第39课

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I have known very few writers,

我认识的作家很少，

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but those I have known and whom I respect, confess at once that they have little idea where they are going when they first set pen to paper.

但我所认识和尊重的那几位作家，都立刻承认他们在首次提笔写作时，对要写什么几乎没有什么概念。

旁白 neutral

They have a character, perhaps two;

他们可能有一个人物，或许两个；

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they are in that condition of eager discomfort which passes for inspiration all admit radical changes of destination once the journey has begun;

他们处于那种急切不安的状态，那种状态被认为是灵感，一旦旅程开始，所有人都承认目的地会发生根本性变化；

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one, to my certain knowledge, spent nine months on a novel about Kashmir,

据我所知，有一位作家花九个月写了一部关于克什米尔的小说，

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then reset the whole thing in the Scottish Highlands.

然后将整个故事背景改到了苏格兰高地。

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I never heard of anyone making a 'skeleton', as we were taught at school.

我从未听说有人像我们在学校里学的那样，先写好“提纲”。

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In the breaking and remaking, in the timing interweaving, beginning afresh,

在打破与重塑、适时交织、重新开始的过程中，

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the writer comes to discern things in his material which were not consciously in his mind when he began.

作家开始辨明他材料中那些在开始时并未意识到的东西。

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This organic process, often leading to moments of extraordinary self-discovery, is of an indescribable fascination.

这种有机过程，常常带来非凡的自我发现时刻，具有难以言喻的魅力。

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A blurred image appears; he adds a brushstroke and another and it is gone

一个模糊的图像出现了；他添上一笔又一笔，然后它消失了，

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but something was there, and he will not rest till he has captured it.

但有些东西曾在那儿，他不会停歇直到捕捉到它。

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Sometimes the yeast within a writer outlives a book he has written.

有时，作家内心的“酵母”比他写的一本书活得更久。

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I have heard of writers who read nothing but their own books;

我听说过有些作家除了自己的书什么都不读；

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like adolescents they stand before the mirror,

他们像青少年一样站在镜子前，

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and still cannot fathom the exact outline of the vision before them.

却仍然无法完全理解眼前景象的精确轮廓。

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For the same reason, writers talk interminably about their own books,

出于同样的原因，作家们滔滔不绝地谈论自己的书，

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winkling out hidden meanings, super-imposing new ones,

挖掘隐藏的意义，叠加新的意义，

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begging response from those around them.

乞求周围人的回应。

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Of course a writer doing this is misunderstood: he might as well try to explain a crime or a love affair.

当然，这样做会使作家被误解：他倒不如去解释一起犯罪或一段恋情。

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He is also, incidentally, an unforgivable bore.

顺便说一句，他也是一个不可原谅的无聊之人。

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This temptation to cover the distance between himself and the reader,

这种弥合自己与读者之间距离的诱惑，

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to study his image in the sight of those who do not know him, can be his undoing: he has begun to write to please.

在不认识他的人眼中审视自己的形象，可能会导致他的失败：他已经开始为了取悦他人而写作。

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A young English writer made the pertinent observation a year or two back

一两年前，一位年轻的英国作家发表了中肯的评论，

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that the talent goes into the first draft, and the art into the drafts that follow.

才能体现在初稿中，而艺术则体现在后续的草稿中。

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For this reason also the writer, like any other artist,

也正是因为这个原因，作家，像其他任何艺术家一样，

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has no resting place, no crowd or movement in which he may take comfort,

没有安身之所，没有可以从中寻求慰藉的人群或运动，

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no judgment from outside which can replace the judgment from within.

没有外部的评判能够取代其内在的评判。

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A writer makes order out of the anarchy of his heart;

作家从内心无序的状态中创造出秩序；

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he submits himself to a more ruthless discipline than any critic dreamed of,

他让自己服从于一种比任何评论家所梦想的都更无情的纪律，

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and when he flirts with fame, he is taking time off from living with himself,

当他追逐名利时，他是在从与自我共处中抽身，

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from the search for what his world contains at its inmost point.

从寻找他世界最深处包含的东西中抽身。