評論
打印
But if the pleasure of learning is universal, why are there so many dull, incurious people in the world?
既然學(xué)習(xí)的樂趣是普遍存在的，那為什么世界上仍有那么多愚鈍的、對世事麻木不仁的人呢？
It is because they were made dull, by bad teaching, by isolation, by surrender to routine, sometimes, too, by the pressure of hard work and poverty,
這是因為他們被糟糕的教學(xué)方法，被孤立，被對常規(guī)的妥協(xié)，有時也被辛苦工作和貧困的壓力，
or by the toxin of riches, with all their ephemeral and trivial delights.
或被財富帶來的短暫又低劣的歡愉對他們的侵蝕變得沉悶無趣了。
With luck, resolution and guidance, however, the human mind can survive not only poverty but even wealth.
然而，如果有了好的機遇、決心和引導(dǎo)，人的思想不僅能夠克服貧困的壓力，而且能夠戰(zhàn)勝財富的誘惑。
This pleasure is not confined to learning from textbooks, which are too often tedious.
這種樂趣不會局限于學(xué)習(xí)那些通常過于單調(diào)乏味的教科書。
But it does include learning from books.
但它確實包括通過書本進(jìn)行學(xué)習(xí)。
Sometimes, when I stand in a big library like the Library of Congress, or Butler Library at Columbia,
有時，當(dāng)我站在一個諸如國會圖書館，或是哥倫比亞的巴特勒圖書館這樣的大圖書館里，
and gaze round me at the millions of books, I feel a sober, earnest delight hard to convey except by a metaphor.
環(huán)顧四周上百萬冊的書籍時，我就會感覺到有一種嚴(yán)肅而熱切的樂趣，這種樂趣除了用比喻很難表達(dá)出來。
These are not lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive in the shelves.
這些書并不是一堆毫無生氣的紙堆，而是活躍在書架上的思想家。
From each of them goes out its own voice, as inaudible as the streams of sound conveyed by electric waves beyond the range of our hearing,
每一本書都傳出它們各自無言的心聲，就像我們無法聽到電波在我們的聽覺范圍以外發(fā)出的浩瀚聲息一樣，
and just as the touch of a button on our stereo will fill the room with music, so by opening one of these volumes,
就像觸摸我們的立體音響的按鈕會使整個房間充滿音樂一樣，打開其中的一卷書，
one can call into range a voice far distant in time and pace, and hear it speaking, mind to mind, heart to heart.
你就可以換回一個在時空上遙遠(yuǎn)的聲音，頭對頭、心貼心地聽它講話。
