悠游度過一天的24小時：第十一章 認真研讀

CHAPTER XI Serious Reading

第十一章 認真研讀

Novels are excluded from "serious reading," so that the man who, bent on self-improvement, has been deciding to devote ninety minutes three times a week to a complete study of the works of Charles Dickens will be well advised to alter his plans. The reason is not that novels are not serious—some of the great literature of the world is in the form of prose fiction—the reason is that bad novels ought not to be read, and that good novels never demand any appreciable mental application on the part of the reader. It is only the bad parts of Meredith's novels that are difficult. A good novel rushes you forward like a skiff down a stream, and you arrive at the end, perhaps breathless, but unexhausted. The best novels involve the least strain. Now in the cultivation of the mind one of the most important factors is precisely the feeling of strain, of difficulty, of a task which one part of you is anxious to achieve and another part of you is anxious to shirk; and that feeling cannot be got in facing a novel. You do not set your teeth in order to read Anna Karenina. Therefore, though you should read novels, you should not read them in those ninety minutes.

小說被排除在“認真研讀”的范疇之外，因此若有意自我提高的人決定每周三次，每次花90分鐘的時間全面研究查爾斯.狄更斯的作品，還是建議他們更改計劃。原因并不是小說不嚴肅——事實上世界上一些偉大的文學作品就是散文小說——原因是：粗劣小說不應該讀，而好小說根本不需讀者費神。就像梅瑞狄斯的小說只有一些敗筆讓人難以讀下去。讀一本好小說，有如乘一葉扁舟順流而下，快速順暢地到達終點，也許你喘氣不已，但毫無倦意。出色的小說往往不會讓讀者費勁。陶冶性靈的要素之一就是疲憊和困難的感覺，你渴望完成一項任務的同時又想逃避完成；讀小說可不會有那樣的感受。讀《安娜.卡列尼娜》，無須咬緊牙關。因此，雖然你應該讀小說，但不應該在那90分鐘閱讀。

Imaginative poetry produces a far greater mental strain than novels. It produces probably the severest strain of any form of literature. It is the highest form of literature. It yields the highest form of pleasure, and teaches the highest form of wisdom. In a word, there is nothing to compare with it. I say this with sad consciousness of the fact that the majority of people do not read poetry.

讀幻想詩比讀小說更耗腦力，詩很可能是讓人神經(jīng)繃得最緊的，也是最高層次的文學形式，給人最大的愉悅并予人最深邃的智慧。一句話，沒有什么可跟詩歌相提并論。然而，很遺憾，事實上大多數(shù)人不讀詩。

I am persuaded that many excellent persons, if they were confronted with the alternatives of reading Paradise Lost and going round Trafalgar Square at noonday on their knees in sack-cloth, would choose the ordeal of public ridicule. Still, I will never cease advising my friends and enemies to read poetry before anything.

我相信如果要許多優(yōu)秀的人在閱讀《失樂園》和中午時分衣衫襤褸地在特拉法爾加廣場乞討中做出選擇，很多人會選擇后者，哪怕遭受公眾恥笑。然而，我還是奉勸朋友們，包括我的敵人，詩歌應是閱讀的首選。

If poetry is what is called "a sealed book" to you, begin by reading Hazlitt's1 famous essay on the nature of poetry in general. It is the best thing of its kind in English, and no one who has read it can possibly be under the misapprehension that poetry is a mediaeval torture, or a mad elephant, or a gun that will go off by itself and kill at forty paces. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine the mental state of the man who, after reading Hazlitt's essay, is not urgently desirous of reading some poetry before his next meal. If the essay so inspires you I would suggest that you make a commencement with purely narrative poetry.

如果詩歌對你來說像“天書”一般高深莫測，不妨先讀黑茲利特的著名小品文《詩歌總論》，講到了詩歌的特點，英語中類似的文章無出其右?？赐旰?，你就不會誤認為詩歌是中世紀的酷刑，或瘋狂的大象，或是40步以內(nèi)就會走火誤殺人的槍支。要是一個人在讀完黑茲利特的文章后，不急切地想在下一餐之前讀幾首詩歌的話，他的內(nèi)心世界真是令人難以想象。如果這篇文章的確給你很大啟發(fā)，我建議你接下來可以從讀敘事詩開始。

There is an inf initely f iner English novel, written by a woman, than anything by George Eliot or the Brontes, or even Jane Austen, which perhaps you have not read. Its title is Aurora Leigh, and its author E.B. Browning2. It happens to be written in verse, and to contain a considerable amount of genuinely fine poetry. Decide to read that book through, even if you die for it. Forget that it is fine poetry. Read it simply for the story and the social ideas. And when you have done, ask yourself honestly whether you still dislike poetry. I have known more than one person to whom Aurora Leigh has been the means of proving that in assuming they hated poetry they were entirely mistaken.

有一部小說，它出自一位女作家之手，比喬治.艾略特、布朗特姐妹，甚或簡.奧斯丁的作品都要好，或許這位作家的作品你沒讀過。這本小說就是《奧羅拉.利》，E.B.布朗寧著，全文采用詩體形式，里面有許多的優(yōu)美詩句。一定要把它讀完，哪怕為之獻身。不要想那是一本好詩集，閱讀時只要注意其情節(jié)和社會思想就行了。讀完后，誠實地問自己是否還討厭詩歌。我知道不止一個人，開始以為自己討厭詩，讀完《奧羅拉·利》之后才發(fā)現(xiàn)自己大錯特錯了。

Of course, if, after Hazlitt, and such an experiment made in the light of Hazlitt, you are finally assured that there is something in you which is antagonistic to poetry, you must be content with history or philosophy. I shall regret it, yet not inconsolably. The Decline and Fall is not to be named in the same day with Paradise Lost, but it is a vastly pretty thing; and Herbert Spencer's First Principles simply laughs at the claims of poetry and refuses to be accepted as aught but the most majestic product of any human mind. I do not suggest that either of these works is suitable for a tyro in mental strains. But I see no reason why any man of average intelligence should not, after a year of continuous reading, be fit to assault the supreme masterpieces of history or philosophy. The great convenience of masterpieces is that they are so astonishingly lucid.

當然，如果讀完黑茲利特的文章并按他的提示去做了之后，你深信自己是排斥詩歌的，那你則一定會從歷史或哲學中獲得滿足。我對此有些遺憾，但并不是毫無安慰?！读_馬衰亡史》雖不能和《失樂園》相提并論，但前者讀起來也是饒有興味的；赫伯特.斯賓塞的《第一原理》只是在嘲笑那些提倡詩歌的主張，并認為詩歌不能被稱作是人類最崇高思想的結晶。我認為這些作品不適合推薦給入門者，讓他們一開始就精神緊張。但我覺得有普通智力的人經(jīng)過一年不斷的閱讀后，沒有理由不去涉獵一些最杰出的歷史或哲學著作。杰作顯著的優(yōu)點在于它們是如此清晰曉暢，令人驚佩。

I suggest no particular work as a start. The attempt would be futile in the space of my command. But I have two general suggestions of a certain importance. The first is to define the direction and scope of your efforts. Choose a limited period, or a limited subject, or a single author. Say to yourself: "I will know something about the French Revolution, or the rise of railways, or the works of John Keats3." And during a given period, to be settled beforehand, conf ine yourself to your choice. There is much pleasure to be derived from being a specialist.

開始時我不推薦任何特定的作品，在我的要求之下所做的嘗試通常都毫無效果。但我有兩條比較重要的建議：其一，界定你努力的方向和范圍，選擇一定的期限、某個特定的主題、或是某位作家。要對自己說：“我想了解法國革命、或鐵路的興建、或是約翰.濟慈的作品。”在一定時間內(nèi)，事先做好準備，然后把精力集中在自己的選擇上。能成為某方面的專家是非常令人欣喜的事情。

The second suggestion is to think as well as to read. I know people who read and read, and for all the good it does them they might just as well cut bread-and-butter. They take to reading as better men take to drink. They fly through the shires of literature on a motor-car, their sole object being motion. They will tell you how many books they have read in a year.

其二，要邊讀邊想。我知道有的人會不停地讀啊讀，但讀書的所得卻比他們切切面包和黃油學到的多不了多少。他們熱愛閱讀就像好酒之徒沉湎于飲酒一樣。他們駕車在文學領域里翱翔，唯一的目標就是運動。他們會告訴你一年里他們讀了多少書。

Unless you give at least forty-five minutes to careful, fatiguing reflection (it is an awful bore at first) upon what you are reading, your ninety minutes of a night are chiefly wasted. This means that your pace will be slow.

除非花上至少45分鐘來細心地、甚至是有些令人疲憊地思考你所讀的內(nèi)容（起初你會覺得相當乏味），否則，你一晚上90分鐘的時間基本上就被浪費了。這意味著你將進展緩慢。

Never mind.

沒關系。

Forget the goal; think only of the surrounding country; and after a period, perhaps when you least expect it, you will suddenly find yourself in a lovely town on a hill.

拋開目標；只想著周圍的鄉(xiāng)野；一段時間后，也許是你最不經(jīng)意的時候，突然發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已置身于山丘上的一個可愛小鎮(zhèn)。

(1)黑茲利特（1778—1830），英國著名散文家、文學評論家。

(2)E.B.布朗寧（1806—1861），又稱布朗寧夫人，是19世紀英國著名女詩人。

(3)約翰•濟慈（1795—1821），英國19世紀浪漫主義詩人。