譯：曾國平
Why I Write (1947)
我為什麼寫作 (1947)
George Orwell
喬治‧奧威爾
From a very early age, perhaps the age of five or six, I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to abandon this idea, but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books.
小時候，大約五、六歲吧，我便知道自己長大後該當作家。十七至二十四歲左右我打算放棄這念頭，但我意識到這樣做是在違背真我，而早晚我總也會平定下來著書的。
……
give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer’s motives without knowing something of his early development. His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in -- at least this is true in tumultuous, revolutionary ages like our own -- but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. It is his job, no doubt, to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage, in some perverse mood; but if he escapes from his early influences altogether, he will have killed his impulse to write. Putting aside the need to earn a living, I think there are four great motives for writing, at any rate for writing prose. They exist in different degrees in every writer, and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time, according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are:
我提供這些背景資料，只因我相信若然沒有對一個作家的早年發展有所了解，實在不能對他的寫作動機給予評價。他作品的主題為其所處的時代氛圍所決定 -- 至少在我們這個亂糟糟的、革命的時代是對的 -- 但在他下筆之前，他總會得到一種永不能完全脫離的情感取態。毫無疑問，他有責任去抑制其情緒，也要避免乖僻失控而顯得不夠成熟；但若然他把早期的影響全盤捨棄，又會熄滅了其寫作衝動。除了糊口的需要，我認為寫作 -- 當然包括寫作散文 -- 有四大動機。對每個作家來說它們的程度輕重有異，而根據個別作家身處的環境，它們的比例更常有改變。它們是：
1. Sheer egoism.
Desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death, to get your own back on the grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood, etc., etc. It is humbug to pretend this is not a motive, and a strong one. Writers share this characteristic with scientists, artists, politicians, lawyers, soldiers, successful businessmen -- in short, with the whole top crust of humanity. The great mass of human beings are not acutely selfish. After the age of about thirty they almost abandon the sense of being individuals at all -- and live chiefly for others, or are simply smothered under drudgery. But there is also the minority of gifted, willful people who are determined to live their own lives to the end, and writers belong in this class. Serious writers, I should say, are on the whole more vain and self-centered than journalists, though less interested in money.
一、純粹的自我中心。
希望看起來精明一點、成為談論對象、死後留名、在童年時瞧不起你的人面前一雪前恥，等等等等。假裝這不是一種動機的人無疑是在說謊，而且是個大謊話。與作家共有這種特性的還有科學家、藝術家、政治人物、律師、軍人、顯赫商賈 -- 簡言之是人類的整個高等階層。大部分的人並非貪婪無比。三十歲以後他們差不多都不以個人自居 -- 主要是為別人而活，或者過著營營役役的日子。但世上總會有這類有天份的、固執的少數份子，他們決意由始至終只為己而活，作家便屬於這類人。我必須指出的是，嚴肅的作家全都比新聞工作者更自負更自以為是，雖然相比下對金錢的興趣要低一點。
2. Aesthetic enthusiasm.
Perception of beauty in the external world, or, on the other hand, in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another, in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed.
二、美的追求。
對外在世界或對字句結構的美的追求。聲調交織的樂趣，來自扎實的散文或者有節奏感的好故事。渴望分享自己認為不可錯失的寶貴經驗。
The aesthetic motive is very feeble in a lot of writers, but even a pamphleteer or writer of textbooks will have pet words and phrases which appeal to him for non-utilitarian reasons; or he may feel strongly about typography, width of margins, etc. Above the level of a railway guide, no book is quite free from aesthetic considerations.
於許多作家來說追求美的動機相當薄弱，但就算是小冊子或教科書的作者，也會被一些有趣的字句吸引，而並非基於實際的考慮；又或者他對印刷、版頁留白的尺寸等等的事情感覺極深。所有比鐵路指南高明的書，無一不顧及美感。
3. Historical impulse.
Desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity.
三、歷史推動。
渴望直視真相，追尋事實，以及將其紀錄下來以供後代使用。
4. Political purpose
-- using the word "political" in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other peoples’ idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again, no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.
四、政治目的。
這是「政治」一字最廣義的用法。渴望將世界推向某一方向，改變別人對理想社會的概念。同樣地，沒有書全無政治偏見。認為藝術與政治無關本身已是一政治取向。
It can be seen how these various impulses must war against one another, and how they must fluctuate from person to person and from time to time. By nature -- taking your "nature" to be the state you have attained when you are first adult -- I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth. In a peaceful age I might have written ornate or merely descriptive books, and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties.
由此可見這幾種原動力必定互相衝突排斥，而因時因人它們也會程度有異。我天生 -- 所謂的「天生」是指你剛長大成人時的狀態 -- 頭三種動機就比第四種強得多。太平盛世之時我也許會寫寫雕章琢句或純然描寫的書，又或者會對自己的政治立場全無意識。
譯者註：這是小說家、散文家和政論家喬治‧奧威爾(George Orwell)的名篇，是其小說之外的優秀作品。譯者翻譯的動機純然是玩票性質，乃強裝內行之舉。譯者手頭上沒有參考資料，只靠翻查字典和推測文意翻譯。譯文有許多不如意的地方，並很可能有誤譯，希望各位讀者原諒指教。這是全文的上半篇。
出處：
http://www.jiulang.org/lang_0003.htm
