How should one read a book?

 

怎样读书？

It is simple enough to say that since books have classes—fiction, biography, poetry,

说来容易: 既然书有各种各样—小说、传记、诗歌

we should separate them and take from each what it is right that each should give us.

该把它们分门别类，并且各按其类来汲取每本书理应给予我们的内容。

Yet few people ask from books what books can give us.

然而，很少人读书时想过书本能够提供些什么的问题。

Most commonly we come to books with blurred and divided minds, asking of fiction that it shall be true,

最普通的现象是，我们拿起书本时头脑不清醒，目标不一致，我们要求小说叙述真人实事,

of poetry that it shall be false,

要求诗歌表现虚假，

of biography that it shall be flattering, of history that it shall enforce our own prejudices.

要求传记给人捧场，要求历史证实我们自己的偏见。

If we could banish all such preconceptions when we read, that would be an admirable beginning.

如果我们能在打开书本之前先驱除掉这些先入为主的看法，那将是个值得庆幸的良好开端。

Do not dictate to your author; try to become him.

不要去指挥作者，要设身处地去替他设想，

Be his fellow-worker and accomplice.

当他的合作者或同谋犯。

If you hang back, and reserve and criticize at first, you are preventing yourself from getting the fullest possible value from what you read.

如果你一开始便采取退缩矜持、有所保留或指指点点的态度，那你就在为自己设置障碍，使自己不能充分地从所阅读的书本中获到益处。

But if you open your mind as widely as possible, then signs and hints of almost imperceptible fineness, from the twist and turn of the first sentences,

然而，如果你没有先入之见，虚怀若谷，那么，打开书本，隐晦曲折的字里行间，

will bring you into the presence of a human being unlike any other.

难以察觉的细微迹象的暗示便会向你展示一个与众不同的人。

Steep yourself in this, acquaint yourself with this, and soon you will find that your author is giving you,

深入进去，沉浸其中，熟谙这一切，你会很快发现，书的作者正在，

or attempting to give you, something far more definite.

或努力在给予你一些十分明确的东西。

The thirty-two chapters of a novel—if we consider how to read a novel first—are an attempt to make something as formed and controlled as a building:

一部小说——如果我们先考虑一下怎样阅读小说的话—要有32个章节，这道理实际上跟建造有形有状的楼房完全一样：

but words are more impalpable than bricks; reading is a longer and more complicated process than seeing.

只不文字不像砖块看得见摸得着；阅读比起观看是一个更漫长更复杂的过程。

Perhaps the 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.

也许，要懂得作者写作过程中的细微末节，最简便的办法不是读而是写，亲自动手对字句的艰难险阻进行试验。

Recall, then, some event that has left a distinct impression on you — how at the corner of the street, perhaps, you passed two people talking.

回想一件曾经给你留下深刻印象的事情——也许在大街的拐角处有两个人在聊天，你走过他们的身边。

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.

一棵树摇晃起来，一道电光飞舞而过，他们聊天的口气颇有喜剧味道，但也带悲剧色彩，那一瞬间似乎包含了一个完整的意象，一种完整的概念。