2020年经济学人 约翰逊语言专栏--向约翰逊的原创专栏作家致敬(1)（在线收听）

Books & arts

来源于《图书与艺术》版块

Johnson

约翰逊语言专栏

Talking to the world

与世界对话

A tribute to the original Johnson columnist, a voice for the ages

向约翰逊的原创专栏作家致敬，为时代发声

The founder of this column, Stephen Hugh-Jones, died on February 28th. He was an extraordinary character at The Economist—long, lean, waspish, and a self-appointed menace to facile consensus. His theatrical interventions tended to come at Monday editorial meetings where, sitting on the floor with his back to the editor's desk, he would uncurl his frame to shout “Phooey!” Such exclamations ("Ho hum”, “Baloney", "Piffle") often found their way into copy, both his own and other people's. His edits, during which he chanted and sometimes almost sang the lines aloud, were razor-sharp.

本专栏的创始人斯蒂芬?休?琼斯于2月28日去世。他在《经济学人》是一个非凡的人物——耐久的、精瘦的、像黄蜂一样的人，而且他还自诩为一种对轻率共识的威胁。他的戏剧性干预往往出现在周一的编辑会议上，他坐在地板上，背对着编辑的办公桌，展开身体大喊“呸!”这些感叹词(“嗬哼”、“胡扯”、“胡扯”)他自己经常用，别人也模仿。他的编辑体现了他敏捷的思维，编辑过程中，他吟诵着歌词，有时几乎是大声地唱出来，

He was hired in the 1960s before leaving to run a magazine in Paris. He was lured back to oversee the business pages in 1974, and his first act was to buy calculators for his writers, which along with his force of personality made an immediate difference in quality. He huffed out in 1980 after an organisational dispute, but so admired was he that he was hired a third time--and given a language column from 1992 to 1999.

他在20世纪60年代被聘用，之后离开公司去巴黎经营一家杂志。1974年，他被吸引回《商业日报》，他的第一个行动是为作家们买计算器，这与他的人格力量一道，使计算机的质量立刻发生了变化。1980年，在一次组织纠纷后，他愤然辞职，但他太受欣赏了，第三次被聘用，并在1992年至1999年期间担任语言专栏作家。

The column grew from Stephen's love of the great dictionary-maker's humanity, and of the original Johnson's hatred of cant. "The Goths have already seized the airwaves. Do not expect young Johnson to encourage them; he wrote in high dudgeon in his opening manifesto. His exactitude showed up in columns on “may” v “might”. "Hitler might have won the war" is a counterfactual that wonders what would have happened had Stalingrad gone differently, he explained. "Hilter may have won the war” means the outcome remains unknown.

这个专栏源于斯蒂芬对这位伟大的词典编纂者的人性的热爱，以及最初的约翰逊对伪善的憎恨。“哥特人已经占领了电波。不要指望小约翰逊会鼓励他们；他在公开宣言中愤怒地写道。他在“may v might”专栏中表现出严谨作风。他解释说，“希特勒可能已经赢得了这场战争”是一个反事实，如果斯大林格勒采取不同的方式，会发生什么。“希特勒可能赢得了战争”意味着结果仍然未知。

But be also knew (like the original Johnson) that though changes in language could be slowed, they could not be stopped: "Lovers of English do well to resist until majority opinion overrules them." In the “endless debate between… the pedantic view of language and the anyfink-goes one ... the wise man expects no resolution." He could be shockingly old-fashioned. “Parental love is seldom honoured in poetry," he opined; “most mothers, perhaps, are too busy caring for their young to write poems about them, and men prefer their mistresses.” Yet he knew this about himself, and welcomed change too: “political correctness, at its silliest, has never done one-fiftieth as much harm as its reverse.”

但也要知道(就像最初的约翰逊一样)，尽管语言的变化可以放缓，但却无法阻止:“英语爱好者们很容易抵制，直到多数人的意见推翻了他们。”在“迂腐的语言观和无所不包的语言观之间无休止的争论……”聪明人不指望有什么决心。：他可能非常守旧。“在诗歌中，父母之爱很少得到尊重，”他认为；“或许，大多数母亲都忙于照顾孩子，没有时间为她们写诗，而男人更喜欢情妇。”然而，他对自己也有这样的认识，他也欢迎改变:“政治上的正确，即使是最愚蠢的，所造成的危害也不及它的反面所造成的危害的五十分之一。”