小镇畸人读书札记
TANDY-Concerning Tandy Hard
有什么比小萝莉和富有哲学气质的浪荡富家子的对话更奇特的呢? 半痴半醉的富家子对五岁的小女孩梦呓 “Be Tandy, little one,” “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than just man or woman. Be Tandy.” “It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy.” 诗人叶芝所谓 “how many loved your moment of glad grace, but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.” 我猜Pilgrim soul 指的是勇气。要勇敢地面对生活，跳出社会对性别所安排好的角色，勇敢地作为一个“人”而活，而不仅仅是“男人”或者“女人”。BE SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST MAN OR WOMAN. BE TANDY.
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1. “They think it’s easy to be a woman to be loved, but I know better,” he declared. Again he turend to the child, “I understand,” he cried. “Perhaps of all men I alone understand.” His glance again wandered away to the darkened street. (122)
2. “I know about her although she has never crossed my path,” he said softly. “I know about her struggles and her defeats. It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy.” I made up the name when I was a true dreamer and before my body became vile. It is the quality of being strong to be loved. It is something men need from women and that they do not get.” (123)
3. The stranger arose and stood before Tom Hard. His body rocked back and forth and he seemed about to fall, but instead he dropped to his knees on the sidewalk and raised the hands of the little girl to his drunken lips. He kissed them ecstatically. “Be Tandy, little one,” he pleaded. “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.” (123)
PAPER PILLS-Concerning Doctor Reefy
“You are the apple of my eye” 出自圣经，表示“心中挚爱”。作为一个只有两页的故事，paper pills 短小精悍，让人眼前一亮，读后掩卷难忘。最好的爱情像什么？像twisted apples, 歪苹果。只有少数人知道，歪苹果才是最甜的。
世人总喜欢又大又圆平整光洁的苹果，于是这些苹果很快从树上被采摘下来，运到城里，销售一空。人们坐在装修得富丽堂皇的家里吃这些苹果，家里有书，杂志，高档的家具，人们谈笑风生。可是，愚蠢的世人往往不知道，那些留在果园里，被人忽视，遗忘，抛弃的歪苹果才是最甜的。
Doctor Reefy 是一个上了年纪、性格古怪又离群索居的小镇牙医，靠骑一匹老马挨家挨户敲门问诊为生。他寡居，十年间只和一个朋友来往，总是穿同样一套旧衣服-- “It was frayed (fray: to wear by rubbing 磨损) at the sleeves and little holes had appeared at the knees and elbows.” 他的手指关节异常硕大，当他握紧拳头的时候，指关节像一堆没有上色的木球，又像钢条串起来的核桃. “When the hands were closed they looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls as large as walnuts fastened together by steel rods.” 他有一个怪癖，当他骑着老马走在路上，总喜欢在小纸片上写下些什么，然后把他们搓成圆球，塞进衣服的口袋里，口袋塞满了就随意撒在地上。这些小纸片上写的是什么呢？ “On the papers were written thoughts, ends of thoughts, beginning of thoughts….Out of many of them he formed a truth that arose gigantic in his mind. The truth clouded the world. It became terrible and then faded away and the little thoughts began again.” 他是一个孤独的智者。
她是一个年轻漂亮的富家女，父母刚去世，留下一大笔遗产，追求者甚多。第一眼见到孤独的他，她就知道他是她要的那个苹果。 “After the tall dark girl came to know Doctor Reefy it seemed to her that she never wanted to leave him again.” 她不要世人眼中的好苹果，她要像他一样的歪苹果。“She was like one who has discovered the sweetness of the twisted apples. She could not get her mind fixed again upon the round perfect fruit that is eaten in the city apartments.
在第一次见面没多久之后的秋天，他们结了婚。 “During the winter he read to her all of the odds and ends of thoughts he had scribbled on the bits of paper.” 在那个冬天，他把他所有的纸片上写的话说给她听。不幸的是，来年春天，她去世了。在那之后，他就呆坐在漆黑的空荡荡的布满了蜘蛛网的诊所里，足不出户了。
“The story of Doctor Reefy and his courtship of the tall dark girl who became his wife and left her money to him is a very curious story. It is delicious like the twisted little apples that grow in the orchards of Winesburg. In the fall one walks in the orchards and the ground is hard with frost underfoot. The apples have been taken from the trees by the pickers. They have been put in barrels and shipped to the cities where they will be eaten in apartments that are filled with books, magazines, furniture and people. On the trees are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected. They look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy’s hands. One nibbles at them and they are delicious. Into a little round place at the side of the apple has been gathered all of its sweetness. One runs from tree to tree over the frosted ground picking the gnarled twisted apples and filling his pockets with them. Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples.”
Gnarled: (a) covered with gnarls, twisted, knotted, gnarl: a knot on a tree
Nibble: (v) to bite gently and repeatedly.
有什么比小萝莉和富有哲学气质的浪荡富家子的对话更奇特的呢? 半痴半醉的富家子对五岁的小女孩梦呓 “Be Tandy, little one,” “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than just man or woman. Be Tandy.” “It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy.” 诗人叶芝所谓 “how many loved your moment of glad grace, but one man loved the pilgrim soul in you.” 我猜Pilgrim soul 指的是勇气。要勇敢地面对生活，跳出社会对性别所安排好的角色，勇敢地作为一个“人”而活，而不仅仅是“男人”或者“女人”。BE SOMETHING MORE THAN JUST MAN OR WOMAN. BE TANDY.
.
1. “They think it’s easy to be a woman to be loved, but I know better,” he declared. Again he turend to the child, “I understand,” he cried. “Perhaps of all men I alone understand.” His glance again wandered away to the darkened street. (122)
2. “I know about her although she has never crossed my path,” he said softly. “I know about her struggles and her defeats. It is because of her defeats that she is to me the lovely one. Out of her defeats has been born a new quality in woman. I have a name for it. I call it Tandy.” I made up the name when I was a true dreamer and before my body became vile. It is the quality of being strong to be loved. It is something men need from women and that they do not get.” (123)
3. The stranger arose and stood before Tom Hard. His body rocked back and forth and he seemed about to fall, but instead he dropped to his knees on the sidewalk and raised the hands of the little girl to his drunken lips. He kissed them ecstatically. “Be Tandy, little one,” he pleaded. “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything. Be brave enough to dare to be loved. Be something more than man or woman. Be Tandy.” (123)
PAPER PILLS-Concerning Doctor Reefy
“You are the apple of my eye” 出自圣经，表示“心中挚爱”。作为一个只有两页的故事，paper pills 短小精悍，让人眼前一亮，读后掩卷难忘。最好的爱情像什么？像twisted apples, 歪苹果。只有少数人知道，歪苹果才是最甜的。
世人总喜欢又大又圆平整光洁的苹果，于是这些苹果很快从树上被采摘下来，运到城里，销售一空。人们坐在装修得富丽堂皇的家里吃这些苹果，家里有书，杂志，高档的家具，人们谈笑风生。可是，愚蠢的世人往往不知道，那些留在果园里，被人忽视，遗忘，抛弃的歪苹果才是最甜的。
Doctor Reefy 是一个上了年纪、性格古怪又离群索居的小镇牙医，靠骑一匹老马挨家挨户敲门问诊为生。他寡居，十年间只和一个朋友来往，总是穿同样一套旧衣服-- “It was frayed (fray: to wear by rubbing 磨损) at the sleeves and little holes had appeared at the knees and elbows.” 他的手指关节异常硕大，当他握紧拳头的时候，指关节像一堆没有上色的木球，又像钢条串起来的核桃. “When the hands were closed they looked like clusters of unpainted wooden balls as large as walnuts fastened together by steel rods.” 他有一个怪癖，当他骑着老马走在路上，总喜欢在小纸片上写下些什么，然后把他们搓成圆球，塞进衣服的口袋里，口袋塞满了就随意撒在地上。这些小纸片上写的是什么呢？ “On the papers were written thoughts, ends of thoughts, beginning of thoughts….Out of many of them he formed a truth that arose gigantic in his mind. The truth clouded the world. It became terrible and then faded away and the little thoughts began again.” 他是一个孤独的智者。
她是一个年轻漂亮的富家女，父母刚去世，留下一大笔遗产，追求者甚多。第一眼见到孤独的他，她就知道他是她要的那个苹果。 “After the tall dark girl came to know Doctor Reefy it seemed to her that she never wanted to leave him again.” 她不要世人眼中的好苹果，她要像他一样的歪苹果。“She was like one who has discovered the sweetness of the twisted apples. She could not get her mind fixed again upon the round perfect fruit that is eaten in the city apartments.
在第一次见面没多久之后的秋天，他们结了婚。 “During the winter he read to her all of the odds and ends of thoughts he had scribbled on the bits of paper.” 在那个冬天，他把他所有的纸片上写的话说给她听。不幸的是，来年春天，她去世了。在那之后，他就呆坐在漆黑的空荡荡的布满了蜘蛛网的诊所里，足不出户了。
“The story of Doctor Reefy and his courtship of the tall dark girl who became his wife and left her money to him is a very curious story. It is delicious like the twisted little apples that grow in the orchards of Winesburg. In the fall one walks in the orchards and the ground is hard with frost underfoot. The apples have been taken from the trees by the pickers. They have been put in barrels and shipped to the cities where they will be eaten in apartments that are filled with books, magazines, furniture and people. On the trees are only a few gnarled apples that the pickers have rejected. They look like the knuckles of Doctor Reefy’s hands. One nibbles at them and they are delicious. Into a little round place at the side of the apple has been gathered all of its sweetness. One runs from tree to tree over the frosted ground picking the gnarled twisted apples and filling his pockets with them. Only the few know the sweetness of the twisted apples.”
Gnarled: (a) covered with gnarls, twisted, knotted, gnarl: a knot on a tree
Nibble: (v) to bite gently and repeatedly.
