5 Reading Good Books 阅读好书
Henry Addington Bruce H·爱丁顿·布鲁斯
Devote some of your leisure, I repeat, to cultivating a love of reading good books. Fortunate indeed are those who contrive to make themselves genuine book-lovers. For book- lovers have some noteworthy advantages over other people. They need never know lonely hours so long as they have books around them, and the better the books the more delightful the company(1). From good books, moreover, they draw much besides entertainment. They gain mental food such as few companions can supply.(2) Even while resting from their labors they are, through the books they read, equipping themselves to perform those labors more efficiently. This albeit~ they may not be deliberately reading to improve their mind. All unconsciously the ideas they derive from the printed pages(4) are stored up, to be worked over(5) by the imagination for their future profit.
中文译文：
我再说一遍，把你的一部分空闲时光用来培养阅读好书的爱好吧。那些设法把自己培养成为真正爱好读书的人，确实是幸运的。因为爱读书的人比之别人有着明显的好处。只要手头有书，他们就从来不知寂寞。书越好，读来越是津津有味。他们从好书中不但得到乐趣，而且受到很多教益。他们从中获得的那种精神食粮，从其他地方是很难得到的。即使是在工作休息时，通过读书，他们的工作效率也能更加提高，尽管他们未必有意识地想到读书是为了提高才智。在钱然不知不觉中，他们从书中吸取的知识积累起来，经过想想象力的加工，对将来大有用处。
英文注释：
(1) the better the books the more delightful the company:书越好，与书作伴就越快活。
(2) They gain mental food such as few companions can supply: 他们得到的那种精神食粮是没有什么同栏能提供的。此处such as相当于 such mental food as
(3) This: 指上句；albeit: 连词，含义是 although it be(尽管，虽然)，用于书面语。
(4) the printed pages:书本。
(5) to be worked over:以便加以研究。 |