Sherwood Anderson : A Letter of Advice to His Teenage Son
舍伍德·安德森写给儿子的忠告信
The quest to find one"s purpose and live the creative life boldly is neither simple nor easy, especially for a young person trying to make sense of the world and his place in it.
“想要找到自己的人生目标并且勇敢地过一种创造性的生活，这样的追求既不简单，也不容易。尤其是对于一个竭力想要了解这个世界并从中找到自身位置的年轻人来说，更是如此。”
In the spring of 1926, Sherwood Anderson sent his seventeen-year-old son John a beautiful addition to history"s most moving and timeless letters of fatherly advice. Found in Posterity: Letters of Great Americans to Their Children, the missive offers insight on everything from knowing whose advice not to take to the false allure of money to the joy of making things with your hands:
1926年春，舍伍德·安德森给17岁的儿子约翰寄去一封信，为历史上父亲写给孩子的最感人肺腑、经久不衰的忠告信增添了动人的一笔。这封信后来被收录在《后人：伟大的美国人写给子女们的信》一书中。从要了解哪些人的建议不能听从，到金钱蛊惑人心的魅力，再到自己动手制作东西的乐趣，信中给出了安德森对各个方面的真知灼见。
The best thing, I dare say, is first to learn something well so you can always make a living. Bob seems to be catching on at the newspaper business and has had another raise. He is getting a good training by working in a smaller city. As for the scientific fields, any of them require a long schooling and intense application. If you are made for it nothing could be better. In the long run you will have to come to your own conclusion.
我敢说，最棒的事情就是首先要掌握某种技能，让你始终可以借此谋生。鲍勃(编注：安德森的大儿子)似乎在报纸行业渐渐得到认可，已经又加了一次薪。他通过在一个小一点儿的城市里工作，接受着良好的训练。而对于科学领域来说，其中的任一领域都需要参与者接受长期的在校教育并进行高强度的应用实践。如果你天生适合做这行，那再好不过。从长远来看，你终究要得出自己的结论。
The arts, which probably offer a man more satisfaction, are uncertain. It is difficult to make a living.
艺术行业或许能给人带来更多满足感，但充满了不确定性，靠此谋生并不容易。
If I had my own life to lead over I presume I would still be a writer, but I am sure I would give my first attention to learning how to do things directly with my hands. Nothing gives quite the satisfaction that doing things brings.
如果我能够重新再活一次，我想我还是会当一名作家。但是我确信，我首先要考虑的是学会怎样直接用双手制作东西。用双手制作东西所能带来的那种满足感是其他任何事情都无法给予的。
Above all avoid taking the advice of men who have no brains and do not know what they are talking about. Most small businessmen say simply-"Look at me." They fancy that if they have accumulated a little money and have got a position in a small circle they are competent to give advice to anyone.
最重要的是，不要去听从那些没有脑子、不知道自己在说什么的人给出的建议。大多数小商人都只会说：“看看我你就知道了。”他们自负地以为，只要自己积累了一些财富，在一个小圈子获得了一席之地，自己就够格给其他人忠告了。
Next to occupation is the building up of good taste. That is difficult, slow work. Few achieve it. It means all the difference in the world in the end.
排在工作之后的是培养好的品位。这是一件既难做又费时的事情， 很少有人做得到。最终，有品位意味着你的世界截然不同。
I am constantly amazed at how little painters know about painting, writers about writing, merchants about business, manufacturers about manufacturing. Most men just drift .
让我常常深感诧异的是，画家对于绘画艺术、作家对于写作、商人对于生意、制造商对于生产的了解竟如此贫乏。大多数人不过是在随波逐流罢了。
There is a kind of shrewdness many men have that enables them to get money. It is the shrewdness of the fox after the chicken. A low order of mentality often goes with it.
很多人都有一种精明，范文，这种精明能让他们赚到钱，但这是一种狐狸抓小鸡的精明，往往伴随着一种低层次的心智。
Above all I would like you to see many kinds of men at first hand. That would help you more than anything. Just how it is to be accomplished I do not know. Perhaps a way may be found. Anyway, I"ll see you this summer. We begin to pack for the country this week.
最重要的是，我希望你能阅人无数。这比任何事情对你的帮助都要大。至于怎样实现这一点，我并不知道。或许可以找到一种方法。不管怎样，我今年夏天会去看你。我们这周就开始收拾去乡下的行装。
The following year, after Anderson and his wife took eighteen-year-old John and his sister Marion to Europe, the boy remained in Paris to study painting. Drawing on his own artistic experience and the parallels between writing and painting, Sherwood sent John another poignant letter of advice in April of 1927, adding to history"s finest definitions of art:
次年，安德森与妻子带着18岁的约翰和约翰的妹妹马里昂去了欧洲。之后，约翰便留在了巴黎学习绘画。基于其自身对艺术的体验和对写作与绘画之间的比较，舍伍德于1927年4月又给约翰写了另外一封见解深刻的忠告信，丰富了历史上关于艺术的最好定义。
In relation to painting.
关于绘画：
Don"t be carried off your feet by anything because it is modern-the latest thing.
不要因为任何东西是现代的(即最新的)就对其倾注满腔热忱。
Go to the Louvre often and spend a good deal of time before the Rembrandts , the Delacroixs .
常去卢浮宫转转，多花些时间研习伦勃朗和德拉克洛瓦的作品。
Learn to draw. Try to make your hand so unconsciously adept that it will put down what you feel without your having to think of your hands.
学习画画。要让你的手法熟练到成为潜意识的一部分，让你绘画时达到“心手合一”，无需经过大脑思考。
Then you can think of the thing before you. Draw things that have some meaning to you. An apple, what does it mean? The object drawn doesn"t matter so much. It"s what you feel about it, what it means to you. A masterpiece could be made of a dish of turnips.
接下来，你就可以思考摆在你眼前的事物了。要画那些对你来说有意义的事物。一个苹果，它意味着什么呢？被画的物体本身并不那么重要，重要的是你对它的感受以及它对你的意义。一幅杰出的画作可能画的只是一盘芜菁。
Draw, draw, hundreds of drawings.
要不停地画，画上数百幅！
Try to remain humble. Smartness kills everything.
尽量保持谦逊，骄傲会扼杀一切。
The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself. Any cleanness I have in my own life is due to my feeling for words. The fools who write articles about me think that one morning I suddenly decided to write and began to produce masterpieces. There is no special trick about writing or painting either. I wrote constantly for 15 years before I produced anything with any solidity to it.
艺术的目的不是制作可出售的图片，而是拯救自己。我在自己人生中所拥有的一切纯净都源自我对文字的感受。那些报道我的傻瓜们以为，我就是某一天早上突然决定写作，然后就开始写出很多大 作。不论是写作还是绘画，都没有特别的技巧。我坚持不懈地写了15年之后才写出了有内涵的作品。
The thing of course, is to make yourself alive. Most people remain all of their lives in a stupor . The point of being an artist is that you may live.
当然，绘画是为了让你保持活力。大多数人一生都在麻木不仁地活着，而作为一名艺术家的意义就在于你可以“活着”。
I write as though you were a man. Well, you must know my heart is set on you. It isn"t your success I want.
我给你写信时是把你当成一个成年人来看待的。那么，你一定明白我对你的良苦用心。我想要的并不是你的成功。
There is a possibility of your having a decent attitude toward people and work. That alone may make a man of you."
或许你对他人与工作的态度都很合宜，仅是这一点可能就足以让你成为一个真正的男子汉。”
(By Maria Popova)
