《京华烟云》这本书是林语堂旅居巴黎时于1938年8月至1939年8月间用英文写就的长篇小说，并题献给“英勇的中国士兵”，英文书名为《Moment in Peking》，《京华烟云》是他转译为中文后的书名，也有译本将这本书译为《瞬息京华》。林语堂原本打算将《红楼梦》译作英文介绍给西方读者，因故未能译成，此后决定仿照《红楼梦》的结构写一部长篇小说，于是写出了《京华烟云》。林语堂（1895年10月10日-1976年3月26日），福建龙溪人，原名和乐，后改玉堂，又改语堂，中国现代著名作家、学者、翻译家、语言学家，新道家代表人物。By the time she was fourteen, her mind was fully mature, and she learned ways of putting up with injustices and insults from her elder brother which were so essentially a part of a girl’s education. “To yield, to yield” must be the girl’s attitude; to be sober and not expect too much from life, always to expect men to have more freedom and to indulge in mischief.她到了十四岁，思想完全成熟，哥哥欺负她，她已经能够忍受，这是女孩子基本教育的一部分。女孩子的态度应当是忍让，是稳重，在生活上不要太贪求，要听从男人享有较多的自由，由他荒唐胡闹。这一段看着真令人不愉快，对女性的压迫太严重。但是这里这么写也是剧情需要。THE girlhood of Mannia was like the blossoming of the plum flower in cold January, growing on hardened, twisted branches without leaves, thriving in the cold air between the end of winter and the coming of spring, solitary and without its flower companions, and destined to retire and enjoy its own fragrance and dream its hours away within the hard bark of its branches when the peaches and pears and other spring flowers begin to bloom.- The difference between the two is readily discernible.
- If you ask me, there's something a bit queer going on.
曼娘的少女时代就像寒冬腊月盛放的梅花，生在苍劲曲折的枝头上，在冬末春初的寒冷中开放，无绿叶为陪衬，无其他鲜花为伴侣，命中注定幽峭隐退，孤芳自赏。在桃李及其他春花初开之时，她在苍老挺硬的枝丫上已度过了梦幻的韶华。Mannia and her mother arrived in Peking about three in the afternoon of the twenty-second of May, in the midst of a sandstorm in the air. That is to say, there was no storm near the earth’s surface, but the entire sky was overcast by an unbroken sheet of yellow dust moving somewhere in the upper strata. The sun was barely discernible as a blue disc, giving a queer, quiet effect to the city, like a premature and prolonged twilight. 五月二十二下午，在黄尘漫漫之中，曼娘母女到达了北京。所谓黄尘漫漫就是说，在大地表面平静如常，可是在整个天空高处，却黄尘滚滚，不见边际。太阳隐约可见，如一个灰白圆盘，这时令人感觉全城异状，寂静安宁，好像朦胧黄昏提早降临，特别漫长，迢迢无尽。这个感觉说的就像是北京的沙尘暴。这一段环境描写，是为了衬托平亚此时的病情一日重似一日，曼娘被要求去和平亚结婚冲喜。每个人的心里都是不安而忐忑的，对未来充满了不确定感。Families are like trees: some are prolific, and others gradually die in spite of all human care.家就像树一样，有的繁盛，有的虽经人照顾，竟渐渐枯萎而死。
心得：这个比喻很恰当，我们平常说家谱，也是family tree.此处是用来形容孙家的人丁不旺，渐渐衰败。投稿：onebook_onenote@163.com
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