William Strunk Jr., E. B. White, and Chuang-tzu

William Strunk Jr. 和 E. B. White 是两位文体专家，提倡简洁干净的文风。他们认为，成功的写作过程是从错综复杂的想绪里抽出最有效的语句呈现给读者。好语言的标准是应该使读者念起来不觉得有累赘和障碍。

下面是从他们合著的小书《风格的要素》 (The Elements of Style, 3rd Edition) 里挑出的两段话：

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. (William Strunk Jr.)

If one is to write, one must believe—in the truth and worth of the scrawl, in the ability of the reader to receive and decode the message. No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader’s intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing. (E. B. White)

第一段是说要力求没有废话。就象一台机器不应该有多余的零件一样，每个多余的字都是对读者阅读的干扰。我再添一句：就好象好的音乐里不应该有多余的音符。第二段是说要把读者放在第一位。读者才是真正的裁判。任何的华而不实、故弄玄虚，都是皇帝的新衣，不会被读者买帐。（我也插一句：反常的情况也有，比如读者预先被“忽悠”了。）

两位的忠告让我联想到了《庄子》里的解牛高手庖丁。解牛和提炼准确的语句一样，都是剖析和剔除的工作。解牛要找准骨节和关键。同样，写作也是化繁为简，不是化简为繁，更不是无中生有。写作不精心，就有可能把“血肉相连”的思路弄成“血肉模糊”的文字，最终吃苦的是无辜的读者。

在庄子的这则寓言里，庖丁已经十九年没有换过一把刀，技艺早就出神入化了。但是每次干活时，他还是认真对待。每次完成了活计以后，那份痛快的感觉也不会改变。这里是一小段原文：

每至於族，吾見其難為 。怵然為戒，視為止，行為遲，動刀甚微。謋然已解，如土委地。提刀而立，為之而四顧，為之躊躇滿志。善刀而藏之。(莊子 養生主 C.3)

Burton Watson 是翻译中国古代典籍的大师级“庖丁”。且看他的翻译：

“However, whenever I come to a complicated place, I size up the difficulties, tell myself to watch out, and be careful, keep my eyes on what I’m doing, work very slowly, and move the knife with the greatest subtlety, until—flop! the whole thing comes apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there holding the knife and look all around me, completely satisfied and reluctant to move on, and then I wipe off the knife and put it away.”

翻译如同写作。这段翻译，准确、简洁、生动，将原文里的关键和脉络一一化解，达到了 William Strunk Jr. 和 E. B. White 的要求。

© by Dun Wang (王敦). All rights reserved. 著作权拥有者：Dun Wang (王敦)。