原文： Yet punctuation is something more than a culture's birthmark; it scores the music in our minds, gets our thoughts moving to the rhythm of our hearts. Punctuation is the notation in the sheet music of our words, telling us when to rest, or when to raise our voices; it acknowledges that the meaning of our discourse, as of any symphonic composition, lies not in the units but in the pauses, the pacing and the phrasing. Punctuation is the way one bats one's eyes, lowers one's voice or blushes demurely. Punctuation adjusts the tone and color and volume till the feeling comes into perfect focus: not disgust exactly, but distaste; not lust, or like, but love. Punctuation, in short, gives us the human voice, and all the meanings that lie between the words. "You aren't young, are you?" loses its innocence when it loses the question mark. Every child knows the menace of a dropped apostrophe (the parent's "Don't do that" shifting into the more slowly enunciated "Do not do that"), and every believer, the ignominy of having his faith reduced to "faith." Add an exclamation point to "To be or not to be . . . " and the gloomy Dane has all the resolve he needs; add a comma, and the noble sobriety of "God save the Queen" becomes a cry of desperation bordering on double sacrilege. （全文：http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/panaminst/article?mid=1095） 译文： 　　但，标点不仅仅是文化的胎记。它将我们脑海中的乐音写成谱，使我们的思想移转 ，合上内心的旋律。标点，是言语这张乐谱上的标记，告诉我们何时该休止、何时该升 调。如同一篇乐章，它赋予对话意义，不在於单位，而在於顿点、速度和分节。标点是眨 眼的方式，是降低音量的方式，是忸怩羞赧的方式。标点调校声调、色彩、音量，直到文 字带给人的感受毫厘不差：并非确实讨厌，而是厌恶；并非慾望或喜欢，而是爱。 　　一言以蔽之，标点在字里行间，给予了人类的声音与意涵。「你不小了，是吗？」这 句话，若缺少问号，将缺少那种单纯的疑惑之感。孩子能辨识出少了缩略符号後，语带威 胁的感觉（当父母的「别这麽做」转变成缓缓吐出的「不要这样做」时）；当「他的信仰 」省略成「信仰」後，每个信教者亦能察觉出其中羞辱的语气。「要生，或者死...」这 句话若加上惊叹号，忧郁的丹麦王子哈姆雷特便有了他所需要的决心；加上逗号，「上帝 拯救王后」这尊贵之语，就成了几近於双重亵渎的绝望哭喊。 -- 这个世界的美丽与哀愁。 --

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