評論
打印
So we may return to my beginning. Even with the most educated and the most literate, the King's English slips and slides in conversation. There is no worse conversationalist than the one who punctuates his words as he speaks as if he were writing, or even who tries to use words as if he were composing a piece of prose for print. When E. M. Forster writes of "the sinister corridor of our age," we sit up at the vividness of the phrase, the force and even terror in the image. But if E. M. Forster sat in our living room and said, "We are all following each other down the sinister corridor of our age," we would be justified in asking him to leave.
由此我們可以回到我先前的話題上了。即便是那些學問再高、文學修養再好的人，他們所講的標準英語在交談中也常常會離譜走調。要是有誰閑聊時也像做文章一樣句逗分明，或者像寫一篇要發表的散文一樣咬文嚼字的話，那他講起話來就一定會極為倒人胃口。看到EM福斯特筆下寫出"當今這個時代的陰森可怖的長廊"時，其用語之生動及由其所產生的生動有力、甚至可怖的形象令我們拍案叫絕。但假若福斯特坐在我們的會客室里說"我們大家正一個接一個地步入這個時代的陰森可怖的長廊"時，那我們完全有理由請他走開。
Great authors are constantly being asked by foolish people to talk as they write. Other people may celebrate the lofty conversations in which the great minds are supposed to have indulged in the great salons of 18th century Paris, but one suspects that the great minds were gossiping and judging the quality of the food and the wine. Henault, then the great president of the First Chamber of the Paris Parlement, complained bitterly of the terrible sauces at the salons of Mme.
常常有一些愚人要求大文豪們談話時也像寫文章一樣字字珠璣。也有些人對18世紀巴黎的文藝沙龍里那些文人雅士的高談闊論極表稱羨。可是，說不定那些文人雅士們在那里也不過是閑聊，談論酒食的好壞哩。當時的巴黎大法院第一廳廳長亨奧爾特在德蘇侯爵夫人家的沙龍里作客時就曾大叫著說"調料糟透了"，
Deffand, and went on to observe that the only difference between her cook and the supreme chef, Brinvilliers, lay in their intentions.
接著還大發議論說侯爵夫人家的廚子和總廚師長布蘭維利耶之間的唯一差別只不過用心不一而已。
The one place not to have dictionaries is in a sitting room or at a dining table. Look the thing up the next morning, but not in the middle of the conversation.
會客室里和餐桌上是無需擺上詞典的。閑聊過程中若遇上弄不明白需待查實的問題可留待第二天再說，不要話說到一半卻去一邊查起字典來。
