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Travelling with baggage

阅读() 评论() 发表时间：2009年03月16日 10:31

本文地址：http://qzone.qq.com/blog/76858763-1237170694

相关搜索词: WilfredSirbaggageMaitlanddelude


FEW modern travel writers excite more hostility and awe than Sir ★Wilfred Thesiger[1], who died in 2003. Despising the “drab uniformity of the modern world”, Sir Wilfred ★slogged across [2] Africa and Asia, especially Arabia, on animals and on foot, immersing himself in tribal societies. He delighted in killing—lions in Sudan in the years before the second world war, Germans and Italians during it. He disliked “soft” living and “★intrusive[3]” women and revered murderous savages, to whom he gave guns. He thought educating the working classes a waste of good servants. He kicked his dog. His journeys were more notable as feats of ★masochistic[4] endurance than as exploration. Yet his first two books, “Arabian Sands”, about his crossing of the Empty Quarter, and “The Marsh Arabs”, about southern Iraq, have a ★terse[5] brilliance about them. As records of ancient cultures on the ★cusp[6] of ★oblivion[7], they are unrivalled.


Sir Wilfred's critics invariably sing the same chorus. They accuse him of hypocrisy, noting that his part-time primitive lifestyle required a private income and good connections to obtain travel permits. They argue that he ★deluded[8] himself about the motives of his adored tribal companions. In Kenya, where he lived for two decades towards the end of his life, his Samburu “sons” are calculated to have ★fleeced him of[9] at least $1m. Homosexuality, latent or otherwise, explains him, they conclude, pointing to the photographs he took of beautiful youths.

This may all be true, but it does not diminish his achievements. Moreover, he admits as much himself in his autobiography and elsewhere. In 1938, before his main travels, for example, Sir Wilfred wrote of his efforts to adopt foreign ways :“I don't delude myself that I succeed but I get my interest and pleasure trying.”


In this authorised biography, Alexander Maitland adds a little colour to the picture, but no important details. He describes the beatings and sexual abuse the explorer suffered at his first boarding school. Quoting from Sir Wilfred's letters, he traces the ★craggy[10] traveller's devotion to his dead father, his mother and three brothers. At times, Sir Wilfred sounds more forgiving, especially of friends, and more playful than his reputation has suggested.As for his sexuality, Mr Maitland refers ★coyly [11] to occasional “★furtive[12] embraces and ★voyeuristic[13] encounters”, presumably with men. Wearisome as this topic has become, Mr Maitland achieves nothing by skirting it; and his allusion to Sir Wilfred's “almost-too precious” relationship with his mother is annoyingly vague.


There may be a reason why Mr Maitland struggles for critical ★distance[14] He writes that he and Sir Wilfred were long-standing friends, but he fails to mention that he collaborated with the explorer on four of his books and later inherited his London flat. If Mr Maitland found it so difficult to view his late friend and benefactor objectively, then perhaps he should not have tried. An earlier biography by Michael Asher, who ★scoured[15] the deserts to track down Sir Wilfred's former fellow travellers, was better; Mr Maitland seems to have interviewed almost nobody black or brown.

His book is, however, a useful companion to the explorer's autobiography, “The Life of My Choice”. Hopefully, it will also refer readers back to Sir Wilfred's two great books, and to sentences as lovely as this :“Memories of that first visit to the Marshes have never left me :firelight on a half-turned face, the crying of geese, duck ★flighting[16] in to feed, a boy's voice singing somewhere in the dark, canoes moving in procession down a waterway, the setting sun seen crimson through the smoke of burning reed-beds, narrow waterways that wound still deeper into the Marshes.”



★★★NOTES注释★★★
[1]Wilfred Thesiger :威福瑞?塞西格，毕业于牛津大学，既是一名冒险家，也是一名出色的军人。出生于非洲，大学毕业后他回到了家乡。一生中到过世界上许多人们难以想象的，荒凉的地方，特别是非洲东部地区和中东地区。他的自传《四分之一空间》，《阿拉伯沙地》，影响了一代代旅行作家。

[2]slog :v.艰难行进，长途跋涉；拼命苦干
如 :slog across the swamp;沉重缓慢地走过沼泽地
slogged through both volumes. 缓慢吃力地读完了那两卷
slogged away at Latin.苦读拉丁文

[3]intrusive :adj.打扰的，插入的

[4]masochistic :adj.性受虐狂的，受虐狂的

[5]terse :adj.简洁的，简明的（brief and to the point）

[6]cusp :n.尖顶，尖端，尖角

[7]oblivion :n.遗忘，忘却；湮没，埋没
如 :to be buried in oblivion被人遗忘
The city has long since passed into oblivion.该市早已湮没。

[8]delude :v.欺骗，蒙蔽（into）=deceive
如 :fraudulent ads that delude consumers into sending in money.欺骗顾客花钱的虚假广告

附注——近义词比较 :
deceive， betray， mislead， beguile， delude，这些动词都有“通过狡诈的手段把他人导入错误、危险或不利的位置”的意思。
1） Deceive是有意隐瞒或歪曲真相的意思 :
“There is a moment of difficulty and danger at which flattery and falsehood can no longer deceive” (Letters of Junius). “在艰难和危险的时刻，奉承和欺骗不再能蒙蔽人” （朱尼厄斯的信）。
2）Betray含有不忠或背叛的意思 :
“When you betray somebody else, you also betray yourself” (Isaac Bashevis Singer).
“你背叛别人的时候，你也背叛了你自己” （伊萨艾克?巴谢维丝?辛格）。
3）Mislead意为引入错误的方向或引向错误的思维、行动 :
“My manhood, long misled by wandering fires,/Followed false lights” (John Dryden).
“游移的火焰长久地误导，我的成年时期跟随着虚妄的光” （约翰?德莱顿）。
4）Beguile含有通过友好的方法引诱、欺骗的意思 :
They beguiled unwary investors with tales of overnight fortunes. To
他们以一夜之间可以发大财的承诺，诱骗了掉以轻心的投资者。
5）Delude指欺骗到一个程度，致使受骗人无法分辨真伪，或做出可靠的判断 :
The government deluded the public about the dangers of low-level radiation.
政府欺骗公众，关于低强度辐射的危险性。

[9]fleece :vt. （常与of连用）骗取，诈取（金钱）；（原意是指剪羊毛，薅羊毛）
如 :They fleeced us of $100 at that hotel.那家旅馆敲了我们一百美元。

[10]craggy :adj.陡峭的，崎岖不平的

[11]coyly :adj.羞怯地；害羞地

[12]furtive :adj.偷偷的；秘密的
如 :The man's furtive manner gave rise to the suspicion of the theft among the policemen."那个男人鬼鬼祟祟的样子,引起警察怀疑盗窃案是他作的案。"

[13]voyeuristic :adj.喜好窥阴的

[14]distance :n.分歧，不和，不同意 :
如 :The candidates could not be at a greater distance on this issue.在这个问题上，候选人之间分歧很大。

[15]scour :vt. 搜索;仔细或彻底的查看 :
如 :The detective scoured the scene of the crime for clues.那个侦探在犯罪现场仔细搜索线索

[16]flight :vi.成群飞行；迁徙


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