Twyford, at the Bishop of St. Asaph’s, 1771.
1771年写于都怀福德村圣阿萨夫教堂主教家中
DEAR SON:
我儿：
I have ever had pleasure in obtaining any little anecdotes of my ancestors. You may remember the inquiries I made among the remains of my relations when you were with me in England, and the journey I undertook for that purpose.
我一向爱好搜集有关祖上的一切珍闻轶事。你也许还记得当你跟我同住在英国的时候我曾经为了那个缘故跋涉旅途，遍访家族中的老人。
Imagining it may be equally agreeable to you to know the circumstances of my life, many of which you are yet unacquainted with, and expecting the enjoyment of a week’s uninterrupted leisure in my present country retirement, I sit down to write them for you. To which I have besides some other inducements. Having emerged from the poverty and obscurity in which I was born and bred, to a state of affluence and some degree of reputation in the world, and having gone so far through life with a considerable share of felicity, the conducing means I made use of, which with the blessing of God so well succeeded, my posterity may like to know, as they may find some of them suitable to their own situations, and therefore fit to be imitated.
目前我正在乡间休假，预料有整整一个星期的空闲，我想你也许同样地喜欢知道我一生的事迹（其中有许多你还没有听过），因此我就坐了下来替你把这些事迹写出来。除此以外，我还有一些别的动机。我出身贫寒，幼年生长在穷苦卑贱的家庭中，后来居然生活优裕，在世界上稍有声誉，迄今为止我一生一帆风顺，遇事顺利，我的立身之道，得蒙上帝的祝福，获得巨大的成就，我的子孙或许愿意知道这些处世之道，其中一部分或许与他们的情况适合，因此他们可以仿效。
That felicity, when I reflected on it, has induced me sometimes to say, that were it offered to my choice, I should have no objection to a repetition of the same life from its beginning, only asking the advantages authors have in a second edition to correct some faults of the first. So I might, besides correcting the faults, change some sinister accidents and events of it for others more favorable. But though this were denied, I should still accept the offer. Since such a repetition is not to be expected, the next thing most like living one’s life over again seems to be a recollection of that life, and to make that recollection as durable as possible by putting it down in writing.
当我回顾我一生中幸运的时候，我有时候不禁这样说：如果有人提议我重新做人的话，我倒乐意把我的一生再从头重演一遍，我仅仅要求像作家那样，在再版时有改正初版某些缺陷的机会。如若可能，除了改正错误以外，我也同样地要把某些不幸的遭遇变得更顺利些。但是即使无法避免这些不幸的厄运，我还是愿意接受原议，重演生平。但是由于这种重演是不可能的，那么最接近重演的似乎就是回忆了。为了使回忆尽可能地保持久远，似乎就需要把它记下来。
Hereby, too, I shall indulge the inclination so natural in old men, to be talking of themselves and their own past actions; and I shall indulge it without being tiresome to others, who, through respect to age, might conceive themselves obliged to give me a hearing, since this may be read or not as any one pleases. And, lastly (I may as well confess it, since my denial of it will be believed by nobody), perhaps I shall a good deal gratify my own vanity. Indeed, I scarce ever heard or saw the introductory words, “Without vanity I may say,” &c., but some vain thing immediately followed. Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life.
因此我将顺从一种老人中常有的癖好来谈论自己和自己过去的作为。但是我这样做，将不使听者感到厌倦，他们或是因为敬老，觉得非听我的话不可，但是一经写下来，听与不听就可以悉听自便了。最后（我还是自己承认了好，因为即使我否认，别人也不会相信），写自传，或许还会大大地满足我的自负心。说句老实话，我时常听见或在书上读到别人在刚说完了像“我可以毫不自夸地说…”这种开场白以后，接着就是一大篇自吹自擂的话。大多数人不喜欢别人的虚夸，不管他们自己是多么自负。但是无论在什么地方，我对这种自负心总是宽宥的。因为我相信这种心理对自己和他四周的人都有好处。所以，在许多情况下，一个人如果把自负心当作生命的慰藉而感谢上帝，这也不能算是怪诞悖理的。
And now I speak of thanking God, I desire with all humility to acknowledge that I owe the mentioned happiness of my past life to His kind providence, which lead me to the means I used and gave them success. My belief of this induces me to hope, though I must not presume, that the same goodness will still be exercised toward me, in continuing that happiness, or enabling me to bear a fatal reverse, which I may experience as others have done: the complexion of my future fortune being known to Him only in whose power it is to bless to us even our afflictions.
自传既然我提到了上帝，我愿意十分谦恭地承认，上面提到的我过去一生中的幸福当归功于上帝仁慈的旨意，上帝使我找到了处世之道，并且使这些方法获得成功。这种信仰使我希望，虽然我不应该臆断，上帝在将来会像以前一样地祝福我，不论是使我继续享受幸福，或是使我忍受命中注定的逆运（像其他人一样，我也可能有这样的遭遇），因为我未来命运的轮廓只有上帝知道，上帝甚至能够通过苦难来祝福我们。
The notes one of my uncles (who had the same kind of curiosity in collecting family anecdotes) once put into my hands, furnished me with several particulars relating to our ancestors. From these notes I learned that the family had lived in the same village, Ecton, in Northamptonshire, for three hundred years, and how much longer he knew not (perhaps from the time when the name of Franklin, that before was the name of an order of people, was assumed by them as a surname when others took surnames all over the kingdom), on a freehold of about thirty acres, aided by the smith’s business, which had continued in the family till his time, the eldest son being always bred to that business; a custom which he and my father followed as to their eldest sons. When I searched the registers at Ecton, I found an account of their births, marriages and burials from the year 1555 only, there being no registers kept in that parish at any time preceding. By that register I perceived that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. My grandfather Thomas, who was born in 1598, lived at Ecton till he grew too old to follow business longer, when he went to live with his son John, a dyer at Banbury, in Oxfordshire, with whom my father served an apprenticeship. There my grandfather died and lies buried. We saw his gravestone in 1758. His eldest son Thomas lived in the house at Ecton, and left it with the land to his only child, a daughter, who, with her husband, one Fisher, of Wellingborough, sold it to Mr. Isted, now lord of the manor there. My grandfather had four sons that grew up, viz.: Thomas, John, Benjamin and Josiah. I will give you what account I can of them, at this distance from my papers, and if these are not lost in my absence, you will among them find many more particulars.
我有一位伯父，他也同样地爱好搜集家族中的遗闻轶事，有一次他交给我一些笔记，其中讲到关于我们祖先的一些事情。从这些笔记我知道我们的家族在诺桑普顿郡的爱克顿教区至少已经住了三百年，究竟在这以前还有多少年，他就不知道了。（也许从他们采用“富兰克林”为姓的那时候起。“富兰克林”在这以前是一个人民阶层此处原文是anorderofpeople。按franklin一词原指英国十四、五世纪的非贵族的小土地所有者或自由农。——译者的名称，当时英国各地人们都在采用姓氏。）他们享有三十英亩的自由领地，以打铁为副业。直到我伯父的时候为止，打铁这一行业一直保持在我们家族中。家中的长子总是学打铁的，我伯父和我父亲都按照这个传统叫他们的长子学铁匠。我查考了爱克顿教区的户籍册，我只找到了一五五五年以后的出生、嫁娶和丧葬的纪录，那时以前的户籍册在那个教区里已经没有了，从这个户籍册里我发现我是五世以来小儿子的小儿子。我祖父汤麦斯生于一五九八年，住在爱克顿直到他年迈不能从事生产的时候为止，然后他住到他儿子约翰的地方去，他儿子是牛津郡班布雷村的一个染匠，我父亲就是跟着他学徒的。我的祖父就死在那里，葬在那里。我们在一七五八年看到了他的墓碑。他的长子汤麦斯住在爱克顿的住宅里，后来把住宅和田产遗留给他的独养女儿。他女儿和她的丈夫（是威灵堡的一个叫做费雪的人）又把房产卖给伊斯德先生，他现在就是那里的庄园领主。我祖父养大了四个儿子，名叫汤麦斯、约翰、本杰明和约瑟。我手边没有材料，但是我将把我记得的给你写出来。如果我的纪录在我离家以后未曾遗失的话，你可以从纪录里找到更详细的材料。
Thomas was bred a smith under his father; but, being ingenious, and encouraged in learning (as all my brothers were) by an Esquire Palmer, then the principal gentleman in that parish, he qualified himself for the business of scrivener; became a considerable man in the county; was a chief mover of all public-spirited undertakings for the county or town of Northampton, and his own village, of which many instances were related of him; and much taken notice of and patronized by the then Lord Halifax.
汤麦斯跟他父亲学了打铁，但是他秉性颖悟，当地教区的大绅士伯麦老爷鼓励他求学上进（他的弟弟们也得到同样的鼓励），他获得了充当书记官的资格，成为地方上有声望的人，也是当地（无论是他的本村，诺桑普顿的城镇或是他所在的州）一切公益事业的主要推动者，我们听到了许多关于这一类的事例。在爱克顿教区他颇受到当时的哈利法克斯勋爵的赏识和奖励。
He died in 1702, January 6, old style, just four years to a day before I was born. The account we received of his life and character from some old people at Ecton, I remember, struck you as something extraordinary, from its similarity to what you knew of mine. “Had he died on the same day,” you said, “one might have supposed a transmigration.”
他死在旧历一七○二年一月六日，恰巧是我出生以前的四年整。我记得当我们从爱克顿教区的一些老人口中听到关于他的生平和性格的时候，你觉得很像你所知道的我的一生和个性，颇为惊异，你说：“他如果死在您出世的那一天，人家也许认为是灵魂转生呢！”
John was bred a dyer, I believe of woolens. Benjamin was bred a silk dyer, serving an apprenticeship at London. He was an ingenious man. I remember him well, for when I was a boy he came over to my father in Boston, and lived in the house with us some years. He lived to a great age. His grandson, Samuel Franklin, now lives in Boston.
约翰学了染匠，我相信是染呢绒的。本杰明是丝绸染匠，在伦敦拜师受业。他秉性聪颖。我很清楚地记得他，因为当我还是一个孩子的时候，他渡海到波士顿来，住在我父亲那里，跟我们同住了几年之久。他一直活到高龄，他的孙子撒木耳·富兰克林现在还住在波士顿。
He left behind him two quarto volumes, MS., of his own poetry, consisting of little occasional pieces addressed to his friends and relations, of which the following, sent to me, is a specimen. He had formed a short-hand of his own, which he taught me, but, never practising it, I have now forgot it. I was named after this uncle, there being a particular affection between him and my father. He was very pious, a great attender of sermons of the best preachers, which he took down in his short-hand, and had with him many volumes of them. He was also much of a politician; too much, perhaps, for his station. There fell lately into my hands, in London, a collection he had made of all the principal pamphlets, relating to public affairs, from 1641 to 1717; many of the volumes are wanting as appears by the numbering, but there still remain eight volumes in folio, and twenty-four in quarto and in octavo. A dealer in old books met with them, and knowing me by my sometimes buying of him, he brought them to me. It seems my uncle must have left them here, when he went to America, which was about fifty years since. There are many of his notes in the margins.
他死后留下了两本四开本的诗稿，里面是一些写赠给他亲友的即兴短诗。下面寄给我的一首诗就是一个实例。〔富兰克林在括弧中加了一个注：“嵌在这儿”，但是未附实例〕他自己制定了一套速写术，并且教会了我，但是因为我从来不练，所以现在忘光了。我是跟这位伯父命名的，因为我父亲跟他感情特别融洽。他笃信宗教，经常去听著名传教师的说教，并且把他们的说教用他的速记术记下来，他身边有许多这样的笔记本。他也是一个很好的政治家，或许从他的地位来讲，他过分地关心政治了。最近在伦敦我获得了他所搜集的从一六四一到一七一七年间重要的政论手册，从书本上的卷号看来，有许多册已经遗失了，但是还留下了对开本八本，四开本和八开本二十四本。一个旧书商人获得了这些书籍，因为我有时候从他这里买书，他认识我，所以就把它们送到我这里来。看样子是我伯父在去美洲之前留在伦敦的，这已经是五十多年以前的事了。在书边上他还加了许多注解。
This obscure family of ours was early in the Reformation, and continued Protestants through the reign of Queen Mary, when they were sometimes in danger of trouble on account of their zeal against popery. They had got an English Bible, and to conceal and secure it, it was fastened open with tapes under and within the cover of a joint-stool. When my great-great-grandfather read it to his family, he turned up the joint-stool upon his knees, turning over the leaves then under the tapes. One of the children stood at the door to give notice if he saw the apparitor coming, who was an officer of the spiritual court. In that case the stool was turned down again upon its feet, when the Bible remained concealed under it as before.
我们这个默默无闻的家庭在宗教改革的早期，在玛丽女王统治期间一直是新教徒，他们有时因为对教皇的狂热而面临麻烦。他们有一本英文圣经，为了隐藏和保护它，用胶带把它固定在一个凳子的下面和里面。当我的曾曾祖父给他的家人读的时候，他把凳子翻到膝盖上，把树叶翻过来，然后放在磁带下面。其中一个孩子站在门口，如果他看到那个牧师来了，他会通知他，他是精神法庭的官员。在这种情况下，当圣经像以前一样藏在凳子下面时，凳子又被掀翻了。
This anecdote I had from my uncle Benjamin. The family continued all of the Church of England till about the end of Charles the Second’s reign, when some of the ministers that had been outed for nonconformity holding conventicles in Northamptonshire, Benjamin and Josiah adhered to them, and so continued all their lives: the rest of the family remained with the Episcopal Church.
我从本杰明叔叔那里得到的这件轶事。这个家族延续了整个英国国教，直到查理二世统治末期，在北安普敦郡，本杰明和约西亚的一些因不信教而被派出去的牧师们都守着这些修道院，并一直这样生活下去：其余的家族都留在了国教。
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