所谓学问
The So Called “Academic Disciplines”
文、译/林巍1
〔1〕据不完全统计，目前世界上的学科可分为自然科学、社会科学两大知识系统，若干个级别，达五千五百余种。
[1]According to incomplete world statistics, the number of academic disciplines in different fields, mainly divided into natural and social sciences, at several levels, has reached more than 5,500.
〔2〕其实，人们对于世界的认识，所以要分门别类，是出于理解的便利，而非事物本身的面目2。在古希腊，最初并没有“分科”的学问，而只有唯一的“学问”——哲学，因为那里概括了人类对世界的所有认识。在中国，对学问的分类，也是到了司马谈的《论六家要旨》才出现的。
[2] In fact, categorization of the academic world into disciplines has blurred its originality, for no purpose other than easy understanding. In Ancient Greece, there was no such thing as different branches of learning except “philosophy”, which was believed to embrace all human knowledge of the world. Similarly, in China disciplinary splits did not occur until On the Theme of the Six Scholarships was written by Sima Tan (?–BC110).
〔3〕对于我们所生存的这个世界，千百年来有着各种认识；然而，归根到底，它是一个庞大的系统，包括天体、地理、社会、人体、思维，等等。牛顿发现的万有引力，爱因斯坦创立的相对论，使人类对其有了最基本的理解，但还仅仅是个基础。
[3] For thousands of years, there have been various kinds of understandings about the world in which we live. The world may be best presented, however, as a system including cosmology, geography, society, human beings, thinking modes and so on. Newton’s Law of Universal Gravitation and Einstein’s Relativity have merely laid a foundation for us to grasp the essence of the system.
〔4〕据科学家研究，人类对于世界的认知，目前为止也只有很小一部分。例如，人们所能看到的物质，只有百分之五，而对于构成宇宙的百分之九十五的暗物质，还几乎一无所知，因为它既不发射也不吸收任何光或电磁辐射，人们只有靠引力效应来推测它的存在。换言之，人类在茫茫宇宙中只是瞎子摸象，只见树木未见森林。
[4] Based on scientific research, the knowledge humanity has so far acquired constitutes only a tiny part of the universe. Visible matter detectable by humans, for example, accounts for a 5%, the rest (dark matter) making up 95% of the cosmos, which, neither emitting nor absorbing light or any other electromagnetic radiation at any significant level and inferred only from its gravitational effects on visible matter, still remains almost unknown to humans who are no less than a blind person feeling an elephant and missing the forest for the trees.
〔5〕人类就此“树木” 而研究的所谓学问，显然是人为的，即由人做出来的; 而人的认知能力还远无法揭示客观原貌。所以，学问应当永远让位于不断发现的真相3。
[5] Knowledge of this kind, so to speak, is after all designed and produced by humans, who may fail to reveal the totality of the world. In this way, scholarship is always vulnerable when confronted with newly-revealed truth.
〔6〕由此看来，相对西方，我们的教育似乎把学科分得过早、过细、过死。我在澳大利亚读书时，一位朋友先是读了几年文学，后又攻生物学，并取得了相当成就。
[6] In this light, it’s far too early, confining and rigid to categorize disciplines in our educational system, comparing it to that in the West. A friend of mine, for instance, at an Australian university, after studying literature for a few years switched to the field of biology, consequently achieving outstanding academic results.
〔7〕所谓学问上的成就，其实是指对于客观世界4认识的深度。其途径，一方面可通过学科的不断细化，另一方面又需不断交叉不同类型的学科5，从而发现更可深入探究未知领域的契合之处。
[7] By “academic achievements”, we mean how far the world has actually been revealed, which can normally be better achieved either by increasingly specialized disciplines or continuing cross-disciplinary approaches in researching uncharted territories at the most accessible juncture.
〔8〕就此而言，当今世界上的任何专才，也必是某种意义上的全才，因为他不但需要学问，而且更需要知道学问的位置6，即什么是学问，那便是学识。
[8] In today’s world, therefore, any specialists have to be, in one way or another, generalists, for they are not only specialized in their fields but also fully aware of where and how to apply their expertise – their scholarly wisdom.
注释：
1. 博士，暨南大学翻译学院特聘教授。
2. 这里未译成 It’s for easy understanding but not its true feature，而是译成现在这样，其中blur 意为to smear or stain something but not to efface。类似用法如：The framed reality shown in movies blurred the unframed reality.（电影里所表现的是经过加工过的现实，而非现实本身。）
3. 这里的“学问”不是一般意义上的knowledge, 而是人们为了研究学问而对其所作的分门别类的学科，故可为branch of learning、discipline、school subject、course of study，但更准确的，此处宜为scholarship；而“让位”，不是一般意义上的give away，该词更多的是“失去”之意。
4. 这里未按其字面意思译成the actual world, 而是变通为the world has actually been...,以为更能表达其意。
5. 将其中的“交叉……”动宾结构转化为cross-disciplinary approaches名词短语，为翻译中常用手法。
6. 这里不能机械地译成the location of scholarship，而是指对学问的认识与应用。