替人顶罪也能成为职业?驱逐流浪狗居然是教堂的神职之一?搓澡工居然只有贵族才能担当?潜水员身兼数职、必要时还得当水下清洁工?敲人窗户不但不会遭人厌烦反而还可以得到报酬?在不同的社会和时代,这些可都是红极一时、羡煞旁人的抢手职业呢!
1. Whipping Boy
1. 国王的替罪羊
During the 1600's in England, educating the future king created an interesting problem. Since the monarch's1) blood line was considered divine2), teachers and caretakers couldn't punish the young prince even if he acted like a brat3). The solution was obvious: get another young boy to take the punishment instead of the future king, hence the job of whipping boy.
在17世纪的英国,教育未来的国王时出现了一个有趣的问题。因为王室血统被认为是神圣的,所以就算年幼的王子调皮捣蛋,老师和看护人也不能对其加以惩罚。解决这个问题的办法很简单:让另一个男孩代替未来的国王接受惩罚,国王的替罪羊一职便由此而生。
These scapegoats4) were usually chosen from the children of the nobility and educated along with the prince, living in the same quarters and playing together in their spare time. This meant that most of the time the prince was attached to the whipping boy and avoided doing badly so his friend wouldn't be punished.
这些替罪羊通常都是从贵族家庭的子女中挑选出来的,他们和王子一起接受教育,居住在一起,闲暇时候也一起玩耍。这就意味着大部分的时间王子都和替罪羊待在一起,如此一来,为了使朋友免受惩罚,王子就会尽量避免惹祸。
While there is no record attesting5) how well this worked in practice, we do know that some kings later rewarded their whipping boys with land and nobility roles. If nothing else, the promise that one day you might become a duke would probably keep you going through all those undeserved punishments.
尽管没有记录证实这一做法的实际效果如何,我们确知的一点是,有些国王后来会赐给他们的替罪羊土地和爵位。就算没有其他的,有朝一日你或许会成为公爵的允诺也可能促使你甘受那些本不应该由你去遭受的惩罚。
2. Dog Whipper
2. 打狗者
Another career option during the 1600's was the position of dog whipper. This was a church official whose job was to, no big surprise here, whip dogs. The reason for this wasn't that medieval6) people hated puppies. In fact the problem was that people loved dogs too much and hordes7) of stray8) dogs waiting for food gathered around churches. It was the dog whipper who made sure that these dogs didn't start barking in the middle of a sermon9), and he would chase them away if they tried to attack a well dressed lady.
在17世纪,另一个职业选择是成为一名打狗者。打狗者是教堂工作人员,其职责无需诧异就是打狗。打狗的原因并不是中世纪的人讨厌小狗,实际上,问题就是人们太喜欢狗了,以至于大批的流浪狗聚集在教堂外,等待喂食。打狗者的任务是确保这些狗在牧师布道时不会狂叫乱吠,还有当这些狗试图攻击穿着考究的女士时,他要负责将这些狗撵走。
Part of the job benefits were a free whip10), a pair of wooden thongs11) (useful when trying to remove stubborn12) dogs) and a small plot of land sometimes known as the dog acre. Some of the downsides13) were the packs of dogs that could become very angry when someone tried to chase them away. Luckily for everyone involved: as dog shelters became common there was no need for this job anymore.
这一工作的部分好处是,打狗者能获得一条免费的皮鞭、一双木制凉拖鞋(当试图撵走难缠的狗时可以派上用场)和一小块有时候被称为“狗地”的土地。坏处是打狗者要面对那些被撵时变得异常愤怒的狗群。对所有受牵连的人而言幸运的是:随着流浪狗收容所的普及,人们已经不再需要这种工作了。
3. Gymnasiarch14)
3. 古希腊体育官
An extremely popular occupation in ancient Greece was that of professional athlete. After all, Greece was the place where the Olympic Games started, so it's no wonder that many young men focused on physical training. However, all these sweaty men needed someone to clean themselves up, and we're not talking about someone to give you a sponge bath15). Back in ancient times, the way to clean up was by pouring oil on your body and scraping16) yourself clean. At the end of it all, you ended up with a gross mess of dirt, dead skin and oily mush. Sounds awesome, doesn't it? Well if you were a Gymnasiarch, it was your job to deal with that.
在古希腊,一个极受欢迎的职业是专业运动员。别忘了,希腊是奥林匹克运动的发源地,因此很多年轻人都专注于体育锻炼。不过, 所有这些汗流浃背的人都需要有人给他们清洁身体,而这种清洁并非是用海绵擦澡。在古代,清洁的方法是在身上抹上油,然后通过刮、擦等方式把自己弄干净。这个过程的最后,会留下一大堆脏东西、死皮和油腻腻的一团糊糊。听上去很可怕,对吧?不过,如果你是古希腊体育官,收拾这些东西就是你的活儿。
Interesting enough, because athletes were in such high regard even this position was seen as very important and reserved for nobility. However, you did get the great bonus of carrying around a large stick and hitting young athletes over the head when they didn't perform well enough.
有趣的是,因为运动员受到很高的推崇,因此连古希腊体育官这一工作也被认为是非常重要的,往往都会留给贵族担任。不过,这一工作也有很大的好处,那就是当年轻运动员表现不佳时,你可以拿着一个大木棒敲打他们的头。
4. Urinator17)
4. 潜水员
Despite what you'd think after reading this job title, urinatores were not really dealing with urine18) at all. The word "urinator" is Latin for diver, which means that urinatores were divers who had two different, but equally important tasks. On one hand they were the first amphibious19) unit used by the Roman army whenever it was necessary to send underwater soldiers to sabotage20) ships. On the other hand, when there wasn't a maritime war going on, urinatores dealt with underwater scavenging21).
无论你看到urinator这个词之后产生了何种联想,潜水员(urinator)与尿(urine)并没有一丝半毫的关系。Urinator在拉丁语里是潜水员的意思。潜水员肩负着两个截然不同但都同等重要的任务。一方面,当需要派遣水下士兵破坏船只时,他们是罗马军队的第一支两栖部队;另一方面,当没有海战时,潜水员负责清理水下的垃圾。
This was a profitable business as many ancient shipyards were filled with wrecked ships that contained merchandise and other goodies such as locked money boxes. The problems with the job were that diving in polluted waters resulted in many health problems. The bonus was that you got a free air pouch22) in order to breathe underwater, basically giving you half the superpower of Aquaman23).
这是一项有利可图的行当,因为很多古代的船坞下面满是沉船,这些船上装有货物和其他诸如锁着的钱箱之类的东西。这一工作的坏处是,在受污染的水域潜水会引发很多健康问题。好处是,你可以得到免费的空气袋,帮助你在水下呼吸,这使得你基本上拥有了“潜水侠”一半的超能力。
5. Knocker-up
5. 敲窗人
This peculiar job was popular in England and Ireland during the early days of the industrial revolution when people needed to be up in the morning but no one had an alarm clock. The knocker-up, also sometimes known as a "knocker-upper", would walk around with a long stick and knock on people's windows. For just a few pence the knocker-up would sit outside your window making a ruckus24) until you got up and were ready for work.
工业革命早期,敲窗人这一独特的工作在英格兰和爱尔兰十分流行。当时人们需要早起,但谁都没有闹钟。敲窗人会带着一根长棍走来走去,敲打人们的窗户。只需几便士,你就可以雇敲窗人坐在你的窗外大敲你的窗户,直到你起床准备上班为止。
1. monarch [5mCnEk] n. 君主;国王;皇帝
2. divine [dI5vaIn] adj. 神授的;天赐的;神圣的
3. brat [brAt] n. <口> 顽童
4. scapegoat [5skeIp^Eut] n. 代人受过的人,<喻> 替罪羊
5. attest [E5test] vt. 证明;表明
6. medieval [7medI5i:vEl] adj. 中世纪的,中古(时代)的
7. horde [hC:d] n. <贬> (大)群
8. stray [streI] adj. 流浪的
9. sermon [5s\:mEn] n. 【宗】布道,讲道
10. whip [hwIp] n. 鞭子
11. thong [WCN] n. 平底人字拖鞋,人字凉鞋
12. stubborn [5stQbEn] adj. 难驾驭的;难对付的
13. downside: 请参阅P8注释32。
14. gymnasiarch [dVIm5neIzIB:k] n. (古希腊的)体育官(其职责为监督体育竞技会和体育学校)
15. sponge bath: <美> (不入水的)海绵擦身浴(亦作blanket bath)
16. scrape [skreIp] vt. 刮,擦;刮(或擦)净
17. urinator [5juErIneItE] n. 潜水员,为某事潜入水下者
18. urine [5juErIn] n. 尿,小便
19. amphibious [Am5fIbIEs] adj. (能)两栖作战的;具有双重特性的
20. sabotage [5sAbEtB:V] vt. 破坏
21. scavenge [5skAvIndV] vi. 清除污物(或垃圾);当清洁工
22. pouch [pautF] n. (随身携带的)小袋
23. Aquaman: 潜水侠,小时候被放逐到亚特兰蒂斯岛(Atlantis)上,长大后成为亚特兰蒂斯岛的皇帝,并将该岛管理得井井有条,后来自称“地球七海之王”,掌管地球上的七大洋。每次有人破坏海洋生态,潜水侠便会出击对付。他的左手被食人鱼吃掉,装上了铁钩。
24. ruckus [5rQkEs] n. 吵闹;争吵;骚乱,骚动