The Summing up　寫作回憶錄

The Summing Up

寫作回憶錄

William Somerset Maugham

威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆

作者簡介

威廉·薩默塞特·毛姆（William Somerset Maugham，1874—1965），英國著名小說家，其文章常在譏諷中潛藏對人性的憐憫與同情。毛姆的不少作品均為中國讀者耳熟能詳，如《月亮和六便士》（The Moon and Sixpence）和《刀鋒》（The Razor's Edge）等。《人性的枷鎖》（Of Human Bondage）更是傾盡其畢生心血的巨著，奠定了他偉大小說家的地位。2006年底，由影星愛德華·諾頓和娜奧米·沃茨領(lǐng)銜主演，改編自毛姆小說《面紗》（The Painted Veil）的同名電影上映，再度掀起“毛姆熱”。

本文節(jié)選自1938年出版的《寫作回憶錄》（The Summing Up）。文中，毛姆開列了自己的“已讀書單”，并談及自己讀到爛書也難以“半途而廢”的閱讀習(xí)慣。愛書人的種種“怪癖”或許能使你會心一笑。

At eighteen I knew French, German and some Italian, but I was extremely uneducated and I was deeply conscious of my ignorance. I read everything that came my way. My curiosity was such that I was as willing to read a history of Peru or the reminiscences of a cowboy as a treatise on Provencal poetry or the Confessions of St. Augustine. I suppose it gained me a certain amount of general knowledge which is useful for the novelist to have. One never knows when an out-of-the-way bit of information will come in handy. I made lists of what I read and one of these lists by some accident I still have. It is my reading for two months and, but that I made it only for myself, I could not believe that it was veracious. It shows that I read three of Shakespeare's plays, two volumes of Mommsen's History of Rome, a large part of Lanson's Literature Francaise, two or three novels, some of the French classics, a couple of scientific works and a play of Ibsen's. I was indeed the industrious apprentice.

18歲時，我已懂得法語、德語和一些意大利語，但我極度無知，而且深知自己的無知。我碰見什么書都讀。為了滿足永無止境的好奇心，我愿意讀秘魯?shù)臍v史、牛仔的回憶錄，也愿讀研究普羅旺斯抒情詩的論文以及圣奧古斯丁的《懺悔錄》。我猜，這些書讓我獲得了一些對小說家有用的常識。一些不同尋常的知識，說不定什么時候就能派上用場。我把讀過的書都列了書單，其中一張書單意外地留到了今天，上面記錄了我兩個月讀的書。我列書單只給自己看，但我不敢相信上面寫的是真的——我在兩個月里讀了三部莎士比亞戲劇、兩卷蒙森的《羅馬史》、朗松《法國文學(xué)史》的大部分、兩三部小說、一些法國經(jīng)典名著、幾部科學(xué)著作和一部易卜生的戲劇。那時我真是個勤奮的學(xué)徒。

During the time I was at St. Thomas's Hospital I went systematically through English, French, Italian and Latin literature. I read a lot of history, a little philosophy and a good deal of science. My curiosity was too great to allow me to give much time to reflect upon what I read; I could hardly wait to finish one book, so eager was I to begin another. This was always an adventure, and I would start upon a famous work as excitedly as a reasonable young man would go in to bat for his side or a nice girl goes to a dance. Now and then journalists in search of copy ask me what the most thrilling moment of my life is. If I were not ashamed to, I might answer that it is the moment when I began to read Goethe's Faust.

我在圣托馬斯醫(yī)院時，系統(tǒng)地閱讀了英國、法國、意大利和拉丁文學(xué)。我讀了很多歷史書、一點哲學(xué)書和一大堆科學(xué)著作。我的好奇心太過旺盛，讓我無暇回味讀過的書;我還沒讀完手頭的書，就迫不及待地翻開另一本書。這簡直就是一場探險。我開始讀一本名著時，就像理智的小伙準(zhǔn)備為自己一方擊球，或是漂亮的姑娘參加舞會一樣激動不已。常有為某本書做調(diào)研的記者問我，我一生中最激動的時刻是何時。如果我不是羞于吐露真情，我可能這么回答：是我開始讀歌德的《浮士德》時。

I have never quite lost this feeling, and even now the first pages of a book sometimes send the blood racing through my veins. To me reading is a rest as to other people conversation or a game of cards. It is more than that; it is a necessity, and if I am deprived of it for a little while I find myself as irritable as the addict deprived of his drug. I would sooner read a time-table or a catalogue than nothing at all. That is putting it too low. I have spent many delightful hours poring over the price list of the Army and Navy Stores, the lists of second-hand booksellers and the A.B.C. All these are redolent of romance. They are much more entertaining than half the novels that are written.

我從未失去這種感覺。即使是現(xiàn)在，有時一本書的前幾頁還會讓我熱血沸騰。閱讀對我來說是休息，就像聊天或打牌對其他人來說是休息一樣。不僅如此，閱讀是我的必需品。如果我離開書一小會兒，就會像癮君子離開毒品一樣急躁易怒。過不了多久，我就寧愿去讀日程表或書籍目錄，也不愿意沒東西可讀。這是把它們貶得太低了。我會花幾個小時瀏覽軍用物品商店的價目表、二手書店的書單和字母表，并且樂在其中。它們散發(fā)著浪漫的氣息，比一半的小說都有趣多了。

I have put books aside only because I was conscious that time was passing and that it was my business to live. I have gone into the world because I thought it was necessary in order to get the experience without which I could not write, but I have gone into it also because I wanted experience for its own sake. It did not seem to me enough only to be a writer. The pattern I had designed for myself insisted that I should take the utmost part I could in this fantastic affair of being a man. I desired to feel the common pains and enjoy the common pleasures that are part of the common human lot. I saw no reason to subordinate the claims of sense to the tempting lure of spirit and I was determined to get whatever fulfillment I could out of social intercourse and human relations, out of food, drink and fornication, luxury, sport, art, travel, and as Henry James says, whatever. But it was an effort and I have always returned to my books and my own company with relief.

我愿意把書擱下，只因為意識到時光飛逝，生活才是人生要務(wù)。我走進這個世界，不僅因為我覺得需要獲取經(jīng)驗作為寫作素材，還因為我也為了體驗人生而去體驗。我似乎不滿足于只做個作家。我為自己設(shè)計的人生道路要求我竭力享受生而為人的一切精彩。我想要痛常人之痛，樂常人之樂。我認(rèn)為沒有理由讓感官的欲求屈從于精神的誘惑。我決定盡可能從以下方面尋求滿足：社交、佳肴、美酒、通奸、奢侈品、體育、藝術(shù)、旅游，以及亨利·詹姆斯1說的“無論什么”。但這要耗費精力，所以我總是如釋重負地回到書的身旁。

And yet, though I have read so much, I am a bad reader. I read slowly and I am a poor skipper. I find it difficult to leave a book, however bad and however much it bores me, unfinished. I could count on my fingers the number of books that I have not read from cover to cover. On the other hand there are few books that I have read twice. I know very well that there are many of which I cannot get the full value on a single reading, but in that they have given me all I was capable of getting at the time, and this, though I may forget their details, remains a permanent enrichment. I know people who read the same book over and over again. It can only be that they read with their eyes and not with their sensibility. It is a mechanical exercise. It is doubtless a harmless occupation, but they are wrong if they think it an intelligent one.

然而，盡管讀了許多書，我卻是個糟糕的讀者。我讀書很慢，又不會跳讀。無論一本書有多糟糕，無論它令我多厭煩，都很難讓我半途而廢。我沒有從頭讀到尾的書可謂屈指可數(shù);但讀過兩遍的書也沒幾本。我很清楚，很多書只讀一遍無法獲得其全部價值，但因為它們已經(jīng)使我得到了那時能有的收獲，所以盡管我可能淡忘書中的細節(jié)，但卻保留了永恒的財富。我知道有些人反復(fù)讀同一本書。這只可能是他們讀書過眼不過心。這是一種機械化的活動。這無疑是一種無害的消遣，但如果他們覺得這是明智之舉，那就大錯特錯了。

In my youth, when my instinctive feeling about a book differed from that of authoritative critics I did not hesitate to conclude that I was wrong. I did not know how often critics accept the conventional view and it never occurred to me that they could talk with assurance of what they did not know very much about. It was long before I realized that the only thing that mattered to me in a work of art was what I thought about it. I have acquired now a certain confidence in my own judgment, for I have noticed that what I felt instinctively forty years ago about the writers I read then, and what I would not heed because it did not agree with current opinion, is now pretty generally accepted. For all that I sill read a great deal of criticism, for I think it a very agreeable form of literary composition. One does not always want to be reading to the profit of one's soul and there is no pleasant way of idling away an hour or two than reading a volume of criticism. It is diverting to agree; it is diverting to differ; and it is always interesting to know what an intelligent man has to say about some writer, Henry More, for instance, or Richardson, whom you have never had occasion to read.

年輕時，當(dāng)我對某本書的直覺看法與權(quán)威評論家不同時，我會毫不猶豫地認(rèn)為自己錯了。我不知道評論家持有成見的情況是多么普遍，也不知道他們對自己不熟悉的事物也能品頭論足。過了很久我才意識到，藝術(shù)作品對我的唯一意義在于我對它的看法。如今，我對自己的判斷力有了些許自信，因為我注意到：40年前我對一些作家的直覺看法，當(dāng)時因為不符合主流觀點，我沒有太過留心。如今，這些看法已經(jīng)普遍被人接受。盡管如此，我仍會讀大量的書評，因為我認(rèn)為它是一種很令人愉快的文學(xué)創(chuàng)作形式。一個人不會總想著閱讀要對靈魂有益。想要消磨一兩個小時，沒有比讀一本書評更愉快的事了。無論是看法一致還是意見不同，它都可供消遣。知道一位智者怎么看待某些你沒讀過他的書的作家——比如亨利·莫爾或理查森——總是件有趣的事情。

But the only important thing in a book is the meaning it has for you; it may have other and much more profound meanings for the critic, but at second hand they can be of small service to you. I do not read a book for the book's sake, but for my own. It is not my business to judge it, but to absorb what I can of it, as the amoeba absorbs a particle of a foreign body, and what I cannot assimilate has nothing to do with me. I am not a scholar, a student or a critic; I am a professional writer and now I read only what is useful to me professionally. Anyone can write a book that will revolutionize the ideas that have been held for centuries on the Ptolemies and I shall contentedly leave it unread; he can describe an incredibly adventurous journey in the heart of Patagonia and I shall remain ignorant of it. There is no need for the writer of fiction to be an expert on any subject but his own; on the contrary, it is hurtful to him, since, human nature being weak, he is hard put to it to resist the temptation of inappositely using his special knowledge.

然而，書中唯一重要的東西是它對你的意義;對于書評家來說，它或許有別的意義，有更深的含義，但從提供間接信息的方面看，它對你幫助不大。我不是為書讀書，而是為我自己讀書。評判書的好壞不關(guān)我的事;我要吸收自己能吸收的部分，就像變形蟲吸收異物一般，無法吸收的部分則與我無關(guān)。我不是學(xué)者、研究者或書評家;我是一名職業(yè)作家，現(xiàn)在只讀對寫作有用的書。任何人都可以寫一本書，顛覆幾個世紀(jì)以來關(guān)于托勒密王朝2的看法，我可以開開心心地不去讀它;別人可以描寫在巴塔哥尼亞中心地帶的奇妙冒險之旅，我則可以對此一無所知。小說家只要精通本職就好，無需樣樣在行;反過來說，樣樣在行對他有害無益;因為人性軟弱，他很難抵制誘惑，會濫用自己的特殊知識。

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1．亨利·詹姆斯（Henry James，1843—1916），在美國出生的英國小說家，出身名門望族。其作品的基本主題是新大陸的旺盛生機與舊世界的腐敗墮落之間的沖突。

2．托勒密王朝（前323—前30），希臘人在埃及建立的王朝，由亞歷山大大帝部將托勒密所建，其亡國之君是著名的埃及艷后克利奧帕特拉七世。