月亮和六便士 第1章(5)

　　It is due to no accident that when one of his most important works,  思特里克兰德的最重要的一幅作品

　　The Woman of Samaria, 《萨玛利亚的女人》

　　This was described in Christie's catalogue as follows：  【根据克利斯蒂藏画目录的描述，这幅画的内容是：

　　"A nude 1 woman， a native of the Society Islands， is lying on the ground beside a brook 2.  一个裸体女人，社会岛的土人，躺在一条小溪边的草地上，

　　Behind is a tropical Landscape with palm-trees， bananas， etc. 60 in. x 48 in. " 背景是棕榈树、芭蕉等热带风景。60英寸×48英寸。（作者注）】

　　When The Woman of Samaria was sold at Christie's shortly after the discussion which followed the publication of Mr. Strickland's biography,  这次拍卖正值思特里克兰德牧师的传记出版、人们议论纷纷之际，

　　it fetched POUNDS 235 less than it had done nine months before  这幅名画的价格竟比九个月以前降低了二百三十五镑；这显然不是一件偶合。

　　when it was bought by the distinguished 3 collector whose sudden death had brought it once more under the hammer.  九个月以前曾经卖给一位有名的收藏家。由于这位收藏家后来突然逝世，这幅画再度拍卖，又被克利斯蒂购去。

　　Perhaps Charles Strickland's power and riginality would scarcely have sufficed to turn the scale  只靠思特里克兰德个人的权威和独特也许无力挽回大局的

　　if the remarkable 4 mythopoeic faculty 5 of mankind had not brushed aside with impatience 6 a story which disappointed all its craving 7 for the extraordinary.  如果不是人们对神话的喜爱，叫他们对这个使他们的猎奇心大失所望的故事嗤之以鼻的话。

　　And presently Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz produced the work which finally set at rest the misgivings 8 of all lovers of art. 说也凑巧，没有过多久魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹博士的文章就问世了，艺术爱好者们的疑虑不安终于消除了。

　　Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz belongs to that school of historians which believes that human nature is not only about as bad as it can be,  魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹博士隶属的这一历史学派不只相信“人之初，性本恶”，

　　but a great deal worse;  而且认为其恶劣程度是远远超过人们的想象的；

　　and certainly the reader is safer of entertainment in their hands  这一派历史学者的著作肯定能够给予读者更大的乐趣

　　than in those of the writers who take a malicious 9 pleasure in representing the great figures of romance as patterns of the domestic virtues 10.  用不着说，比起那些把富有浪漫色彩的人物写成道貌岸然的君子的使人败兴的作家来。

　　For my part, I should be sorry to think that there was nothing between Anthony and Cleopatra but an economic situation;  对于我这样的读者，如果把安东尼和克莉奥佩特拉的关系只写作经济上的联盟，我是会觉得非常遗憾的；

　　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 11 as King George V. 要想劝说我让我把泰伯利欧斯【泰伯利欧斯·克劳迪乌斯·尼禄（公元前42—公元37），罗马皇帝】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（谢天谢地，这种证据看来很难找到）。

　　Dr. Weitbrecht-Rotholz has dealt in such terms with the Rev 12.Robert Strickland's innocent biography  魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹博士在评论罗伯特·思特里克兰德牧师那部天真的传记时所用的词句，

　　that it is difficult to avoid feeling a certain sympathy for the unlucky parson.  读起来很难叫人对这位不幸的牧师不感到同情。

　　His decent reticence 13 is branded as hypocrisy 14, his circumlocutions are roundly called lies, and his silence is vilified 15 as treachery.  凡是这位牧师为了维护体面不便畅言的地方都被攻击为虚伪，凡是他铺陈赘述的章节则率直地被叫作谎言，作者对某些事情保持缄默则干脆被魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹斥之为背叛。

　　And on the strength of peccadillos, reprehensible 16 in an author, but excusable in a son, 作品中的这些缺陷，从一个传记作家的角度来看，固然应该受到指摘，但作为传记主人公的儿子倒也情有可原；

　　the Anglo-Saxon race is accused of prudishness, humbug 17, pretentiousness 18, deceit, cunning, and bad cooking.  倒霉的是，竟连盎格鲁-萨克逊民族也连带遭了殃，被魏特布瑞希特-罗特霍尔兹博士批评为假装正经、作势吓人、自命不凡、狡猾欺心，只会烹调倒人胃口的菜饭。