Harold Rabinowitz
哈羅德·拉賓諾維奇
作者簡介
哈羅德·拉賓諾維奇（Harold Rabinowitz），美國著名編輯、作家，現居紐約。他是著名的《麥格勞希爾科技百科全書》（McGraw-HillEncyclopedia of Science and Technology）的執行編輯和《大美百科全書》（EncyclopediaAmericana）的科技編輯，並撰寫過關於航空曆史、古代西方文化等內容的作品。
1999年，他與美國另一著名編輯羅布.卡普蘭（Rob Kaplan）合編了《一派書心》（A Passion forBooks）。此書收集了各類小說、散文和幽默小品，講述愛書人讀書、尋書、借書、藏書的種種故事。本文節選自該書。文中詳細描述了與好友哈伊姆一起淘書的樂趣，尤其是好友那間屯滿書的公寓。向來隻聽說“鳩占鵲巢”，你可知還有“書占人室”？房中幾無一絲空地，連廚房和廁所裏都堆滿了書籍，果真是名副其實的“書癡之家”。
We both loved books. No, we were both crazy about books. Chaim’s apartment in the Bronx was what my apartment back in Brookline was going to become in twentyor thirty years. The front door could not be completely opened because there wasa floor-to-ceiling bookcase behind it (and all bookcases were floor to ceiling; anything less was wantonly wasteful). All the hallways of the apartment werelined on both sides with books; Chaim was a portly person, but even a thinperson had to walk sideways through the connecting hallways of the apartment.And don’t forget the area above the doorways—everyone of them had shelvingloaded, creaking menacingly under the two and three layers of books in eachshelf of the bookcase, with books placed sideways on top of the rows. Chaim andI had discussed the merits of putting books in front of books on shelves the wayartisans might compare notes on some craft like leather tanning. (And Chaim wasenvious that most of my books were in single rows on the shelves, just as I knew that inevitably I’d have to resort to doubling up, a milestone in any book collector’s life.)
我倆都愛書。不，是都為書癡狂。哈伊姆在布朗克斯的公寓，就是我在布魯克林的公寓二三十年後的樣子。公寓前門無法完全打開，因為門後有個高度直抵天花板的書櫃（他所有的書櫃都高達天花板，不充分利用空間就是可恥的浪費）。門廳兩邊排滿了書。哈伊姆有點胖，但即使瘦人也得側身才過得去。而且值得注意的是，每條門道上方都安著書架，每個架上都放著兩三層書，書疊書，書摞書，把架子壓得吱吱作響。哈伊姆和我探討每層擺兩排書有何優點益處，活像兩位工匠探討鞣製皮革的手藝孰優孰劣。（我的大多數書隻擺成單排，哈伊姆對此羨慕不已。但我深知，總有一天書會變成雙排。藏書從單排變成雙排，無疑是藏書家一生中的裏程碑事件。）
The breakfront in the living room had certainly once held their china in the display case and silverware in the drawers; all of that was packed solid withbooks. (You may think you get the idea, but wait, I’m not finished.) There were, of course, bookshelves covering every square inch of wall space in the livingroom, but there were also stacks of books under the sofa, and there were booksneatly but compactly stacked under the end tables on either side of thesofa—from the floor to the shelf midway up the length of the tables, and thenfrom that shelf to the top, and then some books on top of the tables on whichthe lamps that illuminated the room stood. (The legs of those tables curved and the edge of the books followed the curves in and out up the length of thetable.) The same was true of the coffee table in front of the sofa—and the samewas true of the sofa itself—books filled the space between the top of the backof the sofa and the shelves over the sofa (in front of which a large paintinghung—covering the books behind it—of a woman I later discovered was Chaim’smother-in-law).
客廳的斷層式櫥櫃曾用於擺放展示用的瓷器抽屜裏放滿了銀器，現在則塞滿了書。（或許你自以為知道是怎麼一回事，但請等一下，我還沒說完呢。）客廳牆壁當然已完全被書架遮蓋，連沙發底下也堆滿了書。沙發兩側的茶幾下麵，書雖然擠得滿滿的，卻碼得整整齊齊——書從地板上堆到茶幾底下的擱板，又從擱板上堆到茶幾麵下方，再從茶幾麵往上摞。茶幾上還放著為整個屋子照明的台燈。（重壓之下，茶幾的腿都被壓彎了，書堆的邊緣也隨之綿延起伏。）沙發前的咖啡桌也是這副模樣，沙發同樣不例外——從沙發背頂端到其上麵的書架之間，那一點空間全塞滿了書（前麵掛著一幅女士的大幅肖像畫，遮住了後麵的書堆。後來我才發現，畫上是哈伊姆的嶽母。）
There were several small card tables in the living room, and each of them hadbooks stacked under them—but with enough room for someone to sit at the table, perhaps a bit sideways if one was not as short-legged as Chaim. And there wereshelves in the recessed windows, and those shelves were packed with books, allowing only a tiny spot of light to peek through from the outside. I had askedChaim early on why he didn’t simply have the bookcase that covered all of thatwall and snaked over, around, and under the window built straight across thehall (some carpenter or handyman had certainly put a child through college onChaim), and he said he didn’t want to block the windows entirely—but I knew thereal reason:He’ll get around to that soon enough; meanwhile why waste such goodspace?
客廳裏還有幾張打牌用的小桌，每張桌下都堆滿了書，不過足夠坐在桌旁的人伸腿。如果你的腿比哈伊姆的長，就得稍稍側身坐才行。凹窗裏也裝了架子，上麵全擺著書，留出的縫隙僅能照進一線陽光。我問過哈伊姆，為什麼不索性弄個覆蓋整麵牆的書櫃，而要繞著窗戶四周做那麼多書架（由此看來，哈伊姆絕對是木匠或巧手匠大學的高材生）。他的說法是，不想把窗戶完全堵住。但我知道真實原因：他很快就會著手解決這個問題，現在又何必浪費那麼好的空間呢？