聆聽美文

Never Give Up the Pursuit of Learning

《不要拋棄學問》張培基譯

Dear students of the Graduating Class,

諸位畢業同學：

As you are leaving your alma mater, I have nothing to offer you as a gift except a word of advice. My advice is, "Never give up the pursuit of learning."

你們現在要離開母校了，我沒有什麼禮物送給你們，只好送你們一句話吧。這一句話是：“不要拋棄學問。”

You have perhaps finished your college courses mostly for obtaining the diploma, or, in other words, out of sheer necessity. However, from now on you are free to follow your own bent in the choice of studies. While you are in the prime of life, why not devote yourselves to a special field of study? Youth will soon be gone never to return. And it will be too late for you to go into scholarship when in your declining years. Knowledge will do you a good turn even as a means of subsistence. If you give up studies while holding a job, you will in a couple of years have had yourselves replaced by young people. It will then be too late to remedy the situation by picking up studies again.

以前的功課也許有一大部分是為了這張畢業文憑，不得已而做的。從今以後，你們可以依自己的心願去自由研究了。趁現在年富力強的時候，努力做一種專門學問。少年是一去不復返的，等到精力衰減時，要做學問也來不及了。即為吃飯計，學問也決不會辜負人。吃飯而不求學問，三年五年之後，你們都要被後來少年淘汰的。到那時再想做點學問來補救，恐怕已太晚了。

Some people say, "Once you have a job, you'll come up against the urgent problem of making a living. How can you manage to find time to study? Even if you want to, will it be possible with no library or laboratory available?"

有人說：“出去做事之後，生活問題急需解決，哪有工夫去讀書？即使要做學問，既沒有圖書館，又沒有實驗室，哪能做學問？”

Now let me tell you this. Those who refuse to study for lack of a library will most probably continue to do so even though there is a library. And those who refuse to do research for lack of a laboratory will most probably continue to do so even though a laboratory is available. As long as you set your mind on studies, you will naturally cut down on food and clothing to buy books or do everything possible to acquire necessary instruments.

我要對你們說：凡是要等到有圖書館方才讀書的，有了圖書館也不肯讀書；凡是要等到有了實驗室方才做研究的，有了實驗室也不肯做研究。你有了決心要研究一個問題，自然會緊衣節食去買書，自然會想出法子來設置儀器。

Time is no object. Charles Darwin could only work one hour a day due to ill health. Yet what a remarkable man he was! If you spend one hour a day reading 10 pages of a book, you can finish more than 3,600 pages a year, and 110,000 pages in 30 years.

至於時間，更不成問題。達爾文一生多病，不能多做工，每天只能做一點鐘的工作。你們看他的成績！每天花—點鐘看10頁有用的書，每年可看3600多頁書，30年可讀11萬頁書。

Dear students, 110000 pages will be quite enough to make a learned man of you. It will take you one hour to read three tabloids a day, and one and half hours to finish four rounds of mah-jong a day. Reading tabloids, playing mah-jongs or striving to be a learned man, the choice lies with you.

諸位，11萬頁書可以使你成為—個學者了。可是看3種小報也得費你一點鐘的工夫，4圈麻將也得費你一點半鐘的光陰。看小報呢？還是打麻將呢？還是努力做—個學者呢？全靠你們自己的選擇！

Henrik Ibsen says, "It's your supreme duty to cast yourself into a useful implement."

易卜生說：“你的最大的責任是把你這塊材料鑄造成器。”