打字猴:1.705006331e+09
1705006331 现代英文选评注 [:1705000330]
1705006332 现代英文选评注 Dialogues of A. N. Whitehead怀德海语录
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1705006334 Lucien Price (1883—1964)
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1705006336 怀德海(Alfred North Whitehead)是当代大哲学家,1861年生于英国,出身剑桥大学,早享盛名,1924年受美国哈佛大学之聘,任教十余年之久,1937年退休,1947年逝世。怀氏生前喜与青年朋友交谈,青年人聆其教诲者,自然增长智慧,然而怀氏虚怀若谷,认为和青年人谈论,亦大有助于他自己的思想。他曾经说过:“It is all nonsense to suppose that the old cannot learn from the young.”
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1705006338 Lucien Price是《波士顿环球报》(The Boston Globe)的记者,亦是好学深思之士,他从1932年起经常访问怀德海,讨论学术思想、人生各种问题。后来他把讨论的话,随时笔录,二十余年来,居然成一本厚书。Price自云对于记录谈话,有特殊训练,非但谈话要旨,可以保持不失,连谈话时所用语句,都可以照式录下。他的记录,大部分曾经怀氏寓目,认为无误。怀氏态度诚恳,吐属隽雅,思想深刻,学识渊博,他的“语录”,可以和Boswell的《约翰生博士传》以及Eckermann的《歌德语录》相比。
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1705006340 Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead 1954年由Little, Brown图书公司出版。
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1705006342 “Suppose our American culture were wiped out: whom have we produced so far who would stand as a lasting contribution to the world?”
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1705006344 “Walt Whitman.”
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1705006346 “Not Emerson?”
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1705006348 “I read Emerson a good deal when I was younger, but if my good neighbours, the Forbeses, will pardon me for saying so (they are grandsons of Emerson), he was not so original. But Whitman brought something into poetry which was never there before. Much of what he says is so new that he even had to invent a new form for saying it. Whitman seems to me to have been one of the very few great poets that have ever lived. He can stand easily beside the really great European poets.”
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1705006350 ● 本篇一开头所引各段都是由原书《第一次对话》(April 6, 1934)中录下,讨论内容大部分有关英美文化。
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1705006352 ● our American culture:问话的人(Price)是美国人。were:虚拟式动词。wiped out:扫除,消灭。
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1705006354 ● whom是疑问代名词;who是关系代名词,代替whom。到今天为止(so far),美国到底出了什么人才,可以算对全世界是一个永久的贡献呢?stand:别的东西都消灭了,他可以屹立不移。
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1705006356 ● Whitman(1819—1892):美国诗人,《草叶集》的作者。Emerson(1803—1882):美国诗人,思想家。
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1705006358 ● the Forbeses:怀德海的邻居Forbes一家人。Forbes指的是Cameron Forbes,美国外交家,曾任美国驻日大使,驻菲律宾总督。他和Emerson的血统关系不详。grandson解作“孙儿”,也可解作“外孙”。
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1705006360 ● pardon:批评人家的祖先,当然应该请人家原谅,即使他们人不在左右,听不见我的话。not so original:没有什么独创的贡献。
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1705006362 ● brought something:这两个简单的字,用处很大。something在本书前文中已经讨论过,这里可能代表一种“美”、或“力量”、或“风格”、或“思想”。brought可能表示“灌输”、“创造”、“倡导”种种意思。这两个字都可以用比较艰深专门的字代替,但是在普通谈话中,这样也就够用了。which was never there before:以前所没有的。定语从句,形容something。
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1705006364 ● what he says:他所说的(内容)。what的用法,在本书前文中曾讨论过。is so new的主语是Much。saying it的it代替Much。form:(诗歌的)形式。这句话用两种不同的时态:he says用现在式,话虽说过了,但是话还留传人间;古人说话,大多可用现在式以表示之,例如Confucius says。又is so new也用现在式,对于今日的读者,还是新鲜的。had to invent用过去式,Whitman创造新形式以表现新思想,是在过去。
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1705006366 ● seems to me to have been:分词用完成式,表示Whitman现在已不在人世。
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1705006368 ● can stand easily beside:足与(欧洲大诗人)相比。
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1705006370 “You must remember that at Winchester the boys are a selected group, with a very special kind of training to which they are well adapted. In that groove they acquire astonishing proficiency, but they would be quite ignorant out of it. They would know a great deal about Roman customs in the period of the Punic Wars, but very little, perhaps nothing, about urgent problems of their own land and time. They do well at the universities and make names in the professions and as colonial administrators and civil servants. The creative arts? I do not think you will find many of them excelling there. They write very well, but not very imaginatively. American students are less well-informed but more eager to learn; English boys are less eager but more informed. The American boy knows less about what interests him more, the English boy knows more about what seems to interest him less.” He said this with a laughing twinkling in his bright blue eyes.
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1705006372 ● 本段怀德海讨论英美两国青年的知识程度。Price曾去参观英国有名的Winchester College(中学),发现高班中学生都能阅读希腊名著的原文,可是美国哈佛大学的学生都不一定有这样高的程度。怀德海即就此点发表意见。
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1705006374 ● selected group:经过挑选的一群人,优秀分子。adapted连前面的to which。这辈青年很能适应于这种训练。
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1705006376 ● groove:原意为“沟”或“槽”,转作“故辙”、“规定的路子”、“刻板文章”。这里指英国中学的训练方法。proficiency:精通、熟练。是动词acquire(获得)的宾语。would be:虚拟式动词,说话的人不敢说定。out of it=out of the groove。在规定课程范围之内,他们知道得非常之多;在这范围之外,他们的知识可能很浅陋。
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1705006378 ● Roman customs:罗马人的风俗习惯。Punic Wars:罗马与迦太基之战。(Punic就是腓尼基,迦太基是腓尼基人所建立的)。urgent problems:迫切的问题。他们对于本国目前的大问题,可能知道得很少,甚至一无所知。
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1705006380 ● do well:成绩很好。make names:扬名,露头角。excelling:出人头地。他们干律师、医生、牧师等(所谓professions)行业,到殖民地去做官,或者在本国做公务员(civil servants),成绩都很好,但是他们在创造性的艺术方面,却很少有人能有杰出的成绩。
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