Books Do Furnish a Life

书籍装点生活

Roger Joseph Ebert

罗杰.约瑟夫.埃伯特

作者简介

罗杰.约瑟夫.埃伯特 （Roger Joseph Ebert， 1942—），美国《芝加哥太阳时报》（Chicago Sun-Times）的著名影评人，也是第一位获得普利策奖（Pulitzer Prize）的影评家。

埃伯特1967年开始撰写影评，1975年获普利策奖。同年，他在电视上与另一位影评人吉恩.西斯科尔（Gene Siskel）开设影评节目“谈电影”（“At the Movies”）。两人合作20多年，为众多电影爱好者提供了指导。埃伯特还创办了非营利的个人电影节（Roger Ebert’s Overlooked Film Festival），关注被忽视或受冷落的好电影。最近几年，埃伯特因患病而无法讲话，但仍笔耕不辍，赢得了无数影迷的尊敬。

本文发表于2009年10月5日的《芝加哥太阳时报》。作者从盘点家私说起，将藏书的来历和书中的趣事一一道来，爱书之情溢于言表。作者发出叹息：“有一些书我无法舍弃，因为——哦，它们是书啊！你总不能扔掉一本书吧？”对此你是否也感同身受？

When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

—Erasmus

少得即奉书，有余始衣食。

——伊拉斯谟[1]

One afternoon in Cape Town I sat in my little room at University House and took inventory. This must have been in June, winter in the southern hemisphere, and it had been raining steadily for most of a week. I was virtually alone in the student residence; the others had packed off for vacation. With an umbrella and plastic slicker I’d ventured out once or twice to the Pig and Whistle, where I favored the Ploughman’s Lunch, but to sustain life I’d laid in a supply of tinned sardines, cheddar and Swiss cheese, Hobnobs, apples, Carr’s Water Biscuits, ginger cookies, Hershey bars, biltong, sausage and a pot of jam. I had a little electric coil that would bring a cup of water to a boil, a jar of Nescafe, a box of sugar and some Instant Postum.

I wrote in my journal: “I have not spoken to anyone since Monday. The radio is playing Downtown by Petula Clerk. I’ve been reading some Shaw—Man and Superman. I’m wearing jeans, my cable knit sweater and my Keds. I’ve made coffee and am waiting for it to cool. Let it be recorded that at this moment I am happy.”

...

在开普敦的某天下午，我坐在大学公寓里开列清单。当时应该是6月，南半球的冬季，阴雨连绵将近一周。我孑然一身待在学生宿舍，其他人都收拾行囊度假去了。我拿着伞和塑料雨衣，冒雨出过一两趟门，去犁舍酒吧享用我喜欢的农夫午餐[2]，但我赖以为生的还是沙丁鱼罐头、切达干酪、瑞士奶酪、及时乐燕麦饼干、苹果、卡氏薄脆饼干、姜饼、好时巧克力棒、干肉片、香肠和一罐果酱。我有个能烧一杯水的小型热得快、一罐雀巢咖啡、一盒方糖和一些速溶波斯塔姆[3]。

我在日记里写道：“从周一起我就没跟人说过话。收音机里放着佩图拉•克拉克的《闹市》。我在读萧伯纳的《人与超人》。我穿着牛仔裤、粗线毛衣和凯兹鞋。我冲好了咖啡，正等它变凉。记下来，此刻我很幸福。”

……

“What do I really need that isn’t here in this room?” I asked. “Its dimensions are a little more than twice as wide and deep as I am tall. I don’t know, maybe 150 square feet? Here I have the padded wood chair in which I sit tilted against the wall, my feet braced on my straight desk chair. I am holding the three-inch-thick Paul Hamlyn edition of Shaw’s complete plays. This room contains: A wood single bed, an African blanket covering it, a wood desk and its gooseneck lamp, a small dresser with a mirror over it, my portable typewriter, a small wardrobe containing my clothes, a steamer trunk serving as a coffee table, and two bookcases, filled to overflowing. What more do I actually need?”

To this inventory I would today add: A rice cooker, knife and cutting board, to prepare my meals; a small refrigerator; and a MacBook and nice speakers to supply the Internet, music, videos and TV. There wasn’t room for a proper TV.

“我真正需要的东西，有什么不在这间屋里？”我问自己。“屋子的长宽都是我身高的两倍多一点。面积也许有150平方英尺？我不清楚。这里有一把带坐垫的木椅。我坐在椅上斜靠着墙，双脚搭在直立的写字椅上。我手里捧着3英寸厚的保罗•哈姆林[4]版《萧伯纳戏剧全集》。这间屋里还有：一张木质单人床、一条盖在床上的非洲毛毯、一张摆着鹅颈灯的木质书桌、一个带镜子的小梳妆台、我的便携式打字机、装我衣服的小衣橱、一个用作咖啡桌的扁行李箱，以及两个书多得快冒出来的书柜。说真的，我还需要什么呢？”

如今，我又在这个清单上添了几样：做饭要用的电饭煲、菜刀和案板，一台小型冰箱，以及为我提供网络、音乐、视频、电视的苹果笔记本电脑和优质音箱。我没地方搁电视机。

Chaz and I have lived for 20 years in a commodious Chicago house with three floors, a furnished basement apartment and an exercise room we built on the roof-top deck. This house is not empty. To my 1965 edition of Shaw, which cost me about two quid and now sells for $119, Chaz and I have added, I dunno, maybe 3,000 or 4,000 books, countless videos and CDs, lots of art, rows of photographs, rooms full of comfortable furniture, a Buddha from Thailand, two elephants from India, African chairs and statues, and who knows what else.

Of course I cannot do without a single one of these possessions, including more or else every book I have owned since I was seven, starting with Huckleberry Finn. I still have all the Penrod books, and every time I look at them, I’m reminded of Tarkington’s inventory of the contents of Penrod’s pants pockets. After reading it a third time, I jammed my pockets with a pocket knife, a Yo-Yo, marbles, a compass, a stapler, an oddly-shaped rock, a hardball, a ball of rubber bands and three jawbreakers. These, in an ostensible search for a nickel, I emptied out on the counter of Harry Rusk’s grocery, so that Harry Rusk could see that I was a Real Boy.

我和查兹在芝加哥一座宽敞的大房子里住了20年。房子一共有3层，地下室是带家具的公寓，房顶上还有我们搭的健身房。那座房子一点儿也不空。除了我的1965年版《萧伯纳戏剧全集》——那本书当时花了我2英镑，现在能卖119美元——我和查兹还往屋里塞了三四千本书、数不清的录像带和CD、成堆的艺术品、成排的照片，还有满屋的舒适家具、一尊泰国佛像、两座印度大象雕塑、一些非洲椅子和雕像，天知道还有什么别的。

当然，我离不开其中任何一件东西，包括我从7岁开始收藏的每一本书，第一本是《哈克贝利•费恩历险记》。我至今仍有全套《男孩彭罗德的烦恼》。每次看见它们，我就会想起塔金顿[5]给彭罗德裤兜里的玩意列的清单。把这套书读了三遍之后，我也在裤兜里塞了小刀、溜溜球、弹珠、指南针、订书机、奇形怪状的石头、棒球、一团橡皮筋和三大块硬糖。我在哈里•腊斯克的杂货铺里假装找硬币，把裤兜掏了个底朝天，把东西都摊在柜台上，好让哈里知道我是个真正的小男子汉。

My books are a subject of much discussion. They pour from shelves onto tables, chairs and the floor, and Chaz observes that I haven’t read many of them and I never will. You just never know. One day I may—need is the word I use—to read Finnegans Wake, the Icelandic sagas, Churchill’s history of the Second World War, the complete Tintin in French, 47 novels by Simenon, and By Love Possessed. That 1957 best-seller by James Gould Cozzens was eviscerated in a famous essay by Dwight Macdonald, who read through that year’s list of fiction best sellers and surfaced with a scowl. It and the other books on the list have been rendered obsolete, so that his essay is cruelly dated. But I remember reading the novel late into the night when I was 14, stirring restlessly with the desire to be possessed by love.

I cannot throw out these books. Some are protected because I have personally turned all their pages and read every word; they’re like little shrines to my past hours. Perhaps half were new when they came to my life, but most are used, and I remember where I found every one. The set of Kipling at the Book Nook on Green Street in Champaign. The scandalous The English Governess in a shady book store on the Left Bank in 1965 (Obilisk Press, $2, today $91). The Shaw plays from Cranford’s on Long Street in Cape Town, where Irving Freeman claimed he had a million books; it may not have been a figure of speech. Like an alcoholic trying to walk past a bar, you should see me trying to walk past a used book store.

Other books I can’t throw away because—well, they’re books, and you can’t throw away a book, can you? Not even a cookbook from which we have prepared even a single recipe, for it is a meal preserved and happy time then shared, in printed form. The very sight of Quick and Easy Chinese Cooking by Kenneth H. C. Lo quickens my pulse. Its pages are stained by broth, sherry, soy sauce and chicken fat, and so thoroughly did I master it that I once sought out Ken Lo’s Memories of China on Ebury Street in London and laid eyes on the great man himself, dining alone in a little room near the entrance. A book like that, you’re not gonna throw away.

I can’t throw out anything. Perhaps I foresaw that when I wrote my journal entry.

...

我的书值得一谈。它们从书架上倾泻而下，散落在桌椅和地板上。查兹发现，其中许多书我都没读过，而且永远不会读。不过世事难料。说不定有一天，我可能会——或者是需要——读《芬尼根守灵夜》、冰岛传奇、丘吉尔的《二战回忆录》、法文版《丁丁历险记》全集、西默农的47部小说和《情铸》——詹姆斯•古尔德•科曾斯1957年出版的畅销书。德怀特•麦克唐纳读完当年的畅销小说名单后满面怒气，在一篇著名文章里把《情铸》分析了一番。这本书和当年的其他畅销书均已过时，麦克唐纳那篇文章也被岁月无情地抛弃了。但我记得我14岁时读这本小说直至深夜，心中久久不能平静，希望自己也能坠入情网。

我没法丢掉这些书。有些书我无法割舍，是因为我翻过每页书，读过每个字；它们就像小小的神龛，承载了我过往的岁月。或许有一半书在入我手时是新的，但大多数是二手书。我记得每一本书的来历。那套吉卜林作品集购于尚佩恩市格林街的“书岬”，那本臭名昭著的《安娜与国王》1965年淘自左岸一家破书店。这本书由欧比里斯科出版社出版，原价2美元，现价91美元。那套《萧伯纳戏剧全集》则来自开普敦长街的克兰福德书店，欧文•弗里曼声称店里有上百万本书，这或许并没有夸张。你该看看我经过二手书店的样子，我就像酒鬼经过酒吧门口一样，根本挪不动步子。

还有一些书我无法舍弃，因为——哦，它们是书啊！你总不能扔掉一本书吧？哪怕只是一本烹饪书，哪怕我们只从里面学过一道菜，那也是一本印着美食和幸福时光的书啊。我第一眼看见罗孝建的《简易中餐烹调》就感到心跳加速。它的书页布满了肉汤、雪利酒、酱油和鸡油留下的污迹。这本书我算是吃透了，以至于我在伦敦伊伯利街上找到忆华楼[6]时，一眼就看见了罗孝建本人。他正在门口旁边的小包间里独自用餐。像这样一本书，你不会扔掉它。

我什么都舍不得扔。或许我在动笔写这篇流水账之前就预料到了。

……

And here are my thick reference books. Not only the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, but the small tiny-type edition of the complete OED, which came with its own magnifying glass. And Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, the Cambridge Companion to English Literature, the 1967 edition of Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion, a hardbound London A to Z from 1975, and two dozen books on the occult, including the Tarot, the I Ching and the autobiography of Aleister Crowley, who was a certified flywheel, but surely wrote one of the best of Edwardian autobiographies (Crowley explained that he invented modern British mountain climbing in the Himalayas after his predecessors “had themselves carried up by Sherpas”).

In idle hours I like to leaf through my well-worn leather-bound 1970 edition of Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, (£5, used) which offers entries not to be found elsewhere:

Jack system. An Australian phrase denoting the pursuit of one’s own interests at the expense of others.

Giotto’s O. The old story goes that the Pope, wishing to employ artists from all over Italy, send a messenger to collect specimen of their work. When the man approached Giotto (c. 1267-1337), the artist paused for a moment from the picture he was working on and with his brush drew a perfect circle on a piece of paper. In surprise the man returned to the Pope, who, appreciating the perfection of Giotto’s artistry and skill by his unerring circle, employed Giotto forthwith.

October Club. In the reign of Queen Anne, a group of High Tory MPs who met at tavern near Parliament to drink October Ale and abuse the Whigs.

这里还有我厚厚的参考书。拿《牛津英语词典》来说，不仅有简编版，还有附赠放大镜的袖珍完整版。此外，还有巴特利特的《名言警句》、《剑桥英国文学指南》、哈利韦尔1967年版的《影迷指南》、1975年精装版的《伦敦全攻略》，以及20多本关于神秘学的书，包括塔罗、《易经》和亚历斯特•克劳利的自传。他是位经过验证的巫师，但确实写出了爱德华时代[7]最优秀的自传之一。（克劳利解释说，他在喜马拉雅山发明了现代英式登山法，而前人都是“让夏尔巴人[8]抬上去的”。）

闲暇时，我总爱翻阅那本被我读烂了的、皮面装帧的布鲁尔1970年版《成语寓言大辞典》，一本我花5英镑买的二手书，里面都是别处找不到的词条：

杰克系统：澳大利亚习语，意为将自己的快乐建立在别人的痛苦之上。

乔托的圆：传说，教皇想在意大利聘用一位艺术家，便派出使者去搜集他们的作品。当使者找到乔托（约1267—1337）时，这位艺术家暂时停下手中的工作，用画笔在纸上画了一个完美的圆。惊讶的使者回禀教皇，教皇看见乔托这个精准的圆之后，很欣赏它体现出的炉火纯青的艺术才能和技巧，当即聘用了乔托。

十月俱乐部：指安妮女王统治时期，一群在国会附近小酒馆聚会的托利党要人。他们一边喝着十月麦芽酒，一边咒骂辉格党人。

Now here is the Penguin paperback of Apsley Cherry Garrard’s The Worst Journey in the World, the story of his agonizing 900-mile trek through the darkness of the Antarctic winter to investigate the mating habits of the penguin. The book is as long as the walk. I may likely not read it a second time. Do I require two later editions? Of course I do. You just never know. And the second and third editions of the Columbia Encyclopedia? You bet.

Chaz gave me this facsimile of Shakespeare’s First Folio. Will I ever read it? Not with that spelling and typography. But I will always treasure it. I look at it sometimes, and wonder at the genius of the man. What, for that matter, of my other editions of Shakespeare? The little blue volumes of the Yale Shakespeare, and the editions by Oxford, the Easton Press and the Folio Society? Handsome books, finely made. But I always read only my battered and underlined old Riverside Shakespeare from college, because it was edited by G. Blakemore Evans, and he was my professor, you see. I tried reading a Folio volume once. Just the right page size, one (not two) columns to the page, elegant typography. I just couldn’t. I felt like I was cheating on G. Blakemore.

现在我要说说阿普斯利•彻里•加勒德的《世界上最糟的旅行》，企鹅出版社出的平装本。这本书讲述了他长途跋涉900英里，熬过南极的黑暗寒冬，去调查企鹅的交配习性。这本书像他的旅程一样漫长，我大概不会再读第二遍了。难道我需要最新的两个版本吗？当然啦。世事难料嘛。至于《哥伦比亚百科全书》的第二版和第三版，你说呢？

查兹曾送给我莎士比亚的《第一对开本》的复制品。我会去读吗？那种拼写和印刷质量，真没法读。但我会一直将它珍藏。我有时看着它，感慨莎翁的天才。说到这个，我其他版本的莎士比亚作品又如何？蓝色小开本的耶鲁版，还有牛津版、伊斯顿版、对开本协会版的又如何？这些书都很漂亮，制作精美。但我只读自己大学时的旧莎翁集，那本书由河岸出版社出版，如今已皱皱巴巴，书里还有许多下划线。我只读它，因为此书编辑是G.布莱克莫尔•埃文斯，他是我当年的教授，你明白了吧。我试着读过一次对开本。那本书的页面尺寸刚刚好，每页只有一栏而非两栏，印刷考究。但我就是读不了，觉得自己背叛了G.布莱克莫尔。

My possessions are getting away from me. We have an agreement. My office is my office. Chaz has her own book-filled office, and takes care that the rest of the house is clean and orderly. My office has a glass door with this gilt lettering:

The Ebert Company, Ltd.

Fine Film Criticism since 1967.

I have not been able to even get into the storage closet of my office for four years. The room is lined floor to ceiling with film books, and the shelves of directors and actors with names beginning H, I, J, K and L are blocked by piles of stuff on the floor. What? You expect me to throw out my first Tandy 100? And there’s a 40-year run of Sight and Sound there somewhere.

我的藏品离我越来越远。我和查兹达成一致，我的办公间是我的，她有自己塞满书的办公间。她还得保证家里别的地方干净整齐。我的办公间有道玻璃门，上面有两行镀金的字：

埃伯特有限公司

优质影评，始于1967年

4年来，我甚至挤不进办公间的储物室。那里的电影书从地面一直摞到天花板。名字以H、I、J、K和L开头的导演和演员的那几排书架，全都被地上成堆的杂物挡住了。什么？你指望我扔掉我的第一台坦迪100计算机[9]？这里某处还有40年的《视与听》杂志呢。

I have a book (here somewhere) named Rodinsky’s Room, by Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair, about a mysterious London cabalistic scholar named David Rodinsky who in 1969 disappeared from his attic above a synagogue on Princelet Street in the East End. His flat was strangely left undisturbed for years, and when it was opened all was exactly as he left it—his books, papers, possessions, even a pot of porridge on the stove.

That’s what I should do. Just turn the key and walk away, and move into 150 square feet. Get me a little electric coil to boil the coffee water. Just my Shakespeare, some Henry James, and of course Willa Cather, Colette and Simenon. Two hundred books, tops. Brewer’s. But no. There wouldn’t be room for Chaz, and I would miss her terribly. That I could never abide. And what if I needed one of these books?

我有一本书，就放在这里某处。书名是《罗丁斯基的房间》，作者是雷切尔•利希滕斯坦和伊恩•辛克莱，讲述了伦敦神秘学者戴维•罗丁斯基的故事。他住在伦敦东区普林斯利街一座犹太教堂的阁楼上。1969年，他从这里失踪了。奇怪的是，他的屋子一直没人动过。多年后人们打开门，发现屋子还是他离开时的模样——他的藏书、文件、财物，甚至炉上的那锅粥，全都丝毫未动。

这正是我要做的。锁上门离开，搬进150平方英尺的大屋。给我一个小热得快烧水冲咖啡就行。只要有我的莎士比亚、亨利•詹姆斯，当然还有薇拉•凯瑟、科莱特和西默农就行。最多200本书，布鲁尔出版社的。但是不行，那就没有查兹的地方了，我会很想她的。我可受不了这个苦。再说，万一我急需哪本书怎么办？

有些书我无法割舍，是因为我翻过每页书，读过每个字；它们就像小小的神龛，承载了我过往的岁月。

Roger Joseph Ebert 罗杰•约瑟夫•埃伯特

[1] 德西德里乌斯.伊拉斯谟（Desiderius Erasmus， 1466—1536），文艺复兴时期尼德兰（今荷兰和比利时）人文主义思想家。

[2] 农夫午餐，许多酒馆提供的英式午餐，常为芝士加面包，现也伴有乳酪、甜泡菜等。

[3] 速溶波斯塔姆，一种不含咖啡因的咖啡替代品。

[4] 保罗.哈姆林（Paul Hamlyn，1926—2001），德裔英国出版家，不仅创办了哈姆林出版社，还是著名的慈善家。

[5] 布思.塔金顿（Booth Tarkington，1869—1946），美国作家和剧作家。

[6] 忆华楼，罗孝建1954年在白金汉宫附近开设的高级中餐馆。

[7] 爱德华时代，指英王爱德华七世在位的10年，这段时期社会比较稳定，文学艺术繁荣。

[8] 夏尔巴人，喜马拉雅山区的尼泊尔部落，以做登山向导和脚夫闻名于世。

[9] 坦迪 100（Tandy TRS-80 Model 100），诞生于1983年，是世界上第一台广泛普及的笔记本电脑。