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Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.
在過去的25年英語報紙所發生的變化中，影響最深遠的可能就是它們對藝術方面的報道在范圍上毫無疑問的縮小了，而且這些報道的嚴肅程度也絕對降低了。
It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers.
對于年齡低于 40歲的普通讀者來講，讓他們想象一下當年可以在許多大城市報紙上讀到精品的文藝評論簡直幾乎是天方夜譚。
Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews.
然而，在20世紀出版的最重要的文藝評論集中，人們讀到的大部分評論文章都是從報紙上收集而來。
To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.
現在，如果讀到這些集子，人們肯定會驚詫，當年這般淵博深奧的內容竟然被認為適合發表在大眾日報中。
We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared.
從 20世紀早期到二戰以前，當時的英國報紙上的評論主題廣泛，包羅萬象，我們現在離此類報紙評論越來越遠。當時的報紙極其便宜，人們把高雅時尚的文藝批評當作是所刊登報紙的一個亮點。
In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered.
在那些遙遠的年代，各大報刊的評論家們都會不遺余力地詳盡報道他們所報道的事情，這在當時被視為是理所當然的事情。
Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about.
他們的寫作是件嚴肅的事情，人們相信：甚至那些博學低調不喜歡炫耀的評論家，比如 George Bernard Shaw 和 Ernest Newman也知道自己在做什么。
These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press.
這些批評家們相信報刊評論是一項職業，并且對于他們的文章能夠在報紙 上發表感到很自豪。
“So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism, ” Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define 'journalism' as 'a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are. '”
Newman 曾寫道，"鑒于幾乎沒有作家能擁有足夠的智慧或文學天賦以保證他們在新聞報紙寫作中站穩腳跟，我傾向于把'新聞寫作'定義為不受讀者歡迎的作家用來嘲諷受讀者歡迎的作家的一個 '輕蔑之詞' "
Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten.
不幸的是，這些批評家們現在實際上已被人們遺忘。
Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket.
從 1917 年開始一直到 1975 年去世不久前還在為曼徹斯特《衛報》寫文章的 Neville Cardus，如今僅僅作為一個撰寫關于板球比賽文章的作家被人們所知。
During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England's foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller.
但是，在他的一生當中，他也是英國首屈一指的古典音樂評論家之一。他也是一位深受讀者青睞的文體家，所以 1947 年他的《自傳》一書就成為熱銷讀物。
He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored.
1967年他被授予爵士稱號，也是第一位獲此殊榮的音樂評論家。
Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.
然而，他的書現在只有一本可以在市面上買到。他大量的音樂批評，除了專門研究音樂評論的人以外，已鮮為人知。
Is there any chance that Cardus's criticism will enjoy a revival?
Cardus 的評論有沒有機會重新流行？
The prospect seems remote.
前景似乎渺茫。
Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized.
在他去世之前，新聞業的品味早已改變很長時間了，而且他所擅長的措詞華麗的維多利亞愛德華時期的散文風格對后現代的讀者沒有什么用處。
Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.
何況，由業余愛好者作音樂批評的傳統早已經成為昨日黃花了。
