1705007601

1705007602 ● caring：用心。

1705007603

1705007604 ● slacking：放松。high wire：高架钢丝。elected：挑选。你既然选中了要在钢丝上跳舞，那么钢丝不可放松。写作之难，可以和走钢丝相比。因为钢丝既不可松，脚步尤其错乱不得也。

1705007605

1705007606 ● turning to：改写。less hazardous：危险性较少的东西。文章往往写到中途写不下去了，那时一定要“不背初衷”，坚持写下去，不可马虎了事。至于写作之所以有危险性者，大约是因为有些东西很难写，不用心写就有“写坏”的危险。

1705007607

1705007608 The writer is in the position of a person who has accepted a grave responsibility, a task that is within his powers—his best powers—and which he has dedicated himself to accomplish. It means that the writer must live, during working hours, at the peak of his capacity. If one’s best hours, best productive hours, are, say, four out of the twenty-four, it means that the other twenty hours must be ordered to this effect.

1705007609

1705007610 ● in the position of a person：作家所处的立场是同于这一种人的。他好像是担任下来一项重大的责任（简直可以和负守土卫民之责的军人相比；本文用discipline处很多，本来军人才有纪律，文人谈什么纪律呢？），他的任务按照他的能力是可以完成的（within），但是他得把全身本事（his best powers）都拿出来。

1705007611

1705007612 ● dedicated himself：奉献自己；献身。accomplish：完成。

1705007613

1705007614 ● during working hours：在写作的时候。live…at the peak of his capacity：（紧张地）生活，把自己的能力发挥到最高点。

1705007615

1705007616 ● best productive hours：文思最灵敏，写作效率最高的时候。一天有二十四小时，但是真能用以写作的时间只有四小时（say：不妨如此假定）。另外二十小时，就要好好安排（ordered），使得这四个小时可以发挥作用（如何安排，下文要说明）。

1705007617

1705007618 Such a discipline can be extremely irksome over a long period of time, the more so as it is self-imposed and can be so readily broken. Irksome is too weak a word, if the job is a long one—say, five or six years. Painful describes this discipline more exactly. Anxiety goes along with it, anxiety lest you break rhythm and the momentum be lost.

1705007619

1705007620 ● irksome：令人心烦的，伤脑筋的。the more so as…：因为如何如何，所以更是如此（令人心烦）。（这一种句法是很常用的。）

1705007621

1705007622 ● self-imposed：这种纪律是自己约束自己的，随时（so readily：多么容易地）可以破坏。自找麻烦，所以更为难受。

1705007623

1705007624 ● 一本书有时要五六年才写得完，那时的苦不是irksome所能表示，只好说是painful了。痛苦之外，更有anxiety（忧虑；原文作：忧虑跟着这种纪律一起来的）。

1705007625

1705007626 ● rhythm：节奏。每天写三五百字，成了习惯，生活好像有了“拍子”。几天不写，拍子就断掉了。momentum：（物理学中的）动量；冲劲，势头。写文章有一股劲，隔了一个时候不写，这股劲就没有了。作家一面以纪律约束自己，一面又担心文章脱了节，泄了气。

1705007627

1705007628 ● lest是连词：唯恐；所怕的是。break和be，都是虚拟式。你所担忧的事尚未发生，而且不一定发生，所以要用虚拟式。普通语法书里规定：lest后面要用should（即should break），这里没有用。不用should，单用虚拟式动词也可以。

1705007629

1705007630 If you are a morning worker, with your best hours from, say, nine to one, your afternoons will have to be devoted to outdoor exercises, neglected housework if you are a wife, the tender loving care and feeding of family or whatever is necessary to make daily life go on, clearing the decks for tomorrow morning and keeping you in top health besides.

1705007631

1705007632 ● morning worker：早晨工作的人。前面说过best productive hours。有些人适宜于早晨工作，有些人适宜于晚上工作，今以早晨工作的人为例。

1705007633

1705007634 ● will have to be：这里的will不含“将来”的意思。在“条件句子”里，前面“if”clause假如用现在式，后面的主句通常用将来式。这是习惯用法如此，那个将来式仅是表示“猜测”，并不表示“将来”。have to be：不得不。devoted to：奉献给。下面跟五样东西。

1705007635

1705007636 1. outdoor exercises：户外运动。作家为保持身心康健计，也该锻炼身体。

1705007637

1705007638 2. 受到忽略了的家务（假如你是个主妇）。

1705007639

1705007640 3. 照顾子女等等。

1705007641

1705007642 4. 这是个暗喻：“清除甲板”是海军作战前的准备。作家为明天早晨的工作，此时亦可稍事准备，如买稿纸、墨水，整理书桌等。

1705007643

1705007644 5. 保持自己的康健（睡个午睡亦自不妨）。top是形容词：上好的；“巅峰状态”。

1705007645

1705007646 When five P. M. comes, if you are a biographer or historian you will have to stop what you are doing with fly screens or hemlines and begin reading for tomorrow’s writing or for next week’s or next month’s writing, depending upon how you plan your research for a long book. With a pencil in hand, making notes or marking passages, you will read on and off until ten o’clock, when you go to bed. I myself usually climb in bed with my notes in hand for tomorrow’s start, read them over casually, trying not to think, and turn out the light. I am a firm believer in the action of the subconscious during sleep. At supper or dinner that evening, you have not overeaten because it would disturb your sleep, and you know from experience that eight hours of sleep are necessary to put you through a morning’s work, though you know also, from experience, that you can afford to miss one night’s sleep occasionally. But not two nights, unless you are prepared to sacrifice your work on the third morning.

1705007647

1705007648 ● 本段第一句的will，意义同上段。fly screens：防苍蝇的纱窗。hemlines：衣服的镶边。下午你本来在装纱窗，或者做各种家庭杂务。到五点钟，你应该开始读书。（假如你所写的是传记或历史；其实写小说的人，暇时也该拿名著小说一读，读写并进，是有助于灵感的启发的。）

1705007649

1705007650 ● depending upon：你所准备的是明天的，或是下星期的，或是下个月的写作，究竟是明天的还是下个月的，就看（“倚靠”）你写这部长书的时候，如何计划你的研究工作了。

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