The Moon and Sixpence 摘录 - 我承认这种生活的社会价值，但是我的血液里却涌动着狂烈的欲望

一

这些人的显赫一时，主要归功于他们所处的位置，而不是他们本人；其地位或环境一旦发生变化，他们的伟大也就褪色了。

I do not speak of that greatness which is achieved by the fortunate politician or the successful soldier; that is a quality which belongs to the place he occupies rather than to the man; and a change of circumstances reduces it to very discreet proportions.

艺术中最令人感兴趣的东西是艺术家的个性

To my mind the most interesting thing in art is the personality of the artist; and if that is singular, I am willing to excuse a thousand faults.

对神话的向往是人类的天性。它会贪婪地抓住名人生涯中任何隐秘的或是令人惊诧的事件，编造出一个神话，并对其几乎是疯狂地相信。

The faculty for myth is innate in the human race. It seizes with activity upon any incidents, surprising or mysterious, in the career of those who have at all distinguished themselves from their fellows, and invents a legend to which it then attaches a fanatical belief.

二

为了净化灵魂，人们应该每天做两件他不喜欢的事... 在我的性格里还有一点儿苦行主义的成分

I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul’s good to do each day two things they disliked... But there is in my nature a strain of asceticism.

一本书要想从这茫茫书海中脱颖而出，不知道会有多难？即便成功了，这些书籍的热销也只能持续一段时间，或是一个时期。天晓得，作家为写出一本书付出了多少的心血，会经历怎样的痛苦，会是怎样的绞尽了脑汁，而为的只是给某个偶尔看到这本书的人几个小时的消遣，或是使他的旅程不至于太过难熬。

What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? And the successful books are but the successes of a season. Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance a reader a few hour’s relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. 作者应该是从他写作的乐趣中间，从他的思想和情感的宣泄中，去寻求报偿；对于其他的一切，都不要太去在意，不要在乎人们的赞扬或是诋毁，作品的成功或是失败。

The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thoughts; and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success. 有时候，一个活了大岁数的人，会从他享有一定位置的那个时代或者进入到一个他陌生的时代，此时，好奇的人们便会看到人间喜剧中的最为奇特的一幕。

Sometimes a man survives a considerable time from an era in which he had his place into one which is strange to him, and then the curious are offered one of the most singular spectacles in the human comedy. 在我看来，他们知道得太多，感觉得却过于肤浅；我不能忍受他们拍我肩膀时的那股亲热劲和扑到我怀里时的那种情感；他们的热情似乎缺点血性，他们的梦想有点乏味。

To my mind they know too much and feel too obviously; I cannot stomach the heartiness with which they slap me on the back or the emotion with which they hurl themselves on my bosom; their passion seems to me a little anaemic and their dreams a trifle dull.

三

我对她们总要戴着手套吃黄油吐司的怪毛病常常感到十分好笑，在她们认为没有人看的时候，就把手指上的黄油擦在她们的椅子上，那副坦然的神情令我钦佩。

I never ceased to be fascinated by their persistence in eating buttered toast with their gloves on, and I observed with admiration the unconcern with which they wiped their fingers on their chair when they thought no one was looking.

四

“为什么可爱的女人总是嫁给呆板乏味的男人呢？” “因为有头脑的男人是不娶讨人喜欢的女人的。”

"Why do nice women marry dull men?" "Because intelligent men won't marry nice women."

五

体贴同情本来是种迷人的本领，可却常常被那些知道自己有这一才能的人滥用了。他们一看到朋友有什么不幸，便会贪婪地扑上去，施展出他们全部的本领，这也太可怕了。他们的同情心像钻井里的石油一样喷发出来，任其肆意地喷溅，有时候会使得倾诉者非常的尴尬。

Mrs Strickland had the gift of sympathy. It is a charming faculty, but one often abused by those who are conscious of its possession: for there is something ghoulish in the avidity with which they will pounce upon the misfortune of their friends so that they may exercise their dexterity. It gushes forth like an oil well, and the sympathetic pour out their sympathy with an abandon that is sometimes embarrassing to their victims.

六

参加这样的聚会，你不由得会去想，这位女主人为什么劳神要把这些客人请来，这些客人为什么又会不嫌麻烦地赶来赴宴。那天一共来了十个人。他们见面时淡漠如路人，分手时又如释重负。当然啦，这是社会上应遵循的礼尚往来。思特里克兰德夫妇在人家家里吃了饭，“欠下”许多人情，对这些人这夫妇俩本没有交结的兴趣，可为了还人情，也得回请人家，于是这些人也就应邀来了。

It was the kind of party which makes you wonder why the hostess has troubled to bid their guests, and why the guests have troubled to come. There were ten people. They met with indifference, and would part with relief. It was, of course, a purely social function. The Stricklands “owed” dinners to a number of persons, whom they took no interest in, and so had asked them; these persons had accepted.

一个人可能会赞赏他的种种品德，却不愿去和他接近。他或许是一个值得你尊重的社会成员，一个好丈夫，好父亲，一个诚实的经纪人；可你却没有必要浪费时间去和他相处。

One would admire his excellent qualities, but avoid his company. He was dull. He was probably a worthy member of society, a good husband and father, and honest broker; but there was no reason to waste one’s time over him.

(社会角色与个人)

七

我总觉得大多数人以这样的一种生活方式度过一生，好像欠缺了点什么。我承认这种生活的社会价值。我从中看到了有序，平静和幸福，但是我的血液里却涌动着狂烈的欲望，要走一条不受羁缚的道路。

I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognized its social value. I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights. In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously.

(一针见血地指出，这只是社会价值)

八

他们站在那里，像是刺绣在一个古旧挂毯上的人物，他们不能把自己和那个背景分离出来，如果再站远一点看，就连他们的轮廓也分辨不出来，你看到的就只是一片色彩了... 社会上有许多人，他们的生活只是社会这个有机体的一部分，他们生活在这个有机体中，也只能靠它而存活，这种人总是给人一种虚幻的感觉...他们就像是人体中的细胞，非常重要，但是，只要它们还是健康的，就被淹没在这个庞大的整体里。

As they stand they are like the figures in an old tapestry; they do not separate themselves from the background, and at a distance seem to lose their pattern, so that you have little but a pleasing piece of colour. There was just that shadowiness about them which you find in people whose lives are part of the social organism, so that they exist in it and by it only. They are like cells in the body, essential, but, so long as they remain healthy, engulfed in the momentous whole.

（多么精彩的比喻）

十一

我当时还不知道人的本性是多么的矛盾复杂；我不知道在真诚里含有多少做作，在高尚中有多少卑劣，在邪恶中又有多少的善良。

I had not yet learnt how contradictory is human nature; I did not know how much pose there is in the sincere, how much baseness in the noble, or how much goodness in the reprobate.

(想起了《我们与恶的距离》)

十二

有生动想象力的人可能会在这些过往行人中发现不少庸俗罗曼司中的人物。这里面有小职员和女售货员；有好像是从巴尔扎克作品中走出来的老古董式的人物；有利用人性的弱点来挣钱糊口的一些行当里的男男女女。

A lively fancy might see in the passers-by the personages of many a sordid romance. There were clerks and shopgirls; old fellows who might have stepped out of the pages of Honore de Balzac; members; male and female, of the professions which make their profit of the frailties of mankind.

十三

我认为是搅动他灵魂的那一内心图景使他对外面的景物都视而不见。

Looking back, I think now that he was blind to everything but to some disturbing vision in his soul.

十四

如果说他是忍受不了这一呆板乏味的生活，从而决心要成为一名画家以挣脱烦闷的枷锁，这是可以理解，也是极其平常，合乎人之常情的；但是，我觉得普通平常恰恰不是思特里克兰德的本性。

I tried to persuade myself that an obscure feeling of revolt had been gradually coming to a head in his slow mind, but to challenge this was the undoubted fact that he had never shown any impatience with the monotony of his life.

当人们说他们不在乎别人对他们的看法时，多数场合下他们是在自己欺骗自己。一般而言，他们能够自行其是，只是因为他们相信没有人知道他们怪异的想法；最甚者也是因为有他的左邻右舍支持着，才敢与大多人的意见作对。如果违反传统只是你这一阶层人的常规的话，那你在世人面前做出违反常规的事倒也不难。相反，你还会为此而洋洋得意。你既标榜了自己的勇气，又不会招来什么危险。我总觉得希望得到别人的赞同是文明人类的一种根深蒂固的本能。

When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set. It affords you then an inordinate amount of self-esteem. You have the self-satisfaction of courage without the inconvenience of danger. But the desire for approbation is perhaps the most deeply seated instinct of civilized man.

对那些说他们自己根本不在乎别人的看法的人们，我是不相信的。那是一种虚张声势的夸夸其谈。他们的意思是：他们相信没有人会发现他们的瑕疵，过失，因此也就不怕人们对其进行斥责了。 然而这里却真有一个把人们对他的看法根本不放在心上的人，所以传统对他完全失去了效用；他就像一个身上涂了油的角力者，你根本抓不住他；这给予他一种你羁缚不了的自由。

I do not believe the people who tell me they do not care a row of pins for the opinions of their fellows. It is the bravado of ignorance. They mean only that they do not fear reproaches for peccadilloes which they are convinced none will discover. But here was a man who sincerely did not mind what people thought of him, and so convention had not hold on him; he was like a wrestler whose body is oiled; you could not get a grip on him; it gave him a freedom which was an outrage.

我认为良心是一个人心灵中的卫士，社会为要存在下去所制定的礼规全靠它来监督执行。它是我们心灵中的警察，立在那里监视我们不要违反了规条。它又是安插在自我中心堡垒中的暗探。人过于希望得到比人的赞同，过于害怕舆论对他的谴责，结果是自己把敌人引进了大门；于是，它就在那里监视着，高度警觉地保护着它主人的利益，把那些离群独处，标新立异的朦胧欲望扼杀在摇篮状态。它逼迫每一个人把社会利益置于个人利益之上。这就是那条将个人拘系于整体的牢固的链条。人让自己相信，许多利益都大于他自己的利益，结果变成了这个严厉主子的奴隶。

I take it that conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. It is the policeman in all our hearts, set there to watch that we do not break its laws. It is the spy seated in the central stronghold of the ego. Man’s desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that himself has brought his enemy within his gates; and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd. It will force him to place of good of society before his own. It is the very strong link that attached the individual to the whole. And man, subservient to interests he has persuaded himself are greater than his own, makes himself a slave to his taskmaster.

十九

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