冷知識：馬克吐溫竟然是個著名的“貓奴”

馬克吐溫原名薩繆爾·蘭亨·克萊門(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)，是美國上世紀(jì)最著名的小說家、文學(xué)家，是美國現(xiàn)實主義文學(xué)學(xué)派的杰出代表人物。

他的作品以幽默與諷刺為主，尤其擅長用夸張又符合邏輯的小說劇情，諷刺當(dāng)時社會的種族歧視、階級斗爭以及奢靡浮躁之風(fēng)。

他的主要代表作品有《百萬英鎊》《哈克貝利·費恩歷險記》、《湯姆·索亞歷險記》等，幾乎每部著作都帶給一代代人無盡的思考與震撼。

也許人們會覺得，能寫出這樣犀利諷刺的文章的作者，在現(xiàn)實中也很難相處;畢竟，他隨隨便便的一句話，就能把那些達官貴人懟得說不出話來：

有一次，馬克·吐溫應(yīng)邀赴宴。 席間，他稱贊一位貴婦：“夫人，您真是太美麗了!”不料那婦人卻說：“先生，可是遺憾得很，我不能用同樣的話回答你。”

馬克·吐溫笑著回答：“那沒關(guān)系，你也可以像我一樣說假話。”

是不是回答地非常機智?

不過，一直言辭犀利、針砭時弊的大文豪，也有自己柔軟的一面——很多人都不知道，馬克吐溫平生最喜歡的就是貓。

用今天的話來說，馬克吐溫先生根本就是一位徹徹底底的“貓奴”，或者說是一名盡職盡責(zé)的“鏟屎官”!

One thing perhaps lesser known about Twain is his enduring love for cats, whom he respected far more than people. "If man could be crossed with the cat," he once wrote, "it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."

關(guān)于馬克·吐溫，有一件事并不太為人所知，那就是他對貓咪們的無窮無盡的喜愛，他對貓的尊敬甚至遠超過對人類的尊敬。“如果人和貓能夠雜交，”他甚至這樣寫道，“那么這種結(jié)合能夠改善人類的基因，但卻會讓貓的血統(tǒng)變壞。”

He surrounded himself with up to 19 cats throughout various periods of his life, giving them imaginative names like Apollinaris, Beelzebub, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Satan, Sin and Sour Mash.

在馬克·吐溫人生中的不同時期里，養(yǎng)過多達19只貓，他給這些貓貓們起了很多極富想象力的名字，比如Apollinaris(阿波羅里斯，來源于一座山的名字，同時也是一款德國礦泉水的名字)，Beelzebub(圣經(jīng)中的惡魔;失樂園中的墮落天使)， Blatherskite(愛說廢話的人，吹牛大王)，Buffalo Bill(水牛比爾)，Satan(撒旦，魔鬼)，Sin(罪惡)，Sour Mash(酸麥芽漿)等等。

Twain's feline affection translated over into his writing too, and cats make appearances in some of his best-known works. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the story about a cat named Peter is actually a true story from Twain's childhood. There was even a book called Concerning Cats: Two Tales by Mark Twain, which came out long after his death in 1910. This book tells two stories about cats which he used to read to his daughters to help them fall asleep.

吐溫對貓的喜愛也體現(xiàn)在他的作品中，在他的一些知名著作里面，時常會出現(xiàn)貓的身影。比如在《湯姆索亞歷險記》中，那只名叫彼得的貓的故事，實際上就來源于馬克·吐溫童年時代經(jīng)歷過的真實故事。他甚至寫了一本名叫《關(guān)于貓：馬克吐溫的兩個故事》，直到他1910年去世后過了很久才出版。在這本書里，他講了兩個關(guān)于貓的故事，他曾經(jīng)當(dāng)做睡前讀物念給女兒們聽，哄她們睡覺。

It is said the Twain just couldn't live without his cats, so while he was on vacation he would ask around to see if he could 'rent' someone else's.

據(jù)說，馬克·吐溫離開貓甚至就活不下去，所以當(dāng)他出門度假時，他就會四處打聽看看能不能“租”別人家的貓。

According to an article in New England Today, the most famous cat-renting episode occurred in Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1906. Twain biographer Albert Bigelow Paine was there when the author rented three kittens for the summer. One he named Sackcloth. The other two were identical and went under the joint name of Ashes. "He didn't wish to own them, for then he would have to leave them behind uncared for," Paine explained, "so he preferred to rent them and pay sufficiently to ensure their subsequent care."

根據(jù)《今日新英格蘭》發(fā)布過的一篇文章，1906年馬克·吐溫最著名的租貓事件就發(fā)生在新罕布什爾州的都柏林。馬克·吐溫在那年的夏天租了三只小貓度假，正好寫他的傳記作家阿爾伯特·畢格羅·潘恩也住在那里。這三只貓中的其中一個被馬克·吐溫取名叫粗麻布。另外兩個是完全一樣的，用的是Ashes這個名字。潘恩解釋說：“他(馬克·吐溫)并不想擁有這些貓，因為如果那樣的話，他就不得不把它們留在無人看管的家里;所以他寧愿只是把它們租下來，并支付足夠的費用，以確保它們能得到后續(xù)的照料。”

Twain isn't the only literary giant with a fondness for cats, either. His fellow 19th and 20th-century American authors Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot and Patricia Highsmith all shared his passion for all things feline. Maybe there is something about a literary sensibility that combines well with the quick-witted but gentle nature of the cat?

其實，馬克·吐溫并不是唯一一個喜歡貓的文學(xué)巨匠。和他同處19世紀(jì)與20世紀(jì)的美國作家歐內(nèi)斯特·海明威、托馬斯·艾略特和帕特里夏·海史密斯都和他一樣熱愛著貓咪。也許是因為文學(xué)上的敏感與貓機敏而溫柔的天性能很好地結(jié)合在一起?

Smithsonian magazine says that Twain's greatest cat love was Bambino, a cat who had originally been owned by his daughter Clara. After Bambino went missing, Twain wrote an ad in a local newspaper offering a reward and the following artistically styled description: "Large and intensely black; thick, velvety fur; has a faint fringe of white hair across his chest; not easy to find in ordinary light."

史密森雜志說，吐溫最喜歡的貓是班比諾，這只貓原本是他的女兒克拉拉養(yǎng)的。所以，在這只貓失蹤后，馬克·吐溫在當(dāng)?shù)匾患覉蠹埳蠈懥艘粍t尋貓啟事，這樣寫道：“又大又黑;肥大，毛發(fā)柔軟;胸前有一縷淡淡的白毛;在普通的光線下是不容易找到的。”

We'll leave you with a quote from Twain's 1894 novel Pudd'nhead Wilson: "A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?"

我們將引用馬克·吐溫1894年的小說《傻瓜威爾遜》中的一句話來結(jié)束今天的文章：“一個沒有貓的家——沒有一只吃得好、被愛撫得好、被人好好愛著的貓的家——也許是一個完美的家，但怎么能證明這是一個真正的家呢?”“

Just purrfect!

總之，毛茸茸茸茸…的貓貓們就是太完美啦!