1、An Appreciation of English LiteratureUnit 9 English Essayists Bertrand RussellEdward Morgan Forster英美文学欣赏（第四版）u作者简介作者简介伯特兰 罗素（Bertrand Russell,18721970），英国哲学家、文学家、数学家、逻辑学家，1950 年获诺贝尔文学 奖。英美文学欣赏（第四版）罗素在哲学、教育、逻辑、经济、政治等不同领域都有著述，其哲学思想尤其影响深远。谈到社会问题的著作有自由之路（Roads to Freedom,1918）和婚姻与道德（Marriage and Morals
2、,1929）。哲学与逻辑学方面有神秘主义与逻辑（Mysticism and Logic,1918）、心 理 分 析（The Analysis of Mind,1921）与西方哲学史（History of Western Philosophy,1946）等。他 还 与 怀 特 合 著 有 数 学 原 理（Principia Mathematica,19091913）三卷。他还著有自传三卷及大量散文作品。罗素坚定地维护世界和平和社会正义事业，是20世纪人类良知的化身。他伟大的智慧和卓越的天赋使他成为一位散文大师，其文思想深邃，文笔汪洋，又质朴清新，明白如镜。罗素也很关注中国命运，曾在1921年来中
3、国讲学将近一年。他关于中国的文章有中国与西方文明之对照与中国人的性格等。英美文学欣赏（第四版）u作品欣赏作品欣赏罗素无疑是一位内心生活丰富，思想博大精深的智者。我为什么生活（“What I Have Lived For”）是罗素自传的序言。通过这篇短文，我们有幸走入他的内心世界，分享他的人生经验，了解他伟大智慧的动力和源泉。英美文学欣赏（第四版）Three passions,simple but overwhelmingly strong,have governed my live:the longing for love,the search for knowledge,and unbear
4、able pity for the suffering of mankind.三种单纯而强烈的激情主宰着我的生命：对爱情的渴望，对知识的探索，和对人类苦难难以承受的怜悯。英美文学欣赏（第四版）I have sought love,first,because it brings ecstasyecstasy so great that I would often have sacrificed all the rest of life for a few hours of this joy.I have sought it,next,because it relieves lonelinesst
5、hat terrible loneliness in which one shivering consciousness looks over the rim of the world into the old unfathomable lifeless abyss.I have sought it,finally,because in the union of love I have seen,in a mystic miniature,the prefiguring vision of the heaven that saints11 and poets have imagined.（注解
6、：他把爱放在第一位，首先因为爱带来欣喜若狂；其次是因为爱能减轻可怕的孤寂；最后，在与爱的结合中，在一种神秘的缩影中，作者得以看到圣者和诗人曾经想象过的天堂。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）Love and knowledge,so far as they were possible,led upward toward the heavens.But always pity brought me back to earth.Echoes of cries of pain reverberate in my heart.爱和知识，如有可能，便会将人引向天堂。然而怜悯把我带回尘世。痛苦的呼喊一遍遍在我心中回
7、荡。（注解：罗素怀着同样的激情追求知识。他渴望了解人的内心世界。他渴望了解星星为何闪耀。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）I long to alleviate the evil,but I cannot,and I too suffer.我渴望减少罪恶，但我无能为力，我也在承受痛苦。（注解：这是一位“双肩担道义，妙手著文章”的大思想家的真实写照。爱、知识和对人类的 怜悯是他上下求索的无穷动力和不尽的智慧源泉，尤其他对人类苦难的怜悯使他的文章有 一种异乎寻常的震撼力。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）Questions1.What have the author lived for?Do you agree th
8、at these are the most precious in life?2.List the most valuable things in your life,and give your reasons.英美文学欣赏（第四版）u作品欣赏作品欣赏 人如何变老(“How to Grow Old”)是罗素的又一不朽名篇。正如作者开篇所言，虽然题目是如何变老，这篇文章的真实目的却是讲人如何才能不变老。首先，罗素语言诙谐地提出了他的第一个 忠告：谨慎地挑选祖先。在历数了他的伟大祖先之后，罗素想说的是，如果一个人足够勤 奋，他就没有时间留意到老之将至。如果你有广泛的兴趣和一直参加有益的活动，你就没
9、 有理由在意你已经度过的年华。英美文学欣赏（第四版）Psychologically there are two dangers to be guarded against in old age.One of these is under absorption in the past.The other thing to be avoide disclinging to youth in the hope of sucking vigour from.老年时期，心理上应当警惕两种危险：一是过分沉湎于过去；二是要抓住年轻人不放。（注解：罗素在文中条理清晰地表达了他对健康、衰老和死亡一系列问题的看法
10、。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）The best way to overcome itso at least it seems to meis to make your interests gradually wider and more impersonal,until bit by bit thewalls of the ego recede,and your life becomes increasingly merged in the universal life.（注解：关于老年人通常对死亡的恐惧，罗素的看法是，克服死亡恐惧的最佳方法是逐步扩大你的兴趣，使之逐渐超越自我。直到自我的壁垒一点
11、点退却，你的生命一步一步与宇宙生命融合为一。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）An individual human existence should be like a river-small at first,narrowly contained within its banks,and rushing passionately past rocks and over waterfalls.Gradually the river grows wider,the banks recede,the waters flow more quietly,and in the end,without any v
12、isible break,they become merged in the sea,and painlessly lose their individual being.The man who,in old age,can see his life in this way,will not suffer form the fear of death,since the things he cares for will continue.一个个体生命的存在应该像一条河流开始很小，窄窄地夹在河岸中间，在岩 石和瀑布间激荡、跳跃。渐渐地，河流变宽，河岸后退，河流较为平静地流淌，到最后，不经意间悄然
13、融入大海，毫无痛苦地失去它们个体的存在。一个人晚年如能这样看待自己的生命，就不会感到死亡的恐惧，因为他所关爱的事业将会延续下去。英美文学欣赏（第四版）I should wish to die while still at work,knowing that others will carry on what I can no longer do,and content in the thought that what was possible has been done.我希望在工作之时死去，我明白别人会继续我未竟的事业，同时为我已经做了力所能及的事而释然欣慰。(注解：一个理性而达观的哲人形象
14、跃然纸上。显然，这种理性与达观无论是作为一种生活态度，还是作为一种人生信仰，无论是对于老年人，还是对于年轻人都同样适宜。)英美文学欣赏（第四版）u Questions1.What is the authors real purpose of writing an essay with such a title?2.How many pieces of advice does the author give on the topic?What are they?Which one is the most helpful?英美文学欣赏（第四版）u作者简介作者简介爱德华摩根福斯特（Edward Mo
15、rgan Forster,18791970）英国小说家、散文家。剑桥大学毕业。英美文学欣赏（第四版）福斯特通过在印度的生活经历，完成了反映了两种文化的差异和冲突的著名小说印度之行（A Passage to India,1924）。其他的作品有长篇小说天使们望而却步的地方（Where Angels Fear to Tread,1905）、最漫长的旅程（The Longest Journey,1907）、可以远眺的房间（A Room with a View,1908）和霍华兹别墅（Howards End,1910）等。他的小 说文笔细腻，语言机智，主要描写知识分子和中产阶级的精神世界。他还著有文学
16、理论著作小说面面观（Aspects of the Novel,1927）等。英美文学欣赏（第四版）u作品欣赏作品欣赏散文我的树林(“My Wood”)通过作者的亲身经历论述了财产对人性格的四种影响。文章条理清晰，脉络分明，层层递进，丝丝入扣。加之作者贯通古今，旁征博引，使文章既显得有趣，又多了些许书卷气。行文中所流露的幽默和文章最后的反讽，更透出英国散文特有的优雅。英美文学欣赏（第四版）英美文学欣赏（第四版）In the first place,it makes me feel heavey.Property produces men of weight,and it was a man of
17、 weight who failed to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.（注解：文章开篇作者说自己购置了一片小树林，随之便引出问题：财产对人的性格有什么影响？首先，作者说，财产使自己感到沉重。“如果你占有许多东西，你就不能行动自如了。”）In the second place,it makes me feel it ought to be larger.The other day I heard a twig snap in it.I was annoyed at first,for I thought that someone was blackberryi
18、ng11,and depreciating the value of the undergrowth.On coming nearer,I saw it was not a man who had trodden on the twig and snapped it,but a bird,and I felt pleased.My bird.The bird was not equally pleased.Ignoring the relation between us,it took fright as soon as it saw the shape of my face,and flew
19、 straight over the boundary hedge into a field,the property of Mrs.Henessy,where it sat down with a loud squawk.It had become Mrs.Henessys bird.Something seemed grossly amiss here,something that would not have occurred had the wood been larger.（注解：其次，拥有了自己的树林使作者觉得它应该更大一些。树林中的一只飞来的小鸟让他高兴，然而小鸟径直飞走，而且飞
20、进了别人的田地，这让他心中不快。因此，他希望他的树林周围的全部土地都成为他的，以保护树林的完整性。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）英美文学欣赏（第四版）Beyond which.But these immensities ended by saddening me.I could not suppose that my wood was the destined nucleus of universal dominionit is so very small and contains no mineral wealth beyond the blackberries.（注解：他终于因为“无法想象我的树
21、林注定要成为宇宙的整个版图的核心”而感到悲哀。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）In the third place,property makes its owner feel that he ought to do something to it.Yet he isnt sure what.（注解：再次，财产使它的主人觉得必须有所作为，却不能肯定该做什么。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）Creation,property,enjoyment form a sinister trinity19 in the humanmind.Creation and enjoyment are both very,very
22、good,yet they often unattainable without a material basis,and at such moments property pushes itself in as a substitute,saying,“Accept me insteadIm good enough for all three.”It is not enough.I t is,as Shakespeare said of lust,“The expense of spirit in a waste of shame”:it is“Before,a joy proposed;b
23、ehind,a dream.”（注解：作者进而提出，创造、财产、享受在人的头脑中形成一个邪恶的三位一体，财产让人贪婪，让人具有更强的占有欲。）I shall wall in and fence out until I really taste the sweets of property.（注解：最后，由于行人穿越树林中的公共人行小径时，可以随手捡拾树林里的黑刺莓浆果，这让他产生了“将会砌起墙来，或者筑起篱笆”的念头，他试图“使自己真正尝到拥有财产的甜头”。）Enormously stout,endlessly avaricious,pseudo-creative,intensely self
24、ish,I shall weave upon my forehead the quadruple crown of possession until those nasty Bolshies come and take it off again and thrust me aside into the outer darkness.（注解：总之，财产让人异常肥胖、贪得无厌、虚假创新、极端自私。人为物役，古训不虚。）英美文学欣赏（第四版）Questions1.What aspects does the author list of the effect on him of his wood?Do
25、 you have the same feeling when you have things of your own?2.Is the author humorous or serious when he develops his idea?In which part is the author humorous?Can you distinguish the difference between humor and sincerity in the passage?英美文学欣赏（第四版）nQuotationsOne of the symptoms of an approaching ner
26、vous breakdown is the belief that ones work is terribly important.Bertrand RussellOur life on earth is,and ought to be,material and carnal.But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality;they are still entangled with the desire for ownership.Edward Morgan Forster英美文学欣赏（第四版）英美文学欣赏（第四版）中国人民大学出版社出版发行中国人民大学出版社出版发行版权所有版权所有 侵权必究侵权必究
