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　　一提起马克吐温(Mark Twain)，喜欢文学的你们肯定不会陌生。

　　马克吐温原名萨缪尔·兰亨·克莱门(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)，是美国上世纪最著名的小说家、文学家，是美国现实主义文学学派的杰出代表人物。

　　他的作品以幽默与讽刺为主，尤其擅长用夸张又符合逻辑的小说剧情，讽刺当时社会的种族歧视、阶级斗争以及奢靡浮躁之风。

　　他的主要代表作品有《百万英镑》《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》、《汤姆·索亚历险记》等，几乎每部著作都带给一代代人无尽的思考与震撼。

　　也许人们会觉得，能写出这样犀利讽刺的文章的作者，在现实中也很难相处;毕竟，他随随便便的一句话，就能把那些达官贵人怼得说不出话来：

　　有一次，马克·吐温应邀赴宴。 席间，他称赞一位贵妇：“夫人，您真是太美丽了!”不料那妇人却说：“先生，可是遗憾得很，我不能用同样的话回答你。”

　　马克·吐温笑着回答：“那没关系，你也可以像我一样说假话。”

　　是不是回答地非常机智?

　　不过，一直言辞犀利、针砭时弊的大文豪，也有自己柔软的一面——很多人都不知道，马克吐温平生最喜欢的就是猫。

　　用今天的话来说，马克吐温先生根本就是一位彻彻底底的“猫奴”，或者说是一名尽职尽责的“铲屎官”!

　　One thing perhaps lesser known about Twain is his enduring love for cats, whom he respected far more than people. "If man could be crossed with the cat," he once wrote, "it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat."

　　关于马克·吐温，有一件事并不太为人所知，那就是他对猫咪们的无穷无尽的喜爱，他对猫的尊敬甚至远超过对人类的尊敬。“如果人和猫能够杂交，”他甚至这样写道，“那么这种结合能够改善人类的基因，但却会让猫的血统变坏。”

　　He surrounded himself with up to 19 cats throughout various periods of his life, giving them imaginative names like Apollinaris, Beelzebub, Blatherskite, Buffalo Bill, Satan, Sin and Sour Mash.

　　在马克·吐温人生中的不同时期里，养过多达19只猫，他给这些猫猫们起了很多极富想象力的名字，比如Apollinaris(阿波罗里斯，来源于一座山的名字，同时也是一款德国矿泉水的名字)，Beelzebub(圣经中的恶魔;失乐园中的堕落天使)， Blatherskite(爱说废话的人，吹牛大王)，Buffalo Bill(水牛比尔)，Satan(撒旦，魔鬼)，Sin(罪恶)，Sour Mash(酸麦芽浆)等等。

　　Twain's feline affection translated over into his writing too, and cats make appearances in some of his best-known works. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the story about a cat named Peter is actually a true story from Twain's childhood. There was even a book called Concerning Cats: Two Tales by Mark Twain, which came out long after his death in 1910. This book tells two stories about cats which he used to read to his daughters to help them fall asleep.

　　吐温对猫的喜爱也体现在他的作品中，在他的一些知名著作里面，时常会出现猫的身影。比如在《汤姆索亚历险记》中，那只名叫彼得的猫的故事，实际上就来源于马克·吐温童年时代经历过的真实故事。他甚至写了一本名叫《关于猫：马克吐温的两个故事》，直到他1910年去世后过了很久才出版。在这本书里，他讲了两个关于猫的故事，他曾经当做睡前读物念给女儿们听，哄她们睡觉。

　　It is said the Twain just couldn't live without his cats, so while he was on vacation he would ask around to see if he could 'rent' someone else's.

　　据说，马克·吐温离开猫甚至就活不下去，所以当他出门度假时，他就会四处打听看看能不能“租”别人家的猫。

　　According to an article in New England Today, the most famous cat-renting episode occurred in Dublin, New Hampshire, in 1906. Twain biographer Albert Bigelow Paine was there when the author rented three kittens for the summer. One he named Sackcloth. The other two were identical and went under the joint name of Ashes. "He didn't wish to own them, for then he would have to leave them behind uncared for," Paine explained, "so he preferred to rent them and pay sufficiently to ensure their subsequent care."

　　根据《今日新英格兰》发布过的一篇文章，1906年马克·吐温最著名的租猫事件就发生在新罕布什尔州的都柏林。马克·吐温在那年的夏天租了三只小猫度假，正好写他的传记作家阿尔伯特·毕格罗·潘恩也住在那里。这三只猫中的其中一个被马克·吐温取名叫粗麻布。另外两个是完全一样的，用的是Ashes这个名字。潘恩解释说：“他(马克·吐温)并不想拥有这些猫，因为如果那样的话，他就不得不把它们留在无人看管的家里;所以他宁愿只是把它们租下来，并支付足够的费用，以确保它们能得到后续的照料。”

　　Twain isn't the only literary giant with a fondness for cats, either. His fellow 19th and 20th-century American authors Ernest Hemingway, T.S. Eliot and Patricia Highsmith all shared his passion for all things feline. Maybe there is something about a literary sensibility that combines well with the quick-witted but gentle nature of the cat?

　　其实，马克·吐温并不是唯一一个喜欢猫的文学巨匠。和他同处19世纪与20世纪的美国作家欧内斯特·海明威、托马斯·艾略特和帕特里夏·海史密斯都和他一样热爱着猫咪。也许是因为文学上的敏感与猫机敏而温柔的天性能很好地结合在一起?

　　Smithsonian magazine says that Twain's greatest cat love was Bambino, a cat who had originally been owned by his daughter Clara. After Bambino went missing, Twain wrote an ad in a local newspaper offering a reward and the following artistically styled description: "Large and intensely black; thick, velvety fur; has a faint fringe of white hair across his chest; not easy to find in ordinary light."

　　史密森杂志说，吐温最喜欢的猫是班比诺，这只猫原本是他的女儿克拉拉养的。所以，在这只猫失踪后，马克·吐温在当地一家报纸上写了一则寻猫启事，这样写道：“又大又黑;肥大，毛发柔软;胸前有一缕淡淡的白毛;在普通的光线下是不容易找到的。”

　　We'll leave you with a quote from Twain's 1894 novel Pudd'nhead Wilson: "A home without a cat — and a well-fed, well-petted and properly revered cat — may be a perfect home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?"

　　我们将引用马克·吐温1894年的小说《傻瓜威尔逊》中的一句话来结束今天的文章：“一个没有猫的家——没有一只吃得好、被爱抚得好、被人好好爱着的猫的家——也许是一个完美的家，但怎么能证明这是一个真正的家呢?”“

　　Just purrfect!

　　总之，毛茸茸茸茸…的猫猫们就是太完美啦!