劳工往事：名家笔下的矿工
The deep mines, the black pit, the cheap homes, the danger, the everlasting conflict for wages and for life…
深埋地下的矿坑，漆黑的矿井，简陋的窝棚，不可预知的生命之忧，永不停歇的斗争，为了一份血汗钱，为了活下去……
The work is dirty. Coal dust grinds itself into the skin, never to be removed. The miner must stoop as he works in the drift. He becomes bent like a gnome. His work is utterly fatiguing. Muscles and bones ache. His lungs breathe coal dust and the strange, damp air of places that are never filled with sunlight.
这份工作很脏。煤灰日复一日地侵入他们的皮肤，再不褪去。狭窄的坑道里，挖煤工蜷曲着身子作业，渐渐地成了弯腰弓背的土地爷。极度疲倦的工人们，肌肉和骨头承受着酸楚与苦痛，鲜润的肺叶吞咽着黑色的尘埃。潮湿的空气夹带着令人难受的气体，战场就在这个永远暗无天日的地方。
Mary Harris Jones (1837-1930)
致力于美国劳工运动的玛丽•哈里斯•琼斯
本期经典：爱弥尔•左拉《萌芽》
背景 1884年2月，法国昂赞发生采煤工人大罢工，左拉闻讯后赶赴现场，做了大量调查访问，随即动笔创作《萌芽》，并于次年完稿。小说用近乎写实的笔触再现了19世纪后期矿工们的苦难生活及其在社会主义思潮影响下的斗争历程。
本期只截取了书中艾坚所在的矿工小组一天内工作的若干片断，其中有恶劣工作条件的压抑与熬煎，有矿工们坚强的意志和劳动中的智慧与友情，但也有劳工之间幼稚的欺压和对安全防范的疏忽大意。正直善良与自私丑陋并存，尚未成熟的主人公艾坚在全书中的表现也正是如此。作者对工人阶级的勾勒饱含深情却又不偏不倚，这一切仿佛预示了工人运动必将经历的艰辛磨难。压迫，忍受，压迫，觉醒，斗争，失败，斗争，失败，成熟，新的斗争……
Germinal
Émile Zola (1840-1902)
Translated by Havelock Ellis (1859-1939)
画面一：马安的采掘小组下井工作了
The four pikemen had spread themselves one above the other over the whole face of the cutting. This seam was so thin, scarcely more than fifty centimetres thick at this spot, that they seemed to be flattened between the roof and the wall, dragging themselves along by their knees and elbows, and unable to turn without crushing their shoulders. In order to attack the coal, they had to lie on their sides with their necks twisted and arms raised, brandishing, in a sloping direction, their short-handled picks.
pikemen: 采掘工
face of the cutting: 掌子面（tunnel face，开挖坑道不断向前推进的工作面）
seam: 矿层----------------------------------------flatten: 压扁
roof and wall: 坑顶和坑壁-------------------crush: 挤坏
twist: 扭曲变形----------------------------------brandishing: 挥舞
sloping: 倾斜的-----------------------------------short-handled pick: 短把儿尖镐
画面二：掌子面的最里面是马安，闷热缺氧，狭窄潮湿，组长在前
Below there was, first, Zacharie; Levaque and Chaval were on the stages above, and at the very top was Maheu. Maheu suffered most. At the top the temperature rose to thirty-five degrees, and the air was stagnant, so that in the long run it became lethal. In order to see, he had been obliged to fix his lamp to a nail near his head, and this lamp, close to his skull, still further heated his blood. But his torment was especially aggravated by the moisture. The rock above him, a few centimetres from his face, streamed with water, which fell in large continuous rapid drops with a sort of obstinate rhythm, always at the same spot. It was vain for him to twist his head or bend back his neck. They fell on his face, dropping unceasingly. In a quarter of an hour he was soaked, and at the same time covered with sweat, smoking as with the hot steam of a laundry. He would not leave his picking, he dealt great strokes which shook him violently between the two rocks, like a fly caught between two leaves of a book and in danger of being completely flattened.
Zacharie: 柴沙里--------------------------------Maheu: 马安，柴沙里的父亲
stagnant: 不流动而污浊的------------------lethal: 要人命的
be oblige to: 被迫-------------------------------lamp: 安全灯
skull: 脑壳-----------------------------------------still further: 更加
torment: 折磨------------------------------------be aggravated: 恶化
moisture: 潮气-----------------------------------stream with water: 此处指渗水
obstinate: 顽固的-------------------------------bend back: 后仰
unceasingly: 不停地----------------------------soaked: 湿透
the hot steam of a laundry: 洗衣店熨烫洗过衣物的蒸气
picking: 刨；凿击-------------------------------deal great stroke: 猛击
画面三：无底的黑暗，沉闷的空响
Not a word was exchanged. They all hammered; one only heard these irregular blows, which seemed veiled and remote. And it seemed that the darkness was an unknown blackness, thickened by the floating coal dust, made heavy by the gas which weighed on the eyes. Pickaxes struck great hollow blows; one only heard panting chests, the grunting of discomfort and weariness beneath the weight of the air and the rain of the springs.
blow: 敲击
which seemed veiled and remote: 那响动闷声闷气的，听起来恍如隔世。
gas: 瓦斯-------------------------------------------weighed on the eyes: 呛得人睁不开眼
pickaxe: 鹤嘴锄-----------------------------------hollow: 低沉的；空响的
panting: 气喘吁吁的----------------------------grunting: 痛苦的哼哼
weariness: 疲倦-----------------------------------rain of the springs: 此处指不断的滴水
画面四：大意成习惯，安全埋隐患
Behind the pikemen nearly three metres of the seam were clear, and they had not yet taken the precaution of supporting the rock, having grown careless of danger and miserly of their time.
precaution of supporting the rock: 指用坑木支撑岩壁，以防坍塌。 precaution，预防措施。
miserly: 吝惜
画面五：把煤运出去也不是件容易事儿
It was certainly not a convenient road. …at certain spots the laden tram could only just pass; the putter had to flatten himself, to push on his knees, in order not to break his head, and besides this the wood was already bending and yielding. One could see it broken in the middle in long pale rents like an over-weak crutch. One had to be careful not to graze oneself in these fractures; and beneath the slow crushing, which caused the splitting of billets of oak as large as the thigh, one had to glide almost on one’s belly with a secret fear of suddenly hearing one’s back break.
laden: 满载的--------------------------------------tram: 运煤的斗车
putter: 推车工-------------------------------------wood: 此处指支撑岩壁的坑木
bending and yielding: 被压弯----------------rent: 裂缝
over-weak: 疲软的，不中用的--------------crutch: 拐杖
graze: 擦破-----------------------------------------fracture: 破裂处
beneath the slow crushing: 在长时间的重压下
split: 劈裂-------------------------------------------billet: 短木柴
glide: 滑行。此处指爬行----------------------secret fear: 暗自担心
画面六：艾坚，二十出头的小伙子，本是铁路工厂的机器工人，因酒后打了工头耳光而被开除。他连夜来到矿上找工作，因为马安的采掘小组刚死了一名女推车工，艾坚便顶替了她暂时做推车工。今天是他第一天下井，和马安的女儿嘉黛琳一组。
“Again!” said Catherine, laughing.
Étienne’s tram had gone off the rails at the most difficult spot. He could not roll straight on these rails which sank in the damp earth, and he swore, became angry, and fought furiously with the wheels, which he could not get back into place in spite of exaggerated efforts.
“Wait a bit,” said the young girl. “If you get angry it will never go.” Skillfully she had glided down and thrust her buttocks beneath the tram, and by putting the weight on her loins she raised it and replaced it. The weight was seven hundred kilograms. Surprised and ashamed, he stammered excuses.
Catherine: 嘉黛琳----------------------------------Étienne: 艾坚
rail: 此处指斗车运行的轨道-------------------sank: 下沉（原形 sink）
swore: 咒骂（原形 swear）-------------------furiously: 狂暴地
exaggerated: 夸张，过大-----------------------glide down: 滑下去，此处指钻到斗车下
thrust: 猛推，用力拱-----------------------------loins: 腰胯
stammer: 结结巴巴
画面七：掌子面里的叹息，挥不动的手臂
On each journey Étienne found again at the bottom the stuffiness of the cutting, the hollow and broken cadence of the axes, the deep painful sighs of the pikemen persisting in their work. All four were naked, mixed up with the coal, soaked with black mud up to the cap. At one moment it had been necessary to free Maheu, who was gasping.
stuffiness: 通风不畅----------------------------cutting: 代指掌子面
broken: 断断续续的----------------------------cadence: 抑扬顿挫的韵律
at one moment: 暂时，一会儿-------------free: 解救出来
gasp: 大口喘气
画面八：因为对艾坚抱有本能的厌恶，萨瓦尔对这个初来乍到的笨小子竭尽嘲讽
Chaval turned, lying for a moment on his back, abusing Étienne, whose presence decidedly exasperated him.
“A sort of worm; hasn’t the strength of a girl!
Chaval: 萨瓦尔，马安小组的采掘工--------abuse: 侮辱
presence: 出现---------------------------------------decidedly: 显然
exasperate: 恼怒------------------------------------worm: 懦夫
画面九：忍耐，承受
The young man avoided replying, too happy at present to have found this convict’s labour and accepting the brutal rule of the worker by master worker. But he could no longer walk, his feet were bleeding, his limbs torn by horrible cramps, his body confined in an iron girdle.
convict: 罪犯。convict’s labour此处指苦力。
brutal: 粗暴的--------------------------------------rule: 统治。此处指欺压
master worker: 老员工---------------------------limbs: 四肢
torn: 破碎--------------------------------------------cramp: 抽筋
confine: 束缚----------------------------------------girdle: 箍
画面十：面包，分你一半
Then she remembered that this youth, wandering about at night without a sou, perhaps had not a bit of bread.
She had already broken the bread and butter into two pieces. The young man, taking his half, restrained himself from devouring it all at once, and placed his arms on his thighs, so that she should not see how he trembled. With her quiet air of good comradeship she lay beside him, at full length on her stomach, with her chin in one hand, slowly eating with the other. Their lamps, placed between them, lit up their faces.
without a sou一块钱也没有。sou，法国旧货币单位。
restrain: 克制--------------------------------------devour: 狼吞虎咽
tremble: 发抖--------------------------------------comradeship: 同志情谊
画面十一：这就是那个让一切化为焦土的东西？
“Come, I will show you something,” she said, in a friendly way.
When she had led him to the bottom of the cutting, she pointed out to him a crevice in the coal. A slight bubbling escaped from it, a little noise like the warbling of a bird. “Put your hand there; you’ll feel the wind. It’s fire-damp.”
He was surprised. Was that all? Was that the terrible thing which blew everything up? She laughed, she said there was a good deal of it today to make the flame of the lamps so blue.
crevice: 裂缝---------------------------------------bubbling: 汩汩声
warbling: 鸣啭-------------------------------------fire-damp: 沼气；瓦斯
blow… up: 炸飞
画面十二：短暂的面包时间过后，再回黑暗世界。缺氧严重了，视线模糊了……
The pikemen had resumed work in the cutting. The men often shortened their breakfast to avoid getting cold… Stretched on their sides they hammered more loudly, with the one fixed idea of filling a large number of trams… They no longer felt the water which streamed on them, the cramps of forced attitudes, the suffocation of the darkness in which they grew pale, like plants put in a cellar. Yet, as the day advanced, the air became more poisoned and heated with the smoke of the lamps, with the pestilence of their breaths, with the asphyxia of the fire-damp — blinding to the eyes like spiders’ webs — which only the aeration of the night could sweep away. At the bottom of their mole-hill, beneath the weight of the earth, with no more breath in their inflamed lungs, they went on hammering.
resume: 继续----------------------------------------shorten: 缩短……的时间
stretch: 伸展-----------------------------------------fixed idea: 不变的念头
forced attitude: 扭曲的姿势--------------------suffocation: 窒息
cellar: 地窖-------------------------------------------pestilence: 瘟疫，此处指呼出的热气
asphyxia: 窒息
blinding to the eyes like spiders’ webs: 像蛛网一般粘附在双眼上
aeration: 通风换气--------------------------------mole-hill: （由鼹鼠打洞扒出的泥堆成的）鼹丘
inflamed: 发炎的
（编辑:柳敬智）
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