李渔•《闲情偶记•文艺》翻译

 　　闲情偶记·文艺

　　Pleasant Diversions: Literacy

　　李渔

　　Li Yu

　　妇人读书习字，所难只在入门。入门之后，其聪明必过于男子，以男子念纷，而妇人心一故也。导之入门，贵在情窦未开之际，开则志念稍分，不似从前之专一。然买姬置妾，多在三五、二八之年，娶而不御，使作蒙童求我者，宁有几人？如必俟情窦未开，是终身无可授之人矣。惟在循循善诱，勿阻其机，“扑作教刑”一语，非为女徒而设也。

　　Females find reading and writing difficult only at the point of entry. Once they have got their foot in the door, they are quicker to learn than males, because males lack concentration, while females pay undivided attention. It is best to show them across the threshold before they are initiated¹ into sex, because once they are so initiated, their firmness of purpose suffers somewhat, and they are not as single-minded as before. The trouble is, concubines are installed at the age of fifteen or sixteen, usually, and how many of us can treat them as apprentices² seeking instruction from us, instead of taking them to bed? We would never have a student all our lives if we had to wait for a virgin³. The only thing is to lead them on gently and patiently, taking care not to blunt their initiative – the use of the stick as a teaching aid, as recommended in our Book of History, does not apply to female students.

　　先令识字，字识而后教之以书。识字不贵多，每日仅可数字，取其笔画最少，眼前易见者训之。由易而难，由少而多，日积月累，则一年半载以后，不令读书而自解寻章觅句矣。乘其爱看之时，急觅传奇之有情节、小说之无破绽者，听其翻阅，则书非书也，不怒不威而引人登堂入室之明师也。其故维何？以传奇、小说所载之言，尽是常谈俗语，妇人阅之，若逢故物。譬如一句之中，共有十字，此女已识者七，未识者三，顺口念去，自然不差。是因已识之七字，可悟未识之三字，则此三字也者，非我教之，传奇、小说教之也。由此而机锋相触，自能曲喻旁通。再得男子善为开导，使之由浅而深，则共枕论文，较之登坛讲艺，其为时雨之化，难易奚止十倍哉？

　　A girl should be first taught to recognize characters, and only afterwards taught to write them. There is no virtue⁴ in quantity: just a few characters each day will do, teaching first those which have the fewest strokes, and which represent things near at hand. As the days and months pass, she can progress from easy to hard, and from few to many. After six months or a year, you won’t have to assign her any passages, she will know how to find things to read by herself. Before her interest in reading flags, you should look out some romances with a good plot, and some novels without obvious weaknesses, and let her leaf through them. In this way a book will not be a book, but a not-angry and not-forbidding teacher who will lead her into the inner halls of learning. Why do I say that? Because the language of romances and novels is the common talk of everyday, and when a woman reads it, it is like meeting with familiar things. For example, if in a sentence there are ten characters and she knows seven and doesn’t know three, let her read it our naturally and there will be no mistake, because she can guess the three characters she does not know from the seven characters she does know. Thus, those three characters were not taught by me, but by the roman or novel. By this means her wits are activated⁵, and she can get the answer on her own by inference. If on top of that a man takes her well in hand and guides her progress from shallow to deep, his discourses⁶ on literacy while in bed with her will enter her mind like the timely rain, and will be infinitely⁷ easier to absorb than classroom lectures.

　　十人之中，拔其一二最聪慧者，日与谈诗，使之渐通声律，但有说话铿锵，无重复聱牙之字者，即作诗能文之料也。苏夫人说“春夜月胜于秋夜月，秋夜月令人惨凄，春夜月令人和悦。”此非作诗，随口所说之话也。东坡因其出口合律，许以能诗，传为佳话。此即说话铿锵，无重复聱牙，可以作诗之明验也。其余女子，未必人人若是，但能书义稍通，则任学诸般技艺，皆是锁钥到手，不忧阻隔之人矣。

　　One or two out of ten concubines may be selected for their superior intelligence, and these you can talk to every day about poetry, and by and by, make them understand tone and metre. As long as their speech has a ring to it, and they don’t keep repeating themselves or use grating words, then they have the makings of a poet or prose-writer. The wife of Su Dongpo said, “The moon on a spring night is better than the moon on an autumn night. on an autumn night makes you feel cold and wretched, the moon on a spring night makes you feel good and glad.” This was not a poem, it was a causal remark. Yet Dongpo thought it had a good rhythm, and praised his wife for being able to make poetry. His words have since been much quoted, and go to prove what I said, that if a person’s speech has a ring to it, and has no awkward repetitions or jarring sounds, then they have the makings of a poet. The other girls may not all reach this level, but if they can get the hang of books, they will have the key to the various arts of letters in their hands, and need not fear being locked out.

1 initiated   

n. 创始人 adj. 新加入的 vt. 开始，创始，启蒙，介绍加入

参考例句：

• He has not yet been thoroughly initiated into the mysteries of computers. 他对计算机的奥秘尚未入门。
• The artist initiated the girl into the art world in France. 这个艺术家介绍这个女孩加入巴黎艺术界。

2 apprentices   

学徒，徒弟( apprentice的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They were mere apprentices to piracy. 他们干海盗仅仅是嫩角儿。
• He has two good apprentices working with him. 他身边有两个好徒弟。

3 virgin   

n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的

参考例句：

• Have you ever been to a virgin forest?你去过原始森林吗？
• There are vast expanses of virgin land in the remote regions.在边远地区有大片大片未开垦的土地。

4 virtue   

n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力

参考例句：

• He was considered to be a paragon of virtue.他被认为是品德尽善尽美的典范。
• You need to decorate your mind with virtue.你应该用德行美化心灵。

5 activated   

adj. 激活的 动词activate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The canister is filled with activated charcoal.蒸气回收罐中充满了活性炭。

6 discourses   

论文( discourse的名词复数 )； 演说； 讲道； 话语

参考例句：

• It is said that his discourses were very soul-moving. 据说他的讲道词是很能动人心灵的。
• I am not able to repeat the excellent discourses of this extraordinary man. 这位异人的高超言论我是无法重述的。

7 infinitely   

adv.无限地，无穷地

参考例句：

• There is an infinitely bright future ahead of us.我们有无限光明的前途。
• The universe is infinitely large.宇宙是无限大的。