时光荏苒，2024来到最后两日。用一本日记结束这行色匆匆的一年似乎也是个不错的选择。本期外文书单推荐书目是The Richard Burton Diaries，一本用作者姓名命名的日记。我们来看看大家如何评说这本书：
“He is a deeply educated and remarkablely unself-conscious man. He combines education with intution to an unusual degree. He is a brilliant actor (in fact, he is all actor) but he is also an enemy to vulgarity and a man at war with boredom. He does not believe in social elite nor will he take lodging in an ivory tower. He is a worker with a mind, but the worker remains. Happily, he is not snobbish in any direction..He sincerely likes all manner of humanity, and I envy the characteristic. He is sophisticated without being cynical. He is generous without aggrandizing himself. He is a first-class acting companion, and I admire his personality without reservation.”
-----William Redfield, writing about Richard Burton, 1964
“他是一个受过高等教育，也非常无私的人。他将教育与直觉结合到了不同寻常的程度。他是一位出色的演员（事实上，他就是个演员），但他也是粗俗的敌人，是一个与无聊作斗争的人。他不相信社会精英，也不会寄居在象牙塔里。他是一个有思想的工人，但工人仍然存在。值得庆幸的是，他在任何方面都不势利。他真诚地喜欢各种人性，我很羡慕这种特质。他很老练，但并不愤世嫉俗。他很慷慨，但并不夸大自己。他是一流的演技搭档，我毫无保留地欣赏他的人格。”
-----威廉·雷德菲尔德撰写有关理查德·伯顿 的文章，1964 年
“Diaries? Autobiography? TIme will tell, and may surprise.”
-----Emlyn Williams, speaking at the Memorial Service for Richard Burton, 1984
“这是日记还是自传？时间会给出答案的，或许是给出惊喜。”
——艾米丽.威廉姆斯在理查德伯顿葬礼上的讲话
This introduction to Richard Burton's diaries performs a number of functions.First, it offers a sketch of the life of Richard Jenkins, later Richard Burton, from his birth in 1925 through to the beginning of what may be called the “diary years”, in 1965. During these first four decades Burton did keep two diaries which are reproduced in this volume: one in 1939/40, when he was still Richard Jenkins, and one in 1960, when he was married to his first wife, Sybil. Both are interesting, but neither offers anything in the way of a continuous narrative which might replace a broader overview of the subject's life in these years.
对理查德·伯顿日记的介绍具有多种功能。
首先，它概述了理查德·詹金斯（Richard Jenkins），即后来的理查德·伯顿（Richard Burton）的生活。他于 1925 年出生，而所谓的“日记岁月”却开始于1965年。在最初的这四十年里，伯顿确实写了两本日记；本书中转载了其中一篇：1939/40 年的一篇，当时他还是理查德詹金斯；还有一篇日记写于1960 年，当时他与第一任妻子西比尔结婚。两者都很有趣，但两者都没有提供任何连续叙述的方式，因此我们还是无法全面了解他这些年来的生活。
Once we arrive at the beginning of 1965, however, the diaries are sufficiently substantial and sequential to render any biographical sketching redundant. Linking passages, situated chronologically amidst the text itself, perform the vital function of connecting those parts of the diaries kept between January 1965 and March 1972 with each other.
然而，1965年初开始，日记开始变得完整，按照时间顺序概述了作者的经历。从1965年1月到1972年3月之间的日记还配有过渡段，能够有机地把这些叙述结合为一个整体。
After March 1972 the diaries are more fragmented. Further passages, also situated in the text, contextualize the primary materials for 1975, 1977, 1980 and 1983, and the last months of Richard Burton's life.
在1972 年 3 月之后，日记又开始变得支离破碎。此处的重点在于1975 年、1977 年、1980 年的初始材料，以及1983 年的一些吉光片羽—这也是理查德·伯顿生命的最后几个月。
Why did Burton keep them? Who was their intended audience? To what extent can one explain the lapses in making entries, or even the many months and years that separate some of the diaries that have survived?
伯顿为什么保留这些日记？谁是他们的目标受众？人们可以在多大程度上解释日记中间的大段空白呢？
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The Richard Burton Diaries
I561.65/5
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