胡适说：差不多先生，还活着？！

tongyikent

《胡适说：差不多先生，还活着？！》


"差不多"，"大概大概就行啦"，是你的口头禅吗？谁是差不多先生？胡适告诉你……


《差不多先生传》，是胡适创作的一篇传记题材寓言，讽刺了当时中国社会那些处世不认真的人。由张培基先生英译这部作品，仔细研读一下，试想：差不多先生会给中国带来什么影响？身边哪些人是差不多先生？

Mr. Cha Buduo has the same physiognomy as you and I. He has a pair of eyes, but doesn't see clearly. He has a pair of ears, but doesn't hear well. He has a nose and a mouth, but lacks a keen sense of smell and taste. His brain is none too small, but he is weak in memory and sloppy in thinking.
差不多先生的相貌和你和我都差不多。他有一双眼睛，但看的不很清楚；有两只耳朵，但听的不很分明；有鼻子和嘴，但他对于气味和口味都不很讲究。他的脑子也不小，但他的记性却不很精明，他的思想也不很细密。

He often says, "Whatever we do, it's OK to be just about right. What's the use of being precise and accurate?"
他常常说:"凡事只要差不多，就好了。何必太精明呢?”

When he was young, his mother told him to buy brown sugar, but he bought white sugar instead. His mother cursed him, but he shook his head and said, "Aren't brown sugar and white sugar almost the same?"
他小的时候，他妈叫他去买红糖，他买了白糖回来，他妈骂他，他摇摇头道：“红糖白糖不是差不多吗？”

When Mr. Cha Buduo was about to breathe his last, he uttered intermittently in one breath, "Live or die, it's about ... about ... the same...Whatever we do ...it's OK ... to be ... just ... just about right .... Why...why...take it...so seriously?" As soon as he finished this pet phrase of his, he stopped breathing.
差不多先生差不多要死的时候，一口气断断续续地说道：“活人同死人也……差……差不多，……凡事只要……差……差……不多……就……好了，……何……何……必……太……太认真呢?”他说完了这句格言，方才绝气了。

After Mr. Cha Buduo's death, people all praised him for his way of seeing through things and his philosophical approach to life. They said that he refused to take things seriously all his life and that he was never calculating or particular about personal gains or losses. So they called him a virtuous man and honored him.
他死后，大家都很称赞差不多先生样样事情看得破，想得通；大家都说他一生不肯认真，不肯算帐，不肯计较，真是一位有德行的人。

His name has spread far and wide and become more and more celebrated with the passing of time. Innumerable people have come to follow his example, so that everybody has become a Mr. Cha Buduo. But lo, China will hence be a nation of lazybones!
他的名誉越传越远，越久越大。无数无数的人都学他的榜样。于是人人都成了一个差不多先生。——然而中国从此就成为一个懒人国了。