ee 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 younger people. It will then be too late to remedy
the situation by picking up studies again.
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 no laboratory available?”
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.
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 3600 pages a year, and 110000 pages in 30 years.
Dear students, 110000 pages will be quite enough to make a learned man of man. 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-jong or striving to be a learned
man, the choice lies with you.
Henrik Ibsen says, “it is your supreme duty to cast yourself into a useful implement.”
Learning is the casting mould. Forsake learning, and you will ruin yourself.
Farewell! Your alma mater is watching eagerly to see what will become of you ten
years from now.
注释：
本文是胡适1928-1930年在上海任中国公学校长时为毕业生所作赠言，至今仍有参考价值。
(1)“不要抛弃学问”在这里的意思是“不要放弃对学问的追求”，因此不能直译为Never Give
up Learning，必须加字：Never Give up the Pursuit of Learning。
(2)“你们可以依自己的心愿去自由研究了”译为you are free to follow your personal bent in the
choice of studies，其中to follow one’s bent 是成语，和to follow one’s inclination同义，作“做自己感兴趣或爱做的事”解。
(3)“做学问”译为to go into scholarship, 等于to engage in learning。
(4)“学问决不会辜负人的”译为Knowledge will do you a good turn，其中to do one a good turn
是成语，作“做对某人有益的事”解.
(5) “撙衣节食”即“省吃省穿”，现译为 cut down on food and clothing, 其中 to
cut down on 是成语，与 to economize on 同义，作“节约”解。又，上语也可译为 to
live frugally。
(6)“至于时间，更不成问题”译为Time is no object,其中no object是成语，等于no problem，作“不成问题”或“不在话下”解。
(7)“全靠你们自己的选择”译为the choice lies with you或it is up to you to make the choice。
(8)“你们的母校眼睁睁地要看……”中的“眼睁睁地”通常的意思是“无可奈何地”，现
在这里作“热切地”解，故译为eagerly。
我之于书(1)
夏丐尊
二十年来，我的生活费中至少十分之一二是消耗在书上的(2)。我的房子里(3)比较
贵重的东西就是书。
我一向没有对于任何问题作高深研究的野心，因之所以买的书范围较广，宗教、
艺术、文学、社会、哲学、历史、生物，各方面差不多都有一点。最多的是各国文学
名著的译本，与本国古来的诗文集，别的门类只是些概论等类的入门书而已。
我不喜欢向别人或图书馆借书。借来的书，在我好像过不来瘾似的(4)，必要是自↘↘
己买的才满足。这也可谓是一种占有的欲望。买到了几册新书，一册一册在加盖藏书
印(5)记，我最感到快悦的是这时候。
书籍到了我的手里，我的习惯是先看序文，次看目录。页数不多的往往立刻通读
(6)，篇幅大的，只把正文任择一二章节略加翻阅，就插在书架上。除小说外，我少有
全体读完的大部的书，只凭了购入当时的记忆，知道某册书是何种性质，其中大概有
些什么可取的材料而已。什么书在什么时候再去读再去翻，连我自己也无把握，完全
要看一个时期一个时期的兴趣。关于这事，我常自比为古时的皇帝，而把插在架上的
书籍诸列屋而居的宫女(7)。
我虽爱买书，而对于书却不甚爱惜。读书的时候，常在书上把我认为要紧的处所
标出。线装书竟用红铅笔划粗粗的线。经我看过的书，统计统体干净的很少。
据说，任何爱吃糖果的人，只要叫他到糖果铺中去做事，见了糖果就会生厌。自
我入书店以后，对于书的贪念也已消除了不少了，可不免要故态复萌(8)，想买这种，
想买那种。这大概因为糖果要用嘴去吃，摆存毫无意义，而书则可以买了不看，任其
只管插在架上的缘故吧。
Books and I
Xia Mianzun
For twenty years past, books have eaten into at least 10-20 percent of my pocket. Now
the only things of some value under my roof, if any, are my books.
Since I have never entertained ambition for making a profound study of any subject,
the books I have acquired cover almost everything--religion, art, literature, sociology,
philosophy, history, bio