和民国大师，学学如何用英文写人
两年多前和大家分享过Imperfect Understanding，《不够知己》，是温源宁先生于1935出版的书。本期读书会读的是林语堂的作品，我想做一个同时代作家的主题阅读，于是把温先生的书翻出来再读一遍。今天从中节选阶段分享给大家。
如果让我用一句话来描述《不够知己》的话，我会说它: 一本充满有趣的文字和神一样的人物的书。温先生用英文对民国时期文化名人速写, 描述对象包括胡适、徐志摩、周作人、梁玉春、吴宓等人。语言地道，漂亮中带些幽默，阅读的时候有那么一会我以为是在读《经济学人》的讣文(obituary)板块。
温源宁（1899-1984），英国剑桥法学硕士，曾于北大、清华、北平女子师范学院等处任教，讲授西洋文学，1935年与林语堂等合办英文杂志《天下》，后定居台湾，直至去世。温源宁于1934年用英文为《中国评论周报》（The China Critic Weekly）撰写关于当时文化名人印象记的专栏文章，后结集出版单行本，书名叫做《Imperfect Understanding》，有人把这个书名译成《不完美的了解》，也有人译为《一知半解》，而《不够知己》则是钱锺书的译法。
1. 溥仪
In the long history of mankind there have been many commoners made emperors; there have been many emperors forced to abdicate the throne; there have also been some exiled emperors who made a successful struggle back to the throne, as, in the case of Napoleon I. But there have been few, if any, instances where a man was made emperor three times without knowing why and apparently without relishing it. Believe it or not, Mr. Henry Puyi holds the world's record in the number of times that any mortal may ascend and abdicate the throne -- that is, after March 1 when he will be crowned for the third time.
On Writing Well中作者认为任何文章的第一句都是最重要的，必须能够吸引读者读下去，那要如何做呢？他说：
your lead must capture the reader immediately and force him to keep reading. It must cajole him with freshness, or novelty, or paradox, or humor, or surprise, or with an unusual idea, or an interesting fact, or a question. Anything will do, as long as it nudges his curiosity and tugs at his sleeve.
Next the lead must do some real work. It must provide hard details that tell the reader why the piece was written and why he ought to read it. But don’t dwell on the reason. Coax the reader a little more; keep him inquisitive.
我认为温先生写溥仪的这一段是非常吸引人的开头，用了好几个there be，读起来有音乐美，也吊足了读者的胃口。
顺便注意relish这个词，它的意思和enjoy差不多都表示“享受”，但是relish多了一层“细细品味” “期待已久”的意思，在这里用得很准确。在On Writing Well中Zinsser也两次用到了这个词，感受一下：
Or take a writer who is almost White’s opposite in terms of style, who relishes the opulent word for its opulence and doesn’t deify the simple sentence.
I relish (in my ear) the pattern his words make as they fall into a sentence.
2. 徐志摩
There are sorrows to be sure, in Tse-mo's life: keen and poignant, like those of a child; but lasting no longer than the morning dew. Pain is often inflicted by him on those he associates with; but the pain is robbed of half its hurt, because the hand that inflicts it is innocent. Like a child who kills birds and pulls out the wings of flies, Tse-mo can also, at times, be very cruel to people, without his knowing it. A creature of impulse, wholly innocent, Tse-mo breaks glasses, scatters flowers, and riots through a brake of brambles, as part of the day's play.
Some say, they see signs of maturity in Tse-mp's latter days. If so, a good thing he died when he did. And what a fairytale death it was! Died in an aeroplane crash, and against a mountain too! A poetic death, a child's life: what better fate can gods grant to mortal man?
一个完美的结尾应该是让人觉得意外，但是又在情理之中。用Poetic death, a child's life: what better fate can gods grant to mortal man? 结尾，是评价、感概也是提问和交流，觉得此时无声胜有声。
橙色标记部分的赏析请参考旧文：什么才是英语中的美文？
3. 胡适
A little over forty, Dr. Hu looks much younger than his age. Clean shaven and neatly attired, he is neatness itself. Hair all jet black, with no touch of gray, prominent Augustan forehead, with eyes large and frank, a mobile pair of lips, suggestive of eloquence and an easy flow of speech, a good complexion, Dr. Hu's face suggests neither a scholar's "simple living and high thinking," nor a man-of-the-world's "good board and fast living." Of medium height, just right in size, agile and free in his movements, Dr. Hu has the appearance of a man-of-the-world turned scholar, rather than a scholar turned man-of-the-world.
Dr. Hu's knowledge is prodigious. Something of everything, he knows from the composition of aphrodisiacs to the most abstruse doctrines of Buddhism...
温先生的文字像是一台摄像机，有长焦和特写。从整体感觉到须发、额头、眼睛、嘴唇，然后再把镜头拉长，看身高走姿，这一切只用了三个句子，而没有一个which/where/what类的从句。它是如何做到的？我们分析一下语法：
A little over forty（形容词+名词）, Dr. Hu looks much younger than his age.
Clean shaven and neatly attired（副词+形容词）, he is neatness itself.
Hair all jet black（名词+形容词）..., Dr. Hu's face suggests
Of medium height（介词+名词）..., Dr. Hu has the appearance
这样的句子简单实用，但是我们却不敢这样写，今天见到了这个套路就记下来用起来吧。例如三个小时前孟庆伟Justin发给了我封邮件截图，他在向他在澳洲的朋友介绍我的时候就用到了这样的结构：
An English teacher by training, he has a popular English learning blog that is home to over 100, 000 subscribers.
顺便我们从中学几个词：在抽象名词后加itself是表示“非常”的意思，这里he is neatness itself是说“他非常干净利索”；prodigious是“巨大的” “大的惊人的”，例如prodigious memory（惊人的记忆力），ate prodigiously（饭量惊人），这里是说胡适先生特别博学。
4. 冯玉祥
One of General Feng's former teachers, now in the government service, bluntly sums up his formula of this mysterious personality thus: a half-baked person with a single-track mind. When General Feng was known as the "Christian General," he truly believed that China's salvation lay in Christianity; when he allied himself with Russia, he really believed that that was the only way to save China; later, when he supported General Chiang Kai-shek in ousting General Chang Tso-lin from Peking and the communists from Kuomintang, he sincerely believed that he was doing the only thing that could rescue China and that the realization of the San-Min-Chu-I would mean a millennium for our country. He believed in one thing at a time to the exclusion of everything else; he has the single-track mind because he is half-baked, and he is half-baked because he is a self-educated man, whose reading has been omnivorous rather than intelligently chosen.
一句话形容冯玉祥： a half-baked person with a single-track mind. half-baked常用来形容计划、主意不靠谱，在这里是说冯玉祥缺乏判断力，稀里糊涂的；single-track像是咱们说的“一根筋”，不知变通。
温先生在这段中用了4个believe，3个不同的副词（truly, really, sincerely)，通过反复向读者展示冯玉祥是如何的half-baked, with a single-track mind。
William Zinsser说我们要慎用副词，尤其是要减少使用表示程度的intensifiers，例如really, very。不过温先生在这里用truly, really和sincerely是故意而为之，让文章多了份调侃的意味。
⚠️广告时间
12月和我一起共读大师经典，和林语堂学英文，学学我们自己的文化，报名请点👉 【12月读书会】读读林语堂笔下的苏东坡
澳洲现在是12:00了，晚安😴
明早7点去跳伞