苏乏的大冒险
每一天都是新的大冒险。为了找到内心的自由，苏乏一直在冒险。为了免于被妖怪吃掉，苏乏一直在 扯淡。
-
【译作】电影总结：一句话科幻片 - [翻 译]
2009-02-03
Quick flick descriptions for the inveterate channel surfer
电视频道切换综合症患者专用简明电影介绍
BySteve Mirsky 史蒂夫·米尔斯基
Remember The Fly movies? A visionary researcher attempts to build a Star Trek-like transporter. But human bits mix with bits of the fly that happen to be in the machine. Result: flyman or manfly depending on your point of view. I actually prefer the great Vincent Price effort of 1958, in which a cheesy fly head is perched on a human body. And the fly's body carries a tiny human head that squeaks, "Help me!" The 1986Jeff Goldblum version of The Fly is creepier, because, well, it stars Jeff Goldblum. Also, the integration of fly and human is more complex, because their DNA appears to have gotten mixed. Of course, there are 10 times as many microbial cells as human cells in and on any of us, and none of that DNA seems to get mixed up with Goldblum. Possibly because nobody was going to go see a movie called The E. Coli.
对《苍蝇》还有没有印象？那名富有创造力的科学家塞斯试图发明一台类似时空旅行的物质传送机，将物体从机器的一段分解后再于另一端合成还原，然而不 巧传送机中混入了一只苍蝇，当塞斯钻进传送机尝试将自己传送时，他的分解元素与苍蝇的构成混杂在一起，成了蝇头怪物，至于是称作“蝇人”还是“人蝇”便见 仁见智了。较之后来的翻拍片，实际上我更认可文森特·普雷斯在1958年经典版中的表现，在片中这位伟大男演员项上栖着一颗硕大无朋的俊俏蝇头。但若令一 只大号苍蝇顶起一粒人头发出求救的吱吱声，或许会更潇洒。在1986年的翻拍版中出现的便是杰夫·高布伦的头，怎么说呢，至少，怪物是个明星脸看上去会为 美观。此外，将苍蝇和人整合起来应该颇有难度，毕竟从影片结果来看，二者的DNA看起来已经给弄乱套了。我们任何一个人身上和体内都附着或寄生着十倍于人 体构成细胞的微生物细胞，然而无论哪个微生物的DNA看起来都不像能和杰夫掺一腿的。大概也是因为没人打算看到一部惊世骇俗的《大肠杆菌》吧，幸亏如此。
Anyway, I was channel surfing recently and happened on a listing for one of the lesser works in the fly chronicles, the 1965 Curse of the Fly. (Which starred Brian Donlevy. Who in real life was the stepfather ofBela Lugosi , Jr. Which is mixing apples and oranges. If by apples you mean flies and by oranges you mean bats.) And I became intrigued by the short description ofCurse of the Fly that appeared on the screen when I hit the info button on the remote: "A mad scientist tries out a molecular disintegrator on people but cannot get the hang of it."
总的来说，我最近染上了电视频道切换综合症，并偶然发现了一张清单，上面列有一部1965年发行的《苍蝇的诅咒》，这是影片《苍蝇》罕为人知的续集 （由小贝拉·卢高西的继父布莱恩·唐里维担当主演，影片表现了出色的糊弄本领，或许观众对苍蝇和蝙蝠的戏份满怀期待，而影片展现的无疑是苹果和橙子）。当 我远程点击这部影片信息的按钮时，出现在屏幕上的两行简评引起了我极大的兴趣：“关于疯狂科学家将分子分解机实验于人体，但没有找到窍门的故事。”
It occurred to me that other sci-fi and fantasy movies also require terse synopses for the channel-surfing community. Here then is a selection of such possible descriptions:
没错，这种简短且趣味十足的介绍可以帮助在电视频道上冲浪的朋友迅速掌握科幻小说、奇想电影的要领，接下来我便选录一些类似的影片描述呈现给大家：
2001: ASpace Odyssey
A slab of onyx and a singing computer get two astronauts in hot water.
《2001太空漫游》
一块黑玛瑙的切片联手唱歌的电脑，将两名宇航员深陷困境。
Alien
A feisty cat survives tense times onboard a spaceship.
《异形》
一只不安分的猫数次生还于宇航船的甲板上。
TheDay the Earth Stood Still
A drifter helps an old man with his math problems.
《地球停转之日》
一件不明漂流物令为数学谜题所困的老者茅塞顿开。
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Frail aliens visit Earth in search of clothing, music, friends and possibly gym equipment.
《第三类接触》
身心俱废的外星人到地球来寻找衣服、音乐、朋友，以及健身器材。
Feature Articles
The Migration History of Humans: DNA Study Traces Human Origins Across the Continents
《专题文章》
人类移民史： DNA探秘横跨大陆，精确追溯人类起源
Letters to the Editors
Readers Respond: "When Markets Beat the Polls"
《读者来信》
读者反映：“市场搞黄了民意调查。”
In Brief
News Scan Briefs: Eating with Tension, Cancerous Marriage, Milk and Diabetes
《简而言之》
新闻搜索关键词：沉重的进食，致癌的婚姻，牛奶，糖尿病
Starship Troopers
Valiant insects try to repel totalitarian invaders.
《星河站队》
奋勇的昆虫试图驱逐极权主义侵略者的故事。
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
A nerd from another planet goes bike riding and trick-or-treating.
《E.T.外星人》
一个外星淘气包在地球骑自行车遛弯，并对人们施以万圣节恶作剧。
Stargate
Kurt Russell and his buzz cut outwit the guy who played the girl who was a guy in The Crying Game.
《星际之门》
库尔特·拉塞尔靠扯谎瞒骗了出演《哭泣游戏》中女孩的家伙。
Predator
The future governor ofCalifornia and the futuregovernor of Minnesota go hiking.
《铁血战士》
加州州长与明尼苏达州州长年轻时候去远足的故事。
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
An archaeology professor searches for his college’s retirement buyout and a good rheumatologist.
《夺宝奇兵之水晶骷髅国》
考古学教授争取学院的退休买断，兼寻求风湿病专家。
Star Trek IV : The Voyage Home
Kirk,Spock and McCoy blend right in while visiting late 20th-century San Francisco.
《星际迷航4：抢救未来》
在造访20世纪后半叶旧金山的路上，柯克、斯波克和麦科伊搅成一锅粥。
Robot Monster
A guy in agorilla suit and diving helmet with rabbit-ear antennas walks up and down a hillside for no apparent reason.
《机械怪兽》
一个穿着大猩猩套装，戴着兔耳天线潜水头盔的家伙漫无目的往返于山顶与山脚间。
Iron Man
An arms manufacturer finds himself neck-deep but gets a leg up and heads home.
《钢铁侠》
一名武器制造商在他领窝深处找到了真我后，见好就收。
The Matrix
A man discovers his true destiny.
《黑客帝国》
一个男人洞悉了自己真实的命运。
Star Wars
An adolescent discovers his true destiny.
《星战》
一个青春期少年洞悉了自己真实的命运。
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
A boy discovers his true destiny.
《哈里波特与魔法石》
一个男孩洞悉了自己真实的命运。
Lord of the Rings : TheFellowship of the Ring
A hobbit discovers his true destiny.
《指环王：魔戒献身》
一个霍比特人洞悉了自己真实的命运。
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
A sad sack seeks a way to turn back time so he can live in the Dark Ages.
《驱逐进化论》
一个讨厌鬼寻求时间倒流的方法，好使自己回到欧洲中世纪。
-
【译作】The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop 书店里的灯光 2 - [翻译]
2009-02-01
Page 6-10
Books connect us with others, but that connection is created in solitude, one reader in one chair hearing on writer, what John Irving refers to as one genius speaking to another. It’s simple to order books on-line, over the phone, or via catalogue and wait for the delivery man to scurry away before we open the door. But 90percent of us who buy books still get out of the house and go to the bookstore, to be among the books, yes, but also to be among other book buyers, the likeminded, even if we might never say a word to them.Elias Canetti has described cafés as places we go to be “alone among others,” and I’ve always felt this was true of the bookstore, too. It’s a lovely combination, this solitude and gathering, almost as if the bookstore were the antidote for what it sold.
书籍为恪守孤独的人寻找寄托，这种方式显得格外安静。当读者独自一人阅读，他甚至可以听到作者在向他讲述，正如约翰•厄文所言，仿佛两个天才间的交 流，一个倾诉，一个聆听。论简捷，必然在网上书店订购更胜一筹，打个电话，或者从图书宣传册的目录中挑选，你只需静候快递派发门对门服务，甚至刚打开门他 就已经扭头走了，你几乎拿不准他留没留胡子，就这么简单，连费用都可以通过在线银行支付。但相信我，90%的人更青睐，或者说始终习惯于走出家门，来到书 店，让自己陷于书籍的沼泽中并乐此不疲，一点没错，它们甚至沉迷于混迹在其他众多购书者之中，有点儿上瘾，即便从始至终彼此间没有任何实质交流，大家保持 队形默不吭声心中充满餍足的感慨。埃利亚斯•卡内提曾把咖啡馆描述成人们想要在群体中更深刻体会孤独的圣地，“在人群中独处”，迄今为止我依旧对此深表认 同，并感觉置身于书店也是如此。这种融合是非常有趣的现象，它关乎一个人的充实与一群人的孤独间相得益彰的逻辑，仿佛书店成了消解阅读书籍所带来的孤独感 受的良方，在这里你可以找到一群同病相怜的人，于是你便不再为此而深感不安，却更加顽固地恪守你所珍视的孤独。
Perhaps the bookstore isn’t as mindful of time and space as other retail shops because there isn’t very much at stake. Most booksellers go into the business because they love books, and they have a natural leaning toward the mercantile life. Books are inexpensive, with a markup over wholesale that’s as low as the laws of economics will traffic. Books are heavy and take up lots of space, and because each title is unique and there are so many titles a well-stocked bookstore requires, inventory and stocking create a high payroll, so most booksellers don’t get paid much over minimum wage. Time may be money in the rest of the world, but not in the bookstore. There’s little money here, so we can all take our time.
书店并不像其他零售店一样在意时间与空间的安排，因为这些并非利害攸关。绝大多数书商是因为热爱图书才从事这个行当，而恰好对经商有种天然的本能。 书籍并非奢侈品，主要通过赚取批发与零售的差价获得合法利润，毫无暴利可言。书籍十分沉重且占据大量空间，而书店恰好又需要足够量的存货来以防售罄，要知 道多备一打热销书就意味多赚一笔；众口难调，财源广进，当然还要有足够多的品种以供读者选择，但由于每种书重名的几率微乎其微，故而书店将会有数量可观的 条目函待编辑。进货贮存、罗列清单、管理数据、摆放货架，这需要大量人力，也意味着一笔庞大的开支，因此书店所支付的往往尽可能接近最低工资，不违法，又 能够保障基本生活。时间就是金钱并非普遍适用，书店就是个例外。这儿的工作基本上没什么赚头，可供挥霍的只有时间，何乐而不为。
The bookstore has always been a marketplace where the ideas of a given period were traded, and so has played a formative role in the shaping of public discourse. The bookstore is often a stronghold in attacks against the rights of free speech. Under the aegis of Sylvia Beach’s Paris store,Shakespeare and Co.,Ulysses was first published, and without Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s City Lights, Ginsberg’s Howl Might Have taken years to enter the literature; these are only two of the most celebrated cases.
在过去书店时常作为集会场所，孕育着特定时期的伟大的思潮，人们在这里交换意见，组织言论，发表观点，乃至商谈出版，书店因此而扮演着塑造公众话语 乃至著述的重要角色，并为很多著作最终成形提供了强有力的外在支持。书店俨然要塞，为捍卫言论自由的战士提供庇护。若非位于巴黎塞纳河对岸的“莎士比亚书 店”所提供的经济援助，詹姆斯•乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》的首次印刷将会继续搁浅，书店的主人西尔维亚•碧奇与“迷惘的一代”作家交情颇深，直到二战后乔治• 惠特曼挂上同样店名的时候，“莎士比亚书店”才再次出现在公众视野，并成为美国“垮掉的一代”众作家于巴黎的乐土；而在“垮掉的一代”故乡，艾伦•金斯堡 若非旧金山北海岸的“城市之光”书店，其诗集《嚎叫》恐怕同样要继续遭受冷遇，即便得以闻名遐迩，跻身文学殿堂恐怕也是数年之后的事了，而事实上书店的主 人劳伦斯•费林赫迪亦是他的同行与至交，两家书店亦有着千丝万缕的关联。这仅是传为佳话的两个例子，沧海一粟，真正可供大肆渲染的远不止这些。
There is a fundamental democracy in the mass-produced book. For example,Don Quixote , one of the great achievements of Western literature, is roughly the same price as the most tawdry celebrity biography, maybe even a little cheaper since the nuisance of paying the author has expired. And location has little effect on the price: Don Quixote costs the same at the swankest New York City carriage-trade shop as in the most windsweptKansas City strip mall. Mass production in other commodities not only affects price, but also affects quality. I expect a custom-made bass guitar that costs several thousand dollars to sound and play better than my Fender knockoff, which costs two hundred. A pristine copy of the firstHogarth Press edition of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves may be a collector’s dream, but a new paperback version of it is as beguiling and compelling. The quality of her prose does not lessen with the price or edition.
大批量印制的书籍其价格一般不会超过普罗大众的心理底线。举例来说，《唐•吉珂德》虽然称得上集西方文学之大成，但价格却与恶俗的明星传记并无二 致，《唐•吉坷德》因作者过世而得以免除版税，刨掉这部分，不朽名著的价格甚至更为低廉。不同的购书地点也不会对价格产生太大影响：还以《唐•吉珂德》为 例，你会发现纽约最为豪华的贸易中心和堪萨斯露天书市二者标出的价格所差无几。批量生产不单令商品的市场价格下滑，往往也伴随着质量滑坡。我没理由认为 200多美元的芬德牌仿制贝司能够表现得比定做的还出色，毕竟后者售价数千美元，无论是音色还是手感，二者根本没有可比性。霍加斯出版社曾出版过一本维吉 尼亚伍尔夫《海浪》，其装帧再现了珍品首版时的原貌，令收藏家欣然神往梦寐以求，以致一时洛阳纸贵，然而后来发行的平装版本看起来也不差很多，同样也很吸 引人。不可否认的是，她的散文不会随价格低廉而流失情感，亦不会因版本不同而相差分毫。
In the bookstore, the finest writing is as accessible as the most forgettable, and both are accorded the same respect: here it is, is there a reader who wants it? No matter the book, there’s always someone who does. A bookstore is as likely to carry Proust’s In Search of Lost Time as the newest book of cat cartoons, or books on automobile repair,military history , self-help， computer programming, or the evolution of microbes. There’s something for everybody.
书店从不主观判断一本书是否应该享有特权，绝妙的文笔不会受到优待，毫无特点也不会被垫到下面，它们享有同等的尊严：是否有读者需要？什么样的书， 他们自有分辨。一家书店既可以销售普鲁斯特的《追忆似水年华》，也可以销售新的卡通猫绘本，非但如此，货架还摆放着如汽车修理手册、军事历史、自助向导、 电脑程序编写教程以及微生物进化等各种类型的书籍。这样读者便可以按图索骥，各取所需。
And there’s somebody for everything. The bookstore is not only for the literary. Readers come with their particular obsessions to find the information they seek: the price of antique coins, effective weed eradication, the proper enclosures for small-scale pig farming. Any good bookstore carries high and low.
什么人都有，他们的需求五花八门，所以除文学作品外书店还需要更多其他内容的书籍。读者的需求往往很明确，他们更希望能够有针对性地寻找自己所需的 信息：如古钱币的价值，行之有效的除草方法，或者用于小型农场的猪圈护栏类型。好的书店决不会让这些不同类的图书堆在一起。
The book is a uniquely durable object, one that can be fully enjoyed without being damaged. A book doesn’t require fuel, food, or service; it isn’t very messy and rarely makes noise. A book can be read over and over, then passed on to friends, or resold at a garage sale . A book will not crash or freeze and will still work when filled with sand. Even if it falls into the bath, it can be dried out, ironed if necessary, and then finished. Should the spine of a book crack so badly the pages fall out, one simply has to gather them before the wind blows them away and wrap with a rubber band.
书是经得起折腾的耐用品，一本书可以从头读到尾仍然完好无损。你既不用给书添燃料，也不需要喂它食物，更犯不上绞尽脑汁伺候它；书不会给人带来代谢 物也不致把环境搞得一团糟，它甚至格外安静。一本书可以翻来覆去读，拿给朋友看，或者在自家门前摆摊试着转手卖掉。书不易散架，也结不了冰，沾满沙子也不 碍事。泡澡读书虽然惬意，但泡得温暖酥麻五体舒畅，书便有可能掉进浴缸，虽然我没试过，但晒干后还是可以读的，如果有必要就熨一下，肯定没问题。如果书脊 髓裂得不成样子书页便会成把往下掉，补救方法也很简单，只需把散开的部分收拾利索，趁起风前用胶带粘好就不成问题，相信我，胶水只会令掉页越来越多。
Most important in the democratic nature of the book, is that aside from basic literacy, books require no special training to operate.
只要识字，看书不需要经过特别训练，这一点可谓书籍平民化的先决条件。
The invitation of the bookstore occurs on so many levels that it seems we must take our time. We peruse the shelves, weaving around the other customers, feeling a cold gust of rain from the open door, not really knowing what we want. Then there! On that heaped table, or hidden on the lowest, dustiest shelf, we stumble on it. A common thing, this volume. There may be five thousand copies of this particular book in the world, or fifty thousand, or half a million, all exactly alike, but this one is as rare as if it had been made solely for us. We open to the first page, and the universe unfolds, once upon a time.
书店像一场盛宴，在未看到最为诱人最对胃口的那一道菜之前，我们不妨放慢脚步，仔细品尝。我们如游丝般在顾客中穿行，仔细浏览着书架，忽而隐约察觉 到一股细雨骤冷的味道，自敞开的门外飘来，竟一时拿不准什么才是我们真正寻找的。就在此刻！就在桌上的书堆里，或是落满灰尘的最底层，我们偶然发现了它。 就那么大点儿，这是如此寻常的一本书，却触动了我们的神经。同样的书或许全世界有五千册，五万册，甚至印了不止五十万册，从内容到材质都完全一致，但仅有 这一本才像是为我们定制的，辄几难求。当我们翻开第一页，世界由此开启，如尘封的往事娓娓道来。
||||||||||||||||
November, a dark, rainy Tuesday, later afternoon. This is my ideal time to be in a bookstore. The shortened light of the afternoon and the idleness and hush of the hour gather everything close, the shelves and the books and the few other customers who graze head-bent in the narrow aisles. There’s a clerk at the counter who stares out the front window, taking a breather before the evening rush. I’ve come to find a book.
在十一月的某个星期三，外面光线昏暗还下着雨，下午晚些的时候是我去书店的理想时间。下午的日光仿佛更为短促，闲散且宁静的时光令一切都拉近了距 离。书架，书，几个顾客站在狭窄的过道埋头阅读，都还是老样子。已是近黄昏，柜台前的员工望着窗外愣神，趁顾客多起来之前，打算好好休息一下。而我则是来 找本书。
For the last several days I’ve had the sudden and general urge to buy a new book. I’ve stopped off at a few bookstores around the city, and while I’ve looked at hundreds and hundreds of books in that time, I have not found the one book that will satisfy my urge. It’s not as if I don’t have anything to read; there’s a tower of perfectly good unread books next to my bed, not to mention the shelves of books in the living room I’ve been meaning to reread. I find myself, maddeningly, hungry for the next one, as yet unknown. I no longer try to analyze this hunger; I capitulated long ago to the book lust that’s afflicted me most of my life. I know enough about the course of the disease to know I’ll discover something soon.
那段时间我体内莫名燃起一股强烈的购买欲，没错，我突然想买本新书。一连逛城里几家书店，粗略扫了几百本书，但仍旧没有找到令我心悦诚服的那一本。 这并不是因为我看起来没书可读；恰恰相反，还没读的书在我床边已经堆成了小山，写得都不错，这还别说我客厅书架上的，不少都已经列在重读计划中了。我就是 突然找着感觉，顾不得了，有点着了魔似的将所有热情倾注于寻找这件事，甚至并不确定究竟要找什么。我已经对分析这种莫名的渴望失去了兴趣；我臣服于书欲已 经有年头了，这种异乎寻常的欲望发作起来真是种莫大的煎熬。对这种病态深刻的体会是我意识到照这样发展下去，不久我便可以窥见某些奇妙的东西。
This rainy afternoon my wife and daughter are out of the house, and I’ve got a few hours to kill. An odd phrase that, time to kill, when we almost always mean to bring beck time, increase time, re-animate time, actually hold it more tightly. What better place to enjoy the stretched hours than a bookstore. I pop around the corner to our local store, which I’ve already scoured twice in the past three days, but it seems worth another try, and besides, the weather is perfect for it, I may be in the store for five minutes or an hour, it doesn’t really matter. I do know that I’ll leave with some book and head home to spend hours, bothlost and found , in the perfect solitude of my sagging green easy chair.
下午的天空雨水充沛，妻子和女儿外出还没回来，搁我一人在家，还有大把的时间没处打发。
多么怪异的习语，打发时间，这在大多数人大多时候都 下意识节省时间，续满时间，抓牢时间，使时间看上去更为鲜活、充裕的主流中，显得如此不合时宜。还有比书店更适合打发一摊时间的去处么？我去了附近一间把 角的本地书店，即便这三天已经去血拼过两次，但仍觉得亦犹未尽，更何况雨天亦令这家书店格外迷人，待五分钟或是耗上一个小时对我而言都无所谓。我很清楚我 属于逢书必买，结账即走，径直回家的人，就这样捧着书陷在休闲椅中，安然度过这最后几个小时；心中既有满载而归的喜悦，又不乏了却一大乐事的失落，享用着 令人沉醉的独处时光。
I cruise my usual route through the store, past the stacked faces of new hardcovers and the wall of recent paperbacks, once around the magazines. Even though I was here yesterday morning, every day brings new arrivals, and while there’s nothing startling today, there’s still pleasure in looking at the same books again, wondering about that one on the history of the compass, or admiring the photograph of the moon on this novel, the bulk and sheen of all these books. I’m in a secretive mood—because of the rain, I imagine—and I’m drawn into the fiction section by the claustrophobic air or its narrow canyon.
我沿袭以往的路线在书店中逡巡，我的目光掠过那些精装书妖娆多姿的硬皮封面，与码满一面墙的平装新书擦身而过，然后便到了杂志区。尽管昨天早上刚来 过，仍有一些新书是我没有见过的，书店天天进货，生生不息，虽然今天同样没有令人惊喜的发现，但再次看到那些熟悉的面孔仍旧十分愉悦，随便翻翻，琢磨一下 那本指南针历史，感叹一下这本小说插图，各式开本与装帧琳琅满目，令人感到愉快。如果继续前行，我便产生一种悸动的情绪，没准是雨天引起的，但我更愿意相 信这来自于小说区令人压抑的幽闭空气，或是它俨然万仞峡谷一般的书架，令过道更显逼仄。
doubanclaimec4a786d2c1fc01e
-
【译作】The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop 书店里的灯光 1 - [翻译]
2009-02-01
可能不会全书翻译了，因为08年10月这本书就已经出版 了，而我12月才见到英文版。简体的目前发行已经做到了各大书店，乃至卓越、当当、久久，简体版叫做《书店的灯光》，繁体版叫做《如果你爱上一本书》，这 两个版本是同一个翻译，陈体仁，感觉也像个新手。也就是说上海三联出版社根本就没再找人翻译，而是直接用word将繁体转换简体，也难怪，事实上翻译权都 是独家的，付版税，皆大欢喜。现在英文版和中文版都在手里了，对比我的版本，确实在有些地方逊色许多，但始终难以置信译者是这样简约就把一本关于书业的书 搞定了，如果是我，肯定不会这么处理，不过或许读着要的就是他那种风格，呵呵，也罢，寻常读者始终没有一个好的渠道能够第一时间拿到样书，甚至这也是要论 资排辈的吧。以下我便分几篇将前段时间的译作和原文放上来，还请大家指教。
When I walk into a bookstore, any bookstore, first thing in the morning, I’m flooded with a sense of hushed excitement. I shouldn’t feel this way. I’ve spent most of my adult life working in bookstores, either as a bookseller or a publisher’s sales rep, and even though I no longer work in the business, as an incurable reader I find myself in a bookstore at least five times a week. Shouldn’t I be blasé about it all by now？In the quiet of such a morning, however, the store’s displays stacked squarely and its shelves tidy and promising, I know that this is no mere shop. When a bookstore opens its doors, the rest of the world enters, too, the day’s weather and the day’s news, the streams of customers, and of course the boxes of books and the many other worlds they contain—books of facts and truths, books newly written and those first read centuries before, books of great relevance and of absolute banality. Standing in the middle of this confluence, I can’t help but feel the possibility of the universe unfolding a little, once upon a time.
每天早上我能记得的第一件事，便是找到一家书店，随便哪家都行，然后走进去，感受空气中弥漫的纸浆味道，几十年来这始终令我心潮澎湃。但有时这种兴 奋本身，亦会令我觉得纳闷——倘若是你，如我一般——将绝大部分成年后的生活消耗在同一处平淡无奇的工作上，又怎能不觉厌倦？我的工作围绕着书籍，无论作 为一名书商，抑或担任出版方的销售代表；即使把工作完全抛在脑后，仅仅作为一名利用业余时间享用书籍的读者，我也时常不由自主光顾书店，像被人操纵一样， 一周至少5次。我是不是该对这一切感到厌倦才合情合理？我是如此熟悉，在每一个这样宁静的清晨，它们就摆放在书架上，堆叠归整，一尘不染，俨然整装待发， 亦充满生机。对我而言，这并非仅仅是商店而已。当书店敞开大门，外面的世界便涌了进来，向书店索取争鸣与安宁，亦带入交流与陈述。即日天气及当天新闻，随 川流不息的顾客纷至沓来，各种文字著就的书籍装满纸箱，每一本书都有它想要传达的事实与真理，鸟瞰时下热销的新撰，以及初次浮出水面的古籍，向来不缺乏具 有现实意义的作品，同样也少不了老生常谈。我被这些书包围着，站在智慧喷涌的合流，无法抑制地感受到这个世界正一点点被开启，如尘封的往事娓娓道来。
I’m not here just to buy a new book, though. Much of my excitement at being in a bookstore comes from the place itself, the understanding that I can stay here for as long as need be. The unspoken rules we’ve developed for the bookstore are quite different from the rules that govern other retail enterprises. While the bookstore is most often privately held , it honors a public claim on its time and space. It is not a big-box store where one buys closets of toilet paper or enough Tabasco sauce for the apocalypse ; nor is it a tony boutique that sells prestige in the shape of sequined dresses or rare gems; and it’s no convenience store either, raided for a six-pack , cigarettes, and a Nutty Buddy on the way home from a hard day at work. The cash register’s chime does not define how long we can linger. A bookstore is for hanging out. Often for hours. Perhaps I’ve come to crib a recipe from a cookbook or hunt down the name of thatArt Deco hotel in San Antonio or even reread one of my favorite short stories. I might browse covers awhile after meeting up with a friend, the two of us chatting about our lives. Or I can sit down in History and read the first chapter of a charming treatise on the complex language of hand gestures in high Renaissance Naples. As you might be reading right now, taking your own sweet time. If there’s a café, all the better;a piece of cake and a cup of coffee, and time can run loose all over the place. I might even buy a book.
我喜欢书籍但不是购物狂，我的乐趣并非仅仅斩获一本新书，而是源于书店本身。在这种热忱的驱使下，我可以一直泡在书店而不觉枯燥。很多关于经营书店 的观念是我们长久以来约定俗成，像某种文化，并未有过成文规则，亦不会开口强调，这和那些其他零售行业的规则大相径庭。虽说书店时常是私人生计，但营业时 间以及空间利用都会相对灵活。书店不比那些大型商店，这里并不出售厕纸桶，当然用于天启之日在方舟中得闲朵颐的辣椒酱也常年欠奉；也应当将书店与托尼精品 店之类的高档商铺区分开，相信我如果你是来挑选一条星光大道上常见的那种亮片晚礼服，或者匪夷所思的稀有珠宝，你定会大失所望；同样我也想提醒一些过度依 赖便利店的朋友，书店确然可以带来便捷，也可以解决很多日常生活的需要，但这里既没有半打啤酒一拎便走，也没有琳琅满目的各式烟蒂，即便只是为犒劳自己结 束一天庸碌公务而觅一支香甜可口的冰激凌，也足以扫了你的雅兴。收银机清脆的打印声并不意味着书店下了逐客令，事实上书店可供你长时间站立，呆若木鸡，放 空，入定，又或者你可以考虑做些类似偷闲充电的正事。这通常要花费你很多时间，几个小时甚至更多，当然你可以像我一样利用这段时间掏出纸笔全盘抄袭几条名 厨心得以备不时之需，我也曾捕获到位于圣安东尼奥的一家装饰艺术建筑风格的酒店资料，但或许重读一篇最喜欢的短篇小说才是惬意之举。书店是公共场所，你甚 至会与一直怀念的旧相识不期而遇，和他谈谈彼此最近的生活，然后怀揣着匆匆留下的联络方式，凝视某本书的封面，久久不能从回想中抽身而出。若非如此，我大 概一直扎在历史区的书堆里，独自享用那本那不勒斯文艺复兴鼎盛时期关于复合手语的迷人论文，这情景没准和你现在一样，逐字逐句，页页深入，请慢慢享用你的 私有时光吧，你会感受到它有多么曼妙多姿，甜美宜人。如果恰好可以找到一处读者休息区，甚至还可以为自己选一小杯咖啡，再多摆上一碟点心，那便堪称完美， 时间会随你的身体融进柔软的沙发，渐渐松弛，自咖啡浓郁的香气弥漫整个空间，令一切拥有一种别致的审美情趣，而我兴许会因此而买下一本心仪的好书。
Imagine going into a department store, trying on a new jacket and walking around in it for half an hour, maybe coming back the following Wednesday to try it on again, with no real intention of buying it. Go into a pizzeria and see if you might sample a slice; you’re pretty hungry, so you taste a bit of the pepperoni, the sausage, the artichoke and pineapple, and they’re delicious but not quite what you’re looking for that day. In other retail shops, the clerks and management are much less forgiving of those customers who would consume without paying.
你尽可以想象自己置身于一家应有尽有的豪华商厦，随手取下一件石膏模特身 上的新款夹克，穿上试试！至少溜达个半小时去领略它的款式和剪裁，又不是赶时间，没准下个星期三再回来兜一圈会更有心得，这样又未尝不可呢？即便近期并没 有购置的打算。那么多意大利皮萨店一定有一家适合你的口味，留意有否请君品尝的展位，或者直接去要，这没什么大不了；要知道你饿得直扶墙，所以毫不犹豫地 接过，并咬了下去，贪婪地咀嚼起来，噢！意大利肠若隐若现的辣味开始起作用了，还有吃起来富有弹性的小香肠，咬破裹在表面的胶质蛋白，你甚至听得到清脆的 声响，但这并不会妨碍你体会洋蓟的美味——鲜笋、蘑菇、或许你还可以尝出核头的甘甜，当然你不会放过肥厚的芝士里面藏着迷人的菠萝，狠狠咬一下，就快要咽 下去了你却发现，即便它们如此可口，但却和那天你渴求的口味刚好差那么一丁点，这简直太遗憾了。在庞大的零售行业中，并非所有店员和经营理念都能容忍像我 们这样尽可能享用商品但并不支付任何费用的顾客，或者说并非都那么大方。
Part of the allowable leisure in a bookstore comes from the product it sells. Books are slow. They require time; they are written slowly, published slowly, and read slowly. A four-hundred-page novel might take years to write, longer to publish, and even after the novel is purchased, the reader can expect to spend hours with it at one sitting over a number of days, weeks, sometimes months.
之所以一间书店能够承受顾客在店内翻阅图书，一部分原因在于 我们所卖的商品有它自己的一套规则。是的，书籍终归是一种略显悠闲的造物。书籍需要读者供给充沛的时间让渡给阅读本身；她们经由作者无数次创造、斟酌、推 翻，被缓缓书写，亦通过复杂的编审、对校、付印、发行，最终抵达一个个店铺，每一名尊敬的读者手中，自此展开一场漫长而悠远的阅读旅程，直到最后一丝回味 消弭在无尽的历史烟波中，尔后便是无止境的等待。一本四百余页的小说或许要花费数年时间著就，然后陷入更为久远的出版统筹，即便有幸卖出了版权，距离读者 有机会一口气几个小时完全沉浸在你虚构的世界中浑然忘我，还要些时日，几个礼拜，甚至数月。
But it’s not just the nature of the book that determines the bookstore’s permissiveness. The modern bookstore has long been associated with the coffeehouse and the café. In eighteenth-century Europe, when coffee and tobacco conquered the continent, the coffeehouse provided a public gathering place for writers , editors, and publishers. The stimulant coffee and the sedative tobacco, in combination, made sitting at a table all day a pleasant equilibrium, perfect for writing, reading, long conversations, or staring out the window. This was the age of Enlightenment: literacy was on the rise, books were cheaper and more abundant, and bookstores were often adjacent to coffeehouses, the customers of one were the customers of the other, with plenty of time in both for conversation and thought. Even today, the largest corporate chain stores, always mindful of the bottom line, build spaces friendly to the savor of time, with cafés and couches and study tables.
书店并非仅仅根据阅读的需要而允许读者满世界放羊，这些共识 有很长远远。现代书店与咖啡屋、小餐馆联系紧密，并且由来已久。远在十八世纪欧洲大陆便早已视咖啡与烟草为知己，那时的咖啡馆不仅能够满足人们口味上的偏 好，更为志趣相投的作家、编辑乃至出版商提供了公共场所。在这里所能提供的服务以及别致的格调令他们欣然忘返，而富含咖啡因的饮料与提供尼古丁与哈尔明的 香烟亦可相互制约，既不会因咖啡刺激而变得亢奋癫狂坐立不安，同样可以防止香烟的麻醉与沉闷，营造出一种均衡的愉悦，对写作、阅读、交谈普遍适用，即便只 是想一个人静静凝视窗外，也同样可以感受到这种惬意，这么待上一整天也不成问题。重温那个启蒙时代，你会发现随着人们读写能力与文化水平的提升，书籍并不 再是少数人的奢侈品，它们变得更加廉价也足够丰富，或许你没有特别留意，书店时常与咖啡馆相毗邻，这便于两者共享那些有着充足时间用以交流与思考的顾客， 令两者看起来就像沾亲带故的共同体。时至今日，那些最为庞大的连锁机构仍旧视此为黄金准则，也是基本考量之一：更友好地营造空间，更细致地品味时间。对于 书店而言，沙发、书桌、咖啡，正是它所需要的。
No comments:
Post a Comment