不要抛弃学问(胡适)翻译

不要抛弃学问 1 （胡适）

诸位毕业生同学2：你们现在要离开母校了，我没有什么礼物送给你们，只好送你们一句话罢。

这一句话是：“不要抛弃学问。”以前的功课也许有一大部分是为了这张文凭，不得已而做的。从今以后，你们可依自己的心愿自由研究了。趁现在年富力强3的时候，努力做一种专门学问。少年4是一去不复返的，等到精力衰时，要做学问5也来不及了。即为吃饭计，学问决不会辜负人的6。吃饭而不求学问，三年五年之后，你们都要被后来的少年淘汰掉的。到那时再想做点学问来补救，恐怕也太晚了。

有人说：“出去做事之后，生活问题急需解决，哪有功夫去读书？即使要做学问，既没有图书馆，又没有实验室，哪能做学问？”

我要对你们说：凡是要等到有了图书馆方才读书的，有了图书馆也不肯读书。凡是要等到有了实验室方才做研究的，有了实验室也不肯做研究7。你有了决心要研究一个问题，自然会撙衣节食8去买书，自然会想出法子来设置仪器。

至于时间，更不成问题9。达尔文一生多病，不能多作工，每天只能做一点钟的工作。你们看他的成绩！每天花一点钟看10页有用的书，每年可看3600多页书；30年可以读11万页书。

诸位，11万页书可以使你成为一个学者了。可是，每天看三种小报纸也得费你一点钟的功夫；四圈麻将10也得费你一点半钟的光阴。看小报呢？还是打麻将呢？还是努力做一个学者呢？全靠你们自己的选择11！

易卜生12说：“你的最大责任是把你这块材料铸造成器。”

学问便是铸器的工具。抛弃了学问便是毁了你们自己。

再会了！你们的母校眼睁睁地13要看你们十年之后成什么器14。

Notes：

1.《不要抛弃学问》是胡适先生在1928～1930年在上海任中国公学校长时为毕业生所作的赠言。胡适（1981～1962）是新文化运动中很有影响的人物。1946年曾任北京大学校长。除学术著作外，他写过不少富有洞察力和启发性的小品文，本文就是其中一例。

“不用抛弃学问”若直译成：Never Give up Learning，意思不明确，统观全文可以了解到这句话的意思是“不用放弃对学问的追求”，必须加字：Never Give up the Pursuit of Learning 更为准确。

2. “毕业生同学”是指即将毕业的学生，所以应该译为：students of the graduating class，而不是graduates。

3. “年富力强”，指年纪轻，精力旺盛，在英文中可以表示为：in the prime /flower of life。

4. “少年”通常用来指人在十岁到十五六岁的阶段，即：early youth，但在这里不是确指，而是泛指人们青春年少的时光，即：youth。

5. “做学问”可以译为：to go into scholarship /to devote oneself to scholarly research /to engage in learning。

6. “即为吃饭计”的意思是“即便从维持自己生活的角度考虑”，其中的“吃饭”是使用具体的意象来指代抽象的概念，在翻译时应该做抽象化处理，宜译成：in terms of making a living /as a means of subsistence。“学问绝不会辜负人的”译为Knowledge will do you a good return.

7. “凡是……也……，凡是……也……”是一个对仗工整句型，翻译这个句子时应注意通过对主语进行选择（如 those who refuse to ...）和避免不必要的重复而采用的补偿手段（如 to do so），从而使译文尽可能简洁。

8. “撙衣节食”即“省吃省穿”，“撙”即“节省”，这里可译成：cut down on food and clothing /to economize on food and clothing /to live frugally。

9. “至于时间，更不成问题”，可以译成：Time is not a problem，或使用英语习语：Time is no object。

10. “麻将”，根据约定俗成的原则，应该采用通用的音译译名：mah-jong.

11. “全靠你们自己的选择”可以译成“the choice lies with you / It is up to you to make the choice”。

12. 易卜生（Henrik Ibsen，1828～1906），挪威著名戏剧家、诗人。其代表作是《玩偶之家》。

13. “眼睁睁地”，通常是指“无可奈何地”，这里可以理解为“热切而充满期待地注视着”，故译成：watch eagerly。

14. “成器”一词在文中出现两次，第一次是因为用在比喻句中与“材料”相照应，故而译成：a useful implement，以突出其形象性；第二次出现在结尾句中，直接译出其内涵意义即可，故而译成：what will become of you。

Never Give up the Pursuit of Learning (Hu Shi)

Translated by Zhang Peiji (张培基)

Dear the Students of Graduating Class,

As you are leaving your alma mater, I have nothing to offer you as a gift except a word of advice.

My advice is, “Never give up the pursuit of learning.” You have perhaps finished your college courses mostly for obtaining the diploma, or, in other words, out of sheer necessity. However, from now on you are free to follow your own bent in the choice of studies. While you are in the prime of life, why not devote yourselves to a special field of study? Youth will soon be gone never to return. And it will be too late for you to go into scholarship when in your declining years. Knowledge will do you a good turn even as a means of subsistence. If you give up studies while holding a job, you will in a couple of years have had yourselves replaced by younger people. It will then be too late to remedy the situation by picking up studies again.

Some people say, “Once you have a job, you’ll come up against the urgent problem of making a living. How can you manage to find time to study? Even if you want to, will it be possible with no library of laboratory available?”

Now let me tell you this. Those who refuse to study for lack of a library will most probably continue to do so even though there is a library. And those who refuse to do research for lack of a laboratory will most probably continue to do so even though a laboratory is available. As long as you set your mind on studies, you will naturally cut down on food and clothing to buy books or do everything possible to acquire necessary instruments.

Time is no object. Charles Darwin could only work one hour a day due to ill health. Yet what remarkable man he was! If you spend one hour a day reading 10 pages of a book, you can finish more than 3,600 pages a year, and 110,000 pages in 30 years.

Dear students, 110,000 pages will be quite enough to make a learned man of you. It will take you one hour to read three tabloids a day, and one and half hours to finish four rounds of mah-jong a day. Reading tabloids, playing mah-jong or striving to be a learned man, the choice lies with you.

Henrik Ibsen says, “It is your supreme duty to cast yourself into a useful implement.”

Learning is the casting mould. Forsake learning, and you will ruin yourself.

Farewll! Your alma mater is watching eagerly to see what will become of you ten years from now.