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幕后故事
A short guide to resolutions
新年计划简要指南
Lots of writers and characters make new year's resolutions. Few keep them.
许多作家和虚构人物都会制定新年计划，但能完成的寥寥无几。
“Every man hath two birth-days,” proclaimed Charles Lamb, a Romantic essayist, in 1821: his personal one and New Year’s Day.
浪漫主义散文家查尔斯·兰姆在1821年宣称：“每个人都有两个生日：出生的那天和新年。”（注：hath为has的古代写法）
“It is that from which all date their time,” Lamb wrote, “and count upon what is left.”
兰姆写道：“所有人都是以这两个日期为起点来计算已经度过了多少时间，以及距离这两个日期还剩多少时间。”
The turn of the year was an occasion to “encounter pell-mell with past disappointments”.
新年伊始是人们“与过去一年的失望仓促相遇”的时刻。
But it was also a prompt to look ahead to the years that remained to him, which seemed to pass ever more quickly.
但也提示人们展望余下的岁月，这些岁月似乎在越来越快地流逝。
This one-two of retrospection and encroaching mortality often leads to self-reproach—for hours wasted, love undeclared and careless cruelties—and thence to vows for the future.
这种追忆反省和死亡渐渐逼近的左右夹击往往会导致自责，责备自己虚度了光阴、未能表白爱意或漫不经心地做了残忍的事，于是人们向未来郑重起誓。
Lamb’s was to squeeze life dry (and have another cup of wine).
兰姆的誓言是把生活榨干(然后再来一杯美酒)。
Collectively, he and other writers and storytellers offer a handy typography of new year’s resolutions, virtuous and violent, kept and otherwise.
他和其他作家以及故事讲述者一起向我们呈现了各种各样的新年计划，有的道德高尚，有的充满暴力，有的最终完成了，也有一些没能实现。
Booze is a central theme, either as the subject of the resolution or the spur for it.
酒精是一个中心主题，既可以作为计划的主题，也可以刺激人们去制定计划。
At the close of 1661, for instance, Samuel Pepys recorded in his diary that he had sworn a “solemn oath” to abstain from wine.
例如，在1661年底，英国作家塞缪尔·佩皮斯在日记中记录，他许下了一个“庄严誓言”要戒酒。
He did for a few weeks, finding he spent less money and frittered away less time “in idle company”.
他戒酒了几个星期，发现自己花钱更少了，和朋友无所事事地挥霍时间也更少了。
But he couldn’t keep it up and by February was hitting the bottle again.
但他没能坚持下去，到了2月份，他又开始抱起酒瓶了。
Likewise the heroine of “Bridget Jones’s Diary” resolves to drink less and “stop talking total nonsense to strangers”.
同样，《BJ单身日记》的女主人公也决心少喝酒，“不要再和陌生人瞎聊”。
She struggles on both counts.
这两件事对她来说都很不容易。
In her case and others, drinking lubricates another type of resolution, namely an intent to find love.
在她和其他人的案例中，饮酒激发了他们制定另一种计划的兴致，即寻找爱情。
Like Christmas, only with more ambient smooching, New Year’s Eve is a lonely time for singletons.
新年夜和圣诞节一样，对单身人士来说是一个孤独的时刻，新年夜还有更多的慢舞拥吻。
At one new year’s bash, the titular characters in “When Harry Met Sally” resolve to be each other’s dates if they are still unattached a year later.
在一次新年庆典上，《当哈利遇到莎莉》的同名主人公决定，如果一年后他们仍然单身，那么他俩就开始约会。
When the day comes, Sally is marooned at a party stuffed with big Eighties hair and ruched dresses.
当这一天到来时，莎莉被困在一个满是80年代蓬蓬头和褶皱长裙的派对上。
Harry bursts in just before “Auld Lang Syne”, resolved to speak his heart.
就在开始唱《友谊地久天长》之前，哈利闯了进来，决定说出他的心里话。
“It’s not because it’s New Year’s Eve,” he insists.
“（我爱你）不是因为今天是新年夜，”他坚称。
But it kinda is.
但其实有点像是这个原因。
Occasionally the resolution is not to get into a relationship but out of one.
有时候，新年计划不是进入而是走出一段恋情。
At the start of Ibsen’s play “A Doll’s House”, Nora is looking forward to a new year free of financial worries.
在易卜生的话剧《玩偶之家》的开头，娜拉期待着新的一年不用为钱忧心忡忡。
Before it dawns, she is instead free of her dreadful husband.
但在新年的黎明到来前，她反而摆脱了她可怕的丈夫。
At least on screen and page, amatory resolutions seem easier to fulfil than the alcoholic kind.
至少在银幕和书本上，与爱情相关的新年计划似乎比与酒精相关的计划更容易实现。
Then there are those that involve a full-on moral reformation.
然后，还有一些计划涉及彻底的道德革新。
“I’ve decided to become a mensch,” says the protagonist of Billy Wilder’s sleazy-screwball comedy “The Apartment”.
比利·怀尔德的情色怪诞喜剧《桃色公寓》的主人公说：“我决定成为一个好人。”
Having resolved to mend his ways—he has been lending his flat to his bosses to use for adulterous trysts—he duly gets the girl on New Year’s Eve.
他决定改过自新--之前他一直把自己的公寓借给老板用于通奸幽会--然后恰好在新年夜得到了这个女孩的欢心。
They consecrate their union with a game of gin rummy.
他和女孩一起玩金拉米纸牌游戏来庆祝双方的结合。
This is the night when some characters muster the gumption to reverse their fortunes.
在新年夜，有一些故事人物鼓起勇气去扭转自己的命运。
In “Trading Places”, the good guys ruin the baddies in a heist featuring a gorilla and a fancy-dress party on a train.
在电影《颠倒乾坤》中，火车上发生了一起盗窃事件，涉及一只大猩猩，盗贼们也化妆打扮了一番，最后好人打败了坏人。
Or it can inspire epiphanies: in “The Godfather Part II”, during new-year festivities in Cuba, Michael Corleone realises his brother Fredo has betrayed him.
或者，新年夜也会启发人顿悟：在《教父2》中，在古巴的新年庆典上，迈克尔·科利昂意识到他的兄弟弗雷多背叛了他。
In a twisted parody of a midnight embrace, Michael kisses Fredo and grasps his neck in a form of reverse throttle.
在午夜互相拥抱的恶搞活动中，迈克尔亲吻了弗雷多，并反手掐住了弗雷多的脖子。
“I know it was you, Fredo,” he growls.
“我知道叛徒是你，弗雷多。”科利昂咆哮道。
In that fierce clinch, he resolves to be avenged and Fredo’s fate is sealed.
在这场激烈的拥抱中，他决心复仇，弗雷多的命运也就此注定了。
Even when they don’t involve fratricide, new year’s resolutions can be ill-advised.
即使不涉及手足相残，在新年制定计划也是不明智的。
It may be a natural time to assess your life, but it is also a febrile, maudlin and frequently inebriated one.
新年是评估生活的一个恰当时刻，但也是一个情绪狂热、酒后伤感、常常喝得酩酊大醉的时刻。
The results can be foolish and unrealistic—whether they are can-do, mind-over-matter aspirations to do more, or plans to go easy on yourself and do less.
这个时候制定计划可能是愚蠢和不切实际的，无论计划的内容是力所能及的事、需要超人意志的高要求，还是对自己放松的低要求。
This last type of new year’s resolution has a logical flaw.
最后这种新年计划有一个逻辑上的缺陷。
If you are the sort of disciplined person who makes them in earnest, a promise to put your feet up may be hard to honour.
如果你是那种很自律、认真对待新年计划的人，让自己躺平可能是一种很难实现的承诺。
Take Virginia Woolf.
以弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫为例。
In 1931, she wrote in her diary, her first resolution was “To have none.”
1931年，她在日记中写道，她的第一个计划是“什么都不要”。
Next, she intended to be “kindly with myself”.
其次，她打算“善待自己”。
Immediately afterwards, however, she pledges “To make a good job of ‘The Waves’,” an experimental novel published later that year.
然而，紧接着，她承诺“要把当年晚些时候出版的实验小说《海浪》写好。”
Woolf took it easy for two whole lines.
伍尔夫也就让自己放松了两行字而已。
Sceptics might think Lamb made too much of January 1st.
怀疑者可能认为兰姆过分看重1月1日。
After all, the hinge between two calendar years is a fleeting and arbitrary punctuation in time, no more meaningful than any other moment.
毕竟，两个日历年之间的这个转折点在时间上只是一个短暂而随机的标点，并不比其他时刻更有意义。
Then again, in the context of eternity, your entire life is a fleeting, arbitrary punctuation in time.
话又说回来，如果以永恒的时间为背景，你的整个生命也不过是时间长河中的一个短暂而随机的标点。
This is as good an opportunity as any to glance back, peer forward and make improving resolutions.
新年和其他日子一样，是一个很好的机会，可以回顾过去，展望未来，制定让自己进步的计划。
“Next week”, quipped Mark Twain at the start of 1863, “you can begin paving hell with them as usual.”
“下周，”马克·吐温在1863年初打趣地说，“你就可以像往常一样，用这些新年计划铺好前往地狱的路。”
