|
|
Bartleby 是美国小说家赫尔曼·梅尔维尔（Herman Melville）所著《抄写员巴特尔比》（Bartleby, the Scrivener）一书中的人物。金钱社会，物欲横流，人与人日渐疏离，却有一个人，用一句又一句“我不愿意”，表明自己不妥协的决心，这个人，就是巴特尔比。Bartleby专栏探讨的是职场与管理。
这篇微信公号文章对《经济学人》的介绍非常深入，建议参看
为什么你读不懂《经济学人》
这篇文章里面提到根据他十多年阅读感受，各个板块，专栏的难以排序。
《经济学人》的各个板块，从难到易依次为：
专栏（包括Obituary） ≥ Books & arts ≥ Leaders ≥ “地区或国家”板块 = Business = Finance & economics = Science & technology = International ＞ Briefing = Graphic detail ＞ The world this week
“地区或国家”板块中，从难到易依次为：United States ≥ Britain = Europe ≥ The Americas = Asia = Middle East & Africa ＞ China
《经济学人》每个板块中往往有多篇文章，靠前的文章往往比靠后的文章难。
《经济学人》的各个专栏，从难到易依次为：Lexington ≥ Bagehot = Charlemagne ＞ Obituary ≥ Schumpeter = Free exchange ＞ Buttonwood = Chaguan = Banyan = Bello ≥ Johnson = Bartleby
可见Bartleby是最容易的专栏，我们前面多篇精读的Bagehot（英国专栏）则是偏难的。但是本篇文章我初看的时候依旧有好几处含义很模糊，不能一眼看明白，再加上内容很实用，不妨拿出来精读一下。
Bartleby| How to sign off an email
- sign off:
- to announce the end of something (as a message or broadcast)。结束，结尾。是本文用到的意思，怎么给电邮结尾，其实也包含签名的内容。
- to approve or acknowledge something by or as if by a signature <sign off on a memo> 这个义项是签名签署。
Epistolary etiquette for the 21st century
- epistolary: 书信的
- etiquette: 礼仪
“Regards”. “best wishes”. “Warmly”. “Cheers”. “Take care”. The words at the end of a professional email may seem banal. Still, the sign-off matters. Even the ubiquitous “Sent from my iPhone” can act as a justification for brevity and typos or as a virtue-signal that the sender has taken the time to reply although clearly not at their desk. It is therefore worth considering how your missive’s ending will be perceived on the other end, not least because it is likely to be archived away in perpetuity.
- banal: 陈腐的，lacking originality, freshness, or novelty。
- ubiquitous: 无处不在的。
- Sent from my iPhone:
- 这里提到的东西很有意思。人家美国大部分人都用iPhone，iPhone也不像在中国或其他发展中国家一样有什么身份象征意义，所以&#34;Sent from my iPhone&#34;并没有任何自我夸耀的高傲劲儿。
- 反而是一种辩护（justification），为回复的简短或者可能存在的拼写错误辩护。
- 或者是一种德行的信号（virtue-signal），就是说你看我都没时间坐在办公桌电脑前面、一直在移动当中，但是我依旧找出时间给你发邮件或者给你回邮件，这既是发件人的德行的象征，也是收件人（在发件人心目中）的德行的象征。
- missive: (formal or humorous) a letter, especially a long or an official one
- perpetuity: perpetual的名词形式，eternity。
The appropriate sign-off depends on your position in the corporate pecking order, your relation to the recipient and the nature of exchange. Your columnist, a guest Bartleby, has a few general tips.
- pecking order: peck是啄的意思。这个词的原义还真就是鸟的等级社会里啄的等级秩序，啄序。
- the basic pattern of social organization within a flock of poultry （一群禽类）in which each bird pecks another lower in the scale without fear of retaliation（报复） and submits to （屈服于）pecking by one of higher rank broadly : a dominance hierarchy in a group of social animals
- 引申为a social hierarchy，社会等级。但是我觉得这个反过来的比喻好有残忍的感觉。
- your columnist, a guest Bartleby: 你的专栏作家，Bartleby专栏客座写者，都是指本文章作者。The Economist的特点就是不署名，但专栏一段时间内固定由某位作者操刀，有时候这位作者会换岗到去写其它专栏，有点像到某个专栏做客的意思。
First, go easy on informality. Use proper grammar and spelling. It is hard to imagine that you could do a lot with the seconds saved with a “see ya” or “thx” instead of writing the words out in full. Bartleby herself often hides in the intersection of the busyness of life and artificial intelligence. “Got it!” gmail’s predictive algorithm suggests, and your columnist often clicks on the box. This is maybe lazy but also efficient. It removes the need for a greeting (part of whose job is done instead by the affectionate exclamation mark). Resort to this tactic if truly in a hurry or too melancholic to engage with the world.
- go easy on:
- an informal expression meaing to treat someone less strictly than usual, especial because they have special problems or difficulties [v phrase]
- I wish the police would go easier on him, doesn&#39;t even speak their language.
- Bartleby herselft: 应该还是指专栏作者，看来还是位女性。
- intersection of the busyness of life and AI: 生活的忙碌和AI的交叉路口。这个比喻我解构一下。
- 生活的忙碌就是指上面那个类似“Thx”那样过于的省略。
- 而AI则是指下文Google Gmail的预测性算法建议的语法，比如Got it!这样适当的简略。
- 而笔者则通常在这两种程度之间（intersection）。
- melancholic: 忧郁症的。
- engage with: to give attention to something : DEAL <the author&#39;s unwillingness to engage with our political system
- 注意本段话的逻辑和结构，有点绕：
- 第一句话go easy on informality是说写邮件现在不用那么正式，板着端着。第二句话说要使用合适的语法和拼写
- 然后说不要过于简化，比如“see you”/“Thanks”写成“see ya”/“thx”而不写全，你省下的时间也干不了啥大事
- 然后说笔者自己的风格会是上述这种过于简化（busyness of life）的风格和AI风格之间（注意这时候AI的风格还没出现，如果你不往后面继续看，并马上把Gmail建议的Got it!和AI划上等号，那你就蒙圈了）。
- 然后再详细说明AI的风格，也就是Gmail推荐的简化（predictive algorithm），举了“Got it!”这个例子。笔者经常使用这个套话，因为这个感叹号很好的代替了通常需要的打招呼和客套。
- 笔者建议你也这样用，如果你确实需要赶时间，而且（开玩笑）患有忧郁症不想太和这个世界打交道。
Spelling things out also helps avoid confusion. A senior editor at The Economist signs as “X”—because his first name starts with that letter, not because he is overly fond of osculation (he uses “XX” for his close friends; his surname does not start with X). Especially when emailing someone for the first time, it is essential not only to include your full name and last name but to avoid folksy terms such as “Ciao” and “Be well”.
- spell out: 讲清楚。
- osculation:
- the act of kissing.
- (mathematics) a contact of two curves (or two surfaces) at which they have a common tangent
- folksy: 和气的，有民间风味的。Ciao是意大利语的Bye，一般种种浓浓的美国大兵哥和欧战区美女flirting的味道。
Bartleby’s heart sinks every time she sees a sign-off trying to exude a chilled vibe. They ooze neediness. Affectionate terms such as “toodles” or “lots of love” do not enhance proximity to the recipient unless the closeness is already there. “Smiles” is unspeakable. “High five from down low”, which one publicist used in an email exchange, is worse.
- exude: 渗出。chilled vibe: vibe是气氛的意思。注意这里的chilled不是冷冻的，而是relaxed, not worrying about anything:
- Me, I&#39;m feeling pretty chilled.。
- ooze: 渗出。和exude近义词。
- toodles: Toodles is a slang word meaning goodbye. Goldberg says it often, to the great amuzement of all.
- proximiy ... closeness: 都是亲近，接近的意思。笔者的意思是故作亲密的书信用语不会拉近你和收件人的关系，如果你们本来就不亲密的话。
- 寓言式童话《小王子》里面的tame就是这个意思。做客户关系（以及所有一切重要的值得你去珍视的亲密关系）一定要有面对面的陪伴。
- 笔友（20年前）、网友（10年前）、群友（现在），都是一种自以为很亲密但其实啥都没有的空虚的亲密关系，聊得再火热都不能增强proximity/closeness，如果它们不是本来就存在的话。
- high five from down low: high five是庆祝击掌。down low是secret information，在某种美国亚文化里面也有男同的意思。这两个词组连一起怪怪的，难怪笔者不喜欢。
- 这段话是说故作轻松（chilled）亲密的落款会让人觉得需求心很重（neediness），故意想要获取对方的亲密关系，但这种亲密关系实际上是不可能通过邮件来实现的。不要试图通过电子邮件进行socializing。
Avoid being prescriptive. “Have a nice day”, “Happy Monday” or “Take it easy” emphatically do not promote relaxation. “Stay safe”, popular amid lockdowns, evokes sex-education manuals. “Eagerly waiting for a response” will invariably delay the response’s dispatch. “Check out my latest book”, especially with Amazon links, is uncouth. “Follow me on Twitter” lacks graciousness.
- prescriptive: 约定俗成的，长期传统形成的。这个词很有用，我们可能会觉得traditional能表达这个意思，但其实不是。
- emphatically: 明显地。
- Stay safe: 疫情封城（所以老外其实也有封城，但绝对不是我们这种封城）期间这个词流行起来。但笔者觉得总有种让人联想起女性自我防护手册的感觉。
- uncouth: clumsy，笨拙的，奇怪的。
- 本段笔者嘲讽了几种约定俗成的惯用结束语：
- Have a nice day这些会让人觉得紧张。
- Stay safe在疫情期间似乎应景，但未免过于矫揉造作（因为covid-19不是SARS，更不是鼠疫），让人想起女子防身术。
- 急切盼复只会让对方拖延回复。
- 请一定关注我的新书并附上Amazon卖书链接实在太奇怪了。
- “请在Twitter关注我”缺少优雅。后两种在我们现在互联网的时代确实很常见，而且都进入公司的签名档了，实在有点尾大不掉，缺乏优雅。
Next, be consistent. “Yours truly” was a common way to conclude a business letter in the 19th century. But in that era correspondence was layered with nuance. “Yours faithfully” could be preceded only by “Dear Sir” (or, on rare occasions in commerce, “Dear Madam”). If the recipient was named (“Dear Mr So and So”) then the bookend as “Yours sincerely”. Today writers fasten the formal to the informal. If your subject line is “Now in paperback” don’t overcompensate by personalising your sign-off. If you send out a press release on emissions cuts, do not end your note with “Hugs”.
- consistent ... nuance: 一致性和细微差别。这里提到19世纪邮件的繁文缛节，结尾落款要和开头匹配，比如
- Dear Sir开头，Yours faithfully结尾
- Dear Mr So and So开头，Yours sincerely结尾。
- fasten the formal to the informal: 把正式（结尾）和不正式（开头）连一起。
- 如果你的开头的subject line（称呼行）已经是paperback（平装本），也就是简化、不正式了，那结尾搞得那么严肃根本没必要。
- Now in paperback: 西方出书一般先出精装本针对那些价格再高也要上的必需人士，赚够钱了之后再出平装本要销量再赚一波钱。
- 所以“现在是平装本了”就是说19世纪人写邮件很讲究，开头称呼行有很多细微区别（nuance）。
- 现在么，都不讲究了，称呼都直接Sam，Ricky的来了，那你把个签名搞得那么复杂那个个性化干嘛呢？
- emission cuts: 排放削减。应该是指电子化/无纸化。以前的press release都是铜版纸印刷，高大上。现在就发封电子邮件过去，就别用Hugs这些结尾了，太不搭了太没真情实意了。
Do not cry out for attention. Latin began to die out in the sixth century and was later abandoned for the vernacular. So resist including dictums in a dead language (“nil posse creari de nilo” as a default salutation is a bit outré). One of Bartleby’s venture-capitalist correspondents signs off with Bertrand Russell’s observation that “The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure and the intelligent full of doubt”—which sounds, well, cocksure.
- vernacular: 方言。罗马帝国于公元前27成立，公元395年分裂为东西罗马帝国开始衰落，这期间拉丁语一直是文明世界的标准语言。西罗马帝国于476年被北方蛮族攻破。一百年之后到了6世纪，各地的方言风起云涌，随着蛮族文化水平和自我意识的提升，就逐渐取代了拉丁语开始形成了各地的民族语言。
- dictum: 格言。
- nil posse creari de nilo: 拉丁语格言“无中不可能生有”。
- outre: 夸张的，超出常规的。
- 罗素的格言：“这个世界的麻烦在于，蠢人们都独断深信，而智者却充满疑惑。”
- 这句话本身就很独断深信（cocksure）。
- 我想说都成年人了，不要再学小学生写作文喜欢背格言了，特别是这种对人进行judge的格言。人太复杂了，judge脸谱化都不太靠谱。像孔子那样也不能免俗，但一部《论语》好就好在孔子说的话经常自我打脸各种意见都有，所以就显得他并不那么cocksure了。
Lengthy automatic salutations can be tiresome (“I’m using Inbox When Ready to protect my focus” is simply too much information). If you want to cut a thread short, consider “Thank you in advance”. Yes, it may strike some as presumptuous. But it has the virtue of saving you from a follow-up email.
- presumptuous: 胆大妄为，自作主张。
- 本段笔者建议不要使用那种长篇大论的自动化签名（这种签名是很多企业很喜欢用的）。
- &#34;Thank you in advance&#34;，提前感谢。笔者幽默的说这样的结尾可以省掉一封follow-up邮件（感谢邮件），因为你以前提前谢过了。虽然有时候看起来有点过于自作主张（就是觉得对方的反应一定会顺从你的意愿，从而会获得你的感谢）
Some elements of the corporate sign-off are beyond your control. It may include the company’s logo or disclaimers mandated by company policy (“Please consider the environment before printing this email”). But the function of sign-offs is to sign off. Technology may have disrupted the epistolary form, but as with all last words, much still depends on the echo they leave in your mind.
- 企业签名一般有强制要求（mandated）部分。比如企业logo，环保呼吁等等。
- 技术的进步破坏（disrupt）了书信的格式，比如以前的书面信件变成了电子邮件，格式也都在简化和弱化。
- 但是你还是可以有自己掌控的地方，如同所有的结束语一样，结束语产生的回音（echo）会留存在脑海里，非常重要，所以你也应该重视邮件的收尾。
Thank you for your consideration.
Talk soon.
This column may contain confidential material. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender and delete all copies. It may also contain personal views which are not the views of The Economist Group.
- 这里专栏作者类似电邮结尾一样，对本文进行了sign off。
- 她用的是
Thank you for your consideration
Talk soon.
这两个我都不常用。我一般就用简单的，也就是陈腐的（banal）
Best Regards，
但是看到有些客户很喜欢用All Best，虽然一开始会觉得有点虚情假意，有时候也慢慢地学着用一下。
- 最后那一段是搞笑的。
- 首先是两句公司保密政策的套话，现在很多大公司邮件系统的发件服务器都会自动加，不需要发件人手动添加到自己的邮件里面去。
- 最后那句则是常见的杂志免责声明。
有趣的小文，有几段也不是那么好懂，比如intersection of busyness life and AI，比如chilled vibe，比如fasten the formal to the informal。
俗话说，不破不立。本文笔者还是以“破”为主，对于应该怎么结尾好像也没说太多。当然本来也是这样，邮件的内容千变万化，结尾自然也应该随机而动，不应该局限了自己，只是注意避免几种特别不好的方式，真正怎么来写，还是要你自己发挥了，而这都是需要长期的实践和揣摩，逐渐提升的。
All Best,
Ricky
文章来源于网络，如有侵权，请联系我们小二删除，どうもで～す！ |
|
官方Q群
发表于 2022-10-12 09:47:36
