Unit4 [见教材 P61]
Writing Between the Lines
阅读时要做读书笔记
Mortimer J. AdlerU.S.
莫迪摩尔.J.阿德勒(美国)
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.
你很清楚,为了能够最充分地理解,你必须要能听读懂言外之 意。现在,我想建议你在阅读时也要做同等重要的事,那就是建议 你在阅读时做读书笔记,否则你的阅读不大可能是最有效的。
I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but of love.
坦白说,我认为,人们阅读时在书上做笔记不是毁书,而是爱 书。
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 senseuntil 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.
人们可以通过两种方式来拥有一本书。第一种就是你通过付 款买书而确立产权,就像你花钱买衣服和家具一样。但是,这种购 买行为只是拥有的前提,只有你把书完全变成你自身的一部分时,你 才可以说你完全拥有了这本书。把你(译者加注:作为读者)变成 书的一部分的最好办法就是在书上做笔记。有一个例子可以很好地 说明这一点。你买一块
牛排,这只是把牛排从肉铺的冰箱里转移到 了你自己的冰箱里。但是,只有你把这块牛排吃掉并消化以后,你 才可以说在最重要的意义上完全拥有了这块牛排。我认为书也是这 样,只有它完全融入到你的血液里时,才可以说对你真正有益。
There are three kinds of book owners.The first has all the standard sets and best-sellers—unread, untouched.The second has a great many books —a few of them read through, most 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.
有书的人常常可以分为三类。第一类人拥有最完整成套的书, 还有畅销书,但是他们一本也没有读过,甚至就没有碰过。第二类 人也有很多书,但是他们通常只读过其中的几本,而绝大多数都非常 干净光亮,与刚刚买回来时一样(这样的人可能非常喜欢占有书,但 是错误地认为破坏了书的外观就是对书的不尊重)。第三种人的书 或多,或少。但是,
每一本都因为反复阅读而破烂不堪,页角卷起, 甚至都散了页,而且从头至尾有很多标注和草草写下的笔记。
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.
你可能会问,把一本印刷得非常精美的书,或者一个装订得非 常雅致的版本保存地非常干净完整,算不算是对书不应有的尊重呢? 当然不是。我绝对不会在第一版的《失乐园》上乱写乱画,我也 同样不会把一套蜡笔和一本由荷兰著名印刷家Rembrandt印刷的原 始版的书拿给我的孩子玩耍。我也不会在画和雕像上做标注。可 以这么说,它们的精神内涵是与其物质形式是不可分割的。从美的 角度来说,一个珍贵罕有的版本,一本内容丰富的卷册就像是一幅画、 一座雕像。
Butthe 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.If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way , buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.
但是你没有
但是,书的精神内涵也可以脱离其物质形式。一本书,与绘 画相比,更像是一首音乐的乐谱。没有哪一个优秀的音乐家会把交 响乐本身和乐谱混为一谈。如果你对书的优美装帧或排版的尊重妨 碍了你的阅读,那么你可以给自己买一个廉价的版本来充分阅读(译 者加),以显示你对作者本人的尊重。
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.Let me develop these three points.
为什么说做读书笔记对于阅读是必不可少的呢?首先,做笔 记可以使你保持清醒(这里不是指神志上的清醒,而是指态度上的清 醒)。第二,阅读,如果是积极的,本身就是思考,思考本身往往 会以口头或书面的形式表现出来。那些布满笔记的书往往就是人们 深入思考过的书。最后,做笔记可以让你记录下你曾经有过的思想, 或者作者表达过的观点。我会充分阐述这几点。
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 andcome up with an understanding of what you have read.Now an ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, Gone with 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.If when you’ve finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know that you have read actively.
如果阅读是为了有实际收获,而不是消遣时间,那么它就必须 是积极的。你不可以在一
目十行之后提出你对你读过的内容的大致 理解。普通的休闲小说,例如《飘》,并不要求进行最积极的阅读。 如果你阅读只是为了消遣时间,那么你可以以非常轻松的状态来阅 读,你也不会有什么遗憾和损失。但是,如果你读的书富有哲理, 内容优美,值得反复回味和深思,那么你就应该尽可能进行最积极的 阅读。如果你已读完一本书,而且书上到处都是你做的笔记,那可以说你的阅读是非常积极的。
But, you may ask, why is writing necessary?Well, the physical act of writing, with your own hand, brings words and sentences more sharply before your mind and preserves them better in your memory. To set down your reaction to important words and sentences you have read, and the questions they have raised in your mind, is to preserve those reactions and sharpen those questions.
但是你可能会问,为什么要写下来呢?因为手写这种行为可 以使词句更清楚地呈现在你的心里,可以更好地保存在你的记忆里。 如果你记录下你对你读过的某些重要词句的感受,记录下这些词句 在你心里所引发的问题,那么你就可以很好地保存这些感受,并且可 以使这些问题更加清楚明朗。
Even if you wrote on a scratch pad, and threw the paper away when you had finished writing, your grasp of the book would be surer.