向大师学英文——边欣赏边思考边应用（6）

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先问两个问题：

第一：读书如同饮食，在我是美味，在他人可能是毒药。这句话英文怎么表达？

第二：我们要吃卫生的食物，除了可以说 We should eat clean food. 之外，还可以怎么表达？

以上问题的答案在《向大师学英文——边欣赏边思考边应用（5）》中可以找到。

复习完毕，接下来继续欣赏林语堂先生《生活的艺术》一书中有关“阅读的艺术”的第六段。

先看译文：

        所以世上并无一个人所必须要读的书，因为我们的智力兴趣是如同树木一般的生长，如同河水一般的流向前去，只要有汁液，树木必会生长；只要泉源不涸，河水必会长流；当流水碰到石壁时，它自会转弯；当它流到一片可爱的低谷时，它必会暂时停留一下子；当它流到一个深的山池时，它必会觉得满足，而就停在那里；当它流过急湍时，它必会迅速前行。如此，它无需用力，也无需预定目标，自能必然有一天流到海中。世上并没有人人必读的书，但有必须在某一时间，某一地点，某种环境之中，某一时刻方可以读的书。我颇以为读书也和婚姻相同，是由姻缘或命运所决定。世上即使有人人必读的书如《圣经》， 但读它必应有一定的时机。当一个人的思想和经验尚没有达到可读一本名著所需要的积累时，他即使勉强去读，也必觉得其味甚劣。孔子说，五十读易。他的意思就是说，四十五岁时还不能读《易经》。一个人没有到心智成熟的时候，绝不能领略《论语》中孔子话语中淡淡的滋味，和他的已成熟的智慧。

上文中的“孔子”、“《论语》”、“《易经》”用英文怎么说呢？这些专有名词需要平时一点点积累。

现在看原著：

There can be, therefore, no books that one absolutely must read. For our intellectual interests grow like a tree or flow like a river. As long as there is proper sap, the tree will grow anyhow, and so long as there is fresh current from the spring, the water will flow. When water strikes a granite cliff, it just go around it; when it finds itself in a pleasant low valley, it stops and meanders there a while; when it finds itself in a deep mountain pond, it is content to stay there; when it finds itself travelling over rapids, it hurries forward. Thus, without any effort or determined aim, it is sure of reaching the sea some day. There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life. I rather think that reading, like matrimony is determined by fate or yinyuan. Even if there is a certain book that every one must read, like the Bible, there is a time for it. When one's thoughts and experience have not reached a certain point for reading a masterpiece, the masterpiece will leave only a bad flavour on his palate. Confucius said, "When one is fifty, one may read the Book of Changes," which means that one should not read it at fifty-five. The extremely mild flavour of Confucius' own saying in the Analects and his mature wisdom cannot be appreciated until one becomes mature himself.

Confucius

the Analects

the Book of Changes

我的思考与应用：

林先生说：“There are no books in this world that everybody must read, but only books that a person must read at a certain time in a given place under given circumstances and at a given period of his life.” 这句话让我想起了有时候不经意间看到某本书中的某句话就突然有云开雾散之感。那么这个特定的时候，特定的地方，特定的书，特定的心境加在一起就是“缘”吧。

Sometimes a line in a book can wake me up. So the combination of  that specific time, that book, that place and that mood may be called the fate.

When one's thoughts and experience have not reached a certain point for reading a masterpiece, the masterpiece will leave only a bad flavour on his palate. 这句话似乎可以部分回答为什么我有时候对于经典作品读不下去的原因，那就是自己的阅历和心智成熟度还不能和作者匹配，所以此时就不必用蛮力，不必勉强。反过来也是一样，当学生准备好了，老师自然就会出现。

This sentence may be the answer to the question that why sometimes it is so difficult for me to appreciate some masterpieces: Maybe  I am not mentally ready yet. Put it in another way: When the student is ready, the teacher appears.