你有资格使用工具书吗？我的另类翻译之旅 039

你有资格使用工具书吗？我的另类翻译之旅 039
01
【絮语】
钱钟书周岁“抓周”时，抓到了书，所以家人给他取名为“钟书”。也许是天意吧，他也就名副其实，一辈子“钟情于书”。在清华大学读书时，他就立下了“横扫清华图书馆”的志向，把所有的时间都用到了读书上。
钱钟书在读书中，还对读字典、辞典有着特别的兴趣，而且深得其乐，许多大部头的字典、辞典、大百科全书他都读过。
1939年秋，钱钟书和邹文海、徐燕谋等人一起，从上海动身，一同赴遥远的湖南安化蓝田的国立师范学院任教。途中，钱钟书“怡然自得，手不释卷”。邹文海好奇，方知钱钟书看的是英文字典。邹文海觉得一本索然寡味的字典，竟可捧在手中一月，读得津津有味，真是不可思议。钱钟书则告诉他：“字典是旅途的良伴。随翻随玩，遇到几个生冷的字，还可以多记几个字的用法。更可喜的是，前人所著字典，常常记载旧时口语，表现旧时之习俗，趣味之深，不足为外人道也。”
杨绛在《我们仨》中说他们当时被困在上海，物资贫乏，生活很困难，而钱钟书是视书如命的人，那时没有什么书可以看，钱钟书就是看字典。
“文化大革命”开始后，钱钟书、杨绛均被“揪出”作为“资产阶级学术权威”，还有人写大字报诬陷钱钟书，所幸1969年11月，钱钟书作为文学所“先遣队”的成员最早去了河南省罗山县的“五七干校”。当时他负责给大家烧开水，加足煤以后，利用水未烧开的这个空间，便抱着一部比砖头还厚的外文原文辞典阅读。后来，干校迁至息县的东岳集西北，钱钟书负责信件收发工作，1971年，五七干校离开息县东岳集，又搬到信阳附近明港的一座军营里。在这期间，钱先生只要有空，仍抱着那部比砖头还要厚的外文辞典，攻读不辍。
这则小故事中，字典、辞典，英文都是 dictionary，百科全书 encyclopedia，都属于工具书 reference books。
本小节主要讲述了一下如何使用工具书的总体条件，接下来两节是讲如何使用辞典与百科全书。
令人感到惊讶的是，作者认为使用工具书的基础条件，是需要大量的知识为基础，对于一个文盲来讲，工具书就像用火箭打苍蝇，用不上也不会用。
同时工具书本身也有其局限，就是不能回答有关道德的形而上问题，或未来的预测性问题，工具书只适用于查询那些通过记忆就能解决的问题。
换句话说，工具书就是一个人记忆的代替者。
不过，说是记忆，也需要你有一个能够换起记忆的线头，这就是使用工具书的必要知识，一般来说是四个方面的问题——具体是什么，请阅读翻译内容。
02
【翻译】
如何使用工具书
工具书籍（reference books，也有参考书的意思）种类多样。接下来的两小节，我们主要限定在两种最有用的工具书籍上，辞典（dictionary）和百科全书（encyclopedia）。不过，我们所讲的很多东西，同样适用于其他类型的工具书籍。
有一件事，虽然千真万确，但通常不被认识到，那就是，你需要大量知识，才能够很好地使用一本工具书。其中四种知识尤其不可或缺。因此，一本工具书视为一种解决无知的灵丹妙药，只能在一种有限的范围内。对于完全的懵懂无知，它束手无策。它也不能代替你思考。
为很好地利用工具书，你必须，第一，对于你想要了解的东西已经有一些概念，虽然这些概念可能有点模糊不清。你的无知，很像被光明包围的黑洞。你想要将光明带进这个黑洞之中。但是，除非你的知识黑洞被光明包围，否则你无法做到这一点。换句话说，你必须能够对工具书提出一个聪明的问题。如果你漫无目的，茫然无措，深陷无知迷雾之中，那么，工具书对你来说，将一无是处。
第二，你必须知道去哪里找寻你想要了解的内容。你必须知道你提出问题的类型，以及哪一种工具书能解答这种类型的问题。没有一本工具书能够回答一切类型的问题；所有此类著作都是专门书籍，只针对某一个方面。实际上，这归结于一个事实，即你必须对所有主要类型的工具书，有相当程度的全面了解，才能够有效地利用任何一种类型的工具书。
第三，与之相对应，要保证工具书能够对你有用，你需要先对知识进行分类。你必须了解特定著作是如何组织起来的。不过，如果你确实不知道如何使用专门著作，那么，即便你知道想要了解什么东西，以及知道利用哪一种工具书，也没什么用。因此，阅读工具书籍是有技巧的，就像其他任何读物都有阅读技巧一样。顺便说一下，编撰工具书籍也有相应的技巧。写作者或者编撰者应当了解阅读者想要搜索何种资讯，并设法使得他的书籍迎合阅读者的需求。不过，他也许并非总是能够符合这个预期，这也是为什么那条在阅读一本书之前，要求你应该阅读它的导论和序言的规则，在此特别适用的原因。在了解编辑者给出的如何使用工具书建议之前，千万不要试图使用这本工具书。
当然，不要指望工具书籍可以回答所有类型的问题。在任何一本工具书中，你都不能找到以下三个问题的答案，即托尔斯泰的故事中上帝问天使的三个问题：人类靠什么活着——即“人类心里有什么？”“有什么东西上天没有给予人类？”“人类靠什么活着？”你同样也找不到托尔斯泰故事中作为标题的另外一个问题的答案：“一个人到底需要多大空间？”以及很多类似的问题。工具书籍仅仅在你了解了，通过它们能够回答哪种类型的问题时，才会有用。这又要归结于掌握人类能够普遍达成一致的事物种类。只有那些有关人类普遍认同或约定俗成的事物，才能够在工具书籍中找到。尚未得到普遍支持的观点在那没有市场，即便这样的观点有时会渗杂其中。
我们都会同意，知道一个人生于何时，逝于何时，以及与此类似事情是可能的。我们也同意，定义字词和事物是可能的，而且，叙述几乎任何事件历史的概要也是可能的。我们也确实无法就道德问题或有关未来的问题达成一致意见，因此，此类事情，就不能在工具书中找到。我们确信，在我们这个时代，物理世界有其规律性，因此几乎与此相关的所有事情都能在工具书中找到。也不是一直都这样，因为工具书籍的历史本身就有趣，它能告诉我们人类对于与认知相关观点的变迁。
正如你可以看到的，我们正在提出的建议，是关于如何巧妙地运用工具书籍的第四个条件。你必须了解你想要知道什么；你必须了解在哪一本工具书中找到它；你必须了解如何在工具书中找到它；以及你必须了解，你想知道的东西，对于工具书作者或编撰者来说，是不是可知的。所有这些都表明，在能够很好地使用工具著作之前，你必须了解大量知识。对于一无所知的人来讲，工具书籍对他们毫无用处。工具书籍不是茫然不所所措者的指南针。
03
【英文原文】
How to Use Reference Books
There are many kinds of reference books. In the following section we will confine ourselves mainly to the two most used kinds, dictionaries and encyclopedias. However, many of the things we will have to say apply to other kinds of reference books as well.
It is not always realized, yet it is nevertheless true, that a good deal of knowledge is required before you can use a reference book well. Specifically, four kinds of knowledge are required. Thus a reference book is an antidote to ignorance in only a limited way. It cannot cure total ignorance. It cannot do your thinking for you.
To use a reference book well, you must, first, have some idea, however vague it may be, of what you want to know. Your ignorance must be like a circle of darkness surrounded by light. You want to bring light to the dark circle. You cannot do that unless light surrounds the darkness. Another way to say this is that you must be able to ask a reference book an intelligible question. It will be no help to you if you are wandering, lost, in a fog of ignorance.
Second, you must know where to find out what you want to know. You must know what kind of question you are asking, and which kinds of reference books answer that kind of question. There is no reference book that answers all questions; all such works are specialists, as it were. Practically, this comes down to the fact that you must have a fair overall knowledge of all of the major types of reference books before you can use any one type effectively.
There is a third, and correlative, kind of knowledge that is required before a reference book can be useful to you. You must know how the particular work is organized. It will do you no good to know what you want to know, and to know the kind of reference book to use, if you do not know how to use the particular work. Thus there is an art of reading reference books, just as there is an art to reading anything else. There is a correlative art to making reference books, by the way. The author or compiler should know what kind of information readers will seek, and arrange his book to fit their needs. He may not always be able to anticipate these, however, which is why the rule that you should read the introduction and preface to a book before reading the book itself applies particularly here. Do not try to use a reference book before getting the editor’s advice on how to use it.
Of course, not all kinds of questions can be answered by reference books. You will not find in any reference book the answers to the three questions that God asks the angel in Tolstoy’s story, What Men Live By—namely, “What dwells in man?” “What is not given to man?” and “What do men live by?” Nor will you find the answers to another question that is also used as the title of a Tolstoy story: “How much land does a man need?” And there are many such questions. Reference books are only useful when you know which kinds of questions can be answered by them, and which cannot. This comes down to knowing the sorts of things that men generally agree on. Only those things about which men generally and conventionally agree are to be found in reference books. Unsupported opinions have no business there, though they sometimes creep in.
We agree that it is possible to know when a man was born, when he died, and facts about similar matters. We agree that it is possible to define words and things, and that it is possible to sketch the history of almost anything. We do not agree on moral questions or on questions about the future, and so these sorts of things are not to be found in reference books. We assume in our time that the physical world is orderable, and thus almost everything about it is to be found in reference books. This was not always so; as a result, the history of reference books is interesting in itself, for it can tell us much about changes in men’s opinions as to what is knowable.
As you can see, we have just been suggesting that there is a fourth requirement for the intelligent use of reference books. You must know what you want to know; you must know in what reference work to find it; you must know how to find it in the reference work; and you must know that it is considered knowable by the authors or compilers of the book. All this indicates that you must know a good deal before you can use a work of reference. Reference books are useless to people who know nothing. They are not guides to the perplexed.