最新--河海大学研究生英语一-Unit-19---The-Essayist资料

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Unit 19 The Essayist

The essayist is a self-liberated man, sustained by the childish belief that everything he thinks about, everything that happens to him, is of general interest. He is a fellow who thoroughly enjoys his work, just as people who take bird walks enjoy theirs. Each new excursion of the essayist, each new “attempt”, differs from the last and takes him into new country. This delights him. Only a person who is congenitally self-centered has the effrontery and the stamina to write essays.

散文家是一位自我解脱的人，靠一种幼稚的信念支撑着，他总认为自己想到的一切，自己遭遇的一切，是大家都感兴趣的。他是一个充分欣赏自己工作的人，就像遛鸟的人欣赏他们的工作那样。散文家的每一次新的游览，每一次新的“尝试”，都和前一次不同，而且总把他带进新的国度里去。这使他很快慰。只有生来以自我为中心的人才会厚颜无耻、持之以恒地去写散文。

There are as many kinds of essays as there are human attitudes or poses, as many essay flavors as there are Howard Johnson ice creams. The essayist arises in the morning and, if he has work to do, selects his garb from an unusually extensive wardrobe: he can pull on any sort of shirt, be any sort of person, according to his mood or his subject matter--philosopher, scold, jester, raconteur, confidant, pundit, devil’s advocate, enthusiast. I like the essay, have always liked it, and even as a child was at work, attempting to inflict my young thoughts and experiences on others by putting them on paper. I early broke into print in the pages of St.Nicholas. I tend still to fall back on the essay form ( or lack of form) when an idea strikes me, but I am not fooled about the place of the essay in twentieth-century American letters--it stands a short distance down the line. The essayist, unlike the novelist, the poet, and the playwright, must be content in his self-imposed role of second-class citizen. A writer who has his sights trained on the Nobel Prize or other earthly triumphs had best write a novel, a poem, or a play, and leave the essay to ramble about, content with living a free life and enjoying the satisfactions of a somewhat undisciplined existence. (Dr. Johnson called the essay “an irregular, undigested piece”; this happy practitioner has no wish to quarrel with the good doctor’s characterization.

散文种类很多，犹如人的姿态，而散文风格韵味之多则犹如霍华德?约翰逊的冰淇淋。散文家清晨起来，倘若有工作得做，总从一批特别多样化的服装中挑选出他的外衣来：且不论他是哪一类人，他可以根据自己的心境或是题材披上任何种类的衬衫——哲学家、爱骂人的人、诙谐的人、讲故事的人、知己朋友、学术权威、爱唱反调的人、热心人士。我爱好散文，一向爱好，孩提时就动手写文章，试图把我年轻的思想与经历写在纸上，强加给别人。我写的散文最早刊登在《圣尼古拉杂志》上。当我突然有了一个想法时，我还是倾向于采用散文这种形式（或者可以说是，缺乏任何形式），不过我对于散文在二十世纪美国文坛上的地位并没有上当受骗。——总的说来，散文地位偏低。散文家不像小说家、诗人和剧作家，他必须满足于自己强加上身的二等公民的角色。一个目光瞄准诺贝尔奖或是世上其他荣誉的作家，最好写一篇小说、一首诗或一部戏剧，撇下散文家四下漫游，满足于一种自由自在的生活，享受着一种或多或少散漫生活的种种快事。（约翰逊博士把散文称为“一篇不合常规的、未经整理的文字”；我这个快乐的散文作者无意就那位好博士关于散文特性的描述进行指责。）

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There is one thing the essayist cannot do, though-he cannot indulge himself in deceit or in concealment, for he will be found out in no time. Desmond MacCarthy, in his introductory remarks to the 1928 E.P. Dutton and company edition of Montaigne, observes that Montaigne”had the gift of natural of natural candour.... It is the basic ingredient. And even the essayist’s escape from discipline is only a partial escape: the essay, although a relaxed form, imposes its own disciplines, raises its own problems, and these disciplines and problems soon become apparent and (we all hope) act as a deterrent to anyone wielding a pen merely because he entertains random thoughts or is in a happy or wandering mood.

不过有一件事是散文家所不能做的——他不能尽情欺骗或是隐瞒，因为那样一来，他很快就会被别人发觉。德斯蒙德?麦卡锡在达顿公司一九二八年出版的《蒙田文集》的序言里说，蒙田“具有生性爽朗的天赋......”这是主要的成分。就连散文家摆脱法则也只是部分摆脱：散文虽然形式松散，却订有自己的法则，提出自己的问题。这些法则和问题不久就变得很明显，而且（我们全都希望）对任何一个仅仅因为自己浮想联翩或者因为心境快乐或胡思乱想而握起笔管来的人充当一种制约因素。

I think some people find the essay the last resort of the egoist, a much too self-conscious and self-serving form for their taste: they feel that it is presumptuous of a writer to assume that his little excursions or his small observations will interest the reader. There is some justice in their complaint. I have always been aware that I am by nature self-absorbed and egoistical; to write of myself to the extent I have done indicates a too great attention to my own life, not enough to the lives of others. I have worn many shirts, and not all of them have been a good fit. But when I am discouraged or downcast I need only fling open the door of my closet, and there, hidden behind everything else, hangs the mantle of Michel de Montaigne, smelling slightly of camphor.

我想有些人认为散文是利己主义者的最后一招，是不合他们口味的一种过于扭捏作态，过于自私自利的形式。他们觉得一个作家设想他的微不足道的游览或是他的琐细的观察会使读者感觉兴趣，这是十分荒谬的。他们的抱怨中倒也有相当道理。我一贯知道，我生性是自顾自和利己的；写我自己写到这样的地步，它表明我对自己的生活过分在意，而不太关心别人的生活。我穿过许多件衬衫，并不是所有的都很合身。不过遇到我心情沮丧或郁郁不快时，我只需要把衣橱的门一下拉开；那里藏在所有别的衣服后面，挂着米歇尔?德?蒙田的披风，微微地散发出樟脑的气息。

The essays in this collection cover a long expanse of time, a wide variety of subjects. I have chosen the ones that have amused me in the rereading, along with a few that seemed to have the odor of durability clinging to them. Some, like “Here is New York,”have been seriously affected by the passage of time and now stand as period pieces. I wrote about New York in the summer of 1948, during a hot spell. The city I described has disappeared, and another city has emerged in its place ----one that I’m not familiar with. But I remember the former one, with longing and with love. David McCord, in his book About Boston tells of a journalist from abroad visiting this

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country and seeing New York for the first time. He reported that it was “inspiring but temporary in appearance.” I know what he means. The last time I visited New York, it seemed to have suffered a personality change, as though it had a brain rumor as yet undetected.

本论文集里的论文时间跨越很长，谈及的事物广泛。我从中挑出再次阅读能让我发笑的那些篇，其中一些似乎还附着有持久的气味。一些，像“这里是纽约”，深受时间流逝的影响，现在成了时期的碎片。我在1948年夏天很热的某段时间里写了有关纽约。我描述的城市已经消失了，取而代之的是另一座城市的出现——一个我不熟悉的城市。但我记得从前的那个，带着渴望与热爱。大卫·麦考德在他的有关波士顿的书里讲到，一个外国记者访问这个国家，第一次看到纽约。他报道说，它是“振奋人心但又转瞬即逝”的。我知道他是什么意思。上次我去纽约，它似乎经历了性格上的变化，好像它有脑瘤但未被检测出来。

Two of the Florida pieces have likewise experienced a sea change. My remarks about the condition of the black race in the South have happily been nullified, and the pieces are merely prophetic, not definitive.

佛罗里达的两处地方也经历了相似的翻天覆地的变化。我对于南方黑人种族现状的评论，很开心被抵消了，一些片段仅仅是先知，不是明确的。

To assemble these essays I have rifled my other books and have added a number of pieces that are appearing for the first time between covers. Except for extracting three chapters, I have let” One Man’s Meat”alone, since it is a sustained report of about five years of country living----a report I prefer not to tamper with. The arrangement of the book is by subject matter or by mood or by place, not by chronology. Some of the pieces in the book carry a dateline, some do not. Chronology enters into the scheme, but neither the book nor its sections are perfectly chronological. Some times the reader will find me in the city when he thinks I am in the country, and the other way round. This may cause a mild confusion; it is unavoidable and easily explained. I spent a large part of the first half of my life as a city dweller, a large part of the second half as a countryman. In between, there were periods when nobody, including myself, quite know (or cared) where I was: I thrashed back and forth between Maine and New York for reasons that seemed compelling at the time. Money entered into it, affection for The New Yorker magazine entered in. And affection for the city.

为了收集这些论文，我搜集我其他的书，并添加了第一次出现在书里的若干篇。除了提取了三个章节，我将“一个人的肉“单独列出，因为它是一篇约五年的乡村生活持续报告——一篇我不情愿篡改的报告。这本书的编排是根据主题或情绪或地域，不是通过年表。书中的一些片段有日期栏，一些没有。年表是安排在该计划中的，但无论是这本书还是其部分都不是完全按时间顺序排列。有时读者会发现我在城里，当他认为我在这个乡镇，并且完全反过来。这可能会引起轻微的困惑；这是不可避免也是容易解释的。我前半人生的大一部分时间是作为一个城市居民，后半段大部分的时间则是作为一个乡下人。在中间，任何人包括我自己，有段时期，明确知道(或在乎)我在哪里：我之间来回缅因州和纽约的原因似乎令人信服的当时。钱是一个原因，对《纽约客》杂志的喜爱是一个原因。还有对这座城市的喜爱。

I have finally come to rest.

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