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书屋环游记|Journey around the Book House

第一章|I

属类： 双语小说 【分类】双语小说 阅读：[1059]
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不管你的书架有多简陋，也不管你的书房有多破败，关上你身后的门，抛开所有外界的烦扰，重回伟大先贤的怀抱，让他们抚慰你的心灵，你会通过那扇魔法之门，进入一片明净之地，在那里，你将不再有忧愁和烦恼。你已将庸俗和污秽的一切都抛在了身后。在书架上，你那些高贵而沉默的同伴正列队等着你。目光扫过它们，选择你要拜读其作品的那位作者。接下来，向他伸出你的手，你们就可以一起进入梦幻之境。若不是熟悉感已令我们变得麻木，那一排书一定会让我们觉得有些怪异恐怖。它们每一本，都是被蜡布、泡碱皮革和印刷油墨收殓起来的不朽灵魂。对于一本货真价实的书而言，它的封面之下埋藏着一个人思想的精华。作者的音容笑貌早已消逝无踪，肉身也湮灭于尘土之中，但他们的精神却仍在那里，供你随时差遣。

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I care not how humble your bookshelf may be,nor how lowly the room which it adorns.Close the door of that room behind you,shut off with it all the cares of the outer world,plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead,and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more.You have left all that is vulgar and all that is sordid behind you.There stand your noble,silent comrades,waiting in their ranks.Pass your eye down their files.Choose your man.And then you have but to hold up your hand to him and away you go together into dreamland.Surely there would be something eerie about a line of books were it not that familiarity has deadened our sense of it.Each is a mummified soul embalmed in cerecloth and natron of leather and printer’s ink.Each cover of a true book enfolds the concentrated essence of a man.The personalities of the writers have faded into the thinnest shadows,as their bodies into impalpable dust,yet here are their very spirits at your command.

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同样，我们也会因为熟悉感作祟而不能充分认识到能享有这福气是多么幸运。假如我们突然听说莎士比亚重返人间，并且得知他愿意跟我们中的任何一个人待上一个小时，分享他的智慧和奇思，我们得多迫切地想去找到他啊！但其实，他就在我们身边，或者说凝聚了他思想精髓的著作就在我们触手可及的地方，一周接一周地过去，而我们却不愿抬手把他召唤过来。

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It is our familiarity also which has lessened our perception of the miraculous good fortune which we enjoy.Let us suppose that we were suddenly to learn that Shakespeare had returned to earth,and that he would favor any of us with an hour of his wit and his fancy.How eagerly we would seek him out！And yet we have him—the very best of him—at our elbows from week to week,and hardly trouble ourselves to put out our hands to beckon him down.

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无论一个人情绪如何，只要他穿过了这扇魔法之门，他就可以唤出世界上最伟大的那些能与他心灵产生共鸣的人。如果他爱思考，这里有思想界的王者；如果他爱幻想，这里有想象力一流的大师。如果他想要一点娱乐呢？他可以召唤世界上任何一个伟大的说故事高手，逝者就会出现，让他长久地沉醉在故事之中。逝者是良伴，甚至让人忘却生者。对我们大多数人来说，沉迷于逝去的人的思想，却找不到自己的思想和灵魂，是一种真实而急迫的危险。对大多数人而言，生活是无趣又乏味的，令人灵魂枯竭，因此，就算只是看看别人经历的浪漫和激情，也好过生活中的单调乏味。但是，如果能从逝者的智慧和经历中得到指引，汲取力量，去应对我们人生中那些难熬的日子，那是最好不过了。

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No matter what mood a man may be in,when once he has passed through the magic door he can summon the world’s greatest to sympathize with him in it.If he be thoughtful,here are the kings of thought.If he be dreamy,here are the masters of fancy.Or is it amusement that he lacks?He can signal to any one of the world’s great story-tellers,and out comes the dead man and holds him enthralled by the hour.The dead are such good company that one may come to think too little of the living.It is a real and a pressing danger with many of us,that we should never find our own thoughts and our own souls,but be ever obsessed by the dead.Yet second-hand romance and second-hand emotion are surely better than the dull soul-killing monotony which life brings to most of the human race.But best of all when the dead man’s wisdom and the dead man’s example give us guidance and strength in the living of our own strenuous days.

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与我一起穿过这扇魔法之门吧，坐在这张绿色的沙发上，你抬眼就可以看到那个旧橡木书架，书架上面杂乱地摆着许多书。抽支烟也没关系。你听我讲讲它们的故事好吗？要知道，这是我最大的请求了，因为那里的每一本书都是我珍贵的密友，有什么能比谈论如益友般的书籍更让人感到愉悦的事呢？其他的书在离沙发稍远一些的地方，但是这些书是我的心头好—我会一遍遍地去重读，也愿意把它们搁在我的胳膊边上，方便我随时阅读。每一个被翻破的封面，都能唤起我美好的回忆。

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Come through the magic door with me,and sit here on the green settee,where you can see the old oak case with its untidy lines of volumes.Smoking is not forbidden.Would you care to hear me talk of them?Well,I ask nothing better,for there is no volume there which is not a dear,personal friend,and what can a man talk of more pleasantly than that?The other books are over yonder,but these are my own favorites—the ones I care to re-read and to have near my elbow.There is not a tattered cover which does not bring its mellow memories to me.

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那书架中的一些书，是我牺牲了一些东西才获得的，让我格外珍惜。你注意到底下那些棕色的旧书了吗？它们每一本都代表着一顿午餐。我学生时代买下那些书时，手头并不宽裕。我只有三便士午餐费，只够买一个三明治和一杯啤酒；但是，不巧啊，在我去上课的路上正好会经过世界上最迷人的一家书店。在书店门外有一个大浴缸，里面总是凌乱地堆着许多破破烂烂的书，一批批还不重样，上头有一张卡片，卡片上面写着的每一本书的价钱正好是我口袋里的数目。每当我走到这儿的时候，在我年轻而饥饿的身体与好奇而无所不读的思想之间，总有一场激烈的搏斗。六次当中可能有五次都是动物本能占了上风。但是当思想需求胜利的时候，我就会欢喜地一头扎进那堆书里，从过时的年鉴、多卷本苏格兰神学书和对数表册子当中翻出一本可买的书，那时候我就觉得一切都值了。如果你仔细地看看这些书，你会发现我干得还不错。戈登翻译的四卷本《塔西佗》（如果有好的译本，何必浪费生命去读原著呢）、威廉·坦普尔爵士的随笔集、艾迪生的作品、斯威夫特的《澡盆故事》、克拉伦登的《英国叛乱和内战史》和勒萨日的《吉尔·布拉斯》、白金汉公爵的诗集、丘吉尔公爵的诗集、《培根的一生》—这些好书可都是在一个处理三便士旧书的老浴缸里淘来的。

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Some of them represent those little sacrifices which make a possession dearer.You see the line of old,brown volumes at the bottom?Every one of those represents a lunch.They were bought in my student days,when times were not too affluent.Three-pence was my modest allowance for my midday sandwich and glass of beer；but,as luck would have it,my way to the classes led past the most fascinating bookshop in the world.Outside the door of it stood a large tub filled with an ever-changing litter of tattered books,with a card above which announced that any volume therein could be purchased for the identical sum which I carried in my pocket.As I approached it a combat ever raged betwixt the hunger of a youthful body and that of an inquiring and omnivorous mind.Five times out of six the animal won.But when the mental prevailed,then there was an entrancing five minutes’digging among out-of-date almanacs,volumes of Scotch theology,and tables of logarithms,until one found something which made it all worthwhile.If you will look over these titles,you will see that I did not do so very badly.Four volumes of Gordon’s“Tacitus”（life is too short to read originals so long as there are good translations），Sir William Temple’s Essays,Addison’s works,Swift’s“Tale of a Tub，”Clarendon’s“History，”“Gil Bias，”Buckingham’s Poems,Churchill’s Poems，“Life of Bacon”—not so bad for the old threepenny tub.

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而且与它们为伴的也不仅仅是些粗鄙的邻居。可以看到有些书的封面是很厚的真皮做成的，褪色的字体仍能看出当初精美的烫金工艺。它们曾让某位贵族的图书馆书架熠熠生辉。就算是各种各样的年历和布道书，也可以看出它们曾经的辉煌，就像看到一位身着褪色丝质衣裙的淑女，能看出她现在处境艰难，也能看出她曾经生活优渥。

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They were not always in such plebeian company.Look at the thickness of the rich leather,and the richness of the dim gold lettering.Once they adorned the shelves of some noble library,and even among the odd almanacs and the sermons they bore the traces of their former greatness,like the faded silk dress of the reduced gentlewoman,a present pathos but a glory of the past.

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如今，阅读已经是一件很容易的事情了，到处都是便宜的纸版书和免费的图书馆。当某样东西不费力就能得到的时候，人们往往不懂得珍惜它的价值。今天谁还能体会到卡莱尔拿到吉本的《罗马帝国衰亡史》时的兴奋感啊？那时候他把六卷本的书夹在胳膊下，急匆匆就回了家，头脑是那么渴望养分，一天就能读完一本！只有你真正拥有一本书，只有你为它付出了汗水，你才能真正品尝到它的滋味，否则你永远无法体会到拥有它的那种发自内心的自豪感。

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Reading is made too easy nowadays,with cheap paper editions and free libraries.A man does not appreciate at its full worth the thing that comes to him without effort.Who now ever gets the thrill which Carlyle felt when he hurried home with the six volumes of Gibbon’s“History”under his arm,his mind just starving for want of food,to devour them at the rate of one a day?A book should be your very own before you can really get the taste of it,and unless you have worked for it,you will never have the true inward pride of possession.

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如果要让我从这一列书中选出一本，虽然它们都给过我极大的快乐，让我受益匪浅，我想我还是会选麦考莱的那本满是污渍的《批评和历史文集》。当我回首往事，这本书似乎与我全部的生活交织。在学生时代，它是我的战友；在闷热难耐的黄金海岸，它跟我在一起；在我去北极的捕鲸之旅中，它也在我为数不多的个人物品之中。那些朴实的苏格兰鱼叉手读它的时候脑子都被搞糊涂了，你仍然能看见那些斑斑油渍，它们来自助理机械师，当时他在试图读懂腓特烈大帝的内容。尽管它又破又脏，都快散架了，但就算是一本有金边装饰、摩洛哥真皮做封面的书也不能替代它在我心中的地位。

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If I had to choose the one book out of all that line from which I have had most pleasure and most profit,I should point to yonder stained copy of Macaulay’s“Essays.”It seems entwined into my whole life as I look backwards.It was my comrade in my student days,it has been with me on the sweltering Gold Coast,and it formed part of my humble kit when I went a-whaling in the Arctic.Honest Scotch harpooners have addled their brains over it,and you may still see the grease stains where the second engineer grappled with Frederick the Great.Tattered and dirty and worn,no gilt-edged morocco-bound volume could ever take its place for me.

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对有志研究文学与历史的人来说，这本书能提供绝佳的入口。弥尔顿、马基雅维利、哈勒姆、骚塞、班扬、拜伦、约翰逊、皮特、汉普顿、克莱夫、黑斯廷斯、查塔姆—他们每个人都代表一种思想的核心！只要掌握了每个的精髓，再去填补知识的空当就会显得轻松而愉快了。书中短小而生动的句子、恢宏的隐喻、精确的细节，这些都为每个主题投下了一圈迷人的光环，再懒惰的读者也想去读更多的内容。如果连麦考莱的手都不能把一个人引上那些令人愉悦的求知之路，那这个人可没有别的希望能找到它们了。

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What a noble gateway this book forms through which one may approach the study either of letters or of history！Milton,Machiavelli,Hallam,Southey,Bunyan,Byron,Johnson,Pitt,Hampden,Clive,Hastings,Chatham—what nuclei for thought！With a good grip of each how pleasant and easy to fill in all that lies between.The short,vivid sentences,the broad sweep of allusion,the exact detail,they all throw a glamour round the subject and should make the least studious of readers desire to go further.If Macaulay’s hand cannot lead a man upon those pleasant paths,then,indeed,he may give up all hope of ever finding them.

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当我还是个高中生的时候，这本文集—当然不是现在我手上的这本，在它之前我还有过一个更破旧的版本—为我打开了一个新世界。之前，历史只是学校要求我学的一门课程，我很抵触它。读了这本书，历史就不再是令我烦恼的学习任务了，而是走向梦幻大地的一次旅行，在那片绚丽多彩之地的旅行途中，还有一位亲切又智慧的向导为我指路。我甚至喜爱他气势非凡的风格里的那些瑕疵—实际上，我现在反而觉得我爱的正是它们。丰富的辞藻让句子不过于呆板，对仗的使用也从不让人觉得花哨。我喜欢读他写的“宇宙爆发的狂笑从塔霍河到维斯瓦河都能听得到，告诉教皇十字军战士的时代已成过往”。当我读到这一段的时候，也感到非常愉悦：“杰宁汉夫人有一个花瓶，专门放有的人写的糊涂诗，达什先生写的诗就正好可以放进杰宁汉夫人的花瓶里。”这种句子曾经给了我一种说不清但却持久的快乐，就像和弦的声音萦绕在乐手的耳边。当人逐渐成熟，他的文学口味也会变得更平实，但每当我的目光扫过这部文集的时候，我心中都充满了敬意，惊叹于麦考莱处理宏大主题的能力，不仅如此，他还能用令人愉悦的细节来修饰它—像是一个人拿着画笔随手一挥，然后以极其精细的点画法来做装饰。当他领着你一路走来，也总会给你指引那些通向他处的诱人的岔路。要是有人能读完这部文集里提到的每一本书，那他也就完成了一段绝佳的文学和历史教育，虽说有点老派。一个年轻人究竟能在多少岁时完成这段教育，我倒是很好奇。

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When I was a senior schoolboy this book—not this very volume,for it had an even more tattered predecessor—opened up a new world to me.History had been a lesson and abhorrent.Suddenly the task and the drudgery became an incursion into an enchanted land,a land of color and beauty,with a kind,wise guide to point the path.In that great style of his I loved even the faults—indeed,now that I come to think of it,it was the faults which I loved best.No sentence could be too stiff with rich embroidery,and no antithesis too flowery.It pleased me to read that“a universal shout of laughter from the Tagus to the Vistula informed the Pope that the days of the crusades were past，”and I was delighted to learn that“Lady Jerningham kept a vase in which people placed foolish verses,and Mr.Dash wrote verses which were fit to be placed in Lady Jerningham’s vase.”Those were the kind of sentences which used to fill me with a vague but enduring pleasure,like chords which linger in the musician’s ear.A man likes a plainer literary diet as he grows older,but still as I glance over the Essays I am filled with admiration,and wonder at the alternate power of handling a great subject,and of adorning it by delightful detail—just a bold sweep of the brush and then the most delicate stippling.As he leads you down the path,he for ever indicates the alluring sidetracks which branch away from it.An admirable,if somewhat old-fashioned,literary and historical education might be effected by working through every book which is alluded to in the Essays.I should be curious,however,to know the exact age of the youth when he came to the end of his studies.

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真希望麦考莱写过历史小说，我相信他一定能写得特别好。我不知道他有没有能力刻画一个虚构的人物，但是他确实具有非凡的能力，能把故去的名人形象刻画得栩栩如生。看看他写约翰逊博士和他周围的气氛的这半段文字就够了。在这么短的篇幅里，能把画面描述得如此清晰的文字可真不多见：

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I wish Macaulay had written a historical novel.I am convinced that it would have been a great one.I do not know if he had the power of drawing an imaginary character,but he certainly had the gift of reconstructing a dead celebrity to a remarkable degree.Look at the simple half-paragraph in which he gives us Johnson and his atmosphere.Was ever a more definite picture given in a shorter space—

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当我们关上门的时候，俱乐部房间内的景象就在我们眼前了，桌上摆着给纽金特的蛋卷和给约翰逊的柠檬。里面聚集着在雷诺兹油画里永存的人们。戴着眼镜的伯克，身材瘦高的兰顿，面带威严的冷笑的博克莱尔，总是笑容满面的加里克，用手指轻敲着鼻烟盒的吉本，还有戴着助听器的乔舒亚爵士。在最显眼位置上，有一个奇怪的人，他的身形就跟我们从小见到的那些男人差不多—巨大的身躯，大而粗糙的脸庞，脸上布满了因疾病而留下的疤痕，穿着棕色的外衣、黑色的毛线袜子，灰白的假发最顶上都已经烧焦了，双手都很脏，指甲咬得都露出了肉。我们看到他的眼睛和嘴巴因为痉挛性的抽搐不停在动，他沉重的身躯左右摇摆；我们听见了喘气的声音，然后传来一声“干吗呢？先生”，接着是“那又怎样呢？先生”，还有“不，先生”，然后是“你在这个问题上没抓住要点，先生”。

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As we close it,the club-room is before us,and the table on which stand the omelet for Nugent,and the lemons for Johnson.There are assembled those heads which live for ever on the canvas of Reynolds.There are the spectacles of Burke,and the tall thin form of Langton,the courtly sneer of Beauclerk and the beaming smile of Garrick,Gibbon tapping his snuff-box,and Sir Joshua with his trumpet in his ear.In the foreground is that strange figure which is as familiar to us as the figures of those among whom we have been brought up—the gigantic body,the huge massy face,seamed with the scars of disease,the brown coat,the black worsted stockings,the gray wig with the scorched foretop,the dirty hands,the nails bitten and pared to the quick.We see the eyes and mouth moving with convulsive twitches；we see the heavy form rolling；we hear it puffing,and then comes the“Why,sir！”and the“What then,sir?”and the“No,sir！”and the“You don’t see your way through the question,sir！”

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这画面将会永远铭刻在你的脑海里。

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It is etched into your memory for ever.

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我记得我十六岁那年去伦敦，放好行李之后的第一件事情就是去参拜麦考莱的陵墓。他被安葬在西敏寺，就在艾迪生的坟墓近旁，安息在他无比热爱的诗人们中间。对我而言，这是伦敦最大的吸引力。当想到我从他那里学到的一切时，这种感觉也是非常自然的。他不仅教给我知识、勾起我对新事物的兴趣，还让我体味到他那种迷人的绅士般的语调、豁达而自由的人生观，以及对盲从和偏见的摒弃。我如今的判断更证实了我那时对他的感情。

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I can remember that when I visited London at the age of sixteen the first thing I did after housing my luggage was to make a pilgrimage to Macaulay’s grave where he lies in Westminster Abbey,just under the shadow of Addison,and amid the dust of the poets whom he had loved so well.It was the one great object of interest which London held for me.And so it might well be,when I think of all I owe him.It is not merely the knowledge and the stimulation of fresh interests,but it is the charming gentlemanly tone,the broad,liberal outlook,the general absence of bigotry and of prejudice.My judgment now confirms all that I felt for him then.

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你看，我那四卷本的《英国史》就放在《批评和历史文集》的旁边。你能记起这部书的第三章吗？这一章重现了英格兰十七世纪的历史。我一直觉得这是麦考莱创作生涯的巅峰，将精确的史实与浪漫的词句完美地结合在了一起。其中，城镇的人口的数量，商业的统计数据，以及平淡无奇的日常生活，经大师之手描绘，全都变得美好又有趣。你会觉得，只要他愿意，他甚至能让乘法表把你给迷住。举个具体的例子你就能明白我的意思了。在那个出行困难的年代，一个在乡下的伦敦人和一个在伦敦的乡下人，同样会感觉格格不入。这件事似乎没什么值得说的，好像在读者脑海中也不会留下太深的印象。但是看看麦考莱是怎么写的吧，虽然这个例子只是他探讨问题的精彩段落的百分之一：

15
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My four-volume edition of the History stands,as you see,to the right of the Essays.Do you recollect the third chapter of that work—the one which reconstructs the England of the seventeenth century?It has always seemed to me the very high-water mark of Macaulay’s powers,with its marvelous mixture of precise fact and romantic phrasing.The population of towns,the statistics of commerce,the prosaic facts of life are all transmuted into wonder and interest by the handling of the master.You feel that he could have cast a glamour over the multiplication table had he set himself to do so.Take a single concrete example of what I mean.The fact that a Londoner in the country,or a countryman in London,felt equally out of place in those days of difficult travel,would seem to hardly require stating,and to afford no opportunity of leaving a strong impression upon the reader’s mind.See what Macaulay makes of it,though it is no more than a hundred other paragraphs which discuss a hundred various points—

16
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一个伦敦人在乡间，会被人盯着看，就像他闯进了非洲南部霍屯督人的牲畜栏。另一方面，一个从林肯郡或什罗普郡来的庄园主出现在伦敦舰队街的时候，人们也能很快把他和当地居民区别开来，因为他看起来就跟一个土耳其人或印度水手一样显眼。他的衣着、步态、口音，他盯着商店的样子，他会一不注意踩进排水沟，跟搬运工撞个满怀，站在排水口下面，这都让他成了被骗或被戏弄的完美目标。地痞把他挤进沟渠里，出租马车的车夫溅他一身水，而当他沉醉于市长就职巡游队伍的壮观景象时，小偷就会仔细地把他骑装外套的大口袋翻个遍。骗子会上前对他来一番自我介绍，在他看来他们简直就是他所见过的最正直的绅士。浓妆艳抹的站街女，纽克纳尔街和惠特斯通公园的社会底层女子，在他看来简直就是贵妇和女王的侍女。如果他问人怎么去圣詹姆斯公园，指路人会把他带到麦尔安德的贫民区。如果他走进一家商店，店家立刻就会把没人愿意买的东西推销给他，比如二手的刺绣品、铜戒指和不会再走起来的钟表。如果他不小心走进了某家时髦的咖啡馆，他立刻就会成为花花公子无礼嘲笑的对象，圣殿骑士也会开他的玩笑。

16
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A cockney in a rural village,was stared at as much as if he had intruded into a kraal of Hottentots.On the other hand,when the lord of a Lincolnshire or Shropshire manor appeared in Fleet Street,he was as easily distinguished from the resident population as a Turk or a Lascar.His dress,his gait,his accent,the manner in which he gazed at the shops,stumbled into gutters,ran against the porters,and stood under the waterspouts,marked him out as an excellent subject for the operations of swindlers and banterers.Bullies jostled him into the kennel.Hackney coachmen splashed him from head to foot,thieves explored with perfect security the huge pockets of his horseman’s coat,while he stood entranced by the splendor of the Lord Mayor’s Show.Money-droppers,sore from the cart’s tail,introduced themselves to him,and appeared to him the most honest friendly gentlemen that he had ever seen.Painted women,the refuse of Lewkner Lane and Whetstone

17
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他感到愤怒和羞辱，立即返回自己的宅邸，在那里有效忠他的佃户，有意气相投的朋友，他们能够抚慰经历了耻辱而恼火的他。在那里，他重新成了一个有分量的人物，除了在巡回法庭上他要坐在法官旁边的位子上，或在民兵集会上他要向郡治安长官敬礼，别的时候，他并不觉得还有谁比他的地位高。

17
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Park,passed themselves on him for countesses and maids of honor.If he asked his way to St.James’，his informants sent him to Mile End.If he went into a shop,he was instantly discerned to be a fit purchaser of everything that nobody else would buy,of second-hand embroidery,copper rings,and watches that would not go.If he rambled into any fashionable coffee-house,he became a mark for the insolent derision of fops,and the grave waggery of Templars.Enraged and mortified,he soon returned to his mansion,and there,in the homage of his tenants and the conversation of his boon companions,found consolation for the vexations and humiliations which he had undergone.There he was once more a great man,and saw nothing above himself except when at the assizes he took his seat on the bench near the Judge,or when at the muster of the militia he saluted the Lord Lieutenant.

18
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总的来说，我很想把这个独立的描写章节放在他《批评和历史文集》的最前头，尽管它出现在另一卷书里。对我而言，《英国史》整体上并没有达到麦考莱的其他短篇文章的水准。它让人觉得这是来自一个热忱的辉格党成员的精彩辩护，对于另一方的情况也没有做出详尽的描述。受他本人政治和宗教观点所限，《批评和历史文集》中的有些部分无疑也是存在瑕疵的。它最好的部分在那些摆脱限制、涉及广阔的文学和哲学领域的作品中。他笔下的约翰逊、沃波尔、达布莱夫人、艾迪生，以及跟印度有关的两位—克莱夫·黑斯廷斯和沃伦·黑斯廷斯，都是我的最爱。腓特烈大帝的部分当然也是最好的文章之一。只有一篇我希望能帮他删掉，那就是对诗人蒙哥马利恶毒而聪明的评论。我多么希望麦考莱的心能更柔软一些，灵魂能更高尚一些，不要这么尖酸刻薄地去批判别人。不好的作品自然会被淹没，没有必要把它的作者也打入万丈深渊。如果他没有这篇如此野蛮的文章，我对他的看法会更好一些。

18
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On the whole,I should put this detached chapter of description at the very head of his Essays,though it happens to occur in another volume.The History as a whole does not,as it seems to me,reach the same level as the shorter articles.One cannot but feel that it is a brilliant piece of special pleading from a fervid Whig,and that there must be more to be said for the other side than is there set forth.Some of the Essays are tinged also,no doubt,by his own political and religious limitations.The best are those which get right away into the broad fields of literature and philosophy.Johnson,Walpole,Madame D’Arblay,Addison,and the two great Indian ones,Clive and Warren Hastings,are my own favorites.Frederick the Great too,must surely stand in the first rank.Only one would I wish to eliminate.It is the diabolically clever criticism upon Montgomery.One would have wished to think that Macaulay’s heart was too kind,and his soul too gentle,to pen so bitter an attack.Bad work will sink of its own weight.It is not necessary to souse the author as well.One would think more highly of the man if he had not done that savage bit of work.

19
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不知道为什么，我一谈起麦考莱就会自然地想到司各特，他那些书—橄榄色的书脊已经褪色了—占据了我一整个书架。也许是因为他们两个人都深深影响了我，我也非常崇拜他们。又或者是因为这两个人在思想和性格方面真的非常相似。你说你不这么觉得？好，你想想司各特的《苏格兰边境歌谣集》，再想想麦考莱的《古罗马叙事诗》。他们大脑的运作机制是那么相似，所创作的作品也很类似。只有麦考莱能写出司各特的诗，也只有司各特可能写出麦考莱的诗。他们两个人诗歌里的旋律和一气呵成的风格是多么相似！他们都那么尊崇男子气概、高尚德行和英勇品格！行文简洁，却如此有力！但是，对有的人来说，脑袋里根本就没有力量和简洁的概念。他们认为如果文字不晦涩难懂，那一定很肤浅，就好像平常看到的浅浅水流，一般都很浑浊，只有深水才会澄澈。你记得马修·阿诺德对《古罗马叙事诗》愚蠢的批判之词吗？引用了以下四行之后，他说：“这也叫诗歌？”

19
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I don’t know why talking of Macaulay always makes me think of Scott,whose books,in a faded,olive-backed line,have a shelf,you see,of their own.Perhaps it is that they both had so great an influence,and woke such admiration in me.Or perhaps it is the real similarity in the minds and characters of the two men.You don’t see it,you say?Well,just think of Scott’s“Border Ballads，”and then of Macaulay’s“Lays.”The machines must be alike,when the products are so similar.Each was the only man who could possibly have written the poems of the other.What swing and dash in both of them！What a love of all that is manly and noble and martial！So simple,and yet so strong.But there are minds on which strength and simplicity are thrown away.They think that unless a thing is obscure it must be superficial,whereas it is often the shallow stream which is turbid,and the deep which is clear.Do you remember the fatuous criticism of Matthew Arnold upon the glorious“Lays，”where he calls out“Is this poetry?”after quoting—

20
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男人面对渺茫的胜算，

20
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And how can man die better

21
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为父辈的英魂而战，

21
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Than facing fearful odds，

22
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为神灵的殿宇而亡，

22
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For the ashes of his fathers，

23
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这才是死得其所。

23
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And the Temples of his Gods?

24
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他试图证明麦考莱没有写诗歌的才能，其实不过是证明了他自己没有让人激动的戏剧才能。很显然，这种意象和语言上的率直冒犯了他，但这种率直才是《古罗马叙事诗》真正的优点。麦考莱用的是简单而直接的词语，而这正是一个天真的战士在他准备英勇就义前请求两位战友给他鼓气时应该用的词语。在这里，任何华而不实的文字都无法跟人物形象搭配。我觉得从语境中来看，这几行诗正是上好的民谣诗歌，而他也绝对具有一个民谣诗人该有的那种戏剧感和直觉。阿诺德的这种评语动摇了我对他的信任，但是不管怎么说，我会原谅一个写出了如下诗句的人：

24
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In trying to show that Macaulay had not the poetic sense he was really showing that he himself had not the dramatic sense.The baldness of the idea and of the language had evidently offended him.But this is exactly where the true merit lies.Macaulay is giving the rough,blunt words with which a simpleminded soldier appeals to two comrades to help him in a deed of valor.Any high-flown sentiment would have been absolutely out of character.The lines are,I think,taken with their context,admirable ballad poetry,and have just the dramatic quality and sense which a ballad poet must have.That opinion of Arnold’s shook my faith in his judgment,and yet I would forgive a good deal to the man who wrote—

25
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下一次冲锋，就会永远倒下，

25
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One more charge and then be dumb，

26
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当愚人之堡倒下时，

26
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When the forts of Folly fall，

27
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愿胜利者们来时，

27
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May the victors when they come，

28
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在城墙边上能发现我的遗骨！

28
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Find my body near the wall.

29
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把这几行诗当作人生抱负也不算坏。

29
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Not a bad verse that for one’s life aspiration.

30
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这就是人类社会还不明白的东西之一—高贵而激励人心的文字的价值。如果我们都认可了它们的价值，那么应该到处会看到它们被刻在适当的地方。当我们走在街上，我们的眼睛看到这一连串美丽的精神脉搏和图像时，它们所代表的思想也反射进我们的灵魂之中，这一段行程将多么令人愉悦而又心生崇敬啊。想想吧，如果我们一个个都脑袋空空地走在路上，那么所有这些伟大的素材都被浪费掉了。我不仅是指《圣经》里的文字，因为它们对每个人来说含义不尽相同，当然了，有句话是“趁着白日，我们必须做那差我来者的工；黑夜将到，就没有人能做工了”，谁能不被这句话激励呢？但我指的是那些美好的思想—谁敢说它们不具有激励人心的效果呢—可以从一百个作者中选出它们来，用在一百种不同的地方。用准确的语言表达出来的优质思想可是珍宝，不应该被埋没，而应被广泛地运用，为世界添彩。拿最近的例子来讲，我家路对面就有一个马槽，就是常见的那种石头制成的马槽，人们从它旁边走过的时候，只会对它的丑陋外观产生一种厌恶之情。但试想一下如果在它前面的石板上刻上柯勒律治的这几句诗会怎样呢？

30
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This is one of the things which human society has not yet understood—the value of a noble,inspiriting text.When it does we shall meet them everywhere engraved on appropriate places,and our progress through the streets will be brightened and ennobled by one continual series of beautiful mental impulses and images,reflected into our souls from the printed thoughts which meet our eyes.To think that we should walk with empty,listless minds while all this splendid material is running to waste.I do not mean mere Scriptural texts,for they do not bear the same meaning to all,though what human creature can fail to be spurred onwards by“Work while it is day,for the night cometh when no man can work.”But I mean those beautiful thoughts—who can say that they are uninspired thoughts?—which may be gathered from a hundred authors to match a hundred uses.A fine thought in fine language is a most precious jewel,and should not be hid away,but be exposed for use and ornament.To take the nearest example,there is a horse-trough across the road from my house,a plain stone trough,and no man could pass it with any feelings save vague discontent at its ugliness.But suppose that on its front slab you print the verse of Coleridge—

31
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对大小生灵爱得越真诚，

31
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He prayeth best who loveth best

32
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祷告便越有成效；

32
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All things,both great and small，

33
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因为上帝爱一切生灵—

33
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For the dear Lord who fashioned him

34
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一切都由他创造。

34
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He knows and loveth all.

35
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我想可能我引用的内容不太准确，因为我手边没有《古舟子咏》。但就算是这样，不也能提升一下马槽的格调吗？我想我们平时都这么做过，我们有自己的小习惯。大多数人都会把一些精选的引言印在书房的壁炉台上，或更好一点，他们把那些文字印在了心中。卡莱尔的“宁静！宁静！我难道不能拥有永久的宁静吗！”对一个情绪低沉的人来说，可真是很不错的激励。但是，我们需要的是能够用在公众领域的类似东西，而不是这种个人化的东西，直到人们明白一个能铭刻于心的思想跟那些雕刻出来的图案一样美，它能通过眼睛直抵心灵。

35
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I fear I may misquote,for I have not“The Ancient Mariner”at my elbow,but even as it stands does it not elevate the horse-trough?We all do this,I suppose,in a small way for ourselves.There are few men who have not some chosen quotations printed on their study mantelpieces,or,better still,in their hearts.Carlyle’s transcription of“Rest！Rest！Shall I not have all Eternity to rest in！”is a pretty good spur to a weary man.But what we need is a more general application of the same thing for public and not for private use,until people understand that a graven thought is as beautiful an ornament as any graven image,striking through the eye right deep down into the soul.

36
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然而，所有这些都跟麦考莱恢宏的《古罗马叙事诗》没关系，除非你想找点关于男子气概和爱国主义的句子，这种句子你倒是能在里面找到不少呢。我很幸运，小时候曾经背诵过《贺拉斯叙事诗》，它深深印在了我那时容易被塑造的心灵中，所以直到现在我差不多还能一口气把它背出来。戈德史密斯说在与人对话的时候，他就像是一个在银行里有数千英镑存款的人，但是却敌不过口袋里当时正有六便士的人。因此，比起整个书架上那些你想起来才会翻的书，你脑袋里实际记住的诗才更有价值。现在，我请你把目光往书架的下面一格再移一点，看看那一行橄榄绿色的书。它们就是我收藏的司各特作品。当然了，在我深入谈它们之前，我应该给你一点喘气的时间。

36
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However,all this has nothing to do with Macaulay’s glorious lays,save that when you want some flowers of manliness and patriotism you can pluck quite a bouquet out of those.I had the good fortune to learn the Lay of Horatius off by heart when I was a child,and it stamped itself on my plastic mind,so that even now I can reel off almost the whole of it.Goldsmith said that in conversation he was like the man who had a thousand pounds in the bank,but could not compete with the man who had an actual sixpence in his pocket.So the ballad that you bear in your mind outweighs the whole bookshelf which waits for reference.But I want you now to move your eye a little farther down the shelf to the line of olive-green volumes.That is my edition of Scott.But surely I must give you a little breathing space before I venture upon them.

序号 英文/音标 中文解释 更多操作

impalpable

[ɪm’pælpəbl]

adj.感触不到的;无形的;难以理解的

beckon

[’bekən]

v.召唤;吸引;示意某人按自己的指示行动

strenuous

[’strenjuəs]

adj.奋发的;费力的;繁重的;积极的

mellow

[’meləʊ]

adj.成熟的;醇的;熟练的

threepenny

[’θriːˌpenɪ]

adj.三便士的;无价值的;便宜的

past

[pɑːst]

a. 过去的;

inward

[’ɪnwəd]

adj.内部的;内心的;向内的;亲密的

studious

[’stjuːdiəs]

adj.好学的;努力的;用心的;仔细的;有意的

allude

[ə’luːd]

v.暗示;暗指

Johnson

[ˈʤɒnsən]

n.约翰逊(人名)

puff

[pʌf]

n. (一)喷，(一)吹；一阵(股)(空气、烟雾等);

etch

[etʃ]

v.蚀刻;铭刻;鲜明地描述;流露出

felted

[’feltɪd]

v. 把 ... 制成毡(使 ... 粘结)

paragraph

[’pærəɡrɑːf]

n.段落

Lieutenant

[lef’tenənt]

n.中尉;助理人员;副官

savage

[’sævɪdʒ]

a. 野蛮的，未开化的;

fatuous

[’fætʃuəs]

adj.愚昧的;发呆的;愚笨的

fearful

[’fɪəfl]

adj.担心的;可怕的;非常的

ballad

[’bæləd]

n.歌谣;诗歌;谣曲

Folly

[’fɒli]

n.愚蠢;荒唐事(复)follies: 轻松歌舞剧.

victor

[’vɪktə(r)]

n.胜利者

verse

[vɜːs]

n.诗;韵文;诗节

weary

[’wɪəri]

adj.疲倦的;厌烦的

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