現(xiàn)代英文選評(píng)：Dialogues of A. N. Whitehead 懷德海語錄

Dialogues of A. N. Whitehead 懷德海語錄

Lucien Price (1883—1964)

懷德海（Alfred North Whitehead）是當(dāng)代大哲學(xué)家，1861年生于英國，出身劍橋大學(xué)，早享盛名，1924年受美國哈佛大學(xué)之聘，任教十余年之久，1937年退休，1947年逝世。懷氏生前喜與青年朋友交談，青年人聆其教誨者，自然增長智慧，然而懷氏虛懷若谷，認(rèn)為和青年人談?wù)摚啻笥兄谒约旱乃枷?。他曾?jīng)說過：“It is all nonsense to suppose that the old cannot learn from the young.”

Lucien Price是《波士頓環(huán)球報(bào)》（The Boston Globe）的記者，亦是好學(xué)深思之士，他從1932年起經(jīng)常訪問懷德海，討論學(xué)術(shù)思想、人生各種問題。后來他把討論的話，隨時(shí)筆錄，二十余年來，居然成一本厚書。Price自云對(duì)于記錄談話，有特殊訓(xùn)練，非但談話要旨，可以保持不失，連談話時(shí)所用語句，都可以照式錄下。他的記錄，大部分曾經(jīng)懷氏寓目，認(rèn)為無誤。懷氏態(tài)度誠懇，吐屬雋雅，思想深刻，學(xué)識(shí)淵博，他的“語錄”，可以和Boswell的《約翰生博士傳》以及Eckermann的《歌德語錄》相比。

Dialogues of Alfred North Whitehead 1954年由Little, Brown圖書公司出版。

Suppose our American culture were wiped out: whom have we produced so far who would stand as a lasting contribution to the world?

Walt Whitman.

Not Emerson?

I read Emerson a good deal when I was younger, but if my good neighbours, the Forbeses, will pardon me for saying so (they are grandsons of Emerson), he was not so original. But Whitman brought something into poetry which was never there before. Much of what he says is so new that he even had to invent a new form for saying it. Whitman seems to me to have been one of the very few great poets that have ever lived. He can stand easily beside the really great European poets.

● 本篇一開頭所引各段都是由原書《第一次對(duì)話》（April 6, 1934）中錄下，討論內(nèi)容大部分有關(guān)英美文化。

● our American culture：問話的人（Price）是美國人。were：虛擬式動(dòng)詞。wiped out：掃除，消滅。

● whom是疑問代名詞；who是關(guān)系代名詞，代替whom。到今天為止（so far），美國到底出了什么人才，可以算對(duì)全世界是一個(gè)永久的貢獻(xiàn)呢？stand：別的東西都消滅了，他可以屹立不移。

● Whitman（1819—1892）：美國詩人，《草葉集》的作者。Emerson（1803—1882）：美國詩人，思想家。

● the Forbeses：懷德海的鄰居Forbes一家人。Forbes指的是Cameron Forbes，美國外交家，曾任美國駐日大使，駐菲律賓總督。他和Emerson的血統(tǒng)關(guān)系不詳。grandson解作“孫兒”，也可解作“外孫”。

● pardon：批評(píng)人家的祖先，當(dāng)然應(yīng)該請(qǐng)人家原諒，即使他們?nèi)瞬辉谧笥?，聽不見我的話。not so original：沒有什么獨(dú)創(chuàng)的貢獻(xiàn)。

● brought something：這兩個(gè)簡單的字，用處很大。something在本書前文中已經(jīng)討論過，這里可能代表一種“美”、或“力量”、或“風(fēng)格”、或“思想”。brought可能表示“灌輸”、“創(chuàng)造”、“倡導(dǎo)”種種意思。這兩個(gè)字都可以用比較艱深專門的字代替，但是在普通談話中，這樣也就夠用了。which was never there before：以前所沒有的。定語從句，形容something。

● what he says：他所說的（內(nèi)容）。what的用法，在本書前文中曾討論過。is so new的主語是Much。saying it的it代替Much。form：（詩歌的）形式。這句話用兩種不同的時(shí)態(tài)：he says用現(xiàn)在式，話雖說過了，但是話還留傳人間；古人說話，大多可用現(xiàn)在式以表示之，例如Confucius says。又is so new也用現(xiàn)在式，對(duì)于今日的讀者，還是新鮮的。had to invent用過去式，Whitman創(chuàng)造新形式以表現(xiàn)新思想，是在過去。

● seems to me to have been：分詞用完成式，表示W(wǎng)hitman現(xiàn)在已不在人世。

● can stand easily beside：足與（歐洲大詩人）相比。

You must remember that at Winchester the boys are a selected group, with a very special kind of training to which they are well adapted. In that groove they acquire astonishing proficiency, but they would be quite ignorant out of it. They would know a great deal about Roman customs in the period of the Punic Wars, but very little, perhaps nothing, about urgent problems of their own land and time. They do well at the universities and make names in the professions and as colonial administrators and civil servants. The creative arts? I do not think you will find many of them excelling there. They write very well, but not very imaginatively. American students are less well-informed but more eager to learn; English boys are less eager but more informed. The American boy knows less about what interests him more, the English boy knows more about what seems to interest him less. He said this with a laughing twinkling in his bright blue eyes.

● 本段懷德海討論英美兩國青年的知識(shí)程度。Price曾去參觀英國有名的Winchester College（中學(xué)），發(fā)現(xiàn)高班中學(xué)生都能閱讀希臘名著的原文，可是美國哈佛大學(xué)的學(xué)生都不一定有這樣高的程度。懷德海即就此點(diǎn)發(fā)表意見。

● selected group：經(jīng)過挑選的一群人，優(yōu)秀分子。adapted連前面的to which。這輩青年很能適應(yīng)于這種訓(xùn)練。

● groove：原意為“溝”或“槽”，轉(zhuǎn)作“故轍”、“規(guī)定的路子”、“刻板文章”。這里指英國中學(xué)的訓(xùn)練方法。proficiency：精通、熟練。是動(dòng)詞acquire（獲得）的賓語。would be：虛擬式動(dòng)詞，說話的人不敢說定。out of it=out of the groove。在規(guī)定課程范圍之內(nèi)，他們知道得非常之多；在這范圍之外，他們的知識(shí)可能很淺陋。

● Roman customs：羅馬人的風(fēng)俗習(xí)慣。Punic Wars：羅馬與迦太基之戰(zhàn)。（Punic就是腓尼基，迦太基是腓尼基人所建立的）。urgent problems：迫切的問題。他們對(duì)于本國目前的大問題，可能知道得很少，甚至一無所知。

● do well：成績很好。make names：揚(yáng)名，露頭角。excelling：出人頭地。他們干律師、醫(yī)生、牧師等（所謂professions）行業(yè)，到殖民地去做官，或者在本國做公務(wù)員（civil servants），成績都很好，但是他們?cè)趧?chuàng)造性的藝術(shù)方面，卻很少有人能有杰出的成績。

● They write very well：訓(xùn)練嚴(yán)格，故寫作技巧很好；但思想可能窒塞，想象力不夠活潑。eager to learn：求知欲旺盛。informed：學(xué)識(shí)豐富。less…more：美國學(xué)生對(duì)于學(xué)問（what）所知不多，但是興趣較濃。

● twinkling：閃光。

It strikes me that our writers don't know enough.

It is true that most great writers did know quite a lot. But it is possible to know too much. What is wanted is an immense feeling for things. And the danger in old civilizations is that the teaching may be too good. It damps students down. They know too much about what has been done, they write well, but without freshness. It is so fatally easy for a good period in art to die in scholasticism and pedantry, for the life to go out of it. Oxford has taught the classics for centuries, and for centuries Cambridge virtually refused to teach literature and taught mathematics, and yet twice as many poets came out of Cambridge as out of Oxford.

● our writers：美國作家。這一段又是Price發(fā)問。

● did know：過去式，did用以加重語氣。過去大作家學(xué)識(shí)的確是豐富的。

● to know too much：若從充實(shí)學(xué)識(shí)著手，可能中了書毒，對(duì)于藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作反有妨害。

● an immense feeling for things：學(xué)識(shí)并不重要，重要的是對(duì)于萬事萬物，有一種極大的“體會(huì)的能力”。

● old civilizations：civilizations可以解作“國家”。在文明古國，教書先生過分道地，這是有危險(xiǎn)的。

● damps：使潮濕；挫折學(xué)生的銳氣，打消學(xué)生的熱誠。

● what has been done：前人的作品。

● scholasticism：（中世紀(jì)的）煩瑣哲學(xué)。對(duì)于枝節(jié)問題，不憚辭費(fèi)地討論不休。pedantry：賣弄學(xué)問，掉書袋子。這兩種現(xiàn)象，都是“遺神取貌，買櫝還珠”，有害于藝術(shù)創(chuàng)作。一個(gè)藝術(shù)上有成就的時(shí)代，假如發(fā)生了這種現(xiàn)象，它的生命就算完結(jié)了。

● fatally easy：非常容易，因此也是非常之不幸。本句結(jié)構(gòu)仿照下列形式：It is easy for (someone) to do (something)。本句前后兩節(jié)：前節(jié)是for a period to die，后節(jié)是for the life to go out of it，末一個(gè)it代表period。

● virtually：事實(shí)上（雖不一定如此，也相差不遠(yuǎn)）。Cambridge：劍橋大學(xué)教育不以文學(xué)為主，反而詩人輩出。劍橋出身的大詩人有Spenser，Milton，Wordsworth，Coleridge，Tennyson等；人數(shù)比牛津出身的多一倍（twice as many）。

How about the possibility of one or two great artists exhausting an epoch or an art-form? The Renaissance takes a drop after Michelangelo, and grand opera since Wagner has been a 'Tristan, Junior'.

That does happen. Such figures come at the end of an epoch. The danger is when the great themes have been superlatively well done, and the later workers come to secondary themes or refinements or niceties, and art or thought gets down off into shallows. That is fatally easy. I mean such themes as a mother's love for her child, something so universal that to express it sounds trite, and yet the medieval sculptors and Renaissance painters could express it with unbelievable beauty: but it is no good trying to imitate them.

● exhausting：用盡，汲干。一兩個(gè)大藝術(shù)家可以把一個(gè)時(shí)代（epoch）的才氣吸干；或者使用某一種藝術(shù)形式（art-form），達(dá)到盡美的境地，使后人難以企及。這種藝術(shù)形式就算給“用絕”了。

● Michelangelo（1475—1564）：意大利畫家、雕刻家、文學(xué)家、科學(xué)家。他是文藝復(fù)興時(shí)代的大師，他死以后，文藝復(fù)興稍呈衰狀（takes a drop）。

● grand opera：純正歌劇。Wagner以后，純正歌劇即少偉大作品，只有輕松歌?。╨ight opera）點(diǎn)綴門面?！癟ristan, Junior”照字面上講應(yīng)該是“Tristan之子”，出典不詳。Wagner的名著為Tristan und Isolde，“Tristan之子”應(yīng)該比不上Tristan的。

● figures：人物。

● great themes：藝術(shù)上重要的題目（如母愛，下文有舉例）。superlatively well：好得無以復(fù)加。done：（藝術(shù)）制作。later workers：以后的藝術(shù)工作者，自忖比不上過去的大師，只好挑次要的題目來發(fā)揮。refinements or niceties：這兩個(gè)字都解作“精致”，纖巧而不雄壯，注重小節(jié)而忽略精神。（中國詩詞的沒落，所走的似乎也是這個(gè)路子。）

● gets down off into shallows：駛?cè)霚\水，不復(fù)有海闊天空的雄風(fēng)矣。

● something：同位語，就是“母愛”。universal：人人皆知，四海皆有的。如母愛之類的題目，再要用來作為藝術(shù)題材，未免使人覺得（sounds）是陳腐（trite）了。

● medieval sculptors：中世紀(jì)的雕刻家。他們以及文藝復(fù)興時(shí)代畫家大致喜歡用“圣母和圣嬰”作為題材。

● it is no good中的it代表trying…。模仿那些大師們是沒有用的。他們把母愛表現(xiàn)得如是之好，叫以后的藝術(shù)家如何下手呢？

There had been another wartime commencement, and the College Yard, where I crossed it, was being cleared of scaffold timber, which had been put up for the out-of-door ceremonies. The grass plot looked trodden into hard ground. Academic Cambridge, like any other academic town out of term-time, seemed suddenly deserted.

● 此段開始錄自原書1943年6月10日那次談話。commencement：大學(xué)的畢業(yè)典禮（這里是指哈佛大學(xué)的）。another：珍珠港事變以來，在戰(zhàn)爭中舉行畢業(yè)典禮已經(jīng)不是一次了。There had been：畢業(yè)典禮已經(jīng)舉行過。

● College Yard：哈佛大學(xué)部門眾多，其大學(xué)本科部分稱為Harvard College。Yard是校園，別的美國大學(xué)大多用Campus一字，哈佛則稱Yard。College Yard就是哈佛的“校本部”的原有校園。

● where I crossed it：我所走過的地方。別的地方未必如此。was being cleared：正在清理卸除。用中文來寫，“工人”、“木匠”這種主語大約是省不掉的，英文的被動(dòng)句法就比較簡單了。timber：木材。scaffold：木架，臺(tái)。put up：架設(shè)。ceremonies：畢業(yè)典禮是在戶外舉行的，臨時(shí)要搭一座臺(tái)，事過后拆除。

● plot：一片地。trodden：過去分詞作形容詞用。畢業(yè)典禮參加的人很多，草坪看來都好像踐踏成一塊硬地了。

● Academic Cambridge：劍橋（哈佛所在地）的學(xué)術(shù)地區(qū)。academic town：大學(xué)城。擁有一所大學(xué)的小城。out of term-time：學(xué)期終了之后，假期。deserted：人都走完了。

It was a loury evening with rain in brew and a rising wind. The Whiteheads were alone and seemed more than usual at their ease. In no time at all we were out beyond the harbour jetties and into the conversational open water. It was about the gap between written and spoken language, between literature and vernacular.

● loury：陰沉沉的。in brew：這個(gè)成語和中文“醞釀中”是巧合，brew原意是“釀”。a rising wind：風(fēng)正起。

● The Whiteheads：他們這一家人。alone：沒有客人。（“我走到他們家里……”這種話是不必說的；這是文章經(jīng)濟(jì)之法。）at their ease：優(yōu)游自得。平常本來如此，今天晚上益見閑散。

● In no time：很快地。at all用以加強(qiáng)no。harbour jetties：港口邊上的碼頭。conversational open water：碼頭種種，都是“暗喻”。談話未開始時(shí)，好像船未啟碇；開始之后，立刻暢談無阻，好像駛?cè)胪粞蟠蠛！?

● gap：歧異。vernacular：白話，口語。這個(gè)字通常作形容詞用：口語的。

It is quite unlikely, said Whitehead, "that Cicero spoke to his friends in the language of his letters, to say nothing of his orations."

A slave population complicates it, too, Mrs. Whitehead added. "No matter how vivid or picturesque the vernacular may be, if it is used by a servile class it is avoided by the educated."

● Cicero（160—43 B.C.）是拉丁文文章大家。他的文章流傳于世，他的談話失傳。據(jù)懷德?？磥?，Cicero的談話，不大可能（quite unlikely）像他書札一樣的文縐縐的。因?yàn)檎勗捰玫氖前自?，書札可能用的是文言。至于Cicero的演說稿，那更是句法整齊，音調(diào)鏗鏘，和平常談話差別之大，那更不必說了（to say nothing of…）。

● a slave population：羅馬社會(huì)中的奴隸階級(jí)。這使得問題（it）更為復(fù)雜。不論白話是多么的生動(dòng)（vivid）如畫（picturesque），不過它既為販夫走卒（servile class：賤役階級(jí)）所用，就為士大夫所不取了。

I said that the gap seemed particularly wide in English.

Not so wide as you might think, said he. "The London poorer classes, for example, have an extraordinary appreciation for Shakespeare. His language doesn't put them off at all: their sense of humour is about the same as his; they think the things are funny. All this is not surprising for they were the sort of people for whom the plays were originally written. There is a school of technology in the East End for which I used to be on the visiting committee, and I saw a good deal of it. One evening a teacher was going over a page of literature in a textbook with his class, and asked the meaning of an unusual seventeenth-century word. One of the young men answered correctly. He was asked how he happened to know. 'I saw a play of Shakespeare's (he named the one) at the Old Vic last Thursday night, and that word was used in it in the same sense as here.'"

● particularly wide：拉丁文文言、白話之間既有如此差別，英文的文言、白話之間的差別似乎尤其大。gap原意是“空隙，裂痕”，形容它的“大”，應(yīng)該用wide。

● 懷德海的意思：差別沒有此君所想象那樣的大。莎士比亞在今日讀來，總算是“文”的了，但是倫敦比較貧苦的人（因此受教育不多），對(duì)于莎士比亞，特別能欣賞。

● put off有“阻止”之意。莎翁的文字并不能把他們“推開”。

● sense of humour：幽默感。莎翁劇本里不乏下流的俏皮話和低級(jí)趣味的滑稽場(chǎng)面（但這無損莎翁的價(jià)值，此處不討論），他的幽默感和倫敦中下社會(huì)的幽默感大致類似（about the same）。

● the things：莎翁劇本里的滑稽的東西。他們認(rèn)為這些東西的確是滑稽的。這一切并不奇怪，因?yàn)樯虅”颈緛硎菫檫@輩人而寫的。

● school of technology：工業(yè)職業(yè)學(xué)校。East End：倫敦的東區(qū)，居民類率為中下社會(huì)之人，與上流社會(huì)所居之西區(qū)（West End）不同。

● visiting committee：監(jiān)督委員會(huì)。委員經(jīng)常到校視察（visit），監(jiān)督校務(wù)。任委員之職，可說：on the committee。saw a good deal of it：關(guān)于學(xué)校情形，我所見甚多。

● an unusual seventeenth-century word：文學(xué)教本里，一個(gè)冷僻的、十七世紀(jì)的古字。

● happened：照這班學(xué)生的程度，這種古字他們不該認(rèn)得的，怎么這個(gè)學(xué)生“碰巧會(huì)”認(rèn)得呢?

● he named the one：莎翁那部劇本的名字，那個(gè)學(xué)生是說出來的。但是懷氏在這里并沒有復(fù)述。the Old Vic：倫敦劇院名，以演莎翁劇著名。英國電影明星，出身Old Vic劇院者，頗不乏人。

● that word：莎翁死于1616年，他所用的字，十七世紀(jì)詩文中常?？梢砸姷健Ｄ莻€(gè)學(xué)生雖然讀書無多，但是看了莎翁的戲，居然把戲里的生字都能記得，到課堂上來應(yīng)用，足見莎翁劇本之深入人心。

If I may say a good word for American slang, said I, "it is that, besides being fresh and vigorous, it is almost always sweet and clean, pure animal high spirits."

That is true, he assented, "and very much to your people's credit."

● 他們又討論到美國俚語（slang）的問題。作者是美國人，他要替美國俚語說一句好話，但是懷氏夫婦是英國人，對(duì)于美國的東西未必贊成，所以作者先請(qǐng)他們?cè)彛骸凹偃缛菰S我……的話?！边@種謙遜的態(tài)度，是一個(gè)受過高尚教育的人應(yīng)有的風(fēng)度。一般學(xué)習(xí)英語會(huì)話的人，即使能夠說得口若懸河、舌生蓮花，假如風(fēng)度不夠，仍舊沒有學(xué)到家也。

● it is that的that是連接詞，引起下面的名詞性從句。照作者看來，美國俚語除了新鮮有勁之外，差不多都是清潔而可愛（前面他們剛討論過，法國的俚語常隱含一種惡俗的意義：French slang generally has a nasty innuendo behind it），只是純粹表示一種生命的活力。animal high spirits：天生的興高采烈。high spirits：興致高，起勁。

● to your people's credit：是貴國人民的光榮。credit解作“好名譽(yù)”，to one's credit（此人博得別人的稱贊）是成語。

● 講起美國俚語，1957年2月18日的Time雜志有一段討論文字，頗有趣。英國一位Lord Conesford爵爺對(duì)于“美國英文”大肆攻擊，他認(rèn)為美國人把face，meet，check這三個(gè)簡單的動(dòng)詞，累贅地說成face up to，meet up with，check up on是不足為訓(xùn)的。還有幾個(gè)“美國字”，也是要不得的：如underprivileged（貧窮），hospitalized（住醫(yī)院），alibi（借口），bi-partisan（共和、民主兩黨聯(lián)合一致的）等。但是這些都算是美國的正式英文，對(duì)于美國slang，這位爵爺?shù)诡H表首肯。他認(rèn)為俚語常常都是“雄健可喜”（virile and admirable）的。他舉的例子：

bulldozer：聲威逼人、欺凌弱小之人，開路機(jī)。

blurb：大事吹擂的廣告或聲明。

debunk：揭破流行的謬說。

這些字并非正式英文，然而這些字如用正式英文的字眼來代替，讀起來就沒有俚語那樣“有勁”了。

Dialogue, as actually spoken, seldom goes into print effectively unless something has been done to it—often quite a little. It must sound the way people talk, but if you try setting down their talk verbatim, you may find that it doesn't seem as life-like as it ought.

Art, said Whitehead, "is the imposing of a pattern on experience, and our aesthetic enjoyment in recognition of the pattern. The mistake is to think of words as entities. They depend for their force, and also for their meaning, on emotional associations and historic overtones, and derive much of their effect from the impact of the whole passage in which they occur."

● 現(xiàn)在討論的題目是小說中的對(duì)白。前一段恐怕是作者說的，他認(rèn)為對(duì)白真照口頭所說那樣地印在書里（goes into print），讀起來效果是不大會(huì)好的（seldom…effectively）。如要效果好，作者必須要加工改造（原文是被動(dòng)句法），通常要稍花點(diǎn)功夫改寫。

● 對(duì)白一定要讀起來像（sound）真人說話那樣（這一句按語法分析起來，people talk前面也許該有in which二字，但照實(shí)際用法這兩個(gè)字是用不著的）。

● setting down：記下來。verbatim（副詞）：一字不易地。照人家的說話，照式錄下，讀起來總該（ought）像真人說話了吧？事實(shí)可并不如此。

● 第二段懷氏發(fā)表他的藝術(shù)思想。他說：藝術(shù)者，是在經(jīng)驗(yàn)上面加上（imposing）一種形式。以做詩為例，我們喜怒哀樂的情感，可以說是一種經(jīng)驗(yàn)；詩的長短、字句的排列、平仄的安排就是形式（pattern）。單有經(jīng)驗(yàn)，不成藝術(shù)，一定要把形式套上去，才是藝術(shù)。

● aesthetic enjoyment：審美的快感。我們讀到一首好詩，覺得很快樂；這種快感是美麗的文字給我們的，我們就在對(duì)于形式之美的認(rèn)識(shí)里面（in recognition of the pattern），得到快樂（enjoyment之后，省了個(gè)動(dòng)詞is）。

● The mistake：通常人都犯的錯(cuò)誤，是把文字當(dāng)作“獨(dú)立存在的東西”（entities：這是個(gè)哲學(xué)名詞，也許另外有個(gè)更好的譯法）。事實(shí)上，文字所以有力量（force），所以有意義（meaning），是有賴于情感的聯(lián)想（如“家”這個(gè)字可以喚起我們很多的聯(lián)想）和自古相傳的暗示的意義（如“雪”這個(gè)字便有很多附屬意義，overtones=additional meaning）。

● 再則單字本身效果也不強(qiáng)，字必須見于（occur）整段詩文（the whole passage）之中，才有動(dòng)人的力量；整段詩文給我們一種刺激（impact：打擊）。單字的效果，大部分是從這種整個(gè)的刺激中得來（derive）的。