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Lesson One The Company in Which I work 我工作的公司

By Joseph Heller

In the company in which I work , each of us is afraid of at least one person .

我工作的公司里，每个人都至少害怕一个人。

The lower your position is , the more people you are afraid of .

职位越低，所惧怕的人越多。

And all the people are afraid of the twelve men at the top who helped found and build the company and now own and direct it .

所有的人都害怕那十二位顶层上司，他们帮助创建了这个公司，而且现在仍然大权在握。

All these twelve men are elderly now and drained by time 歲月滄桑and success of energy and ambition .

所有这十二位都已经上了年纪，而且岁月的沧桑和对成功的执著追求使他们心力交瘁。

Many have spent their whole lives here .They seem friendly ,slow , and content when I come upon them in the halls and always courteous(有禮貌的) and mute 沉默不語的）when they ride with others in the public elevators .

他们中很多人在这儿干了一辈子。当我在大厅里遇见他们时，他们看上去非常友善、沉稳而心满意足，而且他们与别人一起乘坐公共电梯时又总是彬彬有礼、沉默不语

They no longer work hard .They hold meetings , make promotions, and allow their names to be used on announcements that are prepared and issued by somebody else .

他们不再努力工作。他们主持会议，决定别人的晋升，任凭别人在准备发布的通告中使用他们的名字，

Nobody is sure anymore who really runs the company ( not even the people who are credited with running it ) , but the company does run .

没有人知道谁真正经营这家公司（甚至连人们认为现在经营着这家公司的那些人都不知道），然而公司的确在运转。 In the normal course of a business day …I am afraid of Jack Green because my department is part of his department and Jack Green is my boss ;

在平常的工作日里，我很害怕杰克?格林，这是因为我所在的部门属于他的部门，而杰克?格林是我的上司。

Green is afraid of me because most of the work in my department is done for the Sales Department , which is more important than his department , and I am much closer to Andy Kagle and the other people in the Sales Department than he is .

格林害怕我则是因为我的部门的绝大部分工作是为销售部所做的，而销售部比他的部门更重要，而且同他相比，我与迪?卡葛勒以及销售部的其他人员的关系更加密切。

Green distrusts me fitfully .

格林偶尔也对我不信任，

He makes it clear to me every now and then that he wishes to see everything coming out of my department before it is shown to other departments

他有时会向我表示他希望我的部门的每一项工作在其他部门知道前要先让他知道。

I know he does not really mean this : he is too busy with his own work to pay that much attention to all of mine , 我知道这不是他真正的意思，他自己的工作非常忙，根本就无暇顾及我们所有的工作。

and I will bypass him on most of our assignments rather than take up his time and delay their delivery to people who have an immediate need for them .

我会将大部分工作绕过格林并直接交给需要它们的人，而不愿意占他的时间。

Most of the work we do in my department is , in the long run, trivial (鎖事).

毕竟我们部门绝大部分工作只是微不足道的。

But Green always grows alarmed when someone from another department praises something that has come from my department .

但是每当其他部门赞扬我们部门的工作时，格林就会变得不安，