英语专业生_英语泛读教程_4_课文翻译

在思想土壤的最深处神秘地形成，

”

并不断地缓缓扩展、

生长，

直到它最终 在意识中显现。

就在这意识的门槛上，

故事带着希冀的颤栗等待 它的文字整体的

形成。

Genius, the creative function, has done its work. And only now does the craftsman, the deliverer,

begin his.

天赋创造的功 能现已完成了它的使命。

只是到这时，

工匠，

< br>这位故事的助产士才开始他的工

作。

A story rarely, if ever, presents itself as a whole. Robert Frost said that he never knew where a

poem was going when he began it. Until I am almost upon it in a first draft, I do not know a

story's end, or even its point; and there are times when only after two, three or more drafts will

the story come clearly into focus.

故事完整地呈现，即使有这样的情况，也是罕见的。罗伯特

·

从不知道这诗最终会是什么样。

而我往往在小说的第一稿几乎完成时才恍然大悟，

意识到小

< br>说该怎样结尾，

或它的中心思想是什么。

有时甚至在写完 第二、第三稿，甚至更多稿之后小

说才呈现出清晰的轮廓。

Years ago in the early dawn of an October morning, I watched the tiny Sputnik2 cut its brief arc

across the sky. Sometime later, a story I knew to be gathering and rising presented itself: An old

man who had spent a lonely life in the depth of the city retired to a house on a cove near the sea.

Overwhelmed by the beauty of the cove and the kindness of his neighbors, he began to know the

desperation of those whose lives are almost over, and who, for one reason or another, have never

given, or even shared, anything.

多年以前，

十月的一个 凌晨时分，

我遥望小小的人造卫星划出一道弧线匆匆掠过星空。

又过

了一段时间，我心中一直萌动的故事呈现出来：一位老人一生在都市中心过着寂寞生 活

，

隐居到一个小海湾边的房子里。

他为那地方的美景和邻人的善良而激动不已，

开始感受到那

些生活道路将要走尽，由于某种原因从未付出或从未与人分享过任何东西的人们的绝望。

Knowing o

nly this, I moved swiftly into the first draft and wrote: “The people of Pomeroy's Cove

gave Mr. Paradee the sky. They gave it all to him, from dawn to dawn with thunderheads and

flights of geese and the red moon rising.”

尽管当时心里朦朦胧胧仅有这点感受，我立 刻着手第一稿，写道：

“

波米洛依湾的人们将蓝

天奉献给了帕拉蒂先生。他们将这一切全给了他，每个黎明，一片片雷雨云、

一群群飞翔

的野鹅和冉冉升起的红色月亮。

”

What was I doing I wrote of a curious gift: there were more curious gifts to come. I moved into

the sky; later I would head toward celestial traffic. I marveled, when I reached the end, that I had

not known the whole story from the first paragraph: every word pointed the way. But not

knowing, why did I begin to write What was I doing

当时我在干什么我在描绘一个奇怪的

才能：而且还有更多奇怪的才能。接着我升上高空；

尔后飞向运 行中的万千星辰。当我写到小说的结尾时，我不禁感到诧异，我

开始写第一段

时居然对整个小说毫无了解：每一个字都指出方向。然而，我浑然不知时 ，我为什么动笔写

作我在干什么

I was fulfilling two of the craftsman's three functions: trust, and the second: write. I was trusting

in the inevitability of the story's intelligence, its truth, whatever it might be; I was trusting in its

completeness, its form, whenever it might emerge. By writing, I was allowing it, inviting it to

emerge: I was providing its vehicle. For how else could it emerge

我是在实施工匠的三个功能中的两个：信赖，第二：写作。不论我的小说 会是什么样，我坚

信小说的灵性，

它的真实性；不论它可能在何 时显现，我都坚信它的完整性和它的形式。在

写作中我听任它发展，迎候它的显现。我在 为它的显现提供载体，否则它又怎能显现呢

Trust your genius. It is your creative function and its business is to create. Because it works at the

level of origins, the story it creates is original; it is yours alone. No one else can know it or write it.

That is a story's value, and its only value. Respect your creative function; rely on it to be

intelligent: it is not a thing of random impulse, but a working principle. Trust it, be glad about it,

and use it. That is the secret of cultivating it, and the beginning of true ability.

信赖你的天赋吧，

它是你的创造性功能，

它的任务就是创造。

因为它在最原始的层面上起作

用，因此， 它所创造的小说是独一无二的。这故事完全是你自己的。没其他人能了解它，也

没人能写 出它。

这就是一个小说的价值，

唯一的价值。尊重你的创造性功 能，依靠它获得智

慧：它不是盲目冲动的产物，而是工作的原则。信赖它，为它感到欣喜 ，运用它。这正是培

养天赋的奥秘所在，也是真正能力的开端。

Trust and write. Write your story when you begin to feel its insistent pulse. If you don't know it all,

write as much as you know; work respectively and patiently, and it will all come to you presently.

If you can't write well, write the best you can, always the best, with all the intelligence and clarity

you can command at the moment. If you do that, and persist in it, you will improve steadily. The

reason for this is that earnest work literally generates intelligence. Consistent practice generates

skill. And to generate skill is the craftsman's third function.

信赖并着手写作。

当你开始感到小说急不 可待的脉动时，

就动笔写作。

如果你对它并不完全

了解，

就尽你所知去写。

逐个地写你所知道的那部分 ，要有耐心，

不久你就会完全知道你所

写的是什么。假如你写得 不好，

那就尽你所能去写。务必竭尽全力，以你当时所能驾驭的全

部智慧努力写得明白清晰。

如果能这样做并坚持不懈，

你一定 能稳步提高。

因为认真踏实的

工作可以真正发展智力。不懈的实 践可

以真正形成技能，而形成技能就是工匠的第三个任

务。

Give every story, every letter, every entry in your daily journal, if you keep one, the best writing of

which you are capable. Write well. Write skillfully. Write beautifully, or write superbly, if you can.

Be watchful and objective about what goes down on paper. Anything less than the degree of

excellence of which you are capable at any given time is not craftsmanship. It is dabbling.

以你最好的文笔尽 你所能写每一个故事，每一封信，如果你写日记的话，要

这样 在日记中

记每一件事。要写好。要写得有技巧。要写得优雅，如果你能够的话，要写得完 美。对任何

成文的材料都应力求谨慎、

真实。

< br>任何低于当时你所能达到的完美程度的文字都谈不上是技

艺，而是浅尝輒止的儿戏 。

The beginning writer saves time and effort by being prompt and businesslike about finding a

method of work which suits him. Look into methods. We know that writing cannot be taught,

that it can only be learned. But common sense, the canny handmaid of genius, tells us that

practicing writers, like practicing plumbers, politicians and goldsmiths, who get the job done day

in and day out, know what they are talking about when they talk about work. Read them and

listen to them, and you will recognize in their working habits many tendencies and impulses of

your own. You will see that they are not your private vagaries, but in many cases unique and vital

aspects of the writing temperament, things in your favor that can work for you.

初事写作者总是力图尽量快捷、高效地找到适合他的写作 方法，以求省时省力。谈起方法，

我们都知道写作不是教会的，而是学会的。但是常识< /p>

——

天赋的

狡 诘的侍女却告诉我们，

实际从事写作者象日复一日干着同一工作的管子工、

从政者和金银首饰匠一样，

谈起他们的

工作都很在行 。

读作家们所写的书，

听作家们所说的话，

你就可以发现他们的工作习惯中有

许多与自己相同的偏爱和冲动。

< br>你会发现这些不仅是你自己独有的癖好，

而往往是从事写作

者的性情中特有的，极其重要的几种癖性。它们对你有利，可以为你所用。

I wrote four hours a day for ten years before I was published. Working without teachers and

books on writing, I was a long time discovering a method of work. Years later when a very fine

teacher remarked: “You know, a good story is not written, but rewritten,” I replied somewhat

wistfully: “ Yes, I know. I wish someone had told me that long ago.”

我每天写作四小时，一连写了十年之后，才发表作 品。在写作过程中，我没有老师指导，也

没有写作的书籍可供参考。

我花了很长时间才发现了一种写作方法。

多年之后，

一位十 分优

秀的教师说

:“

要知道，好小说不 是写成的而是改成的。

”

当时，我沉思着回答说：

“

是啊！我

明白。但愿早就有人告诉我。