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读书之乐趣

卢伯克爵士/文
颜林海 /译

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 liftus out of and above ourselves.

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 aprince 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.

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. Ascham , in "The Schoolmaster", tells a touching story of his last visit to Lady Jane Grey . 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, said she, "I wist that all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato."

Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet hetells 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."

Books, indeed, endow us with a whole enchanted palace of thoughts. There is a wider prospect, says Jean Paul Richer , from Parnassus 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 Macdonald . "The commonest room is a room in a poem when I look in the glass."

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

Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser's shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton'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.

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[1]书籍之于人类，犹如记忆之于个人。书籍既可记录人种之演变，亦可记载人类之发现；既有日积月累之知识，亦不乏世代相传之经验；书籍之于人类，可描绘自然之奇迹与美丽，于困难无助之际予以提携，于悲伤痛苦之时施以抚慰；让困倦之时刻变为欢乐之时光，让头脑充满丰富之想象，让心灵布满美好快乐之思想，恃此而人可走出自我，超越自我。
   
[2]有一东方典故，言及二人：一为国王，一为乞丐。国王夜必有恶魇[1]，魇中成乞丐；乞丐晚必做美梦，梦中变王子，居宫殿。国王是否泰然处之，余不敢肯定[2]。兴许想象比现实更为栩栩如生。是否如此，姑且不论[3]，然读书时，自己恁[4]可想象自己即为国王，居宫殿；且读书乃美差之事：既可使人纵情山川，嬉戏海滩[5]，亦可使人遍访世之美景；既可使人除身心疲惫之虑，亦可使人解囊中羞涩之忧[6]。
  
[3] 其实，因造物恩宠，应有尽有[7]者不在少数。然大多曰，其真正之快乐源自书籍。阿斯克姆著有一书，曰《教师》。书中云及其最后拜访简·格雷小姐之故事，甚为感人。书中描写，格雷小姐坐于飘窗之前，览读柏拉图所写之精彩文章：苏格拉底之死；然其父母狩猎公园，人喧犬吠，敞窗之内亦可闻见8]。然阿斯克姆甚为惊奇，格雷小姐竟无动于衷，无意与父母同享狩猎之乐[9]。格雷小姐曰，然，园中狩猎之乐，较之于柏拉图书中之乐，不过皮毛[10]而已。
  
[4] 麦考利既有财富与名望，亦有地位与权力，然其传记曰，其一生最快乐之时光在于读书。麦考利尝书信一封于一女童，曰：“来信收悉，内容精彩，深表感谢。悉知女童喜好读书，且能取乐于书，余倍感兴奋，如若到吾今日之年岁，女童定会晓解，较之于馅饼与蛋糕，较之于玩具与游戏，较之于世之名胜风景，读书之乐远胜焉。如若有人请余当史上最伟大之国王、享宫殿花园之乐，品美味佳肴，驾华车着丽服，差数以百计之奴仆，唯独无读书之条件，余宁可弃做国王；宁可做穷人，居斗室，享书无数，亦勿做厌书之国王。”
  
[5]书籍确能予人以思想宫殿，魔力无比。里希尔特曰，帕纳塞斯山较之于御座，视野广而阔也。较之于客观现实，读书所予于人者，更栩栩如生，犹如投影常美于自然。“凡事必有镜像，”麦克唐纳曰，“镜中视屋，平常之屋则成诗中之屋。”
 
[6]有书则有福，且其贵无价，无时不在，无处莫有。有书，则可驰骋想象，畅游美景圣地[11]。
 
[7]即或静坐炉火之旁，亦可遨游地球之边际；既可翱翔斯宾塞所绘之王国：仙女婀娜群相迎；亦可畅游弥尔顿所述之天堂：天使娓娓歌乐园[12]。科学、艺术、文学、哲学——人之所思、人之所做——即或以世代痛苦换来之经验——凡此种种，书海之中，应有尽有，享之不尽[13]。

Notes：

[1]原文“dreamt”为动词，连用两次。译文采用“动转名”技巧。第一次是指国王梦见自己成乞丐，故译为“恶魇”；第二次是指乞丐梦见自己成国王，故译为“美梦”。

[2]原文“had very much the best of it”等于“make the best of it”意指“在不利的情况下尽力而为”，也就是“泰然处之，任凭自来”。英语中“have the best of…”、“make the best of …”与“make the best of it”最大区别在于是否有“it”以及省略号“…”后的搭配。Have the best of…后常搭配竞赛、买卖类词语，意为“站上风”；“make the best of …”后常搭配时间，机会，意为“有机可乘”，“充分利用…..”；而“make the best of it”中it 通常指前文出现过，或说话者心中所指的“不吉利”、“倒霉”之事；盖因“倒霉”、“不吉利”，用不愿提及，故用it指代，从而形成较为固定的短语，但凡英语中由“make，have+名词”构成的短语中，“make，have”已经无实际意义。所以此段原文中的“had very much the best of it”与“make the best of it”等义。故此句译为“国王是否泰然处之，余不敢肯定。”

[3]原文“however this may be”，其中however意指“无论如何”；无论即不做论断。此处，译为“是否如此，姑且不论”。

[4]原文“if we wish it”是插入语，作补充，译文将其译为“恁”心之所及，其想也大，故曰“恁”（字形之义为：任凭自己的心如何想象）

[5]原文“transport ourselves to the mountains or the seashore”其中“transport one’ selves to”指“陶醉于…中”翻译时，采用“同词异译”，分别译为“纵情山川”，“嬉戏海滩”

[6]原文“visit the most beautiful parts of the earth, without fatigue, inconvenience, or expense.”翻译把介词短语拆份额翻译成短句，并形成排比对句。

[7]原文“all that this world can give”指这个世界能够给予的一切东西，此处译为“造物恩宠，应有尽有。”

[8]原文“their voices came in through the open window”其中“their”既指猎犬又指父母，“came in through the open window”在状物，然此段在写人，故译为：“人喧犬吠，敞窗之内亦可闻见。”
[9]原文“she had not joined them”翻译时对其中“join”进行了“同义反复”处理，故译为“格雷小姐竟无动于衷，无意与父母同享狩猎之乐。”

[10]原文“all their pleasure in the park is but a shadow to the pleasure I find in Plato.”翻译是对其中的“shadow”进行了归化处理，译成“皮毛”，此句译为“园中狩猎之乐，较之于柏拉图书中之乐，不过皮毛而已。”

[11]原文“Precious and priceless are the blessings which the books scatter around our daily paths. We walk, in imagination, with the sublime and enchanting regions.”此两句最难翻译，第一句是倒装句（为了平衡而倒装）此句，表示书可以给人带来福气（blessings，本质上帝给予人的恩惠，但此文内容与上帝无关），daily表示时间，paths表示地点。故有书就有福，且福气无时不在，无处莫有。福气难得，其贵无价。第二句承接第一句，表示，有书，足不出户，可行天下。“有书则有福，且其贵无价，无时不在，无处莫有。有书，则可驰骋想象，畅游美景圣地。”

[12]原文“Without stirring from our firesides we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth, or soar into realms where Spenser’s shapes of unearthly beauty flock to meet us, where Milton’s angels peal in our ears the choral hymns of Paradise.”其中对“Without stirring from our firesides”采用反正法翻译，译为“静坐炉火旁”；把“we may roam to the most remote regions of the earth,”独立译为一个小句。把两个由where引导的定语从句译成对句，其中把一些词诗化处理。故有此译“即或静坐炉火旁，亦可遨游地球边际；既可翱翔斯宾塞所绘之王国：仙女婀娜群相迎；亦可畅游弥尔顿所述之天堂：天使娓娓歌乐园。”

[13]原文“all are garnered up for us in the world of books.”其中all are garnered up for us意为“这一切都是为我们储藏的”；all 指上文提到的一切，此处译为“凡此种种”；the world of books字面义为“书的世界”，此处译为“书海”。此句其隐含意义为“书海之大，应有尽有，享之不尽。”故此句译为“凡此种种，书海之中，应有尽有，享之不尽。”

原文地址：http://www.24en.com/column/yanlinhai/2011-08-19/135305.html