評論
打印
1. You know you have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to "write between the lines." Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
1、你知道讀書必須要閱讀“字里行間的言外之意”，以求最充分的理解(to get the most out of anything)。我勸(persuade)你在讀書過程中(in the course of your reading)做一件同等重要的事情(to do something equally important)；我勸你“在字里行間里寫字”。不這樣做(unless)，就達不到最有效的閱讀效果。
2. I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but love.
2、坦率地說，我認為(contend)，在書上涂抹標記(marking up a book)不是一種損毀行為(an act of mutilation)，而是愛。
3. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours. Librarians (or your friends) who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am right about the usefulness of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the world's great books are available today, in reprint editions, for a modest sum.
3、當然，你不應該(shouldn't)在不屬于你的書上做標記。借給你書的圖書管理員(或者你的朋友)希望你保持書的整潔，你應該這樣做。如果你認為我說的在書上做標記頗有益處這番話是對的，你就得自己買書。現在，絕大部分世界上的好書都有再版(reprint edition)，我們很容易買到，并且價格合理(a modest sum)。
4. There are two ways in which you can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes, and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good.
4、一個人擁有書的方式有兩種，第一種是花錢（by paying for it）取得(establish)財產所有權(property right)，就像(just as)你花錢買衣服和家具一樣。但是，這種購買行為僅是擁有書的前提(prelude to possession)。只有你將它化為自己的一部分后，你才完全占有了它（full ownership comes）；同時，把你自己融入書中的最好方法就是在書中寫字(by writing in it)。打個比方可能使這個觀點更清楚(An illustration may make the point clear)。你買了一塊牛排(beefsteak)，把它從屠夫的冰箱里移到了你自己的冰箱里。但是，從最重要的意義上說(in the most important sense)，你并沒有擁有這塊牛排，除非你吃下它并將它吸收進你的血液(bloodstream)之中。我的觀點是(I am arguing that)，書的營養也必須應該被“吸收到血液”中，才能對你有所裨益。
5. Confusion about what it means to own a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type-a respect for the physical thing-the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire that idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn't prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.
5、對于“擁有書籍”的真正含義的(about what it means to own a book)誤解(confusion)使人們錯誤地崇敬(a false reverence)紙張、裝訂和樣式-這是對物質的崇敬(a respect for the physical thing)-是崇敬印刷工人的技藝(craft)，而不是書籍作者的才華。他們忘記了，即使不在(without)封面里貼上藏書票(by pasting his bookplate inside the cover)表明自己對書籍的擁有，人們也可以從一本偉大的著作中獲得它的精神(to acquire that idea)，領略它的美麗(to possess the beauty)。一個好書房并不能證明它的主人學富五車；僅僅(nothing more than)說明他、他的父親或是他的妻子有錢買書而已。
6. There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best-sellers-unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books-a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books or many every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.)
6、書籍擁有者可以分為三種。第一種人擁有全部的標準成套書和暢銷書(best-sellers)--既沒讀過，也沒碰過(unread, untouched)。(這種人占有的只是紙漿和油墨，不是書籍。)第二種人藏書很多--其中幾本(a few of them)被通讀過(read through 仔細閱讀)，大部分(most of them)則淺嘗輒止(dip into 瀏覽, 稍加審視)，但是所有的書都跟新買時一樣整潔光亮(as clean and shiny as the day they were bought)。(這種人可能想使書籍真地為其所用，但因錯誤地過分關注書籍的外觀而裹足不前。第三種人藏書或多或少--因不斷使用，每本書都書角卷起(dog-eared)，破舊不堪(dilapidated)，裝訂破損，書頁松散(loosened)，全書從扉頁至末頁都畫滿了記號，涂滿了字句(scribble)。(這種人才是書的真正擁有者。)
7. Is it false respect, you may ask, to preserve intact and unblemished a beautifully printed book, an elegantly bound edition? Of course not. I'd no more scribble all over a first edition of "Paradise Lost" than I'd give my baby a set of crayons and an original Rembrandt! I wouldn't mark up a painting or a statue. Its soul, so to speak, is inseparable from its body. And the beauty of a rare edition or of a richly manufactured volume is like that of a painting or a statue.
7、你可能要問，將一本印刷精美、裝幀雅致的書保存完好，難道也是不恰當的嗎?當然不是(of course not)。我絕不會在一本初版的《失樂園》上亂涂亂寫(scribble)，就像我不會把一幅倫勃朗的原作連同一盒蠟筆交給我的孩子任意涂抹一樣！(no more…than 與…同樣不) 我決不會在一幅繪畫或者一座雕像上做標記。可以說，它們的靈魂與它們的軀體是不可分的。(be inseparable from 不可與...分開) 精美的善本或豐富的卷冊就像一幅繪畫和一座雕像。
8. But the soul of a book can be separated from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheet of music. Arturo Toscanini revered Brahms, but Toscanini's score of the C-minor Symphony was so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself could read it. The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores-marks them up again and again each time he returns to study them-is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.
8、但是，一本書的靈魂能夠從它的軀體里分離出來。與其說它像一幅畫(a printing)，還不如說它更像一首樂曲的總譜（the scroe of a piece of music; scroe【音樂】總譜；(電影等的)配樂; a piece of music 一段音樂；一首音樂；一首樂曲）。任何偉大的音樂家都不會將一首交響曲(a symphony)和一張印刷的樂譜相混淆。托斯卡尼尼非常崇敬(revere)博拉姆斯，但他的C小調交響曲的樂譜上畫滿了標記，以致(that)只有大師本人 (no noe but the maestro himself) 才能看懂。為什么一個偉大的指揮家(a great conductor)會在樂譜上做記號（make notations）-甚至每次研究都會重復標記-其中的奧妙正是你應該在書上做記號的原因。如果你對華美的(magnificent)裝幀和印刷的尊重妨礙(get in the way)你讀書的話，就給自己買一種便宜的版本，同時對書的作者表達敬意就可以了。
9. Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean merely conscious; I mean wide awake.) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. That marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
9、為什么在閱讀過程中在書上做標記是必不可少的(indispensable)呢?首先，它會使你保持清醒。(我指的不是僅僅神智清醒(merely conscious)；我的意思是它能使你全神貫注(wide awake)。)其次(in the second place)，如果閱讀(reading)是一種能動的行為，那么它就是思考，而想法(thinking)常常需借助口頭的或書面的語言來表達出來。做過記號的書，通常是讀者認真思考過的書(the thought-through book)。最后，寫可以幫助你記住閱讀時的思想，或作者所表達的思想。
10. If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active. You can't let your eyes glide across the lines of a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, Gone 14h'th the Wind, doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of which you are capable. You don't absorb the ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the songs of a popular singer. You have to reach for them. That you cannot do while you're asleep.
10、如果(你的)閱讀的目的不僅僅是(more than)消磨時間(passing time)，那就應該是一種積極的思維活動，僅僅讓你的眼睛在書上掃視一遍，你不可能對所讀的內容(what you have read)有所理解。當然，一部普通的消遣小說(light fiction)，比如說(like, say,)《飄》，并不需要那種最積極的思維式的閱讀。作為消遣的書，可以輕松地讀而不會有所失。但一本思想豐富、文字華美，試圖提出(raise)帶根本性的重大問題并加以回答的偉大著作，則要求你盡可能地進行(of which you are capable; be capable of v.能夠)最積極的閱讀。你不可能像欣賞(absorb)流行歌曲那樣領略(absorb)杜威的思想。你要花力氣才能獲得，漫不經心是做不到的。
11. If, when you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know you read actively. The most famous active reader of great books I know was President Hutchins, of the University of Chicago. He also had the hardest schedule of business activities of any man I know. He invariably read with a pencil, and sometimes, when he picked up a book and pencil in the evening, he found himself, instead of making intelligent notes, drawing what he called "caviar factories" on the margins. When that happened, he put the book down. He knew he was too tired to read, and was just wasting time.
11、如果，你讀完一本書的時候，書頁上寫滿了你的批注(your notes)，你就知道自己的閱讀是積極的(actively)。我知道的最有名的采用積極方式閱讀偉大著作的人(the most famous active reader of great books)是芝加哥大學的校長哈金斯。他也是我所知道的公務最繁忙的人(the hardest schedule of business activities of any man)。他讀書時總是(invariably= always)拿著鉛筆。有時，當他在晚上拿起書和鉛筆的時候，發覺自己并沒有(instead of)在做有意義的筆記(intelligent notes)，而是在頁邊空白處(on the margins)亂涂亂畫一些他稱之為“魚子醬工廠”(caviar factories)的東西。一出現這種情況，他就會放下書本。他知道自己太累了以致讀不下去，(再繼續看書)完全是在浪費時間。
