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康德别解：《化身博士》里的transcendental，应译为“超凡”的一个证明

2024-08-09 19:50阅读：

http://blog.sina.cn/dpool/blog/u/1400275844

《化身博士》（Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde），是19世纪英国作家罗伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森创作的长篇小说，讲的是这样一个故事，Dr Jekyll发明了两种药水，一种喝下后，可以变成另外一个人Mr Hyde，另一种喝下，可以变回来。下面一段，是变回来之前，Mr Hyde发表的演说，里面用到了transcendental这个词，根据上下文，应译为超凡。

“It is well,” replied my visitor. “Lanyon, you remember your vows: what
follows is under the seal of our profession. And now, you who have so
long been bound to the most narrow and material views, you who have

denied the virtue of transcendental medicine, you who have derided your
superiors—behold!”

He put the glass to his lips and drank at one gulp. A cry followed; he
reeled, staggered, clutched at the table and held on, staring with
injected eyes, gasping with open mouth; and as I looked there came, I
thought, a change—he seemed to swell—his face became suddenly black and
the features seemed to melt and alter—and the next moment, I had sprung
to my feet and leaped back against the wall, my arms raised to shield
me from that prodigy, my mind submerged in terror.

“O God!” I screamed, and “O God!” again and again; for there before my
eyes—pale and shaken, and half fainting, and groping before him with
his hands, like a man restored from death—there stood Henry Jekyll!

What he told me in the next hour, I cannot bring my mind to set on
paper. I saw what I saw, I heard what I heard, and my soul sickened at
it; and yet now when that sight has faded from my eyes, I ask myself if
I believe it, and I cannot answer. My life is shaken to its roots;
sleep has left me; the deadliest terror sits by me at all hours of the
day and night; and I feel that my days are numbered, and that I must
die; and yet I shall die incredulous. As for the moral turpitude that
man unveiled to me, even with tears of penitence, I cannot, even in
memory, dwell on it without a start of horror. I will say but one
thing, Utterson, and that (if you can bring your mind to credit it)
will be more than enough. The creature who crept into my house that
night was, on Jekyll’s own confession, known by the name of Hyde and
hunted for in every corner of the land as the murderer of Carew.

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