?自考英語二（下）課文翻譯之unit13

自考英語二（下）課文翻譯之unit13

Unit Thirteen

Work, Labor, and Play

工作，勞作和娛樂

So far as I know, Miss Hannah Arendt was the first person to define the essential difference between work and labor. To be happy, a man must feel, firstly, free and, secondly, important. He cannot be really happy if he is compelled by society to do what he does not enjoy doing, or if what he enjoys doing is ignored by society as of no value or importance. In a society where slavery in the strict sense has been abolished, the sign that what a man does is of social value is that he is paid money to do it, but a laborer today can rightly be called a wage slave. A man is a laborer if the job society offers him is of no interest to himself but he is compelled to take it by the necessity of earning a living and supporting his family

就我所知，漢納.阿倫特小姐是第一個說明了工作與勞作之間基本差異的人。一個人要想快樂， 必須首先感覺自己是自由的， 其次是感到自己是重要的。 如果社會強迫他去做自己不樂意做的事; 或者社會無視他自己喜歡做的事， 將其當(dāng)作沒有價值或無關(guān)緊要的， 他就不可能真正快樂。 在一個嚴(yán)格意義上講已經(jīng)廢除奴隸制的社會里， 一個人所做的事具有社會價值的標(biāo)志就是他為此得到了報酬，但實際上我們可以把今天的勞作者稱為薪水奴隸。如果一個人對社會給予的工作毫無興趣，只是為了生計和養(yǎng)家糊口而被迫接受這份工作，那他就是一名勞作者。

The antithesis to labor is play. When we play a game, we enjoy what we are doing, otherwise we should not play it, but it is a purely private activity; society could not care less whether we play it or not. Between labor and play stands work. A man is a worker if he is personally interested in the job which society pays him to do; what from the point of view of society is necessary labor is from his own point of view voluntary play.Whether a job is to be classified as labor or work depends, not on the job itself, but on the tastes of the individual who undertakes it. The difference does not, for example, coincide with the difference between a manual and a mental job; a gardener or a cobbler may be a worker, a bank clerk a laborer. Which a man is can be seen from his attitude toward leisure. To a worker, leisure means simply the hours he needs to relax and rest in order to work efficiently- He is therefore more likely to take too little leisure than too much; workers die of coronaries and forget their wives' birthdays. To the laborer, on the other hand, leisure means freedom from compulsion, so that it is natural for him toimagine that the fewer hours he has to spend laboring,and the more hours he is free to play, the better.

與勞作對應(yīng)的是娛樂。我們玩游戲時，會感到快樂，否則我們就不會去玩，但這完全是個人的活動，社會對你玩或不玩是不會在意的。介于勞作和娛樂之間的是工作。 如果一個人對社會給予他報酬而從事的工作發(fā)自內(nèi)心地感興趣的話， 他就是一名工作者; 從社會觀點來看是必要的勞動， 從他個人觀點來看則成了自愿娛樂。 一件工作被歸類為勞作還是工作， 不取決于工作本身，而取決于從事這項工作的人的興趣。 比如，它們兩者的區(qū)別并不等同于體力勞動與腦力勞動之間的區(qū)別。 園丁或補鞋匠可能是工作者， 而銀行職員則可能是勞作者。 一個人是勞作者還是工作者， 可以從他對閑暇的態(tài)度看出。 對工作者來說，閑暇只是他用來放松和休息以便能有效地工作所需要的時間。因此他盡可能少閑著;工作者會死于冠心病，會忘了妻子的生日。另一方面，對勞動者來說，閑暇意味著從強迫勞動中擺脫出來的自由，因此很自然地他會想像自己被迫勞動的時間越短，自由娛樂的時間越長就越好。

What percentage of the population in a modern technological society are, like myself, in the fortunate position of being workers?At a guess 1 would say sixteen per cent, and 1 do not think that figure is likely

to get bigger in the future.

在現(xiàn)代技術(shù)社會吧，有百分之幾的人能像我一樣處在工作者的幸運位置上呢?憑猜測，我會說大概是16%，而且我認(rèn)為在將來這個數(shù)字也不可能增加。

Technology and the division of labor have done two things; by eliminating in many fields the need for special strength or skill, they have made a very large number of paid occupations which formerly were enjoyable work into boring labor, and by increasing productivity they have reduced the number of necessary laboring hours.It is already possible to imagine a society in which the majority of the population, that is to say, its laborers, will have almost as much leisure as in earlier times was enjoyed by the aristocracy.When one recalls how aristocracies in the past actually behaved, the prospect is not cheerful. Indeed, the problem of dealing with boredom may be even more difficult for such a future mass society than it was for aristocracies. The latter, for example, ritualized their time; there was a season to shoot grouse, a season to spend in town, etc. The masses are more likely to replace an unchanging ritual by fashion which it will be in the economic interest of certain people to change as often as possible.Again, the masses cannot go in for hunting, for very soon there would be no animals left to hunt. For other aristocratic amusements like gambling, dueling, and warfare, it may be only too easy to find equivalents in dangerous driving, drug-taking, and senseless acts of violence. Workers seldom commit acts of violence, because they can put their aggression into their work, be it physical like the work of a smith, or mental like the work of a scientist or an artist. The role of aggression in mental work is aptly expressed by the phrase “getting one ’s teeth into a problem.”

技術(shù)和勞動分工完成了兩件事： 通過在很多領(lǐng)域消除了對特殊能力或技能的需求，把大量以前令人愉快的有償工作變成了枯燥無味的勞作;通過提高生產(chǎn)力減少了必要的勞動時間。 現(xiàn)在人們已經(jīng)可能去想像這樣一個社會： 其大部分人口，即勞作者，將會享有與以前貴族階層幾乎同樣多的閑暇時間?？僧?dāng)我們回憶起過去貴族們實際上是如何消磨時光時， 前景就不是令人興奮的了。 確實，與當(dāng)時的貴族相比，為這樣一個未來的大眾社會解決如何打發(fā)閑暇的問題要困難的多。例如，貴族們有程式化的消遣安排： 這季節(jié)去射獵松雞， 那季節(jié)在城里尋歡作樂等等。老百姓更可能用時尚取代千篇一律的程式，而盡可能地經(jīng)常改變時尚是符合某些人的經(jīng)濟(jì)利益的。 另外，老百姓也不能都有打獵的愛好， 因為這樣的話很快就會沒有動物可供射獵了。 對其他的貴族娛樂如賭博、 決斗和打仗， 要找一些與其對等的消遣方式實在是很容易的、 如危險駕駛、 吸毒和無意義的暴力行為。 工作者很少有暴力行為， 因為他們會把自己的進(jìn)取精神都投人到工作中去，不管是像鐵匠那樣的體力工作還是像科學(xué)家或藝術(shù)家那樣的腦力工作，都是如此?！八浪酪ё∧硞€問題”這個習(xí)語很貼切地表示出了進(jìn)取精神在腦力工作中的作用。

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