第 2 节
作者:指点迷津      更新:2024-05-15 20:29      字数:9322
  the author of the crime is pleased with his performance。
  A favorite one is REISTE ABwhich means departed。
  Here is an example which I culled from a novel and reduced
  to English:
  〃The trunks being now ready; he DE… after kissing his
  mother and sisters; and once more pressing to his bosom
  his adored Gretchen; who; dressed in simple white muslin;
  with a single tuberose in the ample folds of her rich
  brown hair; had tottered feebly down the stairs; still pale
  from the terror and excitement of the past evening;
  but longing to lay her poor aching head yet once again
  upon the breast of him whom she loved more dearly than
  life itself; PARTED。〃
  However; it is not well to dwell too much on the
  separable verbs。  One is sure to lose his temper early;
  and if he sticks to the subject; and will not be warned;
  it will at last either soften his brain or petrify it。
  Personal pronouns and adjectives are a fruitful nuisance
  in this language; and should have been left out。
  For instance; the same sound; SIE; means YOU; and it means SHE;
  and it means HER; and it means IT; and it means THEY;
  and it means THEM。  Think of the ragged poverty of a
  language which has to make one word do the work of sixand
  a poor little weak thing of only three letters at that。
  But mainly; think of the exasperation of never knowing
  which of these meanings the speaker is trying to convey。
  This explains why; whenever a person says SIE to me;
  I generally try to kill him; if a stranger。
  Now observe the Adjective。  Here was a case where simplicity
  would have been an advantage; therefore; for no other reason;
  the inventor of this language complicated it all he could。
  When we wish to speak of our 〃good friend or friends;〃
  in our enlightened tongue; we stick to the one form and have
  no trouble or hard feeling about it; but with the German
  tongue it is different。  When a German gets his hands
  on an adjective; he declines it; and keeps on declining
  it until the common sense is all declined out of it。
  It is as bad as Latin。  He says; for instance:
  SINGULAR
  NominativeMein gutER Freund; my good friend。
  GenitivesMeinES GutEN FreundES; of my good friend。
  DativeMeinEM gutEN Freund; to my good friend。
  AccusativeMeinEN gutEN Freund; my good friend。
  PLURAL
  N。MeinE gutEN FreundE; my good friends。  G。MeinER gutEN
  FreundE; of my good friends。  D。MeinEN gutEN FreundEN;
  to my good friends。  A。MeinE gutEN FreundE; my good friends。
  Now let the candidate for the asylum try to memorize
  those variations; and see how soon he will be elected。
  One might better go without friends in Germany than take
  all this trouble about them。  I have shown what a bother
  it is to decline a good (male) friend; well this is
  only a third of the work; for there is a variety of new
  distortions of the adjective to be learned when the object
  is feminine; and still another when the object is neuter。
  Now there are more adjectives in this language than there
  are black cats in Switzerland; and they must all be as
  elaborately declined as the examples above suggested。
  Difficult?troublesome?these words cannot describe it。
  I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say; in one of
  his calmest moods; that he would rather decline two drinks
  than one German adjective。
  The inventor of the language seems to have taken pleasure
  in complicating it in every way he could think of。
  For instance; if one is casually referring to a house;
  HAUS; or a horse; PFERD; or a dog; HUND; he spells these
  words as I have indicated; but if he is referring to them
  in the Dative case; he sticks on a foolish and unnecessary
  E and spells them HAUSE; PFERDE; HUNDE。  So; as an added
  E often signifies the plural; as the S does with us;
  the new student is likely to go on for a month making
  twins out of a Dative dog before he discovers his mistake;
  and on the other hand; many a new student who could ill
  afford loss; has bought and paid for two dogs and only
  got one of them; because he ignorantly bought that dog
  in the Dative singular when he really supposed he was
  talking pluralwhich left the law on the seller's side;
  of course; by the strict rules of grammar; and therefore
  a suit for recovery could not lie。
  In German; all the Nouns begin with a capital letter。
  Now that is a good idea; and a good idea; in this language;
  is necessarily conspicuous from its lonesomeness。  I consider
  this capitalizing of nouns a good idea; because by reason
  of it you are almost always able to tell a noun the minute
  you see it。  You fall into error occasionally; because you
  mistake the name of a person for the name of a thing;
  and waste a good deal of time trying to dig a meaning
  out of it。  German names almost always do mean something;
  and this helps to deceive the student。  I translated
  a passage one day; which said that 〃the infuriated tigress
  broke loose and utterly ate up the unfortunate fir forest〃
  (Tannenwald)。 When I was girding up my loins to doubt this;
  I found out that Tannenwald in this instance was a
  man's name。
  Every noun has a gender; and there is no sense or system
  in the distribution; so the gender of each must be
  learned separately and by heart。  There is no other way。
  To do this one has to have a memory like a memorandum…book。
  In German; a young lady has no sex; while a turnip has。
  Think what overwrought reverence that shows for the turnip;
  and what callous disrespect for the girl。  See how it
  looks in printI translate this from a conversation
  in one of the best of the German Sunday…school books:
  〃Gretchen。 Wilhelm; where is the turnip?
  〃Wilhelm。 She has gone to the kitchen。
  〃Gretchen。 Where is the accomplished and beautiful English
  maiden?
  Wilhelm。  It has gone to the opera。〃
  To continue with the German genders: a tree is male; its buds
  are female; its leaves are neuter; horses are sexless;
  dogs are male; cats are femaletomcats included; of course;
  a person's mouth; neck; bosom; elbows; fingers; nails; feet;
  and body are of the male sex; and his head is male
  or neuter according to the word selected to signify it;
  and NOT according to the sex of the individual who wears
  itfor in Germany all the women either male heads or
  sexless ones; a person's nose; lips; shoulders; breast;
  hands; and toes are of the female sex; and his hair;
  ears; eyes; chin; legs; knees; heart; and conscience
  haven't any sex at all。  The inventor of the language
  probably got what he knew about a conscience from hearsay。
  Now; by the above dissection; the reader will see that in
  Germany a man may THINK he is a man; but when he comes to look
  into the matter closely; he is bound to have his doubts;
  he finds that in sober truth he is a most ridiculous mixture;
  and if he ends by trying to comfort himself with the
  thought that he can at least depend on a third of this
  mess as being manly and masculine; the humiliating second
  thought will quickly remind him that in this respect
  he is no better off than any woman or cow in the land。
  In the German it is true that by some oversight of the inventor
  of the language; a Woman is a female; but a Wife (Weib)
  is notwhich is unfortunate。  A Wife; here; has no sex;
  she is neuter; so; according to the grammar; a fish
  is HE; his scales are SHE; but a fishwife is neither。
  To describe a wife as sexless may be called under…description;
  that is bad enough; but over…description is surely worse。
  A German speaks of an Englishman as the ENGLA〃NDER; to change
  the sex; he adds INN; and that stands for Englishwoman
  ENGLA〃NDERINN。 That seems descriptive enough; but still
  it is not exact enough for a German; so he precedes the
  word with that article which indicates that the creature
  to follow is feminine; and writes it down thus: 〃die
  Engla〃nderinn;〃which means 〃the she…Englishwoman。〃
  I consider that that person is over…described。
  Well; after the student has learned the sex of a great
  number of nouns; he is still in a difficulty; because he
  finds it impossible to persuade his tongue to refer
  to things as 〃he〃 and 〃she;〃 and 〃him〃 and 〃her;〃 which
  it has been always accustomed to refer to it as 〃it。〃
  When he even frames a German sentence in his mind;
  with the hims and hers in the right places; and then works
  up his courage to the utterance…point; it is no use
  the moment he begins to speak his tongue files the track
  and all those labored males and females come out as 〃its。〃
  And even when he is reading German to himself; he always
  calls those things 〃it;〃 where as he ought to read in this way:
  TALE OF THE FISHWIFE AND ITS SAD FATE '2'
  2。  I capitalize the nouns; in the German (and
  ancient English) fashion。
  It is a bleak Day。  Hear the Rain; how he pours; and the Hail;
  how he rattles; and see the Snow; how he drifts along;
  and of the Mud; how deep he is! Ah the poor Fishwife;
  it is stuck fast in th