Pedantry 中文翻译

PEDANTRY

—By Jacques Barzun To define pedantry is not an easy thing to do. The meaning assigned should be neutral and fixed. But pedantry is relative to occasion.

要给学究气下定义并非易事，所下定义应当不偏不倚且相对固定，但学究气往往与具体场合息息相关。

When it was forbidden and pedantic to quote Greek in the House of Commons, it was not forbidden to quote Latin. Today Latin would be as pedantic as Greek, though in a classics seminar both languages must be quoted, and can be, without taint of pedantry.

过去，英国下议院禁止引用希腊语，认为那是一种学究气，但却不禁止引用拉丁语。而今天，引用拉丁语也被认为同引用希腊语一样学究气了，尽管在经典作品研讨会上，两种语言都必须被引用，并且有时并无学究气之嫌。

The idea by which to test pedantry, then, is fitness—and fitness not only as regards time and place, but also as regards degree, quality, amount, or kind. Aristotle was warding off one sort of pedantry when he said that no subject should be treated with more precision than the purpose required.

因此，检验是否学究气的标准应当为是否恰如其分。不仅在时间、地点上，同时程度、质量、数量或者种类等方面都应适宜得当。亚里士多德曾经说过：对于任何论题，都应掌握其分寸，符合目的要求，不应过度。此话也是在避免一种学究气。

Should one want to know the average number of children in each American family, it would be pedantry to carry the count to five decimal places. The teller of an anecdote who interrupts himself to ascertain whether the event took place on the Tuesday or the Wednesday is a pedant—unless the day matters for an understanding of the point.

倘若一个人在了解每个美国家庭平均有几个孩子时，将数字精确到小数点后五位就显得学究气了。如果谈论趣闻轶事的人，中途停下去追究事件究竟是发生在周二还是周三，也实属学究气，除非那日期真的对整个故事的理解至关重要。

In other words, it is intellectually right not to try to know or to tell more than a subject contains of significance. Or in still other words, knowledge is not an absolute homogeneous good, of which there cannot be enough. Beyond the last flutter of actual or possible significance, pedantry begins.

换言之，了解或探究问题的意义时，应当实事求是，千万不要过分，这才是明智之举。再换句话说，虽知学海无涯，但知识并非全然有益。超出意义的切实性或合理性的极限，学究气便随之而生。

Now think of the huge yearly mass of scholarly research and apply the tests of fitness and significance: clearly pedantry predominates; it is the sea around us.

想想每年那些数量繁多的学术研究，再用恰如其分和有无意义这两大标准加以衡量：显而易见，学究气比比皆是，像汪洋大海一样包围着我们。

1