July 21, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

5.     Companionship of Books 與書為伍

        Samuel Smiles, 1812 – 1904, Scottish author

      A man may usually be known by the books he reads as well as by the company he keeps; for there is a companionship of books as well as of men; and one should always live in the best company, whether it be of books or of men.

      A good book may be among the best of friends. It is the same today that it always was, and it will never change. It is the most patient and cheerful of companions. It does not turn its back upon us in times of adversity or distress. It always receives us with the same kindness, amusing and instructing us in youth, and comforting and consoling us in age.

      Men often discover their affinity to each other by the love they have each for a book. The book is a truer and higher bond of union. Men can think, feel, and sympathize with each other through their favorite author. They live in him together and he, in them.

      A good book is often the best urn of a life enshrining the best that life could think out; for the world of a man’s life is, for the most part, but the world of his thoughts. Thus the best books are treasuries of good words, the golden thoughts, which, remembered and cherished, become our constant companions and comforters.

      Books possess an essence of immortality. They are by far the most lasting products of human effort. Temples and statues decay, but books survive. Time is of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their author’s minds, ages ago. What was then said and thought still speaks to us as vividly as ever from the printed page. The only effect of time has been to sift out the bad products; for nothing in literature can long survive but what is really good.

      Books introduce us into the best society, they bring us into the presence of the greatest minds that have ever lived. We hear what they said and did; we see them as if they were really alive; we sympathize with them, enjoy with them, grieve with them; their experience becomes ours, and we feel as if we were in a measure actors with them in the scenes which they describe.

July 20, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

4.    Of Studies 論讀書

    Francis Bacon, 1561 – 1626, English philosopher and statesman.

       Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight, is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business. For expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned.

       To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected by the experience, for natural abilities are like natural plants that need pruning by study; and studies themselves give forth directions too much at large, except they are bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation.

       Read not to contradict and confute; nor to believe and take for granted; nor to find talk and discourse; but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.

       Reading makes a full man; conference a ready man and writing an exact man. And therefore, if a man writes little, he needs to have a great memory; if he confers little, he needs to have a present wit, and if he reads little, he needs to have much cunning, to seem to know that he does not. Histories make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; logic and rhetoric, able to contend;… So every defect of the mind may have a special receipt.

July 19, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

陳榮吉 編譯

3.      The Delights of Books 讀書樂

       Sir John Lubbock, 1834 – 1913, English archaeologist, biologist, and politician.

       Macaulay had wealth and fame, rank and power, and yet he tells us in his biography that he owed the happiest hours of his life to books. In a charming letter to a little girl, he says: “If any one would make me the greatest king that ever lived, with palaces and gardens and fine dinners, and wines and coaches, and beautiful clothes, and hundreds of servants, on condition that I should not read books, I would not be a king. I would rather be a poor man in garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

July 18, 2015

A Treasury of English Famous Essays

英美散文菁華

2.     How Should One Read a Book? 如何讀書?

        Virginia Woolf, 1882 – 1941, English authoress.

       After all, what laws can be laid down about books? The battle of Waterloo was certainly fought on a certain day; but is Hamlet a better play than Lear? Nobody can say. Each must decide that question of himself. To admit authorities, however heavily furred and gowned, into our libraries and let them tell us how to read, what to read, what value to place upon what we read, is to destroy the spirit of freedom which is the breath of those sanctuaries. Everywhere else we may be bound by laws and conventions – there we have none. But to enjoy freedom, if the platitude is pardonable, we have of course to control ourselves. We must not squander our powers, helplessly and ignorantly, squirting half the house in order to water a single rose-bush.

        首先，我要強調一下在標題之後的問號;即使我能替自己回答這個問題，答案也只適合我而不適合你｡事實上，一個人能給於他人有關讀書的唯一忠告，就是不必聽從忠告，要憑自己的直覺，用自己的理由，想出自己的結論｡如果我們都同意這一點的話，那麼我才會放心地提出一些觀點和建議，因為你不會讓它們束縛了身為讀者所具有的最大特質–自主性｡

    畢竟，有甚麼法則可以用來規範書本呢?[滑鐵盧之役]發生在哪一天無庸置疑的；然而[哈姆雷特]這齣戲是否比[李爾王]來得好呢?誰也說不上來，每個人必須自己決定此一問題｡允許專家權威，無論他是如何峨冠博帶，進入我們的書房，告訴我們怎麼讀書、讀甚麼書、如何評論我們讀過的書，無異扼殺了書房聖地賴以維繫的自由精神｡也許在別的地方我們都要受到規範和習俗的束縛-在書房則是例外｡可是，請容我舊調重彈，要享有自由我們當然要能夠自制，我們不要茫然無知地浪費精力，只為了澆一叢玫瑰，就把半棟房子給噴溼了｡

July 17, 2015

英美散文菁華

陳榮吉 編譯

1.      Literature and Life 文學與人生

       William Henry Hudson, 1841 – 1922, English writer and naturalist

       Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experienced of it, what they have thought and felt about those aspects of it which have the most immediate and enduring interest for all of us. It is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language. Such expression is fashioned into the various forms of literary art. But it is important to understand, to begin with, that literature lives by virtue of the life which it embodies. By remembering this, we shall be saved from the besetting danger of confounding the study of literature with the study of philology, rhetoric, and even literary technique.

        文學是人們對生活的觀察，生活的體驗，以及對生活各方面的思索和感受的重要紀錄，這些生活層面帶給我們每個人立即卻又永恆的趣味｡基本上，文學透過語言作為媒介來表現人生，而這種表現又形成了各種不同形式的文學藝術｡不過，首先我們要理解的重點是，文學藉由體現人生而存在｡記住這一點，我們始可免於陷入文學研究與語言學修辭學研究、甚至於文學技巧之間，混淆不清、一概而論的危險｡

scorching = burning 灼熱的  scorchingly = burningly

ordinal number序數

cardinal number 基數

I have been speaking English for twenty minutes

for God’s sake

for the sake of safety 基於安全之故

agreeable = comfortable = happy = pleasant

massive fireball engulfing the stage

engulf 吞沒

caption = subtitle 字幕

casualty 傷亡人數

ignite 點燃

Better than nothing. 聊勝於無

corn starch 玉米粉

Water can float the boats. 水能載舟亦能覆舟

upside down

Water Park Dust Explosion

Formosa Fun Coast Park

flashlight

Rock’n Roll

party goer, movie goer 電影愛好者

Blare = flame

big scale 大規模

engulf 吞沒

to accommodate the casualties

accommodative 包容性的

sprayer 噴霧器

space shuttle ignited

organizer, sponsor 主辦單位,贊助單位

random = no fixed people

seemingly 看起來

lease = rent

amusement park

spokesperson = mouthpiece 發言人

History

ICU = intensive care unit

ripped 撥開的

fucking good = bloody good = God damned good

Taipei Fire Department 台北消防局

Burn Center 燒燙傷中心

sustain 支撐 承受

minor 未成年者

Holy = sacred 神聖的

OUK is familiar to me.

I am familiar with OUK.

major concern

might have been to ~

anguish 苦悶 痛苦

inferno 人間煉獄

consolation 安慰 令人安慰的事物

death toll 死亡人數

casualty

skin grate(s) = artificial skin transplantation

evacuation 撤退 走開

saline solution liquid 生理食鹽水

fortune財富,運氣,興隆,大量財產,好運,命運

misfortune不幸,災禍,壞運氣

bliss福佑,天賜的福

mishap不幸之事,災禍,惡運

ointment 藥膏

hoard 囤積 儲存

raft筏,救生艇

second degree burn 二級燒燙傷

respiratory呼吸的

healthy

conducive有益於…的,有助於…的,助長的

healthful

cross page 跨頁

muggy悶熱的