高级英语自考课文翻译及答案详解

工 作 Lesson Thirteen Work 究竟工作是幸福还是痛苦的源泉，这可能是一个难以回答的问题。 Whether work should be placed among the causes of happiness or among the causes of unhappiness may perhaps be regarded as a doubtful question. 毫无疑问有许多工作是非常令人厌烦的，而且过多的工作总是十分痛苦的事。 There is certainly much work which is exceedingly irksome， and an excess of work is always very painful. 然而我认为，只要不过量，对多数人来说即使是最枯燥的工作也比终日无所事事要好些。 I think， however， that， provided work is not excessive in amount， even the dullest work is to most people less painful than idleness. 工作给人的愉快的程度多种多样，从仅仅是消烦解闷到产生巨大的快乐，这会随工作的性质和工作者的能力而异。 There are in work all grades， from mere relief of tedium up to the profoundest delights， according to the nature of the work and the abilities of the worker. 大多数人不得不从事的工作本身大都无乐趣可言，但即使是这样的工作也有一些很大的好处。 Most of the work that most people have to do is not in itself interesting， but even such work has certain great advantages. 首先，工作可将一天的许多时间占满，人们不必再费神来决定应干些什么，大多数人在可以自由地按自己的愿望打发时间时，常常会不知所措，想不起有什么令人愉快的事值得去做。 To begin with， it fills a good many hours of the day without the need of deciding what one shall do. Most people， when they are left free to fill their own time according to their own choice， are at a loss to think of anything sufficiently pleasant to be worth doing. 而他们的决定又总是受到干扰，觉得干别的什么事也许会更令人愉快。 And whatever they decide on， they are troubled by the feeling that something else would have been pleasanter. 能够有意义地利用闲暇时间是文明发展到阶段的结果，而目前很少有人能达到这一层次。 To be able to fill leisure intelligently is the last product of civilization， and at present very few people have reached this level. 何况作出选择本身就是件令人厌烦的事。 Moreover the exercise of choice is in itself tiresome. 除了那些具有非凡主动性的人，其他的人肯定有人乐于被告诉一天中的每时每刻该做什么，当然命令他们做的事不能太令人厌烦。 Except to people with unusual initiative it is positively agreeable to be told what to do at each hour of the day， provided the orders are not too unpleasant. 多数无所事事的阔佬免遭从事单调乏味工作之苦，但代价是莫名其妙的无聊。 Most of the idle rich suffer unspeakable boredom as the price of their freedom from drudgery. 有时他们去非洲猎取巨兽或环绕世界飞行来解闷，但这类刺激的数量有限，尤其到了中年以后更是如此。 At times they may find relief by hunting big game in Africa， or by flying round the world， but the number of such sensations is limited， especially after youth is past. 因此较为明智的阔佬们工作起来几乎像穷人一样卖力，而有钱的女人则大多忙于她们自以为具有震撼世界般重要性的无数琐事。 Accordingly the more intelligent rich men work nearly as hard as if they were poor， while rich women for the most part keep themselves busy with innumerable trifles of whose earthshaking importance they are firmly persuaded. 因此人们愿意工作，首先因为工作可防止产生无聊感。比起终日无所事事而造成的无聊来，人们在干着虽必要但缺乏兴趣的工作时所感到的枯燥无聊就不值一提了。 Work therefore is desirable， first and foremost， as a preventive of boredom， for the boredom that a man feels when he is doing necessary though uninteresting work is as nothing in comparison with the boredom that he feels when he has nothing to do with his days. 与工作的这一好处相关的还有一个好处，那就是假日到来会令人感到更加美妙。只要一个人的工作不至于累得他体力不支，那么他就会从他的闲暇时间里得到无所事事的人绝对得不到的极大乐趣。 With this advantage of work another is associated， namely that it makes holidays much more delicious when they come. Provided a man does not have to work so hard as to impair his vigor， he is likely to find far more zest in his free time than an idle man could possibly find. 多数有报酬的工作和某些没有报酬的工作还有第二个好处，那就是它们提供了成功的机会和实现抱负的可能。 The second advantage of most paid work and of some unpaid work is that it gives chances of success and opportunities for ambition. 在多数工作中，收入的多少是衡量成功与否的标准，当我们这个资本主义社会继续存在时，这是不可避免的。 In most work success is measured by income and while our capitalistic society continues， this is inevitable. 只有在工作的情况下收入才不再被用作当然的衡量标准。 It is only where the best work is concerned that this measure ceases to be the natural one to apply. 人们想增加收入当然是出自钱多了可以获得更多的舒适享受这一愿望，但同样也出自想获得成功的愿望。 The desire that men feel to increase their income is quite as much a desire for success as for the extra comforts that a higher income can procure. 无论工作多么枯燥单调，如果它是能够使人逐渐成名的手段，无论是在世界上出名还是就在自己的圈子里出名，那么这工作就不再难以忍受了。 However dull work may be， it becomes bearable if it is a means of building up a reputation， whether in the world at large or only in one's own circle. 归根结底，幸福的最重要的因素之一是有始终如一的目的。而对多数人来说这样的目的主要来自他们的工作。 Continuity of purpose is one of the most essential ingredients of happiness in the long run， and for most men this comes chiefly through their work. 在这一点上，终日从事家务的妇女便远不如男子幸运，也没有走出家庭参加工作的妇女幸运。 In this respect those women whose lives are occupied with housework are much less fortunate than men， or than women who work outside the home. 家庭妇女没有工资，无法改善自己的状况，她所干的一切在她的丈夫看来都是理所当然的（她的丈夫对此几乎是熟视无睹），丈夫欣赏的不是她干的家务活，而是她的其他品质。 The domesticated wife does not receive wages， has no means of bettering herself， is taken for granted by her hu and （who sees practically nothing of what she does）， and is valued by him not for her housework but for quite other qualities. 当然对那些有足够的钱可以把住宅和花园搞得十分漂亮而成为邻居们的羡慕对象的女人来说，情况就不一样，但这样的女人相对来说数量较少，对于大多数妇女，家务带给她们的满足远不如其他工作带给男子或职业妇女的满足。 Of course this does not apply to those women who are sufficiently well-to-do to make beautiful houses and beautiful gardens and become the envy of their neighbors； but such women are comparatively few， and for the great majority housework cannot bring as much satisfaction as work of other kinds brings to men and to professional women. 多数工作都能使人满意地消磨掉时间，而且给人们实现抱负提供某种令人满意的途径，虽然这途径不起眼。一般说来这种满足足以使一个即使工作枯燥无味的人也比无事可做的人感到快乐。但如果从事的是有趣的工作，就能给人带来比仅仅是解闷高级得多的满足。 The satisfaction of killing time and of affording some outlet， however modest， for ambition， belongs to most work， and is sufficient to make even a man whose work is dull happier on the average than a man who has no work at all. But when work is interesting， it is capable of giving satisfaction of a far higher order than mere relief from tedium. 有兴趣的工作可以按其包含乐趣的大小顺序排列，我先谈小有乐趣的工作，最后谈那些值得伟大人物投入全部精力的工作。 The kinds of work in which there is some interest may he arranged in a hierarchy. I shall begin with those which are only mildly interesting and end with those that are worthy to absorb the whole energies of a great man. 两个使工作有趣的主要因素，一是需要运用技巧，二是有建设性。 Two chief elements make work interesting： first， the exercise of skill， and second， construction. 凡是掌握了不同寻常的技巧的人都喜欢运用这种技巧，直至他感到太平常或他再也不能提高时为止。 Every man who has acquired some unusual skill enjoys exercising it until it has become a matter of course， or until he can no longer improve himself. 这种想要自我表现的动机从幼儿时代就开始了：一个能倒立的男孩总是不想用脚站立。 This motive to activity begins in early childhood： a boy who can stand on his head becomes reluctant to stand on his feet. 许多工作同靠技艺取胜的游戏一样给人以快乐。 A great deal of work gives the same pleasure that is to be derived from games of skill. 律师或政治家的工作一定更愉快而且包含着许多和打桥牌同样的快乐。 The work of a lawyer or a politician must contain in a more delectable form a great deal of the same pleasure that is to be derived from playing bridge. 当然这里不仅运用了技巧，而且还在智力较量上胜过了一个本领高超的对手。 Here of course there is not only the exercise of skill but the outwitting of a skilled opponent. 即使在不存在竞争因素的情况下，表演高难的绝技也是件令人惬意的事情。 Even where this competitive element is absent， however， the performance of difficult feats is agreeable. 能驾驶飞机进行特技飞行的人会从中获得极大的快乐，以至为此甘愿冒生命危险。 A man who can do stunts in an aero——plane finds the pleasure so great that for the sake of it he is willing to risk his life. 我想像尽管一个能干的外科医生工作时处在令人痛苦的气氛中，他还是能从精湛的手术中得到满足。 I imagine that an able surgeon， in spite of the painful circumstances in which his work is done， derives satisfaction from the exquisite precision of his operations. 从大量层次较低的工作中也能得到同样的，只是在程度上没有那么强烈的快乐。 The same kind of pleasure， though in a less intense form， is to be derived from a great deal of work of a humbler kind. 只要工作中需要的技巧不是一成不变的，或存在着不断提高的余地，那么一切需要熟练技巧的工作都会是令人愉快的。 All skilled work can be pleasurable， provided the skill required is either variable or capable of indefinite improvement. 但如不具备上述两个条件，在人们掌握的技巧达到顶峰以后，这种工作便不再有兴趣了。 If these conditions are absent， it will cease to be interesting when a man has acquired his maximum skill. 一个从事3英里长跑的运动员到了不能再打破自己纪录的年龄以后，就不会再从这个职业中获得乐趣。 A man who runs three-mile races will cease to find pleasure in this occupation when he passes the age at which he can beat his own previous record. 幸而有相当数量的工作随新的情况出现而需要新的技巧，人们可以不断提高自己的技巧，至少可以一直继续到中年以后。 Fortunately there is a very considerable amount of work in which new circumstances call for new skill and a man can go on improving， at any rate until he has reached middle age. 从事某些技巧性工作的人，比如从政的人，似乎在60岁到70岁之间才达到颠峰状态，原因是在这些职业中，丰富的阅历至关重要。 In some kinds of skilled work， such as politics， for example， it seems that men are at their best between sixty and seventy， the reason being that in such occupations a wide experience of other men is essential. 因此有成就的政治家在70岁时往往会比其他同龄人幸福。 For this reason successful politicians are apt to be happier at the age of seventy than any other men of equal age. 在这一点上惟一能与他们相比的是大公司的首脑人物。 Their only competitors in this respect are the men who are the heads of big businesses. 然而的工作还具有另一因素，作为幸福的源泉它比运用技巧更为重要，这便是建设性。 There is， however， another element possessed by the best work， which is even more important as a source of happiness than is the exercise of skill. This is the element of constructiveness. 有些工作在完成后，结果会像纪念碑一样存在下去，尽管并非多数工作都能如此。 In some work， though by no means in most， something is built up which remains as a monument when the work is completed. 我们可以用下列标准区分是建设还是破坏。 We may distinguish construction from destruction by the following criterion. 如果是建设，则初始阶段事物较为缺少章法，而到最后阶段则体现出某个目标来；如为破坏，则正好相反，初始阶段体现出某个目标，而最后阶段则是缺少章法，也就是说，破坏者惟一的目的是制造出一个不具备某一目标的状态来。 In construction the initial state of affairs is comparatively haphazard， while the final stale of affairs embodies a purpose. In destruction the reverse is the case； the initial stale of affairs embodies a purpose， while the final state of affairs is haphazard， that is to say， all that is intended by the destroyer is to produce a state of affairs which does not embody a certain purpose. 适用这一标准的体最明显的一个例子，就是建造和拆除房屋。 This criterion applies in the most literal and obvious case， namely the construction and destruction of buildings. 在建造房屋时，预先制定好的方案得到实施，而在拆除房屋时没有人明确规定拆毁后残砖烂瓦应如何处置。 In constructing a building a previously made plan is carried out， whereas in destroying it no one decides exactly how the materials are to lie when the demolition is completed. 当然破坏常常是随之而来的建设的必要前提，在这种情况下它便成了整个建设的一部分。 Destruction is of course necessary very often as a preliminary to subsequent construction， in that case it is part of a whole which is constructive. 但有时一个人从事的活动旨在破坏而不是考虑此后可能进行的建设活动，他常常会标榜自己是为了重新建设而扫平一切，但一般说来如果这是个借口，只要问他随后的建设是什么样就会揭穿他。人们会发现在这一问题上他会含糊其词，毫无热情，但对于作为准备工作的破坏他却津津乐道，谈得十分具体。 But not infrequently a man will engage in activities of which the purpose is destructive without regard to any construction that may come after. Frequently he will conceal this from himself by the belief that he is only sweeping sway in order to build afresh， but it is generally possible to unmask this pretense， when it is a pretense， by asking him what the subsequent construction is to he. On this subject it will be found that he will speak vaguely and without enthusiasm， whereas on the preliminary destruction he has spoken precisely and with zest. 不少的革命者、尚武分子及其他暴力的信徒们就是如此。 This applies to not a few revolutionaries and militarists and other apostles of violence. 他们为仇恨所驱使，但自己往往还没意识到这一点……他们的真正目的是毁灭他们所仇恨的事物，相对来说对随后应做什么的问题并不关心。 They are actuated， usually without their own knowledge， by hatred： the destruction of what they hate is their real purpose， and they are comparatively indifferent to the question what is to come after it. 我无法否认从事破坏性工作和从事建设性工作一样也可能有快乐。 Now I cannot deny that in the work of destruction as in the work of construction there may be joy. 这是一种更为狂暴的快乐，也许有时更为强烈，但却不能给人以那种更深的满足，因为从它的结果中几乎找不到什么满足。 It is a fiercer joy， perhaps at moments more intense， but it is less profoundly satisfying， since the result is one in which little satisfaction is to be found. 你杀死了敌人，他死了你的职业就不存在了，你从胜利中得来的满足很快就消失了。 You kill your enemy， and when he is dead your occupation is gone， and the satisfaction that you derive from victory quickly fades. 从另一方面来说，建设性的工作在完成后一回想起来就令人愉快，而且这种永远也不会做到再也无事可做的地步。 The work of construction， on the other hand， when completed， is delightful to contemplate， and moreover is never so fully completed that there is nothing further to do about it. 最令人满意的目标是那些能永远从一个成功通向另一个成功而从不会走进死胡同的目标，在这个方面人们会发现建设比破坏更能带给人幸福。 The most satisfactory purposes are those that lead on indefinitely from one success to another without ever coming to a dead end； and in this respect it will be found that construction is a greater source of happiness than destruction. 也许更准确的说法应该是，在建设中寻求满足的人得到的满足要比热衷破坏建设的人从破坏中得到的满足更大，因为你一旦变得满腔仇恨，就很难从建设中得到别的人从中得到的乐趣。 Perhaps it would be more correct to say that those who find satisfaction in construction find in it greater satisfaction than the lovers of destruction can find in destruction， for if once you have become filled with hate you will not easily derive from construction the pleasure which another man would derive from it.

我为什么写作 Lesson 12： Why I Write 从很小的时候，大概五、六岁，我知道长大以后将成为一个作家。 From a very early age， perhaps the age of five or six， I knew that when I grew up I should be a writer. 从15到24岁的这段时间里，我试图打消这个念头，可总觉得这样做是在戕害我的天性，认为我迟早会坐下来伏案著书。 Between the ages of about seventeen and twenty-four I tried to adandon this idea， but I did so with the consciousness that I was outraging my true nature and that sooner or later I should have to settle down and write books. 三个孩子中，我是老二。老大和老三与我相隔五岁。8岁以前，我很少见到我爸爸。由于这个以及其他一些缘故，我的性格有些孤僻。我的举止言谈逐渐变得很不讨人喜欢，这使我在上学期间几乎没有什么朋友。 I was the middle child of three， but there was a gap of five years on either side， and I barely saw my father before I was eight- For this and other reasons I was somewhat lonely， and I soon developed disagreeable mannerisms which made me unpopular throughout my schooldays. 我像一般孤僻的孩子一样，喜欢凭空编造各种故事，和想像的人谈话。我觉得，从一开始，我的文学志向就与一种孤独寂寞、被人冷落的感觉联系在一起。我知道我有驾驭语言的才能和直面令人不快的现实的能力。这一切似乎造就了一个私人的天地，在此天地中我能挽回我在日常生活中的不得意。 I had the lonely child's habit of making up stories and holding conversations with imaginary persons， and I think from the very start my literary ambitions were mixed up with the feeling of being isolated and undervalued. 我知道我有驾驭语言的才能和直面令人不快的现实的能力。这一切似乎造就了一个私人的天地，在此天地中我能挽回我在日常生活中的不得意。 I knew that I had a facility with words and a power of facing unpleasant facts， and I felt that this created a sort of private world in which I could get my own back for my failure 还是一个小孩子的时候，我就总爱把自己想像成惊险传奇中的主人公，例如罗宾汉。但不久，我的故事不再是粗糙简单的自我欣赏了。它开始趋向描写我的行动和我所见所闻的人和事。 。 . As a very small child I used to imagine that I was， say， Robin Hood， and picture myself as the hero of thrilling adventures， but quite soon my “story” ceased to be narcissistic in a crude way and became more and more a mere description of what I was doing and the things I saw. 一连几分钟，我脑子里常会有类似这样的描述：“他推开门，走进屋，一缕黄昏的阳光，透过薄纱窗帘，斜照在桌上。桌上有一个火柴盒，半开着，在墨水瓶旁边，他右手插在兜里，朝窗户走去。街心处一只龟甲猫正在追逐着一片败叶。”等等，等等。 For minutes at a time this kind of thing would be running through my head： “He pushed the door open and entered the room. A yellow beam of sunlight， filtering through the muslin curtains， slanted on to the table， where a matchbox， half open， lay beside the inkpot. With his right hand in his pocket he moved across to the window. Down in the street a tortoiseshell cat was chasing a dead leaf，” etc.， etc. 我在差不多25岁真正从事文学创作之前，一直保持着这种描述习惯。虽然我必须搜寻，而且也的确在寻觅恰如其分的字眼。可这种描述似乎是不由自主的，是迫于一种外界的压力。 This habit continued till I was about twenty-five， right through my non-literary years. Although I had to search， and did search， for the right words， I seemed to be making this descriptive effort almost against my will， under a kind of compulsion from outside. 我在不同时期崇仰风格各异的作家。我想，从这些“故事”一定能看出这些作家的文笔风格的痕迹。但是我记得，这些描述又总是一样地细致入微，纤毫毕现。 The “story” must， I suppose， have reflected the styles of the various writers I admired at different ages， but so far as I remember it always had the same meticulous descriptive quality. 16岁那年，我突然发现词语本身即词的音响和词的连缀就能给人以愉悦。《失乐园》中有这样一段诗行： 他负载着困难和辛劳 挺进着：负着困难辛劳的他—— When I was about sixteen I suddenly discovered the joy of mere words， i， e. the sounds and associations of words. The lines from Paradise Lost — “So hee with difficulty and labour hard Moved on： with difficulty and labour hee，“ 现在看来这并没有什么了不得，可当时却使我心灵震颤。而用hee的拼写代替he，更增加了愉悦。 which do not now seem to me so very wonderful， sent shivers down my backbone； and the spelling “hee” for “he” was an added pleasure. 至于写景物的必要，我那时已深有领悟。如果说当时我有志著书的话，我会写什么样的书是显而易见的。 As for the need to describe things， I knew all about it already. So it is clear what kind of books I wanted to write， in so far as I could be said to want to write books at that time. 我想写大部头的自然主义小说，以悲剧结局，充满细致的描写和惊人的比喻，而且不乏文才斐然的段落，字词的使用部分要求其音响效果。 I wanted to write enormous naturalistic novels with unhappy endings， full of detailed descriptions and arresting similes， and also full of purple passages in which words were used partly for the sake of their sound. 事实上，我的第一部小说，《缅甸岁月》就属于这一类书，那是我早已构思但30岁时才写成的作品。 And in fact my first completed novel， Burmese Days， which I wrote when I was thirty but projected much earlier， is rather that kind of book. 我介绍这些背景情况是因为我认为要判定一个作家的写作动机，就得对其早年的经历有所了解。 I give all this background information because I do not think one can assess a writer's motives without knowing something of his early development. 作家的题材总是由他所处的时代决定的，至少在我们这个动荡不安的时代是如此。但他在提笔著文之前，总会养成一种在后来的创作中永远不能彻底磨灭的情感倾向 His subject matter will be determined by the age he lives in —at least this is true in tumultuous， revolutionary ages like our own—but before he ever begins to write he will have acquired an emotional attitude from which he will never completely escape. 毫无疑问，作家有责任控制自己的禀性，使之不至于沉溺于那种幼稚的阶段，或陷于违反常理的心境中。但如果他从早年的熏染和志趣中脱胎换骨，他就会虐杀自己的写作热情。 It is his job， no doubt， to discipline his temperament and avoid getting stuck at some immature stage， or in some perverse mood： but if he escapes from his early influences altogether， he will have killed his impulse to write. 除去以写作为谋生之计不谈，我认为写作有四种动机，至少小说和散文写作是如此。 Putting aside the need to earn a living， I think there are four great motives for writing， at any rate for writing prose. 这四种动机或多或少地存在于每个作家身上，在某一个作家身上，它们会因时代的不同和生活环境的不同而变化。它们是： They exist in different degrees in every writer， and in any one writer the proportions will vary from time to time， according to the atmosphere in which he is living. They are： 一、纯粹的自我主义。想显示自己的聪明；想成为人们的议论中心；想身后留名；想报复那些小时候压制、指责过自己的成年人等等。不承认这是动机，是一种强烈的动机，完全是自欺欺人。 （1） Sheer egoism. Desire to seem clever， to be talked about， to be remembered after death， to get your own back on grown-ups who snubbed you in childhood， etc. ， etc. It is humbug to pretend that this is not a motive， and a strong one. . . 二、对美的狂热。能感觉身外世界的美，或者词语及其妙语连珠的美。对一个读音作用于另一个读音的音响效果，对充实缜密的行文或一篇小说的结构，感到乐趣无穷，赏心悦目。有心与人们分享一种认为有价值、不应忽略的经历。 （2） Aesthetic enthusiasm. Perception of beauty in the external world， or， on the other hand， in words and their right arrangement. Pleasure in the impact of one sound on another， in the firmness of good prose or the rhythm of a good story. Desire to share an experience which one feels is valuable and ought not to be missed… 三、历史感。有志按事物的原貌来观察理解事物；有心寻找确凿的事实，收集储存以飨后人。 （3） Historical impulse. Desire to see things， as they are， to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity. 四、政治上的目的。这里指的是最广泛意义的政治：有志推动世界向某个方向前进；改造人们的观念，劝勉人们追求某种理想社会。就像美感因素一样，没有一本书能真正消除政治倾向。那种认为艺术与政治不相干的论点本身就是一种政治态度。 （4） Political purpose —using the word “political” in the widest possible sense. Desire to push the world in a certain direction， to ater other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after. Once again， no book is genuinely free from political bias. The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude. 可以看出，这些不同的动机会互相抵触，会因人因时发生变化。 It can be seen how these various impulses must war against one another， and how they must fluctuate from person to person and from time to time. 由于我的天性——“天性”这里指刚成年时的状态，在我身上前三种动机远远超过第四种。 By nature —taking your “nature” to be the state you have attained when you are first adult—I am a person in whom the first three motives would outweigh the fourth. 在和平年代，我或许会写些词藻华美或专写事物写景的书，几乎意识不到我政治上的取舍。 In a peaceful age！ might have written ornate or merely descriptive books， and might have remained almost unaware of my political loyalties. 可结果我却不得不成了一个写小册子的作家。 As it is I have been forced into becoming a sort of pamphleteer. 最初，我在一个很不合适的职业中度过了5年，那是在缅甸的印度帝国警察署。随后，我经历了贫困，体会到穷困窘迫是何滋味。这使我对权势的本能的嫉妒变得更强烈，我开始意识到劳动阶级的存在，缅甸的职业使我对帝国主义的本质有所了解，但这一切并不足以赋予我明确的政治倾向。 First I spent five years in an unsuitable profession （the Indian Imperial Police， in Burma）， and then I underwent poverty and the sense of failure. This increased my natural hatred of authority and made me for the firs t time fully aware of the existence of the working classes， and the job in Burma had given me some understanding of the nature of imperialism； but these experiences were not enough to give me an accurate political orientation. 接着*出现了，西班牙战争爆发了，各种事件频频发生。 Then came Hitler， the Spanish Civil War， etc. 到1935年底，我仍没有能决定何去何从。西班牙内战以及1936至1937年之间的其他事件扭转了这种状况，从此我认准了我的立场。 By the end of 1935 I had still failed to reach a firm decision. The Spanish war and other events in 1936 - 1937 turned the scale and thereafter I know where I stood. 1936年以来，我的严肃作品中的每一行都是为间接或直接地反对极权主义，拥护我所理解的民主社会主义而写的。 Every line of serious work that I have written since 1936 has been written， directly or indirectly， against totalitarianism and for democratic socialism， as I understand it. 认为在我们这样的年代，作家可以回避这种题材，在我看来是无稽之谈。 It seems to me nonsense， in a period like our own， to think that one can avoid writing of such subjects. 每个人都以这样那样的方式写这个题材。 Everyone writes of them in one guise or another. 这其实就是站在哪一边，取什么态度的问题。 It is simply a question of which side one takes and what approach one follows. 一个人越是意识到自己的政治态度，他越是有可能按政治行事而又不牺牲自己在美感和心智方面的追求。 And the more one is conscious of one's political bias， the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one's aesthetic and intellectual integrity. 在过去的十年中，我的愿望是把政治色彩的写作变成艺术创造。 What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art. 我的出发点总是一种党派意识，一种对非正义的敏感。 My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship， a sense of injustice. 我坐下来写书时，不会自语道：“现在我要创造一个艺术作品了。” When I sit down to write a book I do not say to myself， “I am going to produce a work of art. ” 写作是为了揭发某种谎言，为了让人们重视某些事实。我的初衷总是向读者披露心声，赢得听众。 I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose， some fact to which I want to draw attention， and my initial concern is to get a hearing. 然而，写作必须同时又是一种美感经验。否则，我就无法完成著书的工作，甚至连一篇长篇的报刊文章都写不成。 But I could not do the work of writing a book， or even a long magazine article， if it were not also an aesthetic experience. 任何一位有心细读我的作品的读者都会发现，即使作品是直截了当的宣传鼓励，也包含着许多职业政客视为节外生枝的点缀。 Anyone who cares to examine my work will see that even when it is downright propaganda it contains much that a full-time politician would consider irrelevant. 我不能，也不愿意完全放弃我在童年时养成的世界观。 I am not able， and I do not want， completely to abandon the world-view that I acquired in childhood. 只要我还活着，我仍会继续讲究文笔风格，热爱大地的山川胜景，对琐细的物品和无用的传闻感到欣悦。 So long as I remain alive and well I shall continue to feel strongly about prose style， to love the surface of the earth， and to take a pleasure in solid objects and scraps of useless information. 要抑制我这方面的本能是无济于事的。我的任务是把个人根深蒂固的好恶与时代强加于我们大家的政治活动协调起来。 It is no use trying to suppress that side of myself. The job is to reconcile my ingrained likes and dislikes with the essentially public， non-individual activities that this age forces on all of us. 这并不容易。这会产生构思及语言的问题。而真实性也以新的方式出现了疑问。 It is not easy. It raises problems of construction and of language， and it raises in a new way the problem of truthfulness. . . 这个问题以各种各样的形态出现。 In one form or another this problem comes up again. 语言则是个更微妙的问题，得花费很大的工夫讨论。 The problem of language is subtler and would take too long to discuss. 这里我只能说，近几年来，我竭力减少生动形象的描写，尽量写得更谨严简练。 I will only say that of late years I have tried to write less picturesquely and more exactly. 我发现一位作家一旦使某种文笔风格臻于完善，他也就已经超越了这种风格。 In any case I find that by the time you have perfected any style of writing， you have always outgrown it. 《动物庄园》一书便是我在有意识有计划地把政治目的和艺术追求结合为一体的尝试。 Animal Farm was the first book in which I tried， with full consciousness of what I was doing， to fuse political purpose and artistic purpose into one whole. 我已经7年没写小说了，但我希望不久能写一部。 I have not written a novel for seven years， but I hope to write another fairly soon. 这部小说注定会成败笔，每次完成的作品都觉得处处是败笔，但我清楚地知道我要写什么样的书。 It is bound to be a failure， every book is a failure， but I do know with some clarity what kind of book I want to write. 写作是一场可怕的劳心伤神的斗争，犹如一场恶病长时间发作。 …Writing a book is a horrible， exhausting struggle， like a long bout of some painful illness. 要不是被一种既不可抗拒又不可理喻的鬼怪驱使，没人愿意从事写作。 One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. 这种魔怪不外乎是婴儿嚎啕以引起人注意的本能。 For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. 但话又说回来，作家若不能努力隐去自己的个性，他便写不出什么值得一读的东西。 And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. 好文章是一块透亮的窗玻璃。 Good prose is like a window pane. 我不能肯定地说我的哪一种动机，但我知道哪一个目标我必须遵循。 I cannot say with certainty which of my motives are the strongest， but I know which of them deserve to be followed. 回顾我的创作，我发现，什么时候缺乏政治目的，什么时候我就会写出毫无生气的书，就会坠入华而不实的篇章，写出毫无意义的句子，卖弄矫饰的形容词和堆砌一大堆空话废话。 And looking back through my work， I see that it is invariably where I lacked a political purpose that I wrote lifeless books and was betrayed into purple passages， sentences without meaninmeaning， decorative adjectives and humbug generally.