2021年经济学人 书籍的历史——通往所有知识的钥匙（1）（在线收听）

Books and Arts

文学与艺术

Book Review

书评

The History of Books - Keys to all knowledge

书籍的历史——通往所有知识的钥匙

Index, A History of the. By Dennis Duncan.

《索引的历史》，作者：丹尼斯·邓肯。

Producing an index is like squeezing “a grape in a winepress”, wrote a 19th-century French scholar, “so that not even the tiniest drop of precious juice has been allowed to escape”.

创作一个索引就像“用葡萄榨酒机榨一颗葡萄”，一位19世纪的法国学者写道，“这样哪怕是一滴珍贵的汁水也不会外溢”。

Reading an index is more like wine-tasting.

阅读索引更像是在品酒。

Take the smallest sip and you can guess the vintage.

喝一小口，你就能猜出年份。

Try this one: “gluttony/God/grief/heaven/hell/humanity/Seneca/sex/sin”.

试试这个：“暴食/上帝/悲痛/天堂/地狱/人性/塞内加/性/罪恶”。

It’s a heady combination: ambrosial and intellectual; sensual with a bitter aftertaste.

这是一个令人陶醉的组合：美味与智慧；感官上带有苦涩的余味。

It is from St Augustine’s “Confessions”.

它出自圣奥古斯丁的《忏悔录》。

Or try a slug of this: “shame/shameless/shamrock/shit/shite/shithouse”.

或者尝一大口这个：“耻辱/无耻/三叶草/屎/粪便/茅房”。

That earthy flavour is from James Joyce.

这种泥土味道来自詹姆斯·乔伊斯。

How about “pie/poverty/power/prison/pudding(see ‘Christmas Dinner’)/ pugilist”?

那么“派/贫穷/权力/监狱/布丁(见《圣诞晚餐》)/拳击手”怎么样？

Full-bodied, with a hint of festive spice: Dickens, naturally.

酒体醇厚，带有一丝节日的气息：自然是狄更斯。

Indexes are to books as menus are to meals: often the best bit.

索引之于书籍就像菜单之于餐饮：它们通常是最好的部分。

The index should be prosaic — it is, after all, a mere tool — but it can read like poetry.

索引应该是平淡无奇的——毕竟，它只是一个工具——但它读起来却可以像诗歌一样。

Even John Betjeman, a bard of Englishness, might struggle to match “Abingdon/al-Qaeda/Angola/Ascot/Asda”.

即使是英国诗人约翰·贝杰曼可能也难以与“阿宾顿/基地/安戈尔/阿斯科特/阿斯达”相匹敌。

Indexes are a solution, but they are also a puzzle.

索引是一种解决方案，但它们也是一个谜。

Take that last one.

就拿最后一个来说。

It is from a biography of John le Carré — and who wouldn’t wonder, Smiley-like, how those entries all join up?

它出自约翰·勒·卡雷的传记——谁不会像斯迈利一样想知道，这些词目是如何结合在一起的呢？