⊙By E. H. Gombrich翻譯：吳秀杰

A LittlE HistoRy oF thE WoRlD世界小史

⊙By E. H. Gombrich翻譯：吳秀杰

用今天的話來說，《世界小史》是一本很“萌”的世界史通俗讀物。

盡管恩斯特·貢布里希爵士（Sir Ernst Gombrich，1909-2001）學(xué)富五車，才高八斗，在美學(xué)與藝術(shù)史領(lǐng)域取得了各種學(xué)術(shù)成就，是近代公認的美學(xué)大師級人物，但他寫的書可一點都不“高大上”——沒有賣弄學(xué)問，沒有故弄玄虛，他的文字平實幽默、簡明流暢，從最初的《世界小史》到代表作《藝術(shù)的故事》（The Story of Art），都被視為相關(guān)領(lǐng)域最通俗易懂的論述作品。哪怕你還是個學(xué)生，哪怕你只是個外行人，都能從他的書中享受到知識帶來的無窮樂趣。

他在《世界小史》土耳其版的前言中寫道：“無論是現(xiàn)在還是過去，這本書都從來不能代替教科書。我希望我的讀者能夠放松，能夠追蹤歷史，不必去寫筆記，不必去記住人名和年代。我也答應(yīng)你們，我是肯定不會拿這些東西考你們的?！?/p>

是的，這是一本你可以坐得安安穩(wěn)穩(wěn)，用看故事的心情去閱讀的小書。準備好了嗎？我們就從“Once upon a time”說起吧……

All stories begin with “Once upon a time.” And that’s just what this story is all about:what happened, once upon a time. Once you were so small that, even standing on1)tiptoes, you could barely reach your mother’s hand. Do you remember? Your own history might begin like this: “Once upon a time there was a small boy”—or a small girl—“and that small boy was me.” But before that you were a baby in a2)cradle. You won’t remember that, but you know it’s true. Your father and mother were also small once, and so was your grandfather, and your grandmother, a much longer time ago, but you know that too. After all,we say: “They are old.” But they too had grandfathers and grandmothers, and they, too,could say: “Once upon a time.” And so it goes on, further and further back. Behind every“Once upon a time” there is always another. Have you ever tried standing between two mirrors? You should. You will see a great long line of shiny mirrors, each one smaller than the one before,3)stretching away into the distance, getting fainter and fainter, so that you never see the last. But even when you can’t see them any more, the mirrors still go on.They are there, and you know it.

And that’s how it is with “Once upon a time.” We can’t see where it ends.Grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather’s grandfather…it makes your head spin. But say it again, slowly, and in the end you’ll be able to imagine it. Then add one more. That gets us quickly back into the past, and from there into the distant past. But you will never reach the beginning, because behind every beginning there’s always another “Once upon a time.”

It’s like a bottomless well. Does all this looking down make you dizzy? It does me. So let’s4)light a5)scrap of paper, and drop it down into that well. It will fall slowly, deeper and deeper. And as it burns it will light up the sides of the well. Can you see it? It’s going down and down. Now it’s so far down it’s like a tiny star in the dark depths. It’s getting smaller and smaller…and now it’s gone.

Our memory is like that burning scrap of paper.We use it to light up the past. First of all our own,and then we ask old people to tell us what they remember. After that we look for letters written by people who are already dead. And in this way we light our way back. There are buildings that are just for storing old scraps of paper that people once wrote on—they are called6)archives. In them you can find letters written hundreds of years ago. In an archive, I once found a letter which just said: “Dear Mummy, Yesterday we ate some lovely7)truffles,love from William.” William was a little Italian prince who lived four hundred years ago. Truffles are a special sort of mushroom.

對于科普類讀物來說，好的開頭真可以說是成功的關(guān)鍵。一位優(yōu)秀的作者會在開篇頭幾頁迅速調(diào)動起讀者的積極性，將讀者帶入文字的節(jié)奏里，從而吸引讀者一路往下看，在閱讀中不知不覺地學(xué)到新知識。本期選段就是一個非常經(jīng)典的科普“鳳頭”，從講故事最常見的once upon a time入手，再延伸到鏡子、深井、紙片、回憶、歷史……一步一步，層層遞進，娓娓道來。貢布里希的語言隨性自然，帶有很強的互動性，這種寫法值得我們細細品讀，多加學(xué)習(xí)。

參考譯文

所有的故事都是以“從前……”來開頭的。我們的故事也會這樣講：從前如何如何。從前你還那么小，哪怕踮起腳尖也很難夠到媽媽的手。你還記得嗎？如果你愿意的話，也可以用一個這樣的開頭來講自己的故事：“從前，有個小男孩”——或者小女孩——“那個孩子就是我?！辈贿^，在那之前，你曾經(jīng)是一個躺在搖籃里的嬰兒。這你肯定不記得了，但你知道這準沒錯。你的爸爸媽媽從前也是小孩。你的祖父祖母在更久以前也是小孩，你也知道這些事情。因為我們總會說：“他們老了?！钡麄円灿凶娓缸婺?，他們也會說：“從前……”我們可以一直這樣追溯回去。在每一個“從前……”之前，還會有另一個“從前……”。你試過站在兩個鏡子之間嗎？真該試試！你會看到一排長長的、閃閃發(fā)光的鏡子，一個比一個小，越來越遠，越來越模糊，你永遠看不到盡頭。哪怕肉眼看不到，你也知道遠處還有更多更多的鏡子。

這個“從前……”也和那鏡子里的鏡子一樣。我們無法看到它的盡頭。爺爺?shù)臓敔數(shù)臓敔數(shù)臓敔敗孀屓藭烆^轉(zhuǎn)向。但是，如果你再說一遍，慢慢說，你終歸可以想明白這是怎樣一種情形，然后再來一個鏡子。這樣，我們就可以迅速回到古代，再往后進入遠古。但你永遠到不了歷史的開端，因為在每個開端的前面，總有另外一個“從前……”。

這可是一個看不見底的深井！這樣一路往下看，你會感到頭暈嗎？我會！我們來點燃一張紙片，把它扔進這個深深的井里吧。它慢慢地落下去，越來越深。下落的時候，火光就會照亮井壁。你能看到它嗎？越來越深——現(xiàn)在它已經(jīng)下落得太深了，就像黑暗深處的一顆小星星——越來越小……已經(jīng)看不到了。

回憶就像那張燃燒的紙片，我們用它來照亮過去。先是我們自己的過去，然后，我們請老人談?wù)勊麄冇浀玫氖虑?；再往后，我們?nèi)フ夷切┰缫央x世的先人留下來的信稿文件。就這樣，我們照亮了回溯過去的道路。有些房子專門用來存放人們以前寫東西的紙片——這地方叫檔案館。在那里，你可以找到好幾百年前的人們寫的信。我在一所檔案館里看過一封信，上面寫著：“親愛的媽咪！昨天我們吃到了好吃的松露，愛你的威廉上?！蓖撬陌倌昵暗囊晃灰獯罄⊥踝樱陕秳t是一種珍稀的蘑菇。

（節(jié)選自廣西師范大學(xué)出版社版本，有改動）

1) tiptoe [?t?pt??] n. 腳尖，趾尖 2) cradle [?kre?d（?）l] n. 搖籃 3) stretch [stret?] v. 伸展，伸長

4) light [la?t] v. 點燃，照亮

5) scrap [skr?p] n. 小片，小塊

6) archive [?ɑ?ka?v] n. 檔案館

7) truf fl e [?tr?f（?）l] n. 松露