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The Fine Art of Putting Things Off
拖延的艺术
Michael
Demarest
迈克尔·德马雷斯特
can do
today.
and had a bad habit of keeping
worthies like Dr. Johnson cooling their heels for
hours in an anteroom attests to the
fact that even the most well-intentioned men
have
been
postponers
ever.
Quintus
Fabius
Maximus,
one
of
the
great
Roman
generals,
was dubbed
Cunctator”
(Delayer) for
putting off battle until the last possible
vinum
break.
Moses
pleaded
a
speech
defect
to
rationalize
his
reluctance
to
deliver
Jehovah's edicts to
Pharaoh. Hamlet, of course, raised procrastination
to an art
form.
1
“今天能做的事情决不要推到明天。”
切斯特菲尔德伯爵
在<
/p>
1794
年劝告儿
子说。
但是这位高雅德伯爵一直没有抽出时间来与孩子母亲举行婚礼，
还有让约
翰逊博士等名士在接待室久等的坏习惯。
这足以证明，
用心最善之人亦可是拖沓
之士。
罗马的一位大将军昆塔
斯·费边·马克西姆斯
为了有尽可能多的机会喝酒
消闲，
常常推迟战斗，
被人起了“拖延者”的绰号；
摩西不愿向
法老
传达
耶和华
的法令，
便借口说自己语言有缺陷；
当然
哈姆雷特
更是把拖延上升为一种艺术形
式。
The
world
is
probably
about
evenly
divided
between
delayers
and
do-it-nowers.
There are those who prepare their
income taxes in February, prepay mortgages and
serve
precisely
planned
dinners
at
an
ungodly
6:30
p.m.
The
other
half
dine
happily
on
leftovers
at
9
or
10,
misplace
bills
and
file
for
an
extension
of
the
income
tax
deadline. They seldom
pay credit-card bills until the apocalyptic voice
of Diners
threatens
doom
from
Denver.
They
postpone,
as
Faustian
encounters,
visits
to
barbershop, dentist or doctor.
2
世上的人基本上可以平均地分成两类：
拖延者和马上
行动者。
有些人二月份
九准备好交
个人
所得税
，
预先偿还抵押借款，
按计划准
时在常人难以忍受的六点
半开饭；
另一些人则乐于在九点或十点
时吃些剩饭剩菜、
错放账单和文件以期延
长缴税的期限。
他们非要等到信用卡总部警告他们后果自负才肯去付信用卡上的
帐。就
像浮士德遇见魔鬼一样，他们推迟去理发店、去看牙医或看医生。
Yet
for
all
the
trouble
procrastination
may
incur,
delay
can
often
inspire
and
revive
a
creative
soul.
Jean
Kerr,
author
of
many
successful
novels
and
plays,
says
that she reads every soup-can and
jamjar
label in her kitchen before
settling down
to
her
typewriter.
Many
a
writer
focuses
on
almost
anything
but
his
task
—
for
example,
on
the
Coast
and
Geodetic
Survey
of
Maine's
Frenchman
Bay
and
Bar
Harbor,
stimulating
his imagination
with names like Googins Ledge, Blunts Pond, Hio
Hill and Burnt
Porcupine, Long
Porcupine, Sheep Porcupine and Bald Porcupine
islands.
3
尽管拖延会带来诸多不便，但拖延经常
可以激发和唤醒具有创新意识的灵
魂。
写下许多成功小说和剧本
的
作家琼·克尔说
，
她要把厨房里每个
汤罐头和酱
瓶子上的标签看上一遍后，
才能安心地坐在打字机前
。
许多作家都关注着他们任
务之外的各种杂事，
譬如，
关注在缅因州法国人海湾和巴尔海港进行的海岸和土
地测量，其中的地名，如古今斯暗礁、布伦特池塘、黑奥山、伯恩特豪猪、朗豪
猪、
希波豪猪以及鲍尔德豪猪岛，都激起了他们的想象。
4
From
Cunctator's day until this century, the art of
postponement had been
virtually a
monopoly
of
the
military (
up
and
wait
diplomacy and the law.
In
former
times,
a
British
proconsul
faced
with
a
native
uprising
could
comfortably
ruminate about
the situation with Singapore Sling in hand.
Blessedly, he had no
nattering Telex to
order in machine guns and fresh troops. A U.S.
general as late
as World War II could
agree with his enemy counterpart to take a
sporting day off,
loot the villagers'
chickens and wine and go back to battle a day
later. Lawyers
are
among
the
world's
most
addicted
postponers.
According
to
Frank
Nathan,
a
nonpost-poning Beverly Hills insurance
salesman,
without a will is amazing.
从“拖延者”年代到本世纪，拖延的艺术实际上被军事基地“赶快、待
命”）
、外交和法律所垄断。在过去，英国殖民地总督，面对当地人的起义，可
以端着酒，
安逸地思考民族叛乱的形式。
庆幸的
是，
他没有电传机在一旁喋喋不
休地传递着命令，
一会儿是增加机关枪啊，
一会儿又是增派军队啊什么的。
直到
二战时，
美国将军还可以跟敌方将军达成协议，
休一天运动假，
去掠夺村民的鸡
和酒，
次日再战。
律师是世界上最积习难改的延误者。
据
贝弗利山的从不拖沓的
保险推销员弗兰克·内森说，“没有
留下遗嘱就去世的律师数不胜数。”
Even
where there is no will, there is
a way. There is
a
difference, of course,
between chronic
procrastination and purposeful postponement,
particularly in the
higher echelons of
business. Corporate dynamics encourage the caution
that breeds
delay,
says
Richard
Manderbach,
Bank
of
America
group
vice
president.
He
notes
that
speedy
action
can
be
embarrassing
or
extremely
costly.
The
data
explosion
fortifies
those seeking excuses for
inaction
—
another report to
be read, another authority
to
be
consulted.
is
always,
says
Manderbach,
delicate
edge
between
having
enough information and too much.
5
无志者，事也成。当然，习惯性拖延和刻意延缓是有差别的，特别是在商业<
/p>
机构高层中。
美国银行集团副总裁查理德·曼德巴赫说
，
企业动力学鼓励谨慎行
事，由此滋生了拖延。他
提到，仓促行事往往导致尴尬的局面，或付出沉重的代
价。
信息
爆炸
鼓励了那些为自己的懒惰找借口的人——还有一篇报告要读，
还有
以个权威人士要咨询。曼德巴赫说：“数据的充分与泛滥之间总有条微妙的界
线。”
His
point
is
well
taken.
Bureaucratization,
which
flourished
amid
the
growing
burdens
of
government
and
the
greater
complexity
of
society,
was
designed
to
smother
policymakers
in
blankets
of
legalism,
compromise
and
reappraisal
—
and
thereby
prevent
hasty
decisions
from
being
made.
The
centralization
of
government
that
led
to
Watergate
has
spread
to
economic
institutions
and
beyond,
making
procrastination
a
worldwide
way
of
life.
Many
languages
are
studded
with
phrases
that
refer
to
putting
things off
—
from
the Spanish
ma?ana
to the
Arabic
bukra fil mishmish
(literally
in
apricots,
more
loosely
it
for
the
soft
spring
weather
when
the
apricots
are blooming
6
他的观点被广为接受。
随着政府负担日益加重和社会形势日趋复杂，
官僚化
盛行开来，
其目的就是使政策制定者墨守陈规、
寻求妥协和重
新评估的过程中窒
息——这样就不会做出草率的决定了。
导致<
/p>
水门事件
的政府集权化已经蔓延至经
济机
构等等广阔的领域，
使得拖延成为世界性的一种生活方式。
各种
语言中有关
推迟的短语星罗棋布——从西班牙语
manana<
/p>
（在将来某个不确定的时间长了到
阿拉伯的
bukrafil mishmash
（字面意思“明天的杏树”，其含义使“等到
花
儿也开了。”）
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