Do We Buy Books?我們是否購書？

I have recently been in the throes1 of a double removal， and in the course of the operation comments were made by one person or another concerned in it on the prominence of books in my belongings. The van-man， with a large experience of removals， paid the tribute of astonishment at the spectacle， and the people who came to look at the house gaped at the books as though they were the last thing they expected to see in a decent suburban residence. Hitherto I had been rather ashamed of my library. In the course of a longish life I have accumulated some 2，000 books. There is not much rubbish among them， for I have thinned them out periodically， but there are shameful blanks that are unfilled， and it had never occurred to me to think that they formed an unusual collection for a middle-class household.

我最近為搬出舊居遷入新宅忙得夠嗆，其間有一兩個相關(guān)人員，見我的個人物品中書籍多得格外醒目，便議論了幾句。貨車司機呢，搬家經(jīng)驗豐富，面對滿屋書籍的壯觀景象，驚訝之余表示敬佩。前來看房的人目瞪口呆，仿佛怎么也料想不到會在一座雅致的郊區(qū)住宅里見到這么多的書。迄今為止，我一直為我的書房感到害臊。在稍顯漫長的一生中，我積累了大約2000本書。其中，末流低劣的讀物倒是不多，因為我會定期淘汰掉它們，但書架仍未擺滿，令我為之蒙羞，而且我從沒想過，對于一個中產(chǎn)階級家庭而言，這樣的藏書量已是異乎尋常了。

But the inquiries I have made since lead me to the conclusion that they do， and that in the average suburban home the last thing that is thought about is the furnishing of a library. People who will spend many hundreds and even thousands of pounds in the course of years in making their house beautiful never give a serious thought to books. They will ransack London for suitable fittings， for rugs and hangings， china and cut-glass， mirrors and what-nots， but the idea of providing themselves with a moderate and well-selected library does not occur to them. If they gather books at all， they gather them haphazard and without thought. A well-known publisher told me the other day that he was recently asked to equip a library in a new house in North London， and the instruction he received was to provide books that would fit the shelves which had been fixed. It was not the contents of the books that mattered， but the size.

然而，此后經(jīng)過數(shù)次問詢，我得出結(jié)論：這樣的藏書量的確異乎尋常，而且在地處郊區(qū)的一般家庭里，布置書房是人們最不情愿考慮的問題。經(jīng)年累月舍得花費數(shù)百甚至數(shù)千英鎊把房子裝得漂漂亮亮的人，從來不會認真考慮買幾本書。他們會逛遍倫敦，挑選心儀的家具配件、地毯、掛飾、瓷器、雕花玻璃器皿、鏡子等等，卻從未想過精挑細選一些書籍，為自己布置一間舒適的書房。即便真的添置書籍，他們也是不假思索地隨意搜羅幾本。前幾天，一位著名的出版商告訴我，最近有人要他為自己倫敦北部新居里的書房配備書籍，而他收到的指示是，挑選的書要能正好放進安裝好的書架。重要的不是書的內(nèi)容，而是大小。

This was no doubt an exceptional case， but it does represent something of the attitude of the average man to books. People who will spend one hundred and fifty pounds on a piano as a matter of course will not spend ten pounds a year or even five pounds a year in enriching their homes with all the best thought of all time. Go into any average provincial town and the last thing you will find is a decent book-shop. I recall more than one great industrial town of a population of over a hundred thousand which has only one such shop， and that is generally kept going by the sale of school-books. It is not because we cannot afford to buy books. We spend two hundred million sterling a year on beer， and I doubt whether we spend two hundred million pence on literature. Many people can afford to buy motor-cars at anything from two hundred pounds who would be aghast at the idea of spending half a guinea2 occasionally on a book. They think so meanly of their minds as that.

此例實屬罕見，但確實多少反映了普通人對待書籍的態(tài)度。愿意斥資150鎊購買一架鋼琴的人覺得這錢花得理所當然，卻不愿一年花費10鎊甚或5鎊購買書籍，用從古至今的思想精華充實自己的家。隨便進入倫敦以外的任何一個普通城市，最難尋見的就是一家像樣的書店。在我的印象中，人口超過10萬卻只有一家像樣書店的工業(yè)化大城市不止一個，而且這家書店一般還得靠銷售教材才能勉強維持經(jīng)營。這不是因為我們買不起書。我們每年的啤酒消費金額高達兩億鎊，但我懷疑用于購買文學(xué)書籍的費用都到不了兩億便士。許多人買得起200鎊以上的任何一款汽車，但偶爾花半幾尼買一本書的念頭會把他們嚇得不輕。他們就這樣把自己的思想想得如此不值錢。

Yet， merely as furniture， books are a cheaper and better decoration than blue china or Chippendale3 chairs. They are better because they put the signature of individuality upon a house. The taste for Chippendale chairs and blue china may be a mere vanity， a piece of coxcombry4 and ostentation， a fancy that represents， not a genuine personal taste for beautiful things， but an artificial passion for rare or expensive things. But a row of books will give a house character and meaning. It will tell you about its owner. It is a window let into the landscape of his life. When I go into a stranger’s library， I wander round the bookshelves to learn what sort of a person the stranger is， and when he comes in I feel that I know the key to his mind and the range of his interests. A house without books is a mindless and characterless house， no matter how rich the Persian rugs and how elegant the settees and the ornaments. The Persian rugs only tell you that the owner has got money， but the books will tell you whether he has got a mind as well. I was staying not long ago in a Northern town with a man who had a great house and fine grounds， two or three motor-cars， a billiard-room， and a multitude of other luxuries. The only thing he had not got was books. And the effect left on the mind by all his splendours was that he was pauper. “And where are your books？” asked a famous bookman of my acquaintance who was being shown over a West-End palace by the owner， who， in the last twenty years， had made a colossal fortune. “In the City5，” was the plutocrat’s6 unblushing reply. He gloried in his poverty.

然而，即便僅僅作為家具，書籍的裝飾效果也勝過青花瓷器或奇彭代爾式座椅，而且價格更低廉。它們之所以更好，是因為它們給房屋打上了個性的印記。人們偏好奇彭代爾式座椅和青花瓷器，可能只是出于虛榮，純?yōu)楦】浜挽乓?，如同一場幻想，體現(xiàn)的并非真實的個人審美，而是對稀缺或昂貴之物的故作喜愛。但一排書籍會賦予整棟房子個性和意義。它們?yōu)槟憬榻B房主，猶如打開一扇窗，引導(dǎo)你領(lǐng)略他的生活風(fēng)貌。走進一個陌生人的書房，我往往流連于一排排書架之間，希望據(jù)此了解他是怎樣一個人。及至他走進書房，我便覺得自己已掌握打開他心扉的鑰匙，知道他的興趣范圍有多廣。一座沒有藏書的房子是沒有思想與個性的，無論房中的波斯地毯何等昂貴，布置和裝飾何等考究。波斯地毯只能說明主人有錢，書卻能告訴你他是否有思想。不久前，我住在位于北部某座城市的某人家中，他的家房屋寬敞，庭園美觀，有兩三輛汽車，一間臺球室，還有許許多多的奢侈品。他唯獨缺乏的就是書籍。他盡顯豪奢的做派令人感到他思想的貧瘠。我認識的一位著名書商，一天在某位房主的引導(dǎo)下參觀其位于倫敦西區(qū)的豪華宅邸。這位房主在近20年間聚斂了巨額財富?！澳愕臅谀膬耗?？”書商問道?！霸诔抢??！备缓篮翢o愧色地答道。他以他的思想貧瘠為榮。

It is not a question of money. I repeat that books are the cheapest as well as the best part of the equipment of a house. You can begin your library with the expenditure of a couple of shillings. Nearly all the best literature in the world is at your command at two shillings a volume. For five pounds you can get a library of fifty books which contain “riches fineless.” Even if you don’t read them yourself， they are a priceless investment for your children. Holmes7 used to say that it took three gener-ations of sprawling in a library to create a reading man; but I believe that any intelligent child who stumbles upon， let us say， Herodotus8 or Two Years Before the Mast9 or Prescott’s Conquest of Peru10 or any similar masterpiece， will be caught by the glamour of books and will contract the reading habit for life. And what habit is there to compare with it？ What delight is there like the revelation of books， the sudden impact of a master-spirit， the sense of windows flung wide open to the universe？ It is these adventures of the mind， the joy of which does not pass away， that give the adventure of life itself beauty and fragrance， and make it

這不是錢的問題。我不妨重復(fù)前言，書籍是家中最便宜、最美觀的裝飾品。布置書房可從花費幾先令做起?；ㄙM2先令，幾乎任何一部世界文學(xué)經(jīng)典即可為你所有。花費5鎊，你便能添置50本書，其中自有“無價之寶”。哪怕你自己不讀，它們對于你的兒孫也是一筆無法估價的寶貴投資?；裟匪乖f，三代人沉浸于書房，廣泛涉獵，才能造就一名飽讀之士，不過我相信，任何一個腦瓜聰明的孩子，只要他湊巧碰見一本好書，比如希羅多德的著作、《兩年水手生涯》、普雷斯科特的《秘魯征服史》，抑或其他類似的經(jīng)典作品，定能陶醉于書籍的魅力，并由此養(yǎng)成終生閱讀的習(xí)慣。世上還有什么習(xí)慣能與之媲美？書籍給予的重要啟示、崇高精神帶來的頓悟、敞開窗戶探索世界的開闊之感，世上哪兒還有這樣的樂趣呢？正是這些趣味持久不衰的心靈之旅，令人生之旅美妙而芬芳，

Rich as the oozy bottom of the deep，

富足如海底堆積的淤泥，

With sunken wreck and sumless treasuries.

埋藏著沉船中的無數(shù)珍寶。

（譯者單位：揚州大學(xué)）

* 阿爾弗雷德·喬治·加德納（1865—1946），英國著名作家，一生著述宏富，尤以散文見長。他的散文大多取材于日常生活中的平凡事件，清新可誦、自然典雅、詼諧幽默、富有哲理。主要作品有隨筆集《岸邊卵石》（Pebbles on the Shore）、《風(fēng)中之葉》（Leaves in the Wind）、《道道畦溝》（Many Furrows）等。本文選自《道道畦溝》。

1 throe劇痛。

2 guinea幾尼，英國舊時金幣或貨幣單位，價值21先令，現(xiàn)值1.05鎊，于1813年停止流通。" 3指英國家具設(shè)計和制作大家托馬斯·奇彭代爾（Thomas Chippendale，1718—1779）開創(chuàng)的家具款式，以優(yōu)美的輪廓和華麗的裝飾為特點。" 4 coxcombry愚蠢的自負；浮夸。

5指倫敦城。" 6 plutocrat（貶義）財閥；富豪。

7指奧利弗·溫德爾·霍姆斯（Oliver Wendell Holmes，1809—1894），美國19世紀著名作家、醫(yī)生和詩人，以“早餐桌上”系列短文聞名，代表作有《早餐桌上的霸主》（The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table）等。" 8古希臘歷史學(xué)家、作家，因著成《歷史》（The Histories）一書被古羅馬思想家西塞羅（Cicero）尊稱為“史學(xué)之父”。希羅多德也是古希臘第一位有完整作品流傳于世的人。" 9美國作家理查德·亨利·達納（Richard Henry Dana，1815—1882）的《兩年水手生涯》是極具代表性的航海游記，還推動了美國乃至西方現(xiàn)代海事制度的改革。" 10此處指美國歷史學(xué)家威廉·H. 普雷斯科特（William H. Prescott，1796—1859）所著《秘魯征服史》（History of the Conquest of Peru）。

Iconic Book Quotes （1）

I am no bird; and no net ensnares me; I am a free human being with an independent will， which I now exert to leave you.

—Charlotte Bront?， Jane Eyre

Beware， for I am fearless， and therefore powerful.

—Mary Shelley， Frankenstein

I wanted you to see what real courage is， instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It’s when you know you’re licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win， but sometimes you do.

—Harper Lee， To Kill a Mockingbird

I’m not afraid of storms， for I’m learning how to sail my ship.

—Louisa May Alcott， Little Women

Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do， you start missing everybody.

—J. D. Salinger， The Catcher in the Rye