(中英)現(xiàn)代散文:要培養(yǎng)新的雜文作家 On the Need for More Young Essayists

On the Need for More Young Essayists

要培養(yǎng)新的雜文作家①

◎ Liao Mosha

◎　廖沫沙

In recent years, I have seldom written essays. During the late 1930s and throughout the 1940s, however, I wrote more. In those days, as a newspaper editor, I often worked on the night shift and wrote a great many essays, so that, later, when compiling a collection of my works, I was astonished to find myself to have authored so many essays, some of which I could not even remember. I have, therefore, come to realize that working on a newspaper or a magazine could make a prolific writer of yourself. The same was true of Lu Xun. It was not until he became editor of the magazine The Tatler that he started writing essays. Nowadays, as the editorial departments of newspapers and periodicals are generally well staffed, the people there should be in a position to write more. Some newspapers and magazines are so starved of contributions that they have to send out people to various places like Beijing and Shanghai to canvass for support. That is no answer to the problem at all. The best way is for the editorial staff to do the writing themselves and turn out more. The former Xinhua Daily, where we used to work, had a staff of about 20. Everyone of us wrote, including not only the reporters and editors, but also the typesetters, proofreaders and reference-library people.

這幾年我沒有寫什么雜文。三十年代末期和四十年代寫得多些，那時辦報紙，經(jīng)常值夜班，寫了不少。編集子時，自己也感到吃驚，竟寫了這么多②，有的自己都記不得了。我體會，自己辦報、辦刊物時，就能寫得多些。魯迅開始寫雜文也是從辦《語絲》③時開始的?，F(xiàn)在報刊編輯部人都不少，應(yīng)該自己多寫④。現(xiàn)在有些刊物，派人到北京上海各處跑，約文章，等米下鍋⑤，這不可靠⑥，應(yīng)該自己動筆，自己出產(chǎn)品。我們當(dāng)年編《新華日報》，總共二十來人，記者、編輯都寫，搞排版的、搞資料的、還有做校對工作的，每個人都寫文章。

On the other hand, emphasis should be placed on arousing young people's enthusiasm for writing. Instead of rashly rejecting manuscripts, editors should go over them carefully. Manuscripts which are acceptable but in need of improvement should be allowed publication after they have been revised and polished by the editorial department. Young contributors could thus be spurred on to ever greater efforts to write. That is the way to bring up new writers. It is inadvisable to rely solely on a handful of veteran writers. Many of our writers owe their success to the help and encouragement of their predecessors. Most young writers today go in for fiction or drama, but practically none engage in essay writing. That is no good. Let more young essayists come to the fore!

另一方面，要大力培養(yǎng)青年人寫稿的積極性。編輯對來稿要仔細看，不要輕易就摔掉。有可取的⑦，要幫他加工、改好，發(fā)表他的稿子。發(fā)表一次，積極性就來了，以后就會常來稿。我們要用這種方法培養(yǎng)新的作者，不能只依靠幾個老的⑧。我們許多作家都是前輩培養(yǎng)出來的⑨?，F(xiàn)在新作家中寫小說的多，寫劇本的也較多，寫雜文的簡直就沒有。那不好了，我們要更廣泛地培養(yǎng)寫雜文的新作家⑩。

廖沫沙的短文《要培養(yǎng)新的雜文作家》寫于1982年。