假腿unit 2 Why I Write george orwell

The

ages, but so far as I remember it always had the same meticulous descriptive quality.

16

岁那年，我突然发现词语本身即词的音响和词的连缀就能给人以愉悦。< /p>

《失乐园》中有这

样一段诗行：

他负载着困难和辛劳

挺进着：负着困难辛劳的他

——

When

I

was

about sixteen

I

suddenly

discovered

the

joy

of

mere

words,

i,

e.

the sounds

and

associations of words. The lines from Paradise Lost

—

Moved on: with difficulty and labour hee,

现 在看来这并没有什么了不得，可当时却使我心灵震颤。而用

hee

的拼写代替

he

，更增加

了愉悦。< /p>

which

do

not

now

seem

to

me

so

very

wonderful,

sent

shivers

down

my

backbone;

and

the

spelling

至于写景物的必 要，

我那时已深有领悟。

如果说当时我有志著书的话，

我会写什么样的书是

显而易见的。

As for the need to describe things, I knew all about it already. So it is clear what kind of books I

wanted to write, in so far as I could be said to want to write books at that time.

我 想写大部头的自然主义小说，

以悲剧结局，

充满细致的描写和惊 人的比喻，

而且不乏文才

斐然的段落，字词的使用部分要求其音 响效果。

I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings, full of detailed descriptions

and arresting similes, and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake

of their sound.

事实上，

我的第一部小说，

《缅甸岁月》

就属于这一类书，

那是我早已构思 但

30

岁时才写成

的作品。

And

in

fact

my

first

completed

novel,

Burmese

Days,

which

I

wrote

when

I

was

thirty

but

projected much earlier, is rather that kind of book.

我介绍这些背景情况是因为我 认为要判定一个作家的写作动机，

就得对其早年的经历有所了

解 。

I

give

all

this

background

information

because

I

do

not

think

one can

assess

a writer's

motives

without knowing something of his early development.

作家的题材总是由他所处的时代决定的，

至少在我们这个动荡不安的 时代是如此。

但他在提

笔著文之前，总会养成一种在后来的创作 中永远不能彻底磨灭的情感倾向

His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in

—

at least this is true in tumultuous,

revolutionary

ages

like

our

own

—

but

before

he

ever

begins

to write

he will

have

acquired

an

emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape.

毫无 疑问，

作家有责任控制自己的禀性，

使之不至于沉溺于那种幼稚 的阶段，

或陷于违反常

理的心境中。但如果他从早年的熏染和志 趣中脱胎换骨，他就会虐杀自己的写作热情。

It

is

his

job,

no

doubt,

to

discipline

his

temperament

and

avoid

getting stuck

at some

immature

stage,

or

in some

perverse

mood:

but

if

he

escapes from

his

early

influences

altogether,

he will

have killed his impulse to write.

除去以写作为谋生之计不谈，我认为写作有四种动机，至少小 说和散文写作是如此。

Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate

for writing prose.

这四种动机或多或少地存在于每个作家身上，

在某一个作家身上，

它们会因时代的不同和生

活环境的 不同而变化。它们是：

They

exist

in

different

degrees

in

every writer,

and

in

any

one writer

the

proportions will

vary

from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:

一、纯粹的自我主义。想显示自己的聪明；想成为人们的议论 中心；想身后留名；想报复那

些小时候压制、

指责过自己的成年 人等等。

不承认这是动机，

是一种强烈的动机，

完全是自

欺欺人。

(1) Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get

your own back on grown- ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc. , etc. It is humbug to pretend

that this is not a motive, and a strong one. . .

< br>二、

对美的狂热。

能感觉身外世界的美，

或者词语及其妙语连珠的美。

对一个读音作用于另

一个 读音的音响效果，

对充实缜密的行文或一篇小说的结构，

感到乐 趣无穷，

赏心悦目。

有

心与人们分享一 种认为有价值、不应忽略的经历。

(2)

Aesthetic

enthusiasm. Perception

of

beauty

in

the

external

world,

or,

on

the

other

hand,

in

words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness

of

good

prose

or

the rhythm

of

a

good story

.

Desire

to share

an

experience which

one feels

is

valuable and ought not to be missed…

三、

历史感。

有志按事物的原貌来观察理解事物；

有心寻找确凿的事实，

收 集储存以飨后人。

(3) Historical impulse. Desire to see things, as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for

the use of posterity.

政治上的目的。

这里指的是最广泛意义的政治 ：

有志推动世界向某个方向前进；

改造人

们的观念，

劝勉人们追求某种理想社会。

就像美感因素一样，

没有一本书能真正消除政治倾

向。那种认为艺术与政治不相干的 论点本身就是一种政治态度。

(4) Political purpose

—

using the word

in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the

world in a certain direction, to ater other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive

after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have

nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

可以看出，这些不同的动机会互相抵触，会因人因时发生变化。

It

can

be

seen

how

these

various

impulses

must war

against

one

another,

and

how

they

must

fluctuate from person to person and from time to time.

由于我的天性

——“

天性

”

这里 指刚成年时的状态，在我身上前三种动机远远超过第四种。

By nature

—

taking your

—

I am

a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth.

在和平年代， 我或许会写些词藻华美或专写事物写景的书，几乎意识不到我政治上的取舍。

In

a

peaceful

age!

might

have

written

ornate

or

merely

descriptive

books,

and

might

have

remained almost unaware of my political loyalties.

可结果我却不得不成了一个写小册子的作家。

As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer.

< /p>

最初，

我在一个很不合适的职业中度过了

5

年，

那是在缅甸的印度帝国警察署。

随后，

我经