词汇大师-- What Aphorists Have to Say

　　AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on WORDMASTER: we continue our conversation with James Geary about his new book, "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists."
An aphorism² is a philosophical³ saying whose author is known. Two years ago Geary wrote "The World in a Phrase" and it became a best seller. So for his new book, he spent last year reading everything about aphorisms⁴ he could find in the British Library -- he's an American who lives in London -- and he had some books translated from Polish, Russian, Chinese and Japanese.
He says aphorists reflect the cultures that produce them.

　　JAMES GEARY: "If you take America, for example, there's a long line of aphorists starting with Benjamin Franklin who are sort of down-home philosophers who pretend to be more stupid than they really are. Like Benjamin Franklin, for example, was a very educated man but he created Poor Richard and Poor Richard's Almanac. And these aphorisms are sort of homely⁵, have a homely wisdom, but they're also very, very sophisticated. One of my favorites from Benjamin Franklin is, 'It's hard for an empty sack to stand upright.'
"And people who followed him had the same kind of down-home humor and sense of humor that he did. And there's another great aphorist¹ who's all but forgotten today named Josh Billings. And he was a contemporary of Mark Twain, slightly older than Mark Twain, and at one point he was much more famous than Mark Twain. And, in fact, Mark Twain sort of paraphrased⁶ some of Josh Billings' sayings.
"But Josh Billings, he was the son of a senator and was from New England, but he adopted this sort of Midwestern cowboyish-type persona. And one of his great sayings is, 'Man was created a little lower than the angels, and he's been getting a little lower ever since.'"
AA: "Now you mentioned that some of his aphorisms worked their way into Mark Twainisms, which sort of leads to the next question [which] is, in researching this book, how could you be sure that the people were responsible for some of these wonderful sayings?"
JAMES GEARY: " Well, that's a very good question. I have made some mistakes. 'All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.' Now I thought that was Edmund Burke for sure. But very scrupulous⁷ readers pointed⁸ out to me that it's not Edmund Burke, and in fact no one knows who it is."
RS: "If we didn't read the aphorisms in your book, where would we find an aphorism in daily life?"
JAMES GEARY: "Often advertisements come close to being aphorisms. Where they most often fail is they're not philosophical. Like something like Nike's slogan, 'Just do it,' could be an aphorism but is really not philosophical. And it's urging people to all do the same thing, which is essentially⁹ buy Nike products, obviously -- which is not the effect that a real aphorism has on people. It's much more individual than that.
"So I think advertising¹⁰ is one place. Let's see if I can think of ... "
RS: "Woody Allen. Movies."
JAMES GEARY: "Moves are another one. Woody Allen is also a great aphorist, so there's lots of aphorisms in his films and his monologues¹¹ and one of the things he says was, 'Eighty percent of success is showing up."
"Pop music is also a great place to find aphorisms. Bob Dylan, for example. 'You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows' is a very famous one. But also Leonard Cohen, he's a great aphorist as well, and one of my favorites from him is, 'There's a crack in everything. [It's] how the light gets in.' But there's also, if you just have a conversation with anybody on the street, I guarantee you that if you explain what an aphorism is to them, that they will have one that they know and have been living by. One of the best ones I had recently was from a woman that I met at a reading and she said, 'If you're not living on the edge, you're taking up too much space.'"
RS: "Finally, I just want to ask this question: You've been obsessed¹² with aphorisms all your life, have you compiled like a list of your favorites that you can't live without?"
JAMES GEARY: "I am so glad you asked me that question because yes I have. There are three that I really can't live without. And the first is by Ralph Waldo Emerson and that is, 'Life consists of what a man is thinking of all day.' The second one is by Josh Billings and that is one of the most inspirational aphorisms I think I've ever read: 'Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.' And the third one which I just think is so funny and so brilliant and so -- it's a brilliant piece of poetry as well as aphorism, and it's by a Polish aphorist from the beginning of the twentieth century named Stanislaw Jerzy Lec and that is, 'No snowflake in an avalanche¹³ ever feels responsible.'"
AA: James Geary, speaking to us from the VOA bureau in New York. His new book is called "Geary's Guide to the World's Great Aphorists." And that's WORDMASTER for this week. The first part of our interview is at our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.
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James Geary's Top 10 Favorite Aphorisms
 

1 aphorist   

警句家

参考例句：

2 aphorism   

n.格言，警语

参考例句：

• It is the aphorism of the Asian Games. 这是亚运会的格言。
• Probably the aphorism that there is no easy answer to what is very complex is true. 常言道,复杂的问题无简易的答案,这话大概是真的。

3 philosophical   

adj.哲学家的，哲学上的，达观的

参考例句：

• The teacher couldn't answer the philosophical problem.老师不能解答这个哲学问题。
• She is very philosophical about her bad luck.她对自己的不幸看得很开。

4 aphorisms   

格言，警句( aphorism的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He formulated trenchant aphorisms that caught their attention. 他阐述的鲜明格言引起了人们的注意。
• The aphorisms started following like water as all the old cliches got dusted off. 一些陈词滥调象尘土一样扬起，一些格言警句象洪水一样到处泛滥。

5 homely   

adj.家常的，简朴的；不漂亮的

参考例句：

• We had a homely meal of bread and cheese.我们吃了一顿面包加乳酪的家常便餐。
• Come and have a homely meal with us,will you?来和我们一起吃顿家常便饭，好吗？

6 paraphrased   

v.释义，意译( paraphrase的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Baxter paraphrased the contents of the press release. 巴克斯特解释了新闻稿的内容。 来自辞典例句
• It is paraphrased from the original. 它是由原文改述的。 来自辞典例句

7 scrupulous   

adj.审慎的，小心翼翼的，完全的，纯粹的

参考例句：

• She is scrupulous to a degree.她非常谨慎。
• Poets are not so scrupulous as you are.诗人并不像你那样顾虑多。

8 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

9 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

10 advertising   

n.广告业；广告活动 a.广告的；广告业务的

参考例句：

• Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
• The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。

11 monologues   

n.（戏剧）长篇独白( monologue的名词复数 )；滔滔不绝的讲话；独角戏

参考例句：

• That film combines real testimonials with monologues read by actors. 电影中既有真人讲的真事，也有演员的独白。 来自互联网
• Her monologues may help her make sense of her day. 她的独白可以帮助她让她一天的感觉。 来自互联网

12 obsessed   

adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的

参考例句：

• He's obsessed by computers. 他迷上了电脑。
• The fear of death obsessed him throughout his old life. 他晚年一直受着死亡恐惧的困扰。

13 avalanche   

n.雪崩，大量涌来

参考例句：

• They were killed by an avalanche in the Swiss Alps.他们在瑞士阿尔卑斯山的一次雪崩中罹难。
• Higher still the snow was ready to avalanche.在更高处积雪随时都会崩塌。