惦念不识字的汪大娘

张中行先生笔有汪娘,乡进京就给一富贵人人,日夜操劳,其乐。文革暴风一刮,主人怀璧其罪,难逃调查审问霉运。汪娘既是人,理应满阶级仇恨,真是最理的证人。岂料娘阶级斗争的理论,又不识务,有碗说碗,有碟说碟,毫不醒目。人问:“你伺候他,总吃了不少苦吧?”答曰:“一点不苦。我老爷太太待我很。他是人。连孩子不坏,他不敢厨房淘气。”问者哭笑不,放走了。张老说,汪娘年及古稀,竟连故宫,“我吃了比读几本书的亏,听件,反有些轻微的黍离、麦秀思,秀才人情,叨念一句:‘汪娘不识字,有福了!’”

“黍离”典《诗·王风》,说西周亡,周夫故宗庙宫室,尽禾黍,彷徨不忍;“麦秀”是指箕子朝周,故废墟,感宫室毁坏,生禾黍,伤,《麦秀》诗歌;两者感慨亡国触景生情词。张老借了淒的意念点破读书人伤春悲秋的怀抱,反不汪娘灵平静。是实话。经了十年革命的风风雨雨逃生的知识分子,谁沉痛体识字是苦难浩劫的祸根,同却又加倍尊重知识的尊严,珍惜语文的功,宝爱文化的价值。我有亲身经历一场血泪写的十年历史,重生的知识分子笔的一字一句,纵是淡淡的笔墨流露的宽容,我不禁悲从中,一位年轻俯在胡风耳边说的那句话:“老人,你替我受苦了!”

知识是非常难求的宝藏。写是非常艰辛的工。我常常Geissing《四季零墨》的一段话:“今男女,煮字疗飢者不胜数,实则靠此维生者万中无一。此辈中人或因别无他技舞文弄墨,或因惯见文人一行立门户、风光无穷效颦操觚,不惜乞哀告怜,举债渡日,终致进退维谷,悔晚矣,不知何是?区区一生命途舛,回首前尘,深感鼓励晚辈文谋生,简直罪。”(“Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least ce of finding in such work a perma livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary callied them by its independend its dazzling prices. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing, until it is too late for them to do anything else - and what then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me, I say that he who ences any young man or woman to look for his living to ''literature'', its han a crime.”)

卷首语目录+书签夏济安的译笔还是好的