Symbols and Signs
by Vladimir Nabokov
弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫
▌阅读时长：10 分钟
▌内容简介
Nabokov's prose is no doubt poetic, and his language enjoyably playful. Whether you've already read Lolita or Pale Fire, or are hesitating to pick them up, this short story about a delusional boy, his family, and his peers' attempt to buy him a birthday present, is sure to entertain you. 毫无疑问，纳博科夫的散文充满诗意，他的语言欢乐好玩。不管你是已经读过《洛丽塔》和《微暗的火》，还是正犹豫着要不要翻开读，这个关于妄想症男孩、他的家人及他的伙伴们打算给他买生日礼物的小故事，总能逗乐你。
▌精彩选段
The last time the boy had tried to do it, his method had been, in the doctor's words, a masterpiece of inventiveness; he would have succeeded had not an envious fellow-patient thought he was learning to fly and stopped him just in time. What he had really wanted to do was to tear a hole in his world and escape.上一次他们的儿子企图自杀，他的方法是，用医生的话说，一个创造发明的杰作；如果不是一个嫉妒的病友以为他是在学着飞——而适时阻止了他，他就成功了。其实他真正想做的只是要在他的世界里撕开一个洞好逃出去。
All this, and much more, she had accepted, for, after all, living does mean accepting the loss of one joy after another, not even joys in her case, mere possibilities of improvement.这一点，以及其他种种，她都接受了，因为终究生活意味着要接受一个接一个快乐的丧失，在她这里，甚至不是什么快乐，只是生活改善的可能性而已。
