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1、How Should One Read a Book？翻译How Should One Read a Book？ by Virginia Woolf It is simple enough to say that since books have classesfiction, biography, poetry we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us. Yet few people ask from books what books can give us. Mo
2、st commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true, of poetry that it shall be false, of biography that shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices. If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be a
3、n admirable beginning. Do not dictate to your author; try to become him. Be his fellow-worker and accomplice. If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read. But if you open your mind as widely as possible,
4、 then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences, will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other. Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you, or attempting to giv
5、e you, something far more definite. The thirty-two chapters of a novelif we consider how to read a novel firstare an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building; but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing. Perhaps the
6、quickest way to understand the elements of what a novelist is doing is not to read, but to write; to make your own experiment with the dangers and difficulties of words. Recall, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on you how at the corner of the street, perhaps, you passed two peopl
7、e talking. A tree shook; an electric light danced; the tone of the talk was comic, but also tragic; a whole vision, an entire conception, seemed contained in that moment. But when you attempt to reconstruct it in words, you will find that it breaks into a thousand conflicting impressions. Some must
8、be subdued; others emphasized; in the process you will lose, probably, all grasp upon the emotion itself. Then turn from your blurred and littered pages to the opening pages of some great novelist Defoe, Jane Austen, Hardy. Now you will be better able to appreciate their mastery. It is not merely th
9、at we are in the presence of a different person Defoe, Jane Austen, or Thomas Hardy but that we are living in a different world. Here, in Robinson Crusoe, we are trudging a plain high road; one thing happens after another; the fact and the order of the fact is enough. But if the open air and adventu
10、re mean everything to Defoe, they mean nothing to Jane Austen. Hers is the drawing-room, and people talking, and by the many mirrors of their talk revealing their characters. And if, when we have accustomed ourselves to the drawing-room and its reflections, we turn to Hardy, we are once more spun ar
11、ound. The moors are round us and the stars are above our heads. The other side of the mind is now exposed the dark side that comes uppermost in solitude, not the light side that shows in company. Our relations are not towards people, but towards Nature and destiny. Yet different as these worlds are,
12、 each is consistent with itself. The maker of each is careful to observe the laws of his own perspective, and however great a strain they may put upon us they will never confuse us, as lesser writers so frequently do, by introducing two different kinds of reality into the same book. Thus to go from
13、one great novelist to another from Jane Austen to Hardy, from Peacock to Trollope, from Scott to Meredith is to be wrenched and uprooted; to be thrown this way and then that. To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great finesse of perception, but of great bol
14、dness of imagination if you are going to make use of all that the novelist the great artist gives you. (705 words) 一头驮着沉重货物的驴，气喘吁吁地请求只驮了一点货物的马：“帮我驮点东西吧。对你来说，这不算什么；可对我来说，却可以减轻不少负担。” 马不高兴地回答：“你凭什么让我帮你驮东西，我乐得轻松呢。” 不久，驴累死了。主人将驴背上的所有货物全部加在马背上，马懊悔不已。 膨胀的自我使我们忽略了一个基本事实，那就是：我们同在生活这条大船上，别人的好坏与我们休戚相关。别人的不幸不能给
15、我们带来快乐，相反，在帮助别人的时候，其实也是在帮助我们自己。 一头驮着沉重货物的驴，气喘吁吁地请求只驮了一点货物的马：“帮我驮点东西吧。对你来说，这不算什么；可对我来说，却可以减轻不少负担。” A donkey, heavily loaded down, panted to a horse that was lightly laden :Can you help me carry some of my load ? It is nothing for you but is a big relief for me . 马不高兴地回答：“你凭什么让我帮你驮东西，我乐得轻松呢。” 不久，驴累死了。
16、主人将驴背上的所有货物全部加在马背上，马懊悔不已。 Why should I do that for you ? I am happy with my light load, said the horse, scowlingly. Soon after, the donkey died of exhaustion. The master transferred everything from the back of the donkey onto the horse, which now deeply regretted its action. 膨胀的自我使我们忽略了一个基本事实，那就是：我们
17、同在生活这条大船上，别人的好坏与我们休戚相关。别人的不幸不能给我们带来快乐，相反，在帮助别人的时候，其实也是在帮助我们自己。 An inflated ego blinds us to the fact that we are all living together on the same boat. The fortunes of other affects our well-being. The misfortune of others does not bring us happiness. On the contrary, helping others is in fact, helpi
18、ng ourselves. 无庸讳言，书籍有类别之分，比如小说，传记，诗歌等等。我们应该从各种不同类别的图书中获取不同的营养。然而，事实上，只有少数人能正确对待书籍，从中吸取其所能给予的一切。我们常常带着模糊而矛盾的观点来，要求小说该真实，诗歌应该不真实，传记必须充满溢美之词，历史得强化我们固有的观念。阅读时，如果我们能摒弃这些偏见，便是一个好的开端。不要强作者所难，而应与作者融为一体，作他的同路人和随行者。倘若你未开卷便先行犹豫退缩，说三道四，你绝不可能从阅读中最大限度地获取有用价值。但是，字里行间不易察觉的精妙之处，就为你洞开了一个别人难以领略的天地。沉浸其中，仔细玩味，不久，你会发现，作
19、者给予你的，或试图给予你的，绝非某个确定意义。一部小说的三十二个章节-如果我们先来讨论怎么阅读小说的话-犹如建筑的构架，但词汇比砖头令人更难捉摸。阅读比之于观看，当然是个更为长久而复杂的过程。也许，最为快界地领略小说家工作的原理的方法，不是读，而是写；去冒险与词汇打交道。回忆一下某个曾给你留下独特印象的事件：街角处你碰到两个人正在交谈，当时周围的场景是，树在随风摆动；街灯灯光摇曳不定；说话人声调悲喜交集；那一刻你感受到的情景全然融合在一起。 可是，当你试图用语言来再现这一场景时，它却支离成上千个抵触的印象，有些得略述，有些得加强。就在你诉诸文字的当儿，当初的感受已荡然无存。抛开词不达意的支离碎
20、片吧，去打开大师们的名著吧，比如笛福，简奥斯丁，哈代。这时，你当能更好地领会他们的精妙。我们不只是站在不同的大师面前-笛福，简奥斯丁，或者托马斯哈代-实际上我们是置身于完全不同的世界。在鲁宾逊漂流记中，我们跋涉于久远的征途，一个事件接着一个事件发生，事件与事件之间顺序就足以构成其巨制。如果说户外和冒险之于笛福是大显身手的领地，那么，对于简奥斯丁就无关紧要了。奥斯丁的世界是客厅，她通过活动于客厅里的任务的对话，反映人物性格。习惯了奥斯丁的客厅和通过客厅所反映的意向以后，我们再转向哈代，脑袋似乎有一次发晕了。我们置身于荒野之中，星星在我们头上闪烁。在这里，人类灵魂的另一面-孤寂中迸发的黑暗面，而不是处于凡世尘嚣时所表露的光明面-被充分解剖。这里展示的不是人与人的关系，而是人与自然和命运的关系。三位作家描述了三个不同的世界，他们各自的世界是个连贯一致的整体。他们谨慎地遵循着各自观察事物、描述事物的法则。无论作家倾向性多大，读者不会在其中迷失方向，不至于像读某些不在行的作者的作品那样，在同一本书里看到两个截然不同的现实。因此，阅读一个个伟大小说家-从简奥斯丁到哈代，从皮科克到特罗洛普，从司各脱到梅瑞迪思-你简直就如翻江倒海，被一会儿扔到这里，一会儿抛向那边。读小说是一门艰难而复杂的艺术。要想利用小说家-伟大的艺术家-给予的一切，你不仅的具备洞察的策略，你还得具有勇敢的想象。
