1705007660 ● miss one night’s sleep：偶然一晚上失眠，也无大害。

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1705007662 ● But not two nights：这是不完全句子。全文是：You cannot afford missing two nights’ sleep.

1705007663

1705007664 Long ago, when I was in my twenties, I came across an awe-inspiring saying, in French: “If you abandon art for one day, she will abandon you for three.”

1705007665

1705007666 ● In my twenties：我二十几岁的时候。came across：遇见；读到（这么一句使人肃然起敬的话，原文是法文）。

1705007667

1705007668 ● 这句话是：你假如把艺术搁置一天，她就会把你丢弃三天。意思同中文格言“一曝十寒”，“拳不离手，曲不离口”相仿。

1705007669

1705007670 ● art这里是“人格化”了，故代名词用she。通常英文里是用it来代替art的。

1705007671

1705007672 It is true. It is all too lamentably true. Even with Friday’s notes sitting on your table staring you in the face—a map to guide you into Saturday’s territory—even then, if you skip Saturday’s work, on Sunday those selfsame notes will likely have gone dead. They will sit there, avoiding your eye. No message comes up; they are cold script. If Saturday’s interruption has been forced from outside, something I could not help, like going to the oculist, I work every bit as well next day. Probably because I have sat in the oculist’s office raging and impatient, with my chapter never out of mind. On the other hand if I succumb to invitation and go out to lunch, an interesting lunch on a working day, I am ruined. Or even an interesting dinner, which should not, practically speaking, interfere with morning working hours at all! But a dinner party means what shall one wear, or going to the hairdresser, or even looking in the shops for a new dress, and this is fatally distracting. Giving a party is the finish, in my judgment, to several days’ work.

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1705007674 ● all too lamentably：太使人悲哀了。假如作家能够马马虎虎，高兴写就写，做人岂不是可以快乐得多？但是写作这个东西，是一天也不能搁的。前面一句格言既是真话，作家就苦了。

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1705007676 ● Friday：随便举一天。notes：星期五下午所做的笔记，应该是供星期六早晨写作之用的。但是假如星期六你没有写（skip：跳过），星期天早晨再写，那些笔记可能对你就毫无意义了（will likely have gone dead，此处will同前文所用的意义一样）。那些笔记本来是带你进入“星期六的领土”的地图，但是你停了一天，现在（notes这里是“人格化”了），它们只是坐在桌子上，对你发愣（stare a person in the face是成语）。或者它们坐在那里，不来理你。（avoiding your eye：避免你的眼睛，故意不来看你，这也是成语。）

1705007677

1705007678 ● selfsame=precisely the same。

1705007679

1705007680 ● message：那些笔记可以激发你的思想，可以传“话”给你，但是现在“话”不来了，你写不出东西了。它们成了“冰冷的文字”，没有生命的东西。

1705007681

1705007682 ● 写文章是耽搁不得的。但是耽搁的情形有两种：

1705007683

1705007684 假如外面有力量（from outside）打断了我的写作，假如我碰到了一件“无可奈何”（something I could not help）的事情（例如星期六我眼睛有病，要去瞧眼科大夫：oculist），那么你星期天写作的时候，仍旧是文思通畅的（every bit as well：一点也不差）。原因可能是：我在眼科大夫那里，神魂不安，等得不耐烦，又很生气（raging：因为觉得光阴浪费可惜）。人虽在等大夫来给我治病，心中念念不忘的是我今天该写的那章书。

1705007685

1705007686 另一种情形：有人请我去吃午饭，我答应了。答应人家的邀请本来是件小事，但是这里的一个动词succumb分量很重。succumb的意思是“屈服”，对不可抗力量的屈服，通常用于“战争失败”或“犯罪”等严重之事，用了这样一个严重之字，就是表示：人家的邀请可以使你分心，你上午写作时就不能专心，你假如答应了，就相当于“屈服于犯罪的诱惑”。

1705007687

1705007688 ● lunch：后面跟着一个同位格的lunch，说明这是工作的日子的一顿有趣的午餐。

1705007689

1705007690 ● ruined：这个字用得也很重——“我就毁了，完蛋了。”那天上午就不用想写什么好文章了。

1705007691

1705007692 ● dinner：美国通常是晚餐。晚上去赴宴，照理说不会影响你上午的写作的。

1705007693

1705007694 ● means：赴宴并不简单，它引起了许多别种考虑。对于女太太们说来，有人请客就“等于”（means）考虑这些事情：我要穿些什么（照语法书规定，这几个字的次序应排作what one shall wear），去洗头烫发（替女人“做头”的人是hairdresser），或者到店里去，找一件新的晚礼服。

1705007695

1705007696 ● distracting：分心的。fatally：给你致命打击。作家之心不可旁骛，连宴会都不宜参加，这种生活多苦！

1705007697

1705007698 ● 应召赴宴固然不可，自己请客（Giving a party）更有大害。你有好几天静不下心来，工作也不能进行了。

1705007699

1705007700 ● finish这里是名词，连后面的to：“照我看来，你好几天的工作都要无法进行了。”

1705007701

1705007702 I dare not overwork. Let me write for too many hours, sit too long at the typewriter, and rubbish emerges on the page. When I am tired I write as a drunken man might write, deceived into spurious ecstasy. Spurious ecstasy is easy to achieve. But it is not communicable. I think the young writer should always remember that he is writing for strangers. And strangers require to be won. So when lunchtime comes, I tamely stop and eat. After lunch I read over what I wrote in the morning, correct it, add marginal notes of things I have left out or facts that need checking historically. Also, if at lunchtime I am still primed with ideas, I put them on slips of paper marked with the next day’s date: “Raleigh’s arrival for trial at Winchester. Horn at gate… Only 2 days between R. and his fate.”

1705007703

1705007704 ● Let me…and…：这种句法相当于假定句子——假如我如何如何，我就如何如何。

1705007705

1705007706 ● sit…at the typewriter：中文大约应该说，坐在打字机的“前面”。rubbish：不通的文字。emerges：出现。

1705007707

1705007708 ● 我如疲倦，我的文章就像醉汉所作（might write是虚拟式：我不一定知道醉汉的文章是怎么样的）。我糊里糊涂的笔底有一种狂热（ecstasy），但是这是假的（spurious）狂热。自以为文气很盛，其实是语无伦次（deceived into：受骗而做出某样事情）。这种假的狂热是不难写出来（achieve：达到）的。

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