it as a makeshift, he takes the house that is given him without protest.

如果他雄心勃勃，他就会搬到城里或尝试其他工作；作为一个佃农，他的前景几乎是绝望的，作为权宜之计，他毫无异议地接受了给予他的房子。

In such homes, then, these Negro peasants live.

那么，这些黑人农民就生活在这样的房子里。

The families are both small and large; there are many single tenants,—widows and bachelors, and remnants of broken groups.

家庭有大有小；这里有许多单身佃户——寡妇和单身汉，以及破碎团体的残余人员。

The system of labor and the size of the houses both tend to the breaking up of family groups: the grown children go away as contract hands or migrate to town, the sister goes into service; and so one finds many families with hosts of babies, and many newly married couples, but comparatively few families with half-grown and grown sons and daughters.

劳动制度和房屋的大小都导致了家庭群体的分裂：成年的孩子成为合同工或移居城镇，姐妹去服务；孩子们则成为家庭成员。因此，我们会发现很多家庭有很多婴儿，也有很多新婚夫妇，但相对较少的家庭有半大和成年的儿子和女儿。

The average size of Negro families has undoubtedly decreased since the war, primarily from economic stress.

自战后以来，黑人家庭的平均规模无疑有所下降，这主要是由于经济压力。

In Russia over a third of the bridegrooms and over half the brides are under twenty; the same was true of the antebellum Negroes.

在俄罗斯，超过三分之一的新郎和一半以上的新娘都在二十岁以下；内战前的黑人也是如此。

Today, however, very few of the boys and less than a fifth of the Negro girls under twenty are married.

然而，今天，很少有男孩和不到五分之一的二十岁以下的黑人女孩结婚了。

The young men marry between the ages of twenty-five and thirty-five; the young women between twenty and thirty.

年轻人在二十五岁到三十五岁之间结婚；二十岁到三十岁之间的年轻女性。

Such postponement is due to the difficulty of earning sufficient to rear and support a family; and it undoubtedly leads, in the country districts, to sexual immorality.

这种推迟是因为难以挣到足够的钱养家糊口；在乡村地区，这无疑会导致性不道德。

The form of this immorality, however, is very seldom that of prostitution, and less frequently that of illegitimacy than one would imagine.

然而，这种不道德的形式很少是卖淫，而且也不像人们想象的那样常见为私生子。

Rather, it takes the form of separation and desertion after a family group has been formed.

相反，它采取的是家庭团体形成后的分离和遗弃的形式。

The number of separated persons is thirty-five to the thousand,—a very large number.

失散的人数是三十五比千，这是一个非常大的数字。

It would of course be unfair to compare this number with divorce statistics, for many of these separated women are in reality widowed, were the truth known, and in other cases the separation is not permanent.

将这个数字与离婚统计数据进行比较当然是不公平的，因为如果真相大白，这些分居妇女中的许多人实际上已经丧偶，而且在其他情况下，分居也不是永久性的。

Nevertheless, here lies the seat of greatest moral danger.

然而，这里存在着最大的道德危险。

There is little or no prostitution among these Negroes, and over three-fourths of the families, as found by house-to-house investigation, deserve to be classed as decent people with considerable regard for female chastity.

这些黑人中很少或根本没有卖淫现象，经挨家挨户调查发现，四分之三以上的家庭值得被视为非常尊重女性贞操的正派人。

To be sure, the ideas of the mass would not suit New England, and there are many loose habits and notions.

可以肯定的是，大众的观念不适合新英格兰，而且有许多松散的习惯和观念。

Yet the rate of illegitimacy is undoubtedly lower than in Austria or Italy, and the women as a class are modest.

然而，非婚生率无疑低于奥地利或意大利，而且女性作为一个阶层的数量也很少。

The plague-spot in sexual relations is easy marriage and easy separation.

性关系中的瘟疫就是易婚易分。

This is no sudden development, nor the fruit of Emancipation.

这不是突然的发展，也不是解放的成果。

It is the plain heritage from slavery.

这是奴隶制留下的朴素遗产。

In those days Sam, with his master’s consent, “took up” with Mary.

那时，山姆在主人的同意下，与玛丽“交往”了。

No ceremony was necessary, and in the busy life of the great plantations of the Black Belt it was usually dispensed with.

仪式是不必要的，在黑带大种植园的忙碌生活中，仪式通常被省略。

If now the master needed Sam’s work in another plantation or in another part of the same plantation, or if he took a notion to sell the slave, Sam’s married life with Mary was usually unceremoniously broken, and then it was clearly to the master’s interest to have both of them take new mates.

如果现在主人需要萨姆在另一个种植园或同一种植园的另一个地方工作，或者如果他想出卖奴隶，那么萨姆与玛丽的婚姻生活通常会被毫不客气地打破，那么让他们俩都娶新伴侣显然符合主人的利益。

This widespread custom of two centuries has not been eradicated in thirty years.

这种流传了两个世纪的习俗，三十年来仍未根除。

To-day Sam’s grandson “takes up” with a woman without license or ceremony; they live together decently and honestly, and are, to all intents and purposes, man and wife.

如今，萨姆的孙子在没有许可证或仪式的情况下与一名女性“发生关系”；他们体面而诚实地生活在一起，从所有的意图和目的来看，他们是夫妻。

Sometimes these unions are never broken until death; but in too many cases family quarrels, a roving spirit, a rival suitor, or perhaps more frequently the hopeless battle to support a family, lead to separation, and a broken household is the result.

有时，这些结合直到死亡才被打破。但在很多情况下，家庭争吵、流浪精神、竞争对手的追求者，或者更常见的是，为养家糊口而进行的无望斗争，导致分离，结果是家庭破裂。

The Negro church has done much to stop this practice, and now most marriage ceremonies are performed by the pastors.

黑人教会为制止这种做法做了很多努力，现在大多数婚礼都是由牧师主持的。

Nevertheless, the evil is still deep seated, and only a general raising of the standard of living will finally cure it.

但弊端依然根深蒂固，只有普遍提高生活水平才能最终根治。

Looking now at the county black population as a whole, it is fair to characterize it as poor and ignorant.

现在把整个县的黑人人口看成一个整体，可以说他们是贫穷和无知的。

Perhaps ten per cent compose the well-to-do and the best of the laborers, while at least nine per cent are thoroughly lewd and vicious.

也许百分之十的人是富裕的和最优秀的劳动者，而至少百分之九的人是彻底的淫荡和恶毒。

The rest, over eighty per cent, are poor and ignorant, fairly honest and well meaning, plodding, and to a degree shiftless, with some but not great sexual looseness.

其余的人，超过百分之八十，都是贫穷和无知的，相当诚实和善意，埋头苦干，在一定程度上是无能的，有一些但不是很大的性放荡。

Such class lines are by no means fixed; they vary, one might almost say, with the price of cotton.

这样的阶级界限绝不是固定的。人们几乎可以说，它们随着棉花价格的变化而变化。

The degree of ignorance cannot easily be expressed.

无知的程度是无法轻易表达的。

We may say, for instance, that nearly two-thirds of them cannot read or write.

例如，我们可以说，其中近三分之二的人无法读写。

This but partially expresses the fact.

这只是部分地表达了事实。

They are ignorant of the world about them, of modern economic organization, of the function of government, of individual worth and possibilities,—of nearly all those things which slavery in self-defence had to keep them from learning.

他们对周围的世界、现代经济组织、政府的职能、个人价值和可能性一无所知——几乎所有奴隶制为了自卫而不得不阻止他们学习的东西。

Much that the white boy imbibes from his earliest social atmosphere forms the puzzling problems of the black boy’s mature years.

白人男孩从他最早的社会氛围中吸收的大部分东西形成了黑人男孩成熟时期的令人费解的问题。

America is not another word for Opportunity to _all_ her sons.

美国并不是她所有儿子的机会的代名词。

It is easy for us to lose ourselves in details in endeavoring to grasp and comprehend the real condition of a mass of human beings.

当我们努力把握和理解人类大众的真实状况时，很容易迷失在细节中。

We often forget that each unit in the mass is a throbbing human soul.

我们常常忘记，群体中的每个单位都是一个跳动的人类灵魂。

Ignorant it may be, and poverty stricken, black and curious in limb and ways and thought; and yet it loves and hates, it toils and tires, it laughs and weeps its bitter tears, and looks in vague and awful longing at the grim horizon of its life,—all this, even as you and I.

它可能是无知的，贫困的，黑人的，肢体、方式和思想好奇的；然而它又爱又恨，它劳苦又疲倦，它笑又哭，流着苦涩的泪水，它以模糊而可怕的渴望望着它生命的阴暗地平线——这一切，就像你和我一样。

These black thousands are not in reality lazy; they are improvident and careless; they insist on breaking the monotony of toil with a glimpse at the great town-world on Saturday; they have their loafers and their rascals; but the great mass of them work continuously and faithfully for a return, and under circumstances that would call forth equal voluntary effort from few if any other modern laboring class.

这数千名黑人实际上并不是懒惰，而是懒惰。他们缺乏远见、粗心大意；他们坚持要在周六一睹伟大的城镇世界，打破辛劳的单调。他们有他们的懒汉和他们的流氓；但他们中的大多数人为了回归而持续而忠诚地工作，并且在需要很少（如果有的话）现代劳动阶级做出同样自愿努力的情况下。

Over eighty-eight per cent of them—men, women, and children—are farmers.

其中超过 88%（男性、女性和儿童）是农民。

Indeed, this is almost the only industry.

事实上，这几乎是唯一的行业。

Most of the children get their schooling after the “crops are laid by,” and very few there are that stay in school after the spring work has begun.

大多数孩子在“庄稼收割”后就开始上学，很少有人在春耕开始后留在学校。

Child-labor is to be found here in some of its worst phases, as fostering ignorance and stunting physical development.

童工现象在一些最严重的阶段随处可见，因为它会助长无知并阻碍身体发育。

With the grown men of the county there is little variety in work: thirteen hundred are farmers, and two hundred are laborers, teamsters, etc., including twenty-four artisans, ten merchants, twenty-one preachers, and four teachers.

县里的成年男子从事的工作种类很少：一千三百人是农民，两百人是工人、卡车司机等，其中包括二十四名工匠、十名商人、二十一名传教士和四名教师。

This narrowness of life reaches its maximum among the women: thirteen hundred and fifty of these are farm laborers, one hundred are servants and washerwomen, leaving sixty-five housewives, eight teachers, and six seamstresses.

这种生活的狭隘在妇女中达到了顶峰：其中一千三百五十人是农场工人，一百人是仆人和洗衣女工，剩下六十五名家庭主妇，八名教师和六名裁缝。

Among this people there is no leisure class.

这些人中没有闲暇阶层。

We often forget that in the United States over half the youth and adults are not in the world earning incomes, but are making homes, learning of the world, or resting after the heat of the strife.

我们常常忘记，在美国，超过一半的年轻人和成年人并不是在世界上赚取收入，而是在安家、了解世界，或者在激烈的冲突之后休息。

But here ninety-six per cent are toiling; no one with leisure to turn the bare and cheerless cabin into a home, no old folks to sit beside the fire and hand down traditions of the past; little of careless happy childhood and dreaming youth.

但这里百分之九十六的人都在辛苦劳作；没有人有闲暇把空荡荡的小屋变成家，没有老人坐在火边传承过去的传统；少了无忧无虑的快乐童年和梦想的青春。

The dull monotony of daily toil is broken only by the gayety of the thoughtless and the Saturday trip to town.

日常劳作的沉闷单调只能通过轻率的快乐和周六进城的旅行来打破。

The toil, like all farm toil, is monotonous, and here there are little machinery and few tools to relieve its burdensome drudgery.

与所有的农活一样，这种劳作是单调的，而且这里几乎没有什么机械和工具来减轻繁重的苦差事。

But with all this, it is work in the pure open air, and this is something in a day when fresh air is scarce.

但尽管如此，这仍然是在纯净的露天工作，这在新鲜空气稀缺的日子里是很难做到的。

The land on the whole is still fertile, despite long abuse.

尽管长期被滥用，这片土地总体上仍然肥沃。

For nine or ten months in succession the crops will come if asked: garden vegetables in April, grain in May, melons in June and July, hay in August, sweet potatoes in September, and cotton from then to Christmas.

连续九个月或十个月，只要问，庄稼就会来：四月种菜，五月种谷物，六月和七月种瓜，八月干草，九月红薯，从那时到圣诞节，种棉花。

And yet on two-thirds of the land there is but one crop, and that leaves the toilers in debt.

然而，三分之二的土地只种植一种作物，这让劳动者负债累累。

Why is this?

这是为什么呢？

Away down the Baysan road, where the broad flat fields are flanked by great oak forests, is a plantation; many thousands of acres it used to run, here and there, and beyond the great wood.

沿着Baysan路走下去，那里有一片宽阔平坦的田野，两侧是大片橡树林。它曾经遍布数千英亩的土地，到处都是，甚至超出了大树林。

Thirteen hundred human beings here obeyed the call of one,—were his in body, and largely in soul.

这里的一千三百人听从了一个人的召唤——他们的身体是他的，大部分是他的灵魂。

One of them lives there yet,—a short, stocky man, his dull-brown face seamed and drawn, and his tightly curled hair gray-white.

他们中的一个人还住在那里——一个矮小、壮实的男人，他暗褐色的脸满是皱纹，憔悴不堪，紧紧卷曲的头发呈灰白色。

The crops?

农作物？

Just tolerable, he said; just tolerable.

他说，还可以忍受。还可以忍受。

Getting on?

继续吗？

No—he wasn’t getting on at all.

不——他根本就没有进展。

Smith of Albany “furnishes” him, and his rent is eight hundred pounds of cotton.

奥尔巴尼的史密斯“提供”了他，他的租金是八百磅棉花。

Can’t make anything at that.

那什么也做不了。

Why didn’t he buy land!

他为什么不买地！

_Humph!_ Takes money to buy land.

_哼！_要钱买地。

And he turns away.

然后他转身走开。

Free!

自由的！

The most piteous thing amid all the black ruin of war-time, amid the broken fortunes of the masters, the blighted hopes of mothers and maidens, and the fall of an empire,—the most piteous thing amid all this was the black freedman who threw down his hoe because the world called him free.

在战争时期的所有黑色废墟中，在主人的命运破碎、母亲和少女的希望破灭、帝国的衰落中，最可怜的事情——在这一切之中，最可怜的是那个扔下锄头的黑人自由民，因为世界称他为自由。

What did such a mockery of freedom mean?

这种对自由的嘲弄意味着什么？

Not a cent of money, not an inch of land, not a mouthful of victuals,—not even ownership of the rags on his back.

一分钱都没有，一寸土地都没有，一口食物也没有，连身上的破布都没有。

Free!

自由的！

On Saturday, once or twice a month, the old master, before the war, used to dole out bacon and meal to his Negroes.

战前的老主人常常在星期六，每月一两次向他的黑人分发培根和饭菜。

And after the first flush of freedom wore off, and his true helplessness dawned on the freedman, he came back and picked up his hoe, and old master still doled out his bacon and meal.

当最初的自由的喜悦褪去，自由民意识到他真正的无助之后，他回来拿起锄头，老主人仍然分发他的培根和饭菜。

The legal form of service was theoretically far different; in practice, task-work or “cropping” was substituted for daily toil in gangs; and the slave gradually became a metayer, or tenant on shares, in name, but a laborer with indeterminate wages in fact.

理论上，送达的法律形式有很大不同。在实践中，任务性工作或“耕作”取代了帮派中的日常劳作；奴隶逐渐成为名义上的“梅耶尔”（metayer），即股份佃农，但实际上却是工资不确定的劳动者。

Still the price of cotton fell, and gradually the landlords deserted their plantations, and the reign of the merchant began.

棉花价格仍然下跌，地主逐渐放弃了他们的种植园，商人的统治开始了。

The merchant of the Black Belt is a curious institution,—part banker, part landlord, part banker, and part despot.

黑带商人是一个奇怪的机构，一半是银行家，一半是地主，一半是银行家，一半是暴君。

His store, which used most frequently to stand at the cross-roads and become the centre of a weekly village, has now moved to town; and thither the Negro tenant follows him.

他的商店过去经常坐落在十字路口，成为每周村庄的中心，现在已经搬到城里了。黑人佃农跟着他到了那里。

The merchant keeps everything,—clothes and shoes, coffee and sugar, pork and meal, canned and dried goods, wagons and ploughs, seed and fertilizer,—and what he has not in stock he can give you an order for at the store across the way.

商人保留一切——衣服和鞋子、咖啡和糖、猪肉和粗粉、罐头和干货、马车和犁、种子和化肥——而他没有库存的东西他可以在对面的商店给你订购。

Here, then, comes the tenant, Sam Scott, after he has contracted with some absent landlord’s agent for hiring forty acres of land; he fingers his hat nervously until the merchant finishes his morning chat with Colonel Saunders, and calls out, “Well, Sam, what do you want?” Sam wants him to “furnish” him,—_i.e._, to advance him food and clothing for the year, and perhaps seed and tools, until his crop is raised and sold.

然后，房客萨姆·斯科特来了，他与某个缺席的房东代理人签订了租用四十英亩土地的合同。他紧张地摸着帽子，直到商人结束了与桑德斯上校的早晨聊天，然后喊道：“好吧，山姆，你想要什么？”山姆希望他“提供”他，也就是说，预支他一年的食物和衣服，也许还有种子和工具，直到他的庄稼种植和出售。

If Sam seems a favorable subject, he and the merchant go to a lawyer, and Sam executes a chattel mortgage on his mule and wagon in return for seed and a week’s rations.

如果山姆似乎是一个有利的对象，他和商人就会去找律师，山姆对其骡子和马车进行动产抵押，以换取种子和一周的口粮。

As soon as the green cotton-leaves appear above the ground, another mortgage is given on the “crop.” Every Saturday, or at longer intervals, Sam calls upon the merchant for his “rations”; a family of five usually gets about thirty pounds of fat side-pork and a couple of bushels of cornmeal a month.

一旦绿色的棉叶露出地面，“农作物”就会获得另一笔抵押贷款。每个星期六，或者每隔更长的时间，萨姆都会向商人索取“口粮”。一个五口之家通常每月会得到大约三十磅的肥猪肉和几蒲式耳的玉米粉。

Besides this, clothing and shoes must be furnished; if Sam or his family is sick, there are orders on the druggist and doctor; if the mule wants shoeing, an order on the blacksmith, etc. If Sam is a hard worker and crops promise well, he is often encouraged to buy more,—sugar, extra clothes, perhaps a buggy.

除此之外，还必须配备衣服和鞋子；如果山姆或他的家人生病了，就会向药剂师和医生发出指令；如果山姆工作勤奋，收成很好，他就会被鼓励去买更多的东西——糖、额外的衣服，也许还有一辆马车。

But he is seldom encouraged to save.

但很少有人鼓励他储蓄。

When cotton rose to ten cents last fall, the shrewd merchants of Dougherty County sold a thousand buggies in one season, mostly to black men.

去年秋天，当棉花涨到 10 美分时，多尔蒂县精明的商人在一个季节内售出了 1000 辆马车，其中大部分卖给了黑人。

The security offered for such transactions—a crop and chattel mortgage—may at first seem slight.

为此类交易提供的担保——农作物和动产抵押——乍一看可能显得微不足道。

And, indeed, the merchants tell many a true tale of shiftlessness and cheating; of cotton picked at night, mules disappearing, and tenants absconding.

事实上，商人向许多人讲述了偷懒和欺骗的真实故事。夜间采摘的棉花、骡子消失、佃户潜逃。

But on the whole the merchant of the Black Belt is the most prosperous man in the section.

但总体而言，黑带商人是该地区最富有的人。

So skilfully and so closely has he drawn the bonds of the law about the tenant, that the black man has often simply to choose between pauperism and crime; he “waives” all homestead exemptions in his contract; he cannot touch his own mortgaged crop, which the laws put almost in the full control of the land-owner and of the merchant.

他如此巧妙、如此严密地对佃户制定了法律约束，以至于黑人常常只能在贫困和犯罪之间做出选择；他“放弃”合同中的所有宅基地豁免；他不能动用自己抵押的农作物，法律规定这些农作物几乎完全由土地所有者和商人控制。

When the crop is growing the merchant watches it like a hawk; as soon as it is ready for market he takes possession of it, sells it, pays the landowner his rent, subtracts his bill for supplies, and if, as sometimes happens, there is anything left, he hands it over to the black serf for his Christmas celebration.

当农作物生长时，商人像鹰一样观察它；一旦它准备好上市，他就占有它，出售它，向地主支付租金，减去他的用品账单，如果（有时会发生）还有剩余，他就把它交给黑人农奴来庆祝圣诞节。

The direct result of this system is an all-cotton scheme of agriculture and the continued bankruptcy of the tenant.

这种制度的直接结果是农业的全棉计划和佃农的不断破产。

The currency of the Black Belt is cotton.

黑带的货币是棉花。

It is a crop always salable for ready money, not usually subject to great yearly fluctuations in price, and one which the Negroes know how to raise.

这种作物总是可以卖现钱，每年价格通常不会大幅波动，而且黑人知道如何种植。

The landlord therefore demands his rent in cotton, and the merchant will accept mortgages on no other crop.

因此，地主要求以棉花作为租金，而商人则不会接受其他作物的抵押。

There is no use asking the black tenant, then, to diversify his crops,—he cannot under this system.

那么，要求黑人佃户使其作物多样化是没有用的——在这种制度下他不能。

Moreover, the system is bound to bankrupt the tenant.

而且，该制度势必会让租户破产。

I remember once meeting a little one-mule wagon on the River road.

我记得有一次在河道上遇见一辆小骡车。

A young black fellow sat in it driving listlessly, his elbows on his knees.

一个年轻的黑人坐在车里无精打采地开车，手肘撑在膝盖上。

His dark-faced wife sat beside him, stolid, silent.

他黑脸的妻子坐在他旁边，冷漠、沉默。

“Hello!” cried my driver,—he has a most imprudent way of addressing these people, though they seem used to it,—“what have you got there?”

“你好！”我的司机喊道，他用一种最不谨慎的方式来称呼这些人，尽管他们似乎已经习惯了，“你们那里有什么？”

“Meat and meal,” answered the man, stopping.

“肉和饭。”那人停下来回答道。

The meat lay uncovered in the bottom of the wagon,—a great thin side of fat pork covered with salt; the meal was in a white bushel bag.

肉裸露地躺在马车的底部，是一大块薄薄的肥猪肉，上面撒满了盐。饭菜装在一个白色蒲式耳袋中。

“What did you pay for that meat?”

“你买那块肉花了多少钱？”

“Ten cents a pound.” It could have been bought for six or seven cents cash.

“十美分一磅。”它本来可以用六七美分现金购买。

“And the meal?”

“那饭菜呢？”

“Two dollars.” One dollar and ten cents is the cash price in town.

“两块钱。”镇上的现金价格是一美元十美分。

Here was a man paying five dollars for goods which he could have bought for three dollars cash, and raised for one dollar or one dollar and a half.

这是一个人花五美元购买的商品，他本来可以用三美元现金购买这些商品，但他却筹集了一美元或一美元半。

Yet it is not wholly his fault.

但这并不完全是他的错。

The Negro farmer started behind,—started in debt.

黑人农民开始落后，开始负债累累。

This was not his choosing, but the crime of this happy-go-lucky nation which goes blundering along with its Reconstruction tragedies, its Spanish war interludes and Philippine matinees, just as though God really were dead.

这不是他的选择，而是这个无忧无虑的国家犯下的罪行，它伴随着重建悲剧、西班牙战争插曲和菲律宾日场而跌跌撞撞，就像上帝真的死了一样。

Once in debt, it is no easy matter for a whole race to emerge.

一旦负债累累，整个种族的崛起就不是一件容易的事了。

In the year of low-priced cotton, 1898, out of three hundred tenant families one hundred and seventy-five ended their year’s work in debt to the extent of fourteen thousand dollars; fifty cleared nothing, and the remaining seventy-five made a total profit of sixteen hundred dollars.

1898年棉花价格低廉的一年，三百户佃户家庭中，有一百七十五户在结束一年的工作时负债累累，债务总额达一万四千美元；五十人一无所获，剩下的七十五人总共获利一千六百美元。

The net indebtedness of the black tenant families of the whole county must have been at least sixty thousand dollars.

全县黑人佃户家庭的净负债至少有六万美元。

In a more prosperous year the situation is far better; but on the average the majority of tenants end the year even, or in debt, which means that they work for board and clothes.

在更繁荣的年份，情况要好得多；在更繁荣的年份，情况要好得多。但平均而言，大多数租户到了年底都是平淡的，或者负债累累，这意味着他们为食物和衣服而工作。

Such an economic organization is radically wrong.

这样的经济组织是根本错误的。

Whose is the blame?

谁的错？

The underlying causes of this situation are complicated but discernible.

造成这种情况的根本原因很复杂，但也很明显。

And one of the chief, outside the carelessness of the nation in letting the slave start with nothing, is the widespread opinion among the merchants and employers of the Black Belt that only by the slavery of debt can the Negro be kept at work.

除了国家粗心大意地让奴隶白手起家之外，最主要的原因之一是黑带商人和雇主中普遍存在的一种观点，即只有债务奴役才能让黑人继续工作。

Without doubt, some pressure was necessary at the beginning of the free-labor system to keep the listless and lazy at work; and even to-day the mass of the Negro laborers need stricter guardianship than most Northern laborers.

毫无疑问，在自由劳动力制度刚建立之初，为了让人们在工作中保持无精打采和懒惰，一些压力是必要的。即使在今天，大量黑人劳工也需要比大多数北方劳工更严格的监护。

Behind this honest and widespread opinion dishonesty and cheating of the ignorant laborers have a good chance to take refuge.

在这种诚实而广泛的舆论背后，无知的劳动者的不诚实和欺骗有了很好的避难机会。

And to all this must be added the obvious fact that a slave ancestry and a system of unrequited toil has not improved the efficiency or temper of the mass of black laborers.

除此之外，还必须补充一个明显的事实：奴隶血统和无回报的劳动制度并没有提高广大黑人劳动者的效率或脾气。

Nor is this peculiar to Sambo; it has in history been just as true of John and Hans, of Jacques and Pat, of all ground-down peasantries.

这并不是 Sambo 所特有的。在历史上，约翰和汉斯、雅克和帕特以及所有底层农民都是如此。

Such is the situation of the mass of the Negroes in the Black Belt to-day; and they are thinking about it.

这就是当今黑带地区黑人群众的处境。他们正在考虑这个问题。

Crime, and a cheap and dangerous socialism, are the inevitable results of this pondering.

犯罪以及廉价而危险的社会主义是这种思考的必然结果。

I see now that ragged black man sitting on a log, aimlessly whittling a stick.

我现在看到那个衣衫褴褛的黑人坐在一根圆木上，漫无目的地削着一根棍子。

He muttered to me with the murmur of many ages, when he said: “White man sit down whole year; Nigger work day and night and make crop; Nigger hardly gits bread and meat; white man sittin’ down gits all.

他用多年来的低语对我嘀咕道：“白人一整年坐着；黑鬼日夜工作，收获庄稼；黑鬼几乎得不到面包和肉；白人坐下来什么都有。

_It’s wrong._” And what do the better classes of Negroes do to improve their situation?

_这是错误的。_”那么，较高阶层的黑人会采取什么措施来改善他们的处境呢？

One of two things: if any way possible, they buy land; if not, they migrate to town.

两件事之一：如果有可能的话，他们购买土地；如果没有，他们就会迁移到城镇。

Just as centuries ago it was no easy thing for the serf to escape into the freedom of town-life, even so to-day there are hindrances laid in the way of county laborers.

正如几个世纪前一样，农奴想要逃离城市的自由生活并不是一件容易的事，即便如此，今天乡村工人的道路上仍然存在着障碍。

In considerable parts of all the Gulf States, and especially in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the Negroes on the plantations in the back-country districts are still held at forced labor practically without wages.

在海湾国家的相当一部分地区，特别是密西西比州、路易斯安那州和阿肯色州，边远地区种植园里的黑人仍然被强迫劳动，几乎没有工资。

Especially is this true in districts where the farmers are composed of the more ignorant class of poor whites, and the Negroes are beyond the reach of schools and intercourse with their advancing fellows.

尤其是在那些农民由更无知的贫穷白人阶级组成的地区，黑人无法上学、无法与进步的同胞交往的地区，情况尤其如此。

If such a peon should run away, the sheriff, elected by white suffrage, can usually be depended on to catch the fugitive, return him, and ask no questions.

如果这样的苦工逃跑了，通常可以依靠由白人选举产生的治安官来抓住逃犯，将他遣返，并且不问任何问题。

If he escape to another county, a charge of petty thieving, easily true, can be depended upon to secure his return.

如果他逃到另一个县，可以依靠一项小偷小摸的指控来确保他返回，这很容易是真的。

Even if some unduly officious person insist upon a trial, neighborly comity will probably make his conviction sure, and then the labor due the county can easily be bought by the master.

即使有些多管闲事的人坚持要审判，睦邻友好也可能会确定他的罪名，然后国家应得的劳力很容易被主人收买。

Such a system is impossible in the more civilized parts of the South, or near the large towns and cities; but in those vast stretches of land beyond the telegraph and the newspaper the spirit of the Thirteenth Amendment is sadly broken.

这种系统在南方较文明的地区或大城镇附近是不可能的；但在电报和报纸之外的广阔土地上，第十三修正案的精神可悲地被打破了。

This represents the lowest economic depths of the black American peasant; and in a study of the rise and condition of the Negro freeholder we must trace his economic progress from the modern serfdom.

这代表了美国黑人农民的最低经济深度；在研究黑人自耕农的兴起和状况时，我们必须从现代农奴制中追溯他的经济进步。

Even in the better-ordered country districts of the South the free movement of agricultural laborers is hindered by the migration-agent laws.

即使在秩序较好的南方乡村地区，农业劳动力的自由流动也受到移民代理法的阻碍。

The “Associated Press” recently informed the world of the arrest of a young white man in Southern Georgia who represented the “Atlantic Naval Supplies Company,” and who “was caught in the act of enticing hands from the turpentine farm of Mr. John Greer.” The crime for which this young man was arrested is taxed five hundred dollars for each county in which the employment agent proposes to gather laborers for work outside the State.

《美联社》最近向全世界通报了一名年轻白人在乔治亚州南部被捕的消息，他代表“大西洋海军物资公司”，“在从约翰·格里尔先生的松节油农场引诱手时被捕”。这名年轻人被捕的罪名是，职业介绍所提议在州外招募劳工的每个县应缴纳 500 美元的税。

Thus the Negroes’ ignorance of the labor-market outside his own vicinity is increased rather than diminished by the laws of nearly every Southern State.

因此，几乎每个南方州的法律都增加而不是减少了黑人对自己附近的劳动力市场的无知。

Similar to such measures is the unwritten law of the back districts and small towns of the South, that the character of all Negroes unknown to the mass of the community must be vouched for by some white man.

与此类措施类似的是南方偏远地区和小镇的不成文法律，即所有社区大众不知道的黑人的性格必须由白人来担保。

This is really a revival of the old Roman idea of the patron under whose protection the new-made freedman was put.

这实际上是古罗马保护人观念的复兴，新获得自由的人受到保护人的保护。

In many instances this system has been of great good to the Negro, and very often under the protection and guidance of the former master’s family, or other white friends, the freedman progressed in wealth and morality.

在许多情况下，这种制度对黑人大有裨益，而且往往在前任主人的家人或其他白人朋友的保护和指导下，自由民在财富和道德方面取得了进步。

But the same system has in other cases resulted in the refusal of whole communities to recognize the right of a Negro to change his habitation and to be master of his own fortunes.

但同样的制度在其他情况下导致整个社区拒绝承认黑人改变居住地和掌握自己财富的权利。

A black stranger in Baker County, Georgia, for instance, is liable to be stopped anywhere on the public highway and made to state his business to the satisfaction of any white interrogator.

例如，乔治亚州贝克县的一名黑人陌生人很可能在公路上的任何地方被拦住，并被迫陈述他的生意，以使任何白人审讯者满意。

If he fails to give a suitable answer, or seems too independent or “sassy,” he may be arrested or summarily driven away.

如果他未能给出合适的答案，或者看起来过于独立或“时髦”，他可能会被逮捕或立即驱逐。

Thus it is that in the country districts of the South, by written or unwritten law, peonage, hindrances to the migration of labor, and a system of white patronage exists over large areas.

因此，在南方的乡村地区，通过成文或不成文的法律，劳役制度、对劳动力迁移的障碍以及白人庇护制度在大片地区存在。

Besides this, the chance for lawless oppression and illegal exactions is vastly greater in the country than in the city, and nearly all the more serious race disturbances of the last decade have arisen from disputes in the county between master and man,—as, for instance, the Sam Hose affair.

除此之外，乡村发生无法无天的压迫和非法勒索的机会比城市大得多，过去十年来几乎所有更严重的种族骚乱都源于县里主人与人之间的纠纷，例如萨姆·霍斯事件。

As a result of such a situation, there arose, first, the Black Belt; and, second, the Migration to Town.

由于这种情况，首先出现了黑带；其次出现了黑带。第二，向城镇的迁移。

The Black Belt was not, as many assumed, a movement toward fields of labor under more genial climatic conditions; it was primarily a huddling for self-protection,—a massing of the black population for mutual defence in order to secure the peace and tranquillity necessary to economic advance.

黑带并不像许多人想象的那样，是在气候条件更温和的情况下走向劳动领域的运动；这主要是为了自我保护而聚集在一起，即黑人人口的聚集，进行共同防御，以确保经济发展所必需的和平与安宁。

This movement took place between Emancipation and 1880, and only partially accomplished the desired results.

这场运动发生在解放奴隶制至 1880 年之间，但只部分实现了预期的结果。

The rush to town since 1880 is the counter-movement of men disappointed in the economic opportunities of the Black Belt.

自 1880 年以来，人们纷纷涌入城镇，这是对黑带经济机会感到失望的人们的反动。

In Dougherty County, Georgia, one can see easily the results of this experiment in huddling for protection.

在佐治亚州多尔蒂县，人们可以很容易地看到这一实验的结果，即挤在一起寻求保护。

Only ten per cent of the adult population was born in the county, and yet the blacks outnumber the whites four or five to one.

该县只有百分之十的成年人口出生，但黑人的数量却比白人多四比五。

There is undoubtedly a security to the blacks in their very numbers,—a personal freedom from arbitrary treatment, which makes hundreds of laborers cling to Dougherty in spite of low wages and economic distress.

毫无疑问，黑人的数量给他们带来了安全感——不受任意对待的个人自由，这使得数百名劳工在工资低且经济困难的情况下仍坚持在多尔蒂工作。

But a change is coming, and slowly but surely even here the agricultural laborers are drifting to town and leaving the broad acres behind.

但变化即将到来，即使在这里，农业劳动者也正在慢慢地、但肯定地离开大片土地，流向城镇。

Why is this?

这是为什么呢？

Why do not the Negroes become land-owners, and build up the black landed peasantry, which has for a generation and more been the dream of philanthropist and statesman?

为什么黑人不成为地主，建立黑人土地农民，这一直是一代人乃至更多人慈善家和政治家的梦想？

To the car-window sociologist, to the man who seeks to understand and know the South by devoting the few leisure hours of a holiday trip to unravelling the snarl of centuries,—to such men very often the whole trouble with the black field-hand may be summed up by Aunt Ophelia’s word, “Shiftless!” They have noted repeatedly scenes like one I saw last summer.

对于车窗上的社会学家来说，对于那些想通过假期旅行的几个闲暇时间来解开几个世纪以来的混乱来了解和了解南方的人来说，对于这些人来说，黑人田野工人的整个麻烦可以用奥菲莉亚姨妈的话来概括：“无能！”他们多次注意到像我去年夏天看到的那样的场景。

We were riding along the highroad to town at the close of a long hot day.

在漫长炎热的一天结束后，我们沿着高速公路骑行进城。

A couple of young black fellows passed us in a muleteam, with several bushels of loose corn in the ear.

几个年轻的黑人骑着骡队从我们身边走过，穗里还夹着几蒲式耳的松散玉米。

One was driving, listlessly bent forward, his elbows on his knees,—a happy-go-lucky, careless picture of irresponsibility.

一个人开车，无精打采地向前倾身，手肘放在膝盖上——一幅无忧无虑、粗心大意的不负责任的景象。

The other was fast asleep in the bottom of the wagon.

另一个人在马车底部睡着了。

As we passed we noticed an ear of corn fall from the wagon.

当我们经过时，我们注意到一粒玉米穗从马车上掉下来。

They never saw it,—not they.

他们从来没有看到过——不是他们。

A rod farther on we noted another ear on the ground; and between that creeping mule and town we counted twenty-six ears of corn.

再远一点，我们注意到地上还有一只耳朵；在那匹爬行的骡子和城镇之间，我们数了数，有二十六穗玉米穗。

Shiftless?

无班？

Yes, the personification of shiftlessness.

是的，无能的化身。

And yet follow those boys: they are not lazy; to-morrow morning they’ll be up with the sun; they work hard when they do work, and they work willingly.

然而，请跟随那些男孩：他们并不懒惰；他们并不懒惰。明天早上他们就会和太阳一起起床；他们工作时努力工作，而且心甘情愿地工作。

They have no sordid, selfish, money-getting ways, but rather a fine disdain for mere cash.

他们没有肮脏、自私的赚钱方式，而是对金钱表现出一种蔑视。

They’ll loaf before your face and work behind your back with good-natured honesty.

他们会在你面前闲逛，在你背后工作，并善意而诚实。

They’ll steal a watermelon, and hand you back your lost purse intact.

他们会偷一个西瓜，然后完好无损地把丢失的钱包还给你。

Their great defect as laborers lies in their lack of incentive beyond the mere pleasure of physical exertion.

他们作为劳动者的最大缺陷在于，除了单纯的体力消耗的乐趣之外，他们缺乏动力。

They are careless because they have not found that it pays to be careful; they are improvident because the improvident ones of their acquaintance get on about as well as the provident.

他们粗心是因为他们没有发现小心是值得的；他们缺乏远见，因为他们所认识的那些缺乏远见的人相处得和有远见的人一样。

Above all, they cannot see why they should take unusual pains to make the white man’s land better, or to fatten his mule, or save his corn.

最重要的是，他们不明白为什么他们应该付出不寻常的努力来改善白人的土地，或者养肥他的骡子，或者拯救他的谷物。

On the other hand, the white land-owner argues that any attempt to improve these laborers by increased responsibility, or higher wages, or better homes, or land of their own, would be sure to result in failure.

另一方面，白人土地所有者认为，任何通过增加责任、提高工资、更好的住房或自己的土地来改善这些劳动者的尝试都注定会失败。

He shows his Northern visitor the scarred and wretched land; the ruined mansions, the worn-out soil and mortgaged acres, and says, This is Negro freedom!

他向他的北方访客展示了伤痕累累、悲惨的土地；毁坏的豪宅、破烂的土地和抵押的土地，并说，这就是黑人自由！

Now it happens that both master and man have just enough argument on their respective sides to make it difficult for them to understand each other.

如今，师父与人之间的争论已经够多了，以至于彼此难以理解。

The Negro dimly personifies in the white man all his ills and misfortunes; if he is poor, it is because the white man seizes the fruit of his toil; if he is ignorant, it is because the white man gives him neither time nor facilities to learn; and, indeed, if any misfortune happens to him, it is because of some hidden machinations of “white folks.” On the other hand, the masters and the masters’ sons have never been able to see why the Negro, instead of settling down to be day-laborers for bread and clothes, are infected with a silly desire to rise in the world, and why they are sulky, dissatisfied, and careless, where their fathers were happy and dumb and faithful.

黑人隐约地体现了白人所有的不幸和不幸。如果他贫穷，那是因为白人攫取了他辛劳的果实；如果他无知，那是因为白人既没有给他时间，也没有给他学习的条件。事实上，如果他遇到任何不幸，那也是因为“白人”的某些隐秘阴谋。另一方面，主人和主人的儿子们却始终无法理解，为什么黑人非但没有为了面包和衣服而安定下来做日工，反而被一种愚蠢的想要出人头地的欲望所感染，为什么他们会闷闷不乐、不满和粗心，而他们的父辈却是快乐、沉默和忠诚的。

“Why, you niggers have an easier time than I do,” said a puzzled Albany merchant to his black customer.

“哎呀，你们这些黑鬼过得比我轻松，”一位困惑的奥尔巴尼商人对他的黑人顾客说道。

“Yes,” he replied, “and so does yo’ hogs.”

“是的，”他回答道，“你们这些猪也是。”

Taking, then, the dissatisfied and shiftless field-hand as a starting-point, let us inquire how the black thousands of Dougherty have struggled from him up toward their ideal, and what that ideal is.

那么，让我们以心怀不满、无能的现场工人为起点，来探究一下，数以千计的多尔蒂黑人是如何从他身边走向自己的理想的，以及这个理想是什么。

All social struggle is evidenced by the rise, first of economic, then of social classes, among a homogeneous population.

所有社会斗争都表现为同质人口中首先是经济阶级的崛起，然后是社会阶级的崛起。

To-day the following economic classes are plainly differentiated among these Negroes.

今天，这些黑人中的以下经济阶层明显不同。

A “submerged tenth” of croppers, with a few paupers; forty per cent who are metayers and thirty-nine per cent of semi-metayers and wage-laborers.

“被淹没的十分之一”的庄稼人，还有一些乞丐；百分之四十是梅耶尔人，百分之三十九是半梅耶尔人和雇佣工人。

There are left five per cent of money-renters and six per cent of freeholders,—the “Upper Ten” of the land.

剩下百分之五的放债者和百分之六的自由所有者，即这片土地的“前十名”。

The croppers are entirely without capital, even in the limited sense of food or money to keep them from seed-time to harvest.

种植者完全没有资本，即使从播种到收获的粮食或金钱也有限。

All they furnish is their labor; the land-owner furnishes land, stock, tools, seed, and house; and at the end of the year the laborer gets from a third to a half of the crop.

他们提供的只是他们的劳动；土地所有者提供土地、牲畜、工具、种子和房屋；到了年底，劳动者得到了三分之一到一半的收成。

Out of his share, however, comes pay and interest for food and clothing advanced him during the year.

然而，从他的份额中，他可以在这一年中获得工资和食物和衣服的利息。

Thus we have a laborer without capital and without wages, and an employer whose capital is largely his employees’ wages.

因此，我们的劳动者没有资本，也没有工资，而雇主的资本主要是雇员的工资。

It is an unsatisfactory arrangement, both for hirer and hired, and is usually in vogue on poor land with hard-pressed owners.

无论对于租用者还是受雇者来说，这种安排都不尽如人意，并且通常在地主处境艰难的贫瘠土地上流行。

Above the croppers come the great mass of the black population who work the land on their own responsibility, paying rent in cotton and supported by the crop-mortgage system.

在种植者之上是大量黑人，他们自己负责耕种土地，用棉花支付租金，并得到农作物抵押制度的支持。

After the war this system was attractive to the freedmen on account of its larger freedom and its possibility for making a surplus.

战后，这种制度因其更大的自由和赚取盈余的可能性而对自由民很有吸引力。

But with the carrying out of the crop-lien system, the deterioration of the land, and the slavery of debt, the position of the metayers has sunk to a dead level of practically unrewarded toil.

但随着农作物留置权制度的实施、土地的恶化和债务的奴役，梅耶尔斯的地位已经下降到几乎没有回报的辛劳的死地。

Formerly all tenants had some capital, and often considerable; but absentee landlordism, rising rack-rent, and failing cotton have stripped them well-nigh of all, and probably not over half of them to-day own their mules.

以前，所有佃户都有一定的资本，而且往往数额相当可观。但缺席的地主统治、不断上涨的货架租金和棉花歉收已经让他们几乎一无所有，如今拥有骡子的人可能还不到一半。

The change from cropper to tenant was accomplished by fixing the rent.

从庄稼人到租户的转变是通过固定租金来实现的。

If, now, the rent fixed was reasonable, this was an incentive to the tenant to strive.

如果现在固定的租金是合理的，这就会激励租户努力奋斗。

On the other hand, if the rent was too high, or if the land deteriorated, the result was to discourage and check the efforts of the black peasantry.

另一方面，如果地租太高，或者土地恶化，结果就会挫伤和抑制黑人农民的努力。

There is no doubt that the latter case is true; that in Dougherty County every economic advantage of the price of cotton in market and of the strivings of the tenant has been taken advantage of by the landlords and merchants, and swallowed up in rent and interest.

毫无疑问，后一种情况是真实的；在多尔蒂县，市场棉花价格和佃户努力的每一项经济优势都被地主和商人利用，并被租金和利息吞噬。

If cotton rose in price, the rent rose even higher; if cotton fell, the rent remained or followed reluctantly.

如果棉花价格上涨，租金就会上涨得更高；如果棉花价格上涨，租金就会上涨。如果棉花下跌，租金就会保持不变或不情愿地跟随。

If the tenant worked hard and raised a large crop, his rent was raised the next year; if that year the crop failed, his corn was confiscated and his mule sold for debt.

如果佃户努力工作，农作物丰收，那么明年的租金就会提高；反之，他的租金就会提高。如果那一年歉收，他的玉米就会被没收，他的骡子也会被卖掉还债。

There were, of course, exceptions to this,—cases of personal kindness and forbearance; but in the vast majority of cases the rule was to extract the uttermost farthing from the mass of the black farm laborers.

当然，也有例外——个人的仁慈和宽容的情况。但在绝大多数情况下，规则是从广大黑人农场工人中榨取最大的利益。

The average metayer pays from twenty to thirty per cent of his crop in rent.

梅耶尔平均将其收入的百分之二十到百分之三十用于支付租金。

The result of such rack-rent can only be evil,—abuse and neglect of the soil, deterioration in the character of the laborers, and a widespread sense of injustice.

这种棚架租金的结果只能是邪恶的——对土地的滥用和忽视、劳动者性格的恶化以及普遍的不公正感。

“Wherever the country is poor,” cried Arthur Young, “it is in the hands of metayers,” and “their condition is more wretched than that of day-laborers.” He was talking of Italy a century ago; but he might have been talking of Dougherty County to-day.

“凡是国家贫穷的地方，”阿瑟·杨喊道，“都在梅耶耶人的手中”，“他们的处境比临时工还要悲惨。”他谈论的是一个世纪前的意大利；但他今天可能谈论的是多尔蒂县。

And especially is that true to-day which he declares was true in France before the Revolution: “The metayers are considered as little better than menial servants, removable at pleasure, and obliged to conform in all things to the will of the landlords.” On this low plane half the black population of Dougherty County—perhaps more than half the black millions of this land—are to-day struggling.

尤其是今天，他宣称大革命前的法国也是如此：“梅耶尔被认为比卑微的仆人好不了多少，可以随意解雇，并且必须在所有事情上服从地主的意愿。”今天，在这个低海拔地区，多尔蒂县一半的黑人——也许是这片土地上数百万黑人的一半以上——正在苦苦挣扎。

A degree above these we may place those laborers who receive money wages for their work.

我们可以将那些因工作而获得货币工资的劳动者安置在更高的学位之上。

Some receive a house with perhaps a garden-spot; then supplies of food and clothing are advanced, and certain fixed wages are given at the end of the year, varying from thirty to sixty dollars, out of which the supplies must be paid for, with interest.

有些人会得到一所房子，也许还有一个花园；有些人则收到了。然后预付食物和衣服的供应，并在年底发放一定的固定工资，从三十美元到六十美元不等，必须用这些工资支付供应品和利息。

About eighteen per cent of the population belong to this class of semi-metayers, while twenty-two per cent are laborers paid by the month or year, and are either “furnished” by their own savings or perhaps more usually by some merchant who takes his chances of payment.

大约百分之十八的人口属于这一类半元人，而百分之二十二的人是按月或按年领取工资的劳动者，他们要么用自己的储蓄“提供”，要么更常见的是由一些冒着付款机会的商人“提供”。

Such laborers receive from thirty-five to fifty cents a day during the working season.

这些工人在工作季节每天的收入为三十五至五十美分。

They are usually young unmarried persons, some being women; and when they marry they sink to the class of metayers, or, more seldom, become renters.

他们通常是年轻的未婚人士，其中一些是女性；当他们结婚时，他们就沦为梅耶尔阶层，或者，更罕见的是，成为租客。

The renters for fixed money rentals are the first of the emerging classes, and form five per cent of the families.

固定货币租赁的租户是第一批新兴阶层，占家庭的5%。

The sole advantage of this small class is their freedom to choose their crops, and the increased responsibility which comes through having money transactions.

这个小阶层的唯一优势是他们可以自由选择农作物，以及通过货币交易而增加的责任。

While some of the renters differ little in condition from the metayers, yet on the whole they are more intelligent and responsible persons, and are the ones who eventually become land-owners.

虽然有些租客的条件与梅耶尔人相差无几，但总体而言，他们是更聪明、更负责任的人，也是最终成为土地所有者的人。

Their better character and greater shrewdness enable them to gain, perhaps to demand, better terms in rents; rented farms, varying from forty to a hundred acres, bear an average rental of about fifty-four dollars a year.

他们更好的品格和更精明的性格使他们能够获得，也许是要求更好的租金条件。租用的农场面积从四十英亩到一百英亩不等，平均租金约为每年五十四美元。

The men who conduct such farms do not long remain renters; either they sink to metayers, or with a successful series of harvests rise to be land-owners.

经营这些农场的人不会长期成为租客；他们会成为租客。他们要么沦为梅耶尔斯，要么通过一系列成功的收成而成为土地所有者。

In 1870 the tax-books of Dougherty report no Negroes as landholders.

1870 年，多尔蒂的税簿显示没有黑人作为土地所有者。

If there were any such at that time,—and there may have been a few,—their land was probably held in the name of some white patron,—a method not uncommon during slavery.

如果当时有这样的人——可能有一些——他们的土地可能是以某个白人赞助人的名义持有的——这种方法在奴隶制期间并不罕见。

In 1875 ownership of land had begun with seven hundred and fifty acres; ten years later this had increased to over sixty-five hundred acres, to nine thousand acres in 1890 and ten thousand in 1900.

1875 年，土地所有权开始扩大，面积为 750 英亩；十年后，这一数字增加到六千五百英亩，1890 年增加到九千英亩，1900 年增加到一万英亩。

The total assessed property has in this same period risen from eighty thousand dollars in 1875 to two hundred and forty thousand dollars in 1900.

同期评估财产总额从 1875 年的八万美元增加到 1900 年的二十四万美元。

Two circumstances complicate this development and make it in some respects difficult to be sure of the real tendencies; they are the panic of 1893, and the low price of cotton in 1898.

有两种情况使这一发展变得复杂，并且在某些方面难以确定真正的趋势；它们是1893年的恐慌和1898年的棉花低价。

Besides this, the system of assessing property in the country districts of Georgia is somewhat antiquated and of uncertain statistical value; there are no assessors, and each man makes a sworn return to a tax-receiver.

除此之外，格鲁吉亚乡村地区的财产评估制度有些过时，统计价值也不确定；没有评估员，每个人都向收税人宣誓纳税。

Thus public opinion plays a large part, and the returns vary strangely from year to year.

因此，公众舆论起着很大的作用，而且每年的回报都有奇怪的变化。

Certainly these figures show the small amount of accumulated capital among the Negroes, and the consequent large dependence of their property on temporary prosperity.

当然，这些数字表明黑人积累的资本很少，因此他们的财产严重依赖暂时的繁荣。

They have little to tide over a few years of economic depression, and are at the mercy of the cotton-market far more than the whites.

他们几乎无法渡过几年的经济萧条，而且比白人更容易受到棉花市场的摆布。

And thus the land-owners, despite their marvellous efforts, are really a transient class, continually being depleted by those who fall back into the class of renters or metayers, and augmented by newcomers from the masses.

因此，尽管地主做出了巨大的努力，但他们实际上只是一个短暂的阶级，不断地被那些退回到租客或梅耶尔阶级的人所耗尽，并被来自群众的新来者所补充。

Of one hundred land-owners in 1898, half had bought their land since 1893, a fourth between 1890 and 1893, a fifth between 1884 and 1890, and the rest between 1870 and 1884.

1898 年的一百名土地所有者中，有一半是自 1893 年以来购买的土地，四分之一是在 1890 年至 1893 年间购买的，五分之一是在 1884 年至 1890 年间购买的，其余则是在 1870 年至 1884 年间购买的。

In all, one hundred and eighty-five Negroes have owned land in this county since 1875.

自 1875 年以来，共有一百八十五名黑人在该县拥有土地。

If all the black land-owners who had ever held land here had kept it or left it in the hands of black men, the Negroes would have owned nearer thirty thousand acres than the fifteen thousand they now hold.

如果所有曾经在这里拥有土地的黑人地主都将其保留或留在黑人手中，那么黑人拥有的土地将比他们现在拥有的一万五千英亩多近三万英亩。

And yet these fifteen thousand acres are a creditable showing,—a proof of no little weight of the worth and ability of the Negro people.

然而，这一万五千英亩土地却是一个值得信赖的表现，证明了黑人的价值和能力。

If they had been given an economic start at Emancipation, if they had been in an enlightened and rich community which really desired their best good, then we might perhaps call such a result small or even insignificant.

如果他们在解放时就得到了经济上的起步，如果他们生活在一个开明而富裕的社区，真正渴望他们的最大利益，那么我们也许会认为这样的结果很小，甚至微不足道。

But for a few thousand poor ignorant field-hands, in the face of poverty, a falling market, and social stress, to save and capitalize two hundred thousand dollars in a generation has meant a tremendous effort.

但对于几千名贫穷无知的农民来说，面对贫困、市场下跌和社会压力，在一代人的时间内储蓄和资本化二十万美元意味着付出巨大的努力。

The rise of a nation, the pressing forward of a social class, means a bitter struggle, a hard and soul-sickening battle with the world such as few of the more favored classes know or appreciate.

一个国家的崛起，一个社会阶层的前进，意味着一场艰苦的斗争，一场与世界的艰苦而令人痛苦的战斗，而很少有更受青睐的阶层知道或欣赏这一点。

Out of the hard economic conditions of this portion of the Black Belt, only six per cent of the population have succeeded in emerging into peasant proprietorship; and these are not all firmly fixed, but grow and shrink in number with the wavering of the cotton-market.

由于黑带地区经济条件艰苦，只有 6% 的人口成功成为小农；这些并不是全部都是固定不变的，而是随着棉花市场的波动而增减。

Fully ninety-four per cent have struggled for land and failed, and half of them sit in hopeless serfdom.

百分之九十四的人都曾为土地而奋斗，但都失败了，其中一半人处于绝望的农奴状态。

For these there is one other avenue of escape toward which they have turned in increasing numbers, namely, migration to town.

对于这些人来说，越来越多的人转向另一种逃避途径，即移居城镇。

A glance at the distribution of land among the black owners curiously reveals this fact.

看看黑人土地所有者的土地分配情况，就奇怪地揭示了这一事实。

In 1898 the holdings were as follows: Under forty acres, forty-nine families; forty to two hundred and fifty acres, seventeen families; two hundred and fifty to one thousand acres, thirteen families; one thousand or more acres, two families.

1898 年，土地面积如下：四十英亩以下，四十九户人家；四十到两百五十英亩，十七户人家；两百五十到一千英亩，十三户人家；一千多英亩，两个家庭。

Now in 1890 there were forty-four holdings, but only nine of these were under forty acres.

1890 年，共有 44 处地产，但其中只有 9 处面积在 40 英亩以下。

The great increase of holdings, then, has come in the buying of small homesteads near town, where their owners really share in the town life; this is a part of the rush to town.

因此，土地所有权的大幅增加来自于购买城镇附近的小型宅基地，这些宅基地的所有者真正参与城镇生活。这是赶往城里的一部分。

And for every land-owner who has thus hurried away from the narrow and hard conditions of country life, how many field-hands, how many tenants, how many ruined renters, have joined that long procession?

对于每一个匆忙逃离乡村生活的狭窄和艰苦条件的土地所有者来说，有多少田地工人，有多少佃户，有多少破产的租客加入了这长长的队伍？

Is it not strange compensation?

补偿不是很奇怪吗？

The sin of the country districts is visited on the town, and the social sores of city life to-day may, here in Dougherty County, and perhaps in many places near and far, look for their final healing without the city walls.

乡村地区的罪恶在城镇中得到了弥补，而今天城市生活的社会创伤可能在多尔蒂县，也许在远近的许多地方，在没有城墙的情况下寻求最终的治愈。

IX.

九．

Of the Sons of Master and Man

师父与人类之子

Life treads on life, and heart on heart; We press too close in church and mart To keep a dream or grave apart.

生命踩着生命，心踩着心；我们在教堂和市场里挤得太近，以至于无法将梦想或坟墓分开。

MRS. BROWNING.

太太。布朗宁。

[Illustration]

[图示]

The world-old phenomenon of the contact of diverse races of men is to have new exemplification during the new century.

不同种族人类接触的世界古老现象将在新世纪有新的例证。

Indeed, the characteristic of our age is the contact of European civilization with the world’s undeveloped peoples.

事实上，我们这个时代的特点是欧洲文明与世界上不发达人民的接触。

Whatever we may say of the results of such contact in the past, it certainly forms a chapter in human action not pleasant to look back upon.

无论我们如何评价过去这种接触的结果，它无疑构成了人类行为中令人不愉快的一章。

War, murder, slavery, extermination, and debauchery,—this has again and again been the result of carrying civilization and the blessed gospel to the isles of the sea and the heathen without the law.

战争、谋杀、奴役、灭绝和放荡——这都是一次又一次将文明和神圣的福音带到海岛和没有法律的异教徒的结果。

Nor does it altogether satisfy the conscience of the modern world to be told complacently that all this has been right and proper, the fated triumph of strength over weakness, of righteousness over evil, of superiors over inferiors.

现代世界的良知也不能完全满足于自鸣得意地告诉他们，这一切都是正确和适当的，是力量战胜弱点、正义战胜邪恶、上位者战胜下位者的宿命胜利。

It would certainly be soothing if one could readily believe all this; and yet there are too many ugly facts for everything to be thus easily explained away.

如果一个人能够轻易地相信这一切，那肯定会让人感到宽慰。然而，有太多丑陋的事实，一切都无法如此轻易地解释清楚。

We feel and know that there are many delicate differences in race psychology, numberless changes that our crude social measurements are not yet able to follow minutely, which explain much of history and social development.

我们感觉并且知道，种族心理存在许多微妙的差异，我们粗略的社会测量还无法详细跟踪无数的变化，这些变化解释了大部分历史和社会发展。

At the same time, too, we know that these considerations have never adequately explained or excused the triumph of brute force and cunning over weakness and innocence.

同时，我们也知道，这些考虑从来都不能充分解释或原谅暴力和狡猾战胜软弱和天真的行为。

It is, then, the strife of all honorable men of the twentieth century to see that in the future competition of races the survival of the fittest shall mean the triumph of the good, the beautiful, and the true; that we may be able to preserve for future civilization all that is really fine and noble and strong, and not continue to put a premium on greed and impudence and cruelty.

因此，二十世纪所有有尊严的人们都在努力看到，在未来的种族竞争中，优胜劣汰意味着善、美、真的胜利；我们也许能够为未来的文明保留一切真正美好、高贵和强大的东西，而不是继续重视贪婪、无礼和残忍。

To bring this hope to fruition, we are compelled daily to turn more and more to a conscientious study of the phenomena of race-contact,—to a study frank and fair, and not falsified and colored by our wishes or our fears.

为了实现这一希望，我们每天都被迫越来越多地认真研究种族接触现象，进行坦率和公正的研究，而不是被我们的愿望或恐惧所歪曲和玷污。

And we have in the South as fine a field for such a study as the world affords,—a field, to be sure, which the average American scientist deems somewhat beneath his dignity, and which the average man who is not a scientist knows all about, but nevertheless a line of study which by reason of the enormous race complications with which God seems about to punish this nation must increasingly claim our sober attention, study, and thought, we must ask, what are the actual relations of whites and blacks in the South?

我们在南方拥有世界所能提供的最优秀的研究领域——当然，一个普通美国科学家认为有些有损他的尊严的领域，而且不是科学家的普通人都知道这一点，但尽管如此，由于上帝似乎要惩罚这个国家的巨大种族复杂性，这一研究方向必须越来越要求我们清醒的关注、研究和思考，我们必须问，南方白人和黑人的实际关系是什么？

and we must be answered, not by apology or fault-finding, but by a plain, unvarnished tale.

我们必须用一个简单、不加掩饰的故事来回答，而不是道歉或吹毛求疵。

In the civilized life of to-day the contact of men and their relations to each other fall in a few main lines of action and communication: there is, first, the physical proximity of home and dwelling-places, the way in which neighborhoods group themselves, and the contiguity of neighborhoods.

在当今的文明生活中，人与人之间的接触以及人与人之间的关系主要体现在行动和交流的几个主要方面：首先，家庭和居住地的物理接近性、邻里的聚集方式以及邻里的邻近性。

Secondly, and in our age chiefest, there are the economic relations,—the methods by which individuals cooperate for earning a living, for the mutual satisfaction of wants, for the production of wealth.

其次，在我们这个时代，最重要的是经济关系，即个人为了谋生、相互满足需求、生产财富而合作的方法。

Next, there are the political relations, the cooperation in social control, in group government, in laying and paying the burden of taxation.

其次，还有政治关系、社会控制、集团政府、税收负担方面的合作。

In the fourth place there are the less tangible but highly important forms of intellectual contact and commerce, the interchange of ideas through conversation and conference, through periodicals and libraries; and, above all, the gradual formation for each community of that curious _tertium quid_ which we call public opinion.

第四，是不太有形但非常重要的知识接触和商业形式，通过对话和会议、期刊和图书馆进行思想交流；最重要的是，每个社区逐渐形成我们称之为公众舆论的好奇的“第三元货币”。

Closely allied with this come the various forms of social contact in everyday life, in travel, in theatres, in house gatherings, in marrying and giving in marriage.

与此密切相关的是日常生活、旅行、戏剧、家庭聚会、结婚和赠与等各种形式的社会接触。

Finally, there are the varying forms of religious enterprise, of moral teaching and benevolent endeavor.

最后，还有各种形式的宗教事业、道德教导和慈善事业。

These are the principal ways in which men living in the same communities are brought into contact with each other.

这些是生活在同一社区的人们相互接触的主要方式。

It is my present task, therefore, to indicate, from my point of view, how the black race in the South meet and mingle with the whites in these matters of everyday life.

因此，我现在的任务是从我的角度表明南方的黑人种族如何在日常生活的这些问题上与白人相遇和交往。

First, as to physical dwelling.

首先，关于物质居住。

It is usually possible to draw in nearly every Southern community a physical color-line on the map, on the one side of which whites dwell and on the other Negroes.

通常，几乎每个南方社区都可以在地图上画出一条实际的肤色线，一侧是白人，另一侧是黑人。

The winding and intricacy of the geographical color-line varies, of course, in different communities.

当然，不同社区的地理肤色线的蜿蜒和复杂程度各不相同。

I know some towns where a straight line drawn through the middle of the main street separates nine-tenths of the whites from nine-tenths of the blacks.

我知道一些城镇，在主要街道中间画一条直线将十分之九的白人与十分之九的黑人分开。

In other towns the older settlement of whites has been encircled by a broad band of blacks; in still other cases little settlements or nuclei of blacks have sprung up amid surrounding whites.

在其他城镇，古老的白人定居点已被大群黑人包围。还有一些情况下，在周围的白人中间出现了一些黑人定居点或小团体。

Usually in cities each street has its distinctive color, and only now and then do the colors meet in close proximity.

通常在城市中，每条街道都有其独特的颜色，并且只是偶尔这些颜色才会非常接近。

Even in the country something of this segregation is manifest in the smaller areas, and of course in the larger phenomena of the Black Belt.

即使在国内，这种隔离也存在于较小的地区，当然也存在于较大的黑带现象中。

All this segregation by color is largely independent of that natural clustering by social grades common to all communities.

所有这些按肤色的隔离在很大程度上独立于所有社区共有的按社会等级的自然聚类。

A Negro slum may be in dangerous proximity to a white residence quarter, while it is quite common to find a white slum planted in the heart of a respectable Negro district.

黑人贫民窟可能靠近白人居住区，很危险，而在受人尊敬的黑人区的中心发现白人贫民窟是很常见的。

One thing, however, seldom occurs: the best of the whites and the best of the Negroes almost never live in anything like close proximity.

然而，有一件事很少发生：最优秀的白人和最优秀的黑人几乎从来没有生活在如此接近的地方。

It thus happens that in nearly every Southern town and city, both whites and blacks see commonly the worst of each other.

因此，几乎在每个南方城镇，白人和黑人都普遍看到对方最坏的一面。

This is a vast change from the situation in the past, when, through the close contact of master and house-servant in the patriarchal big house, one found the best of both races in close contact and sympathy, while at the same time the squalor and dull round of toil among the field-hands was removed from the sight and hearing of the family.

这与过去的情况发生了巨大的变化，通过父权制大房子里主仆的密切接触，人们发现了两个种族中最优秀的人之间的密切接触和同情，同时田间劳作的肮脏和乏味也从家庭的视线和听觉中消失了。

One can easily see how a person who saw slavery thus from his father’s parlors, and sees freedom on the streets of a great city, fails to grasp or comprehend the whole of the new picture.

人们很容易看出，一个人在父亲的客厅里看到了奴隶制，在大城市的街道上看到了自由，却无法掌握或理解整个新图景。

On the other hand, the settled belief of the mass of the Negroes that the Southern white people do not have the black man’s best interests at heart has been intensified in later years by this continual daily contact of the better class of blacks with the worst representatives of the white race.

另一方面，在后来的几年里，由于较高阶层的黑人与白人种族中最差的代表每天不断接触，广大黑人群众的坚定信念，即南方白人并不把黑人的最大利益放在心上，这一信念得到了强化。

Coming now to the economic relations of the races, we are on ground made familiar by study, much discussion, and no little philanthropic effort.

现在谈到种族之间的经济关系，通过研究、大量讨论和大量的慈善努力，我们已经熟悉了这一点。

And yet with all this there are many essential elements in the cooperation of Negroes and whites for work and wealth that are too readily overlooked or not thoroughly understood.

然而，尽管如此，黑人和白人在工作和财富方面的合作中有许多基本要素很容易被忽视或没有被彻底理解。

The average American can easily conceive of a rich land awaiting development and filled with black laborers.

普通美国人很容易想象有一片等待开发的富饶土地，并且充满了黑人劳工。

To him the Southern problem is simply that of making efficient workingmen out of this material, by giving them the requisite technical skill and the help of invested capital.

对他来说，南方的问题很简单，就是通过向他们提供必要的技术技能和投资资本的帮助，用这种材料培养出高效的工人。

The problem, however, is by no means as simple as this, from the obvious fact that these workingmen have been trained for centuries as slaves.

然而，问题绝非如此简单，因为这些工人几个世纪以来一直被训练为奴隶这一显而易见的事实。

They exhibit, therefore, all the advantages and defects of such training; they are willing and good-natured, but not self-reliant, provident, or careful.

因此，他们展示了此类培训的所有优点和缺点；他们心甘情愿且心地善良，但缺乏自力更生、深思熟虑或谨慎。

If now the economic development of the South is to be pushed to the verge of exploitation, as seems probable, then we have a mass of workingmen thrown into relentless competition with the workingmen of the world, but handicapped by a training the very opposite to that of the modern self-reliant democratic laborer.

如果现在南方的经济发展将被推向剥削的边缘（这似乎是有可能的），那么我们就有大批工人与世界上的工人进行无情的竞争，但受到与现代自力更生的民主工人完全相反的培训的阻碍。

What the black laborer needs is careful personal guidance, group leadership of men with hearts in their bosoms, to train them to foresight, carefulness, and honesty.

黑人劳工需要的是细心的个人指导、心怀抱负的集体领导，训练他们有远见、细心和诚实。

Nor does it require any fine-spun theories of racial differences to prove the necessity of such group training after the brains of the race have been knocked out by two hundred and fifty years of assiduous education in submission, carelessness, and stealing.

也不需要任何精妙的种族差异理论来证明这种集体训练的必要性，因为两百五十年来，人类的大脑已经被关于服从、粗心和偷窃的刻苦教育击垮了。

After Emancipation, it was the plain duty of some one to assume this group leadership and training of the Negro laborer.

解放后，承担这个群体的领导和黑人劳工的培训是某人的明确职责。

I will not stop here to inquire whose duty it was—whether that of the white ex-master who had profited by unpaid toil, or the Northern philanthropist whose persistence brought on the crisis, or the National Government whose edict freed the bondmen; I will not stop to ask whose duty it was, but I insist it was the duty of some one to see that these workingmen were not left alone and unguided, without capital, without land, without skill, without economic organization, without even the bald protection of law, order, and decency,—left in a great land, not to settle down to slow and careful internal development, but destined to be thrown almost immediately into relentless and sharp competition with the best of modern workingmen under an economic system where every participant is fighting for himself, and too often utterly regardless of the rights or welfare of his neighbor.

我不会在这里停下来询问这是谁的责任——无论是通过无酬劳动获利的白人前主人，还是坚持不懈导致危机的北方慈善家，还是颁布法令释放奴隶的国民政府；我不会停下来问这是谁的责任，但我坚持认为，有人有责任确保这些工人没有被遗弃，没有资本，没有土地，没有技能，没有经济组织，甚至没有法律、秩序和体面的赤裸裸的保护，他们被留在了这片伟大的土地上，不会安定下来缓慢而谨慎的内部发展，而是注定会立即与最优秀的现代工人在一个每个参与者都在为之奋斗的经济制度下进行无情和激烈的竞争。他自己，而且常常完全不顾邻居的权利或福利。

For we must never forget that the economic system of the South to-day which has succeeded the old regime is not the same system as that of the old industrial North, of England, or of France, with their trade-unions, their restrictive laws, their written and unwritten commercial customs, and their long experience.

因为我们决不能忘记，今天继承旧政权的南方经济体系与旧工业北方、英国或法国的经济体系不同，后者有工会、限制性法律、成文和不成文的商业习俗以及长期的经验。

It is, rather, a copy of that England of the early nineteenth century, before the factory acts,—the England that wrung pity from thinkers and fired the wrath of Carlyle.

相反，它是十九世纪初工厂行动之前的英国的翻版——那个引起思想家怜悯并激怒卡莱尔的英国。

The rod of empire that passed from the hands of Southern gentlemen in 1865, partly by force, partly by their own petulance, has never returned to them.

1865年，帝国之杖从南方绅士们手中移走，部分是由于武力，部分是由于他们自己的任性，但再也没有回到他们手中。

Rather it has passed to those men who have come to take charge of the industrial exploitation of the New South,—the sons of poor whites fired with a new thirst for wealth and power, thrifty and avaricious Yankees, and unscrupulous immigrants.

相反，它已经转移到了那些负责新南方工业剥削的人身上，他们是对财富和权力充满新渴望的贫穷白人的儿子，节俭而贪婪的北方佬，以及肆无忌惮的移民。

Into the hands of these men the Southern laborers, white and black, have fallen; and this to their sorrow.

南方的劳工，无论白人还是黑人，都落入了这些人的手中。这让他们感到悲伤。

For the laborers as such, there is in these new captains of industry neither love nor hate, neither sympathy nor romance; it is a cold question of dollars and dividends.

对于劳动者本身来说，这些新的工业领袖既没有爱，也没有恨，没有同情，也没有浪漫。这是一个关于美元和股息的冷酷问题。

Under such a system all labor is bound to suffer.

在这样的制度下，所有劳动者都必然受到损害。

Even the white laborers are not yet intelligent, thrifty, and well trained enough to maintain themselves against the powerful inroads of organized capital.

即使是白人劳工也不够聪明、节俭和训练有素，无法抵御有组织资本的强大入侵。

The results among them, even, are long hours of toil, low wages, child labor, and lack of protection against usury and cheating.

他们的结果甚至是长时间的劳作、低工资、童工以及缺乏针对高利贷和欺诈的保护。

But among the black laborers all this is aggravated, first, by a race prejudice which varies from a doubt and distrust among the best element of whites to a frenzied hatred among the worst; and, secondly, it is aggravated, as I have said before, by the wretched economic heritage of the freedmen from slavery.

但在黑人劳工中，这一切都因种族偏见而加剧，这种偏见从最优秀的白人之间的怀疑和不信任，到最恶劣的白人之间的疯狂仇恨；其次，正如我之前所说，摆脱奴隶制的自由民可怜的经济遗产使这种情况更加恶化。

With this training it is difficult for the freedman to learn to grasp the opportunities already opened to him, and the new opportunities are seldom given him, but go by favor to the whites.

通过这种训练，自由民很难学会抓住已经向他开放的机会，而且新的机会很少给他，而是偏向于白人。

Left by the best elements of the South with little protection or oversight, he has been made in law and custom the victim of the worst and most unscrupulous men in each community.

他被南方最优秀的人留下，几乎没有受到保护或监督，在法律和习俗上，他成为每个社区中最恶劣和最不择手段的人的受害者。

The crop-lien system which is depopulating the fields of the South is not simply the result of shiftlessness on the part of Negroes, but is also the result of cunningly devised laws as to mortgages, liens, and misdemeanors, which can be made by conscienceless men to entrap and snare the unwary until escape is impossible, further toil a farce, and protest a crime.

导致南方田地人口减少的农作物留置权制度不仅仅是黑人无能的结果，也是关于抵押、留置权和轻罪的巧妙设计的结果，这些法律可以由没有良知的人制定，以诱骗粗心的人，直到他们无法逃脱，进一步上演一场闹剧，并抗议犯罪。

I have seen, in the Black Belt of Georgia, an ignorant, honest Negro buy and pay for a farm in installments three separate times, and then in the face of law and decency the enterprising American who sold it to him pocketed the money and deed and left the black man landless, to labor on his own land at thirty cents a day.

我在佐治亚州的黑带地区见过，一个无知而诚实的黑人分三次购买并支付了一个农场，然后在法律和道德面前，有进取心的美国人将农场卖给他，将钱和契约装进自己的口袋，让黑人失去土地，在自己的土地上以每天三十美分的价格劳作。

I have seen a black farmer fall in debt to a white storekeeper, and that storekeeper go to his farm and strip it of every single marketable article,—mules, ploughs, stored crops, tools, furniture, bedding, clocks, looking-glass,—and all this without a sheriff or officer, in the face of the law for homestead exemptions, and without rendering to a single responsible person any account or reckoning.

我见过一个黑人农民欠了一个白人店主的债，那个店主去他的农场，抢走了每一件适销对路的物品——骡子、犁、储存的农作物、工具、家具、床上用品、钟表、镜子——而这一切都没有警长或官员，面对宅基地豁免的法律，也没有向任何一个负责人提供任何账目或清算。

And such proceedings can happen, and will happen, in any community where a class of ignorant toilers are placed by custom and race-prejudice beyond the pale of sympathy and race-brotherhood.

在任何一个社会中，这样的程序都可能发生，并且将会发生，那里一类无知的劳动者因习俗和种族偏见而被置于同情和种族兄弟情谊之外。

So long as the best elements of a community do not feel in duty bound to protect and train and care for the weaker members of their group, they leave them to be preyed upon by these swindlers and rascals.

只要社区中最优秀的成员不觉得有责任保护、培训和照顾群体中的弱势成员，他们就会让他们成为这些骗子和流氓的猎物。

This unfortunate economic situation does not mean the hindrance of all advance in the black South, or the absence of a class of black landlords and mechanics who, in spite of disadvantages, are accumulating property and making good citizens.

这种不幸的经济形势并不意味着南方黑人的一切进步受到阻碍，也不意味着不存在一个黑人地主和机械师阶级，他们尽管处于不利地位，但正在积累财产并成为好公民。

But it does mean that this class is not nearly so large as a fairer economic system might easily make it, that those who survive in the competition are handicapped so as to accomplish much less than they deserve to, and that, above all, the _personnel_ of the successful class is left to chance and accident, and not to any intelligent culling or reasonable methods of selection.

但这确实意味着这个阶级的规模远没有一个更公平的经济体系可以轻易达到的那么大，那些在竞争中生存下来的人受到了阻碍，以致取得的成就比他们应得的要少得多，而且最重要的是，成功阶级的_人员_是由机会和意外决定的，而不是任何明智的剔除或合理的选择方法。

As a remedy for this, there is but one possible procedure.

作为对此的补救措施，只有一种可能的程序。

We must accept some of the race prejudice in the South as a fact,—deplorable in its intensity, unfortunate in results, and dangerous for the future, but nevertheless a hard fact which only time can efface.

我们必须承认南方存在的一些种族偏见是一个事实——其严重程度令人遗憾，结果不幸，对未来也很危险，但无论如何，这是一个只有时间才能抹去的铁一般的事实。

We cannot hope, then, in this generation, or for several generations, that the mass of the whites can be brought to assume that close sympathetic and self-sacrificing leadership of the blacks which their present situation so eloquently demands.

那么，我们不能希望，在这一代人或几代人的时间里，广大白人能够承担起对黑人的密切同情和自我牺牲的领导，而这是他们目前的处境如此雄辩地要求的。

Such leadership, such social teaching and example, must come from the blacks themselves.

这样的领导力、这样的社会教导和榜样，必须来自黑人自己。

For some time men doubted as to whether the Negro could develop such leaders; but to-day no one seriously disputes the capability of individual Negroes to assimilate the culture and common sense of modern civilization, and to pass it on, to some extent at least, to their fellows.

一段时间以来，人们怀疑黑人能否培养出这样的领袖。但今天，没有人认真质疑个体黑人吸收现代文明的文化和常识并至少在某种程度上将其传递给他们的同胞的能力。

If this is true, then here is the path out of the economic situation, and here is the imperative demand for trained Negro leaders of character and intelligence,—men of skill, men of light and leading, college-bred men, black captains of industry, and missionaries of culture; men who thoroughly comprehend and know modern civilization, and can take hold of Negro communities and raise and train them by force of precept and example, deep sympathy, and the inspiration of common blood and ideals.

如果这是真的，那么这就是摆脱经济困境的出路，这就是对训练有素、有品格和智慧的黑人领袖的迫切需求——有技能的人、光明和领导者、受过大学教育的人、黑人工业领袖和文化传教士；他们彻底理解和了解现代文明，能够掌握黑人社区，并通过言传身教、深切同情以及共同血统和理想的激励来培养和培养他们。

But if such men are to be effective they must have some power,—they must be backed by the best public opinion of these communities, and able to wield for their objects and aims such weapons as the experience of the world has taught are indispensable to human progress.

但是，如果这些人要发挥作用，他们就必须拥有一定的权力——他们必须得到这些社区最好的公众舆论的支持，并且能够为他们的目的和目标使用这些武器，正如世界经验所告诉的那样，这些武器对于人类进步是不可或缺的。

Of such weapons the greatest, perhaps, in the modern world is the power of the ballot; and this brings me to a consideration of the third form of contact between whites and blacks in the South,—political activity.

在现代世界中，这些武器中最伟大的也许就是选票的力量。这让我想到了南方白人和黑人之间的第三种接触形式——政治活动。

In the attitude of the American mind toward Negro suffrage can be traced with unusual accuracy the prevalent conceptions of government.

在美国人对黑人选举权的态度中，可以异常准确地追踪到普遍流行的政府观念。

In the fifties we were near enough the echoes of the French Revolution to believe pretty thoroughly in universal suffrage.

五十年代，我们已经足够接近法国大革命的回响，以至于完全相信普选权。

We argued, as we thought then rather logically, that no social class was so good, so true, and so disinterested as to be trusted wholly with the political destiny of its neighbors; that in every state the best arbiters of their own welfare are the persons directly affected; consequently that it is only by arming every hand with a ballot,—with the right to have a voice in the policy of the state,—that the greatest good to the greatest number could be attained.

我们认为，正如我们当时相当合乎逻辑地认为的那样，没有一个社会阶级如此善良、如此真实、如此无私，以至于可以完全信任其邻国的政治命运。在每个州，直接受影响的人是其自身福利的最佳仲裁者；因此，只有让每一个人都拥有选票，即在国家政策中拥有发言权，才能实现最大多数人的最大利益。

To be sure, there were objections to these arguments, but we thought we had answered them tersely and convincingly; if some one complained of the ignorance of voters, we answered, “Educate them.” If another complained of their venality, we replied, “Disfranchise them or put them in jail.” And, finally, to the men who feared demagogues and the natural perversity of some human beings we insisted that time and bitter experience would teach the most hardheaded.

当然，有人对这些论点提出反对意见，但我们认为我们已经简洁而令人信服地回答了他们；如果有人抱怨选民无知，我们会回答：“教育他们。”如果有人抱怨他们的唯利是图，我们就会回答：“剥夺他们的选举权，或者把他们关进监狱。”最后，对于那些害怕煽动者和某些人的本性乖张的人，我们坚持认为，时间和痛苦的经历会教导最顽固的人。

It was at this time that the question of Negro suffrage in the South was raised.

正是在这个时候，南方黑人选举权的问题被提出。

Here was a defenceless people suddenly made free.

这里是一个手无寸铁的人民突然获得了自由。

How were they to be protected from those who did not believe in their freedom and were determined to thwart it?

如何保护他们免受那些不相信他们的自由并决心阻挠他们自由的人的侵害？

Not by force, said the North; not by government guardianship, said the South; then by the ballot, the sole and legitimate defence of a free people, said the Common Sense of the Nation.

北方说，不是通过武力；南方说，不是由政府监护；然后通过投票，这是对自由人民的唯一合法的捍卫，国家常识说。

No one thought, at the time, that the ex-slaves could use the ballot intelligently or very effectively; but they did think that the possession of so great power by a great class in the nation would compel their fellows to educate this class to its intelligent use.

当时没有人认为前奴隶可以明智或非常有效地使用选票；但他们确实认为，国家中一个伟大阶级拥有如此巨大的权力，将迫使他们的同胞教育这个阶级，使其明智地使用。

Meantime, new thoughts came to the nation: the inevitable period of moral retrogression and political trickery that ever follows in the wake of war overtook us.

与此同时，新的思想出现在这个国家：战争之后不可避免的道德倒退和政治诡计时期降临到了我们身上。

So flagrant became the political scandals that reputable men began to leave politics alone, and politics consequently became disreputable.

政治丑闻变得如此明目张胆，以至于有信誉的人开始对政治置之不理，政治因此变得声名狼藉。

Men began to pride themselves on having nothing to do with their own government, and to agree tacitly with those who regarded public office as a private perquisite.

人们开始为自己与自己的政府无关而感到自豪，并默认同意那些将公职视为私人特权的人。

In this state of mind it became easy to wink at the suppression of the Negro vote in the South, and to advise self-respecting Negroes to leave politics entirely alone.

在这种心态下，人们很容易对南方黑人投票受到的压制视而不见，并建议有自尊心的黑人完全不要干涉政治。

The decent and reputable citizens of the North who neglected their own civic duties grew hilarious over the exaggerated importance with which the Negro regarded the franchise.

那些忽视了自己的公民义务的体面而有信誉的北方公民对黑人对选举权的过分夸大感到好笑。

Thus it easily happened that more and more the better class of Negroes followed the advice from abroad and the pressure from home, and took no further interest in politics, leaving to the careless and the venal of their race the exercise of their rights as voters.

因此，很容易发生这样的情况：越来越多的上层黑人听从国外的建议和国内的压力，不再对政治感兴趣，把选民的权利留给粗心和唯利是图的种族。

The black vote that still remained was not trained and educated, but further debauched by open and unblushing bribery, or force and fraud; until the Negro voter was thoroughly inoculated with the idea that politics was a method of private gain by disreputable means.

剩下的黑人选票没有受过训练和教育，而是因公开和厚颜无耻的贿赂、武力和欺诈而进一步堕落。直到黑人选民彻底接受了这样一种观念：政治是一种通过不光彩的手段谋取私人利益的方法。

And finally, now, to-day, when we are awakening to the fact that the perpetuity of republican institutions on this continent depends on the purification of the ballot, the civic training of voters, and the raising of voting to the plane of a solemn duty which a patriotic citizen neglects to his peril and to the peril of his children’s children,—in this day, when we are striving for a renaissance of civic virtue, what are we going to say to the black voter of the South?

最后，现在，今天，当我们意识到这个大陆上共和制度的永久存在取决于选票的净化、选民的公民培训以及将投票提升到一项庄严义务的高度时，爱国公民如果忽视了这一点，就会给自己和子孙带来危险——在今天，当我们努力复兴公民美德时，我们要对选民说些什么呢？南方的黑人选民？

Are we going to tell him still that politics is a disreputable and useless form of human activity?

我们还要告诉他政治是一种声名狼藉且无用的人类活动形式吗？

Are we going to induce the best class of Negroes to take less and less interest in government, and to give up their right to take such an interest, without a protest?

我们是否要诱导最优秀的黑人阶层对政府越来越不感兴趣，并在不提出抗议的情况下放弃他们对政府感兴趣的权利？

I am not saying a word against all legitimate efforts to purge the ballot of ignorance, pauperism, and crime.

我并不是反对所有旨在清除选票中的无知、贫困和犯罪的合法努力。

But few have pretended that the present movement for disfranchisement in the South is for such a purpose; it has been plainly and frankly declared in nearly every case that the object of the disfranchising laws is the elimination of the black man from politics.

但很少有人假装南方当前的剥夺选举权运动就是为了这个目的。几乎在每一个案例中，都明确而坦率地宣称，剥夺公民权的法律的目的是将黑人从政治中消除。

Now, is this a minor matter which has no influence on the main question of the industrial and intellectual development of the Negro?

现在，这是一件对黑人工业和智力发展这个主要问题没有影响的小事吗？

Can we establish a mass of black laborers and artisans and landholders in the South who, by law and public opinion, have absolutely no voice in shaping the laws under which they live and work?

我们能否在南方建立一大批黑人劳工、工匠和土地所有者，根据法律和公众舆论，他们在制定他们生活和工作的法律方面绝对没有发言权？

Can the modern organization of industry, assuming as it does free democratic government and the power and ability of the laboring classes to compel respect for their welfare,—can this system be carried out in the South when half its laboring force is voiceless in the public councils and powerless in its own defence?

现代工业组织，假定自由民主政府和劳动阶级强迫尊重他们福利的权力和能力，能否在南方实施这种制度，因为南方一半的劳动力在公共委员会中没有发言权，而且在自己的辩护中无能为力？

To-day the black man of the South has almost nothing to say as to how much he shall be taxed, or how those taxes shall be expended; as to who shall execute the laws, and how they shall do it; as to who shall make the laws, and how they shall be made.

今天，南方的黑人对于他应该被征多少税，或者这些税应该如何花费几乎没有什么可说的。谁应执行法律以及如何执行；谁来制定法律以及如何制定法律。

It is pitiable that frantic efforts must be made at critical times to get law-makers in some States even to listen to the respectful presentation of the black man’s side of a current controversy.

可怜的是，在关键时刻必须做出疯狂的努力，才能让一些州的立法者甚至聆听黑人一方对当前争议的尊重陈述。

Daily the Negro is coming more and more to look upon law and justice, not as protecting safeguards, but as sources of humiliation and oppression.

每天，黑人越来越多地将法律和正义视为羞辱和压迫的根源，而不是保护措施。

The laws are made by men who have little interest in him; they are executed by men who have absolutely no motive for treating the black people with courtesy or consideration; and, finally, the accused law-breaker is tried, not by his peers, but too often by men who would rather punish ten innocent Negroes than let one guilty one escape.

法律是由对他不感兴趣的人制定的；处决他们的人绝对没有礼貌或体贴地对待黑人的动机；最后，被指控的违法者不是由他的同僚审判，而是由那些宁愿惩罚十个无辜黑人也不愿让一个有罪的黑人逃脱的人审判。

I should be the last one to deny the patent weaknesses and shortcomings of the Negro people; I should be the last to withhold sympathy from the white South in its efforts to solve its intricate social problems.

我应该是最后一个否认黑人明显的弱点和缺点的人；我应该是最后一个对南方白人努力解决其错综复杂的社会问题表示同情的人。

I freely acknowledged that it is possible, and sometimes best, that a partially undeveloped people should be ruled by the best of their stronger and better neighbors for their own good, until such time as they can start and fight the world’s battles alone.

我坦率地承认，部分不发达的民族应该为了他们自己的利益而由他们最强大、更好的邻居来统治，直到他们能够独自开始并打响世界之战，这是可能的，有时是最好的。

I have already pointed out how sorely in need of such economic and spiritual guidance the emancipated Negro was, and I am quite willing to admit that if the representatives of the best white Southern public opinion were the ruling and guiding powers in the South to-day the conditions indicated would be fairly well fulfilled.

我已经指出，获得解放的黑人多么迫切需要这样的经济和精神指导，而且我非常愿意承认，如果南方最好的白人舆论的代表是今天南方的统治和指导力量，那么所指出的条件就会得到很好的满足。

But the point I have insisted upon and now emphasize again, is that the best opinion of the South to-day is not the ruling opinion.

但我一直坚持并现在再次强调的一点是，当今南方的最佳意见并不是主导意见。

That to leave the Negro helpless and without a ballot to-day is to leave him not to the guidance of the best, but rather to the exploitation and debauchment of the worst; that this is no truer of the South than of the North,—of the North than of Europe: in any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black, or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer, and more resourceful fellows, is a temptation which human nature seldom has withstood and seldom will withstand.

今天，让黑人陷入无助和没有选票的境地，就意味着他不再受到最好的人的指导，而是受到最坏的人的剥削和放荡。这一点对南方来说并不比对北方更真实，对北方来说也不比对欧洲更真实：在现代自由竞争下的任何土地、任何国家，让任何阶级的弱者和被鄙视的人，无论是白人、黑人还是蓝种人，置于他们更强大、更富有、更足智多谋的同胞的政治摆布之下，是人性很少经受住也很少会经受住的诱惑。

Moreover, the political status of the Negro in the South is closely connected with the question of Negro crime.

此外，南方黑人的政治地位与黑人犯罪问题密切相关。

There can be no doubt that crime among Negroes has sensibly increased in the last thirty years, and that there has appeared in the slums of great cities a distinct criminal class among the blacks.

毫无疑问，过去三十年来，黑人犯罪明显增加，大城市的贫民窟中出现了一个独特的黑人犯罪阶层。

In explaining this unfortunate development, we must note two things: (1) that the inevitable result of Emancipation was to increase crime and criminals, and (2) that the police system of the South was primarily designed to control slaves.

在解释这一不幸的发展时，我们必须注意两件事：（1）解放的必然结果是犯罪和罪犯的增加；（2）南方的警察制度主要是为了控制奴隶而设计的。

As to the first point, we must not forget that under a strict slave system there can scarcely be such a thing as crime.

关于第一点，我们不能忘记，在严格的奴隶制度下，几乎不可能存在犯罪这种事情。

But when these variously constituted human particles are suddenly thrown broadcast on the sea of life, some swim, some sink, and some hang suspended, to be forced up or down by the chance currents of a busy hurrying world.

但是，当这些不同组成的人类粒子突然被抛洒在生命的海洋上时，有些在游泳，有些在下沉，有些则悬在空中，被忙碌而匆忙的世界的偶然潮流迫使上浮或下沉。

So great an economic and social revolution as swept the South in ’63 meant a weeding out among the Negroes of the incompetents and vicious, the beginning of a differentiation of social grades.

63年席卷南方的一场伟大的经济和社会革命意味着黑人中无能和邪恶的人被淘汰，社会等级分化的开始。

Now a rising group of people are not lifted bodily from the ground like an inert solid mass, but rather stretch upward like a living plant with its roots still clinging in the mould.

现在，一群正在崛起的人不再像一个惰性的固体一样从地面升起，而是像一株活的植物一样向上伸展，其根部仍然紧贴在模具中。

The appearance, therefore, of the Negro criminal was a phenomenon to be awaited; and while it causes anxiety, it should not occasion surprise.

因此，黑人罪犯的出现是一种值得期待的现象。虽然它会引起焦虑，但不应引起意外。

Here again the hope for the future depended peculiarly on careful and delicate dealing with these criminals.

在这里，未来的希望尤其取决于对这些罪犯的谨慎和微妙的处理。

Their offences at first were those of laziness, carelessness, and impulse, rather than of malignity or ungoverned viciousness.

他们的罪行最初是由于懒惰、粗心和冲动，而不是恶意或不受控制的恶毒。

Such misdemeanors needed discriminating treatment, firm but reformatory, with no hint of injustice, and full proof of guilt.

此类轻罪需要区别对待，严厉但改造，没有任何不公正的迹象，并有充分的犯罪证据。

For such dealing with criminals, white or black, the South had no machinery, no adequate jails or reformatories; its police system was arranged to deal with blacks alone, and tacitly assumed that every white man was _ipso facto_ a member of that police.

对于这样处理白人或黑人罪犯，南方没有机制，没有足够的监狱或管教所；它的警察系统被安排专门对付黑人，并默认每个白人事实上都是该警察的成员。

Thus grew up a double system of justice, which erred on the white side by undue leniency and the practical immunity of red-handed criminals, and erred on the black side by undue severity, injustice, and lack of discrimination.

这样就形成了双重司法体系，白人一方的错误是过分宽大和对红手罪犯的实际豁免，而黑人一方的错误则是过度严厉、不公正和缺乏歧视。

For, as I have said, the police system of the South was originally designed to keep track of all Negroes, not simply of criminals; and when the Negroes were freed and the whole South was convinced of the impossibility of free Negro labor, the first and almost universal device was to use the courts as a means of reenslaving the blacks.

因为，正如我所说，南方的警察系统最初是为了追踪所有黑人而不仅仅是罪犯；当黑人获得自由并且整个南方都相信黑人不可能获得自由劳动时，第一个也是几乎普遍的手段就是利用法院作为重新奴役黑人的手段。

It was not then a question of crime, but rather one of color, that settled a man’s conviction on almost any charge.

那时，对一个人几乎任何指控的定罪都不是犯罪问题，而是肤色问题。

Thus Negroes came to look upon courts as instruments of injustice and oppression, and upon those convicted in them as martyrs and victims.

因此，黑人开始将法庭视为不公正和压迫的工具，并将那些在法庭上被定罪的人视为烈士和受害者。

When, now, the real Negro criminal appeared, and instead of petty stealing and vagrancy we began to have highway robbery, burglary, murder, and rape, there was a curious effect on both sides the color-line: the Negroes refused to believe the evidence of white witnesses or the fairness of white juries, so that the greatest deterrent to crime, the public opinion of one’s own social caste, was lost, and the criminal was looked upon as crucified rather than hanged.

现在，真正的黑人罪犯出现了，不再是小偷小摸和流浪，而是公路抢劫、入室盗窃、谋杀和强奸，这在肤色界线两边都产生了一种奇怪的效果：黑人拒绝相信白人证人的证据或白人陪审团的公正性，因此对犯罪的最大威慑力，即自己社会种姓的公众舆论，消失了，罪犯被视为被钉死在十字架上，而不是被钉死在十字架上。上吊了。

On the other hand, the whites, used to being careless as to the guilt or innocence of accused Negroes, were swept in moments of passion beyond law, reason, and decency.

另一方面，习惯于对被指控的黑人有罪或无罪漠不关心的白人，在超越法律、理性和正派的激情时刻席卷了他们。

Such a situation is bound to increase crime, and has increased it.

这种情况必然会增加犯罪，并且已经增加了。

To natural viciousness and vagrancy are being daily added motives of revolt and revenge which stir up all the latent savagery of both races and make peaceful attention to economic development often impossible.

除了天生的邪恶和流浪之外，每天还增加了反抗和复仇的动机，这激起了两个种族所有潜在的野蛮行为，使和平关注经济发展往往变得不可能。

But the chief problem in any community cursed with crime is not the punishment of the criminals, but the preventing of the young from being trained to crime.

但在任何遭受犯罪诅咒的社区中，主要问题不是对罪犯的惩罚，而是防止年轻人接受犯罪训练。

And here again the peculiar conditions of the South have prevented proper precautions.

南方的特殊条件再次阻碍了采取适当的预防措施。

I have seen twelve-year-old boys working in chains on the public streets of Atlanta, directly in front of the schools, in company with old and hardened criminals; and this indiscriminate mingling of men and women and children makes the chain-gangs perfect schools of crime and debauchery.

我曾见过十二岁的男孩在亚特兰大的公共街道上，就在学校前面，被铁链锁住，与年老而顽固的罪犯为伍；这种男女老少不分青红皂白的混在一起，使得铁链帮成为完美的犯罪和放荡的学校。

The struggle for reformatories, which has gone on in Virginia, Georgia, and other States, is the one encouraging sign of the awakening of some communities to the suicidal results of this policy.

弗吉尼亚州、佐治亚州和其他州正在进行的感化院斗争是一个令人鼓舞的迹象，表明一些社区已经意识到这一政策的自杀性后果。

It is the public schools, however, which can be made, outside the homes, the greatest means of training decent self-respecting citizens.

然而，公立学校可以成为家庭之外培养体面自尊公民的最佳途径。

We have been so hotly engaged recently in discussing trade-schools and the higher education that the pitiable plight of the public-school system in the South has almost dropped from view.

最近，我们如此热衷于讨论职业学校和高等教育，以至于南方公立学校系统的可怜困境几乎已经从我们的视野中消失了。

Of every five dollars spent for public education in the State of Georgia, the white schools get four dollars and the Negro one dollar; and even then the white public-school system, save in the cities, is bad and cries for reform.

在佐治亚州，每花费 5 美元用于公共教育，白人学校获得 4 美元，黑人学校获得 1 美元；即便如此，白人公立学校系统（除了城市）仍然很糟糕，需要改革。

If this is true of the whites, what of the blacks?

如果白人如此，那么黑人又如何呢？

I am becoming more and more convinced, as I look upon the system of common-school training in the South, that the national government must soon step in and aid popular education in some way.

当我审视南方的普通学校培训体系时，我越来越相信中央政府必须尽快介入并以某种方式援助大众教育。

To-day it has been only by the most strenuous efforts on the part of the thinking men of the South that the Negro’s share of the school fund has not been cut down to a pittance in some half-dozen States; and that movement not only is not dead, but in many communities is gaining strength.

今天，正是通过南方有识之士的最艰苦努力，黑人在学校基金中所占的份额在大约六个州才没有被削减到微不足道的程度。这项运动不仅没有消亡，而且在许多社区正在增强力量。

What in the name of reason does this nation expect of a people, poorly trained and hard pressed in severe economic competition, without political rights, and with ludicrously inadequate common-school facilities?

这个国家以理性的名义对一个缺乏训练、在激烈的经济竞争中处于困境、没有政治权利、普通学校设施严重不足的人民抱有什么期望？

What can it expect but crime and listlessness, offset here and there by the dogged struggles of the fortunate and more determined who are themselves buoyed by the hope that in due time the country will come to its senses?

除了犯罪和无精打采之外，还能期待什么，而幸运者和更坚定的人的顽强斗争不时地抵消了这些，他们自己也被希望国家在适当的时候能够清醒过来的希望所鼓舞？

I have thus far sought to make clear the physical, economic, and political relations of the Negroes and whites in the South, as I have conceived them, including, for the reasons set forth, crime and education.

到目前为止，我一直试图阐明南方黑人和白人之间的物质、经济和政治关系，正如我所设想的那样，包括犯罪和教育方面的关系，原因已列明。

But after all that has been said on these more tangible matters of human contact, there still remains a part essential to a proper description of the South which it is difficult to describe or fix in terms easily understood by strangers.

但是，在就这些更具体的人类接触问题说了这么多之后，对于正确描述南方来说，仍然存在着重要的部分，而这部分很难用陌生人容易理解的术语来描述或固定。

It is, in fine, the atmosphere of the land, the thought and feeling, the thousand and one little actions which go to make up life.

总而言之，它是构成生活的土地的气氛、思想和感觉、一千零一个小行动。

In any community or nation it is these little things which are most elusive to the grasp and yet most essential to any clear conception of the group life taken as a whole.

在任何社区或国家中，这些小事是最难以掌握的，但对于整个群体生活的任何清晰概念来说却是最重要的。

What is thus true of all communities is peculiarly true of the South, where, outside of written history and outside of printed law, there has been going on for a generation as deep a storm and stress of human souls, as intense a ferment of feeling, as intricate a writhing of spirit, as ever a people experienced.

对于所有社区来说，情况尤其如此，对于南方来说尤其如此，在那里，在书面历史和印刷法律之外，一代人以来，人类灵魂经历了一场深刻的风暴和压力，情感的强烈发酵，精神的复杂翻腾，就像一个民族所经历的那样。

Within and without the sombre veil of color vast social forces have been at work,—efforts for human betterment, movements toward disintegration and despair, tragedies and comedies in social and economic life, and a swaying and lifting and sinking of human hearts which have made this land a land of mingled sorrow and joy, of change and excitement and unrest.

无论是在阴暗的色彩面纱之内还是之外，巨大的社会力量一直在发挥作用——人类进步的努力、走向解体和绝望的运动、社会和经济生活中的悲剧和喜剧、人心的摇摆、升降和沉沦，使这片土地成为悲伤与欢乐交织、变化与激动与不安交织的土地。

The centre of this spiritual turmoil has ever been the millions of black freedmen and their sons, whose destiny is so fatefully bound up with that of the nation.

这场精神动荡的中心一直是数百万黑人自由民及其儿子，他们的命运与国家的命运紧密相连。

And yet the casual observer visiting the South sees at first little of this.

然而，访问南方的漫不经心的观察者起初并没有看到这一点。

He notes the growing frequency of dark faces as he rides along,—but otherwise the days slip lazily on, the sun shines, and this little world seems as happy and contented as other worlds he has visited.

他注意到，一路上，黑脸越来越多，但除此之外，日子懒洋洋地过去，阳光明媚，这个小世界似乎和他访问过的其他世界一样快乐和满足。

Indeed, on the question of questions—the Negro problem—he hears so little that there almost seems to be a conspiracy of silence; the morning papers seldom mention it, and then usually in a far-fetched academic way, and indeed almost every one seems to forget and ignore the darker half of the land, until the astonished visitor is inclined to ask if after all there IS any problem here.

事实上，关于问题的问题——黑人问题——他听到的很少，几乎似乎有一个沉默的阴谋。早报很少提及它，而且通常以一种牵强的学术方式，事实上，几乎每个人似乎都忘记并忽视了这片土地的黑暗部分，直到惊讶的访客倾向于问这里到底是否有任何问题。

But if he lingers long enough there comes the awakening: perhaps in a sudden whirl of passion which leaves him gasping at its bitter intensity; more likely in a gradually dawning sense of things he had not at first noticed.

但如果他逗留的时间足够长，觉醒就会到来：也许是在突然的激情漩涡中，让他因强烈的痛苦而喘不过气来；也许是在激情的突然旋转中，让他喘不过气来；也许是在激情的突然旋转中，让他喘不过气来。更有可能的是，他开始逐渐意识到一些他一开始没有注意到的事情。

Slowly but surely his eyes begin to catch the shadows of the color-line: here he meets crowds of Negroes and whites; then he is suddenly aware that he cannot discover a single dark face; or again at the close of a day’s wandering he may find himself in some strange assembly, where all faces are tinged brown or black, and where he has the vague, uncomfortable feeling of the stranger.

慢慢地，他的眼睛开始捕捉到肤色界限的阴影：在这里，他遇到了成群结队的黑人和白人；在这里，他遇到了一群群黑人和白人；然后他突然意识到他找不到一张黑脸；或者，在一天的闲逛结束后，他可能会发现自己置身于一些奇怪的聚会中，所有的面孔都被染成棕色或黑色，他有一种模糊的、不舒服的陌生人的感觉。

He realizes at last that silently, resistlessly, the world about flows by him in two great streams: they ripple on in the same sunshine, they approach and mingle their waters in seeming carelessness,—then they divide and flow wide apart.

他终于意识到，周围的世界静静地、不可抗拒地像两条大溪流过他身边：它们在同一片阳光下泛起涟漪，它们看似漫不经心地接近并混合它们的水，然后它们分开并流开。

It is done quietly; no mistakes are made, or if one occurs, the swift arm of the law and of public opinion swings down for a moment, as when the other day a black man and a white woman were arrested for talking together on Whitehall Street in Atlanta.

一切都是悄悄进行的；没有犯任何错误，或者如果发生错误，法律和舆论的迅猛之臂会暂时放松下来，就像有一天，一名黑人和一名白人妇女因在亚特兰大白厅街交谈而被捕。

Now if one notices carefully one will see that between these two worlds, despite much physical contact and daily intermingling, there is almost no community of intellectual life or point of transference where the thoughts and feelings of one race can come into direct contact and sympathy with the thoughts and feelings of the other.

现在，如果人们仔细观察，就会发现，在这两个世界之间，尽管有很多身体接触和日常混合，但几乎不存在一个精神生活共同体或转移点，一个种族的思想和感情可以与另一个种族的思想和感情直接接触和同情。

Before and directly after the war, when all the best of the Negroes were domestic servants in the best of the white families, there were bonds of intimacy, affection, and sometimes blood relationship, between the races.

战前和战后不久，当所有最优秀的黑人都在最优秀的白人家庭中当佣人时，种族之间存在着亲密、感情、有时甚至是血缘关系的纽带。

They lived in the same home, shared in the family life, often attended the same church, and talked and conversed with each other.

他们住在同一个家里，共享家庭生活，经常去同一间教堂，互相交谈。

But the increasing civilization of the Negro since then has naturally meant the development of higher classes: there are increasing numbers of ministers, teachers, physicians, merchants, mechanics, and independent farmers, who by nature and training are the aristocracy and leaders of the blacks.

但自那时以来，黑人文明的日益发展自然意味着更高阶级的发展：越来越多的部长、教师、医生、商人、机械师和独立农民，他们在本质和训练上都是黑人的贵族和领袖。

Between them, however, and the best element of the whites, there is little or no intellectual commerce.

然而，他们与白人中最优秀的人之间几乎没有或根本没有智力上的交易。

They go to separate churches, they live in separate sections, they are strictly separated in all public gatherings, they travel separately, and they are beginning to read different papers and books.

他们去不同的教堂，住在不同的区域，在所有公共集会中严格分开，单独出行，并开始阅读不同的报纸和书籍。

To most libraries, lectures, concerts, and museums, Negroes are either not admitted at all, or on terms peculiarly galling to the pride of the very classes who might otherwise be attracted.

对于大多数图书馆、讲座、音乐会和博物馆来说，黑人要么根本不被允许进入，要么其条件对那些原本可能会被吸引的阶级的自豪感特别刺耳。

The daily paper chronicles the doings of the black world from afar with no great regard for accuracy; and so on, throughout the category of means for intellectual communication,—schools, conferences, efforts for social betterment, and the like,—it is usually true that the very representatives of the two races, who for mutual benefit and the welfare of the land ought to be in complete understanding and sympathy, are so far strangers that one side thinks all whites are narrow and prejudiced, and the other thinks educated Negroes dangerous and insolent.

这份日报从远处记录了黑人世界的所作所为，不太注重准确性；等等，在知识交流的手段——学校、会议、社会改善的努力等等——中，通常情况下，两个种族的代表，为了共同利益和土地的福祉，应该完全理解和同情，却是如此陌生，以至于一方认为所有白人都是狭隘和偏见的，而另一方则认为受过教育的黑人是危险和傲慢的。

Moreover, in a land where the tyranny of public opinion and the intolerance of criticism is for obvious historical reasons so strong as in the South, such a situation is extremely difficult to correct.

此外，在南方这样一个舆论专制和不能容忍批评的国家，由于明显的历史原因如此严重，这种情况极难纠正。

The white man, as well as the Negro, is bound and barred by the color-line, and many a scheme of friendliness and philanthropy, of broad-minded sympathy and generous fellowship between the two has dropped still-born because some busybody has forced the color-question to the front and brought the tremendous force of unwritten law against the innovators.

白人和黑人一样，都受到肤色界限的束缚和阻碍，而两人之间的许多友好和慈善、博大的同情和慷慨的友谊的计划都胎死腹中，因为一些好管闲事的人把肤色问题推到了前台，并用不成文法律的巨大力量来反对创新者。

It is hardly necessary for me to add very much in regard to the social contact between the races.

我几乎没有必要对种族之间的社会接触做太多补充。

Nothing has come to replace that finer sympathy and love between some masters and house servants which the radical and more uncompromising drawing of the color-line in recent years has caused almost completely to disappear.

没有什么可以取代一些主人和仆人之间更美好的同情和爱，近年来激进和更不妥协的肤色界限几乎完全消失了。

In a world where it means so much to take a man by the hand and sit beside him, to look frankly into his eyes and feel his heart beating with red blood; in a world where a social cigar or a cup of tea together means more than legislative halls and magazine articles and speeches,—one can imagine the consequences of the almost utter absence of such social amenities between estranged races, whose separation extends even to parks and streetcars.

在这个世界里，牵着一个人的手，坐在他身边，坦诚地看着他的眼睛，感受他的心脏因鲜红的血液而跳动，这意味着什么？在一个社交雪茄或一杯茶的意义不仅仅在于立法大厅、杂志文章和演讲的世界里，人们可以想象，疏远的种族之间几乎完全缺乏这种社交设施的后果，他们的隔离甚至延伸到公园和有轨电车。

Here there can be none of that social going down to the people,—the opening of heart and hand of the best to the worst, in generous acknowledgment of a common humanity and a common destiny.

在这里，不可能有任何社会性的深入到人民——最好的人向最坏的人敞开心扉和双手，慷慨地承认共同的人性和共同的命运。

On the other hand, in matters of simple almsgiving, where there can be no question of social contact, and in the succor of the aged and sick, the South, as if stirred by a feeling of its unfortunate limitations, is generous to a fault.

另一方面，在简单的施舍方面，在不存在社会接触问题的情况下，在救助老人和病人的问题上，南方似乎是因其不幸的局限性而感到激动，所以慷慨得过分了。

The black beggar is never turned away without a good deal more than a crust, and a call for help for the unfortunate meets quick response.

黑人乞丐在没有任何东西的情况下永远不会被拒绝，而对不幸者的求助也会得到迅速的回应。

I remember, one cold winter, in Atlanta, when I refrained from contributing to a public relief fund lest Negroes should be discriminated against, I afterward inquired of a friend: “Were any black people receiving aid?” “Why,” said he, “they were _all_ black.”

我记得，在亚特兰大的一个寒冷的冬天，当我避免向公共救济基金捐款时，以免黑人受到歧视，我后来问一位朋友：“有黑人接受援助吗？” “为什么，”他说，“它们都是黑色的。”

And yet this does not touch the kernel of the problem.

但这并没有触及问题的核心。

Human advancement is not a mere question of almsgiving, but rather of sympathy and cooperation among classes who would scorn charity.

人类的进步不仅仅是施舍的问题，而是蔑视慈善的阶级之间的同情与合作。

And here is a land where, in the higher walks of life, in all the higher striving for the good and noble and true, the color-line comes to separate natural friends and coworkers; while at the bottom of the social group, in the saloon, the gambling-hell, and the brothel, that same line wavers and disappears.

在这片土地上，在更高层次的生活中，在所有追求美好、高尚和真实的更高层次的努力中，肤色界线将自然的朋友和同事区分开来。而在社会底层、酒馆、赌博地狱、妓院，这条线却动摇、消失。

I have sought to paint an average picture of real relations between the sons of master and man in the South.

我力图描绘出一幅关于南方主人的儿子们与人类之间真实关系的平均图景。

I have not glossed over matters for policy’s sake, for I fear we have already gone too far in that sort of thing.

我并没有为了政策而掩盖问题，因为我担心我们在这类事情上已经走得太远了。

On the other hand, I have sincerely sought to let no unfair exaggerations creep in.

另一方面，我真诚地力求不让任何不公平的夸大其词渗透进来。

I do not doubt that in some Southern communities conditions are better than those I have indicated; while I am no less certain that in other communities they are far worse.

我毫不怀疑南方一些社区的情况比我所指出的要好；但我同样确信其他社区的情况要糟糕得多。

Nor does the paradox and danger of this situation fail to interest and perplex the best conscience of the South.

这种情况的悖论和危险也引起了南方最佳良心的兴趣和困惑。

Deeply religious and intensely democratic as are the mass of the whites, they feel acutely the false position in which the Negro problems place them.

尽管白人群众具有深厚的宗教信仰和强烈的民主意识，但他们敏锐地感受到黑人问题将他们置于错误的境地。

Such an essentially honest-hearted and generous people cannot cite the caste-levelling precepts of Christianity, or believe in equality of opportunity for all men, without coming to feel more and more with each generation that the present drawing of the color-line is a flat contradiction to their beliefs and professions.

这样一个本质上诚实和慷慨的民族，如果不引用基督教的种姓平等戒律，或者相信所有人机会平等，就会越来越感到，目前的肤色界限与他们的信仰和职业完全矛盾。

But just as often as they come to this point, the present social condition of the Negro stands as a menace and a portent before even the most open-minded: if there were nothing to charge against the Negro but his blackness or other physical peculiarities, they argue, the problem would be comparatively simple; but what can we say to his ignorance, shiftlessness, poverty, and crime?

但每当他们谈到这一点时，即使对最开放的人来说，黑人目前的社会状况也是一种威胁和预兆：他们认为，如果除了黑人或其他身体特征之外没有什么可以指责黑人，那么问题就会相对简单；但对于他的无知、无能、贫穷和犯罪，我们又能说些什么呢？

can a self-respecting group hold anything but the least possible fellowship with such persons and survive?

一个有自尊心的团体除了与这些人保持尽可能少的交往之外还能维持下去吗？

and shall we let a mawkish sentiment sweep away the culture of our fathers or the hope of our children?

我们是否应该让一种伤感的情绪扫除我们父辈的文化或我们孩子的希望？

The argument so put is of great strength, but it is not a whit stronger than the argument of thinking Negroes: granted, they reply, that the condition of our masses is bad; there is certainly on the one hand adequate historical cause for this, and unmistakable evidence that no small number have, in spite of tremendous disadvantages, risen to the level of American civilization.

这样提出的论点很有说服力，但它比有思想的黑人的论点强不了半点：当然，他们回答说，我们群众的状况很糟糕;一方面，这当然有充分的历史原因，而且有明确的证据表明，尽管有巨大的劣势，仍有不少人达到了美国文明的水平。

And when, by proscription and prejudice, these same Negroes are classed with and treated like the lowest of their people, simply because they are Negroes, such a policy not only discourages thrift and intelligence among black men, but puts a direct premium on the very things you complain of,—inefficiency and crime.

当这些黑人仅仅因为是黑人，就因为排斥和偏见而被归为最低等的人，并被视为最低等的人，这样的政策不仅阻碍了黑人的节俭和智慧，而且直接强调了你所抱怨的事情——低效率和犯罪。

Draw lines of crime, of incompetency, of vice, as tightly and uncompromisingly as you will, for these things must be proscribed; but a color-line not only does not accomplish this purpose, but thwarts it.

尽可能严格、毫不妥协地划定犯罪、无能、恶行的界限，因为这些事情必须被禁止；但肤色界限不仅不能实现这一目的，反而会阻碍这一目的。

In the face of two such arguments, the future of the South depends on the ability of the representatives of these opposing views to see and appreciate and sympathize with each other’s position,—for the Negro to realize more deeply than he does at present the need of uplifting the masses of his people, for the white people to realize more vividly than they have yet done the deadening and disastrous effect of a color-prejudice that classes Phillis Wheatley and Sam Hose in the same despised class.

面对这样的两种论点，南方的未来取决于这些对立观点的代表们是否能够看到、欣赏和同情彼此的立场——让黑人比现在更深刻地认识到提升人民群众的必要性，让白人比他们现在更生动地认识到将菲利斯·惠特利和萨姆·霍斯归入同一被鄙视阶层的肤色偏见所带来的令人窒息和灾难性的影响。

It is not enough for the Negroes to declare that color-prejudice is the sole cause of their social condition, nor for the white South to reply that their social condition is the main cause of prejudice.

黑人宣称肤色偏见是他们社会状况的唯一原因，南方白人也回答说他们的社会状况是偏见的主要原因是不够的。

They both act as reciprocal cause and effect, and a change in neither alone will bring the desired effect.

它们都是互为因果的，单独改变任何一个都不会带来预期的效果。

Both must change, or neither can improve to any great extent.

两者都必须改变，否则两者都无法得到很大程度的改善。

The Negro cannot stand the present reactionary tendencies and unreasoning drawing of the color-line indefinitely without discouragement and retrogression.

黑人不能无限期地忍受当前的反动倾向和不合理的肤色界限，而不灰心和倒退。

And the condition of the Negro is ever the excuse for further discrimination.

黑人的处境永远是进一步歧视的借口。

Only by a union of intelligence and sympathy across the color-line in this critical period of the Republic shall justice and right triumph,

只有在共和国这个关键时期，跨越肤色界限的智慧和同情的结合，正义和正义才能取得胜利，

“That mind and soul according well, May make one music as before, But vaster.”

“思想和灵魂配合得很好，可以像以前一样创作一首音乐，但更广阔。”

Of the Faith of the Fathers

论父辈的信仰

Dim face of Beauty haunting all the world, Fair face of Beauty all too fair to see, Where the lost stars adown the heavens are hurled,— There, there alone for thee May white peace be.

美丽的暗淡面孔萦绕在全世界，美丽的白皙面孔白皙得让人无法看见，天空中失落的星星被投掷在那里，——在那里，只有你一个人，愿白色的和平。

Beauty, sad face of Beauty, Mystery, Wonder, What are these dreams to foolish babbling men Who cry with little noises ’neath the thunder Of Ages ground to sand, To a little sand.

美丽，美丽的悲伤面孔，神秘，奇迹，对于愚蠢的喋喋不休的人来说，这些梦想是什么，他们在岁月的雷声下低声哭泣，变成了沙子，变成了一点沙子。

FIONA MACLEOD.

菲奥娜·麦克劳德。

[Illustration]

[图示]

It was out in the country, far from home, far from my foster home, on a dark Sunday night.

那是在一个漆黑的周日晚上，在乡下，远离家乡，远离我的寄养家庭。

The road wandered from our rambling log-house up the stony bed of a creek, past wheat and corn, until we could hear dimly across the fields a rhythmic cadence of song,—soft, thrilling, powerful, that swelled and died sorrowfully in our ears.

道路从我们杂乱无章的木屋蜿蜒而上，沿着一条小溪的石床蜿蜒而行，经过小麦和玉米，直到我们隐约听到田野里传来有节奏的歌声——轻柔、激动人心、有力，在我们耳边响起，悲伤地消逝。

I was a country schoolteacher then, fresh from the East, and had never seen a Southern Negro revival.

当时我是一名乡村教师，刚从东方来，从未见过南方黑人的复兴。

To be sure, we in Berkshire were not perhaps as stiff and formal as they in Suffolk of olden time; yet we were very quiet and subdued, and I know not what would have happened those clear Sabbath mornings had some one punctuated the sermon with a wild scream, or interrupted the long prayer with a loud Amen!

可以肯定的是，我们伯克郡也许不像以前萨福克郡的人那么拘谨和拘谨。但我们却非常安静和克制，我不知道那些晴朗的安息日早晨，如果有人用一声狂野的尖叫打断布道，或者用大声的阿门打断漫长的祈祷，会发生什么！

And so most striking to me, as I approached the village and the little plain church perched aloft, was the air of intense excitement that possessed that mass of black folk.

当我走近村庄和那座高耸的朴素小教堂时，最让我震惊的是那群黑人身上弥漫着强烈兴奋的气氛。

A sort of suppressed terror hung in the air and seemed to seize us,—a pythian madness, a demoniac possession, that lent terrible reality to song and word.

空气中弥漫着一种压抑的恐惧，似乎抓住了我们——一种皮提亚式的疯狂，一种恶魔般的占有，给歌曲和文字带来了可怕的现实。

The black and massive form of the preacher swayed and quivered as the words crowded to his lips and flew at us in singular eloquence.

当讲道者的话语涌入他的唇边，以奇特的口才向我们飞来时，传教士那黑色而庞大的身躯摇晃着、颤抖着。

The people moaned and fluttered, and then the gaunt-cheeked brown woman beside me suddenly leaped straight into the air and shrieked like a lost soul, while round about came wail and groan and outcry, and a scene of human passion such as I had never conceived before.

人们呻吟着，扑腾着，然后我身边那个面容憔悴的棕色女人突然跳到空中，像失魂落魄地尖叫起来，周围传来哀号、呻吟和叫喊，这是我以前从未想象过的人类激情的场面。

Those who have not thus witnessed the frenzy of a Negro revival in the untouched backwoods of the South can but dimly realize the religious feeling of the slave; as described, such scenes appear grotesque and funny, but as seen they are awful.

那些没有亲眼目睹南方未受破坏的边远地区黑人复兴的狂热的人只能隐约地意识到奴隶的宗教情感；正如所描述的，这样的场景看起来怪诞而有趣，但看起来却很可怕。

Three things characterized this religion of the slave,—the Preacher, the Music, and the Frenzy.

这种奴隶宗教有三个特点：传教士、音乐和狂热。

The Preacher is the most unique personality developed by the Negro on American soil.

传教士是黑人在美国土地上发展起来的最独特的人格。

A leader, a politician, an orator, a “boss,” an intriguer, an idealist,—all these he is, and ever, too, the centre of a group of men, now twenty, now a thousand in number.

一个领袖、一个政治家、一个演说家、一个“老板”、一个阴谋家、一个理想主义者——所有这些，他都是，而且永远是一群人的中心，现在有二十人，现在有一千人。

The combination of a certain adroitness with deep-seated earnestness, of tact with consummate ability, gave him his preeminence, and helps him maintain it.

一定的技巧与深深的真诚、机智与精湛的能力相结合，赋予了他卓越的地位，并帮助他保持这种地位。

The type, of course, varies according to time and place, from the West Indies in the sixteenth century to New England in the nineteenth, and from the Mississippi bottoms to cities like New Orleans or New York.

当然，这种类型会根据时间和地点的不同而有所不同，从十六世纪的西印度群岛到十九世纪的新英格兰，从密西西比河谷到新奥尔良或纽约等城市。

The Music of Negro religion is that plaintive rhythmic melody, with its touching minor cadences, which, despite caricature and defilement, still remains the most original and beautiful expression of human life and longing yet born on American soil.

黑人宗教音乐是那种悲伤的节奏旋律，带有感人的小调，尽管有讽刺和污秽，但它仍然是美国土地上诞生的人类生活和渴望的最原始、最美丽的表达。

Sprung from the African forests, where its counterpart can still be heard, it was adapted, changed, and intensified by the tragic soul-life of the slave, until, under the stress of law and whip, it became the one true expression of a people’s sorrow, despair, and hope.

它起源于非洲森林，在那里仍然可以听到它的对应声音，它被奴隶的悲剧性灵魂生活所改编、改变和强化，直到在法律和鞭子的压力下，它成为一个民族的悲伤、绝望和希望的唯一真实表达。

Finally the Frenzy of “Shouting,” when the Spirit of the Lord passed by, and, seizing the devotee, made him mad with supernatural joy, was the last essential of Negro religion and the one more devoutly believed in than all the rest.

最后，当主的灵经过并抓住奉献者，使他因超自然的喜悦而疯狂时，“呼喊”的疯狂是黑人宗教的最后一个要素，也是比其他宗教更虔诚的信仰。

It varied in expression from the silent rapt countenance or the low murmur and moan to the mad abandon of physical fervor,—the stamping, shrieking, and shouting, the rushing to and fro and wild waving of arms, the weeping and laughing, the vision and the trance.

它的表情各不相同，从沉默的全神贯注的表情或低声的呢喃和呻吟，到疯狂地放弃身体的热情——跺脚、尖叫和喊叫，来回奔跑和疯狂地挥舞手臂，哭泣和大笑，幻象和恍惚。

All this is nothing new in the world, but old as religion, as Delphi and Endor.

这一切在世界上并不是什么新鲜事，但却像宗教一样古老，像德尔斐和恩多一样古老。

And so firm a hold did it have on the Negro, that many generations firmly believed that without this visible manifestation of the God there could be no true communion with the Invisible.

它对黑人的影响如此之大，以至于许多代人都坚信，如果没有上帝的这种可见的显现，就不可能与无形的事物进行真正的交流。

These were the characteristics of Negro religious life as developed up to the time of Emancipation.

这些是黑人宗教生活发展到解放时期的特征。

Since under the peculiar circumstances of the black man’s environment they were the one expression of his higher life, they are of deep interest to the student of his development, both socially and psychologically.

由于在黑人环境的特殊情况下，它们是黑人高级生活的一种表达，因此研究黑人的社会和心理发展的学生对它们有着浓厚的兴趣。

Numerous are the attractive lines of inquiry that here group themselves.

这里有许多吸引人的探究线索。

What did slavery mean to the African savage?

奴隶制对非洲野蛮人来说意味着什么？

What was his attitude toward the World and Life?

他对世界和人生的态度是什么？

What seemed to him good and evil,—God and Devil?

在他看来，什么是善与恶——上帝与魔鬼？

Whither went his longings and strivings, and wherefore were his heart-burnings and disappointments?

他的渴望和努力到哪里去了，又何来的心痛和失望？

Answers to such questions can come only from a study of Negro religion as a development, through its gradual changes from the heathenism of the Gold Coast to the institutional Negro church of Chicago.

这些问题的答案只能来自对黑人宗教发展的研究，通过其从黄金海岸的异教到芝加哥制度化的黑人教会的逐渐转变。

Moreover, the religious growth of millions of men, even though they be slaves, cannot be without potent influence upon their contemporaries.

此外，数以百万计的人的宗教成长，即使他们是奴隶，也不会对他们的同时代人产生强大的影响。

The Methodists and Baptists of America owe much of their condition to the silent but potent influence of their millions of Negro converts.

美国卫理公会和浸信会的现状在很大程度上要归功于数百万黑人皈依者的默默而有力的影响。

Especially is this noticeable in the South, where theology and religious philosophy are on this account a long way behind the North, and where the religion of the poor whites is a plain copy of Negro thought and methods.

这在南方尤其明显，南方的神学和宗教哲学因此远远落后于北方，而那里贫穷白人的宗教是黑人思想和方法的简单翻版。

The mass of “gospel” hymns which has swept through American churches and well-nigh ruined our sense of song consists largely of debased imitations of Negro melodies made by ears that caught the jingle but not the music, the body but not the soul, of the Jubilee songs.

席卷美国教堂的大量“福音”赞美诗几乎毁掉了我们对歌曲的感觉，其中大部分是对黑人旋律的低劣模仿，这些旋律的耳朵捕捉到了禧年歌曲的顺口溜，但听不到音乐，捕捉到了身体，却捕捉不到灵魂。

It is thus clear that the study of Negro religion is not only a vital part of the history of the Negro in America, but no uninteresting part of American history.

由此可见，对黑人宗教的研究不仅是美国黑人历史的重要组成部分，而且也是美国历史中一个无趣的部分。

The Negro church of to-day is the social centre of Negro life in the United States, and the most characteristic expression of African character.

当今的黑人教堂是美国黑人生活的社交中心，也是非洲人性格最典型的体现。

Take a typical church in a small Virginia town: it is the “First Baptist”—a roomy brick edifice seating five hundred or more persons, tastefully finished in Georgia pine, with a carpet, a small organ, and stained-glass windows.

以弗吉尼亚州小镇上的一座典型教堂为例：它是“第一浸信会教堂”——一座宽敞的砖砌建筑，可容纳 500 或更多人，用乔治亚松木装饰，装饰高雅，配有地毯、小风琴和彩色玻璃窗。

Underneath is a large assembly room with benches.

下面是一个带长凳的大型会议室。

This building is the central club-house of a community of a thousand or more Negroes.

这座建筑是一个拥有一千名或更多黑人的社区的中央会所。

Various organizations meet here,—the church proper, the Sunday-school, two or three insurance societies, women’s societies, secret societies, and mass meetings of various kinds.

各种组织在这里聚会——教堂、主日学、两三个保险协会、妇女协会、秘密社团和各种群众集会。

Entertainments, suppers, and lectures are held beside the five or six regular weekly religious services.

除了每周五六次定期的宗教仪式外，还会举行娱乐活动、晚餐和讲座。

Considerable sums of money are collected and expended here, employment is found for the idle, strangers are introduced, news is disseminated and charity distributed.

这里收集和花费大量资金，为游手好闲的人找到工作，介绍陌生人，传播新闻并分发慈善物品。

At the same time this social, intellectual, and economic centre is a religious centre of great power.

同时，这个社会、知识和经济中心也是一个强大的宗教中心。

Depravity, Sin, Redemption, Heaven, Hell, and Damnation are preached twice a Sunday after the crops are laid by; and few indeed of the community have the hardihood to withstand conversion.

庄稼收完后，每周日都会宣讲两次《堕落》、《罪恶》、《救赎》、《天堂》、《地狱》和《诅咒》。社会上确实很少有人有勇气承受皈依。

Back of this more formal religion, the Church often stands as a real conserver of morals, a strengthener of family life, and the final authority on what is Good and Right.

在这种更正式的宗教的支持下，教会往往是道德的真正维护者、家庭生活的加强者以及善恶的最终权威。

Thus one can see in the Negro church to-day, reproduced in microcosm, all the great world from which the Negro is cut off by color-prejudice and social condition.

因此，人们可以在今天的黑人教堂中看到一个微观世界的再现，黑人因肤色偏见和社会条件而与这个世界隔绝。

In the great city churches the same tendency is noticeable and in many respects emphasized.

在大城市的教会中，同样的趋势是显而易见的，并且在许多方面都得到了强调。

A great church like the Bethel of Philadelphia has over eleven hundred members, an edifice seating fifteen hundred persons and valued at one hundred thousand dollars, an annual budget of five thousand dollars, and a government consisting of a pastor with several assisting local preachers, an executive and legislative board, financial boards and tax collectors; general church meetings for making laws; sub-divided groups led by class leaders, a company of militia, and twenty-four auxiliary societies.

像费城伯特利这样的伟大教会有一千一百多名成员，一座可容纳一千五百人、价值十万美元的大厦，每年五千美元的预算，以及一个由一名牧师和几名协助当地传教士、一个执行委员会和立法委员会、财务委员会和税务员组成的政府；制定法律的教会全体会议；由阶级领袖领导的小组、一个民兵连和二十四个辅助社团。

The activity of a church like this is immense and far-reaching, and the bishops who preside over these organizations throughout the land are among the most powerful Negro rulers in the world.

像这样的教会的活动是巨大而深远的，在全国各地主持这些组织的主教是世界上最有权势的黑人统治者之一。

Such churches are really governments of men, and consequently a little investigation reveals the curious fact that, in the South, at least, practically every American Negro is a church member.

这些教会实际上是人的政府，因此，稍加调查就会发现一个奇怪的事实：至少在南方，几乎每个美国黑人都是教会成员。

Some, to be sure, are not regularly enrolled, and a few do not habitually attend services; but, practically, a proscribed people must have a social centre, and that centre for this people is the Negro church.

可以肯定的是，有些人没有定期登记，还有一些人不习惯参加服务；但实际上，被禁止的民族必须有一个社会中心，而这个民族的中心就是黑人教会。

The census of 1890 showed nearly twenty-four thousand Negro churches in the country, with a total enrolled membership of over two and a half millions, or ten actual church members to every twenty-eight persons, and in some Southern States one in every two persons.

1890 年的人口普查显示，全国有近 24000 个黑人教会，注册会员总数超过 250 万，即每 28 人中有 10 名实际教会成员，在南方一些州，每两人就有 1 人。

Besides these there is the large number who, while not enrolled as members, attend and take part in many of the activities of the church.

除此之外，还有大量的人虽然没有注册为会员，但参加了教会的许多活动。

There is an organized Negro church for every sixty black families in the nation, and in some States for every forty families, owning, on an average, a thousand dollars’ worth of property each, or nearly twenty-six million dollars in all.

全国每 60 个黑人家庭就有一个有组织的黑人教堂，在某些州，每 40 个家庭就有一个有组织的黑人教堂，平均每个家庭拥有价值 1000 美元的财产，总计近 2600 万美元。

Such, then, is the large development of the Negro church since Emancipation.

这就是黑人教会自解放以来的巨大发展。

The question now is, What have been the successive steps of this social history and what are the present tendencies?

现在的问题是，这段社会历史经历了哪些阶段，目前的趋势是什么？

First, we must realize that no such institution as the Negro church could rear itself without definite historical foundations.

首先，我们必须认识到，没有明确的历史基础，任何像黑人教会这样的机构都无法建立起来。

These foundations we can find if we remember that the social history of the Negro did not start in America.

如果我们记得黑人的社会历史并非始于美国，我们就能找到这些基础。

He was brought from a definite social environment,—the polygamous clan life under the headship of the chief and the potent influence of the priest.

他出生于特定的社会环境，即酋长领导下的一夫多妻氏族生活和牧师的强大影响力。

His religion was nature-worship, with profound belief in invisible surrounding influences, good and bad, and his worship was through incantation and sacrifice.

他的宗教是自然崇拜，对周围无形的影响（无论好坏）有着深刻的信仰，他的崇拜是通过咒语和牺牲来实现的。

The first rude change in this life was the slave ship and the West Indian sugar-fields.

此生中第一个粗暴的变化是奴隶船和西印度糖田。

The plantation organization replaced the clan and tribe, and the white master replaced the chief with far greater and more despotic powers.

种植园组织取代了氏族和部落，白人主人取代了酋长，拥有更大、更专制的权力。

Forced and long-continued toil became the rule of life, the old ties of blood relationship and kinship disappeared, and instead of the family appeared a new polygamy and polyandry, which, in some cases, almost reached promiscuity.

被迫而长期的劳作成为生活的规则，旧有的血缘关系和亲属关系消失了，取而代之的是新的一夫多妻制和一妻多夫制，在某些情况下几乎达到了乱交的程度。

It was a terrific social revolution, and yet some traces were retained of the former group life, and the chief remaining institution was the Priest or Medicine-man.

这是一场了不起的社会革命，但以前的群体生活的一些痕迹仍然保留下来，而剩下的主要机构是牧师或巫师。

He early appeared on the plantation and found his function as the healer of the sick, the interpreter of the Unknown, the comforter of the sorrowing, the supernatural avenger of wrong, and the one who rudely but picturesquely expressed the longing, disappointment, and resentment of a stolen and oppressed people.

他很早就出现在种植园，并发现自己的角色是病人的治愈者、未知的解释者、悲伤的安慰者、错误的超自然复仇者，以及粗鲁但生动地表达被偷窃和受压迫的人民的渴望、失望和怨恨的人。

Thus, as bard, physician, judge, and priest, within the narrow limits allowed by the slave system, rose the Negro preacher, and under him the first church was not at first by any means Christian nor definitely organized; rather it was an adaptation and mingling of heathen rites among the members of each plantation, and roughly designated as Voodooism.

因此，作为吟游诗人、医生、法官和牧师，在奴隶制所允许的狭隘范围内，黑人传教士崛起了，在他的领导下，第一个教会最初既不是基督教的，也不是明确组织的;相反，它是每个种植园成员对异教仪式的改编和融合，大致被称为巫毒教。

Association with the masters, missionary effort and motives of expediency gave these rites an early veneer of Christianity, and after the lapse of many generations the Negro church became Christian.

与大师的联系、传教的努力和权宜之计的动机使这些仪式早期披上了基督教的外衣，经过许多代之后，黑人教会成为了基督教徒。

Two characteristic things must be noticed in regard to the church.

关于教会，必须注意两个特征。

First, it became almost entirely Baptist and Methodist in faith; secondly, as a social institution it antedated by many decades the monogamic Negro home.

首先，它在信仰上几乎完全变成了浸信会和卫理公会；其次，作为一种社会制度，它比一夫一妻制的黑人家庭早了几十年。

From the very circumstances of its beginning, the church was confined to the plantation, and consisted primarily of a series of disconnected units; although, later on, some freedom of movement was allowed, still this geographical limitation was always important and was one cause of the spread of the decentralized and democratic Baptist faith among the slaves.

从一开始，教会就被限制在种植园内，主要由一系列互不相关的单位组成。尽管后来允许了一定的行动自由，但这种地理限制始终很重要，并且是分散和民主的浸信会信仰在奴隶中传播的原因之一。

At the same time, the visible rite of baptism appealed strongly to their mystic temperament.

与此同时，可见的洗礼仪式强烈地吸引了他们的神秘气质。

To-day the Baptist Church is still largest in membership among Negroes, and has a million and a half communicants.

时至今日，浸信会仍然是黑人会员数量最多的教会，拥有一百万名圣徒。

Next in popularity came the churches organized in connection with the white neighboring churches, chiefly Baptist and Methodist, with a few Episcopalian and others.

接下来受欢迎的是与邻近的白人教堂联合组织的教堂，主要是浸信会和卫理公会，还有一些圣公会和其他教堂。

The Methodists still form the second greatest denomination, with nearly a million members.

卫理公会仍然是第二大教派，拥有近百万成员。

The faith of these two leading denominations was more suited to the slave church from the prominence they gave to religious feeling and fervor.

这两个主要教派的信仰更适合奴隶教会，因为它们重视宗教感情和热情。

The Negro membership in other denominations has always been small and relatively unimportant, although the Episcopalians and Presbyterians are gaining among the more intelligent classes to-day, and the Catholic Church is making headway in certain sections.

尽管圣公会和长老会如今在更聪明的阶层中占有一席之地，而天主教会在某些领域也取得了进展，但其他教派的黑人成员人数一直很少，而且相对不重要。

After Emancipation, and still earlier in the North, the Negro churches largely severed such affiliations as they had had with the white churches, either by choice or by compulsion.

解放后，甚至在北方更早的时候，黑人教会基本上断绝了与白人教会的联系，无论是自愿的还是被迫的。

The Baptist churches became independent, but the Methodists were compelled early to unite for purposes of episcopal government.

浸信会教堂获得独立，但卫理公会为了主教政府的目的很早就被迫联合起来。

This gave rise to the great African Methodist Church, the greatest Negro organization in the world, to the Zion Church and the Colored Methodist, and to the black conferences and churches in this and other denominations.

这产生了伟大的非洲卫理公会，世界上最伟大的黑人组织，锡安教会和有色卫理公会，以及该教派和其他教派的黑人会议和教会。

The second fact noted, namely, that the Negro church antedates the Negro home, leads to an explanation of much that is paradoxical in this communistic institution and in the morals of its members.

第二个事实指出，即黑人教会早于黑人家庭，这导致了对这个共产主义机构及其成员道德中许多自相矛盾的解释。

But especially it leads us to regard this institution as peculiarly the expression of the inner ethical life of a people in a sense seldom true elsewhere.

但尤其是它使我们认为这种制度是一个民族内在道德生活的独特表达，而这种感觉在其他地方很少见。

Let us turn, then, from the outer physical development of the church to the more important inner ethical life of the people who compose it.

那么，让我们从教会的外在物质发展转向教会成员更重要的内在道德生活。

The Negro has already been pointed out many times as a religious animal,—a being of that deep emotional nature which turns instinctively toward the supernatural.

黑人已经多次被指出是一种宗教动物，一种具有深刻情感本质、本能地转向超自然的存在。

Endowed with a rich tropical imagination and a keen, delicate appreciation of Nature, the transplanted African lived in a world animate with gods and devils, elves and witches; full of strange influences,—of Good to be implored, of Evil to be propitiated.

被赋予了丰富的热带想象力和对自然敏锐而细腻的鉴赏力，移居到的非洲人生活在一个充满神灵和魔鬼、精灵和女巫的世界里。充满了奇怪的影响——祈求善行，安抚邪恶。

Slavery, then, was to him the dark triumph of Evil over him.

那么，奴隶制对他来说就是邪恶对他的黑暗胜利。

All the hateful powers of the Under-world were striving against him, and a spirit of revolt and revenge filled his heart.

冥界所有可恨的力量都在与他作对，一股反抗和复仇的情绪充满了他的内心。

He called up all the resources of heathenism to aid,—exorcism and witch-craft, the mysterious Obi worship with its barbarious rites, spells, and blood-sacrifice even, now and then, of human victims.

他调动了异教的所有资源来帮助——驱魔和巫术，神秘的奥比崇拜及其野蛮的仪式、咒语和甚至时不时的人类受害者的血祭。

Weird midnight orgies and mystic conjurations were invoked, the witch-woman and the voodoo-priest became the centre of Negro group life, and that vein of vague superstition which characterizes the unlettered Negro even to-day was deepened and strengthened.

奇怪的午夜狂欢和神秘的咒语被召唤，女巫和巫毒牧师成为黑人群体生活的中心，甚至在今天仍是未受过教育的黑人特征的模糊迷信脉络被加深和加强。

In spite, however, of such success as that of the fierce Maroons, the Danish blacks, and others, the spirit of revolt gradually died away under the untiring energy and superior strength of the slave masters.

然而，尽管凶猛的马龙人、丹麦黑人和其他人取得了成功，但在奴隶主的不懈精力和超强力量的作用下，反抗精神逐渐消失了。

By the middle of the eighteenth century the black slave had sunk, with hushed murmurs, to his place at the bottom of a new economic system, and was unconsciously ripe for a new philosophy of life.

到了十八世纪中叶，黑人奴隶在低声抱怨中已经沉入了新经济体系的底层，并在不知不觉中成熟了，接受了新的生活哲学。

Nothing suited his condition then better than the doctrines of passive submission embodied in the newly learned Christianity.

没有什么比新学的基督教所体现的被动服从的教义更适合他的情况了。

Slave masters early realized this, and cheerfully aided religious propaganda within certain bounds.

奴隶主很早就意识到了这一点，并在一定范围内乐于帮助宗教宣传。

The long system of repression and degradation of the Negro tended to emphasize the elements of his character which made him a valuable chattel: courtesy became humility, moral strength degenerated into submission, and the exquisite native appreciation of the beautiful became an infinite capacity for dumb suffering.

对黑人长期的镇压和贬低制度往往会强调他的性格要素，这些因素使他成为一种有价值的动产：礼貌变成了谦卑，道德力量退化为屈服，而对美的天生的精致欣赏变成了承受愚蠢痛苦的无限能力。

The Negro, losing the joy of this world, eagerly seized upon the offered conceptions of the next; the avenging Spirit of the Lord enjoining patience in this world, under sorrow and tribulation until the Great Day when He should lead His dark children home,—this became his comforting dream.

黑人失去了现世的欢乐，急切地抓住了来世的概念。主的复仇之灵吩咐人在这个世界上忍耐，在悲伤和苦难中，直到他带领黑暗的孩子们回家的伟大日子，这成了他安慰的梦想。

His preacher repeated the prophecy, and his bards sang,—

他的传教士重复了这个预言，他的吟游诗人唱道：

“Children, we all shall be free When the Lord shall appear!”

“孩子们，当主显现时，我们都将获得自由！”

This deep religious fatalism, painted so beautifully in “Uncle Tom,” came soon to breed, as all fatalistic faiths will, the sensualist side by side with the martyr.

这种深刻的宗教宿命论，在《汤姆叔叔》中描绘得如此美丽，很快就像所有宿命论信仰一样，滋生出与殉道者并肩的肉欲主义者。

Under the lax moral life of the plantation, where marriage was a farce, laziness a virtue, and property a theft, a religion of resignation and submission degenerated easily, in less strenuous minds, into a philosophy of indulgence and crime.

在种植园松懈的道德生活下，婚姻是一场闹剧，懒惰是一种美德，财产是一种盗窃，一种顺从和顺从的宗教在不那么奋发的头脑中很容易退化为一种放纵和犯罪的哲学。

Many of the worst characteristics of the Negro masses of to-day had their seed in this period of the slave’s ethical growth.

当今黑人群众的许多最恶劣的特征都在奴隶道德成长的这个时期萌芽。

Here it was that the Home was ruined under the very shadow of the Church, white and black; here habits of shiftlessness took root, and sullen hopelessness replaced hopeful strife.

在这里，家园在白色和黑色教堂的阴影下被毁了。懒惰的习惯在这里扎根，阴郁的绝望取代了充满希望的冲突。

With the beginning of the abolition movement and the gradual growth of a class of free Negroes came a change.

随着废奴运动的开始和自由黑人阶级的逐渐壮大，发生了变化。

We often neglect the influence of the freedman before the war, because of the paucity of his numbers and the small weight he had in the history of the nation.

我们经常忽视战前自由民的影响，因为他的人数很少，而且他在国家历史上的分量也很小。

But we must not forget that his chief influence was internal,—was exerted on the black world; and that there he was the ethical and social leader.

但我们不能忘记，他的主要影响是内部的——是对黑人世界的影响；是对黑人世界的影响。他是那里的道德和社会领袖。

Huddled as he was in a few centres like Philadelphia, New York, and New Orleans, the masses of the freedmen sank into poverty and listlessness; but not all of them.

尽管他挤在费城、纽约和新奥尔良等几个中心，大批自由民却陷入了贫困和无精打采。但不是全部。

The free Negro leader early arose and his chief characteristic was intense earnestness and deep feeling on the slavery question.

这位自由的黑人领袖崛起得很早，他的主要特点是对奴隶制问题的强烈认真和深切感触。

Freedom became to him a real thing and not a dream.

自由对他来说变成了现实，而不是梦想。

His religion became darker and more intense, and into his ethics crept a note of revenge, into his songs a day of reckoning close at hand.

他的宗教信仰变得更加黑暗和强烈，他的伦理道德中渗入了复仇的气息，他的歌曲中渗入了清算的一天。

The “Coming of the Lord” swept this side of Death, and came to be a thing to be hoped for in this day.

“主的降临”席卷了死亡的这一边，成为当今人们所期待的事情。

Through fugitive slaves and irrepressible discussion this desire for freedom seized the black millions still in bondage, and became their one ideal of life.

通过逃亡的奴隶和无法抑制的讨论，这种对自由的渴望抓住了仍处于奴役状态的数百万黑人，并成为他们的生活理想。

The black bards caught new notes, and sometimes even dared to sing,—

黑人吟游诗人捕捉到了新的音符，有时甚至敢于歌唱：

“O Freedom, O Freedom, O Freedom over me!

“噢，自由，噢，自由，噢，自由在我之上！

Before I’ll be a slave I’ll be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord And be free.”

在我成为奴隶之前，我会被埋葬在坟墓里，回到我的主身边，获得自由。”

For fifty years Negro religion thus transformed itself and identified itself with the dream of Abolition, until that which was a radical fad in the white North and an anarchistic plot in the white South had become a religion to the black world.

五十年来，黑人宗教就这样改变了自己，并把自己与废奴的梦想联系起来，直到这种在北方白人的激进时尚和南方白人的无政府主义阴谋变成了黑人世界的宗教。

Thus, when Emancipation finally came, it seemed to the freedman a literal Coming of the Lord.

因此，当解放最终到来时，对于自由人来说，这似乎是主的真正到来。

His fervid imagination was stirred as never before, by the tramp of armies, the blood and dust of battle, and the wail and whirl of social upheaval.

军队的脚步、战争的血与尘、社会动乱的哀嚎与旋涡，前所未有地激发了他热烈的想象力。

He stood dumb and motionless before the whirlwind: what had he to do with it?

他站在旋风前一动不动：这与他有什么关系？

Was it not the Lord’s doing, and marvellous in his eyes?

这不是主所做的，在他眼中看为奇妙吗？

Joyed and bewildered with what came, he stood awaiting new wonders till the inevitable Age of Reaction swept over the nation and brought the crisis of to-day.

他对即将发生的事情感到高兴和困惑，等待新的奇迹，直到不可避免的反动时代席卷全国并带来今天的危机。

It is difficult to explain clearly the present critical stage of Negro religion.

很难清楚地解释当前黑人宗教的关键阶段。

First, we must remember that living as the blacks do in close contact with a great modern nation, and sharing, although imperfectly, the soul-life of that nation, they must necessarily be affected more or less directly by all the religious and ethical forces that are to-day moving the United States.

首先，我们必须记住，黑人与一个伟大的现代国家有着密切的联系，并且虽然不完美地分享着这个国家的灵魂生活，但他们必然或多或少地受到当今推动美国的所有宗教和道德力量的直接影响。

These questions and movements are, however, overshadowed and dwarfed by the (to them) all-important question of their civil, political, and economic status.

然而，这些问题和运动被（对他们来说）最重要的公民、政治和经济地位问题所掩盖和相形见绌。

They must perpetually discuss the “Negro Problem,”—must live, move, and have their being in it, and interpret all else in its light or darkness.

他们必须永远讨论“黑人问题”——必须在其中生活、行动和存在，并在其光明或黑暗中解释其他一切。

With this come, too, peculiar problems of their inner life,—of the status of women, the maintenance of Home, the training of children, the accumulation of wealth, and the prevention of crime.

随之而来的还有她们内心生活的特殊问题——妇女地位、家庭的维护、子女的教育、财富的积累和犯罪的预防。

All this must mean a time of intense ethical ferment, of religious heart-searching and intellectual unrest.

所有这一切必然意味着一个道德激烈发酵、宗教反省和知识分子动荡的时代。

From the double life every American Negro must live, as a Negro and as an American, as swept on by the current of the nineteenth while yet struggling in the eddies of the fifteenth century,—from this must arise a painful self-consciousness, an almost morbid sense of personality and a moral hesitancy which is fatal to self-confidence.

每个美国黑人都必须过着双重生活，作为一个黑人，作为一个美国人，既被十九世纪的潮流所席卷，又在十五世纪的漩涡中挣扎，——由此必然产生一种痛苦的自我意识，一种近乎病态的人格意识和一种对自信来说致命的道德犹豫。

The worlds within and without the Veil of Color are changing, and changing rapidly, but not at the same rate, not in the same way; and this must produce a peculiar wrenching of the soul, a peculiar sense of doubt and bewilderment.

色彩面纱内外的世界正在发生变化，而且变化很快，但变化的速度、方式不同；这必定会产生一种特殊的心灵痛苦，一种特殊的怀疑和困惑感。

Such a double life, with double thoughts, double duties, and double social classes, must give rise to double words and double ideals, and tempt the mind to pretence or revolt, to hypocrisy or radicalism.

这种双重生活，具有双重思想、双重责任和双重社会阶层，必定会产生双重言语和双重理想，并诱使心灵假装或反抗、虚伪或激进。

In some such doubtful words and phrases can one perhaps most clearly picture the peculiar ethical paradox that faces the Negro of to-day and is tingeing and changing his religious life.

在一些这样令人怀疑的词语和短语中，人们也许可以最清楚地描绘出当今黑人面临的、正在影响和改变他的宗教生活的奇特的道德悖论。

Feeling that his rights and his dearest ideals are being trampled upon, that the public conscience is ever more deaf to his righteous appeal, and that all the reactionary forces of prejudice, greed, and revenge are daily gaining new strength and fresh allies, the Negro faces no enviable dilemma.

黑人感到自己的权利和最亲爱的理想遭到践踏，公众良知对他的正义呼吁更加充耳不闻，所有偏见、贪婪和报复的反动势力每天都在获得新的力量和新的盟友，黑人没有面临任何令人羡慕的困境。

Conscious of his impotence, and pessimistic, he often becomes bitter and vindictive; and his religion, instead of a worship, is a complaint and a curse, a wail rather than a hope, a sneer rather than a faith.

意识到自己的无能和悲观，他常常变得痛苦和报复。他的宗教不是崇拜，而是抱怨和诅咒，是哀号而不是希望，是嘲讽而不是信仰。

On the other hand, another type of mind, shrewder and keener and more tortuous too, sees in the very strength of the anti-Negro movement its patent weaknesses, and with Jesuitic casuistry is deterred by no ethical considerations in the endeavor to turn this weakness to the black man’s strength.

另一方面，另一种更精明、更敏锐、更曲折的头脑，在反黑人运动的力量本身中看到了其明显的弱点，并且耶稣会的诡辩不为任何道德考虑所阻止，努力将这种弱点转化为黑人的力量。

Thus we have two great and hardly reconcilable streams of thought and ethical strivings; the danger of the one lies in anarchy, that of the other in hypocrisy.

因此，我们有两种伟大且难以调和的思想和道德追求：一种的危险在于无政府状态，另一种的危险在于虚伪。

The one type of Negro stands almost ready to curse God and die, and the other is too often found a traitor to right and a coward before force; the one is wedded to ideals remote, whimsical, perhaps impossible of realization; the other forgets that life is more than meat and the body more than raiment.

一种类型的黑人几乎随时准备诅咒上帝并死去，而另一种类型则常常被发现是正义的叛徒和武力面前的懦夫。一个人执着于遥远的、异想天开的、也许不可能实现的理想；另一个人忘记了生命不只是肉，身体也不只是衣服。

But, after all, is not this simply the writhing of the age translated into black,—the triumph of the Lie which today, with its false culture, faces the hideousness of the anarchist assassin?

但归根结底，这不就是时代的翻滚翻腾吗？今天，谎言以其错误的文化，面对着无政府主义暗杀者的丑陋？

To-day the two groups of Negroes, the one in the North, the other in the South, represent these divergent ethical tendencies, the first tending toward radicalism, the other toward hypocritical compromise.

今天，两个黑人群体，一个在北方，另一个在南方，代表了这些不同的道德倾向，第一个倾向于激进主义，另一个倾向于虚伪的妥协。

It is no idle regret with which the white South mourns the loss of the old-time Negro,—the frank, honest, simple old servant who stood for the earlier religious age of submission and humility.

南方白人在哀悼失去旧时黑人时绝非无谓的遗憾，这位坦率、诚实、纯朴的老仆人代表了早期宗教时代的顺从和谦逊。

With all his laziness and lack of many elements of true manhood, he was at least open-hearted, faithful, and sincere.

尽管他很懒惰，缺乏真正男子气概的许多要素，但他至少是心胸开阔、忠诚和真诚的。

To-day he is gone, but who is to blame for his going?

今天他走了，但他的离开该怪谁呢？

Is it not those very persons who mourn for him?

不就是那些为他哀悼的人吗？

Is it not the tendency, born of Reconstruction and Reaction, to found a society on lawlessness and deception, to tamper with the moral fibre of a naturally honest and straightforward people until the whites threaten to become ungovernable tyrants and the blacks criminals and hypocrites?

这难道不是一种源于重建和反动的倾向，建立一个无法无天和欺骗的社会，篡改天生诚实和直率人民的道德品质，直到白人威胁成为无法统治的暴君，黑人成为罪犯和伪君子？

Deception is the natural defence of the weak against the strong, and the South used it for many years against its conquerors; to-day it must be prepared to see its black proletariat turn that same two-edged weapon against itself.

欺骗是弱者对抗强者的自然防御手段，南方多年来一直用欺骗来对抗其征服者。今天，它必须准备好看到黑人无产阶级用同样的两刃武器来对付自己。

And how natural this is!

这是多么自然啊！

The death of Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner proved long since to the Negro the present hopelessness of physical defence.

丹麦·维西和纳特·特纳的死亡早已向黑人证明了目前的物理防御毫无希望。

Political defence is becoming less and less available, and economic defence is still only partially effective.

政治防御越来越少，经济防御也只能发挥部分作用。

But there is a patent defence at hand,—the defence of deception and flattery, of cajoling and lying.

但现在有一种专利辩护，即对欺骗和奉承、哄骗和撒谎的辩护。

It is the same defence which peasants of the Middle Age used and which left its stamp on their character for centuries.

这与中世纪农民使用的防御方法相同，并在几个世纪以来在他们的性格中留下了印记。

To-day the young Negro of the South who would succeed cannot be frank and outspoken, honest and self-assertive, but rather he is daily tempted to be silent and wary, politic and sly; he must flatter and be pleasant, endure petty insults with a smile, shut his eyes to wrong; in too many cases he sees positive personal advantage in deception and lying.

今天，想要成功的南方年轻黑人不可能是坦率和直言不讳、诚实和自信的，而是每天都想保持沉默和警惕、政治和狡猾；他必须阿谀奉承，和蔼可亲，微笑地忍受小侮辱，对错误视而不见。在太多情况下，他认为欺骗和撒谎可以带来积极的个人利益。

His real thoughts, his real aspirations, must be guarded in whispers; he must not criticise, he must not complain.

他真正的想法，他真正的愿望，必须在耳语中保守起来；他不可以批评，他不可以抱怨。

Patience, humility, and adroitness must, in these growing black youth, replace impulse, manliness, and courage.

在这些成长中的黑人青年身上，耐心、谦逊和机敏必须取代冲动、男子气概和勇气。

With this sacrifice there is an economic opening, and perhaps peace and some prosperity.

通过这种牺牲，经济开放，也许还有和平和繁荣。

Without this there is riot, migration, or crime.

如果没有这一点，就会出现骚乱、移民或犯罪。

Nor is this situation peculiar to the Southern United States, is it not rather the only method by which undeveloped races have gained the right to share modern culture?

这种情况并非美国南部所特有，这难道不是未发达种族获得分享现代文化权利的唯一方法吗？

The price of culture is a Lie.

文化的代价是一个谎言。

On the other hand, in the North the tendency is to emphasize the radicalism of the Negro.

另一方面，在北方，趋势是强调黑人的激进主义。

Driven from his birthright in the South by a situation at which every fibre of his more outspoken and assertive nature revolts, he finds himself in a land where he can scarcely earn a decent living amid the harsh competition and the color discrimination.

由于他的直言不讳和自信的本性的每一根纤维都在反抗，他失去了在南方与生俱来的权利，他发现自己在一个在残酷的竞争和肤色歧视中几乎无法谋生的土地。

At the same time, through schools and periodicals, discussions and lectures, he is intellectually quickened and awakened.

同时，通过学校和期刊、讨论和讲座，他的智力得到了加快和觉醒。

The soul, long pent up and dwarfed, suddenly expands in new-found freedom.

长期被压抑和矮化的灵魂突然在新发现的自由中扩展。

What wonder that every tendency is to excess,—radical complaint, radical remedies, bitter denunciation or angry silence.

奇怪的是，每一种倾向都是过度的——激进的抱怨、激进的补救措施、激烈的谴责或愤怒的沉默。

Some sink, some rise.

有的下沉，有的上升。

The criminal and the sensualist leave the church for the gambling-hell and the brothel, and fill the slums of Chicago and Baltimore; the better classes segregate themselves from the group-life of both white and black, and form an aristocracy, cultured but pessimistic, whose bitter criticism stings while it points out no way of escape.

罪犯和好色之徒离开教堂，前往赌博地狱和妓院，并充满了芝加哥和巴尔的摩的贫民窟；较好的阶级将自己与白人和黑人的群体生活隔离开来，形成了一个有教养但悲观的贵族阶层，他们的尖刻批评令人刺痛，但却指出无路可逃。

They despise the submission and subserviency of the Southern Negroes, but offer no other means by which a poor and oppressed minority can exist side by side with its masters.

他们鄙视南方黑人的屈服和屈从，但没有提供其他手段让贫穷和受压迫的少数群体能够与其主人并存。

Feeling deeply and keenly the tendencies and opportunities of the age in which they live, their souls are bitter at the fate which drops the Veil between; and the very fact that this bitterness is natural and justifiable only serves to intensify it and make it more maddening.

他们深刻而敏锐地感受到他们所生活的时代的趋势和机遇，他们的灵魂对揭开面纱的命运感到痛苦；事实上，这种痛苦是自然而合理的，但事实却只会加剧这种痛苦，使其更加令人发狂。

Between the two extreme types of ethical attitude which I have thus sought to make clear wavers the mass of the millions of Negroes, North and South; and their religious life and activity partake of this social conflict within their ranks.

因此，我力图阐明数以百万计的南北黑人群众在两种极端的道德态度之间摇摆不定。他们的宗教生活和活动也参与了他们队伍中的这种社会冲突。

Their churches are differentiating,—now into groups of cold, fashionable devotees, in no way distinguishable from similar white groups save in color of skin; now into large social and business institutions catering to the desire for information and amusement of their members, warily avoiding unpleasant questions both within and without the black world, and preaching in effect if not in word: _Dum vivimus, vivamus_.

他们的教会正在分化——现在变成了冷漠、时尚的信徒群体，除了肤色外，与类似的白人群体没有任何区别；现在进入大型社会和商业机构，迎合其成员对信息和娱乐的渴望，小心翼翼地避免黑人世界内外令人不快的问题，并以有效的方式（如果不是口头上的）宣讲：_Dum vivimus，vivamus_。

But back of this still broods silently the deep religious feeling of the real Negro heart, the stirring, unguided might of powerful human souls who have lost the guiding star of the past and seek in the great night a new religious ideal.

但在这一切的背后，仍然默默地沉思着真正的黑人内心深处的宗教情感，强大的人类灵魂的激动人心的、不受引导的力量，他们失去了过去的指路之星，在伟大的夜晚寻找新的宗教理想。

Some day the Awakening will come, when the pent-up vigor of ten million souls shall sweep irresistibly toward the Goal, out of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, where all that makes life worth living—Liberty, Justice, and Right—is marked “For White People Only.”

总有一天，觉醒将会到来，届时一千万灵魂被压抑的活力将不可抗拒地冲向目标，冲出死亡阴影之谷，在那里，一切使生命值得活下去的东西——自由、正义和权利——都被标记为“仅限白人”。

XI.

十一.

Of the Passing of the First-Born

论长子的去世

O sister, sister, thy first-begotten, The hands that cling and the feet that follow, The voice of the child’s blood crying yet, _Who hath remembered me?

哦，姐妹，姐妹，你的长子，紧握的手和紧随其后的脚，孩子的血仍在哭泣的声音，_谁还记得我？

who hath forgotten?_ Thou hast forgotten, O summer swallow, But the world shall end when I forget.

谁忘记了？_夏天的燕子啊，你忘记了，但当我忘记时，世界就会终结。

SWINBURNE.

斯威本。

[Illustration]

[图示]

“Unto you a child is born,” sang the bit of yellow paper that fluttered into my room one brown October morning.

“一个孩子为你诞生了，”十月的一个棕色早晨，一张黄纸飘进我的房间，唱道。

Then the fear of fatherhood mingled wildly with the joy of creation; I wondered how it looked and how it felt—what were its eyes, and how its hair curled and crumpled itself.

然后，对父亲身份的恐惧与创造的喜悦疯狂地混合在一起。我想知道它看起来怎么样，感觉如何——它的眼睛是什么，它的头发是如何卷曲和皱缩的。

And I thought in awe of her,—she who had slept with Death to tear a man-child from underneath her heart, while I was unconsciously wandering.

我对她怀着敬畏之情——当我无意识地徘徊时，她与死神同睡，从她的心底撕下一个男孩。

I fled to my wife and child, repeating the while to myself half wonderingly, “Wife and child?

我逃到妻子和孩子身边，半疑惑地对自己重复了一遍：“妻子和孩子？

Wife and child?”—fled fast and faster than boat and steam-car, and yet must ever impatiently await them; away from the hard-voiced city, away from the flickering sea into my own Berkshire Hills that sit all sadly guarding the gates of Massachusetts.

妻子和孩子？”——逃得比船和汽车更快，但必须永远不耐烦地等待他们；远离这座声音严厉的城市，远离波涛汹涌的大海，进入我自己的伯克希尔山，它们悲伤地守卫着马萨诸塞州的大门。

Up the stairs I ran to the wan mother and whimpering babe, to the sanctuary on whose altar a life at my bidding had offered itself to win a life, and won.

我跑上楼梯，奔向苍白的母亲和哭泣的婴儿，奔向圣坛，在我的命令下，一条生命在其祭坛上献出了自己，以赢得一条生命，并且赢得了胜利。

What is this tiny formless thing, this newborn wail from an unknown world,—all head and voice?

这个无形的小东西是什么，这个来自未知世界的新生儿的哭声——全是头和声音？

I handle it curiously, and watch perplexed its winking, breathing, and sneezing.

我好奇地握住它，观察着它的眨眼、呼吸和打喷嚏，这让我感到困惑。

I did not love it then; it seemed a ludicrous thing to love; but her I loved, my girl-mother, she whom now I saw unfolding like the glory of the morning—the transfigured woman.

那时我并不喜欢它；爱似乎是一件可笑的事情；但我爱的是她，我的女儿母亲，现在我看到她像早晨的光辉一样展开——那个变形的女人。

Through her I came to love the wee thing, as it grew strong; as its little soul unfolded itself in twitter and cry and half-formed word, and as its eyes caught the gleam and flash of life.

通过她，我开始喜欢上这个小东西，因为它变得越来越强大。当它的小灵魂在叽叽喳喳、哭泣和半成形的话语中展开时，当它的眼睛捕捉到生命的光芒和闪光时。

How beautiful he was, with his olive-tinted flesh and dark gold ringlets, his eyes of mingled blue and brown, his perfect little limbs, and the soft voluptuous roll which the blood of Africa had moulded into his features!

他是多么美丽，橄榄色的肌肤和深金色的卷发，蓝色和棕色混合的眼睛，完美的小四肢，以及非洲血统塑造成的柔软性感的卷发！

I held him in my arms, after we had sped far away from our Southern home,—held him, and glanced at the hot red soil of Georgia and the breathless city of a hundred hills, and felt a vague unrest.

当我们远离南方的家乡时，我把他抱在怀里——抱着他，瞥了一眼佐治亚州炎热的红土和这座令人窒息的百山之城，感到一种隐约的不安。

Why was his hair tinted with gold?

为什么他的头发染成了金色？

An evil omen was golden hair in my life.

金色的头发是我生命中的一个不祥之兆。

Why had not the brown of his eyes crushed out and killed the blue?—for brown were his father’s eyes, and his father’s father’s.

为什么他的棕色眼睛没有压垮并杀死蓝色呢？因为他父亲的眼睛是棕色的，他父亲的父亲的眼睛也是棕色的。

And thus in the Land of the Color-line I saw, as it fell across my baby, the shadow of the Veil.

因此，在肤色线之地，当它落在我的孩子身上时，我看到了面纱的影子。

Within the Veil was he born, said I; and there within shall he live,—a Negro and a Negro’s son.

我说，他诞生于面纱之中；他将住在里面——一个黑人和一个黑人的儿子。

Holding in that little head—ah, bitterly!—he unbowed pride of a hunted race, clinging with that tiny dimpled hand—ah, wearily!—to a hope not hopeless but unhopeful, and seeing with those bright wondering eyes that peer into my soul a land whose freedom is to us a mockery and whose liberty a lie.

他抱着那个小脑袋——啊，痛苦地！——毫不屈服的被猎杀的种族的骄傲，用那只带着酒窝的小手——啊，疲倦地！——抱住一种并非绝望但毫无希望的希望，用那双明亮而好奇的眼睛凝视着我的灵魂，看到这片土地的自由对我们来说是一种嘲弄，它的自由是一个谎言。

I saw the shadow of the Veil as it passed over my baby, I saw the cold city towering above the blood-red land.

我看到面纱的影子掠过我的孩子，我看到寒冷的城市高耸在血红色的土地之上。

I held my face beside his little cheek, showed him the star-children and the twinkling lights as they began to flash, and stilled with an even-song the unvoiced terror of my life.

我把脸靠近他的小脸颊，向他展示星星之子和闪烁的灯光，并用一首平稳的歌曲平息了我生命中无声的恐惧。

So sturdy and masterful he grew, so filled with bubbling life, so tremulous with the unspoken wisdom of a life but eighteen months distant from the All-life,—we were not far from worshipping this revelation of the divine, my wife and I.

他成长得如此坚强和精湛，充满了冒泡的生命，如此颤抖着生命中不言而喻的智慧，但距离万有生命只有十八个月，——我们离崇拜神圣的启示不远了，我和我的妻子。

Her own life builded and moulded itself upon the child; he tinged her every dream and idealized her every effort.

她自己的生活是在孩子身上建立和塑造的。他让她的每一个梦想都沾上色彩，让她的每一个努力都理想化。

No hands but hers must touch and garnish those little limbs; no dress or frill must touch them that had not wearied her fingers; no voice but hers could coax him off to Dreamland, and she and he together spoke some soft and unknown tongue and in it held communion.

除了她的手之外，任何人都不能触摸和装饰这些小肢体；任何衣服或装饰都不能接触到那些没有让她的手指疲劳的东西。除了她的声音之外，没有任何声音可以把他哄入梦境，她和他一起说着某种温柔而未知的语言，并在其中进行着交流。

I too mused above his little white bed; saw the strength of my own arm stretched onward through the ages through the newer strength of his; saw the dream of my black fathers stagger a step onward in the wild phantasm of the world; heard in his baby voice the voice of the Prophet that was to rise within the Veil.

我也在他白色的小床上沉思着；看到我自己的手臂的力量通过他的新力量不断向前延伸；看到我黑人父亲的梦想在世界的狂野幻象中蹒跚前行；他用婴儿般的声音听到了即将在帷幕中升起的先知的声音。

And so we dreamed and loved and planned by fall and winter, and the full flush of the long Southern spring, till the hot winds rolled from the fetid Gulf, till the roses shivered and the still stern sun quivered its awful light over the hills of Atlanta.

就这样，我们在秋天和冬天梦想着、爱着、计划着，直到南方漫长的春天的盛开，直到从恶臭的海湾吹来的热风，直到玫瑰颤抖，直到仍然严厉的太阳在亚特兰大的山上颤抖着可怕的光芒。

And then one night the little feet pattered wearily to the wee white bed, and the tiny hands trembled; and a warm flushed face tossed on the pillow, and we knew baby was sick.

一天晚上，小脚疲倦地拍打着小白床，小手颤抖着。一张温暖、通红的脸扔在枕头上，我们知道宝宝病了。

Ten days he lay there,—a swift week and three endless days, wasting, wasting away.

他在那里躺了十天——转瞬即逝的一周，又是无尽的三天，虚度、虚度。

Cheerily the mother nursed him the first days, and laughed into the little eyes that smiled again.

头几天，母亲兴高采烈地照顾他，对着那双再次微笑的小眼睛笑了起来。

Tenderly then she hovered round him, till the smile fled away and Fear crouched beside the little bed.

然后她温柔地在他身边徘徊，直到笑容消失，恐惧蹲在小床边。

Then the day ended not, and night was a dreamless terror, and joy and sleep slipped away.

然后白天还没有结束，夜晚是一场无梦的恐怖，欢乐和睡眠也随之消失。

I hear now that Voice at midnight calling me from dull and dreamless trance,—crying, “The Shadow of Death!

我现在听到半夜那个声音把我从沉闷无梦的恍惚状态中呼唤出来——哭喊着：“死亡的阴影！

The Shadow of Death!” Out into the starlight I crept, to rouse the gray physician,—the Shadow of Death, the Shadow of Death.

死亡之影！”我蹑手蹑脚地走进星光，去唤醒那位灰色的医生——死亡的阴影，死亡的阴影。

The hours trembled on; the night listened; the ghastly dawn glided like a tired thing across the lamplight.

时间在颤抖着流逝。夜晚倾听着；可怕的黎明像疲倦的东西一样滑过灯光。

Then we two alone looked upon the child as he turned toward us with great eyes, and stretched his stringlike hands,—the Shadow of Death!

然后我们两个人独自看着孩子，他睁着大眼睛转向我们，伸出他的绳子一样的手，——死亡之影！

And we spoke no word, and turned away.

我们什么也没说，转身就走。

He died at eventide, when the sun lay like a brooding sorrow above the western hills, veiling its face; when the winds spoke not, and the trees, the great green trees he loved, stood motionless.

他在黄昏时去世，当时太阳像忧郁的悲伤一样挂在西边的山丘上，遮住了它的脸。当风不再说话，而树木，他所爱的大绿树，一动不动地站着。

I saw his breath beat quicker and quicker, pause, and then his little soul leapt like a star that travels in the night and left a world of darkness in its train.

我看到他的呼吸越来越急促，停顿了一下，然后他小小的灵魂像一颗在黑夜中运行的星星一样跳跃，留下了一个黑暗的世界。

The day changed not; the same tall trees peeped in at the windows, the same green grass glinted in the setting sun.

日子没有改变；同样的高大的树木从窗户里探出头来，同样的绿草在夕阳下闪闪发光。

Only in the chamber of death writhed the world’s most piteous thing—a childless mother.

只有在死亡的密室里，扭曲着世界上最可怜的东西——一个没有孩子的母亲。

I shirk not.

我不回避。

I long for work.

我渴望工作。

I pant for a life full of striving.

我渴望充满奋斗的生活。

I am no coward, to shrink before the rugged rush of the storm, nor even quail before the awful shadow of the Veil.

我不是胆小鬼，不会在狂风暴雨面前退缩，甚至不会在面纱可怕的阴影面前畏缩。

But hearken, O Death!

但听着，死亡啊！

Is not this my life hard enough,—is not that dull land that stretches its sneering web about me cold enough,—is not all the world beyond these four little walls pitiless enough, but that thou must needs enter here,—thou, O Death?

难道我的生活还不够艰难吗？——那片在我周围张开嘲笑的网的沉闷土地还不够冷酷吗？——这四堵小墙之外的世界还不够无情吗？但你必须进入这里，——死亡啊，你？

About my head the thundering storm beat like a heartless voice, and the crazy forest pulsed with the curses of the weak; but what cared I, within my home beside my wife and baby boy?

雷鸣般的暴风雨像无情的声音一样在我的头顶周围敲击，疯狂的森林随着弱者的咒骂而脉动。但在我的家里，除了我的妻子和男婴之外，我还关心什么呢？

Wast thou so jealous of one little coign of happiness that thou must needs enter there,—thou, O Death?

你是否如此嫉妒一点点幸福，以至于你必须进入那里——死亡啊？

A perfect life was his, all joy and love, with tears to make it brighter,—sweet as a summer’s day beside the Housatonic.

他的生活是完美的，充满欢乐和爱，用泪水使它变得更加明亮——甜蜜得像休萨托尼克河畔的夏日。

The world loved him; the women kissed his curls, the men looked gravely into his wonderful eyes, and the children hovered and fluttered about him.

全世界都爱他；女人们亲吻他的卷发，男人们严肃地看着他奇妙的眼睛，孩子们在他周围盘旋、扑腾。

I can see him now, changing like the sky from sparkling laughter to darkening frowns, and then to wondering thoughtfulness as he watched the world.

我现在能看到他，就像天空一样从灿烂的笑声变成阴沉的皱眉，然后在他观察世界时陷入沉思。

He knew no color-line, poor dear—and the Veil, though it shadowed him, had not yet darkened half his sun.

他不知道种族界限，可怜的亲爱的——而面纱虽然遮住了他，但还没有遮住他一半的太阳。

He loved the white matron, he loved his black nurse; and in his little world walked souls alone, uncolored and unclothed.

他爱白人护士长，也爱他的黑人护士；在他的小世界里，孤独的灵魂行走着，没有肤色，没有穿衣服。

I—yea, all men—are larger and purer by the infinite breadth of that one little life.

我——是的，所有的人——都因那小小的生命的无限广度而变得更大、更纯洁。

She who in simple clearness of vision sees beyond the stars said when he had flown, “He will be happy There; he ever loved beautiful things.” And I, far more ignorant, and blind by the web of mine own weaving, sit alone winding words and muttering, “If still he be, and he be There, and there be a There, let him be happy, O Fate!”

当他飞翔时，她以简单清晰的视野看到了星星之外的事物，她说：“他在那里会很快乐；他曾经热爱美丽的事物。”而我，更加无知，被自己编织的网所蒙蔽，独自坐着，蜿蜒的话语，喃喃自语：“如果他仍然存在，他在那里，那里有一个那里，命运啊，让他幸福吧！”

Blithe was the morning of his burial, with bird and song and sweet-smelling flowers.

他下葬的那天早晨，气氛十分愉快，鸟语花香，鲜花芬芳。

The trees whispered to the grass, but the children sat with hushed faces.

树木对着草地低语，但孩子们却安静地坐着。

And yet it seemed a ghostly unreal day,—the wraith of Life.

然而，这似乎是一个幽灵般的、不真实的一天——生命的幽灵。

We seemed to rumble down an unknown street behind a little white bundle of posies, with the shadow of a song in our ears.

我们似乎在一小束白色的花束后面轰隆隆地走在一条不知名的街道上，耳边有一首歌曲的影子。

The busy city dinned about us; they did not say much, those pale-faced hurrying men and women; they did not say much,—they only glanced and said, “Niggers!”

繁忙的城市让我们饱餐一顿；那些脸色苍白、行色匆匆的男男女女，没有多说什么。他们没有多说什么，只是看了一眼，说道：“黑鬼！”

We could not lay him in the ground there in Georgia, for the earth there is strangely red; so we bore him away to the northward, with his flowers and his little folded hands.

我们不能把他放在乔治亚州的地上，因为那里的土地呈奇怪的红色。于是我们把他带到了北方，带着他的鲜花和他合拢的小手。

In vain, in vain!—for where, O God!

徒劳，徒劳！——上帝啊！

beneath thy broad blue sky shall my dark baby rest in peace,—where Reverence dwells, and Goodness, and a Freedom that is free?

在你广阔的蓝天之下，我的黑宝宝将安息，——那里有崇敬、善良和自由的自由？

All that day and all that night there sat an awful gladness in my heart,—nay, blame me not if I see the world thus darkly through the Veil,—and my soul whispers ever to me saying, “Not dead, not dead, but escaped; not bond, but free.” No bitter meanness now shall sicken his baby heart till it die a living death, no taunt shall madden his happy boyhood.

那天整夜，我心里都充满了可怕的喜悦——不，如果我透过面纱看到如此黑暗的世界，请不要责怪我——我的灵魂一直对我低声说：“没有死，没有死，而是逃脱了；不是束缚，而是自由。”现在，任何苦涩的卑鄙都不能让他那颗幼小的心灵感到痛苦，直到它死去，任何嘲笑都不能让他快乐的童年变得疯狂。

Fool that I was to think or wish that this little soul should grow choked and deformed within the Veil!

我真是傻瓜，竟然认为或希望这个小灵魂在面纱中窒息并变形！

I might have known that yonder deep unworldly look that ever and anon floated past his eyes was peering far beyond this narrow Now.

我也许知道，那不时从他眼前飘过的深沉、超凡脱俗的目光，正凝视着远远超出了这个狭隘的当下。

In the poise of his little curl-crowned head did there not sit all that wild pride of being which his father had hardly crushed in his own heart?

在他那头带着卷曲王冠的小脑袋的平静中，难道没有隐藏着他父亲在他心中几乎没有压垮的那种狂野的骄傲吗？

For what, forsooth, shall a Negro want with pride amid the studied humiliations of fifty million fellows?

一个黑人在 5000 万黑人遭受刻意羞辱的情况下，还能自豪地想要什么呢？

Well sped, my boy, before the world had dubbed your ambition insolence, had held your ideals unattainable, and taught you to cringe and bow.

干得好，我的孩子，在世界称你的野心为傲慢无礼之前，你的理想遥不可及，并教会你畏缩和低头。

Better far this nameless void that stops my life than a sea of sorrow for you.

比起为你而悲伤的海洋，让我的生命停止的无名空虚要好得多。

Idle words; he might have borne his burden more bravely than we,—aye, and found it lighter too, some day; for surely, surely this is not the end.

闲话；他可能比我们更勇敢地承担他的重担，是的，有一天他会发现它也更轻了；当然，这肯定不是结束。

Surely there shall yet dawn some mighty morning to lift the Veil and set the prisoned free.

肯定会在某个强大的早晨到来，揭开面纱并释放囚犯。

Not for me,—I shall die in my bonds,—but for fresh young souls who have not known the night and waken to the morning; a morning when men ask of the workman, not “Is he white?” but “Can he work?” When men ask artists, not “Are they black?” but “Do they know?” Some morning this may be, long, long years to come.

不是为了我——我会死在束缚中——而是为了那些不知道黑夜和黎明醒来的新鲜的年轻灵魂；早上，人们问工人时，不是“他是白人吗？”但“他能工作吗？”当男人问艺术家时，不要问“他们是黑人吗？”但“他们知道吗？”这可能是未来漫长、漫长岁月中的某个早晨。

But now there wails, on that dark shore within the Veil, the same deep voice, _Thou shalt forego!_ And all have I foregone at that command, and with small complaint,—all save that fair young form that lies so coldly wed with death in the nest I had builded.

但现在，在面纱内的黑暗海岸上，同样低沉的声音响起，“你必须放弃！”在这个命令下，我放弃了一切，带着小小的抱怨——除了那美丽的年轻身影，她冷冷地躺在我建造的巢穴中与死亡结婚。

If one must have gone, why not I?

如果一个人必须离开，为什么我不呢？

Why may I not rest me from this restlessness and sleep from this wide waking?

为什么我不能从这种不安中得到休息，从这种彻底的清醒中入睡呢？

Was not the world’s alembic, Time, in his young hands, and is not my time waning?

世界的蒸馏器——时间，不是在他年轻的手中吗？我的时间不是在流逝吗？

Are there so many workers in the vineyard that the fair promise of this little body could lightly be tossed away?

难道葡萄园里的工人如此之多，以至于这个小小的身体的美好承诺就可以轻易地被抛弃吗？

The wretched of my race that line the alleys of the nation sit fatherless and unmothered; but Love sat beside his cradle, and in his ear Wisdom waited to speak.

在这个国家的小巷里，我们种族中的不幸者孤儿寡母；但爱坐在他的摇篮旁，智慧在他耳边等着说话。

Perhaps now he knows the All-love, and needs not to be wise.

也许现在他知道了全爱，并且不需要明智。

Sleep, then, child,—sleep till I sleep and waken to a baby voice and the ceaseless patter of little feet—above the Veil.

那么，睡吧，孩子，睡吧，直到我睡着，然后被婴儿的声音和小脚不停的拍打声吵醒——在面纱上方。

XII.

十二．

Of Alexander Crummell

亚历山大·克鲁梅尔

Then from the Dawn it seemed there came, but faint As from beyond the limit of the world, Like the last echo born of a great cry, Sounds, as if some fair city were one voice Around a king returning from his wars.

然后，似乎从黎明中传来了声音，但微弱，仿佛来自世界的尽头，就像一声巨大的呼喊所产生的最后回声，声音，仿佛某个美丽的城市是一个声音，围绕着一位从战争中归来的国王。

TENNYSON.

丁尼生。

[Illustration]

[图示]

This is the story of a human heart,—the tale of a black boy who many long years ago began to struggle with life that he might know the world and know himself.

这是一个人心的故事，一个黑人男孩的故事，他在很多年前就开始与生活斗争，以便认识世界和认识自己。

Three temptations he met on those dark dunes that lay gray and dismal before the wonder-eyes of the child: the temptation of Hate, that stood out against the red dawn; the temptation of Despair, that darkened noonday; and the temptation of Doubt, that ever steals along with twilight.

在孩子惊奇的眼睛面前，那些灰暗而阴郁的黑暗沙丘上，他遇到了三种诱惑：仇恨的诱惑，在红色黎明的衬托下显得格外突出；绝望的诱惑，正午变得黑暗；还有怀疑的诱惑，它总是伴随着暮色偷偷溜走。

Above all, you must hear of the vales he crossed,—the Valley of Humiliation and the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

最重要的是，你必须听说过他所穿越的山谷——羞辱山谷和死亡阴影山谷。

I saw Alexander Crummell first at a Wilberforce commencement season, amid its bustle and crush.

我第一次见到亚历山大·克鲁梅尔是在威尔伯福斯的毕业典礼上，当时正处于喧闹和拥挤之中。

Tall, frail, and black he stood, with simple dignity and an unmistakable air of good breeding.

他身材高大，体弱多病，肤色黝黑，浑身散发着朴素的尊严和明显的良好教养。

I talked with him apart, where the storming of the lusty young orators could not harm us.

我和他单独交谈，精力旺盛的年轻演说家的猛烈攻击不会伤害我们。

I spoke to him politely, then curiously, then eagerly, as I began to feel the fineness of his character,—his calm courtesy, the sweetness of his strength, and his fair blending of the hope and truth of life.

我礼貌地与他交谈，然后好奇，然后热切，因为我开始感受到他性格的美好，他的冷静礼貌，他的力量的甜蜜，以及他将生活的希望与真理完美地融合在一起。

Instinctively I bowed before this man, as one bows before the prophets of the world.

我本能地向这个人鞠躬，就像向世界先知鞠躬一样。

Some seer he seemed, that came not from the crimson Past or the gray To-come, but from the pulsing Now,—that mocking world which seemed to me at once so light and dark, so splendid and sordid.

他似乎是一位预言家，不是来自深红色的过去，也不是来自灰色的未来，而是来自脉动的现在——那个在我看来既明亮又黑暗、辉煌又肮脏的嘲讽世界。

Fourscore years had he wandered in this same world of mine, within the Veil.

他在我的同一个世界、面纱之内徘徊了四十年。

He was born with the Missouri Compromise and lay a-dying amid the echoes of Manila and El Caney: stirring times for living, times dark to look back upon, darker to look forward to.

他伴随着密苏里妥协案诞生，并在马尼拉和埃尔卡尼的回声中垂死挣扎：生活的激动人心的时代，回顾过去的黑暗时代，期待更黑暗的时代。

The black-faced lad that paused over his mud and marbles seventy years ago saw puzzling vistas as he looked down the world.

七十年前，那个黑脸小伙子停在泥土和大理石上，俯视世界时，看到了令人费解的景象。

The slave-ship still groaned across the Atlantic, faint cries burdened the Southern breeze, and the great black father whispered mad tales of cruelty into those young ears.

奴隶船仍在大西洋彼岸呻吟着，微弱的哭声充斥着南方的微风，伟大的黑人父亲向那些年轻的耳朵低声讲述着残酷的疯狂故事。

From the low doorway the mother silently watched her boy at play, and at nightfall sought him eagerly lest the shadows bear him away to the land of slaves.

母亲从低矮的门口静静地看着她的儿子玩耍，夜幕降临时急切地寻找他，以免阴影把他带到奴隶之地。

So his young mind worked and winced and shaped curiously a vision of Life; and in the midst of that vision ever stood one dark figure alone,—ever with the hard, thick countenance of that bitter father, and a form that fell in vast and shapeless folds.

于是，他年轻的头脑运转起来，皱起眉头，好奇地塑造了一种对生活的憧憬。在这幻象之中，永远站着一个黑色的身影——永远带着那个痛苦的父亲那样冷酷、厚重的面容，以及一个倒在巨大而无形的褶皱中的形体。

Thus the temptation of Hate grew and shadowed the growing child,—gliding stealthily into his laughter, fading into his play, and seizing his dreams by day and night with rough, rude turbulence.

因此，仇恨的诱惑越来越大，笼罩着正在成长的孩子——悄悄地滑入他的笑声，消失在他的游戏中，日夜以粗鲁、粗鲁的动荡夺取他的梦想。

So the black boy asked of sky and sun and flower the never-answered Why?

于是，黑人男孩问天空、太阳和花朵，但从未得到答案为什么？

and loved, as he grew, neither the world nor the world’s rough ways.

随着他的成长，他既不爱这个世界，也不爱这个世界的粗暴方式。

Strange temptation for a child, you may think; and yet in this wide land to-day a thousand thousand dark children brood before this same temptation, and feel its cold and shuddering arms.

你可能会认为，这对孩子来说是一种奇怪的诱惑；然而，今天在这片广阔的土地上，成千上万的黑暗儿童在同样的诱惑面前沉思，感受到它冰冷而颤抖的手臂。

For them, perhaps, some one will some day lift the Veil,—will come tenderly and cheerily into those sad little lives and brush the brooding hate away, just as Beriah Green strode in upon the life of Alexander Crummell.

对于他们来说，也许有一天，有人会揭开面纱，温柔而愉快地走进那些悲伤的小生命，拂去深藏的仇恨，就像贝利亚·格林大步走进亚历山大·克鲁梅尔的生活一样。

And before the bluff, kind-hearted man the shadow seemed less dark.

在这个虚张声势、心地善良的男人面前，阴影似乎不再那么黑暗了。

Beriah Green had a school in Oneida County, New York, with a score of mischievous boys.

贝里亚·格林（Beriah Green）在纽约州奥奈达县有一所学校，学校里有二十个淘气的男孩。

“I’m going to bring a black boy here to educate,” said Beriah Green, as only a crank and an abolitionist would have dared to say.

“我要带一个黑人男孩来这里接受教育，”贝里亚·格林说道，只有怪人和废奴主义者才敢这么说。

“Oho!” laughed the boys.

“噢！”男孩们笑了起来。

“Ye-es,” said his wife; and Alexander came.

“是的，”他的妻子说。亚历山大来了。

Once before, the black boy had sought a school, had travelled, cold and hungry, four hundred miles up into free New Hampshire, to Canaan.

以前，这个黑人男孩曾寻找一所学校，又冷又饿，跋涉四百英里，进入自由的新罕布什尔州，到达迦南。

But the godly farmers hitched ninety yoke of oxen to the abolition schoolhouse and dragged it into the middle of the swamp.

但虔诚的农民却把九十对牛拴到了废校校舍上，把它拖进了沼泽中央。

The black boy trudged away.

黑人男孩拖着沉重的步伐离开了。

The nineteenth was the first century of human sympathy,—the age when half wonderingly we began to descry in others that transfigured spark of divinity which we call Myself; when clodhoppers and peasants, and tramps and thieves, and millionaires and—sometimes—Negroes, became throbbing souls whose warm pulsing life touched us so nearly that we half gasped with surprise, crying, “Thou too!

十九世纪是人类同情心的第一个世纪，在这个时代，我们开始半惊奇地在别人身上看到我们称之为“我自己”的神性火花。当乡巴佬、农民、流浪汉、小偷、百万富翁，有时甚至是黑人，成为跳动的灵魂，他们温暖的脉动生命如此触动我们，以至于我们惊讶得喘不过气来，喊道：“你也是！

Hast Thou seen Sorrow and the dull waters of Hopelessness?

你见过悲伤和绝望的沉闷之水吗？

Hast Thou known Life?” And then all helplessly we peered into those Other-worlds, and wailed, “O World of Worlds, how shall man make you one?”

你了解生命吗？然后，我们无助地凝视着那些异世界，哀嚎道：“世界中的世界啊，人类如何才能让你成为一个世界呢？”

So in that little Oneida school there came to those schoolboys a revelation of thought and longing beneath one black skin, of which they had not dreamed before.

因此，在奥奈达的那所小学校里，那些学生们在黑色的皮肤下发现了一种他们以前从未梦想过的思想和渴望。

And to the lonely boy came a new dawn of sympathy and inspiration.

这个孤独的男孩迎来了充满同情和灵感的新曙光。

The shadowy, formless thing—the temptation of Hate, that hovered between him and the world—grew fainter and less sinister.

盘旋在他和世界之间的阴影般无形的东西——仇恨的诱惑——变得更加微弱，不再那么险恶。

It did not wholly fade away, but diffused itself and lingered thick at the edges.

它并没有完全消失，而是自行扩散，并在边缘浓密地徘徊。

Through it the child now first saw the blue and gold of life,—the sun-swept road that ran ’twixt heaven and earth until in one far-off wan wavering line they met and kissed.

通过它，孩子第一次看到了生命的蓝色和金色，阳光普照的道路，贯穿天地，直到在一条遥远的、苍白的、摇曳的线条中，他们相遇并亲吻。

A vision of life came to the growing boy,—mystic, wonderful.

正在成长的男孩心中出现了一种对生活的憧憬——神秘而美妙。

He raised his head, stretched himself, breathed deep of the fresh new air.

他抬起头，伸了个懒腰，深深地呼吸着新鲜的空气。

Yonder, behind the forests, he heard strange sounds; then glinting through the trees he saw, far, far away, the bronzed hosts of a nation calling,—calling faintly, calling loudly.

那边，在森林后面，他听到了奇怪的声音；然后，他透过树林闪闪发光，看到很远很远，古铜色的军队在呼唤——微弱的呼唤，大声的呼唤。

He heard the hateful clank of their chains; he felt them cringe and grovel, and there rose within him a protest and a prophecy.

他听到锁链发出令人憎恶的叮当声；他感到他们畏缩、卑躬屈膝，他内心升起抗议和预言。

And he girded himself to walk down the world.

他做好了走遍世界的准备。

A voice and vision called him to be a priest,—a seer to lead the uncalled out of the house of bondage.

一个声音和异象召唤他成为一名牧师，一个带领不蒙召唤的人走出奴役之屋的先知。

He saw the headless host turn toward him like the whirling of mad waters,—he stretched forth his hands eagerly, and then, even as he stretched them, suddenly there swept across the vision the temptation of Despair.

他看到无头的大军像狂乱的水流一样转向他——他急切地伸出双手，然后，就在他伸出双手的同时，突然间，绝望的诱惑扫过视野。

They were not wicked men,—the problem of life is not the problem of the wicked,—they were calm, good men, Bishops of the Apostolic Church of God, and strove toward righteousness.

他们不是恶人——生命的问题不是恶人的问题——他们是冷静的好人，是上帝使徒教会的主教，并为正义而奋斗。

They said slowly, “It is all very natural—it is even commendable; but the General Theological Seminary of the Episcopal Church cannot admit a Negro.” And when that thin, half-grotesque figure still haunted their doors, they put their hands kindly, half sorrowfully, on his shoulders, and said, “Now,—of course, we—we know how _you_ feel about it; but you see it is impossible,—that is—well—it is premature.

他们缓缓地说：“这很自然，甚至值得称赞；但是圣公会总神学院不能接纳黑人。”当那个瘦弱、半怪诞的身影仍然在他们的门口出没时，他们将手亲切地、半悲伤地放在他的肩膀上，说：“现在，——当然，我们——我们知道你对此有何感受；但你看，这是不可能的，也就是说——好吧——现在还为时过早。

Sometime, we trust—sincerely trust—all such distinctions will fade away; but now the world is as it is.”

有时候，我们相信——真诚地相信——所有这些区别都会消失；但现在世界就是这样。”

This was the temptation of Despair; and the young man fought it doggedly.

这就是绝望的诱惑；年轻人顽强地与之抗争。

Like some grave shadow he flitted by those halls, pleading, arguing, half angrily demanding admittance, until there came the final _No;_ until men hustled the disturber away, marked him as foolish, unreasonable, and injudicious, a vain rebel against God’s law.

他像一个沉重的阴影一样在那些大厅里掠过，恳求，争论，半愤怒地要求进入，直到最后的“不”，直到人们把扰乱者赶走，把他标记为愚蠢、不合理、不明智，徒劳地反抗上帝的律法。

And then from that Vision Splendid all the glory faded slowly away, and left an earth gray and stern rolling on beneath a dark despair.

然后，所有的荣耀从那辉煌的幻象中慢慢消失，留下一片灰暗的大地，在黑暗的绝望之下滚动。

Even the kind hands that stretched themselves toward him from out the depths of that dull morning seemed but parts of the purple shadows.

就连从那个沉闷的早晨深处向他伸出的那双仁慈的手，也似乎只是紫色影子的一部分。

He saw them coldly, and asked, “Why should I strive by special grace when the way of the world is closed to me?” All gently yet, the hands urged him on,—the hands of young John Jay, that daring father’s daring son; the hands of the good folk of Boston, that free city.

他冷冷地看着他们，问道：“当世道对我关闭时，我为什么要靠特殊的恩典而奋斗呢？”双手温柔地催促着他——年轻的约翰·杰伊的手，那个勇敢的父亲的勇敢的儿子；出自自由城市波士顿善良人民之手。

And yet, with a way to the priesthood of the Church open at last before him, the cloud lingered there; and even when in old St. Paul’s the venerable Bishop raised his white arms above the Negro deacon—even then the burden had not lifted from that heart, for there had passed a glory from the earth.

然而，通往教会神职人员的道路终于在他面前敞开，乌云却在那里徘徊。即使在老圣保罗教堂，可敬的主教将他白皙的手臂举过黑人执事的时候——即使在那时，他心中的负担也没有解除，因为世上的荣耀已经过去了。

And yet the fire through which Alexander Crummell went did not burn in vain.

然而，亚历山大·克拉梅尔所经历的火焰并没有白白燃烧。

Slowly and more soberly he took up again his plan of life.

他慢慢地、更加清醒地重新开始了他的人生计划。

More critically he studied the situation.

他更批判性地研究了形势。

Deep down below the slavery and servitude of the Negro people he saw their fatal weaknesses, which long years of mistreatment had emphasized.

在黑人的奴役和奴役之下，他看到了他们致命的弱点，而长年的虐待更加凸显了这一点。

The dearth of strong moral character, of unbending righteousness, he felt, was their great shortcoming, and here he would begin.

他认为，他们的最大缺点是缺乏坚强的道德品格和不屈不挠的正义感，而他将从这里开始。

He would gather the best of his people into some little Episcopal chapel and there lead, teach, and inspire them, till the leaven spread, till the children grew, till the world hearkened, till—till—and then across his dream gleamed some faint after-glow of that first fair vision of youth—only an after-glow, for there had passed a glory from the earth.

他会把他的人民中最优秀的人聚集到某个小圣公会教堂里，在那里领导、教导和激励他们，直到酵母传播，直到孩子们长大，直到世界倾听，直到——直到——然后，他的梦中闪烁着青春最初美好愿景的微弱余辉——只是余辉，因为地球上的荣耀已经过去。

One day—it was in 1842, and the springtide was struggling merrily with the May winds of New England—he stood at last in his own chapel in Providence, a priest of the Church.

有一天——那是1842年，春潮正与新英格兰的五月风愉快地搏斗——他终于站在普罗维登斯自己的教堂里，成为一名教会牧师。

The days sped by, and the dark young clergyman labored; he wrote his sermons carefully; he intoned his prayers with a soft, earnest voice; he haunted the streets and accosted the wayfarers; he visited the sick, and knelt beside the dying.

日子过得飞快，这位皮肤黝黑的年轻牧师辛苦劳作。他的布道文写得很仔细；他用柔和而恳切的声音吟诵着祈祷词。他在街上出没，与行人搭话。他探望病人，跪在垂死的人身边。

He worked and toiled, week by week, day by day, month by month.

他周而复始、日复一日、月复一月地工作、辛苦。

And yet month by month the congregation dwindled, week by week the hollow walls echoed more sharply, day by day the calls came fewer and fewer, and day by day the third temptation sat clearer and still more clearly within the Veil; a temptation, as it were, bland and smiling, with just a shade of mockery in its smooth tones.

然而，会众的数量逐月减少，空心墙壁的回声一周又一周地变得更加尖锐，呼唤声一天天地越来越少，而第三个诱惑则一天天地越来越清晰地出现在面纱之内。可以说，这是一种诱惑，温和而微笑，柔和的语气中带着一丝嘲讽。

First it came casually, in the cadence of a voice: “Oh, colored folks?

首先，它以一种有节奏的声音随意出现：“哦，有色人种？

Yes.” Or perhaps more definitely: “What do you _expect?_” In voice and gesture lay the doubt—the temptation of Doubt.

是的。”或者也许更明确地说：“你_期望什么？_”声音和手势中都充满了怀疑——怀疑的诱惑。

How he hated it, and stormed at it furiously!

他多么痛恨它，并且猛烈地向它发起猛烈的攻击！

“Of course they are capable,” he cried; “of course they can learn and strive and achieve—” and “Of course,” added the temptation softly, “they do nothing of the sort.” Of all the three temptations, this one struck the deepest.

“他们当然有能力，”他喊道。 “当然，他们可以学习、努力并实现——”而“当然，”诱惑轻声补充道，“他们什么也不做。”在这三种诱惑中，这一种诱惑最深。

Hate?

恨？

He had outgrown so childish a thing.

他已经不再那么幼稚了。

Despair?

绝望？

He had steeled his right arm against it, and fought it with the vigor of determination.

他用右臂对抗它，并以坚决的力量与之抗争。

But to doubt the worth of his life-work,—to doubt the destiny and capability of the race his soul loved because it was his; to find listless squalor instead of eager endeavor; to hear his own lips whispering, “They do not care; they cannot know; they are dumb driven cattle,—why cast your pearls before swine?”—this, this seemed more than man could bear; and he closed the door, and sank upon the steps of the chancel, and cast his robe upon the floor and writhed.

但怀疑他毕生工作的价值，怀疑他灵魂所爱的种族的命运和能力，因为它是他的；发现无精打采的肮脏而不是热切的努力；听到他自己的嘴唇低声说：“他们不在乎；他们不知道；他们是被驱赶的哑巴牲畜——为什么要把你的珍珠扔到猪面前？”——这，这似乎超出了人的承受能力；他关上门，一屁股坐在圣坛的台阶上，把长袍扔到地板上，扭动起来。

The evening sunbeams had set the dust to dancing in the gloomy chapel when he arose.

当他起床时，傍晚的阳光让阴暗的教堂里的灰尘飞舞。

He folded his vestments, put away the hymn-books, and closed the great Bible.

他叠好法衣，收起赞美诗集，合上那本伟大的《圣经》。

He stepped out into the twilight, looked back upon the narrow little pulpit with a weary smile, and locked the door.

他走到暮色中，带着疲倦的微笑回头看了一眼狭窄的小讲坛，然后锁上了门。

Then he walked briskly to the Bishop, and told the Bishop what the Bishop already knew.

然后他轻快地走到主教面前，将主教已经知道的事情告诉了主教。

“I have failed,” he said simply.

“我失败了，”他简单地说。

And gaining courage by the confession, he added: “What I need is a larger constituency.

通过坦白获得勇气后，他补充道：“我需要的是更大的支持者。

There are comparatively few Negroes here, and perhaps they are not of the best.

这里的黑人相对较少，而且也许他们不是最好的。

I must go where the field is wider, and try again.” So the Bishop sent him to Philadelphia, with a letter to Bishop Onderdonk.

我必须去更广阔的领域，再尝试一次。”于是主教派他去费城，并给翁德东克主教写了一封信。

Bishop Onderdonk lived at the head of six white steps,—corpulent, red-faced, and the author of several thrilling tracts on Apostolic Succession.

昂德东克主教住在六级白色台阶的顶端，他身材肥胖、红脸，是几本有关使徒继承的激动人心的小册子的作者。

It was after dinner, and the Bishop had settled himself for a pleasant season of contemplation, when the bell must needs ring, and there must burst in upon the Bishop a letter and a thin, ungainly Negro.

那是晚饭后，主教已经安顿下来，度过了一段愉快的沉思时光，此时钟声一定需要敲响，主教一定会突然收到一封信和一个瘦弱、笨拙的黑人。

Bishop Onderdonk read the letter hastily and frowned.

翁德东克主教匆匆读完信，皱起了眉头。

Fortunately, his mind was already clear on this point; and he cleared his brow and looked at Crummell.

好在这一点，他心里已经很清楚了；他扫了扫眉头，看着克拉梅尔。

Then he said, slowly and impressively: “I will receive you into this diocese on one condition: no Negro priest can sit in my church convention, and no Negro church must ask for representation there.”

然后他缓慢而令人印象深刻地说：“我将接纳你进入这个教区，但有一个条件：没有黑人牧师可以参加我的教会大会，也没有黑人教会必须在那里要求代表。”

I sometimes fancy I can see that tableau: the frail black figure, nervously twitching his hat before the massive abdomen of Bishop Onderdonk; his threadbare coat thrown against the dark woodwork of the bookcases, where Fox’s “Lives of the Martyrs” nestled happily beside “The Whole Duty of Man.” I seem to see the wide eyes of the Negro wander past the Bishop’s broadcloth to where the swinging glass doors of the cabinet glow in the sunlight.

有时我幻想我能看到那个画面：瘦弱的黑人身影，在昂德东克主教巨大的腹部前紧张地抽动着帽子；他破旧的外套扔在书柜的深色木制品上，福克斯的《烈士传》愉快地坐落在《人类的全部责任》旁边。我似乎看到黑人睁大的眼睛越过主教的绒布，来到橱柜的旋转玻璃门在阳光下闪闪发光的地方。

A little blue fly is trying to cross the yawning keyhole.

一只蓝色的小苍蝇正试图穿过打哈欠的钥匙孔。

He marches briskly up to it, peers into the chasm in a surprised sort of way, and rubs his feelers reflectively; then he essays its depths, and, finding it bottomless, draws back again.

他快步走向它，以一种惊讶的方式凝视着裂缝，并若有所思地摩擦着触角。然后他试探了它的深度，发现它无底，又退了回来。

The dark-faced priest finds himself wondering if the fly too has faced its Valley of Humiliation, and if it will plunge into it,—when lo!

黑脸牧师发现自己在想，苍蝇是否也面临过屈辱谷，它是否会跳入其中——瞧！

it spreads its tiny wings and buzzes merrily across, leaving the watcher wingless and alone.

它张开小小的翅膀，欢快地嗡嗡地飞过，留下没有翅膀的观察者，孤独一人。

Then the full weight of his burden fell upon him.

然后他的重担全部落在了他的身上。

The rich walls wheeled away, and before him lay the cold rough moor winding on through life, cut in twain by one thick granite ridge,—here, the Valley of Humiliation; yonder, the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

厚重的城墙滚滚而去，在他面前的是寒冷崎岖的沼泽，蜿蜒曲折，被一道厚重的花岗岩山脊一分为二——这里是屈辱谷；那边，是死亡阴影之谷。

And I know not which be darker,—no, not I.

我不知道哪个更黑——不，我不知道。

But this I know: in yonder Vale of the Humble stand to-day a million swarthy men, who willingly would

但我知道这一点：在卑微谷那边，今天站着一百万皮肤黝黑的男人，他们愿意

“.

”。

。

bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor’s wrong, the proud man’s contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay, The insolence of office, and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes,”—

忍受时间的鞭打和蔑视，压迫者的错误，骄傲者的侮辱，被轻视的爱情的痛苦，法律的迟延，公职的傲慢，以及不值得的人的耐心优点的蔑视，”——

all this and more would they bear did they but know that this were sacrifice and not a meaner thing.

如果他们知道这是牺牲而不是一件更卑鄙的事情，他们就会承受这一切以及更多。

So surged the thought within that lone black breast.

那个孤独的黑色胸膛里涌动着这样的想法。

The Bishop cleared his throat suggestively; then, recollecting that there was really nothing to say, considerately said nothing, only sat tapping his foot impatiently.

主教暗示性地清了清喉咙。然后想起来实在是无话可说，体贴的什么也没说，只是坐在那里不耐烦地打着脚。

But Alexander Crummell said, slowly and heavily: “I will never enter your diocese on such terms.” And saying this, he turned and passed into the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

但亚历山大·克鲁梅尔缓慢而沉重地说：“我永远不会以这样的条件进入你们的教区。”说完，他转身就进入了死影谷。

You might have noted only the physical dying, the shattered frame and hacking cough; but in that soul lay deeper death than that.

你可能只注意到肉体的死亡、破碎的身体和干咳；但在那个灵魂里，隐藏着比那更深的死亡。

He found a chapel in New York,—the church of his father; he labored for it in poverty and starvation, scorned by his fellow priests.

他在纽约找到了一座教堂——他父亲的教堂；他在贫穷和饥饿中为之奋斗，并受到其他牧师的蔑视。

Half in despair, he wandered across the sea, a beggar with outstretched hands.

他半绝望地漂洋过海，像一个伸出双手的乞丐。

Englishmen clasped them,—Wilberforce and Stanley, Thirwell and Ingles, and even Froude and Macaulay; Sir Benjamin Brodie bade him rest awhile at Queen’s College in Cambridge, and there he lingered, struggling for health of body and mind, until he took his degree in ’53.

英国人紧握着他们——威尔伯福斯和斯坦利、瑟韦尔和英格尔斯，甚至弗劳德和麦考利；本杰明·布罗迪爵士 (Sir Benjamin Brodie) 让他在剑桥女王学院休息一段时间，他在那里徘徊，为身心健康而奋斗，直到 53 年获得学位。

Restless still, and unsatisfied, he turned toward Africa, and for long years, amid the spawn of the slave-smugglers, sought a new heaven and a new earth.

他仍然焦躁不安、不满足，于是转向非洲，在奴隶走私者的后代中，漫长的岁月里，寻找新的天堂和新的地球。

So the man groped for light; all this was not Life,—it was the world-wandering of a soul in search of itself, the striving of one who vainly sought his place in the world, ever haunted by the shadow of a death that is more than death,—the passing of a soul that has missed its duty.

于是，这个人摸索着寻找光明；这一切都不是生命，而是一个灵魂在世界上寻找自我的流浪，是一个徒劳地在世界上寻找自己位置的人的奋斗，永远被比死亡更重要的死亡的阴影所困扰，一个失去了职责的灵魂的逝去。

Twenty years he wandered,—twenty years and more; and yet the hard rasping question kept gnawing within him, “What, in God’s name, am I on earth for?” In the narrow New York parish his soul seemed cramped and smothered.

他流浪了二十年——二十年甚至更长；然而，那个尖锐刺耳的问题却不断地折磨着他：“看在上帝的份上，我来到世上是为了什么？”在狭窄的纽约教区，他的灵魂显得局促而窒息。

In the fine old air of the English University he heard the millions wailing over the sea.

在英国大学古老的清新空气中，他听到了数百万人在海上哀号。

In the wild fever-cursed swamps of West Africa he stood helpless and alone.

在西非荒凉的、被热病诅咒的沼泽里，他孤单无助地站着。

You will not wonder at his weird pilgrimage,—you who in the swift whirl of living, amid its cold paradox and marvellous vision, have fronted life and asked its riddle face to face.

你不会对他奇怪的朝圣之旅感到惊讶——你在生活的快速旋涡中，在其冷酷的悖论和奇妙的视野中，面对生活并面对面询问它的谜语。

And if you find that riddle hard to read, remember that yonder black boy finds it just a little harder; if it is difficult for you to find and face your duty, it is a shade more difficult for him; if your heart sickens in the blood and dust of battle, remember that to him the dust is thicker and the battle fiercer.

如果你发现这个谜语很难读，请记住，那边的黑人男孩发现它只是有点难；如果你很难找到并承担你的责任，那么对他来说就更困难了。如果你的心在战斗的血和尘埃中感到恶心，请记住，对他来说，尘土更厚，战斗更激烈。

No wonder the wanderers fall!

难怪流浪者会堕落！

No wonder we point to thief and murderer, and haunting prostitute, and the never-ending throng of unhearsed dead!

难怪我们会提到小偷、杀人犯、令人难以忘怀的妓女，以及永无休止、无人知晓的死者！

The Valley of the Shadow of Death gives few of its pilgrims back to the world.

死亡阴影之谷很少有朝圣者重返人间。

But Alexander Crummell it gave back.

但亚历山大·克鲁梅尔（Alexander Crummell）却做出了回报。

Out of the temptation of Hate, and burned by the fire of Despair, triumphant over Doubt, and steeled by Sacrifice against Humiliation, he turned at last home across the waters, humble and strong, gentle and determined.

摆脱了仇恨的诱惑，被绝望之火所灼烧，战胜了怀疑，并通过牺牲对抗羞辱而坚强起来，他终于跨过水域回家了，谦虚而坚强，温柔而坚定。

He bent to all the gibes and prejudices, to all hatred and discrimination, with that rare courtesy which is the armor of pure souls.

他屈从于所有的嘲笑和偏见，所有的仇恨和歧视，以罕见的礼貌，这是纯洁灵魂的盔甲。

He fought among his own, the low, the grasping, and the wicked, with that unbending righteousness which is the sword of the just.

他以不屈的正义之剑，与自己的同胞、卑鄙的人、贪婪的人和邪恶的人战斗。

He never faltered, he seldom complained; he simply worked, inspiring the young, rebuking the old, helping the weak, guiding the strong.

他从不动摇，也很少抱怨；他只是工作，激励年轻人，斥责老人，帮助弱者，引导强者。

So he grew, and brought within his wide influence all that was best of those who walk within the Veil.

于是他成长了，并把那些行走在面纱中的人最好的一切都带入了他的广泛影响力之中。

They who live without knew not nor dreamed of that full power within, that mighty inspiration which the dull gauze of caste decreed that most men should not know.

那些生活在外面的人不知道也没有梦想过内在的全部力量，那种强大的灵感，这种强大的灵感是由种姓的暗淡薄纱决定的，大多数人不应该知道。

And now that he is gone, I sweep the Veil away and cry, Lo!

现在他走了，我把面纱扫开并哭泣，瞧！

the soul to whose dear memory I bring this little tribute.

我谨以此小小的敬意来纪念他的灵魂。

I can see his face still, dark and heavy-lined beneath his snowy hair; lighting and shading, now with inspiration for the future, now in innocent pain at some human wickedness, now with sorrow at some hard memory from the past.

我仍能看到他的脸，雪白的头发下黝黑且布满皱纹。灯光和阴影，现在充满对未来的灵感，现在对人类的某些邪恶感到无辜的痛苦，现在对过去的一些艰难记忆感到悲伤。

The more I met Alexander Crummell, the more I felt how much that world was losing which knew so little of him.

我与亚历山大·克拉梅尔见面的次数越多，我就越感觉到这个对他知之甚少的世界正在失去多少。

In another age he might have sat among the elders of the land in purple-bordered toga; in another country mothers might have sung him to the cradles.

在另一个时代，他可能会坐在这片土地上穿着紫色镶边长袍的长老们之中。在另一个国家，母亲们可能会在他摇篮里唱歌。

He did his work,—he did it nobly and well; and yet I sorrow that here he worked alone, with so little human sympathy.

他做了他的工作——他做得高贵而出色；然而我感到遗憾的是，他在这里独自工作，缺乏人类的同情心。

His name to-day, in this broad land, means little, and comes to fifty million ears laden with no incense of memory or emulation.

今天，他的名字在这片广阔的土地上毫无意义，五千万耳朵听来没有任何记忆或效仿。

And herein lies the tragedy of the age: not that men are poor,—all men know something of poverty; not that men are wicked,—who is good?

这个时代的悲剧就在于此：并不是人穷，而是所有人都知道贫穷；并不是说人都是恶的——谁是善的？

not that men are ignorant,—what is Truth?

并不是说人们无知——什么是真理？

Nay, but that men know so little of men.

不，但是男人对男人的了解太少了。

He sat one morning gazing toward the sea.

一天早晨，他坐在那里，凝视着大海。

He smiled and said, “The gate is rusty on the hinges.” That night at star-rise a wind came moaning out of the west to blow the gate ajar, and then the soul I loved fled like a flame across the Seas, and in its seat sat Death.

他微笑着说：“大门的铰链都生锈了。”那天晚上，星星升起时，一阵风从西方呼啸而来，把大门吹开了，然后我所爱的灵魂像火焰一样越过海洋逃走了，死亡坐在了它的座位上。

I wonder where he is to-day?

我想知道他今天在哪里？

I wonder if in that dim world beyond, as he came gliding in, there rose on some wan throne a King,—a dark and pierced Jew, who knows the writhings of the earthly damned, saying, as he laid those heart-wrung talents down, “Well done!” while round about the morning stars sat singing.

我想知道，当他滑进来时，在那个昏暗的世界里，是否有一个苍白的王座上站起一位国王，一个黑暗而被刺穿的犹太人，他知道尘世受诅咒的人的扭动，当他放下那些令人心碎的人才时，他说：“干得好！”晨星在周围歌唱。

XIII.

十三．

Of the Coming of John

论约翰的来临

What bring they ’neath the midnight, Beside the River-sea?

是什么让他们来到午夜之下，江海之畔？

They bring the human heart wherein No nightly calm can be; That droppeth never with the wind, Nor drieth with the dew; O calm it, God; thy calm is broad To cover spirits too.

它们带来了人心，其中夜间无法平静；它不随风滴落，也不随露水干涸；上帝啊，请平静吧；你的平静宽广，足以掩盖精神。

The river floweth on.

河水继续流淌。

MRS. BROWNING.

太太。布朗宁。

[Illustration]

[图示]

Carlisle Street runs westward from the centre of Johnstown, across a great black bridge, down a hill and up again, by little shops and meat-markets, past single-storied homes, until suddenly it stops against a wide green lawn.

卡莱尔街从约翰斯敦市中心向西延伸，穿过一座巨大的黑色桥梁，下山又上山，经过小商店和肉类市场，经过单层住宅，直到突然停在宽阔的绿色草坪上。

It is a broad, restful place, with two large buildings outlined against the west.

这是一个宽阔、宁静的地方，两座大型建筑映衬在西边。

When at evening the winds come swelling from the east, and the great pall of the city’s smoke hangs wearily above the valley, then the red west glows like a dreamland down Carlisle Street, and, at the tolling of the supper-bell, throws the passing forms of students in dark silhouette against the sky.

傍晚时分，风从东边吹来，城市的浓烟疲倦地悬在山谷上空，红色的西边在卡莱尔街上闪耀着梦幻般的光彩，晚饭钟声响起，学生们过往的身影在天空的映衬下呈现出黑色的轮廓。

Tall and black, they move slowly by, and seem in the sinister light to flit before the city like dim warning ghosts.

他们又高又黑，缓慢地移动着，在邪恶的光芒中仿佛在城市前掠过，就像暗淡的警告幽灵。

Perhaps they are; for this is Wells Institute, and these black students have few dealings with the white city below.

也许他们是；因为这里是威尔斯学院，这些黑人学生与下面的白人城市很少有来往。

And if you will notice, night after night, there is one dark form that ever hurries last and late toward the twinkling lights of Swain Hall,—for Jones is never on time.

如果你注意到的话，夜复一夜，有一个黑暗的身影总是在最后和深夜匆匆走向斯温大厅闪烁的灯光，因为琼斯从来不准时。

A long, straggling fellow he is, brown and hard-haired, who seems to be growing straight out of his clothes, and walks with a half-apologetic roll.

他是个身材高大、散漫的家伙，棕色的头发，硬邦邦的头发，似乎从衣服里长出来了，走路时半途而废地打着滚。

He used perpetually to set the quiet dining-room into waves of merriment, as he stole to his place after the bell had tapped for prayers; he seemed so perfectly awkward.

当祈祷钟声敲响后，他偷偷溜回自己的位置，总是让安静的餐厅陷入一片欢乐的气氛中。他看起来非常尴尬。

And yet one glance at his face made one forgive him much,—that broad, good-natured smile in which lay no bit of art or artifice, but seemed just bubbling good-nature and genuine satisfaction with the world.

然而，只要看一眼他的脸，就会让人原谅他——那灿烂的、和善的笑容，其中没有一点艺术或技巧，但似乎只是洋溢着善良和对世界真正的满足。

He came to us from Altamaha, away down there beneath the gnarled oaks of Southeastern Georgia, where the sea croons to the sands and the sands listen till they sink half drowned beneath the waters, rising only here and there in long, low islands.

他从阿尔塔马哈来到我们这里，远在佐治亚州东南部粗糙的橡树下，大海在沙子里低吟，沙子倾听着，直到它们半沉到水下，只在长而低的岛屿上偶尔升起。

The white folk of Altamaha voted John a good boy,—fine plough-hand, good in the rice-fields, handy everywhere, and always good-natured and respectful.

阿尔塔马哈的白人认为约翰是一个好孩子，他是一位优秀的犁手，善于耕种稻田，到处都很方便，而且总是心地善良，彬彬有礼。

But they shook their heads when his mother wanted to send him off to school.

但当他妈妈要送他去学校时，他们却摇了摇头。

“It’ll spoil him,—ruin him,” they said; and they talked as though they knew.

“这会毁掉他，——毁掉他，”他们说。他们说话的样子就好像他们知道一样。

But full half the black folk followed him proudly to the station, and carried his queer little trunk and many bundles.

但一半的黑人骄傲地跟着他来到车站，并抬着他那奇怪的小箱子和许多包裹。

And there they shook and shook hands, and the girls kissed him shyly and the boys clapped him on the back.

他们在那里握手，女孩们害羞地亲吻他，男孩们拍拍他的背。

So the train came, and he pinched his little sister lovingly, and put his great arms about his mother’s neck, and then was away with a puff and a roar into the great yellow world that flamed and flared about the doubtful pilgrim.

火车来了，他慈爱地抱住了他的小妹妹，用他的大臂搂住了他母亲的脖子，然后气喘吁吁地咆哮着离开了，进入了那个在可疑的朝圣者周围熊熊燃烧的黄色世界。

Up the coast they hurried, past the squares and palmettos of Savannah, through the cotton-fields and through the weary night, to Millville, and came with the morning to the noise and bustle of Johnstown.

他们沿着海岸匆匆而行，经过萨凡纳的广场和棕榈树，穿过棉田，穿过疲倦的夜晚，到达米尔维尔，并在早晨到达喧嚣热闹的约翰斯敦。

And they that stood behind, that morning in Altamaha, and watched the train as it noisily bore playmate and brother and son away to the world, had thereafter one ever-recurring word,—“When John comes.” Then what parties were to be, and what speakings in the churches; what new furniture in the front room,—perhaps even a new front room; and there would be a new schoolhouse, with John as teacher; and then perhaps a big wedding; all this and more—when John comes.

那天早上，在阿尔塔马哈，那些站在后面的人，看着火车吵闹地载着玩伴、兄弟和儿子奔向世界，此后他们听到了一个不断重复出现的词：“当约翰来的时候。”然后是哪些聚会，以及在教会中的演讲；前室里有什么新家具——也许甚至是一个新的前室；将会有一所新校舍，由约翰担任老师；然后也许是一场盛大的婚礼；这一切以及更多——当约翰来的时候。

But the white people shook their heads.

但白人却摇摇头。

At first he was coming at Christmas-time,—but the vacation proved too short; and then, the next summer,—but times were hard and schooling costly, and so, instead, he worked in Johnstown.

起初他是在圣诞节期间来的，但事实证明假期太短了；然后，第二年夏天，——但生活艰苦，学费昂贵，所以他在约翰斯敦工作。

And so it drifted to the next summer, and the next,—till playmates scattered, and mother grew gray, and sister went up to the Judge’s kitchen to work.

就这样，日子又过了一个夏天，又一个夏天，直到玩伴们散去，母亲的头发花白，妹妹去法官的厨房干活。

And still the legend lingered,—“When John comes.”

而这个传说仍然萦绕在人们的心头——“当约翰来的时候。”

Up at the Judge’s they rather liked this refrain; for they too had a John—a fair-haired, smooth-faced boy, who had played many a long summer’s day to its close with his darker namesake.

在法官那里，他们很喜欢这种克制。因为他们也有一个约翰——一个金发、脸庞光滑的男孩，他和他的同名黑人一起度过了许多个漫长的夏日，直至结束。

“Yes, sir!

“是的，先生！

John is at Princeton, sir,” said the broad-shouldered gray-haired Judge every morning as he marched down to the post-office.

约翰在普林斯顿，先生。”这位宽肩、灰发的法官每天早上在走向邮局时说道。

“Showing the Yankees what a Southern gentleman can do,” he added; and strode home again with his letters and papers.

“向洋基队展示了一位南方绅士的能力，”他补充道。然后带着信件和文件再次大步回家。

Up at the great pillared house they lingered long over the Princeton letter,—the Judge and his frail wife, his sister and growing daughters.

在那座巨大的柱子房子里，他们在普林斯顿的信上徘徊了很长时间——法官和他虚弱的妻子，他的妹妹和正在成长的女儿。

“It’ll make a man of him,” said the Judge, “college is the place.” And then he asked the shy little waitress, “Well, Jennie, how’s your John?” and added reflectively, “Too bad, too bad your mother sent him off—it will spoil him.” And the waitress wondered.

“这会让他成为一个男人，”法官说，“大学就是那个地方。”然后他问害羞的小女服务员：“珍妮，你的约翰怎么样了？”又若有所思地补充道：“太糟糕了，太糟糕了，你妈妈把他送走了——这会宠坏他的。”女服务员想知道。

Thus in the far-away Southern village the world lay waiting, half consciously, the coming of two young men, and dreamed in an inarticulate way of new things that would be done and new thoughts that all would think.

因此，在遥远的南方村庄，整个世界都半自觉地等待着两个年轻人的到来，并以一种含糊其辞的方式梦想着即将要做的新事情和所有人都会想到的新想法。

And yet it was singular that few thought of two Johns,—for the black folk thought of one John, and he was black; and the white folk thought of another John, and he was white.

然而，奇怪的是，很少有人想到两个约翰，因为黑人想到一个约翰，而他是黑人；白人想到了另一个约翰，他是白人。

And neither world thought the other world’s thought, save with a vague unrest.

两个世界都没有想到另一个世界的想法，除了隐隐约约的不安。

Up in Johnstown, at the Institute, we were long puzzled at the case of John Jones.

在约翰斯敦的研究所，我们长期以来对约翰·琼斯的案例感到困惑。

For a long time the clay seemed unfit for any sort of moulding.

很长一段时间以来，粘土似乎不适合任何形式的造型。

He was loud and boisterous, always laughing and singing, and never able to work consecutively at anything.

他声音很大，很吵闹，总是又笑又唱，从来不能连续做任何事情。

He did not know how to study; he had no idea of thoroughness; and with his tardiness, carelessness, and appalling good-humor, we were sore perplexed.

他不知道如何学习；他不知道彻底性；他的迟到、粗心和令人震惊的幽默感让我们感到非常困惑。

One night we sat in faculty-meeting, worried and serious; for Jones was in trouble again.

一天晚上，我们坐在教员会议上，忧心忡忡，表情严肃。因为琼斯又遇到麻烦了。

This last escapade was too much, and so we solemnly voted “that Jones, on account of repeated disorder and inattention to work, be suspended for the rest of the term.”

最后一次的越轨行为太过分了，因此我们庄严地投票决定“由于琼斯屡次表现混乱和不专心工作，在余下的任期内停职。”

It seemed to us that the first time life ever struck Jones as a really serious thing was when the Dean told him he must leave school.

在我们看来，琼斯第一次感受到生活中真正严肃的事情是当院长告诉他必须离开学校的时候。

He stared at the gray-haired man blankly, with great eyes.

他睁大眼睛，茫然地看着灰发男子。

“Why,—why,” he faltered, “but—I haven’t graduated!” Then the Dean slowly and clearly explained, reminding him of the tardiness and the carelessness, of the poor lessons and neglected work, of the noise and disorder, until the fellow hung his head in confusion.

“为什么——为什么，”他结结巴巴地说，“但是——我还没毕业！”然后院长缓慢而清晰地解释，提醒他迟到和粗心，糟糕的课程和忽视的工作，噪音和混乱，直到那家伙困惑地低下了头。

Then he said quickly, “But you won’t tell mammy and sister,—you won’t write mammy, now will you?

然后他很快地说：“但是你不会告诉妈妈和妹妹——你不会写信给妈妈，对吗？

For if you won’t I’ll go out into the city and work, and come back next term and show you something.” So the Dean promised faithfully, and John shouldered his little trunk, giving neither word nor look to the giggling boys, and walked down Carlisle Street to the great city, with sober eyes and a set and serious face.

如果你不肯的话，我会去城里工作，下个学期回来给你看一些东西。”于是院长忠实地答应了，约翰扛着他的小箱子，没有对那些咯咯笑的男孩们说一句话，也没有看一眼，沿着卡莱尔街向这座伟大的城市走去，眼神清醒，脸上表情严肃。

Perhaps we imagined it, but someway it seemed to us that the serious look that crept over his boyish face that afternoon never left it again.

也许是我们的想象，但不知怎的，那天下午他孩子气的脸上浮现出的严肃表情似乎再也没有消失过。

When he came back to us he went to work with all his rugged strength.

当他回到我们身边时，他用尽全力去工作。

It was a hard struggle, for things did not come easily to him,—few crowding memories of early life and teaching came to help him on his new way; but all the world toward which he strove was of his own building, and he builded slow and hard.

这是一场艰苦的斗争，因为事情对他来说并不容易——几乎没有关于早年生活和教育的拥挤记忆来帮助他走上新的道路;但他努力争取的所有世界都是他自己建造的，而且他建造得缓慢而艰难。

As the light dawned lingeringly on his new creations, he sat rapt and silent before the vision, or wandered alone over the green campus peering through and beyond the world of men into a world of thought.

当曙光在他的新创作上挥之不去时，他全神贯注、沉默地坐在幻象前，或者独自漫步在绿色的校园里，凝视着人类的世界，进入思想的世界。

And the thoughts at times puzzled him sorely; he could not see just why the circle was not square, and carried it out fifty-six decimal places one midnight,—would have gone further, indeed, had not the matron rapped for lights out.

这些想法有时让他感到非常困惑。他不明白为什么这个圆不是方形的，并在一个午夜将其精确到了小数点后五十六位——如果不是女护士敲门关灯的话，他确实会走得更远。

He caught terrible colds lying on his back in the meadows of nights, trying to think out the solar system; he had grave doubts as to the ethics of the Fall of Rome, and strongly suspected the Germans of being thieves and rascals, despite his textbooks; he pondered long over every new Greek word, and wondered why this meant that and why it couldn’t mean something else, and how it must have felt to think all things in Greek.

他仰面躺在夜晚的草地上，试图思考太阳系，结果得了重感冒。尽管他有教科书，但他对罗马陷落的伦理道德抱有严重怀疑，并强烈怀疑德国人是小偷和流氓。他对每一个新的希腊语单词都进行了长时间的思考，想知道为什么这个意思是那样的，为什么它不能意味着其他意思，以及用希腊语思考所有事情的感觉。

So he thought and puzzled along for himself,—pausing perplexed where others skipped merrily, and walking steadily through the difficulties where the rest stopped and surrendered.

于是他为自己思考和困惑——在其他人欢快跳跃的地方停下来感到困惑，在其他人停下来投降的地方稳步走过困难。

Thus he grew in body and soul, and with him his clothes seemed to grow and arrange themselves; coat sleeves got longer, cuffs appeared, and collars got less soiled.

就这样，他的身体和灵魂都在成长，他的衣服似乎也随着他的生长而自行排列。外套袖子变长，袖口出现，领子也不再那么脏。

Now and then his boots shone, and a new dignity crept into his walk.

他的靴子时不时地闪闪发光，一种新的尊严悄然渗入他的步伐。

And we who saw daily a new thoughtfulness growing in his eyes began to expect something of this plodding boy.

我们每天都看到他眼中流露出新的深思熟虑，开始对这个埋头苦干的男孩抱有一些期待。

Thus he passed out of the preparatory school into college, and we who watched him felt four more years of change, which almost transformed the tall, grave man who bowed to us commencement morning.

就这样，他从预科升入了大学，我们这些看着他的人又感受到了四年的变化，这几乎改变了那个在毕业典礼早上向我们鞠躬的高大、严肃的男人。

He had left his queer thought-world and come back to a world of motion and of men.

他离开了他奇怪的思想世界，回到了一个充满运动和人类的世界。

He looked now for the first time sharply about him, and wondered he had seen so little before.

他现在第一次敏锐地环顾四周，奇怪自己以前看得这么少。

He grew slowly to feel almost for the first time the Veil that lay between him and the white world; he first noticed now the oppression that had not seemed oppression before, differences that erstwhile seemed natural, restraints and slights that in his boyhood days had gone unnoticed or been greeted with a laugh.

他慢慢地长大，几乎第一次感觉到隔在他和白色世界之间的面纱；他现在第一次注意到以前似乎不存在的压迫，以前似乎很自然的差异，在他的童年时代被忽视或被嘲笑的束缚和轻视。

He felt angry now when men did not call him “Mister,” he clenched his hands at the “Jim Crow” cars, and chafed at the color-line that hemmed in him and his.

现在，当人们不叫他“先生”时，他感到很生气，他对着“吉姆·克劳”汽车握紧了双手，对包围他和他的种族界限感到恼火。

A tinge of sarcasm crept into his speech, and a vague bitterness into his life; and he sat long hours wondering and planning a way around these crooked things.

他的言语中渗透着一丝讽刺，他的生活中也渗透着一种隐隐约约的苦涩。他坐了很长时间思考并计划解决这些扭曲的事情的方法。

Daily he found himself shrinking from the choked and narrow life of his native town.

他每天都发现自己在家乡那种窒息而狭窄的生活中退缩。

And yet he always planned to go back to Altamaha,—always planned to work there.

然而他一直计划回到阿尔塔马哈——一直计划在那里工作。

Still, more and more as the day approached he hesitated with a nameless dread; and even the day after graduation he seized with eagerness the offer of the Dean to send him North with the quartette during the summer vacation, to sing for the Institute.

然而，随着这一天的临近，他越来越犹豫，带着一种无名的恐惧。甚至毕业后的第二天，他就热切地抓住了院长的邀请，在暑假期间派他和四重奏组一起去北方，为学院演唱。

A breath of air before the plunge, he said to himself in half apology.

跳水前吸一口空气，他半带着歉意地对自己说。

It was a bright September afternoon, and the streets of New York were brilliant with moving men.

那是九月一个阳光明媚的下午，纽约的街道上熙熙攘攘的人群熙熙攘攘。

They reminded John of the sea, as he sat in the square and watched them, so changelessly changing, so bright and dark, so grave and gay.

当约翰坐在广场上看着它们时，它们让约翰想起了大海，它们是那么一成不变的变化，那么明亮和黑暗，那么严肃而快乐。

He scanned their rich and faultless clothes, the way they carried their hands, the shape of their hats; he peered into the hurrying carriages.

他审视着他们华美无瑕的衣着、他们举手的方式、他们帽子的形状；他凝视着疾驰的车厢。

Then, leaning back with a sigh, he said, “This is the World.” The notion suddenly seized him to see where the world was going; since many of the richer and brighter seemed hurrying all one way.

然后，他向后靠去，叹了口气，说道：“这就是世界。”他突然产生了一个念头，想要看看世界将走向何方。因为许多更富有、更聪明的人似乎都在匆匆忙忙地走着。

So when a tall, light-haired young man and a little talkative lady came by, he rose half hesitatingly and followed them.

所以，当一个高大的浅色头发的年轻人和一个身材矮小的健谈女士经过时，他半犹豫地站了起来，跟在他们后面。

Up the street they went, past stores and gay shops, across a broad square, until with a hundred others they entered the high portal of a great building.

他们沿着街道前进，经过商店和同性恋商店，穿过一个宽阔的广场，直到与其他一百人一起进入一座宏伟建筑的高门。

He was pushed toward the ticket-office with the others, and felt in his pocket for the new five-dollar bill he had hoarded.

他和其他人一起被推向售票处，摸索着口袋里摸了摸自己囤积的新五美元钞票。

There seemed really no time for hesitation, so he drew it bravely out, passed it to the busy clerk, and received simply a ticket but no change.

看来实在没有时间犹豫了，他就勇敢地掏了出来，递给了忙碌的店员，只收到了一张票，却没有找零。

When at last he realized that he had paid five dollars to enter he knew not what, he stood stockstill amazed.

当他最后意识到自己已经付了五美元才能进入时，他不知道是什么，惊讶地站在那里。

“Be careful,” said a low voice behind him; “you must not lynch the colored gentleman simply because he’s in your way,” and a girl looked up roguishly into the eyes of her fair-haired escort.

“小心点。”身后传来低沉的声音。 “你不能仅仅因为那位有色人种绅士挡了你的路就对他处以私刑。”一个女孩顽皮地抬头看着她金发护卫的眼睛。

A shade of annoyance passed over the escort’s face.

护送者的脸上掠过一丝恼怒。

“You _will_ not understand us at the South,” he said half impatiently, as if continuing an argument.

“你不会理解我们在南方的，”他有点不耐烦地说，好像在继续争论。

“With all your professions, one never sees in the North so cordial and intimate relations between white and black as are everyday occurrences with us.

“在你们所有的职业中，在北方从来没有见过白人和黑人之间的关系像我们日常发生的那样亲切和亲密。

Why, I remember my closest playfellow in boyhood was a little Negro named after me, and surely no two,—_well_!” The man stopped short and flushed to the roots of his hair, for there directly beside his reserved orchestra chairs sat the Negro he had stumbled over in the hallway.

为什么，我记得我童年时最亲密的玩伴是一个以我的名字命名的小黑人，而且肯定没有两个，——_好吧_！那人突然停了下来，脸红到了发根，因为他在走廊里绊倒的那个黑人就坐在他预留的管弦乐队椅子旁边。

He hesitated and grew pale with anger, called the usher and gave him his card, with a few peremptory words, and slowly sat down.

他犹豫了一下，气得脸色发白，叫来引座员，把名片递给他，霸道地说了几句，就慢慢坐下了。

The lady deftly changed the subject.

那位女士巧妙地转移了话题。

All this John did not see, for he sat in a half-daze minding the scene about him; the delicate beauty of the hall, the faint perfume, the moving myriad of men, the rich clothing and low hum of talking seemed all a part of a world so different from his, so strangely more beautiful than anything he had known, that he sat in dreamland, and started when, after a hush, rose high and clear the music of Lohengrin’s swan.

这一切约翰都没有看到，因为他坐在那儿，茫然地想着周围的场景。大厅的精致之美、淡淡的香味、无数动人的人群、华丽的服装和低沉的谈话声，似乎都是这个世界的一部分，与他的世界如此不同，比他所知道的任何东西都美丽得奇怪，他坐在梦境中，在一片寂静之后，高高地升起，清晰的罗恩格林天鹅的音乐，他开始了。

The infinite beauty of the wail lingered and swept through every muscle of his frame, and put it all a-tune.

哀号的无限美感挥之不去，席卷了他全身的每一块肌肉，让一切都变得和谐起来。

He closed his eyes and grasped the elbows of the chair, touching unwittingly the lady’s arm.

他闭上眼睛，抓住椅子的肘部，无意中碰触到了女士的手臂。

And the lady drew away.

那位女士就退开了。

A deep longing swelled in all his heart to rise with that clear music out of the dirt and dust of that low life that held him prisoned and befouled.

他内心深处涌起一股深深的渴望，希望随着那清亮的音乐，摆脱囚禁他、玷污他的卑微生活的尘埃。

If he could only live up in the free air where birds sang and setting suns had no touch of blood!

如果他能生活在鸟儿歌唱、夕阳没有血迹的自由空气里就好了！

Who had called him to be the slave and butt of all?

谁叫他成为所有人的奴隶和屁股？

And if he had called, what right had he to call when a world like this lay open before men?

如果他呼唤了，当这样的世界展现在人们面前时，他有什么权利呼唤呢？

Then the movement changed, and fuller, mightier harmony swelled away.

然后乐章发生了变化，更饱满、更强大的和谐声消失了。

He looked thoughtfully across the hall, and wondered why the beautiful gray-haired woman looked so listless, and what the little man could be whispering about.

他若有所思地看着大厅，想知道为什么这个美丽的灰发女人看起来如此无精打采，以及这个小个子男人正在窃窃私语什么。

He would not like to be listless and idle, he thought, for he felt with the music the movement of power within him.

他不想变得无精打采、无所事事，他想，因为他随着音乐感受到了他体内力量的流动。

If he but had some master-work, some life-service, hard,—aye, bitter hard, but without the cringing and sickening servility, without the cruel hurt that hardened his heart and soul.

如果他有一些杰作，一些终身服务，努力，是的，苦涩的努力，但没有令人畏缩和令人作呕的奴性，没有使他的心和灵魂变得坚硬的残酷伤害。

When at last a soft sorrow crept across the violins, there came to him the vision of a far-off home, the great eyes of his sister, and the dark drawn face of his mother.

当最后一种柔和的悲伤爬过小提琴时，他脑海中浮现出远方家乡的景象、妹妹的大眼睛和母亲黝黑的脸。

And his heart sank below the waters, even as the sea-sand sinks by the shores of Altamaha, only to be lifted aloft again with that last ethereal wail of the swan that quivered and faded away into the sky.

他的心沉入了水下，就像海沙沉入阿尔塔马哈海岸一样，但随着天鹅颤抖着消失在天空中最后的空灵哀号，他的心又被升到了高处。

It left John sitting so silent and rapt that he did not for some time notice the usher tapping him lightly on the shoulder and saying politely, “Will you step this way, please, sir?” A little surprised, he arose quickly at the last tap, and, turning to leave his seat, looked full into the face of the fair-haired young man.

约翰静静地坐着，全神贯注，以至于有一段时间他没有注意到引座员轻轻拍着他的肩膀，礼貌地说道：“请您这边走一下，先生？”有点惊讶的是，他在最后一次敲击声中迅速站了起来，转身离开座位，仔细地看着金发年轻人的脸。

For the first time the young man recognized his dark boyhood playmate, and John knew that it was the Judge’s son.

年轻人第一次认出了他儿时的黑暗玩伴，约翰知道那是法官的儿子。

The White John started, lifted his hand, and then froze into his chair; the black John smiled lightly, then grimly, and followed the usher down the aisle.

白约翰吃了一惊，举起手，然后僵在椅子上。黑人约翰轻轻一笑，然后冷酷地跟着引座员走下过道。

The manager was sorry, very, very sorry,—but he explained that some mistake had been made in selling the gentleman a seat already disposed of; he would refund the money, of course,—and indeed felt the matter keenly, and so forth, and—before he had finished John was gone, walking hurriedly across the square and down the broad streets, and as he passed the park he buttoned his coat and said, “John Jones, you’re a natural-born fool.” Then he went to his lodgings and wrote a letter, and tore it up; he wrote another, and threw it in the fire.

经理很抱歉，非常非常抱歉，但他解释说，在向这位先生出售已经处理掉的座位时犯了一些错误；当然，他会退钱的——确实对这件事有敏锐的感觉，等等，然后——话还没说完，约翰就走了，快步穿过广场，沿着宽阔的街道走着，经过公园时，他扣上外套的扣子，说：“约翰·琼斯，你是个天生的傻瓜。”然后他回到自己的住处，写了一封信，然后把它撕毁了。他又写了一篇，然后把它扔进了火里。

Then he seized a scrap of paper and wrote: “Dear Mother and Sister—I am coming—John.”

然后他抓起一张纸片写道：“亲爱的母亲和妹妹——我来了——约翰。”

“Perhaps,” said John, as he settled himself on the train, “perhaps I am to blame myself in struggling against my manifest destiny simply because it looks hard and unpleasant.

“也许，”约翰在火车上安顿下来时说道，“也许我应该责怪自己与我的既定命运作斗争，只是因为它看起来艰难而不愉快。

Here is my duty to Altamaha plain before me; perhaps they’ll let me help settle the Negro problems there,—perhaps they won’t.

这是我对阿尔塔马哈的责任，显而易见；也许他们会让我帮助解决那里的黑人问题，也许他们不会。

‘I will go in to the King, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.’” And then he mused and dreamed, and planned a life-work; and the train flew south.

‘我要进去见王，这是不合法的；如果我死了，我就死了。”然后他沉思着，梦想着，并计划了一生的工作；火车向南飞去。

Down in Altamaha, after seven long years, all the world knew John was coming.

在阿尔塔马哈，漫长的七年后，全世界都知道约翰要来了。

The homes were scrubbed and scoured,—above all, one; the gardens and yards had an unwonted trimness, and Jennie bought a new gingham.

房屋被擦洗干净——最重要的是，一间；花园和院子异常整洁，珍妮买了一件新的格子布。

With some finesse and negotiation, all the dark Methodists and Presbyterians were induced to join in a monster welcome at the Baptist Church; and as the day drew near, warm discussions arose on every corner as to the exact extent and nature of John’s accomplishments.

经过一些技巧和谈判，所有黑暗的卫理公会和长老会都被诱导参加了浸信会教堂的怪物欢迎活动。随着这一天的临近，各个角落都开始热烈讨论约翰的成就的确切范围和性质。

It was noontide on a gray and cloudy day when he came.

他来的时候正值中午，阴沉沉的天气。

The black town flocked to the depot, with a little of the white at the edges,—a happy throng, with “Good-mawnings” and “Howdys” and laughing and joking and jostling.

黑人小镇涌向车站，边缘还有一点白人——一群快乐的人群，一边说着“Good-mawnings”、“Howdys”，一边大笑、开玩笑、推搡。

Mother sat yonder in the window watching; but sister Jennie stood on the platform, nervously fingering her dress, tall and lithe, with soft brown skin and loving eyes peering from out a tangled wilderness of hair.

母亲坐在那边窗边观看。但珍妮姐姐站在平台上，紧张地抚弄着她的裙子，她身材高挑，柔软，棕色皮肤柔软，从乱糟糟的头发中露出慈爱的眼睛。

John rose gloomily as the train stopped, for he was thinking of the “Jim Crow” car; he stepped to the platform, and paused: a little dingy station, a black crowd gaudy and dirty, a half-mile of dilapidated shanties along a straggling ditch of mud.

火车停下来时，约翰郁闷地站了起来，因为他想起了“吉姆·克劳”车厢。他走到站台上，停了下来：一个肮脏的小车站，一群俗气而肮脏的黑人，沿着一条蜿蜒的泥沟，有半英里长的破旧棚屋。

An overwhelming sense of the sordidness and narrowness of it all seized him; he looked in vain for his mother, kissed coldly the tall, strange girl who called him brother, spoke a short, dry word here and there; then, lingering neither for handshaking nor gossip, started silently up the street, raising his hat merely to the last eager old aunty, to her open-mouthed astonishment.

他强烈地感觉到这一切的肮脏和狭隘。他徒劳地寻找母亲，冷冷地吻了吻那个高个子、陌生的女孩，她称他为兄弟，时不时地说一些简短而干巴巴的词。然后，既不停留握手，也不闲聊，默默地沿着街道走去，只是向最后一位热切的老阿姨举起帽子，令她惊讶地张大了嘴。

The people were distinctly bewildered.

众人明显一脸茫然。

This silent, cold man,—was this John?

这个沉默、冷酷的男人——这是约翰吗？

Where was his smile and hearty hand-grasp?

他的微笑和热情的握手在哪里？

“’Peared kind o’ down in the mouf,” said the Methodist preacher thoughtfully.

“‘梨子有点像’，”卫理公会牧师若有所思地说。

“Seemed monstus stuck up,” complained a Baptist sister.

一位浸信会姊妹抱怨说：“这看起来像是怪物。”

But the white postmaster from the edge of the crowd expressed the opinion of his folks plainly.

但人群边缘的白人邮政局长却直白地表达了他家人的意见。

“That damn Nigger,” said he, as he shouldered the mail and arranged his tobacco, “has gone North and got plum full o’ fool notions; but they won’t work in Altamaha.” And the crowd melted away.

“那个该死的黑鬼，”他一边扛着邮件，整理着烟草，一边说道，“已经到北方来了，脑子里充满了愚蠢的想法；但这些想法在阿尔塔马哈行不通。”人群渐渐散去。

The meeting of welcome at the Baptist Church was a failure.

浸信会教堂的欢迎会失败了。

Rain spoiled the barbecue, and thunder turned the milk in the ice-cream.

下雨破坏了烧烤，雷声则使冰淇淋中的牛奶变质。

When the speaking came at night, the house was crowded to overflowing.

晚上演讲的时候，屋子里挤满了人。

The three preachers had especially prepared themselves, but somehow John’s manner seemed to throw a blanket over everything,—he seemed so cold and preoccupied, and had so strange an air of restraint that the Methodist brother could not warm up to his theme and elicited not a single “Amen”; the Presbyterian prayer was but feebly responded to, and even the Baptist preacher, though he wakened faint enthusiasm, got so mixed up in his favorite sentence that he had to close it by stopping fully fifteen minutes sooner than he meant.

三位传道人已经做好了特别的准备，但不知怎的，约翰的举止似乎给一切都盖上了毯子——他看起来那么冷漠、全神贯注，而且有一种奇怪的克制气氛，以至于卫理公会的弟兄无法热衷于他的主题，也没有引出一句“阿门”；长老会的祈祷却没有得到回应，甚至连浸信会的传教士，尽管他唤醒了微弱的热情，却在他最喜欢的句子中变得如此混乱，以至于他不得不比他的意思提前十五分钟停下来结束它。

The people moved uneasily in their seats as John rose to reply.

当约翰站起来回答时，人们在座位上不安地移动。

He spoke slowly and methodically.

他说话缓慢而有条理。

The age, he said, demanded new ideas; we were far different from those men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,—with broader ideas of human brotherhood and destiny.

他说，这个时代需要新的想法。我们与十七、十八世纪的人们截然不同，我们对人类兄弟情谊和命运有着更广泛的观念。

Then he spoke of the rise of charity and popular education, and particularly of the spread of wealth and work.

然后他谈到了慈善事业和大众教育的兴起，特别是财富和工作的传播。

The question was, then, he added reflectively, looking at the low discolored ceiling, what part the Negroes of this land would take in the striving of the new century.

那么，问题是，他看着低矮变色的天花板，若有所思地补充道，这片土地上的黑人将在新世纪的奋斗中扮演什么角色。

He sketched in vague outline the new Industrial School that might rise among these pines, he spoke in detail of the charitable and philanthropic work that might be organized, of money that might be saved for banks and business.

他模糊地勾勒出可能在这些松树中崛起的新工业学校的轮廓，他详细谈到了可能组织的慈善和博爱工作，以及可能为银行和企业节省的资金。

Finally he urged unity, and deprecated especially religious and denominational bickering.

最后，他敦促团结，特别反对宗教和教派的争吵。

“To-day,” he said, with a smile, “the world cares little whether a man be Baptist or Methodist, or indeed a churchman at all, so long as he is good and true.

“今天，”他微笑着说，“世人并不关心一个人是浸信会教徒还是卫理公会教徒，甚至是一名牧师，只要他是善良和真诚的。

What difference does it make whether a man be baptized in river or washbowl, or not at all?

一个人在河里受洗还是在脸盆里受洗，或者根本不受洗，有什么区别呢？

Let’s leave all that littleness, and look higher.” Then, thinking of nothing else, he slowly sat down.

让我们抛开所有的渺小，把眼光放得更高一些。”然后，他什么也没想，缓缓坐下。

A painful hush seized that crowded mass.

人群中一片痛苦的寂静。

Little had they understood of what he said, for he spoke an unknown tongue, save the last word about baptism; that they knew, and they sat very still while the clock ticked.

他们几乎听不懂他所说的话，因为除了关于洗礼的最后一句话外，他说的是一种未知的语言。他们知道这一点，当时钟滴答作响时，他们一动不动地坐着。

Then at last a low suppressed snarl came from the Amen corner, and an old bent man arose, walked over the seats, and climbed straight up into the pulpit.

最后，阿门角传来一阵低沉的咆哮声，一个驼背的老者站了起来，走过座位，径直爬上讲坛。

He was wrinkled and black, with scant gray and tufted hair; his voice and hands shook as with palsy; but on his face lay the intense rapt look of the religious fanatic.

他满脸皱纹，肤色黝黑，灰白色的头发稀少，头发稀疏。他的声音和双手都在颤抖，就像瘫痪了一样。但他的脸上却呈现出宗教狂热者那种全神贯注的神情。

He seized the Bible with his rough, huge hands; twice he raised it inarticulate, and then fairly burst into words, with rude and awful eloquence.

他用粗糙而巨大的双手抓住了《圣经》；他有两次口齿不清地提出这个问题，然后就突然开口说话，口才粗鲁而可怕。

He quivered, swayed, and bent; then rose aloft in perfect majesty, till the people moaned and wept, wailed and shouted, and a wild shrieking arose from the corners where all the pent-up feeling of the hour gathered itself and rushed into the air.

他颤抖着，摇晃着，弯着腰；然后，它以完美的威严升到高处，直到人们呻吟、哭泣、哀号、叫喊，角落里传来一阵疯狂的尖叫，一小时内所有被压抑的感觉都聚集起来，冲向空中。

John never knew clearly what the old man said; he only felt himself held up to scorn and scathing denunciation for trampling on the true Religion, and he realized with amazement that all unknowingly he had put rough, rude hands on something this little world held sacred.

约翰始终不清楚老人说的话；他只觉得自己因践踏真正的宗教而受到蔑视和严厉的谴责，他惊讶地意识到，他在不知不觉中对这个小世界视为神圣的东西伸出了粗鲁的手。

He arose silently, and passed out into the night.

他默默地站了起来，然后就睡在了夜色中。

Down toward the sea he went, in the fitful starlight, half conscious of the girl who followed timidly after him.

在断断续续的星光下，他向大海走去，几乎没有意识到那个胆怯地跟在他后面的女孩。

When at last he stood upon the bluff, he turned to his little sister and looked upon her sorrowfully, remembering with sudden pain how little thought he had given her.

当他终于站在悬崖上时，他转向他的小妹妹，悲伤地看着她，突然痛苦地想起他对她的关心是多么少。

He put his arm about her and let her passion of tears spend itself on his shoulder.

他用手臂搂住她，让她的激情泪水落在他的肩上。

Long they stood together, peering over the gray unresting water.

他们站在一起很久，凝视着汹涌的灰色水面。

“John,” she said, “does it make every one—unhappy when they study and learn lots of things?”

“约翰，”她说，“当每个人学习并学到很多东西时，他们都会感到不快乐吗？”

He paused and smiled.

他停了下来，微笑着。

“I am afraid it does,” he said.

“恐怕是这样，”他说。

“And, John, are you glad you studied?”

“约翰，你很高兴你学习了吗？”

“Yes,” came the answer, slowly but positively.

“是的，”他缓慢而积极地回答。

She watched the flickering lights upon the sea, and said thoughtfully, “I wish I was unhappy,—and—and,” putting both arms about his neck, “I think I am, a little, John.”

她看着海面上闪烁的灯光，若有所思地说，“我希望我不快乐，——而且——而且，”用双臂搂住他的脖子，“我想我是，有点，约翰。”

It was several days later that John walked up to the Judge’s house to ask for the privilege of teaching the Negro school.

几天后，约翰走到法官家，请求获得在黑人学校任教的特权。

The Judge himself met him at the front door, stared a little hard at him, and said brusquely, “Go ’round to the kitchen door, John, and wait.” Sitting on the kitchen steps, John stared at the corn, thoroughly perplexed.

法官亲自在前门迎接他，狠狠地盯着他，粗鲁地说：“约翰，到厨房门口去，等着。”约翰坐在厨房的台阶上，盯着玉米，完全困惑不解。

What on earth had come over him?

他到底发生了什么？

Every step he made offended some one.

他的每一步都冒犯了某人。

He had come to save his people, and before he left the depot he had hurt them.

他是来拯救他的人民的，在他离开车站之前，他伤害了他们。

He sought to teach them at the church, and had outraged their deepest feelings.

他试图在教堂教导他们，但却激怒了他们最深的感情。

He had schooled himself to be respectful to the Judge, and then blundered into his front door.

他训练自己要尊重法官，然后跌跌撞撞地走进前门。

And all the time he had meant right,—and yet, and yet, somehow he found it so hard and strange to fit his old surroundings again, to find his place in the world about him.

一直以来，他的初衷都是对的——然而，然而，不知何故，他发现重新适应他原来的环境，在周围的世界中找到自己的位置是如此困难和奇怪。

He could not remember that he used to have any difficulty in the past, when life was glad and gay.

他不记得过去他曾遇到过什么困难，那时的生活是快乐而快乐的。

The world seemed smooth and easy then.

那时的世界似乎很顺利、轻松。

Perhaps,—but his sister came to the kitchen door just then and said the Judge awaited him.

也许吧——但是他的妹妹就在这时来到厨房门口，说法官正在等他。

The Judge sat in the dining-room amid his morning’s mail, and he did not ask John to sit down.

法官坐在餐厅里，处理着早上的邮件，他没有请约翰坐下。

He plunged squarely into the business.

他一头扎进了这个行业。

“You’ve come for the school, I suppose.

“我猜你是来学校的。

Well John, I want to speak to you plainly.

好吧，约翰，我想和你坦白地谈谈。

You know I’m a friend to your people.

你知道我是你们人民的朋友。

I’ve helped you and your family, and would have done more if you hadn’t got the notion of going off.

我帮助了你和你的家人，如果你没有离开的想法，我会做得更多。

Now I like the colored people, and sympathize with all their reasonable aspirations; but you and I both know, John, that in this country the Negro must remain subordinate, and can never expect to be the equal of white men.

现在我喜欢有色人种，同情他们所有合理的愿望；但约翰，你我都知道，在这个国家，黑人必须保持从属地位，永远不能指望与白人平等。

In their place, your people can be honest and respectful; and God knows, I’ll do what I can to help them.

在他们的位置上，您的员工可以诚实且尊重他人；天知道，我会尽我所能来帮助他们。

But when they want to reverse nature, and rule white men, and marry white women, and sit in my parlor, then, by God!

但当他们想要扭转自然，统治白人男性，娶白人女性，并坐在我的客厅里时，上帝啊！

we’ll hold them under if we have to lynch every Nigger in the land.

如果我们必须对这片土地上的每一个黑鬼处以私刑，我们就会压制住他们。

Now, John, the question is, are you, with your education and Northern notions, going to accept the situation and teach the darkies to be faithful servants and laborers as your fathers were,—I knew your father, John, he belonged to my brother, and he was a good Nigger.

现在，约翰，问题是，以你所受的教育和北方观念，你是否会接受这种情况，并教导黑人像你的父辈一样成为忠实的仆人和劳动者——我知道你的父亲约翰，他属于我兄弟，他是一个好黑鬼。

Well—well, are you going to be like him, or are you going to try to put fool ideas of rising and equality into these folks’ heads, and make them discontented and unhappy?”

好吧——好吧，你是要像他一样，还是要把一些关于崛起和平等的愚蠢想法灌输到这些人的头脑中，让他们感到不满和不高兴？”

“I am going to accept the situation, Judge Henderson,” answered John, with a brevity that did not escape the keen old man.

“我会接受这种情况，亨德森法官，”约翰简短地回答道，这位敏锐的老人并没有逃脱。

He hesitated a moment, and then said shortly, “Very well,—we’ll try you awhile.

他犹豫了一会儿，然后简短地说：“很好——我们会尝试一下。

Good-morning.”

早上好。”

It was a full month after the opening of the Negro school that the other John came home, tall, gay, and headstrong.

黑人学校开学整整一个月后，另一个约翰回到了家，他身材高大、快乐、任性。

The mother wept, the sisters sang.

母亲哭泣，姐妹们唱歌。

The whole white town was glad.

整个白色小镇都很高兴。

A proud man was the Judge, and it was a goodly sight to see the two swinging down Main Street together.

法官是个骄傲的人，看到两人一起在大街上荡来荡去真是一幅美丽的景象。

And yet all did not go smoothly between them, for the younger man could not and did not veil his contempt for the little town, and plainly had his heart set on New York.

然而他们之间的一切并不顺利，因为年轻人无法也没有掩饰他对这座小镇的蔑视，而且显然他的心全在纽约。

Now the one cherished ambition of the Judge was to see his son mayor of Altamaha, representative to the legislature, and—who could say?—governor of Georgia.

现在，法官的一个心愿就是见到他的儿子成为阿尔塔马哈市市长、立法机构代表，以及——谁能说呢？——佐治亚州州长。

So the argument often waxed hot between them.

因此，他们之间的争论经常变得激烈。

“Good heavens, father,” the younger man would say after dinner, as he lighted a cigar and stood by the fireplace, “you surely don’t expect a young fellow like me to settle down permanently in this—this God-forgotten town with nothing but mud and Negroes?” “_I_ did,” the Judge would answer laconically; and on this particular day it seemed from the gathering scowl that he was about to add something more emphatic, but neighbors had already begun to drop in to admire his son, and the conversation drifted.

“天哪，父亲，”晚餐后，年轻人点燃一支雪茄，站在壁炉旁，说道，“你肯定不会指望像我这样的年轻人会永远定居在这个——这个被上帝遗忘的小镇，除了泥土和黑人之外什么都没有？” “_我_做到了，”法官简洁地回答道。在这个特殊的日子里，从聚集的皱眉来看，他似乎正要补充一些更强调的话，但邻居们已经开始过来欣赏他的儿子，谈话就转移了。

“Heah that John is livenin’ things up at the darky school,” volunteered the postmaster, after a pause.

“嘿，约翰在这所黑暗的学校里活跃起来了，”停顿了一下后，邮政局长自告奋勇地说。

“What now?” asked the Judge, sharply.

“现在怎么办？”法官尖锐地问道。

“Oh, nothin’ in particulah,—just his almighty air and uppish ways.

“哦，没什么特别的，只是他无所不能的神气和傲慢的举止。

B’lieve I did heah somethin’ about his givin’ talks on the French Revolution, equality, and such like.

我相信我确实听到了他关于法国大革命、平等等问题的演讲。

He’s what I call a dangerous Nigger.”

他就是我所说的危险的黑鬼。”

“Have you heard him say anything out of the way?”

“你有没有听到他说过什么难听的话？”

“Why, no,—but Sally, our girl, told my wife a lot of rot.

“为什么，不，但是莎莉，我们的女儿，告诉了我妻子很多废话。

Then, too, I don’t need to heah: a Nigger what won’t say ‘sir’ to a white man, or—”

然后，我也不需要听：一个黑人不会对白人说‘先生’，或者——”

“Who is this John?” interrupted the son.

“这个约翰是谁？”儿子打断道。

“Why, it’s little black John, Peggy’s son,—your old playfellow.”

“哎呀，那是小黑人约翰，佩吉的儿子——你的老玩伴。”

The young man’s face flushed angrily, and then he laughed.

年轻人气得满脸通红，然后笑了起来。

“Oh,” said he, “it’s the darky that tried to force himself into a seat beside the lady I was escorting—”

“哦，”他说，“是那个黑鬼试图强迫自己坐在我护送的那位女士旁边——”

But Judge Henderson waited to hear no more.

但亨德森法官不再等待听到更多消息。

He had been nettled all day, and now at this he rose with a half-smothered oath, took his hat and cane, and walked straight to the schoolhouse.

他一整天都心烦意乱，现在他半窒息地起身发誓，拿起帽子和手杖，径直朝校舍走去。

For John, it had been a long, hard pull to get things started in the rickety old shanty that sheltered his school.

对于约翰来说，在他学校所在的摇摇欲坠的破旧棚屋里开始工作是一个漫长而艰难的过程。

The Negroes were rent into factions for and against him, the parents were careless, the children irregular and dirty, and books, pencils, and slates largely missing.

黑人分为支持他和反对他的派系，父母粗心大意，孩子们不守规矩、肮脏，书籍、铅笔和石板大部分都不见了。

Nevertheless, he struggled hopefully on, and seemed to see at last some glimmering of dawn.

尽管如此，他仍满怀希望地挣扎着，似乎终于看到了曙光。

The attendance was larger and the children were a shade cleaner this week.

这周的出席人数更多了，孩子们也更干净了。

Even the booby class in reading showed a little comforting progress.

就连阅读课上的诱杀课也显示出一些令人欣慰的进步。

So John settled himself with renewed patience this afternoon.

于是今天下午约翰又恢复了耐心。

“Now, Mandy,” he said cheerfully, “that’s better; but you mustn’t chop your words up so: ‘If—the-man—goes.’ Why, your little brother even wouldn’t tell a story that way, now would he?”

“现在，曼迪，”他高兴地说，“这样更好；但是你不能把话说得这么短：‘如果——那个人——走。’为什么，你的弟弟甚至不会那样讲故事，现在他会吗？”

“Naw, suh, he cain’t talk.”

“不，先生，他不会说话。”

“All right; now let’s try again: ‘If the man—’

“好吧；现在让我们再试一次：‘如果这个人——’

“John!”

“约翰！”

The whole school started in surprise, and the teacher half arose, as the red, angry face of the Judge appeared in the open doorway.

全校一片惊讶，老师半起身，法官那张愤怒的红脸出现在敞开的门口。

“John, this school is closed.

“约翰，这所学校已经关闭了。

You children can go home and get to work.

你们孩子们可以回家去工作了。

The white people of Altamaha are not spending their money on black folks to have their heads crammed with impudence and lies.

阿尔塔马哈的白人不会把钱花在黑人身上，让他们的脑袋里充满无礼和谎言。

Clear out!

清除！

I’ll lock the door myself.”

我自己去锁门。”

Up at the great pillared house the tall young son wandered aimlessly about after his father’s abrupt departure.

父亲突然离去后，高大的小儿子在高大的柱子房子里漫无目的地闲逛。

In the house there was little to interest him; the books were old and stale, the local newspaper flat, and the women had retired with headaches and sewing.

屋子里没有什么能让他感兴趣的东西。书籍又旧又陈旧，当地报纸平淡无奇，女人们也因头痛和缝纫而退休。

He tried a nap, but it was too warm.

他尝试小睡一下，但太热了。

So he sauntered out into the fields, complaining disconsolately, “Good Lord!

于是他漫步到田野里，沮丧地抱怨道：“天哪！

how long will this imprisonment last!” He was not a bad fellow,—just a little spoiled and self-indulgent, and as headstrong as his proud father.

这牢狱还要持续多久啊！”他不是一个坏人，只是有点被宠坏了，有点自我放纵，而且像他骄傲的父亲一样任性。

He seemed a young man pleasant to look upon, as he sat on the great black stump at the edge of the pines idly swinging his legs and smoking.

他坐在松树边的黑色大树桩上，懒洋洋地摇摆着双腿，抽着烟，看起来是个看上去很讨人喜欢的年轻人。

“Why, there isn’t even a girl worth getting up a respectable flirtation with,” he growled.

“哎呀，连一个值得体面调情的女孩都没有，”他咆哮道。

Just then his eye caught a tall, willowy figure hurrying toward him on the narrow path.

就在这时，他的目光看到狭窄的小路上，一个高大、苗条的身影正朝他急匆匆地走来。

He looked with interest at first, and then burst into a laugh as he said, “Well, I declare, if it isn’t Jennie, the little brown kitchen-maid!

他先是饶有兴趣地看着，然后突然大笑起来，说道：“好吧，我宣布，如果不是珍妮，那个棕色的小厨房女仆！

Why, I never noticed before what a trim little body she is.

哎呀，我以前从来没有注意到她的身材是多么苗条。

Hello, Jennie!

你好，珍妮！

Why, you haven’t kissed me since I came home,” he said gaily.

哎呀，自从我回家后你就没有吻过我了。”他高兴地说。

The young girl stared at him in surprise and confusion,—faltered something inarticulate, and attempted to pass.

年轻女孩惊讶而困惑地盯着他——结结巴巴地说不出什么话，然后试图走过去。

But a wilful mood had seized the young idler, and he caught at her arm.

但年轻的游手好闲的人却心生任性，他抓住了她的胳膊。

Frightened, she slipped by; and half mischievously he turned and ran after her through the tall pines.

她害怕了，就溜了过去。他半调皮地转身，穿过高高的松树追赶她。

Yonder, toward the sea, at the end of the path, came John slowly, with his head down.

那边，面向大海，在小路的尽头，约翰低着头慢慢地走来。

He had turned wearily homeward from the schoolhouse; then, thinking to shield his mother from the blow, started to meet his sister as she came from work and break the news of his dismissal to her.

他疲惫地从校舍回家。然后，为了保护他的母亲免受打击，他开始在妹妹下班时与她见面，并向她透露他被解雇的消息。

“I’ll go away,” he said slowly; “I’ll go away and find work, and send for them.

“我要走了。”他缓缓地说。 “我会去找工作，然后派人去接他们。

I cannot live here longer.” And then the fierce, buried anger surged up into his throat.

我不能再在这里住下去了。”然后，强烈的、埋藏在心底的愤怒涌上了他的喉咙。

He waved his arms and hurried wildly up the path.

他挥舞着手臂，疯狂地沿着小路快步走去。

The great brown sea lay silent.

浩瀚的棕色大海一片寂静。

The air scarce breathed.

空气稀少。

The dying day bathed the twisted oaks and mighty pines in black and gold.

垂死的日子让扭曲的橡树和高大的松树沐浴在黑色和金色之中。

There came from the wind no warning, not a whisper from the cloudless sky.

风中没有传来任何警告，万里无云的天空中也没有传来任何低语声。

There was only a black man hurrying on with an ache in his heart, seeing neither sun nor sea, but starting as from a dream at the frightened cry that woke the pines, to see his dark sister struggling in the arms of a tall and fair-haired man.

只有一个黑人心痛地赶路，看不见阳光，看不见大海，只是被松树惊醒的惊叫声从梦中惊醒，看见他的黑皮肤妹妹在一个高大的金发男人怀里挣扎。

He said not a word, but, seizing a fallen limb, struck him with all the pent-up hatred of his great black arm, and the body lay white and still beneath the pines, all bathed in sunshine and in blood.

他一言不发，但抓住了一根倒下的肢体，用他黑色大臂所有压抑的仇恨击打了他，尸体惨白地躺在松树下，全身沐浴在阳光和鲜血中。

John looked at it dreamily, then walked back to the house briskly, and said in a soft voice, “Mammy, I’m going away—I’m going to be free.”

约翰若有所思地看着它，然后轻快地走回屋里，轻声说道：“妈妈，我要走了——我要自由了。”

She gazed at him dimly and faltered, “No’th, honey, is yo’ gwine No’th agin?”

她茫然地看着他，支支吾吾地说：“不，亲爱的，你是诺斯吗？”

He looked out where the North Star glistened pale above the waters, and said, “Yes, mammy, I’m going—North.”

他望着北极星在水面上闪闪发亮的地方，说道：“是的，妈妈，我要去——北方。”

Then, without another word, he went out into the narrow lane, up by the straight pines, to the same winding path, and seated himself on the great black stump, looking at the blood where the body had lain.

然后，他一言不发，走进狭窄的小巷，沿着笔直的松树而上，来到同样蜿蜒的小路，坐在巨大的黑色树桩上，看着尸体躺着的血迹。

Yonder in the gray past he had played with that dead boy, romping together under the solemn trees.

在那边灰色的过去，他曾和那个死去的男孩一起玩耍，一起在庄严的树下嬉戏。

The night deepened; he thought of the boys at Johnstown.

夜色更深了；他想到了约翰斯敦的孩子们。

He wondered how Brown had turned out, and Carey?

他想知道布朗的结果如何，凯里呢？

And Jones,—Jones?

还有琼斯——琼斯？

Why, he was Jones, and he wondered what they would all say when they knew, when they knew, in that great long dining-room with its hundreds of merry eyes.

嘿，他是琼斯，他想知道当他们知道后，当他们知道后，在那间长长的、有数百只快乐的眼睛的餐厅里，他们会说什么。

Then as the sheen of the starlight stole over him, he thought of the gilded ceiling of that vast concert hall, heard stealing toward him the faint sweet music of the swan.

然后，当星光的光芒偷偷地照在他身上时，他想起了那座巨大音乐厅的镀金天花板，听到天鹅微弱而甜美的音乐向他悄悄袭来。

Hark!

听着！

was it music, or the hurry and shouting of men?

是音乐，还是人们的匆忙和喊叫？

Yes, surely!

是的，当然！

Clear and high the faint sweet melody rose and fluttered like a living thing, so that the very earth trembled as with the tramp of horses and murmur of angry men.

清亮而高亢的微弱甜美的旋律像活物一样升起并飘动，以至于大地都在颤抖，就像马蹄声和愤怒的人们的低语一样。

He leaned back and smiled toward the sea, whence rose the strange melody, away from the dark shadows where lay the noise of horses galloping, galloping on.

他向后靠去，对着大海微笑，从那里传来了奇怪的旋律，远离了黑影，那里有马匹驰骋的声音。

With an effort he roused himself, bent forward, and looked steadily down the pathway, softly humming the “Song of the Bride,”—

他费了好大的劲才清醒过来，向前倾身，坚定地看着小路，轻声哼着“新娘之歌”——

“Freudig geführt, ziehet dahin.”

“弗洛伊德 geführt，ziehet dahin。”

Amid the trees in the dim morning twilight he watched their shadows dancing and heard their horses thundering toward him, until at last they came sweeping like a storm, and he saw in front that haggard white-haired man, whose eyes flashed red with fury.

晨光昏暗的树林中，他看着他们的影子舞动，听到他们的马匹向他轰鸣，直到最后他们像暴风雨一样席卷而来，他看到了前面那个憔悴的白发男子，他的眼睛因愤怒而闪烁着红色。

Oh, how he pitied him,—pitied him,—and wondered if he had the coiling twisted rope.

哦，他多么可怜他，可怜他，并且想知道他是否有那条盘绕的绞绳。

Then, as the storm burst round him, he rose slowly to his feet and turned his closed eyes toward the Sea.

然后，当暴风雨在他周围爆发时，他慢慢站起来，闭上眼睛转向大海。

And the world whistled in his ears.

世界在他耳边呼啸。

XIV.

十四。

Of the Sorrow Songs

悲伤的歌曲

I walk through the churchyard To lay this body down; I know moon-rise, I know star-rise; I walk in the moonlight, I walk in the starlight; I’ll lie in the grave and stretch out my arms, I’ll go to judgment in the evening of the day, And my soul and thy soul shall meet that day, When I lay this body down.

我走过墓地，放下这具尸体；我知道月亮升起，我知道星星升起；我走在月光下，我走在星光下；我将躺在坟墓中，伸出双臂，我将在那天晚上接受审判，当我放下这具尸体时，我的灵魂和你的灵魂将在那天相遇。

NEGRO SONG.

黑人之歌。

[Illustration]

[图示]

They that walked in darkness sang songs in the olden days—Sorrow Songs—for they were weary at heart.

在黑暗中行走的人们唱着昔日的歌曲——悲伤之歌——因为他们内心疲惫。

And so before each thought that I have written in this book I have set a phrase, a haunting echo of these weird old songs in which the soul of the black slave spoke to men.

因此，在我在本书中写下的每一个想法之前，我都会设定一个短语，这是这些奇怪的老歌的令人难以忘怀的回声，在这些歌曲中，黑人奴隶的灵魂与人类交谈。

Ever since I was a child these songs have stirred me strangely.

自从我还是个孩子的时候起，这些歌曲就让我产生了奇怪的兴趣。

They came out of the South unknown to me, one by one, and yet at once I knew them as of me and of mine.

他们从南方来，我一一不认识，但我立刻就知道他们是我的，是我的。

Then in after years when I came to Nashville I saw the great temple builded of these songs towering over the pale city.

多年后，当我来到纳什维尔时，我看到用这些歌曲建造的宏伟寺庙高耸在这座苍白的城市之上。

To me Jubilee Hall seemed ever made of the songs themselves, and its bricks were red with the blood and dust of toil.

对我来说，银禧厅似乎就是由歌曲本身构成的，它的砖块被辛劳的鲜血和灰尘染红了。

Out of them rose for me morning, noon, and night, bursts of wonderful melody, full of the voices of my brothers and sisters, full of the voices of the past.

早上、中午、晚上，它们为我升起阵阵美妙的旋律，充满了我兄弟姐妹的声音，充满了过去的声音。

Little of beauty has America given the world save the rude grandeur God himself stamped on her bosom; the human spirit in this new world has expressed itself in vigor and ingenuity rather than in beauty.

除了上帝亲自印在她胸前的粗鲁的宏伟之外，美国没有给世界带来什么美丽。这个新世界的人类精神表现在活力和创造力，而不是美丽。

And so by fateful chance the Negro folk-song—the rhythmic cry of the slave—stands to-day not simply as the sole American music, but as the most beautiful expression of human experience born this side the seas.

因此，由于命运的偶然，黑人民歌——奴隶有节奏的呼喊——今天不仅成为唯一的美国音乐，而且成为诞生在大洋彼岸的人类经历的最美丽的表达。

It has been neglected, it has been, and is, half despised, and above all it has been persistently mistaken and misunderstood; but notwithstanding, it still remains as the singular spiritual heritage of the nation and the greatest gift of the Negro people.

它一直被忽视，过去和现在都受到一半的蔑视，最重要的是，它一直被错误和误解。但尽管如此，它仍然是这个国家独特的精神遗产和黑人人民最伟大的礼物。

Away back in the thirties the melody of these slave songs stirred the nation, but the songs were soon half forgotten.

早在三十年代，这些奴隶歌曲的旋律就曾轰动全国，但这些歌曲很快就被遗忘了一半。

Some, like “Near the lake where drooped the willow,” passed into current airs and their source was forgotten; others were caricatured on the “minstrel” stage and their memory died away.

有些，如“湖边柳树垂下”，已经进入了流行的空气，其来源被遗忘了；其他人在“吟游诗人”舞台上被讽刺，他们的记忆就消失了。

Then in war-time came the singular Port Royal experiment after the capture of Hilton Head, and perhaps for the first time the North met the Southern slave face to face and heart to heart with no third witness.

然后在战时，在占领希尔顿头岛后，皇家港进行了一次奇异的实验，这也许是北方第一次在没有第三个目击者的情况下面对面、心对心地与南方奴隶会面。

The Sea Islands of the Carolinas, where they met, were filled with a black folk of primitive type, touched and moulded less by the world about them than any others outside the Black Belt.

他们相遇的卡罗莱纳州海岛充满了原始类型的黑人，他们比黑带以外的任何其他人都更少受到周围世界的影响和塑造。

Their appearance was uncouth, their language funny, but their hearts were human and their singing stirred men with a mighty power.

他们的外表粗俗，语言滑稽，但他们的心是人性的，他们的歌声具有震撼人心的力量。

Thomas Wentworth Higginson hastened to tell of these songs, and Miss McKim and others urged upon the world their rare beauty.

托马斯·温特沃斯·希金森 (Thomas Wentworth Higginson) 赶紧讲述这些歌曲，麦金小姐 (Miss McKim) 和其他人则向世界宣扬它们罕见的美丽。

But the world listened only half credulously until the Fisk Jubilee Singers sang the slave songs so deeply into the world’s heart that it can never wholly forget them again.

但世界只是半信半疑地倾听，直到菲斯克禧年歌手将奴隶之歌深深地唱进世界的心里，以至于人们再也无法完全忘记它们。

There was once a blacksmith’s son born at Cadiz, New York, who in the changes of time taught school in Ohio and helped defend Cincinnati from Kirby Smith.

曾经有一个铁匠的儿子出生在纽约州加的斯，随着时间的推移，他在俄亥俄州任教，并帮助保卫辛辛那提免受柯比·史密斯的侵害。

Then he fought at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and finally served in the Freedmen’s Bureau at Nashville.

然后他在钱斯勒斯维尔和葛底斯堡作战，最后在纳什维尔的自由民局服役。

Here he formed a Sunday-school class of black children in 1866, and sang with them and taught them to sing.

1866年，他在这里组建了黑人儿童主日学班，与他们一起唱歌并教他们唱歌。

And then they taught him to sing, and when once the glory of the Jubilee songs passed into the soul of George L.

然后他们教他唱歌，当禧年歌曲的辉煌一度进入乔治·L·布什的灵魂时。

White, he knew his life-work was to let those Negroes sing to the world as they had sung to him.

怀特，他知道他一生的工作就是让那些黑人向世界歌唱，就像他们向他歌唱一样。

So in 1871 the pilgrimage of the Fisk Jubilee Singers began.

于是，1871 年，菲斯克禧年歌手的朝圣之旅开始了。

North to Cincinnati they rode,—four half-clothed black boys and five girl-women,—led by a man with a cause and a purpose.

他们骑马向北前往辛辛那提——四个半裸的黑人男孩和五个女女孩——由一个带着事业和目标的男人带领。

They stopped at Wilberforce, the oldest of Negro schools, where a black bishop blessed them.

他们在威尔伯福斯停了下来，这是最古老的黑人学校，一位黑人主教在那里为他们祝福。

Then they went, fighting cold and starvation, shut out of hotels, and cheerfully sneered at, ever northward; and ever the magic of their song kept thrilling hearts, until a burst of applause in the Congregational Council at Oberlin revealed them to the world.

然后他们出发了，与寒冷和饥饿作斗争，被旅馆拒之门外，并兴高采烈地嘲笑着，一直向北走。他们的歌曲的魔力一直让人们心潮澎湃，直到奥柏林公理会爆发出阵阵掌声，他们才得以向世界展示。

They came to New York and Henry Ward Beecher dared to welcome them, even though the metropolitan dailies sneered at his “Nigger Minstrels.” So their songs conquered till they sang across the land and across the sea, before Queen and Kaiser, in Scotland and Ireland, Holland and Switzerland.

他们来到纽约，亨利·沃德·比彻敢于欢迎他们，尽管都市日报嘲笑他的“黑鬼吟游诗人”。因此，他们的歌曲征服了人们，直到他们在苏格兰和爱尔兰、荷兰和瑞士，在女王和凯撒之前唱过陆地和海洋。

Seven years they sang, and brought back a hundred and fifty thousand dollars to found Fisk University.

他们唱了七年，带回十五万美元创办了菲斯克大学。

Since their day they have been imitated—sometimes well, by the singers of Hampton and Atlanta, sometimes ill, by straggling quartettes.

从他们诞生之日起，他们就一直被模仿——有时被汉普顿和亚特兰大的歌手模仿，有时被落后的四重奏模仿。

Caricature has sought again to spoil the quaint beauty of the music, and has filled the air with many debased melodies which vulgar ears scarce know from the real.

漫画再次试图破坏音乐的古雅之美，并在空气中充满了许多低俗的旋律，粗俗的耳朵几乎无法辨别真实的旋律。

But the true Negro folk-song still lives in the hearts of those who have heard them truly sung and in the hearts of the Negro people.

但真正的黑人民歌仍然活在那些真正听过它们的人的心中，活在黑人人民的心里。

What are these songs, and what do they mean?

这些歌曲是什么，它们的含义是什么？

I know little of music and can say nothing in technical phrase, but I know something of men, and knowing them, I know that these songs are the articulate message of the slave to the world.

我对音乐知之甚少，也不会用专业术语说任何话，但我对人类有所了解，并且了解他们，我知道这些歌曲是奴隶向世界传达的清晰信息。

They tell us in these eager days that life was joyous to the black slave, careless and happy.

他们告诉我们，在这些热切的日子里，黑人奴隶的生活是快乐的，无忧无虑的，幸福的。

I can easily believe this of some, of many.

我很容易相信某些人或许多人的这一点。

But not all the past South, though it rose from the dead, can gainsay the heart-touching witness of these songs.

但并非所有过去的南方，尽管死而复生，都可以否认这些歌曲的感人肺腑的见证。

They are the music of an unhappy people, of the children of disappointment; they tell of death and suffering and unvoiced longing toward a truer world, of misty wanderings and hidden ways.

它们是不幸人民的音乐，是失望之子的音乐；它们讲述了死亡和痛苦，以及对更真实世界的无声渴望，讲述了迷蒙的流浪和隐藏的道路。

The songs are indeed the siftings of centuries; the music is far more ancient than the words, and in it we can trace here and there signs of development.

这些歌曲确实是几个世纪的筛选；音乐远比文字古老，我们可以在其中随处找到发展的迹象。

My grandfather’s grandmother was seized by an evil Dutch trader two centuries ago; and coming to the valleys of the Hudson and Housatonic, black, little, and lithe, she shivered and shrank in the harsh north winds, looked longingly at the hills, and often crooned a heathen melody to the child between her knees, thus:

两个世纪前，我祖父的祖母被一个邪恶的荷兰商人抓住了。来到哈德逊河和休萨托尼克河谷时，她黑黑、娇小、轻盈，在凛冽的北风中瑟瑟发抖，瑟瑟发抖，渴望地望着群山，时常对着膝间的孩子低吟一首异教的旋律，这样：

[Illustration]

[图示]

The child sang it to his children and they to their children’s children, and so two hundred years it has travelled down to us and we sing it to our children, knowing as little as our fathers what its words may mean, but knowing well the meaning of its music.

孩子们把这首歌唱给他的孩子们听，孩子们也唱给他们孩子们的孩子们听，就这样，这首歌已经流传了两百年，我们也唱给我们的孩子们听，我们和我们的父亲一样，对歌词的含义知之甚少，但对音乐的含义却了如指掌。

This was primitive African music; it may be seen in larger form in the strange chant which heralds “The Coming of John”:

这是原始的非洲音乐；在预示“约翰来临”的奇怪圣歌中可以看到更大的形式：

“You may bury me in the East, You may bury me in the West, But I’ll hear the trumpet sound in that morning,”

“你可以把我埋在东方，你可以把我埋在西方，但那天早上我会听到号角声，”

—the voice of exile.

——流亡者的声音。

Ten master songs, more or less, one may pluck from the forest of melody-songs of undoubted Negro origin and wide popular currency, and songs peculiarly characteristic of the slave.

人们或多或少可以从旋律歌曲的森林中挑选出十首大师歌曲，这些歌曲无疑起源于黑人并广泛流行，并且是奴隶特有的歌曲。

One of these I have just mentioned.

我刚才提到了其中之一。

Another whose strains begin this book is “Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen.” When, struck with a sudden poverty, the United States refused to fulfill its promises of land to the freedmen, a brigadier-general went down to the Sea Islands to carry the news.

本书开头的另一句话是“没有人知道我所见过的麻烦”。当美国突然陷入贫困，拒绝履行向自由民提供土地的承诺时，一位准将前往海岛传达了这一消息。

An old woman on the outskirts of the throng began singing this song; all the mass joined with her, swaying.

人群外围的一位老妇人开始唱这首歌；所有的群众都和她一起摇摆。

And the soldier wept.

士兵哭了。

The third song is the cradle-song of death which all men know,—“Swing low, sweet chariot,”—whose bars begin the life story of “Alexander Crummell.” Then there is the song of many waters, “Roll, Jordan, roll,” a mighty chorus with minor cadences.

第三首歌是所有人都知道的死亡摇篮曲——“低摆，甜蜜的战车”——它的小节开始了“亚历山大·克拉梅尔”的人生故事。然后是众水之歌“滚吧，乔丹，滚吧”，这是一首带有小节奏的强大合唱。

There were many songs of the fugitive like that which opens “The Wings of Atalanta,” and the more familiar “Been a-listening.” The seventh is the song of the End and the Beginning—“My Lord, what a mourning!

有很多逃亡者的歌曲，比如《亚特兰大之翼》的开头歌曲，以及更熟悉的《一直在聆听》。第七首是结束与开始之歌——“我的主啊，多么悲痛啊！

when the stars begin to fall”; a strain of this is placed before “The Dawn of Freedom.” The song of groping—“My way’s cloudy”—begins “The Meaning of Progress”; the ninth is the song of this chapter—“Wrestlin’ Jacob, the day is a-breaking,”—a paean of hopeful strife.

当星星开始坠落时”；《自由的黎明》之前就有这样的一段。摸索之歌——《我的路是多云的》——开始了《进步的意义》；第九首是本章的歌曲——“摔跤的雅各布，黎明之日”——一首充满希望的斗争的赞歌。

The last master song is the song of songs—“Steal away,”—sprung from “The Faith of the Fathers.”

最后一首大师歌曲是歌曲中的歌曲——《偷走》——源自《父辈的信仰》。

There are many others of the Negro folk-songs as striking and characteristic as these, as, for instance, the three strains in the third, eighth, and ninth chapters; and others I am sure could easily make a selection on more scientific principles.

还有许多其他黑人民歌与这些歌曲一样引人注目和有特色，例如第三、第八和第九章中的三个乐句；我相信其他人可以轻松地根据更科学的原则做出选择。

There are, too, songs that seem to be a step removed from the more primitive types: there is the maze-like medley, “Bright sparkles,” one phrase of which heads “The Black Belt”; the Easter carol, “Dust, dust and ashes”; the dirge, “My mother’s took her flight and gone home”; and that burst of melody hovering over “The Passing of the First-Born”—“I hope my mother will be there in that beautiful world on high.”

还有一些歌曲似乎与更原始的类型相去甚远：有迷宫般的混合曲“Bright Sparkles”，其中一个短语的开头是“The Black Belt”；复活节颂歌“尘埃，尘埃和灰烬”；挽歌，“我的母亲乘飞机回家了”；还有《长子的逝去》中盘旋的那一阵旋律——“我希望我的母亲会在那美丽的高处世界里。”

These represent a third step in the development of the slave song, of which “You may bury me in the East” is the first, and songs like “March on” (chapter six) and “Steal away” are the second.

这些代表了奴隶歌曲发展的第三步，其中“你可以将我埋在东方”是第一步，“继续前进”（第六章）和“偷走”等歌曲是第二步。

The first is African music, the second Afro-American, while the third is a blending of Negro music with the music heard in the foster land.

第一个是非洲音乐，第二个是非裔美国人音乐，第三个是黑人音乐与在寄养土地上听到的音乐的融合。

The result is still distinctively Negro and the method of blending original, but the elements are both Negro and Caucasian.

结果仍然是独特的黑人和混合原始的方法，但元素既是黑人又是白人。

One might go further and find a fourth step in this development, where the songs of white America have been distinctively influenced by the slave songs or have incorporated whole phrases of Negro melody, as “Swanee River” and “Old Black Joe.” Side by side, too, with the growth has gone the debasements and imitations—the Negro “minstrel” songs, many of the “gospel” hymns, and some of the contemporary “coon” songs,—a mass of music in which the novice may easily lose himself and never find the real Negro melodies.

人们可能会更进一步，发现这一发展的第四步，美国白人的歌曲明显受到奴隶歌曲的影响，或者融入了黑人旋律的整个乐句，如“斯旺尼河”和“老黑乔”。与此同时，随着音乐的发展，贬低和模仿也消失了——黑人“吟游诗人”歌曲、许多“福音”赞美诗和一些当代的“浣熊”歌曲——在这些音乐中，新手很容易迷失自我，永远找不到真正的黑人旋律。

In these songs, I have said, the slave spoke to the world.

我说过，在这些歌曲中，奴隶向世界说话。

Such a message is naturally veiled and half articulate.

这样的信息自然是含蓄的、半清晰的。

Words and music have lost each other and new and cant phrases of a dimly understood theology have displaced the older sentiment.

文字和音乐已经失去了彼此，新的和隐晦的神学短语已经取代了旧的情感。

Once in a while we catch a strange word of an unknown tongue, as the “Mighty Myo,” which figures as a river of death; more often slight words or mere doggerel are joined to music of singular sweetness.

偶尔我们会听到一个未知语言中的奇怪单词，例如“Mighty Myo”，它象征着一条死亡之河；更常见的是，轻柔的话语或单纯的打油诗会与奇异甜美的音乐相结合。

Purely secular songs are few in number, partly because many of them were turned into hymns by a change of words, partly because the frolics were seldom heard by the stranger, and the music less often caught.

纯粹的世俗歌曲数量很少，部分原因是其中许多歌曲通过词句的变化变成了赞美诗，部分原因是陌生人很少听到嬉戏，音乐也很少被捕捉到。

Of nearly all the songs, however, the music is distinctly sorrowful.

然而，在几乎所有歌曲中，音乐明显是悲伤的。

The ten master songs I have mentioned tell in word and music of trouble and exile, of strife and hiding; they grope toward some unseen power and sigh for rest in the End.

我提到的十首大师歌曲在文字和音乐中讲述了麻烦和流放、冲突和隐藏；他们摸索着寻找某种看不见的力量，并叹息着在末日中得到安息。

The words that are left to us are not without interest, and, cleared of evident dross, they conceal much of real poetry and meaning beneath conventional theology and unmeaning rhapsody.

留给我们的文字并非没有趣味，而且，清除了明显的糟粕，它们在传统神学和无意义的狂想之下隐藏了许多真正的诗意和意义。

Like all primitive folk, the slave stood near to Nature’s heart.

像所有原始人一样，奴隶贴近自然的心脏。

Life was a “rough and rolling sea” like the brown Atlantic of the Sea Islands; the “Wilderness” was the home of God, and the “lonesome valley” led to the way of life.

生活是一片“波涛汹涌、波涛汹涌的大海”，就像海岛的棕色大西洋一样； “旷野”是神的家，“幽谷”是生命的道路。

“Winter’ll soon be over,” was the picture of life and death to a tropical imagination.

“冬天很快就会过去”，这是热带想象中的生与死的图画。

The sudden wild thunderstorms of the South awed and impressed the Negroes,—at times the rumbling seemed to them “mournful,” at times imperious:

南方突然发生的狂暴雷暴让黑人感到敬畏和印象深刻——有时隆隆声对他们来说似乎是“悲伤的”，有时是专横的：

“My Lord calls me, He calls me by the thunder, The trumpet sounds it in my soul.”

“我的主召唤我，他用雷声召唤我，号角在我的灵魂中吹响。”

The monotonous toil and exposure is painted in many words.

单调的劳作和暴露是用许多文字来描绘的。

One sees the ploughmen in the hot, moist furrow, singing:

人们看到农夫们在炎热潮湿的犁沟里唱着歌：

“Dere’s no rain to wet you, Dere’s no sun to burn you, Oh, push along, believer, I want to go home.”

“没有雨水淋湿你，没有阳光灼伤你，哦，坚持下去，信徒，我想回家。”

The bowed and bent old man cries, with thrice-repeated wail:

老者弯着腰，哀嚎三声：

“O Lord, keep me from sinking down,”

“主啊，请保佑我免于沉没”

and he rebukes the devil of doubt who can whisper:

他斥责怀疑的魔鬼，他可以低声说：

“Jesus is dead and God’s gone away.”

“耶稣死了，上帝也走了。”

Yet the soul-hunger is there, the restlessness of the savage, the wail of the wanderer, and the plaint is put in one little phrase:

然而灵魂的饥渴却在那里，野蛮人的焦躁不安，流浪者的哀号，用一句话来表达哀叹：

[Illustration]

[图示]

Over the inner thoughts of the slaves and their relations one with another the shadow of fear ever hung, so that we get but glimpses here and there, and also with them, eloquent omissions and silences.

恐惧的阴影笼罩着奴隶们的内心思想和他们彼此之间的关系，因此我们只能瞥见这里和那里，也看到他们，雄辩的遗漏和沉默。

Mother and child are sung, but seldom father; fugitive and weary wanderer call for pity and affection, but there is little of wooing and wedding; the rocks and the mountains are well known, but home is unknown.

母亲和孩子都会被歌唱，但很少有父亲；逃亡者和疲倦的流浪者需要怜悯和感情，但很少有求爱和婚礼；岩石山峦众所周知，而家乡却无人知晓。

Strange blending of love and helplessness sings through the refrain:

副歌中充满了爱与无助的奇怪混合：

“Yonder’s my ole mudder, Been waggin’ at de hill so long; ’Bout time she cross over, Git home bime-by.”

“那边是我的老泥巴，在山上晃了这么久；到了她过去的时候，快回家吧。”

Elsewhere comes the cry of the “motherless” and the “Farewell, farewell, my only child.”

其他地方传来“失去母亲”和“永别了，永别了，我唯一的孩子”的哭声。

Love-songs are scarce and fall into two categories—the frivolous and light, and the sad.

情歌十分稀少，可分为两类：轻薄轻快的和悲伤的。

Of deep successful love there is ominous silence, and in one of the oldest of these songs there is a depth of history and meaning:

深沉而成功的爱情有不祥的沉默，在这些最古老的歌曲之一中，有深刻的历史和意义：

[Illustration]

[图示]

A black woman said of the song, “It can’t be sung without a full heart and a troubled sperrit.” The same voice sings here that sings in the German folk-song:

一位黑人女性谈到这首歌时说：“如果没有一颗饱满的心和一颗烦恼的精神，就无法唱出这首歌。”这里所唱的声音与德国民歌中所唱的声音相同：

“Jetz Geh i’ an’s brunele, trink’ aber net.”

“Jetz Geh i’an’s brunel, trink’ aber net。”

Of death the Negro showed little fear, but talked of it familiarly and even fondly as simply a crossing of the waters, perhaps—who knows?—back to his ancient forests again.

对于死亡，黑人并没有表现出多少恐惧，而是亲切地甚至亲切地谈论它，就像穿越水域一样，也许——谁知道呢？——再次回到他古老的森林。

Later days transfigured his fatalism, and amid the dust and dirt the toiler sang:

后来的日子改变了他的宿命论，在尘土和泥土中，劳动者唱道：

“Dust, dust and ashes, fly over my grave, But the Lord shall bear my spirit home.”

“尘土，尘土和灰烬，飞过我的坟墓，但主会带我的灵魂回家。”

The things evidently borrowed from the surrounding world undergo characteristic change when they enter the mouth of the slave.

显然是从周围世界借来的东西，当它们进入奴隶的口中时，就会发生特征性的变化。

Especially is this true of Bible phrases.

圣经短语尤其如此。

“Weep, O captive daughter of Zion,” is quaintly turned into “Zion, weep-a-low,” and the wheels of Ezekiel are turned every way in the mystic dreaming of the slave, till he says:

“锡安被俘的女儿啊，哭吧”被奇怪地变成了“锡安，低声哭泣”，以西结的轮子在奴隶的神秘梦境中向各个方向转动，直到他说：

“There’s a little wheel a-turnin’ in-a-my heart.”

“我的心里有一个小轮子在转动。”

As in olden time, the words of these hymns were improvised by some leading minstrel of the religious band.

和过去一样，这些赞美诗的歌词是由宗教乐队的一些主要吟游诗人即兴创作的。

The circumstances of the gathering, however, the rhythm of the songs, and the limitations of allowable thought, confined the poetry for the most part to single or double lines, and they seldom were expanded to quatrains or longer tales, although there are some few examples of sustained efforts, chiefly paraphrases of the Bible.

然而，由于聚会的环境、歌曲的节奏和思想的限制，诗歌大部分局限于单行或双行，很少扩展到绝句或更长的故事，尽管有一些持续努力的例子，主要是对圣经的释义。

Three short series of verses have always attracted me,—the one that heads this chapter, of one line of which Thomas Wentworth Higginson has fittingly said, “Never, it seems to me, since man first lived and suffered was his infinite longing for peace uttered more plaintively.” The second and third are descriptions of the Last Judgment,—the one a late improvisation, with some traces of outside influence:

三组简短的诗句一直吸引着我——本章开头的诗句，托马斯·温特沃斯·希金森（Thomas Wentworth Higginson）恰当地说了其中的一行诗：“在我看来，自从人类第一次生活和受苦以来，他对和平的无限渴望从未像现在这样哀伤地表达出来。”第二个和第三个是对《最后的审判》的描述——这是一个后期的即兴创作，带有一些外部影响的痕迹：

“Oh, the stars in the elements are falling, And the moon drips away into blood, And the ransomed of the Lord are returning unto God, Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

“哦，元素中的星星正在坠落，月亮滴入血中，主的赎回者正在回归上帝，主的名是值得称颂的。”

And the other earlier and homelier picture from the low coast lands:

还有另一张来自低海岸地区的早期、更朴素的照片：

“Michael, haul the boat ashore, Then you’ll hear the horn they blow, Then you’ll hear the trumpet sound, Trumpet sound the world around, Trumpet sound for rich and poor, Trumpet sound the Jubilee, Trumpet sound for you and me.”

“迈克尔，把船拖上岸，然后你会听到他们吹响号角，然后你会听到喇叭声，喇叭声响遍世界，喇叭声响彻富人和穷人，喇叭声响禧年，喇叭声响你我。”

Through all the sorrow of the Sorrow Songs there breathes a hope—a faith in the ultimate justice of things.

《悲伤之歌》的所有悲伤中都透着希望——对事物最终正义的信念。

The minor cadences of despair change often to triumph and calm confidence.

绝望的小节奏常常会转变为胜利和平静的信心。

Sometimes it is faith in life, sometimes a faith in death, sometimes assurance of boundless justice in some fair world beyond.

有时是对生命的信仰，有时是对死亡的信仰，有时是对遥远的公平世界无限正义的保证。

But whichever it is, the meaning is always clear: that sometime, somewhere, men will judge men by their souls and not by their skins.

但无论它是什么，其含义总是很明确的：在某个时候，在某个地方，人们会根据他们的灵魂而不是他们的皮肤来评判他们。

Is such a hope justified?

这样的希望有道理吗？

Do the Sorrow Songs sing true?

悲伤之歌唱的是真的吗？

The silently growing assumption of this age is that the probation of races is past, and that the backward races of to-day are of proven inefficiency and not worth the saving.

这个时代悄然增长的假设是，种族的试用期已经过去，当今的落后种族已被证明效率低下，不值得挽救。

Such an assumption is the arrogance of peoples irreverent toward Time and ignorant of the deeds of men.

这种假设是人们对时间的不敬和对人类行为的无知的傲慢。

A thousand years ago such an assumption, easily possible, would have made it difficult for the Teuton to prove his right to life.

一千年前，这样的假设很容易实现，但条顿人却很难证明自己的生命权。

Two thousand years ago such dogmatism, readily welcome, would have scouted the idea of blond races ever leading civilization.

两千多年前，这种教条主义很受欢迎，人们会认为金发种族永远领导文明。

So wofully unorganized is sociological knowledge that the meaning of progress, the meaning of “swift” and “slow” in human doing, and the limits of human perfectability, are veiled, unanswered sphinxes on the shores of science.

可悲的是，社会学知识缺乏组织性，以至于进步的含义、人类行为中“快”和“慢”的含义以及人类完美性的极限，都成为科学海岸上隐藏的、没有答案的狮身人面像。

Why should Æschylus have sung two thousand years before Shakespeare was born?

为什么埃斯库罗斯在莎士比亚出生前两千多年就已经唱歌了？

Why has civilization flourished in Europe, and flickered, flamed, and died in Africa?

为什么文明在欧洲繁荣，而在非洲闪烁、燃烧、消亡？

So long as the world stands meekly dumb before such questions, shall this nation proclaim its ignorance and unhallowed prejudices by denying freedom of opportunity to those who brought the Sorrow Songs to the Seats of the Mighty?

只要世界在这些问题面前温顺地保持沉默，这个国家是否会通过拒绝那些将悲伤之歌带到强者之位的人的机会自由来宣告其无知和不神圣的偏见？

Your country?

你的国家？

How came it yours?

怎么变成你的了？

Before the Pilgrims landed we were here.

在清教徒登陆之前我们就在这里。

Here we have brought our three gifts and mingled them with yours: a gift of story and song—soft, stirring melody in an ill-harmonized and unmelodious land; the gift of sweat and brawn to beat back the wilderness, conquer the soil, and lay the foundations of this vast economic empire two hundred years earlier than your weak hands could have done it; the third, a gift of the Spirit.

在这里，我们带来了我们的三件礼物，并将它们与您的融合在一起：故事和歌曲的礼物——在一个不和谐、不旋律的土地上柔和、激动人心的旋律；挥洒汗水和体力，击退荒野，征服土地，为这个庞大的经济帝国奠定基础，比你软弱的双手早两百年；第三，圣灵的恩赐。

Around us the history of the land has centred for thrice a hundred years; out of the nation’s heart we have called all that was best to throttle and subdue all that was worst; fire and blood, prayer and sacrifice, have billowed over this people, and they have found peace only in the altars of the God of Right.

我们周围这片土地的历史已经有三百年了。我们从全国人民的心中呼唤一切最好的事物来扼杀和征服一切最坏的事物；火与血、祈祷与牺牲，席卷了这个人民，他们只有在正义之神的祭坛上才能找到和平。

Nor has our gift of the Spirit been merely passive.

我们的圣灵恩赐也不仅仅是被动的。

Actively we have woven ourselves with the very warp and woof of this nation,—we fought their battles, shared their sorrow, mingled our blood with theirs, and generation after generation have pleaded with a headstrong, careless people to despise not Justice, Mercy, and Truth, lest the nation be smitten with a curse.

我们积极地与这个国家的经纬交织在一起——我们为他们而战，分担他们的悲伤，将我们的血与他们的血混合在一起，一代又一代地恳求任性、粗心的人们不要蔑视正义、仁慈和真理，以免这个国家受到诅咒。

Our song, our toil, our cheer, and warning have been given to this nation in blood-brotherhood.

我们的歌声、我们的辛劳、我们的欢呼和警告都以兄弟情谊献给了这个国家。

Are not these gifts worth the giving?

这些礼物难道不值得赠送吗？

Is not this work and striving?

这不就是工作和奋斗吗？

Would America have been America without her Negro people?

如果没有黑人，美国还会是美国吗？

Even so is the hope that sang in the songs of my fathers well sung.

即便如此，我父亲的歌曲中所唱出的希望仍然被传唱得很好。

If somewhere in this whirl and chaos of things there dwells Eternal Good, pitiful yet masterful, then anon in His good time America shall rend the Veil and the prisoned shall go free.

如果在这一切事物的漩涡和混乱中的某个地方居住着永恒的善良，可怜而强大，那么不久之后，在他的好时机，美国将撕开面纱，被囚禁的人将获得自由。

Free, free as the sunshine trickling down the morning into these high windows of mine, free as yonder fresh young voices welling up to me from the caverns of brick and mortar below—swelling with song, instinct with life, tremulous treble and darkening bass.

自由，自由，就像早晨的阳光洒进我这些高高的窗户，自由，就像那边新鲜的年轻声音从下面的砖块和砂浆的洞穴中涌向我——充满了歌声，充满了生命的本能，颤抖的高音和黑暗的低音。

My children, my little children, are singing to the sunshine, and thus they sing:

我的孩子们，我的小孩子们，正在向阳光歌唱，他们这样唱道：

[Illustration]

[图示]

And the traveller girds himself, and sets his face toward the Morning, and goes his way.

行者束上腰带，面向黎明，上路。

The Afterthought

事后的想法

Hear my cry, O God the Reader; vouchsafe that this my book fall not still-born into the world wilderness.

读者上帝啊，请垂听我的呼喊；保证我的这本书不会胎死腹中。

Let there spring, Gentle One, from out its leaves vigor of thought and thoughtful deed to reap the harvest wonderful.

温柔的一号，让春天从它的叶子中迸发出思想的活力和深思熟虑的行为来收获美妙的收获。

Let the ears of a guilty people tingle with truth, and seventy millions sigh for the righteousness which exalteth nations, in this drear day when human brotherhood is mockery and a snare.

在这个人类兄弟情谊成为嘲弄和网罗的悲惨日子里，让有罪人民的耳朵因真理而刺痛，让七千万人为振兴民族的正义而叹息。

Thus in Thy good time may infinite reason turn the tangle straight, and these crooked marks on a fragile leaf be not indeed

因此，在你的好时机，无限的理性可能会扭转混乱，而脆弱的叶子上的这些弯曲的痕迹实际上并不存在

THE END

结局

中文为机器翻译，仅供参考。