卡耐基演讲·四、多用具体、耳熟能详的字眼

讲演者的第一目标是驾驭听众的注意力；要做到这一点，还有一项极为重要的技巧，然而，它却完全为人们所忽视。一般的讲演者，似乎并没有注意到它的存在，也恐怕从未感觉到它、想到过它。我所指的这个技巧，就是使用能形成图画般鲜明景象的词句。能够让听众感觉轻松愉快的讲演者，是最能塑造景象在你眼前浮现的人。使用模糊不清的、烦琐的、无颜无色的语言的讲演者，只会让听众打瞌睡。In the process of getting and holding attention, which is the first purpose of every speaker, there is one aid, one technique, that is of the highest importance. Yet, it is all but ignored. The average speaker does not seem to be aware of its existence. He has probably never consciously thought about it at all. I refer to the process of using words that create pictures. The speaker who is easy to listen to is the one who sets images floating before your eyes. The one who employs foggy, commonplace, colorless symbols sets the audience to nodding.

景象！景象！景象！它们就像你呼吸的空气一样，是免费的呀！而把它们点缀在讲演里，你就更能欢娱别人，你也就更具影响力。Pictures. Pictures. Pictures. They are as free as the air you breathe. Sprinkle them through your talks, your conversation, and you will be more entertaining, more influential.

赫伯特·史宾塞早就在他那篇著名的论文《风格哲学》中指出，优秀的文字能够唤起读者对鲜明图画的联想：Herbert Spencer, in his famous essay on the "Philosophy of Style," pointed out long ago the superiority of terms that call forth bright pictures:

“我们并不作一般性的思考，而是作特殊性的思考。我们应该尽量避免写出像这样的句子：We do not think in generals but in particulars ... We should avoid such a sentence as:

一个国家的行为习惯、风俗及娱乐，如果是残酷而且野蛮的，那么，他们的刑罚必然也很严厉。‘In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of their penal code will be severe!'

我们应该把它改写成下面这种样子：And in place of it, we should write:

一个国家的老百姓如果喜爱战争、斗牛以及欣赏奴隶公开格斗取乐，那么他们的刑罚将包括绞刑、烧烙及拷打。”In proportion as men delight in battles, bull fights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.' "

《圣经》和莎士比亚的著作中，也同样充满可以呈现出图画的字句，简直多得像果汁厂附近的蜜蜂。如果一位平凡的作家说，某件事是多余的，完全是把已经很完美的事情还想再加以改善。莎士比亚会怎么样讲？他写出了不朽的图画似的字句：“替精炼过的黄金镀金，替百合花上油彩，把香水洒在紫罗兰上。”Picture-building phrases swarm through the pages of the Bible and through Shakespeare like bees around a cider mill. For example, a commonplace writer would have said that a certain thing would be "superfluous," like trying to improve the perfect. How did Shakespeare express the same thought? With a picture phrase that is immortal: "To gild refined gold, to paint the lily, to throw perfume on the violet."

你有没有注意到，那些世代相传的谚语，几乎全都是具有视觉图像的字句。“一鸟在手，胜过两鸟在林。”“不雨则已，一雨倾盆。”“你可以把马牵到水边，但却不能逼它喝水。”等等。那些流传好几个世纪而且广被使用的比喻里，也不难发现同样的图画效果：“如狐狸那般狡猾。”“僵死得像一枚门钉。”“像薄煎饼那般平板。”“硬得像石头。”Did you ever pause to observe that the proverbs that are passed on from generation to generation are almost all visual sayings? "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." "It never rains but it pours." "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink." And you will find the same picture element in almost all the similes that have lived for centuries and grown hoary with too much use: "Sly as a fox." "Dead as a doornail." "Flat as a pancake." "Hard as a rock."

林肯也一直使用有视觉效果的语言来讲话。当他对那些每天送到他白宫办公桌上的冗长、复杂的官式报告感到厌倦时，他说：“当我派一个人出去买马时，我并不希望这个人告诉我这匹马的尾巴有多少根毛。我只希望知道它有什么样的特点。”他才不会用那种平淡的语句来表达。Lincoln continually talked in visual terminology. When he became annoyed with the long, complicated, red-tape reports that came to his desk in the White House, he objected to them, not with colorless phraseology, but with a picture phrase that it is almost impossible to forget. "When I send a man to buy a horse," he said, "I don't want to be told how many hairs the horse has in his tail. I wish only to know his points."

我们要把眼睛看向那些形象明确又独特的事物上，用语言描绘出内心的景象，使它突出、显著、分明，像落日余晖映照着公鹿头角的长影。比方说，听到“狗”这个词，我们多少会想起它的具体形象——也许是只短腿、长毛、大耳下垂的小猎犬；一只苏格兰犬；一只圣伯纳犬，或是一只波密雷尼亚犬等。但是，演讲者如果说出“牛犬”（注：一种短毛、方嘴、勇敢、顽强的狗），你脑海里浮映出的形象该会具体不少。“一只有斑纹的牛犬”是不是浮映出比刚才更鲜明的形象？说“一匹黑色的雪特兰小马”是不是比说“一匹马”逼真了很多？“一只白色、断了条腿的矮种公鸡”，难道不比仅仅是“鸡”一个字给人更具体的图像吗？Make your eye appeals definite and specific. Paint mental pictures that stand out as sharp and clear as a stag's antlers silhouetted against the setting sun. For example, the word" dog" calls up a more or less definite picture of such an animal-perhaps a cocker spaniel, a Scottish terrier, a St. Bernard, or a Pomeranian. Notice how much more distinct an image springs into your mind when a speaker says "bulldog" -the term is less inclusive. Doesn't "a brindle bulldog" call up a still more explicit picture? Is it not more vivid to say "a black Shetland pony" than to talk of "a horse"? Doesn't "a white bantam rooster with a broken leg" give a much more definite and sharp picture than merely the word "fowl"?

威廉·斯特伦克在《风格的要素》一书中这样阐述：“那些研究写作艺术的人，如果他们观点有一致的地方，那么这个观点就是：他们认为能够抓住读者的注意力，最可靠的方法是要具体、明确和详细。像荷马、但丁、莎士比亚等这样一些最伟大的作家，他们高明的地方，就是由于他们在处理特殊的情境，并叙写关键的细节时，他们的语句能唤起读者脑海里的景象。”写作是这样，讲话也是这样。In The Elements of Style, William Strunk, Jr., states: "If those who have studied the art of writing are in accord on anyone point, it is on this: the surest way to arouse and hold the attention of the reader is by being specific, definite, and concrete. The greatest writers-Homer, Dante, Shakespeare-are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures." This is as true of speaking as of writing.

多年以前，我和参加“成功演讲”课程的学员进行了一项实验：讲事实。我们订了一个规则：在每个句子里，必须有一个事实、一个专有名词、一个数字或一个日期。我们获得了革命性的成功。学员们拿它当做游戏，彼此指出概略化的毛病。没用多长时间，他们便不再说那些只会飘浮在听众头上晦暗不明的语言了，他们说的是大街上普通人明确、活泼的语言。I once devoted a session years ago in my course in Effective Speaking to an experiment in being factual. We adopted a rule that in every sentence the speaker must put either a fact or a proper noun, a figure, or a date. The results were revolutionary. The class members made a game of catching one another on generalities; it wasn't long before they were talking, not the cloudy language that floats over the head of an audience, but the clear-cut, vigorous language of the man on the street.

法国哲学家艾兰说：“抽象的风格总是不好的，在你的句子里应该满是石头、金属、椅子、桌子、动物、男人和女人。”“An abstract style,” said the French philosopher Alain, “is always bad. Your sentences should be full of stones, metals, chairs, tables, animals, men, and women.”

日常对话也是这个样子。事实上，本章中说过的一切有关当众说话时的技巧，同样适用于日常交谈。是细节使谈话充满生气和光彩的，任何人要想成为高超的交谈者，都可牢记这一劝告，从中会有很多的收获。销售员使用它，也会发现它特有的魔力。那些担任主管职务的人、家庭主妇和教师们，也能够发现自己在下达命令和传播知识、消息时，因使用了具体、实际的细节而使传达内容变得清楚，效果当然也好了。This is true of everyday conversation as well. In fact, all that has been said in this chapter about the use of detail in talks before groups applies to general conversation. It is detail that makes conversation sparkle. Anyone who is intent upon making himself a more effective conversationalist may profit by following the advice contained in this chapter. Salesmen, too, will discover the magic of detail when applied to their sales presentations. Those in executive positions, housewives, and teachers will find that giving instructions and dispensing information will be greatly improved by the use of concrete, factual detail.