書籍裝點生活

Books Do Furnish a Life

書籍裝點生活

Roger Joseph Ebert

羅杰.約瑟夫.埃伯特

作者簡介

羅杰.約瑟夫.埃伯特 （Roger Joseph Ebert， 1942—），美國《芝加哥太陽時報》（Chicago Sun-Times）的著名影評人，也是第一位獲得普利策獎（Pulitzer Prize）的影評家。

埃伯特1967年開始撰寫影評，1975年獲普利策獎。同年，他在電視上與另一位影評人吉恩.西斯科爾（Gene Siskel）開設影評節(jié)目“談電影”（“At the Movies”）。兩人合作20多年，為眾多電影愛好者提供了指導。埃伯特還創(chuàng)辦了非營利的個人電影節(jié)（Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival），關注被忽視或受冷落的好電影。最近幾年，埃伯特因患病而無法講話，但仍筆耕不輟，贏得了無數影迷的尊敬。

本文發(fā)表于2009年10月5日的《芝加哥太陽時報》。作者從盤點家私說起，將藏書的來歷和書中的趣事一一道來，愛書之情溢于言表。作者發(fā)出嘆息：“有一些書我無法舍棄，因為——哦，它們是書??！你總不能扔掉一本書吧？”對此你是否也感同身受？

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

—Erasmus

少得即奉書，有余始衣食。

——伊拉斯謨[1]

One afternoon in Cape Town I sat in my little room at University House and took inventory. This must have been in June, winter in the southern hemisphere, and it had been raining steadily for most of a week. I was virtually alone in the student residence; the others had packed off for vacation. With an umbrella and plastic slicker I’d ventured out once or twice to the Pig and Whistle, where I favored the Ploughman’s Lunch, but to sustain life I’d laid in a supply of tinned sardines, cheddar and Swiss cheese, Hobnobs, apples, Carr’s Water Biscuits, ginger cookies, Hershey bars, biltong, sausage and a pot of jam. I had a little electric coil that would bring a cup of water to a boil, a jar of Nescafe, a box of sugar and some Instant Postum.

I wrote in my journal: “I have not spoken to anyone since Monday. The radio is playing Downtown by Petula Clerk. I’ve been reading some Shaw—Man and Superman. I’m wearing jeans, my cable knit sweater and my Keds. I’ve made coffee and am waiting for it to cool. Let it be recorded that at this moment I am happy.”

...

在開普敦的某天下午，我坐在大學公寓里開列清單。當時應該是6月，南半球的冬季，陰雨連綿將近一周。我孑然一身待在學生宿舍，其他人都收拾行囊度假去了。我拿著傘和塑料雨衣，冒雨出過一兩趟門，去犁舍酒吧享用我喜歡的農夫午餐[2]，但我賴以為生的還是沙丁魚罐頭、切達干酪、瑞士奶酪、及時樂燕麥餅干、蘋果、卡氏薄脆餅干、姜餅、好時巧克力棒、干肉片、香腸和一罐果醬。我有個能燒一杯水的小型熱得快、一罐雀巢咖啡、一盒方糖和一些速溶波斯塔姆[3]。

我在日記里寫道：“從周一起我就沒跟人說過話。收音機里放著佩圖拉?克拉克的《鬧市》。我在讀蕭伯納的《人與超人》。我穿著牛仔褲、粗線毛衣和凱茲鞋。我沖好了咖啡，正等它變涼。記下來，此刻我很幸福?！?

……

“What do I really need that isn’t here in this room?” I asked. “Its dimensions are a little more than twice as wide and deep as I am tall. I don’t know, maybe 150 square feet? Here I have the padded wood chair in which I sit tilted against the wall, my feet braced on my straight desk chair. I am holding the three-inch-thick Paul Hamlyn edition of Shaw’s complete plays. This room contains: A wood single bed, an African blanket covering it, a wood desk and its gooseneck lamp, a small dresser with a mirror over it, my portable typewriter, a small wardrobe containing my clothes, a steamer trunk serving as a coffee table, and two bookcases, filled to overflowing. What more do I actually need?”

To this inventory I would today add: A rice cooker, knife and cutting board, to prepare my meals; a small refrigerator; and a MacBook and nice speakers to supply the Internet, music, videos and TV. There wasn’t room for a proper TV.

“我真正需要的東西，有什么不在這間屋里？”我問自己?！拔葑拥拈L寬都是我身高的兩倍多一點。面積也許有150平方英尺？我不清楚。這里有一把帶坐墊的木椅。我坐在椅上斜靠著墻，雙腳搭在直立的寫字椅上。我手里捧著3英寸厚的保羅?哈姆林[4]版《蕭伯納戲劇全集》。這間屋里還有：一張木質單人床、一條蓋在床上的非洲毛毯、一張擺著鵝頸燈的木質書桌、一個帶鏡子的小梳妝臺、我的便攜式打字機、裝我衣服的小衣櫥、一個用作咖啡桌的扁行李箱，以及兩個書多得快冒出來的書柜。說真的，我還需要什么呢？”

如今，我又在這個清單上添了幾樣：做飯要用的電飯煲、菜刀和案板，一臺小型冰箱，以及為我提供網絡、音樂、視頻、電視的蘋果筆記本電腦和優(yōu)質音箱。我沒地方擱電視機。

Chaz and I have lived for 20 years in a commodious Chicago house with three floors, a furnished basement apartment and an exercise room we built on the roof-top deck. This house is not empty. To my 1965 edition of Shaw, which cost me about two quid and now sells for $119, Chaz and I have added, I dunno, maybe 3,000 or 4,000 books, countless videos and CDs, lots of art, rows of photographs, rooms full of comfortable furniture, a Buddha from Thailand, two elephants from India, African chairs and statues, and who knows what else.

Of course I cannot do without a single one of these possessions, including more or else every book I have owned since I was seven, starting with Huckleberry Finn. I still have all the Penrod books, and every time I look at them, I’m reminded of Tarkington’s inventory of the contents of Penrod’s pants pockets. After reading it a third time, I jammed my pockets with a pocket knife, a Yo-Yo, marbles, a compass, a stapler, an oddly-shaped rock, a hardball, a ball of rubber bands and three jawbreakers. These, in an ostensible search for a nickel, I emptied out on the counter of Harry Rusk’s grocery, so that Harry Rusk could see that I was a Real Boy.

我和查茲在芝加哥一座寬敞的大房子里住了20年。房子一共有3層，地下室是帶家具的公寓，房頂上還有我們搭的健身房。那座房子一點兒也不空。除了我的1965年版《蕭伯納戲劇全集》——那本書當時花了我2英鎊，現在能賣119美元——我和查茲還往屋里塞了三四千本書、數不清的錄像帶和CD、成堆的藝術品、成排的照片，還有滿屋的舒適家具、一尊泰國佛像、兩座印度大象雕塑、一些非洲椅子和雕像，天知道還有什么別的。

當然，我離不開其中任何一件東西，包括我從7歲開始收藏的每一本書，第一本是《哈克貝利?費恩歷險記》。我至今仍有全套《男孩彭羅德的煩惱》。每次看見它們，我就會想起塔金頓[5]給彭羅德褲兜里的玩意列的清單。把這套書讀了三遍之后，我也在褲兜里塞了小刀、溜溜球、彈珠、指南針、訂書機、奇形怪狀的石頭、棒球、一團橡皮筋和三大塊硬糖。我在哈里?臘斯克的雜貨鋪里假裝找硬幣，把褲兜掏了個底朝天，把東西都攤在柜臺上，好讓哈里知道我是個真正的小男子漢。

My books are a subject of much discussion. They pour from shelves onto tables, chairs and the floor, and Chaz observes that I haven’t read many of them and I never will. You just never know. One day I may—need is the word I use—to read Finnegans Wake, the Icelandic sagas, Churchill’s history of the Second World War, the complete Tintin in French, 47 novels by Simenon, and By Love Possessed. That 1957 best-seller by James Gould Cozzens was eviscerated in a famous essay by Dwight Macdonald, who read through that year’s list of fiction best sellers and surfaced with a scowl. It and the other books on the list have been rendered obsolete, so that his essay is cruelly dated. But I remember reading the novel late into the night when I was 14, stirring restlessly with the desire to be possessed by love.

I cannot throw out these books. Some are protected because I have personally turned all their pages and read every word; they’re like little shrines to my past hours. Perhaps half were new when they came to my life, but most are used, and I remember where I found every one. The set of Kipling at the Book Nook on Green Street in Champaign. The scandalous The English Governess in a shady book store on the Left Bank in 1965 (Obilisk Press, $2, today $91). The Shaw plays from Cranford’s on Long Street in Cape Town, where Irving Freeman claimed he had a million books; it may not have been a figure of speech. Like an alcoholic trying to walk past a bar, you should see me trying to walk past a used book store.

Other books I can’t throw away because—well, they’re books, and you can’t throw away a book, can you? Not even a cookbook from which we have prepared even a single recipe, for it is a meal preserved and happy time then shared, in printed form. The very sight of Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking by Kenneth H. C. Lo quickens my pulse. Its pages are stained by broth, sherry, soy sauce and chicken fat, and so thoroughly did I master it that I once sought out Ken Lo’s Memories of China on Ebury Street in London and laid eyes on the great man himself, dining alone in a little room near the entrance. A book like that, you’re not gonna throw away.

I can’t throw out anything. Perhaps I foresaw that when I wrote my journal entry.

...

我的書值得一談。它們從書架上傾瀉而下，散落在桌椅和地板上。查茲發(fā)現，其中許多書我都沒讀過，而且永遠不會讀。不過世事難料。說不定有一天，我可能會——或者是需要——讀《芬尼根守靈夜》、冰島傳奇、丘吉爾的《二戰(zhàn)回憶錄》、法文版《丁丁歷險記》全集、西默農的47部小說和《情鑄》——詹姆斯?古爾德?科曾斯1957年出版的暢銷書。德懷特?麥克唐納讀完當年的暢銷小說名單后滿面怒氣，在一篇著名文章里把《情鑄》分析了一番。這本書和當年的其他暢銷書均已過時，麥克唐納那篇文章也被歲月無情地拋棄了。但我記得我14歲時讀這本小說直至深夜，心中久久不能平靜，希望自己也能墜入情網。

我沒法丟掉這些書。有些書我無法割舍，是因為我翻過每頁書，讀過每個字；它們就像小小的神龕，承載了我過往的歲月。或許有一半書在入我手時是新的，但大多數是二手書。我記得每一本書的來歷。那套吉卜林作品集購于尚佩恩市格林街的“書岬”，那本臭名昭著的《安娜與國王》1965年淘自左岸一家破書店。這本書由歐比里斯科出版社出版，原價2美元，現價91美元。那套《蕭伯納戲劇全集》則來自開普敦長街的克蘭福德書店，歐文?弗里曼聲稱店里有上百萬本書，這或許并沒有夸張。你該看看我經過二手書店的樣子，我就像酒鬼經過酒吧門口一樣，根本挪不動步子。

還有一些書我無法舍棄，因為——哦，它們是書??！你總不能扔掉一本書吧？哪怕只是一本烹飪書，哪怕我們只從里面學過一道菜，那也是一本印著美食和幸福時光的書啊。我第一眼看見羅孝建的《簡易中餐烹調》就感到心跳加速。它的書頁布滿了肉湯、雪利酒、醬油和雞油留下的污跡。這本書我算是吃透了，以至于我在倫敦伊伯利街上找到憶華樓[6]時，一眼就看見了羅孝建本人。他正在門口旁邊的小包間里獨自用餐。像這樣一本書，你不會扔掉它。

我什么都舍不得扔?；蛟S我在動筆寫這篇流水賬之前就預料到了。

……

And here are my thick reference books. Not only the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, but the small tiny-type edition of the complete OED, which came with its own magnifying glass. And Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, the Cambridge Companion to English Literature, the 1967 edition of Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion, a hardbound London A to Z from 1975, and two dozen books on the occult, including the Tarot, the I Ching and the autobiography of Aleister Crowley, who was a certified flywheel, but surely wrote one of the best of Edwardian autobiographies (Crowley explained that he invented modern British mountain climbing in the Himalayas after his predecessors “had themselves carried up by Sherpas”).

In idle hours I like to leaf through my well-worn leather-bound 1970 edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (￡5, used) which offers entries not to be found elsewhere:

Jack system. An Australian phrase denoting the pursuit of one’s own interests at the expense of others.

Giotto’s O. The old story goes that the Pope, wishing to employ artists from all over Italy, send a messenger to collect specimen of their work. When the man approached Giotto (c. 1267-1337), the artist paused for a moment from the picture he was working on and with his brush drew a perfect circle on a piece of paper. In surprise the man returned to the Pope, who, appreciating the perfection of Giotto’s artistry and skill by his unerring circle, employed Giotto forthwith.

October Club. In the reign of Queen Anne, a group of High Tory MPs who met at tavern near Parliament to drink October Ale and abuse the Whigs.

這里還有我厚厚的參考書。拿《牛津英語詞典》來說，不僅有簡編版，還有附贈放大鏡的袖珍完整版。此外，還有巴特利特的《名言警句》、《劍橋英國文學指南》、哈利韋爾1967年版的《影迷指南》、1975年精裝版的《倫敦全攻略》，以及20多本關于神秘學的書，包括塔羅、《易經》和亞歷斯特?克勞利的自傳。他是位經過驗證的巫師，但確實寫出了愛德華時代[7]最優(yōu)秀的自傳之一。（克勞利解釋說，他在喜馬拉雅山發(fā)明了現代英式登山法，而前人都是“讓夏爾巴人[8]抬上去的”。）

閑暇時，我總愛翻閱那本被我讀爛了的、皮面裝幀的布魯爾1970年版《成語寓言大辭典》，一本我花5英鎊買的二手書，里面都是別處找不到的詞條：

杰克系統(tǒng)：澳大利亞習語，意為將自己的快樂建立在別人的痛苦之上。

喬托的圓：傳說，教皇想在意大利聘用一位藝術家，便派出使者去搜集他們的作品。當使者找到喬托（約1267—1337）時，這位藝術家暫時停下手中的工作，用畫筆在紙上畫了一個完美的圓。驚訝的使者回稟教皇，教皇看見喬托這個精準的圓之后，很欣賞它體現出的爐火純青的藝術才能和技巧，當即聘用了喬托。

十月俱樂部：指安妮女王統(tǒng)治時期，一群在國會附近小酒館聚會的托利黨要人。他們一邊喝著十月麥芽酒，一邊咒罵輝格黨人。

Now here is the Penguin paperback of Apsley Cherry Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World, the story of his agonizing 900-mile trek through the darkness of the Antarctic winter to investigate the mating habits of the penguin. The book is as long as the walk. I may likely not read it a second time. Do I require two later editions? Of course I do. You just never know. And the second and third editions of the Columbia Encyclopedia? You bet.

Chaz gave me this facsimile of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Will I ever read it? Not with that spelling and typography. But I will always treasure it. I look at it sometimes, and wonder at the genius of the man. What, for that matter, of my other editions of Shakespeare? The little blue volumes of the Yale Shakespeare, and the editions by Oxford, the Easton Press and the Folio Society? Handsome books, finely made. But I always read only my battered and underlined old Riverside Shakespeare from college, because it was edited by G. Blakemore Evans, and he was my professor, you see. I tried reading a Folio volume once. Just the right page size, one (not two) columns to the page, elegant typography. I just couldn’t. I felt like I was cheating on G. Blakemore.

現在我要說說阿普斯利?徹里?加勒德的《世界上最糟的旅行》，企鵝出版社出的平裝本。這本書講述了他長途跋涉900英里，熬過南極的黑暗寒冬，去調查企鵝的交配習性。這本書像他的旅程一樣漫長，我大概不會再讀第二遍了。難道我需要最新的兩個版本嗎？當然啦。世事難料嘛。至于《哥倫比亞百科全書》的第二版和第三版，你說呢？

查茲曾送給我莎士比亞的《第一對開本》的復制品。我會去讀嗎？那種拼寫和印刷質量，真沒法讀。但我會一直將它珍藏。我有時看著它，感慨莎翁的天才。說到這個，我其他版本的莎士比亞作品又如何？藍色小開本的耶魯版，還有牛津版、伊斯頓版、對開本協會版的又如何？這些書都很漂亮，制作精美。但我只讀自己大學時的舊莎翁集，那本書由河岸出版社出版，如今已皺皺巴巴，書里還有許多下劃線。我只讀它，因為此書編輯是G.布萊克莫爾?埃文斯，他是我當年的教授，你明白了吧。我試著讀過一次對開本。那本書的頁面尺寸剛剛好，每頁只有一欄而非兩欄，印刷考究。但我就是讀不了，覺得自己背叛了G.布萊克莫爾。

My possessions are getting away from me. We have an agreement. My office is my office. Chaz has her own book-filled office, and takes care that the rest of the house is clean and orderly. My office has a glass door with this gilt lettering:

The Ebert Company, Ltd.

Fine Film Criticism since 1967.

I have not been able to even get into the storage closet of my office for four years. The room is lined floor to ceiling with film books, and the shelves of directors and actors with names beginning H, I, J, K and L are blocked by piles of stuff on the floor. What? You expect me to throw out my first Tandy 100? And there’s a 40-year run of Sight and Sound there somewhere.

我的藏品離我越來越遠。我和查茲達成一致，我的辦公間是我的，她有自己塞滿書的辦公間。她還得保證家里別的地方干凈整齊。我的辦公間有道玻璃門，上面有兩行鍍金的字：

埃伯特有限公司

優(yōu)質影評，始于1967年

4年來，我甚至擠不進辦公間的儲物室。那里的電影書從地面一直摞到天花板。名字以H、I、J、K和L開頭的導演和演員的那幾排書架，全都被地上成堆的雜物擋住了。什么？你指望我扔掉我的第一臺坦迪100計算機[9]？這里某處還有40年的《視與聽》雜志呢。

I have a book (here somewhere) named Rodinsky’s Room, by Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair, about a mysterious London cabalistic scholar named David Rodinsky who in 1969 disappeared from his attic above a synagogue on Princelet Street in the East End. His flat was strangely left undisturbed for years, and when it was opened all was exactly as he left it—his books, papers, possessions, even a pot of porridge on the stove.

That’s what I should do. Just turn the key and walk away, and move into 150 square feet. Get me a little electric coil to boil the coffee water. Just my Shakespeare, some Henry James, and of course Willa Cather, Colette and Simenon. Two hundred books, tops. Brewer’s. But no. There wouldn’t be room for Chaz, and I would miss her terribly. That I could never abide. And what if I needed one of these books?

我有一本書，就放在這里某處。書名是《羅丁斯基的房間》，作者是雷切爾?利希滕斯坦和伊恩?辛克萊，講述了倫敦神秘學者戴維?羅丁斯基的故事。他住在倫敦東區(qū)普林斯利街一座猶太教堂的閣樓上。1969年，他從這里失蹤了。奇怪的是，他的屋子一直沒人動過。多年后人們打開門，發(fā)現屋子還是他離開時的模樣——他的藏書、文件、財物，甚至爐上的那鍋粥，全都絲毫未動。

這正是我要做的。鎖上門離開，搬進150平方英尺的大屋。給我一個小熱得快燒水沖咖啡就行。只要有我的莎士比亞、亨利?詹姆斯，當然還有薇拉?凱瑟、科萊特和西默農就行。最多200本書，布魯爾出版社的。但是不行，那就沒有查茲的地方了，我會很想她的。我可受不了這個苦。再說，萬一我急需哪本書怎么辦？

有些書我無法割舍，是因為我翻過每頁書，讀過每個字；它們就像小小的神龕，承載了我過往的歲月。

Roger Joseph Ebert 羅杰?約瑟夫?埃伯特

[1] 德西德里烏斯.伊拉斯謨（Desiderius Erasmus， 1466—1536），文藝復興時期尼德蘭（今荷蘭和比利時）人文主義思想家。

[2] 農夫午餐，許多酒館提供的英式午餐，常為芝士加面包，現也伴有乳酪、甜泡菜等。

[3] 速溶波斯塔姆，一種不含咖啡因的咖啡替代品。

[4] 保羅.哈姆林（Paul Hamlyn，1926—2001），德裔英國出版家，不僅創(chuàng)辦了哈姆林出版社，還是著名的慈善家。

[5] 布思.塔金頓（Booth Tarkington，1869—1946），美國作家和劇作家。

[6] 憶華樓，羅孝建1954年在白金漢宮附近開設的高級中餐館。

[7] 愛德華時代，指英王愛德華七世在位的10年，這段時期社會比較穩(wěn)定，文學藝術繁榮。

[8] 夏爾巴人，喜馬拉雅山區(qū)的尼泊爾部落，以做登山向導和腳夫聞名于世。

[9] 坦迪 100（Tandy TRS-80 Model 100），誕生于1983年，是世界上第一臺廣泛普及的筆記本電腦。