经济学人下载:家庭娱乐专栏--"高原"病(2)

Yet though the disease is everywhere, it is discussed euphemistically. Newcomers are diagnosed as anaemic. As is still the case in the rich world, death is hidden. “You hear nothing of them, or only by chance afterwards,” Joachim says of patients who succumb. “Everything is kept strictly private.”Hans learns that corpses are brought down the mountain by bobsleigh.
尽管这种病无处不在，人们还是委婉地讨论它。新来的人会被诊断为贫血。与发达国家情况一样，死亡要隐藏起来。“你不会听说过他们，或者只是事后偶然会听说。”阿希姆谈到死亡的病人时说，“一切都要严格保密。”汉斯得知尸体是由大雪橇运下山的。

Surprisingly for a tale of fatal lung disease, however, the tone is gently ironic, a levity that offsets the symbolism and philosophy. Officially, Hans is a visitor, but he lives the life of a patient, which revolves around gossip, walks, infatuations, intellectual discussions, five hearty meals a day and a strict regimen of bed rest, temperature- taking and alcohol rubs. Hans takes to this high-altitude life better than Joachim, an officer who longs to return to the army. He does—and comes back to the mountain even sicker. Hans, by contrast, seems cured, and at the close leaves for the even deadlier battlefield.
然而，令人惊讶的是对于这样一个致命的肺病的故事，讲述的语气中带有温和的讽刺意味，是一种可以弥补象征主义和哲学的轻浮。从官方角度讲，汉斯是一个来访者，但他过着病人的生活，他的生活围绕着闲聊、散步、热恋、学术讨论、一天五顿丰盛的饭菜以及严格的卧床休息、量体温和酒精按摩。比起渴望重返军队的军官阿希姆，汉斯更渴望这种高原上的生活。他的确是这样——回到山上，病得更重。相比之下，汉斯似乎已经痊愈，即将奔赴更加惨烈的战场。

As with his elongated stay at the sanatorium, so with the novel itself. Based on Mann’s own impressions of Davos, where his wife was treated, it was conceived as a short story, a humorous companion piece to “Death in Venice” (itself set during an outbreak of cholera). The author expected “The Magic Mountain” to find only a small audience. But in one of the strange transformations that illness can effect, it grew into an elegant, 900-page reflection on mortality, read and revered by millions.
就像他长期待在疗养院一样，小说本身也是如此。根据曼恩自己对达沃斯的印象，他的妻子在那里接受治疗，这本书被以为会是一部短篇小说，是“威尼斯之死”（背景是霍乱爆发期间）的幽默姐妹篇。作者预计“魔山”只能有一小部分观众。但是疾病的影响给这部小说带来了奇怪的转变，它发展成一部优雅的、思考死亡的900页小说，被数百万人阅读和崇敬。