Phil Knight - SHOE DOG

因為十一也沒有怎麼開會，所以這一次嘗試一點不一樣的東西吧。

書。

最近在看的一本書是Nike創始人Phil Knight的SHOE DOG。故事是好故事，品牌是成功的典範，所以創始人的經驗值得一讀。不過要分享的原因，還是語言——有些小詞真的「妙到豪巔」。平常翻譯過程中想不起來，或者總覺得特別中式的說法，能夠在看書的過程中找到答案。

(題圖是作者，Source:Forbes Welcome)

題外話：之前自己學英語的時候，除了應試考試閱讀理解，基本原版閱讀經驗為零。然，家裡還是敗了類似《傲慢與偏見》《簡愛》等等所謂名著。作為一個英文專業的學生，坦白從未讀完過，因為真的好難。真正開始讀原版書，是從自己感興趣的題材、用詞淺顯易懂的Peter Hassler開始的，所以要好好選擇閱讀材料呀。

先看原文吧，英語好的童鞋請一氣呵成讀完吧：

「I was up before the others, before the birds, before the sun. I drank a cup of coffee, wolfed down a piece of toast, put on my shorts and sweatshirt, and laced up my green running shoes. Then slipped quietly out the back door.」

「I stretched my legs, my hamstrings, my lower back and groaned as I took the first few balky steps down the cool road, into the fog. Why is it always so hard to get started? 「

」There were no cars, no people, no signs of life. I was all alone, the world to myself - though the trees seemed oddly aware of me. Then again, this was Oregon. The trees always seemed to know. The tress always had your back.」

「What a beautiful place to be from, I thought, gazing around. Calm, green, tranquil - I was proud to call Oregon my home, proud to call little Portland my place of birth. But I felt a stab of regret, too. Though beautiful, Oregon struck some people as the kind of place where nothing big had ever happened, or was ever likely to. If we Oregonians were famous for anything, it was an old, old trail we』d had to blaze to get here. Since then, things had been pretty tame.「

」The best teacher I ever had, one of the finest men I ever know, spoke of that trail often. It』s our birthright, he』d growl. Our character, our fate - our DNA. 「The cowards never started,」 he』d tell me, 「and the weak died along the way - that leaves us.」

「Us. Some rare strain of pioneer spirit was discovered along that trail, my teacher believed, some outsized sense of possibility mixed with a diminished capacity for pessimism - and it was our job as Oregonians to keep that strain alive.」

」I moved quicker down the road. My breath formed rounded, frosty puffs, swirling into the fog.I savored that first physical awakening, that brilliant moment before the mind is fully clear, when the limbs and joints first begin to loosen and the material body starts to melt away. Solid to liquid. （這最後一段的栩栩如生的描寫，簡直讓人覺得在和作者一起跑步，在林中漫霧中跑步，身體慢慢打開，大腦慢慢清醒，和自然共鳴的過程，寫的特別有力度和美感。）

「Faster, I told myself. Faster.」

－－－節選自《SHOE DOG》by Phil Knight, Chapter DAWN

好了，現在看加粗的部分。

1. wolf down 狼吞虎咽

2. lace up shoes 繫緊鞋帶

3. slip out the door 溜出家門

以上三個，要是讓我中翻英，頂多會說，swallow, put on my shoes, sneak out of the door吧，就差那麼一點點的感覺。

4. 「I was proud to call Oregon my home, proud to call little Portland my place of birth. But I felt a stab of regret, too.」

A stab of regret 一陣遺憾，stab還可以這樣用，好妙

辣么以後，我可不可以說， a stab of hunger, a stab of pain, a stab of fear，一陣飢餓、一陣胃痛、一陣恐懼

不過，一陣風不行啊，一陣風是 a blow of wind吧（原諒我腦洞大開。。。）

5. 「Oregon struck some people as the kind of place where nothing big had ever happened.」

Strike這個詞要是用好了，可以讓整句話非常高級和地道。Collins字典中對它作為動詞，有十種釋義。這裡符合上下文的意思應該是: to be perceived by, catch

原文的意思是，大多數人對俄勒岡州的印象就是十分寡淡，平淡無奇。

但是還有好多其他意思，簡要列幾個：

擊中、打動、破壞、罷工、敲擊、經過努力終於形成

the glint of metal stroke his eye 金屬的亮光閃到了他的雙眼

strike the path for home 終於找到回家的路

He is stricken with polio 他染上了小兒麻痹症，用被動

strike a bargain達成交易

grief-stricken 被悲傷擊中，也就是極度悲傷，一般痛失親人朋友之後會用這個詞。

建議大家拿不準詞義的時候，多動手查Collins的英英辭典（source: strike | Definition, meaning & more），比一般詞典中的中文解釋更地道，你也會對這個詞有更深刻的理解。這恐怕就是俗稱的，英文思維。放棄在中文中找對等詞語的思路，因為有的時候真的沒有這個對等概念。相反，我們去用已知的較為簡單的英文，去解釋和弄懂另一個更陌生概念，mission accomplished：）

6. 」If we Oregonians were famous for anything, it was an old, old trail we』d had to blaze to get here.「

來來來，現學現用Collins詞典對Blaze the trail的英英解釋：

「to explore new territories, areas of knowledge, etc, in such a way that others can follow」

（Source: blaze a trail）

原意是指在樹上刻記號，為後人指路；引申一下就是，做開路先鋒。

這個短語用在這裡很有引申意義，背後是Oregon Trail的典故（Oregon Trail俄勒岡小道，是美國西部拓荒的一條重要道路）。作者記得他的老師說，開闢Oregon Trail的先鋒精神，成為了俄勒岡人民DNA中的一部分。而這一整段（其實是本書的序言章），都在講述作者在Oregon Trail上通過跑步，慢慢找到了自己人生使命的故事。這種探索、求知的精神，是對故土的熱愛，和個人突破的完美結合。

來為Oregon Trail配個圖吧：

還有作者提到的Trail Running：

因為之前曾經在北加州呆了一年，經常周末被老爺爺帶著去Oregon Redwood National Park徒步，人生的第一次Camping也是在Portland附近，所以對這裡很有感情，出於私心多配一張國家公園的圖。希望今後還有機會回去再徒一次，齜牙：）

最後摘抄一段作者有關跑步的觀點，嘗試翻譯了一下。反正周末了嘛，反正明天要上班，打一點點雞血吧，哈哈哈哈

「For that matter, few ideas are as crazy as my favorite thing - running. It』s hard. It』s painful. It』s risky. The rewards are few and far from guaranteed. When you run around an oval track, or down an empty road, you have no real destination. At least, none that can fully justify the effort. The act itself becomes the destination. It』s not just that there』s no finish line; it』s that you define the finish line. Whatever pleasures or gains you derive from the act of running, you must find them within. It』s all in how you frame it, how you sell it to yourself. 」

「跑步是很瘋狂的一件事情。困難重重，痛苦重重，風險重重。然而盡頭卻又沒有什麼萬全的獎賞在等待著你。當你沿著橢圓跑道，或者空無一人的道路跑下去的時候，你並不知道目的地在哪裡。至少前方沒有什麼特別的結果，可以完全補償你這一路的辛苦。跑步，這個動作本身就成為了終點。不是沒有終點，是由你自己來定義終點。跑步中所有的快樂和收穫，從來都是都來源於你自己。你如何定義它，如何用它來說服你自己，才是個中要義。」

「Every runner knows this. You run and run, mile after mile, and you never quite know why. You tell yourself that you』re running toward some goal, chasing some rush, but really you run because the alternative, stopping, scares you to death. 」

「每一個跑者都知道這一點。你不斷地跑下去，公里數不斷攀升，其實並不明白為何。你告訴你自己，我在追求前方的某個目標，我在超越其他跑者。但真正的原因是，只要停下腳步，就會讓你無比恐懼。於是，唯有不斷奔向遠方。」

－－－節選自《SHOE DOG》by Phil Knight, Chapter DAWN

一變成中文，那種文字的力量和韻律，就減了大半。這是作為譯者（或者是我這個半瓶子譯者，桑心），最為遺憾的一件事。所以，大家都去好好學英文吧，背後獲得的快樂和共鳴，will worth all the efforts!

最後，這樣對英文原版書的摘抄和分析，不知道各位是否會喜歡呢。本來這次想寫戶外登山辭彙的，但是還沒有想好切入點，留給下次吧：）

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