名篇背诵:Tradition 传统

英语作文    发布时间:2024-06-18  
划词翻译

Tradition 传统

T. S. 艾略特(T. S. Eliot)

It is not of advantage to us to indulge a sentimental attitude towards the past. For one thing, in even the very best living tradition there is always a mixture of good and bad, and much that deserves criticism; and for another, tradition is not a matter of feeling alone. Nor can we safely, without very critical examination, dig ourselves in stubbornly to a few dogmatic notions , for what is a healthy belief at one time may, unless it is one of the few fundamental things, be a pernicious prejudice at another. Nor should we cling to traditions as a way of asserting our superiority over less favoured peoples. What we can do is to use our minds, remembering that a tradition without intelligence is not worth having, to discover what is the best life for us not as a political abstraction, but as a particular people in a particular place; what in the past is worth preserving and what should be rejected, and what conditions, within our power to bring about, would foster the society that we desire.


- sentimental [ˌsentɪˈmentl] a. 多愁善感的

dig oneself in 确立自己的立场

dogmatic notions 教条主义概念

- pernicious [pɜːˈnɪʃəs] a. 有害的,无益的

- superiority [suːpɪərɪˈɒrətɪ] n. 优越,优势

- foster [ˈfɒstə] v. 促进


在对待过去的态度上放纵感情对我们于事无补。首先,即使是最佳的生活传统,也是好坏合为一体,大量的部分该批判;其次,传统不只是个人感受的东西,我们不能不加批评和检验就一头扎进教条主义的概念之中,因为在某段时间内是健康的信念,在另一时段可能是有害的偏见,除非它是为数不多的基本信念之一。我们也不能把传统看作一种认定我们比不太受宠的民族优越的方式,而抓住不放。我们能做的只有动脑筋,记住没有智慧的传统是不值得拥有的,要去发现对我们来说最好的生活是什么,不是作为一种政治上的抽象概念,而是作为特定地点的特定的人;过去的什么值得保存,什么应当摒除,要在我们的能力范围内营造出什么样的环境,才有助于创建我们所期盼的社会。


T. S. 艾略特(1888—1965),美国诗人、批评家、剧作家,1948年诺贝尔文学奖得主,出生于美国密苏里州圣路易斯,但后来成为英国公民,并在英国度过了大部分职业生涯。

重要作品有:《普鲁弗洛克及其他观感》(Prufrock and Other Observations ,1917),《一位夫人的写照》(Portrait of a Lady , 1915),《空心人》(The Hollow Men ,1925),四部《诗集》(1920,1909—1925,1909—1935,1909—1962),代表作《荒原》(The Waste Land ,1922)是20世纪西方文学中的划时代作品,是现代诗歌的里程碑。剧本代表作《大教堂谋杀案》(Murder in the Cathedral ,1935),此外有《家人团聚》(The Family Reunion ,1939),《鸡尾酒会》(The Cocktail Party ,1950)。批评著作有《传统与个人才能》(Tradition and the Individual Talent ,1919),《圣树》(The Sacred Wood ,1920)。

艾略特还以其卓越的文学评论闻名,其作品如《传统与个人才能》(Tradition and the Individual Talent)等,对文学理论和批评产生了重要影响。