Text 1

阅读1

Of all the changes that have taken place in English-language newspapers during the past quarter-century, perhaps the most far-reaching has been the inexorable decline in the scope and seriousness of their arts coverage.

在过去的25年英语报纸所发生的变化中，影响最深远的可能就是它们对艺术方面的报道在范围上毫无疑问的缩小了，而且这些报道的严肃程度也绝对降低了。

It is difficult to the point of impossibility for the average reader under the age of forty to imagine a time when high-quality arts criticism could be found in most big-city newspapers.

对于年龄低于 40岁的普通读者来讲，让他们想象一下当年可以在许多大城市报纸上读到精品的文艺评论简直几乎是天方夜谭。

Yet a considerable number of the most significant collections of criticism published in the 20th century consisted in large part of newspaper reviews.

然而，在20世纪出版的最重要的文艺评论集中，人们读到的大部分评论文章都是从报纸上收集而来。

To read such books today is to marvel at the fact that their learned contents were once deemed suitable for publication in general-circulation dailies.

现在，如果读到这些集子，人们肯定会惊诧，当年这般渊博深奥的内容竟然被认为适合发表在大众日报中。

We are even farther removed from the unfocused newspaper reviews published in England between the turn of the 20th century and the eve of World War II, at a time when newsprint was dirt-cheap and stylish arts criticism was considered an ornament to the publications in which it appeared.

从 20世纪早期到二战以前，当时的英国报纸上的评论主题广泛，包罗万象，我们现在离此类报纸评论越来越远。当时的报纸极其便宜，人们把高雅时尚的文艺批评当作是所刊登报纸的一个亮点。

In those far-off days, it was taken for granted that the critics of major papers would write in detail and at length about the events they covered.

在那些遥远的年代，各大报刊的评论家们都会不遗余力地详尽报道他们所报道的事情，这在当时被视为是理所当然的事情。

Theirs was a serious business, and even those reviewers who wore their learning lightly, like George Bernard Shaw and Ernest Newman, could be trusted to know what they were about.

他们的写作是件严肃的事情，人们相信：甚至那些博学低调不喜欢炫耀的评论家，比如 George Bernard Shaw 和 Ernest Newman也知道自己在做什么。

These men believed in journalism as a calling, and were proud to be published in the daily press.

这些批评家们相信报刊评论是一项职业，并且对于他们的文章能够在报纸 上发表感到很自豪。

“So few authors have brains enough or literary gift enough to keep their own end up in journalism, ” Newman wrote, “that I am tempted to define 'journalism' as 'a term of contempt applied by writers who are not read to writers who are. '”

Newman 曾写道，"鉴于几乎没有作家能拥有足够的智慧或文学天赋以保证他们在新闻报纸写作中站稳脚跟，我倾向于把'新闻写作'定义为不受读者欢迎的作家用来嘲讽受读者欢迎的作家的一个 '轻蔑之词' "

Unfortunately, these critics are virtually forgotten.

不幸的是，这些批评家们现在实际上已被人们遗忘。

Neville Cardus, who wrote for the Manchester Guardian from 1917 until shortly before his death in 1975, is now known solely as a writer of essays on the game of cricket.

从 1917 年开始一直到 1975 年去世不久前还在为曼彻斯特《卫报》写文章的 Neville Cardus，如今仅仅作为一个撰写关于板球比赛文章的作家被人们所知。

During his lifetime, though, he was also one of England's foremost classical-music critics, and a stylist so widely admired that his Autobiography (1947) became a best-seller.

但是，在他的一生当中，他也是英国首屈一指的古典音乐评论家之一。他也是一位深受读者青睐的文体家，所以 1947 年他的《自传》一书就成为热销读物。

He was knighted in 1967, the first music critic to be so honored.

1967年他被授予爵士称号，也是第一位获此殊荣的音乐评论家。

Yet only one of his books is now in print, and his vast body of writings on music is unknown save to specialists.

然而，他的书现在只有一本可以在市面上买到。他大量的音乐批评，除了专门研究音乐评论的人以外，已鲜为人知。

Is there any chance that Cardus's criticism will enjoy a revival?

Cardus 的评论有没有机会重新流行？

The prospect seems remote.

前景似乎渺茫。

Journalistic tastes had changed long before his death, and postmodern readers have little use for the richly upholstered Vicwardian prose in which he specialized.

在他去世之前，新闻业的品味早已改变很长时间了，而且他所擅长的措词华丽的维多利亚爱德华时期的散文风格对后现代的读者没有什么用处。

Moreover, the amateur tradition in music criticism has been in headlong retreat.

何况，由业余爱好者作音乐批评的传统早已经成为昨日黄花了。