Books are to mankind what memory is to the individual. They contain the history of our race, the discoveries we have made, the accumulated knowledge and experience of ages; they picture for us the marvels and beauties of nature; help us in our difficulties, comfort us in sorrow and in suffering, change hours of weariness into moments of delight, store our minds with ideas, fill them with good and happy thoughts, and lift us out of and above ourselves.

书之于人类正如记忆之于个人。书包含了我们人类的历史，我们已有的发现，多少世代积累的知识与经验，书为我们描绘了自然的奇迹与美丽，在困难的时候帮助我们，在悲伤与痛苦的时候安慰我们，把困倦的时光变为欢乐的时刻，用观念装备我们的头脑，用美好而快乐的思想充实我们的心灵，使我们走出自己，超越自己。

[2] There is an Oriental story of two men: one was a king, who every night dreamt he was a beggar; the other was a beggar, who every night dreamt he was a prince and lived in a palace. I am not sure that the king had very much the best of it. Imagination is sometimes more vivid than reality. But, however this may be, when we read we may not only (if we wish it) be kings and live in palaces, but, what is far better, we may transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore, and visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, or expense.

[2] 有一个关于两个人的东方故事：一个是国王，每天晚上梦见自己是乞丐；另一个是乞丐，每天晚上梦见自己是王子，住在宫殿之中。我不能肯定，国王究竟占了多少上风。想象有时比现实更生动。然而，无论是否如此，我们在读书的时候，可以不仅（如果希望如此）是国王，住在宫殿之中，更好的是，还可以游遍高山海滩，遍访地球上的美丽河山，而又不会疲惫，没有不便，也无需破费。

[3] Many of those who have had, as we say, all that this world can give, have yet told us they owed much of their purest happiness to books. Ascham², in The Schoolmaster, tells a touching story of his last visit to ^*Lady Jane Grey³. He found her sitting in an oriel window reading Plato’s beautiful account of the death of Socrates. Her father and mother were hunting in the park, the hounds were in full cry and their voices came in through the open window. He expressed his surprise that she had not joined them. But, she said, “I wist that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato.”

[3] 在我们看来，有许多人已经拥有了这个世界所能给予的一切，却告诉我们，他们最纯粹的快乐多半来自于书。阿斯克姆在《教师》中讲述了他最后一次拜访简·格雷小姐的感人故事。他看到她坐在凸肚窗下，在看柏拉图那篇有关苏格拉底之死的精彩文章。当时，她的父母在园中狩猎，猎犬狂吠，声音从开着的窗外传来。他很惊讶，她没有加入到他们的行列之中，而她表示：“他们在园中的所有乐趣，与我在柏拉图中找到的乐趣相比，不过是影子而已。”

[4] Macaulay4 had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “Thank you for your very pretty letter. I am always glad to make my little girl happy, and nothing pleases me so much as to see that she likes books, for when she is as old as I am, she will find that they are better than all the tarts and cakes, toys and plays, and sights in the world. If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

[4] 麦考利拥有财富与名望，地位与权力，可他在传记中告诉我们，他一生中最为快乐的时光是读书。他给一个小女孩写过一封动人的信，信中说：“谢谢你非常漂亮的来信。我总是很高兴能使我的小女孩快乐，而没有什么比知道她喜欢书更使我高兴的了，因为到了我这个年纪，她就会发现，书要好过所有的馅饼和糕点、玩具和游戏，以及世界上所有的名胜风景。如果有谁让我做最伟大的国王，有宫殿花园、美味佳肴、美酒马车、漂亮衣服和几百个奴仆，条件是不能读书，那我不会做国王。我宁愿做一个穷人，住阁楼，有许多书，也不愿意做一个不喜欢读书的国王。”

[5] Books, indeed, endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts. There is a wider prospect, says ^*Jean Paul Richter⁵, from Parnassus⁶ than from a throne. In one way they give us an even more vivid idea than the actual reality, just as reflections are often more beautiful than real nature. “All mirrors,” says ^*George MacDonald⁷. “The commonest room is a room in a poem when I look in the glass.”

[5] 书籍，真的是给了我们一座充满魔力的思想宫殿。吉恩·保尔·里希特尔说，帕纳塞斯山上的视野比在御座上更广阔。在某种意义上，书籍给我们的东西甚至比真正的现实还生动，正如投影常常比真实的大自然还美丽。“一切皆有镜像。”乔治·麦克唐纳说，“当我从镜子中看的时候，最平常的房子也充满诗情画意。”

[6] Precious and priceless are the blessings which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the sublime and enchanting regions.

[6] 书在我们日常的小径周围洒满了珍贵而无价的祝福。我们，在想象中，走遍崇山峻岭。

[7] Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser⁸’s shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton⁹’s s angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of Paradise. Science, art, literature, philosophy, — all that man has thought, all that man has done, — the experience that has been bought with the sufferings of a hundred generations, — all are garnered up for us in the world of books.

[7] 不必起身离开身边的火炉，我们就可以遨游地球上最遥远的地方，或是翱翔于斯宾塞笔下的王国，那里有成群结队的仙女相迎，或是弥尔顿的天堂，耳边响起天使们合唱的乐园颂歌。科学、艺术、文学、哲学——人类所思考过的一切，所做过的一切——以及世世代代经受苦痛买来的经验，所有这一切，全为我们藏在了书的世界里。

*王晓元，上海大学翻译研究中心主任，香港岭南大学翻译专业哲学博士，上海外国语大学英语系硕士（翻译），中国翻译协会专家会员。先后在《中国翻译》、《外国语》、《翻译季刊》、《上海翻译》等学刊发表论文，除译著、译文外，另有专著1部。目前主持国家社科基金一般项目1项。

Notes注释：

1.（1834～1913），英国银行家、博物学家，在《史前时期》和《文明起源与人的原始状态》 两书中创造了“旧石器时代”与“新石器时代”两个术语。

2. 即Roger Ascham（1515～1568），英国学者、作家，曾任伊丽莎白公主的希腊语和拉丁语教师。

3.（1537～1554），英国“九日女王”（1553）、亨利七世的曾孙女、爱德华六世指定的王位继承人，被推上王位后仅九天，即被玛丽一世取代，受指控叛国而被斩首（1554）。

4. Thomas Babington Macaulay （1800～1859），英国政治家、历史学家，辉格党议员，曾任职于印度总督府最高委员会（1834～1838），后任英国陆军大臣（1839～1841）、军需总监（1846～1847），著有《英国史》与《古罗马之歌》等。

5.（1763～1825），德国小说家，浪漫主义与心理小说的先驱。

6. 帕纳塞斯山，位于希腊中部，古时被认作太阳神和文艺女神们的灵地。

7.（1824～1905），英国小说家、诗人、基督教寓言作家，原为牧师，尤以写童话著称，著名童话有《北风的后面》与《公主与妖怪》等。

8. Edmund Spenser（1552～1599），英国诗人，以长篇寓言诗《仙后》著称，另有诗作《牧人月历》、《结婚曲》等，在语言和诗歌艺术上对后世诗人有深远影响。

9. John Milton（1608～1674），英国诗人，对18世纪诗人产生深刻影响，因劳累过度而双目失明（1652），主要作品有《失乐园》等。