苏珊:
Hi! Hong. I heard there are four masterpieces of China. Have you read all of them?
你好,林红。我听说中国有四大名著,你都读过吗?
林红:
Except the Romance of Three Kingdoms. In fact, the so-called four masterpieces are only four masterpieces of novels from relatively modern history of China. There are many more masterpieces of literature, not to mention masterpieces in other fields.
除了《三国演义》,我都读过。实际上,所谓的四大名著只是中国近代小说的四大名著。文学方面还有很多的名著,更别提其他领域的名著了。
苏珊:
It is the same with western culture. There are so many classics that it seems impossible to read all of them in a lifetime.
西方文化也是一样的。经典名著太多了。要在一生中读完它们似乎是不可能的。
林红:
There is another problem of language.You know, the ancient literary Chinese is much different from modern Chinese.
另外还有语言的问题.你知道.古汉语和现代汉语非常不同.
苏珊:
It is the same again! Ancient English and modern English are different. Plus there are Greek and Latin classics.
英语也一样!古英语和现代英语也很不同.而且还有希腊和罗马语的著作.
林红:
So we must know our history and read those classics. What should we choose before such an ocean of books?
所以我们必须了解自己的历史.阅读那些经典名著.在浩如烟海的名著中我们应该选择什么样的书呢?
苏珊:
That`s really a problem. There are some books lists recommended by scholars, but there are still too much.
这的确是个问题.有一些学者推荐了一些书目.但似乎还是太多了.
林红:
I agree with you. The history is becoming longer and there are more and more classics. How about people one thousand years later?
我也这么认为。随着历史的发展经典名著会越来越多。一千年后的人们又该怎么办?
苏珊:
We have to find a way to keep the essence of history.
我们必须找到延续历史精华的方式。
林红:
Definitely!
是啊!