To write and to teach in Neds generation meant defending the values of the imagination through a depression and a war.
Ned Pratt： A Recollectionrecollection n.回忆， 记忆， 回想
Northrop Frye
Ned Pratt is the only figure in Canadian literature， so far， who was great enough to establish a personal legend. The legend was simple than the man， or， more accurately， it was crudercrude adj. 天然的，未加工的，粗糙的，粗鲁的， because the man himself had the genuine simplicity that is so rare and so difficult.
对于奈德这一代人来说，写作和教学意味着在整个经济危机及战争年代里捍卫想像力的价值。
追忆奈德·普拉特
诺斯罗普·弗雷
直到今天，奈德·普拉特是加拿大文学史上惟一的名望之高足以成为传奇的人物。传奇中的奈德要比他本人简单，确切地说，更为简陋，因为奈德所具有的纯真的赤子之心是非常稀有、十分难得的。
Poets and professors are supposed to be absentminded， and people delighted in telling stories of Neds absentmindedness. They are also supposed to be unpractical， and the fact that he was easily baffled by mechanical contrivances also pleased them.
But Ned always remembered a great deal more than he forgot. He carried for many years a teaching， speaking and social scheduleschedule n.时间表， 进度表v.确定时间 that nobody in business or politics would attempt without a secretary.
I remember many graphicgraphic adj.绘画似的， 图解的 stories he could tell of how his lecturing and visiting arrangements got fouled up， but I remember too that it was generally other peoples dimwittedness that was responsible and not his.
When I first began to try to write myself， the only really sensible and wellinformed advice about publishers and contracts I got came from Ned.
人们总以为诗人和教授应该是记性不会太好的。所以他们喜欢讲述一些关于奈德因为心不在焉而出差错的故事。诗人和教授还被认为是动手能力不强、不讲实际的人。于是，奈德自己无法应付机械装置，常常被搞得不知所措的事迹也使他们兴奋。
然而，奈德还是记住的多，忘记的少。多年来，他一直兼顾教课、演说和社会活动，他的日程之满是任何一个没有私人秘书的商界或政界人物都无法效仿的。
我记得他讲述过许多关于演讲和访问安排混乱、情形狼狈不堪的生动故事，但我记得这一切多半是因为别人马虎糊涂，而并非总是他的过错。
我开始尝试写作的时候，需要了解出版商和合同的详情，是奈德提供给我惟一既切合实际、内容又翔实的建议。
And while it was true that he always counted the left turns he had to make before setting out anywhere with a car， I know of no contemporarycontemporary n.同时代的人 adj.当代的， 同时代的 poet who has used technological and mechanical languages with such easy assuranceassurance n.确信， 断言， 保证， 担保 .
In my fourth years as an undergraduate I was editor of the college magazine， and had to administeradminister v.管理， 给予， 执行 a prize of ten dollars for the best poem contributedcontribute v.捐助， 捐献， 贡献， 投稿 . The poems came in， and I took them to Ned.
Ned didnt recommend an award. What he did was to put his finger on one poem and say， “Now this one—it has some feeling， some sensitivity， some sense of structurestructure n.结构， 构造， 建筑物vt.建筑， 构成， 组织 . But—well， damn it all， it isnt worth money.”
他确实是在每次开车出门前都要预先计算出会有几个左拐弯，可是我还没听说过有别的当代诗人能像他那样熟练正确地运用技术名词和机械术语。
大学四年级时，我担任学院杂志的编辑，举办过一次诗歌比赛，最优秀的诗歌可以得10美元奖励。稿子寄来之后，我带去请教奈德。
他并没有说哪首应该得奖，只是用手指着一首说：“这首诗富有激情，比较敏锐，结构安排得也很好。不过，去他的，这不是能用钱来衡量的！”
I have never had a profound insight into literary values， and I was lucky to have it so early. As a graduate student I was his assistantassistant n.助手， 助教adj.辅助的， 助理的 when he became the first editor of the Canadian Poetry Magazine.
I am not saying that what was printed in those opening issues was imperishableimperishable adj.不灭的， 不朽的 ， but it was certainly the best of what we got.
What impressed me was the number of people ( it was the depression， and the magazine paid a dollar or two) who tried to get themselves or their friends in by assumingassuming adj.傲慢的， 不逊的， 僭越的 that Ned was a soft touch. In some ways he was， but he was not compromisingcompromise n.妥协， 折衷v.妥协， 折衷， 危及……的安全 the standards of poetry to be so： poetry was something he took too seriously.
我觉得此生听到过的关于文学价值的见解还没有如此印象深刻的。而且我十分幸运，初上文坛就受到了如此启发。奈德任《加拿大诗刊》首任主编时，我成为了他的研究生，为他做助手。
我不敢说《诗刊》前几期里刊登的诗歌都是不朽之作，但它们确实是我们收到的来稿中的优秀者。
我印象深刻，当时的经济萧条，发表稿件能够得到一两块钱的稿酬。好多人都认为奈德容易说话，便想方设法采用自己或朋友的稿子。在有些方面奈德是轻信别人，容易上当受骗，但他绝不会为了做老好人而放弃评判诗歌的标准。他对诗歌的态度常常认真得过分。
And， as I realized more clearly later， friendship was also something he too seriously to compromise. People who thought him a soft touch were never his friends.
He couldnt be impulsivelyimpulsively adv.有推动力地 ， even quixoticallyquixotically adv.唐吉诃德式地 ， generous to bums and downandouts， and I think I understand why.
His goodwill was not benevolencebenevolence n.仁爱心， 善行 ， not a matter of being a sixtyyearold smiling public man. It was rather an enthusiasm that one was alive， rooted in a sense of childlike wonder at human existence and the varietyvariety n.变化，多样性，种种，品种，种类 of personality.
This feeling was so genuine and so deep in him that I think he felt rather guilty when approached by someone towards whom he was actually indifferent.
关于这些我后来认识得十分清楚。他在交友方面也非常认真，决不降格以求。所以那些认为他心地善良想利用他的人从来都不会成为他的朋友。
他对游手好闲的流浪者和穷人的确有过一时冲动，就好像堂·吉珂德一样慷慨解囊相助。我认为我了解他的想法。
他的好意并非善举，也不是为了做一个六十岁笑口常开的名人，而是出于一片热心。他为人能活着而感到兴奋，他对于人类的存在及个性的多种多样有种深深的孩童般的惊奇。
这种情感非常纯真，极其深厚，以致一旦有个他其实不太喜欢的人对他有什么企图，我觉得他甚至会感到一丝内疚。
His hospitality and his love of parties was the central part of the Pratt personal legendlegend n.传说， 伟人传， 图例 . The chair at the end of the Senior Common Room table in Victoria College was always left vacant for him， for Ned Pratt could not sit anywhere but at the head of the table. (It remained vacant for several months after it was clear that he would never return to that table.)
Yet those who attended his parties realized how passionatepassionate adj.充满热情的 his concern was for the genuine symposiumsymposium n.讨论会， 座谈会 ， the exchange of ideas. He wanted good stories and picturesque language， most of which he contributed himself.
Not many of his guest are apt to forget such things as the huge salmon hooked by the Governor of Newfoundland， who poured an entire bottle of Newfoundland screech down its throat and then released it， only to have it circle the boat on its tail singing Rule Britannia.
奈德传奇的主要核心是他的热忱好客及对社交聚会的偏好。维多利亚学院资深教师休息室中的长桌首席位置从来没有其他人使用，总是留给奈德·普拉特，因为只有把他安排在上座。（即使大家都明白他不可能再来入座了。但在好几个月内，那座位仍虚席以待。）
参加过聚会的人都明白，他真正关心、有着浓厚兴趣的是聚会当中真挚的讨论及思想交流。他喜欢精彩的故事和生动形象的语言，而这一切大多由他本人说出。
他的客人大都会记得诸如纽芬兰省长捕鱼一类的故事：省长钓到了一条巨大的鲑鱼，给它灌了一瓶纽芬兰烈性酒，然后又把鱼放了，结果这条鲑鱼直立在水面绕船转了三圈，唱起了歌曲《大不列颠统治海洋》。