约翰.拉斯金（1819/2/08-1900/1/20）英国作家、艺术家、前拉斐尔派的一员，是维多利亚时代艺术代表性人物，他的艺术审美在当时有着深远的影响。以下是我的英译中及原文。

书

（英国）约翰·拉斯金

你得爱书，以下两种做法可以说是爱书之体现：

首先，要真心抱有向作者学习之心，了解其作品的思想精髓。要了解作者的所思所想，则须好好研读作品，而不是去发现英雄所见略同。如果对你而言作者毫无深度，则其书不值一读；如果他很有思想，那他的很多想法定会让你耳目一新。                                                                                              

我们往往希望：“这书不错--跟我想的完全一样！”可真真该有的感受应是，“这想法真怪！我从没这么想过，不过他这种想法也对；或者，现在我不知道他这么说对不对，我得去搞搞清楚。”但无论认同与否，至少得肯定你是站在作者的角度思量作者的观点，而不是去发现你的观点。如果你觉得你有资格评判作者的作品，留待稍后再说，先看清楚作者的真实意图。如果作者的书值得一读，他文中的蕴意肯定无法即刻全部明了；--而且，不花上点时间去读读，无论如何你都无法读透作者所想。并非作者没有表达，或没有淋漓尽致地去表达出他的想法；而是他不能，更奇怪的是，他也不想这样，反而将其思想或隐匿于文中，或赋予深刻寓意，以确信你是真真想去了解。我并不是很了解其中原由，也无法对这一不太仁慈的做法作出分析，这种言不尽意的做法使得作者将其思想深深的隐藏了起来。他不会帮助你去获得他作品的精髓，而是把它作为你孜孜研读后的回报，在向你展现其庐山真面目之前，他们要搞清楚，是否值得将灿烂向你绽放。真知灼见如同金子一样。在我们看来，地球完全可以凭己之力，一劳永逸地将其体内所有金子堆上山顶，君主和臣民们便知哪儿可以获得金子；不必再东挖西掘，焦虑不安，也无须让运气左右，白白浪费时间；只要去金山砍伐，想铸造多少金币都可。但大自然却不这么做。它把金子搁在了地球的旮旮旯旯中，让人无从得知：或许经历漫长的挖掘，却颗粒无收；亦或挖得你痛苦不堪，也只是点滴收获。

作者的真知灼见一如金子一样。当你得到一本好书，你得扪心自问，“我是否愿意向澳洲采金人一样？我的镐子与铁锹是否一切良好？我自己是否整装待发，已把袖子高卷，定心静气了呢？”然后，为了这段有益身心的旅程，安如磐石，忍得枯燥乏味。在这段旅程中金子便是作者的真知灼见，而一个个单词犹如寻金之旅中的一块块石头，须经开采提炼，方能找到金子。此时你的洞察力，睿智与才识如同采金时的镐子，而激荡的心灵深处便是炼金的熔炉。别指望不用工具便能采得作者思想之“金子”，相反，往往需要最锋利，最精良的工具，加上十分的耐心去熔炼，方能炼出些须书中之黄金。

原文

Books

By John Ruskin(1819-1900)

You must love them, and show your love in these two following ways.

First, by a true desire to be taught by them, and to enter into their thoughts. To enter into theirs, observe; not to find your own expressed by them. If the person who wrote the book is not wiser than you, you need not read it; if he be, he will think differently from you in many respects.

Very ready we are to say of a book, “How good this is － that’s exactly what I think!”But the right feeling is, “How strange that is! I never thought of that before, and yet I see it is true; or if I do not now, I hope I shall, some day.” But whether thus submissively or not, at least be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours. Judge it afterwards, if you think yourself qualified to do so; but ascertain it first. And be sure also, if the author is worth anything, that you will not get at his meaning all at once; -- nay, that at his whole meaning you will not for a long time arrive in any wise. Not that he does not say what he means, and in strong words too; but he cannot say it all; and what is more strange, will not, but in a hidden way and in parables, in order that he may be sure you want it. I cannot quite see the reason of this, nor analyse that cruel reticence in the breasts of wise men which makes them always hide their deeper thought. They do not give it you by way of help, but by of reward, and will make themselves sure that you deserve it before they allow you to reach it. But it is the same with the physical type of wisdom, gold. There seems, to you and me, no reason why the electric forces of the earth should not carry whatever there is of gold within it at once to the mountain tops, so that kings and people might know that all the gold they could get was there; and without any trouble of digging, or anxiety, or chance, or waste of time, cut it away, and coin as much as they needed. But Nature does not manage it so. She puts it in little fissures in the earth, nobody knows where: you may dig long and find none; you must dig painfully to find any.

And it is just the same with men’s best wisdom. When you come to a good book, you must ask yourself, “Am I inclined to work as an Australian miner would? Are my pickaxes and shovels in good order, and am I in

good trim myself, my sleeves well up to the elbow, and my breath good, and my temper?” And, keeping the figure a little longer, even at cost of tiresomeness, for it is a thoroughly useful one, the metal you are in search of being the author’s mind or meaning, his words are as the rock which you have to crush and smelt in order to get at it. And your pickaxes are your own care, wit, and learning, your smelting furnace is your own thoughtful soul. Do not hope to get at any good author’s meaning without those tools and that fire; often you will need sharpest, finest chiseling, and patientest fusing, before you can gather one grain of the metal.