为什么我看英文原著感受不到语言的美？-CSDN博客

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“为什么我看英文原著感受不到语言的美？¹”

之前在知乎上看到这篇文章的标题的问题，问题的大概描述是提问者阅读了一些二十世纪的英文名著，但是并没有感觉到这些书的语言有什么惊艳出彩之处，所以想知道为什么会这样。我觉得这个问题很有意思，也值得稍微展开写一写，所以写了如下回答：
因为你看的书不对。
可以读一下下面的几个选段：
1.Samuel Johnson的Life of Richard Savage的开篇
It has been observed, in all ages, that the advantages of nature, or of fortune, have contributed very little to the promotion of happiness; and that those whom the splendour of their rank, or the extent of their capacity, have placed upon the summits of human life, have not often given any just occasion to envy, in those who look up to them from a lower station: whether it be that apparent superiority incites great designs, and great designs are naturally liable to fatal miscarriages; or, that the general lot of mankind is misery, and the misfortunes of those, whose eminence drew upon them an universal attention, have been more carefully recorded, because they were more generally observed, and have, in reality, been only more conspicuous than those of others, not more frequent, or more severe.
2.Samuel Johnson的A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland中的一段话：
Many of my subsequent inquiries upon more interesting topicks ended in the like uncertainty. He that travels in the Highlands may easily saturate his soul with intelligence, if he will acquiesce in the first account. The Highlander gives to every question an answer so prompt and peremptory, that skepticism itself is dared into silence, and the mind sinks before the bold reporter in unresisting credulity; but, if a second question be ventured, it breaks the enchantment; for it is immediately discovered, that what was told so confidently was told at hazard, and that such fearlessness of assertion was either the sport of negligence, or the refuge of ignorance.
3.William Hazlitt的随笔集the Spirit of the Age中写William Godwin的文章的开篇
The Spirit of the Age was never more fully shown than in its treatment of this writer—its love of paradox and change, its dastard submission to prejudice and to the fashion of the day. Five-and-twenty years ago he was in the very zenith of a sultry and unwholesome popularity; he blazed as a sun in the firmament of reputation; no one was more talked of, more looked up to, more sought after, and wherever liberty, truth, justice was the theme, his name was not far off:—now he has sunk below the horizon, and enjoys the serene twilight of a doubtful immortality. Mr. Godwin, during his life-time, has secured to himself the triumphs and the mortifications of an extreme notoriety and of a sort of posthumous fame. His bark, after being tossed in the revolutionary tempest, now raised to heaven by all the fury of popular breath, now almost dashed in pieces, and buried in the quicksands of ignorance, or scorched with the lightning of momentary indignation, at length floats on the calm wave that is to bear it down the stream of time.
同一篇文章的另一个片段：
We may not be able to launch the bark of our affections on the ocean-tide of humanity, we may be forced to paddle along its shores, or shelter in its creeks and rivulets: but we have no right to reproach the bold and adventurous pilot, who dared us to tempt the uncertain abyss, with our own want of courage or of skill, or with the jealousies and impatience, which deter us from undertaking, or might prevent us from accomplishing the voyage!
语言的美主要体现在用词的华丽典雅，文法的复杂且工整，与比喻的新颖恰当。这些特质在近现代的英语作家中是很难找到的。
English prose在十七世纪末十八世纪初开始进入成熟期，到了十八世纪中后期盛行的拉丁化文风，用词考究，文法复杂但工整，很少有人看了会不欣赏。这一时代和这一风格的代表作家有Samuel Johnson, Edmund Burke, Edward Gibbon和Tobias Smollett等等。
而到了十九世纪初，浪漫主义开始流行，English prose也打破了上个世纪新古典主义文风的各种规矩与枷锁，行文行云流水，画面感天马行空。William Hazlitt, Walter Scott与Charles Lamb是这个时期的代表人物。尤其是William Hazlitt，被有些人称为“写随笔的莎士比亚”。相比Samuel Johnson优雅华丽不逾矩的文章，William Hazlitt的文章更加狂放华丽，思想更加深邃，比喻也更有创造力。
到了维多利亚时期，English prose已经开始走下坡路了，代表人物如Thomas Carlyle，文章空有辞藻堆砌，但却笨重，空洞，冗余。Thomas Carlyle是William Hazlitt的忠实崇拜者，但显然他只学到了他偶像的本领的皮毛。
而在往后到了现代时期，文人们发现想按照传统的文学审美创作来出人头地的路已经几乎被堵死了。一方面前人的文学硕果已经太过丰富璀璨，人性，自然与社会的方方面面，能写的都有人写过了，能让人想到的让人耳目一新，印象深刻的表述方式也都被人写过了；另一方面，文学的普及化大幅拉低了读者对于更复杂华丽的文学作品的理解与接受能力。这就使得现代文学向两极化发展：一部分作家摒弃了传统的文学理念，开始创造各种理论来故弄玄虚，靠有话不好好说来掩盖自己创造力的匮乏，靠标新立异来遮挡自己空洞的见解，让读者一头雾水；另一部分作家则在文学大众化的世界里如鱼得水，用俗套肤浅的情节与平淡无奇的语言获得广大读者的青睐。前者的作品就是所谓的严肃文学，后者的作品则是所谓的通俗文学。