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● maintain:主张。reservations:保留。我说“我什么都会”,这句话就是“没有保留”;我承认我有些事情能做,有些事情不能做,这就是“保留”。
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● can afford:能够负担,而不致吃亏。cannot afford such reservations:作家假如有这种保留,他就不成其为作家了。
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● technique:技巧。这字重复地用,充分表示写作技巧的重要。在表达一方面,作家应该能够描写任何人物、任何事物、任何情境;在做人一方面,作家有了某种技巧,才能利用他所有的人生经验:悲剧的,喜剧的,令人窘迫的,残酷的,或是美丽的。
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Few writers are born with this technique. They must search until they find it. The search, if it teaches nothing else, in the end will teach them to know themselves. Actually it is a little difficult to separate the techniques of writing from the techniques of living—which is another way of saying the style is the man. I have no patience with that view of writing—a quite prevalent view—which looks on style as a trick and on the great techniques of writing as a bag of tricks. I have heard people say to a writer, “Ah, but you could describe that man! I envy you. You could tell that incident as it really happened. You have the gift of words.”
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● 这种技巧,不是生而致之,而是学而致之。Few:可以说是“绝无仅有”。
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● search:寻觅(即学习)。find:寻得。search先用作动词,后用作名词。作家努力学习写作技巧,这种努力可使他很得益;别种得益且不必说(if it teaches nothing else),作家至少因此可以了解自己。写作技巧和做人有什么关系呢?这就是本文所要阐明的。
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● the style is the man:文如其人,这是法国批评家Buffon(1707—1788)的名言。本文作者说:作文技巧和生活技巧颇难分隔(二者颇有牵连),这就是Buffon名言的另一种说法了。
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● have no patience with:不能忍受,听不入耳。prevalent:流行很广的。style:文章风格。trick:小手法,雕虫小技。bag of tricks:一大堆小玩意儿。
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● you字两次重读,表示一般人对于作家描写能力的羡慕。
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● describe that man:作家所写书中的某一个人物。that incident:书中某一件事。
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● gift:天赋能力。
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These people seldom tell a writer, “You have this gift of perception, this passionate concern with life and living, that enables you, or compels you, to watch and learn.”
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● 一般人只知道欣赏作家的天才,谁能了解作家的苦心孤诣呢?因此他们不会说出正确的赞美的话。
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● 正确的赞美的话该怎么说呢?我们得承认作家有洞烛事物的能力(gift of perception),作家对于生活中的万事万物有强烈的关切(passionate concern),这种能力或关切使得作家观察人生,向人生学习。
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● 说“使得”恐怕还太轻,我们应该说“迫得”(compels)。作家所以肯细心观察学习,实在受本性所驱使,不得不然。
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● life and living:life是大事情,living是小事情。人的生命全部是life。他要做人(to live)就得做很多事情(如吃饭、穿衣、赚钱),这些事情就是living。
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Writing, I think, is not apart from living. Writing is a kind of double living. The writer experiences everything twice. Once in reality and once in that mirror which waits always before or behind him.
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● 写作与生活不可分。double living:双重生活。作家和普通人不一样;普通人只生活一次,作家要生活两次。一次是真实的生活;一次是拿生活作为材料,从事回忆、考验、分析、综合、研究和写作。
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● 作家的身前或身后,总有一面镜子在侍候着他。他在这面镜子里,把自己的生活再过一次。例如逃难:普通人逃难逃过就算了,作家要拿逃难的经验,仔细地思索,作为他写作的材料,充实他写作的(同时也是生命的)内容。
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I maintain that this double living, these hours and scenes twice experienced, make up the inevitable sign of the natural-born writer. There is a compulsion to relive everything, repeat conversation to oneself, mimic a speaker’s accent, tone of voice, gesture, as carefully as if one were rehearsing to do it before an audience. It is an odd practice and serves no immediate purpose, certainly. I sometimes think it derives from sheer love of life, or infatuation with life, even the parts of life that we hate and fear. The practice takes its toll, also, in fatigue, a peculiar exhaustion. A double life is a double burden.
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● these hours and scenes twice experienced与this double living是同位语:人生中有些时刻,有些景象,人是要经验两次的(经验一次之后,还要加以玩味)。
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● make up:造成(部分造成整体)。动词用复数形式,值得注意。很明显的,make是跟靠近的hours and scenes,而不是跟较远的living的。inevitable:不可避免的,非有不可的。sign:表记,特征。natural-born writer:有写作天才的人。
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● a compulsion to relive everything:把任何东西生活两次的冲动。repeat是和relive平行的,前面的to省掉了。mimic(模仿)也是和它平行的。
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● 把听来的谈话,在心里(然后在笔底下)重演一次;某一个人说话时候的(原文作:一个说话人的)特殊的腔调、声调、姿势,私下细心模仿,好像练好了(rehearsing:正式公演前的预演)要演给人(audience)看似的。
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● 如此做法(practice)无疑是很奇怪(odd)的,而且没有直接(immediate)的好处。
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