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1. You know you have to read "between the lines" to get the most out of anything. I want to persuade you to do something equally important in the course of your reading. I want to persuade you to "write between the lines." Unless you do, you are not likely to do the most efficient kind of reading.
1、你知道读书必须要阅读“字里行间的言外之意”，以求最充分的理解(to get the most out of anything)。我劝(persuade)你在读书过程中(in the course of your reading)做一件同等重要的事情(to do something equally important)；我劝你“在字里行间里写字”。不这样做(unless)，就达不到最有效的阅读效果。
2. I contend, quite bluntly, that marking up a book is not an act of mutilation but love.
2、坦率地说，我认为(contend)，在书上涂抹标记(marking up a book)不是一种损毁行为(an act of mutilation)，而是爱。
3. You shouldn't mark up a book which isn't yours. Librarians (or your friends) who lend you books expect you to keep them clean, and you should. If you decide that I am right about the usefulness of marking books, you will have to buy them. Most of the world's great books are available today, in reprint editions, for a modest sum.
3、当然，你不应该(shouldn't)在不属于你的书上做标记。借给你书的图书管理员(或者你的朋友)希望你保持书的整洁，你应该这样做。如果你认为我说的在书上做标记颇有益处这番话是对的，你就得自己买书。现在，绝大部分世界上的好书都有再版(reprint edition)，我们很容易买到，并且价格合理(a modest sum)。
4. There are two ways in which you can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes, and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher's icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your bloodstream to do you any good.
4、一个人拥有书的方式有两种，第一种是花钱（by paying for it）取得(establish)财产所有权(property right)，就像(just as)你花钱买衣服和家具一样。但是，这种购买行为仅是拥有书的前提(prelude to possession)。只有你将它化为自己的一部分后，你才完全占有了它（full ownership comes）；同时，把你自己融入书中的最好方法就是在书中写字(by writing in it)。打个比方可能使这个观点更清楚(An illustration may make the point clear)。你买了一块牛排(beefsteak)，把它从屠夫的冰箱里移到了你自己的冰箱里。但是，从最重要的意义上说(in the most important sense)，你并没有拥有这块牛排，除非你吃下它并将它吸收进你的血液(bloodstream)之中。我的观点是(I am arguing that)，书的营养也必须应该被“吸收到血液”中，才能对你有所裨益。
5. Confusion about what it means to own a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type-a respect for the physical thing-the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire that idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn't prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.
5、对于“拥有书籍”的真正含义的(about what it means to own a book)误解(confusion)使人们错误地崇敬(a false reverence)纸张、装订和样式-这是对物质的崇敬(a respect for the physical thing)-是崇敬印刷工人的技艺(craft)，而不是书籍作者的才华。他们忘记了，即使不在(without)封面里贴上藏书票(by pasting his bookplate inside the cover)表明自己对书籍的拥有，人们也可以从一本伟大的著作中获得它的精神(to acquire that idea)，领略它的美丽(to possess the beauty)。一个好书房并不能证明它的主人学富五车；仅仅(nothing more than)说明他、他的父亲或是他的妻子有钱买书而已。
6. There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best-sellers-unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books-a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books or many every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.)
6、书籍拥有者可以分为三种。第一种人拥有全部的标准成套书和畅销书(best-sellers)--既没读过，也没碰过(unread, untouched)。(这种人占有的只是纸浆和油墨，不是书籍。)第二种人藏书很多--其中几本(a few of them)被通读过(read through 仔细阅读)，大部分(most of them)则浅尝辄止(dip into 浏览, 稍加审视)，但是所有的书都跟新买时一样整洁光亮(as clean and shiny as the day they were bought)。(这种人可能想使书籍真地为其所用，但因错误地过分关注书籍的外观而裹足不前。第三种人藏书或多或少--因不断使用，每本书都书角卷起(dog-eared)，破旧不堪(dilapidated)，装订破损，书页松散(loosened)，全书从扉页至末页都画满了记号，涂满了字句(scribble)。(这种人才是书的真正拥有者。)
7. Is it false respect, you may ask, to preserve intact and unblemished a beautifully printed book, an elegantly bound edition? Of course not. I'd no more scribble all over a first edition of "Paradise Lost" than I'd give my baby a set of crayons and an original Rembrandt! I wouldn't mark up a painting or a statue. Its soul, so to speak, is inseparable from its body. And the beauty of a rare edition or of a richly manufactured volume is like that of a painting or a statue.
7、你可能要问，将一本印刷精美、装帧雅致的书保存完好，难道也是不恰当的吗?当然不是(of course not)。我绝不会在一本初版的《失乐园》上乱涂乱写(scribble)，就像我不会把一幅伦勃朗的原作连同一盒蜡笔交给我的孩子任意涂抹一样！(no more…than 与…同样不) 我决不会在一幅绘画或者一座雕像上做标记。可以说，它们的灵魂与它们的躯体是不可分的。(be inseparable from 不可与...分开) 精美的善本或丰富的卷册就像一幅绘画和一座雕像。
8. But the soul of a book can be separated from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheet of music. Arturo Toscanini revered Brahms, but Toscanini's score of the C-minor Symphony was so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself could read it. The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores-marks them up again and again each time he returns to study them-is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.
8、但是，一本书的灵魂能够从它的躯体里分离出来。与其说它像一幅画(a printing)，还不如说它更像一首乐曲的总谱（the scroe of a piece of music; scroe【音乐】总谱；(电影等的)配乐; a piece of music 一段音乐；一首音乐；一首乐曲）。任何伟大的音乐家都不会将一首交响曲(a symphony)和一张印刷的乐谱相混淆。托斯卡尼尼非常崇敬(revere)博拉姆斯，但他的C小调交响曲的乐谱上画满了标记，以致(that)只有大师本人 (no noe but the maestro himself) 才能看懂。为什么一个伟大的指挥家(a great conductor)会在乐谱上做记号（make notations）-甚至每次研究都会重复标记-其中的奥妙正是你应该在书上做记号的原因。如果你对华美的(magnificent)装帧和印刷的尊重妨碍(get in the way)你读书的话，就给自己买一种便宜的版本，同时对书的作者表达敬意就可以了。
9. Why is marking up a book indispensable to reading? First, it keeps you awake. (And I don't mean merely conscious; I mean wide awake.) In the second place, reading, if it is active, is thinking, and thinking tends to express itself in words, spoken or written. That marked book is usually the thought-through book. Finally, writing helps you remember the thoughts you had, or the thoughts the author expressed.
9、为什么在阅读过程中在书上做标记是必不可少的(indispensable)呢?首先，它会使你保持清醒。(我指的不是仅仅神智清醒(merely conscious)；我的意思是它能使你全神贯注(wide awake)。)其次(in the second place)，如果阅读(reading)是一种能动的行为，那么它就是思考，而想法(thinking)常常需借助口头的或书面的语言来表达出来。做过记号的书，通常是读者认真思考过的书(the thought-through book)。最后，写可以帮助你记住阅读时的思想，或作者所表达的思想。
10. If reading is to accomplish anything more than passing time, it must be active. You can't let your eyes glide across the lines of a book and come up with an understanding of what you have read. Now an ordinary piece of light fiction, like, say, Gone 14h'th the Wind, doesn't require the most active kind of reading. The books you read for pleasure can be read in a state of relaxation, and nothing is lost. But a great book, rich in ideas and beauty, a book that raises and tries to answer great fundamental questions, demands the most active reading of which you are capable. You don't absorb the ideas of John Dewey the way you absorb the songs of a popular singer. You have to reach for them. That you cannot do while you're asleep.
10、如果(你的)阅读的目的不仅仅是(more than)消磨时间(passing time)，那就应该是一种积极的思维活动，仅仅让你的眼睛在书上扫视一遍，你不可能对所读的内容(what you have read)有所理解。当然，一部普通的消遣小说(light fiction)，比如说(like, say,)《飘》，并不需要那种最积极的思维式的阅读。作为消遣的书，可以轻松地读而不会有所失。但一本思想丰富、文字华美，试图提出(raise)带根本性的重大问题并加以回答的伟大著作，则要求你尽可能地进行(of which you are capable; be capable of v.能够)最积极的阅读。你不可能像欣赏(absorb)流行歌曲那样领略(absorb)杜威的思想。你要花力气才能获得，漫不经心是做不到的。
11. If, when you've finished reading a book, the pages are filled with your notes, you know you read actively. The most famous active reader of great books I know was President Hutchins, of the University of Chicago. He also had the hardest schedule of business activities of any man I know. He invariably read with a pencil, and sometimes, when he picked up a book and pencil in the evening, he found himself, instead of making intelligent notes, drawing what he called "caviar factories" on the margins. When that happened, he put the book down. He knew he was too tired to read, and was just wasting time.
11、如果，你读完一本书的时候，书页上写满了你的批注(your notes)，你就知道自己的阅读是积极的(actively)。我知道的最有名的采用积极方式阅读伟大著作的人(the most famous active reader of great books)是芝加哥大学的校长哈金斯。他也是我所知道的公务最繁忙的人(the hardest schedule of business activities of any man)。他读书时总是(invariably= always)拿着铅笔。有时，当他在晚上拿起书和铅笔的时候，发觉自己并没有(instead of)在做有意义的笔记(intelligent notes)，而是在页边空白处(on the margins)乱涂乱画一些他称之为“鱼子酱工厂”(caviar factories)的东西。一出现这种情况，他就会放下书本。他知道自己太累了以致读不下去，(再继续看书)完全是在浪费时间。
