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手边刚好有一本johnson’s dictionary a modern selection.没事的时候喜欢翻来看看。这本字典是约翰逊的呕心沥血之作。在此之前虽然有1617年的a guide into tongues ,1623年cockeram的English Dictionarie，还有米尔顿侄儿EDWARD PHILLIPS 1658年编写的A NEW WORLD OF ENGLISH WORDS，以及bailey1721年编写的universal etymological English dictionary ,然而这些字典都谈不上完备。约翰逊编写的字典是在11卷的牛津英语字典以及韦氏大字典出现之前最好的字典。这本字典几乎是他一个人完成的，而此刻的他却是名不见经传，并非像其后来那样家喻户晓。
编写这本字典总共花去了他近九年的时间（1746-1755），其间他所经历的艰难困苦可想而知。而英国文人在约翰逊这一时期基本是靠自己的奋斗。不像中国文人有科举制度，有跻身朝廷为官的机会。英国文人纯粹是像英谚所说的是用鞋带把自己提起来的。文人的艰难困苦可以从字典中对Grubstreet的解释，Leslie stephen的约翰逊传中详细的描写，还有同一时期john Philips 写的the splendid shilling一首自嘲幽默诗里可以从中有大致的了解。然而就是在这种情况下，约翰逊完成了这部字典。它包括有大概2300多页的释义，例句，还包括一个序言，一个语言历史和语法的介绍。多年以后他曾经对博斯威尔不无得意的说：“I know very well what I was undertaking ,-and very well how to do it ,-and have done it very well.”
我手边的这部字典是删减本的 ，大概只有400多页。编者的意思是选取最能表现约翰逊个性和特点的释义。当然也保留了其有名的字典序言，因为这“不仅详细解释了他的这本字典，本身也是篇文采斐然的英语散文，并且还是感人至深的个人记录”。
因为篇幅的关系，下面我就选取了序言的开始两端和结尾的一段，并附上个人的简短评论。
It is the fate of those who toil at the lower employments of life,
to be rather driven by the fear of evil, than attracted by the
prospect of good; to be exposed to censure, without hope of praise;
to be disgraced by miscarriage, or punished for neglect, where
success would have been without applause, and diligence without
reward.
Among these unhappy mortals is the writer of dictionaries; whom
mankind have considered, not as the pupil, but the slave of science,
the pionier of literature, doomed only to remove rubbish and clear
obstructions from the paths through which Learning and Genius press
forward to conquest and glory, without bestowing a smile on the
humble drudge that facilitates their progress. Every other authour
may aspire to praise; the lexicographer can only hope to escape
reproach, and even this negative recompense has been yet granted
to very few.
In this work, when it shall be found that much is omitted, let
it not be forgotten that much likewise is performed; and though
no book was ever spared out of tenderness to the authour, and the
world is little solicitous to know whence proceeded the faults of
that which it condemns; yet it may gratify curiosity to inform it,
that the English Dictionary was written with little assistance of
the learned, and without any patronage of the great; not in the
soft obscurities of retirement, or under the shelter of academick
bowers, but amidst inconvenience and distraction, in sickness and
in sorrow. It may repress the triumph of malignant criticism to
observe, that if our language is not here fully displayed, I have
only failed in an attempt which no human powers have hitherto
completed. If the lexicons of ancient tongues, now immutably fixed,
and comprised in a few volumes, be yet, after the toil of successive
ages, inadequate and delusive; if the aggregated knowledge, and
co-operating diligence of the Italian academicians, did not secure
them from the censure of Beni; if the embodied criticks of France,
when fifty years had been spent upon their work, were obliged to
change its oeconomy, and give their second edition another form,
I may surely be contented without the praise of perfection, which,
if I could obtain, in this gloom of solitude, what would it avail
me? I have protracted my work till most of those whom I wished to
please have sunk into the grave, and success and miscarriage are
empty sounds: I therefore dismiss it with frigid tranquillity,
having little to fear or hope from censure or from praise.
约翰逊的文笔和句式受拉丁文的影响很大显而易见。他的风格基本上是典雅庄重而又透着世故和练达，富有独特的节奏。典雅庄重的效果是复合句，平行结构，被动式和拟人手法的使用，而世故和练达则是他的生活经历所形成的，这里就不详细说了，那套据称每五年就该读一次的博斯威尔写的约翰逊传已经足以让我们了解一个活生生的他了。
在文章的开头，我们就体会到了这种世故和练达。他不无酸楚的写到从事卑微工作的人做事的命运总是出于对不幸的担心，而不是出于对成功的渴望，因为他可能会受到指责，没有成功的希望，可能会因失败而名声扫地或者是遭到忽视，而即便成功也不会得到赞许，努力也不会得到赏赐。
而在这些不幸的人当中字典编撰者就是其中一员（这里 让人想起了约翰逊的一句名言，如果上帝想要惩罚谁的话就让他编字典吧）。他们是学问和天才道路上的清障者，别人能够获取成功和荣耀，而不会对这些帮助他们成功的人施舍哪怕是微微一笑。其他的作者都有可能得到夸奖，而字典编撰者只能希望能逃脱人们的指责，甚至能逃脱指责者都是寥寥可数的。
在这两段中，我们可以感受到约翰逊是在用自己的亲身经历在写这篇序言，其语气都是沉稳而又低沉的。
在最后一段中，约翰逊更是进一步说道他的工作没有得到任何学者的帮助，也没有显贵们的庇护（暗指chesterfield 爵士），既没有隐居的舒适，也没有学院的闲适，完全是在不便和分心之中，以及病痛和哀伤之中完成的（读来让人非常心酸）。紧跟着他的感情出现了一个较大的起伏，表现在一连串的if从句当中，然后这种情绪急转之下一直到问句即便没有人们的夸赞，那又怎么样呢？在结尾处，他的酸楚复归于一种平静：我编写字典想要让人欣赏的人都已经故去了，现在成功和失败对于我已经毫无意义。我只是平静地将这个问题置之度外，对于荣辱我早已超脱在外了。
这篇文章不仅让我们了解了新古典主义时期的英文散文风格，也让我们体会了一个著名文人的一段倾情的写作。虽然浪漫主义时期还遥遥未至，在其克制的文笔中，我们还是可以体会出其感情的跌宕起伏。无论从文字和内容上来看，这应该都是一篇当之无愧的名文。
[ 本帖最后由 keatslover 于 2007-11-6 02:44 PM 编辑 ] |
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发表于 2007-10-30 09:34
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