Ireland's Contribution to English

Nearly everyone knows that countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are primarily English-speaking countries; that is, English is the mother tongue used in these countries. What is less well known is that English is also the mother tongue in countries such as the Republic of Ireland (officially called Eire), Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad, and Guyana. Among these latter few, the Irish have made contributions to the English language in both its lexicon and literature which can be considered second to none.
　　Virtually every aspect of English literature has been graced by the writings of the Irish. This fact is all the more amazing because Ireland is a relatively small country, with never more than four million people throughout its long history. Yet many great "English" writers were indeed born and often raised in Ireland, though many, too, emigrated to the United Kingdom at some point in their lives. Among these pillars of English literature were Jonathan Swift, William Butler Yeats, James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde, George Bernard Shaw, and Edmund Burke. Many other lesser-known figures have punctuated English literature as well. These men's contributions to the English language and to Western thought in general are immeasurable. A review of two of these writers' major works will reveal why.
　　Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) by most reckoning is the best English-language satirist ever, and one of the world's greatest as well. Born in Ireland of English parents, Swift went to school there through his bachelor's degree (Trinity College, Dublin, capital of Ireland). Thereafter he frequently traveled between England and Ireland, including years spent at Oxford College, where he earned his master's degree. Swift wrote a great deal of poetry, but he is best regarded as a prose satirist. He wrote prolifically both in Ireland and England, nearly constantly shuttling from one to the other. In Ireland he worked on Gulliver's Travels, which he later had published in England in 1726. Already famous by that time, Swift would become immortalized with this last great work. What child does not know the story of the brave sailor Gulliver as he travels through lands in which he is at turn both a giant and a midget? Yet most readers are not aware of Swift's intent to satirize the political, academic, and religious leaders of his time. Read either way, Swift's genius as a writer of English cannot be denied.
　　A giant of English theater was George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950). Born in Dublin, Shaw moved to England with his family when he was 20 and stayed there for most of the rest of his long life. His early fiction writing was so poor that he could not find a publisher. Only when he began to work as a playwright did his fortunes improve. Among the many, many plays for which Shaw is famous, perhaps his most lasting (though not his most critically acclaimed) is Pygmalion (1916), the story of a language teacher who attempts to "civilize" a young prostitute by training her to speak correctly. If this story sounds familiar, it should: Pygmalion was later filmed winning an Oscar for Shaw and later again transformed into the highly popular Broadway musical My Fair Lady (1956). A good story never dies: the original Pygmalion has since been updated in the hit movie Pretty Woman (1990) starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts. As with Shakespeare, many of Shaw's plays are continually restaged or rewritten into new media because Shaw wrote on many themes which touch on the human condition, independent of time and space.
　　Among the constellation of Irish talents, perhaps Swift and Shaw are two among the more brilliant stars, but much more could be written of those mentioned above and many others. Though English literature written by the British suffices as an eternal and shining canon of literature, it would be nonetheless dimmer without the considerable talents of its Irish contributors.

　　几乎每个人都知道，诸如英国、美国、加拿大、澳洲和新西兰等国都是说英语的主要国家；也就是说，英语是这些国家使用的母语。较不为人所知的是，英语也是爱尔兰共和国（正式称呼为 Eire）、巴巴多斯、牙买加、特立尼达和圭亚那等国的母语。在后面这几个国家中，爱尔兰人在英语词汇和文学上的贡献可说是无人能出其右。
　　英语文学几乎在各方面都因为爱尔兰人的作品而变得多采多姿。此一事实则因爱尔兰是个相当小的国家，其人口在漫长的历史上从未超过400万因而更加令人惊异。然而许多伟大的“英语”作家的确是在爱尔兰出生且通常都在爱尔兰长大，即使当中也有很多人在他们人生某个时期移居到英国去。在这些英语文学的巨擘中有乔纳森‧斯威夫特、威廉‧巴特勒‧叶芝、詹姆士‧乔伊斯、塞缪尔‧贝克特、奥斯卡‧王尔德、乔治‧萧伯纳以及埃德蒙‧伯克。其它许多较不知名的作家也不时出现在英语文学中。这些人对英语和西方一般思想的贡献是无法估量的。在这些作家中挑两个出来回顾其主要作品就可了解原因了。
　　乔纳森‧斯威夫特（1667～1745）一般都认为是历史上最好的英语讽刺作家，也是世上最伟大的讽刺作家之一。斯威夫特出生于爱尔兰，父母是英国人；他在那儿接受教育直到完成学士学位（爱尔兰首府都伯林的三一学院）。此后他经常往返于英国和爱尔兰之间，包括他在牛津大学攻读硕士学位的那几年。斯威夫特写过许多诗，但却以散文讽刺作家著称。他几乎不断穿梭于爱尔兰和英国之间，并在两地写出大量作品。《格列佛游记》是他在爱尔兰写的，稍后于1726年时在英国出版。当时已经成名的他，因为最后这本巨著而得以名垂不朽。哪个孩子不知道勇敢的水手格列佛周游各地，一会儿变成巨人，一会儿又变成小小人儿的故事呢？然而大部分的读者却不知道斯威夫特是想藉此讽刺当时的政治、学术和宗教领袖。不管读者怎么看这本书，斯威夫特身为英语作家的天分是不容置疑的。
　　乔治‧萧伯纳（1856～1950）是英语戏剧上的一位巨人。萧生于都伯林，20岁时随家人搬到英国，在往后漫长的一生中他大部分的时间都待在那儿。他早期的小说作品差劲到没有出版商愿意出版他的书。一直到他开始当剧作家时，命运才得到改善。在他诸多赖以成名的戏剧当中，传颂最久的（虽然不是最受批评家赞扬的）也许是 《Pygmalion》（1916），故事描述一位语言教师试图透过正确的说话训练来“教化”一名年轻的妓女。如果这故事听来耳熟，那并不奇怪：《Pygmalion》稍后被拍成电影为萧赢得了一座奥斯卡奖；后来又被改编成极受欢迎的百老汇音乐剧“真善美”（1956）。好故事绝不会被遗忘：《Pygmalion》原剧之后又以现代的表演方式呈现在理察‧吉尔和朱莉娅‧罗伯兹主演的卖座电影《麻雀变凤凰》（1990）中。和莎士比亚一样，萧的许多戏剧作品不断被重新搬上舞台或改编用在新的媒体上，这是因为萧所写的主题触及人生百态，不因时间和空间改变而有所不同。
　　在爱尔兰群星中，也许斯威夫特和萧是其中较为耀眼的两颗星星；但上面所提到的其它那些人和另外许多作家还有更多可供介绍之处。尽管英国人写的英语文学足以当作永久且闪亮的文学标准，但若没有爱尔兰这些人才的众多贡献，它将因而大为逊色吧。