本帖最后由 ヮ成熟、羙° 于 2013-7-19 12:50 编辑
以书为伴
荷叶/译
认识一个人,一看他交什么友,二看他读什么书。因为人和书都可以成为我们的友伴,我们总要结交最好的伙伴,不管是人还是书。
一本好书可能是我们最好的朋友。它今天和以前相同,并且永不会变。它最耐心也最令人快乐。它不会在逆境或困境中背弃我们。它一如既往地以同样的善意接纳我们,给年轻人教育和愉悦,给年老人慰藉和舒服。
人们经常会发现彼此亲近是因为喜爱同一本书,正如人们找到一个朋友是因为两人对同一人抱有钦佩之情。爱屋及乌是一句古老的谚语,但爱人及书,里面包含着更多的智慧。书籍是更加忠实的也是层次更高的情谊纽带。人们可以通过最喜欢的作家的大脑来思维,感知,彼此同情。读者和作家生活在一起,作家也活在读者之中。
一本好书犹如积有人生精华的一口大翁,因为一个人的生命,绝大部分是他的思想。因此,最好的书籍是一个美言辞,金点子的宝库,为人所记诵,所钟爱,成为人们永久的伴侣和安慰。
书籍具有不朽的本质。它们是迄今人类的努力存留最久的产品。寺宇会坍塌,雕塑会朽败,但书籍却存留下来。对于伟大的思想,时间无足轻重。这些思想至今清新,就如同多年前从它们作者的大脑中流淌出来时一样。当时的所说所想依然生动不减当年,在通过书页向我们娓娓诉说。时间唯一的作用是过滤掉了糟粕,因为在文学上,除了真正的佳作,没有东西会长久存活。
书籍把我们介绍到上流社会。它们引我们与迄今最伟大的人相见。我们听他们所说,看他们所做,就像他们还活着。我们同情他们,同他们快乐,共他们悲伤。他们的经验为我们所有,有某种程度上,我们就感觉自己是他们所描绘的场景中的一员,与他们互动。
伟大与美好不朽,即使在当今世界。植于书籍,才智超群的人的思想走出国门。书籍是他们所发出的至今人们依然倾听的智者之声。
附:原文
Companionship of Books
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 mutual love they have for a book just as two persons sometimes discover a friend by the admiration which both entertain for a third. There is an old proverb, ‘Love me, love my dog.” But there is more wisdom in this:” Love me, love my 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 have 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. The great and good do not die, even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens.
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