Reviewed by:

• Let in the Light: Learning to Read St. Augustine's Confessions by James Boyd White
• Ian Clausen

Not many readers encounter Augustine in his native Latin. The problem is not confined to students and lay readers; Augustine scholars, too, increasingly read Augustine only in English. One worries about what is lost in reading this way. The problem is more than a matter of substance. Style, too, disappears beneath the cloak of translation, taking away from some of the pleasure Augustine intended for his readers. Can this experience be recovered? James Boyd White thinks so. In Let in the Light, he is quietly confident in the capacity of his readers to appreciate and savor what Augustine's Latin has to offer. Focusing on the Confessions is an obvious choice. If anyone today is to encounter Augustine, it is likely through this work, which defies categorization and transcends its ancient context. Paying respect to the many excellent translations over the years, White commits to walking readers through the Latin of the Confessions—or at least select parts of it—in an exercise in "slow reading" (47). His aim is, quite simply, to make possible "an exploration of the experience this wonderful book offers its readers" (xv).

Whether an audience exists for such an effort remains to be seen. Certainly the pandemic quarantine enlivened interest in language learning. But it is difficult to learn a language from an app, and many learning goals are likely to have petered out for lack of human contact. Latin might be different. Few learn Latin today in order to speak it. Nor is White interested in teaching readers Latin; as he confesses, he is no professional Latinist (xv). Instead, his book is about the experience the Confessions creates. It is also about the experience a work of translation creates, which is never a simple transfer from one language to another. "[A] translation is by its nature its own independent work," he writes (43–44). True enough, if by [End Page 141] "independent" we mean distinctive and contestable. Translation can impede but also enhance communication. A good translator's decisions are not arbitrary or idiosyncratic, and departing from an author's "literal" word may better capture that author's original meaning.

White's tack is to walk alongside and appeal to his readers directly. A paradigmatic example of this: "As you contemplate these various texts let me encourage you to think of them each as offering to its readers a certain experience, or set of experiences, both in the reading itself and in the anticipation of what comes next" (45). A calm and patient guide—or "friend" as he prefers (xv)—White models what he teaches. His approach has something to give to both new and seasoned readers of the Confessions. One is reminded of Margaret Miles's project a few decades ago in Desire and Delight (New York: Crossroad, 1991): to re-present the Confessions as a source of pleasure in itself. Part of that pleasure comes from confronting the limits of language, when Augustine is incapable of communicating his experience or understanding of the object of faith. White returns frequently to the confident declaration that opens Confessions: Magnus es, Domine, et laudabilis valde. Only this is not a conclusion, but more like a signpost on the way. Very soon, we find Augustine in an unfamiliar place, not sure what to make of his life's origins and trajectory and the God to whom they belong. For Augustine, observes White, "has the rare ability of being able to say something, then to look at what he said with fresh eyes, and in this way put into question his assumptions, his language, and his mind" (92).

White's guiding hand starts to loosen as the book proceeds. We receive more Latin and less commentary, at least on the Latin, as if to signal our readiness to engage the former on our own. Many of White's translations are beautifully rendered, and by offering them as "rough and provisional" (14), he underlines...

审阅者：

• 让光明：学习阅读詹姆斯·博伊德·怀特的《圣奥古斯丁忏悔录》
• 伊恩·克劳森

没有多少读者遇到奥古斯丁的母语拉丁语。这个问题不仅限于学生和普通读者。奥古斯丁学者也越来越多地只阅读英文版奥古斯丁。人们担心以这种方式阅读会失去什么。问题不仅仅是实质问题。风格也消失在翻译的外衣下，剥夺了奥古斯丁为读者带来的一些乐趣。这段经历还能恢复吗？詹姆斯·博伊德·怀特这么认为。在《让光明》中，他对读者欣赏和品味奥古斯丁拉丁文所提供的内容的能力充满信心。专注于《忏悔录》是一个显而易见的选择。如果今天有人要遇到奥古斯丁，很可能是通过这部作品，它挑战了分类并超越了其古老的语境。出于对多年来许多优秀翻译的尊重，怀特致力于引导读者通过“缓慢阅读”的练习来阅读《忏悔录》的拉丁文——或者至少选择其中的一部分（47）。他的目标很简单，就是让“探索这本精彩的书为读者提供的体验”成为可能（xv）。

这样的努力是否存在观众还有待观察。当然，大流行隔离激发了人们对语言学习的兴趣。但通过应用程序学习语言很困难，而且许多学习目标可能会因为缺乏人际接触而逐渐消失。拉丁语可能有所不同。如今很少有人为了说拉丁语而学习拉丁语。怀特对教读者拉丁语也不感兴趣。正如他所承认的，他不是专业的拉丁学家 (xv)。相反，他的书是关于《忏悔录》所创造的经历的。它还涉及翻译作品所创造的体验，这绝不是从一种语言到另一种语言的简单转换。 “[A]翻译本质上是它自己的独立作品，”他写道（43-44）。确实如此，如果[结束第141页] “独立”意味着独特和有争议。翻译可以阻碍但也可以加强沟通。一个好的译者的决定不是任意的或特殊的，偏离作者的“字面”词语可能会更好地捕捉作者的原始含义。

怀特的策略是与他的读者同行并直接吸引他的读者。一个典型的例子是：“当你思考这些不同的文本时，我鼓励你将它们视为向读者提供某种经验或一组经验，无论是在阅读本身还是在对接下来发生的事情的预期中” (45)。一位冷静而耐心的向导——或者他更喜欢的“朋友”(xv)——怀特以他所教的方式为榜样。他的方法对《忏悔录》的新读者和老读者都有帮助。人们会想起几十年前玛格丽特·迈尔斯在《欲望与快乐》（纽约：十字路口，1991）中的项目：将《忏悔录》重新呈现为快乐的源泉。当奥古斯丁无法传达他的经验或对信仰对象的理解时，这种乐趣部分来自于面对语言的限制。怀特经常回到《忏悔录》开头的自信宣言：Magnus es, Domine, et laudabilis valde。只是这并不是一个结论，而更像是前进路上的一个路标。很快，我们发现奥古斯丁身处一个陌生的地方，不知道如何理解他生命的起源和轨迹以及它们所属的上帝。怀特观察到，对于奥古斯丁来说，“具有一种罕见的能力，能够说出一些话，然后用新的眼光看待他所说的话，并以这种方式质疑他的假设、他的语言和他的思想”（92）。

随着书的进展，怀特的指导手开始放松。我们收到更多的拉丁语和更少的评论，至少是在拉丁语方面，似乎表明我们准备好自己与前者接触。怀特的许多翻译都呈现出精美的效果，并通过将它们提供为“粗糙和临时的”（14），他强调......