百分百美国人One hundred percent American

导读：这篇文章最初于1937年刊登在American Mercury上。当时，美国国内的爱国热情高涨，以至于一些评论家认为外来文化会破坏美国文化的纯粹性，从而希望美国能杜绝外来文化。文章出版的50年后，“全球化”这个词才开始流行， 人们也才开始正视其他文化带来的影响。

There can be no question about the average American’s Americanism or his desire to preserve this precious heritage at all costs. Nevertheless, some insidious foreign ideas have already wormed their way into his civilization without his realizing what was going on. Thus dawn finds the unsuspecting patriot garbed in pajamas, a garment of East Indian origin; and lying in a bed built on a pattern which originated in either Persia or Asia Minor. He is muffled to the ears in un-American materials: cotton, first domesticated in India; linen, domesticated in the Near East; wool from an animal native to Asia Minor; or silk whose uses were first discovered by the Chinese. All these substances have been transformed into cloth by methods invented in Southwestern Asia. If the weather is cold enough he may even be sleeping under an eiderdown quilt invented in Scandinavia.

没有人会质疑一个普通美国人的美国主义，或者他不惜一切代价保护这份珍贵遗产（指美国文化传统）的决心。不过呢，一些隐伏的异国思想已经悄悄潜入他的文化观念，而他根本没注意到这一切。因此，清晨的曙光发现这位毋庸置疑的爱国分子穿着睡衣，一种起源于东印度的服装；躺在其样式起源于波斯或小亚细亚的床上。他身上的被子是用一种和美国不沾边的材料制成的：棉花，在印度被发现并开始种植；亚麻布，最开始在近东种植；羊毛，产毛的羊是小亚细亚的物种；或是丝绸，中国人发明的。而所有这些材料制成布料的方法是在亚洲西南部被发明出来的。如果天气够冷，他可能会盖鸭绒被，发明于斯堪地纳维亚（北欧诸国的统称）。

On awakening he glances at the clock, a medieval European invention, uses one potent Latin word in abbreviated form, rises in haste, and goes to the bathroom. Here, if he stops to think about it, he must feel himself in the presence of a great American institution; he will have heard stories of both the quality and frequency of foreign plumbing and will know that in no other country does the average man perform his ablutions in the midst of such splendor. But the insidious foreign influence pursues him even here. Glass was invented by the ancient Egyptians, the use of glazed tiles for floors and walls in the Near East, porcelain in China, and the art of enameling on metal by Mediterranean artisans of the Bronze Age. Even his bathtub and toilet are but slightly modified copies of Roman originals. The only purely American contribution to tile ensemble is tile steam radiator, against which our patriot very briefly and unintentionally places his posterior.

醒来时他瞄了眼钟，一项中世纪欧洲人的发明，说了个简化的拉丁词，匆忙起床然后冲进了浴室。在这里，要是他能停下来想想，他一定会觉得自己正处在一个完全美式的场所；他听过有关国外自来水管道系统的质量和使用率的详情，并将意识到在其他国家，一个普通人是不会在这么华丽的地方沐浴的。然而即使是在这里，隐形的异国影响力依然如影随形。玻璃是古代埃及人发明的；地面和墙上铺的瓷砖起源于近东；陶器起源于中国；而金属器皿上精美的珐琅则是早在青铜器时期由地中海的工匠发明的。即便是他的浴缸和马桶都只是罗马原始设计的改良版。我们的爱国主义者短暂地、无意地将他的屁股靠在瓷砖蒸汽式暖气上，瓷砖上唯一一件纯美国的发明。

In this bathroom the American washes with soap invented by the ancient Gaul. Next he cleans his teeth, a subversive European practice which did not invade America until the latter part of the eighteenth century. He then shaves, a masochistic rite first developed by the heathen priests of ancient Egypt and Sumer. The process is made less of a penance by the fact that his razor is of steel, an iron-carbon alloy discovered in either India or Turkestan. Lastly, he dries himself on a Turkish towel.

在这间浴室里，这个美国人用古代高卢人发明的香皂洗澡。而后他开始刷牙，这种颠覆性的欧洲人的习惯直到十八世纪末期才传入美国。之后他又剃须，这是一种埃及和Sumer的异教徒牧师首创的虐待性的仪式。多亏了他钢制的剃刀，刮胡这一原本痛苦的仪式现在变得不痛不痒，而钢，这种铁碳合金是在印度或是土耳其斯坦被发现的。最后，他用土耳其的毛巾把自己弄干。

Returning to the bedroom, the unconscious victim of un-American practices removes his clothes from a chair, invented in the Near East, and proceeds to dress. He puts on close-fitting tailored garments whose form derives from the skin clothing of the ancient nomads of the Asiatic steppes and fastens them with buttons whose prototypes appeared in Europe at the Close of the Scone Age. This costume is appropriate enough for outdoor exercise in a cold climate, but is quite unsuited to American summers, steam-heated houses, and Pullmans. Nevertheless, foreign ideas and habits hold the unfortunate man in thrall even when common sense tells him that the authentically American costume of gee string and moccasins would be far more comfortable. He puts on his feet stiff coverings made from hide prepared by a process invented in ancient Egypt and cut to a pattern which can be traced back to ancient Greece, and makes sure that they are properly polished, also a Greek idea. Lastly, he ties about his neck a strip of bright-colored cloth which is a vestigial survival of the shoulder shawls worn by seventeenth century Croats. He gives himself a final appraisal in the mirror, an old Mediterranean invention, and goes downstairs to breakfast.

回到卧室，这位毫无觉察的非美式习惯的受害者从发明于近东的凳子上取下衣服，开始穿衣。他穿上剪裁精致的紧身衣，这种服装的样式起源于亚洲游牧民族的皮衣；他扣上纽扣，其雏形在克洛斯和斯昆时期的欧洲就已经出现。这套服装对于寒冷气候下的户外活动而言十分合适，但对美国的夏天，蒸汽取暖的房子和火车车厢来说就不那么适宜了。不过，外国的概念和习惯牢牢控制着这个可怜人，即使常识告诉他只穿美国印第安人的遮羞布和莫卡辛鞋会舒服得多。他往脚上穿皮制的鞋套，这皮料的制作方法起源于古代埃及，并被剪裁成一种特殊样式，这样式的起源可以追溯到古代希腊，皮料须经过抛光，这又是个希腊人的点子。他往脖子上系上一块狭长亮色的布料，这是十七世纪克罗地亚人所穿戴的披肩的变形。他在一项古老的地中海发明——镜子前做了最后的调整后，下楼吃早餐去了。

Here a whole new series of foreign things confronts him. His food and drink are placed before him in pottery vessels, the proper name of which — china — is sufficient evidence of their origin. His fork is a medieval Italian invention and his spoon a copy of a Roman original. He will usually begin the meal with coffee, an Abyssinian plant first discovered by the Arabs. The American is quite likely to need it to dispel the morning-after effects of overindulgence in fermented drinks, invented in the Near East; or distilled ones, invented by the alchemists of medieval Europe. Whereas the Arabs took their coffee straight, he will probably sweeten it with sugar, discovered in India; and dilute it with cream, both the domestication of cattle and the technique of milking having originated in Asia Minor.

在这儿，他将要面对一连串的异国事物。他面前的食物和饮料被盛放在陶土烧制的器皿里，这器皿的正式名称—陶瓷（China）—足以证明它的起源了。他的叉子是一项中世纪意大利的发明，而他的勺子则是罗马原版的复制。他通常会在饭前喝咖啡，最初被阿拉伯人发现的一种埃塞俄比亚植物。这个美国人很有可能要驱赶因过度饮用发酵饮料引起的宿醉，这种饮料起源于近东，或者他喝的是蒸馏过的，这种则是被殴中中世纪的炼金术师发明的。尽管阿拉伯人都喝黑咖啡，他可能会往咖啡里加糖—发现于印度；或用奶油将咖啡稀释—产奶的奶牛最初在小亚细亚被驯养，而挤奶的技术也是从哪里发源的。

If our patriot is old-fashioned enough to adhere to the so-called American breakfast, his coffee will be accompanied by an orange, domesticated in the Mediterranean region, a cantaloupe domesticated in Persia, or grapes domesticated in Asia Minor. He will follow this with a bowl of cereal made from grain domesticated in the Near East and prepared by methods also invented there. From this he will go on to waffles, a Scandinavian invention with plenty of butter, originally a Near Eastern cosmetic. As a side dish he may have the egg of a bird domesticated in Southeastern Asia or strips of the flesh of an animal domesticated in the same region, which has been salted and smoked by a process invented in Northern Europe.

如果我们这位爱国主义者守旧到坚持吃所谓的美式早餐，他喝咖啡还要吃一个橙子——最早在地中海地区人工种植，一个哈密瓜——最早产于波斯，或是葡萄——产于小亚细亚。这之后他会吃一碗谷物制成的麦片，这种谷物不仅产自近东，就连加工方法也源于那里。然后他会继续吃华夫饼——斯堪地纳维亚人的发明，抹上很多黄油——最初是近东地区人们的化妆品。他可能会额外吃个蛋——产这种蛋的鸟最初在东南亚被驯养，或者他会吃几条某种动物的肉——这种动物同样产自东南亚，而这些肉被腌制、烟熏的加工方式起源于北欧。

Breakfast over, he places upon his head a molded piece of felt, invented by the nomads of Eastern Asia, and, if it looks like rain, puts on outer shoes of rubber, discovered by the ancient Mexicans, and takes an umbrella, invented in India. He then sprints for his train–the train, not sprinting, being in English invention. At the station he pauses for a moment to buy a newspaper, paying for it with coins invented in ancient Lydia. Once on board he settles back to inhale the fumes of a cigarette invented in Mexico, or a cigar invented in Brazil. Meanwhile, he reads the news of the day, imprinted in characters invented by the ancient Semites by a process invented in Germany upon a material invented in China. As he scans the latest editorial pointing out the dire results to our institutions of accepting foreign ideas, he will not fail to thank a Hebrew God in an Indo-European language that he is a one hundred percent (decimal system invented by the Greeks) American (from Americus Vespucci, Italian geographer).

吃完了早餐，他往头上戴一顶塑好形状的毛毡——东亚游牧民族发明的，并且，如果要下雨的话，他会穿上一种塑胶鞋——橡胶是由古墨西哥人发现的，并带上雨伞——印度人发明的。然后他狂奔到停着的火车站——火车，英国的发明。在车站上，他停下来买了一份报纸，用起源于古代丽迪亚（小亚细亚西部的富裕古国）的硬币付钱。上了火车后，他闻到了难闻的烟味——香烟起源于墨西哥，雪茄起源于巴西。于此同时，他阅读今天的新闻，文章由闪米特人（包括希伯来人、阿拉伯人、巴比伦人）发明的字母组成，由德国人发明的工艺将这些字母印在中国人发明的材料上。当他瞄到最新的编辑有关接受外国观念对美国本土文化造成的可怕后果时，他不会忘记用印欧语系的语言去感谢一个希伯来的上帝，其原因是，他是一个百分之百的（十进制是希腊人发明的）美国人（美国这个词出自阿梅里卡斯.韦斯普奇Americus Vespucci，一位意大利的地理学家的名字）。

–Ralph Linton, “One Hundred Per-Cent American,” from the American Mercury (1937)