评论
打印
Yes?
“是吗？”
He doesn't like The Ever-Rolling Stream. He wants to call it The Chelsea Set.
“他不喜欢《潺潺的小溪》这个书名。他想改成《切尔西的名流》。”
What did you say?
“你怎么说的？”
I agreed. I do think that with a first novel one should try to keep one's publisher happy. Especially when, really, he's going to pay for our marriage, isn't he?
“我同意了。而且我也认为出版处女作的时候千万要迎合出版商。更何况咱俩结婚的钱还得要靠他呢，是吧？”
I see what you mean. Absent-mindedly he stirred his Chablis with a fork—perhaps before the engagement he had always bought champagne. The Japanese gentlemen had finished their fish and with very little English but with elaborate courtesy they were ordering from the middle-aged waitress a fresh fruit salad. The girl looked at them, and then she looked at me, but I think she saw only the future. I wanted very much to warn her against any future based on a first novel called The Chelsea Set. I was on the side of his mother. It was a humiliating thought, but I was probably about her mother's age.
“我明白你的意思了。”男孩漫不经心地用叉子搅动着沙布利酒——也许订婚前他都是买香槟的吧。日本男士们已经用完鱼肉餐，他们正向那位中年女服务员点一道鲜果沙拉，他们的英语很不流利，但他们却很有礼貌。女孩看了看他们，又向我这边看了看。但我想，她看见的只有未来。我很想去告诫她不要把未来全部寄托在叫《切尔西的名流》的处女作小说上。我同意男孩母亲的说法，这是个令人羞愧的想法，但我可能跟她母亲的年龄差不多。
I wanted to say to her: Are you certain your publisher is telling you the truth? Publishers are human. They may sometimes exaggerate the virtues of the young and the pretty. Will The Chelsea Set be read in five years? Are you prepared for the years of effort, "the long defeat of doing nothing well"? As the years pass writing will not become any easier, the daily effort will grow harder to endure, those "powers of observation" will become enfeebled; you will be judged, when you reach your forties, by performance and not by promise.
我想对她说：你能确定出版商跟你说的是实话吗？出版商是普通人，他们有时候会夸大年轻人以及相貌好的人的优点。《切尔西的名流》能流行五年吗？你准备好进行多年的努力和接受长期一事无成的打击了吗？随着时间的推移，写作并不会越来越容易，每日的努力越来越难以忍受，“观察力”也会变弱，你到四十岁时，别人会拿你的成就来评判你而不是拿你的承诺评判你。
My next novel is going to be about St Tropez.
“我的下一部小说将是关于圣特罗佩的。”
I didn't know you'd ever been there.
“我不知道你去过那里。”
I haven't. A fresh eye's terribly important. I thought we might settle down there for six months.
“我并没有去过。但我有对事物充满新鲜感的眼睛，这也很重要，我想我们应该去那里居住六个月。”
