The Cow :: 有一首詩，值得你讀；有一本英文寫作小書，你必須讀

這一輯，我們換換口味，來段英譯中。

在《英文用法及寫作小書》The Elements of Style中，作者引用了（見本帖末尾）這首膾炙人口的詩歌：

The Cow

By Robert Louis Stevenson

The friendly cow, all red and white,

I love with all my heart:

She gives me cream with all her might,

To eat with apple tart.

She wanders lowing here and there,

And yet she cannot stray,

All in the pleasant open air,

The pleasant light of day;

And blown by all the winds that pass

And wet with all the showers,

She walks among the meadow grass

And eats the meadow flowers.

論文風與寫作

An excerpt from the most influential book on English Writing

The Elements of Style

Authors: William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White

Publisher: Pearson Education, International Edition, 4th Edition.

(下列英文文字的版權歸培生集團所有；

中文翻譯： 文心交）

The language is perpetually in flux: it is a living stream, shifting, changing, receiving new strength from a thousand tributaries, losing old forms in the backwaters of time. To suggest that a young writer not swim in the main stream of this turbulence would be foolish indeed, and such is not the intent of these cautionary remarks.

語言在永無休止地不斷變化：它像一條永遠流動的小河流，變幻莫測，從上千條支流中汲取新生力量，在凝固成過去的時間裡喪失它的舊貌。建議年輕作家不要在湍流的大河裡游泳是十分不明智的，而且這也不是這些諄諄告誡的目的。

"But," you may ask, what if it comes natural to me to experiment rather than conform? What if I am a pioneer, or even a genius? Answer: then be one. But do not forget that what may seem like pioneering may be merely evasion, or laziness-the disinclination to submit to discipline. Writing good standard English is no cinch, and before you have managed it you will have encountered enough rough country to satisfy even the most adventurous spirit.

「但是，」你或許會問，「那我要是天生就喜歡嘗試求變而不喜歡墨守陳規呢？那我要是個拓荒者或者天才呢？」答案就三個字：then be one （請自便）。但是請不要忘記：那些看起來開創性的東西，也許只不過是逃避的借口，或者是懶散而不願意接受紀律約束罷了。要寫出高水準、規範的英語絕非易事。在成功駕馭它之前，你會遭遇足夠的艱難險阻，去滿足你哪怕最富於冒險的精神。

Style takes its final shape more from attitudes of mind than from principles of composition, for, as an elderly practitioner once remarked, Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar." This moral observation would have no place in a rule book were it not that style is the writer, and therefore what you are, rather than what you know, will at last determine your style. If you write, you must believe in the truth and worth of the scrawl, in the ability of the reader to receive and decode the message. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the readers intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.

文風最終成型於作者的心態而非寫作原則。因此，就像一位資深的寫作者曾經說過得那樣，「Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar」（寫作是信念驅使下的行為，而非語法使用上的技巧）。要不是因為文如其人，這種道德上的觀察不可能在關於寫作規則的書里佔有一席之地。因此，你是什麼樣的人，而不是你懂什麼知識，將最終決定你的文風。寫作時，你必須相信自己拙作的真實性和價值，必須相信讀者接納和解讀信息的能力。沒有人能夠寫出像樣得文章來，假如他不信任讀者的智力，或者他的態度是屈尊俯就的。

It is now necessary to warn you (as a writer) that your concern for the reader must be pure: you must sympathize with the readers plight (most readers are in trouble about half the time) but never seek to know the readers wants. Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living.

現在有必要提出告誡的是，你對讀者的關心必須是純真的：大多數讀者在一半時間內都深陷麻煩之中，所以你必須對他們的困苦感同身受，但是卻絕不能刻意去了解讀者的需求。因為，身為作者的你，全部的職責就只是取悅和滿足自己，而且真正的作者總是只為一個觀眾表演，那就是他自己。開始聞一聞空氣里的味道，或者瞥一瞥指示流行趨勢的機器，那麼你即使活著卻已經死了，儘管你可以靠寫作過上舒適的生活。

Full of belief, sustained and elevated by the power of purpose, armed with the rules of grammar, you are ready for exposure. At this point, you may well pattern yourself on the fully exposed cow of Robert Louis Stevensons rhyme. This friendly and commendable animal, you may recall, was "blown by all the winds that pass /And wet with all the showers." And so must you as a young writer be. In our modern idiom, we would say that you must get wet all over. Mr. Stevenson, working in a plainer style, said it with felicity, and suddenly one cow, out of so many, received the gift of immortality. Like the steadfast writer, she is at home in the wind and the rain; and, thanks to one moment of felicity, she will live on and on and on.

滿懷信念，用目標的力量支撐和提升自己，用語法規則武裝自己，這樣你就可以在寫作的廣闊天地里開始拋頭露面了。這時，你或許可以將羅伯特?路易斯?史蒂文森（Robert Louis Stevenson）的押韻小詩里那頭飽經風雨的奶牛作為自己的榜樣。你可記得，這個友善和藹、可圈可點的動物blown by all the winds that pass /And wet with all the showers [45]（櫛風沐雨）。作為年輕作家的你，也該如此櫛風沐雨，砥礪前行。在現代習語中，我們稱之為：你必須get wet all over（渾身濕透透）。而史蒂文森先生則用他更簡潔明了的風格，酣暢淋漓地將它表達出來；霎那間，一頭奶牛脫穎而出並得以流芳百世。就像矢志不渝的作者，她正在家中經風歷雨；然而，就憑著那一霎那間地酣暢淋漓，她將生生不息，永不磨滅。

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