2022年经济学人 启发性文学体裁的终结：常用语手册的消亡(1)（在线收听）

Sells of phrasebooks are falling fast.

外语常用语手册的销量正在迅速下降。

The phrasebook had looked so helpful.

常用语手册曾经似乎很有用。

When Eric Newby, a writer, set out to walk in the Hindu Kush in 1956, he knew he would be visiting places no Englishman had been since 1891.

1956年，作家埃里克·纽比前往了兴都库什山，他知道他将造访的是自1891年以来英国人从未去过的地方。

Nonetheless, he was hopeful of communicating.

尽管如此，他仍对交流抱有希望。

In his bag he carried “Notes on the Bashgali Language”, a phrasebook published in Calcutta in 1902.

他的包里有一本1902年在加尔各答出版的常用语手册《巴什加利语言笔记》。

Opening it one afternoon in the high Himalayas, his hopes faded.

一天下午，他在高耸的喜马拉雅山上打开了这本手册，然后，他的希望破灭了。

Whereas most guidebooks explain how to order a small glass of red wine or a coffee, this offered phrases of more opaque utility.

大多数的旅游指南都会介绍如何点一小杯红酒或咖啡，但这本书中提到的短语却看不出有什么实用性。

“Ini ash ptul p’mich e manchi mrisht waria’m” ran one which, it explained, meant: “I saw a corpse in a field this morning.”

其中一句写道：“Ini ash ptul p’mich e manchi mrisht waria’m”，意思是：“今天早上我在田野里看到一具尸体。”

That was followed by “Tu tott baglo piltia” (“Thy father fell into the river”); “I non angur ai; tu ta duts angur ai” (“I have nine fingers; you have ten”); and “Ia chitt bitto tu jarlom” (“I have an intention to kill you”).

紧随其后的是“Tu tott baglo piltia”(“你父亲掉进了河里”)、“I non angur ai; tu ta duts angur ai”(“我有九根手指，你有十根手指”)和“Ia chitt bitto tu jarlom”(“我打算杀了你”)。

Some struck a more conversational tone, such as “Tu chi se biss gur biti?”

也有些像是用于对话的句子，比如“Tu chi se biss gur biti?”

(“How long have you had a goitre?”).

(“你的甲状腺肿有多久了？”)。

But on the whole the book left him with “a disturbing impression” of Bashgali life.

但总体而言，这本书让他对巴什加利生活产生了“不安的印象”。

Newby’s guide was an eccentric but by no means unique example of a neglected literary genre: the phrasebook.

纽比手中的指南属于一种容易被忽视的文学类型：常用语手册。它不同寻常，但绝不罕见。

These began in antiquity, gathered pace with medieval pilgrimages and flourished in the age of empires and, later, of aeroplanes.

常用语手册出现于古代，随着中世纪的朝圣之旅快速发展，并在帝国时代和后来的航空时代焕发蓬勃生机。

Once they were essential.

它们曾是不可或缺的书籍。

Now the internet and machine translation are rendering them obsolete.

而现在，由于互联网和机器翻译的发展，它们开始逐渐过时。

Figures from Nielsen Book Research, a market-research firm, show that sales in Britain have fallen by 40% in three years.

市场研究公司尼尔森图书研究公司的数据显示，在英国，常用语手册的销量在三年内下降了40%。

The phrasebook is dying.

常用语手册正在消亡。

Few readers will mourn them.

但很少有读者会对它们表示哀悼。

The conversations they mapped out rarely ran so smoothly in life as on the page.

书中安排的对话说起来不像现实生活中那样流畅。

But for historians they are invaluable.

但对于历史学家来说，它们是无价的。

Newby thought his phrasebook was revealing about the Bashgalis; in truth such books reveal much more about their English-speaking authors.

纽比认为他的常用语手册揭示了有关巴什加利人的事实；但事实上，这样的书籍更多地映照了会说英语的作者内心的想法。

To sift through old phrasebooks is to study an unparalleled source on the assumptions made by Britons abroad.

旧时的常用语手册是一些独一无二的材料，能够用于研究旅居海外的英国人对当地产生的猜测。

It is an archaeology of othering.

这是一门关于他者的考古学。

Two things quickly become clear.

两件事很快变得明朗起来。

The first is that travel was seen as a troublesome, even perilous, pursuit.

首先，旅行过去被视为一种麻烦，甚至是危险的行动。

The other is that the now familiar form of the genre - books offering sentences that are practically and predictably useful - took some time to develop.

第二，现在人们熟悉的那种书籍体裁——提供一些实用句子，供日常生活使用，或应对可能情况的书籍——过了一段时间才发展起来。

The 1900 English-Welsh phrasebook “for the use of Travellers and Students” offers “Have you any apples?”

1900年出版的“供旅行者和学生使用的”英语-威尔士语常用语手册中的句子包括：“你有苹果吗？”

and “Where is the butter market?”

和“黄油市场在哪里？”

before adding the more unexpected: “They have cut off his arm.”

更让人意想不到的是：“他们砍掉了他的胳膊。”

The savour of national stereotypes can be tasted on almost every page.

几乎每一页都能感受到作者对威尔士民族的刻板印象。

J.B.Leek’s 1928 English-Italian Conversation Handbook shows that Italy has long been seen as a land of aesthetic indulgence.

J.B.利克在1928年出版的《英语-意大利语对话手册》显示，意大利长期以来被视为一个艺术且放纵的国家。

A section on hair care (“Shave my mustachio/ Kindly twist up my mustachio/ A little pomade on my mustachio”) follows a lengthy section on food.

书中有关于毛发护理的章节(“剃掉我的八字胡/小心地整理我的八字胡/在我的八字胡上抹一点润发油”)，在那之前，是关于食物的长篇大论。

“Give me a bottle...of red wine/ of white wine/ of claret/ of Burgundy...” it runs.

“给我一瓶……红葡萄酒/白葡萄酒/干红葡萄酒/勃艮第葡萄酒……“书中这样写到。

“Give me some Brie cheese/ some Camembert/ some Gruyere...”

“给我一些布里干酪/一些卡蒙贝尔奶酪/一些古老也芝士奶酪......”