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Publishing eventually caught up.
出版方最终追上了洛克的观点。
“The New England Primer”, first published in the 17th century, promised young readers illustrated alphabets, a “pleasant guide” to reading--and an arguably muted idea of what constitutes pleasure.
于17世纪首次出版的《新英格兰启蒙读本》承诺给小读者们提供带插图的字母表、“令人愉悦的阅读指导”——以及相当模糊的关于愉悦的概念。（注：模糊的愉悦概念表示这本书根本不令人愉悦。）
From its syllabic spelling guides (three-syllable words offered “Ho-li-ness” and “God-li-ness”), to its illustrated alphabet (“y” glumly informed readers that “No Youth we see / From death is free”), the tone was sober--though it did brighten for some three- and four-syllable words (“Drunk-en-ness” and “For-ni-ca-tion”).
从这本书的音节拼写指导（三音节的单词示例是“神圣性”和“虔诚性”），到插图字母表（字母Y阴沉地告诉读者“没有哪个年轻人/能逃过死亡的阴影”），语气都是很严肃的——虽然也有一些稍微活泼点的三音节和四音节单词（“醉酒”和“私通”）。
By comparison, the arrival of the Grimms--with their slaughter, torture and violent animal deaths (a wolf drowns, a hare dies an agonising death)--was almost larky.
与这本书相比，格林兄弟的到来——还有他们带来的屠杀、酷刑和暴力的动物死亡（一只狼淹死了，一只野兔痛苦地死去）——几乎可以说是轻松嬉闹的。
Though, as Ms Schmiesing points out, their stories were not really intended for children.
不过，正如施米辛指出的，格林兄弟的故事其实不是为儿童写的。
The Grimms were linguists, not novelists; their aim was preservation, not entertainment.
格林兄弟是语言学家，不是小说家，他们的目的是保存故事，而不是娱乐。
Industrialisation had started to creep through the ancient forests of Germany, destroying habitats, species and stories as it went.
工业化已经开始蔓延到德国的古老森林中，破坏了栖息地、物种和故事。
Narrative naturalists, they wanted to pluck Germany’s native species of story from its fields and press them between the pages of their anthology before such tales went extinct.
作为叙事自然主义者，格林兄弟想从德国的田野中采撷本土故事品种，在这些故事灭绝之前，将它们压在故事集的书页之间（注：比喻制成标本）。
The aim might have been scholarly, but the result was an unexpected children’s bestseller.
这种目的可能是学术性的，但结果却是一本出人意料的儿童畅销书。
Not everyone approved: early readers complained about the darkness.
不是每个人都赞成这种做法：早期的读者抱怨这些故事太黑暗。
Even the very structure of these stories was gloomy: the famous “happily ever after” ending alternated with the glummer “And if they haven’t died, they’re still alive.”
甚至连这些故事的结构都很阴郁：著名的“从此幸福地生活在一起”的结局与更阴郁的“如果他们没有死，那么他们就还活着”的结局交替出现。
The Grimms responded briskly: take the nasty bits away from children’s books and you may as well “blindfold” youngsters so they cannot see at all.
格林兄弟对此做出了犀利的回应：如果把儿童读物中的邪恶部分删除，那还不如直接“蒙住孩子们的眼睛”，让他们什么都看不见。
A look at the bestseller chart shows that books that sell sweetness do well.
看一下畅销书排行榜就会发现，贩卖甜蜜的书籍表现出色。
One ever-popular title is “Guess How Much I Love You” (1994), in which Little Nutbrown Hare spends his days trying to tell Big Nutbrown Hare how much he loves him and does not, alas, experience an agonising death.
有一本经久不衰的童书叫《猜猜我有多爱你》（1994），在这个故事里，小兔子一整天都在告诉大兔子自己有多爱他，而且可惜的是，小兔子并没有经历痛苦的死亡。
The bestselling book in America in a recent ten-year period was not Shakespeare or even Dan Brown but Dr Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”.
最近十年里，美国最畅销的书不是莎士比亚的作品，甚至也不是丹·布朗的作品，而是苏斯博士的《你要去的地方》。（注：丹·布朗的代表作是《达芬奇密码》，苏斯博士是童书作者。）
Silly, scatological tomes, such as “The Fart that Changed the World”, are also in vogue.
傻里傻气、关于粪便的大部头书籍（比如《改变世界的屁》）也很流行。
Children’s literature has never been just for children: adults happily read “Harry Potter” and Philip Pullman.
儿童文学从来就不仅仅是给儿童读的：成年人也很乐意读《哈利·波特》和菲利普·普尔曼的作品。（注：菲利普·普尔曼的代表作是《黑暗物质三部曲》）
All good children’s writers know that they are “writing for a double audience”, says Cressida Cowell, a former children’s laureate in Britain and the author of the “How to Train Your Dragon” series.
英国前桂冠儿童作家、《驯龙高手》系列的作者克蕾西达·考威尔说，所有优秀的儿童作家都知道自己是“为双重受众而写作”。
There is the child being read to and the adult doing the reading: “The very best children’s books…work on both levels.”
有正在听大人读书的孩子，也有正在读书的大人：“最优秀的儿童读物……能吸引这两个群体。”
Fashions in children’s literature tend to have great “swerves” says Mr Leith, followed by “massive over-compensation”.
利思说，儿童文学的潮流往往有很大的“转变”，随后是“大规模的过度补偿”。
After a recent testy period, tensions have calmed a little: attempts to censor books fell in America from January through August 2023.
在经历了最近一段紧张时期之后，紧张局势已经有所缓和：2023年1月至8月，美国审查书籍的行为有所减少。
Penguin, after noisy complaints, reinstated the fizzwiggling parts of Dahl.
企鹅出版社在一片抱怨声中恢复了达尔作品中“尖嘴毒舌”的部分。
Children’s books are certainly not as dark as they were in the Grimms’ time (incest sells less well these days), nor do they need to be.
儿童读物当然不像格林兄弟时代那样黑暗（如今乱伦题材的书没那么好卖了），也不需要那么黑暗。
But perhaps more parents will crave books for their children that better balance dark and light, happily ever afters with big bad wolves.
但也许更多家长会渴望为孩子们找到一些能更好地平衡黑暗与光明、幸福结局与邪恶大灰狼的书籍。
