月亮与六便士-节选5


"Strickland: The Man and His Work, " by his son, Robert Strickland. Wm. Heinemann, 1913.

《C.S,生平与作品》,画家的儿子R·S撰写,1913年海因曼出版。

This was described in Christie's catalogue as follows: "A nude woman, a native of the Society Islands, is lying on the ground beside a brook. Behind is a tropical Landscape with palm-trees, bananas, etc. 60 in. x 48 in. "

根据克利斯蒂藏画目录的描述,这幅画的内容是:一个裸体女人,社会岛的土著人,躺在一条小溪边的草地上,背景是棕榈树、芭蕉等热带风景。60英寸×48英寸。

Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz belongs to that school of historians which believes that human nature is not only about as bad as it can be, but a great deal worse; and certainly the reader is safer of entertainment in their hands than in those of the writers who take a malicious pleasure in representing the great figures of romance as patterns of the domestic virtues. 

W.R博士隶属的这一历史学派不只相信“人之初,性本恶”,并且更恶劣的是人性的卑劣是远远超过人们的想象的;用不着说,比起那些把富有浪漫色彩的人物写成伪君子的使人扫兴的作家来,这一派的著作肯定能够给予读者更大的乐趣。

For my part, I should be sorry to think that there was nothing between Anthony and Cleopatra but an economic situation; and it will require a great deal more evidence than is ever likely to be available, thank God, to persuade me that Tiberius was as blameless a monarch as King George V. Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz has dealt in such terms with the Rev. Robert Strickland's innocent biography that it is difficult to avoid feeling a certain sympathy for the unlucky parson. His decent reticence is branded as hypocrisy, his circumlocutions are roundly called lies, and his silence is vilified as treachery.

对于我来说,如果把安东尼和克莉奥佩特拉的关系只写作经济联盟,我是会觉得非常遗憾的;要想劝说我让我把泰伯利欧斯看作是同英王乔治五世同样的一位毫无瑕疵的君主,也需要远比手头掌握的多得多的证据。W.R博士在评论CS牧师那部天真的传记时所用的词句,读起来很难叫人对这位不幸的牧师不感到同情。

凡是这位牧师为了维持自己的面子不便于说明的地方都被攻击为虚伪,凡是他涛涛而谈的章节则率直地被叫作谎言,作者对某些事情保持沉默则干脆被W.R称之为背叛。

 And on the strength of peccadillos, reprehensible in an author, but excusable in a son, the Anglo-Saxon race is accused of prudishness, humbug, pretentiousness, deceit, cunning, and bad cooking. 

作品中的这些缺陷,从一个传记作家的角度来看,固然应该受到指责,但作为传记主人公的儿子倒也情有可原;倒霉的是,竟连A.S民族也被牵连,被批评为假正经、仗势欺人、目中无人、狡猾欺心,只会烹调难吃的菜肴。

Personally I think it was rash of Mr. Strickland, in refuting the account which had gained belief of a certain "unpleasantness" between his father and mother, to state that Charles Strickland in a letter written from Paris had described her as "an excellent woman, " since Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz was able to print the letter in facsimile, and it appears that the passage referred to ran in fact as follows: God damn my wife. She is an excellent woman. I wish she was in hell. It is not thus that the Church in its great days dealt with evidence that was unwelcome.

讲到我个人的意见,我认为C.S牧师在反驳外界深入人心的一种传述——关于他父母之间某些“不愉快”的事件时,实在不够慎重。他在传记里引证C.S从巴黎写的一封家信,说父亲称呼妻子为“了不起的女人”,而W.R却把原信复制出来;原来C.S牧师信件里是这样写的的:“叫上帝惩罚我的妻子吧!这个女人太了不起了,我真希望叫她下地狱。”在教会势力鼎盛的日子,它们并不是用这种方法对待不受欢迎的事实的。

Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz was an enthusiastic admirer of Charles Strickland, and there was no danger that he would whitewash him. He had an unerring eye for the despicable motive in actions that had all the appearance of innocence.

W.R博士是C.S的一位热心的崇拜者,如果他想为c.s涂脂抹粉本来是不会有什么危险的。但他的目光敏锐,一眼就望穿了隐含在一些天真无邪的行为下的卑鄙的动机。

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