名人教你讲英文：一次大战的理想与幻灭

名人教英文：一次大战的理想与幻灭

海明威的a farewell to arms讲述第一次世界大战时，美籍志愿军frederic henry和许多青年一样，满腔热诚地参战，但战争久未停息，战况日趋惨烈，意大利军屡战屡败，竟为此寻找代罪羔羊，令主角理想幻灭。小说对他的心态有一段脍炙人口的描述。

主角和意大利战友谈论战事，战友说军队的牺牲不会白费∶we won't talk about losing. there is enough talk about losing. what has been done this summer cannot have been done in vain.

然而，主角内心另有想法：

i did not say anything. i was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain. we had heard them, sometimes standing in the rain almost out of earshot (注：earshot即听觉范围，almost out of earshot即几乎听不见), so that only the shouted words came through, and had read them, on proclamations that were slapped up by billposters over other proclamations, now for a long time, and i had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it.（注：stockyards指屠宰场的牲畜围栏，芝加哥位于美国的农业地带，曾是美国的肉类加工中心。主角认为所谓牺牲，犹如被埋掉的肉，白白浪费。）