評論
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For a long time, when I wrote a letter, even to my mother, I was seized with a sudden feeling of terror, and I would spell the sentences over and over, to make sure that I had not read them in a book. Had it not been for the persistent encouragement of Miss Sullivan, I think I should have given up trying to write altogether.
有很長一段時間，即便是在給母親寫信的時候，我也會感到如臨大敵般惴惴不安。我會反反復復地拼寫句子，以確信我并沒有在某本書中讀到過這些話。如果沒有蘇立文小姐持久的鼓勵，我想我肯定無法把那些單詞組合成句。
I have read "The Frost Fairies" since, also the letters I wrote in which I used other ideas of Miss Canby's. I find in one of them, a letter to Mr. Anagnos, dated September 29, 1891, words and sentiments exactly like those of the book. At the time I was writing "The Frost King," and this letter, like many others, contains phrases which show that my mind was saturated with the story. I represent my teacher as saying to me of the golden autumn leaves, "Yes, they are beautiful enough to comfort us for the flight of summer"—an idea direct from Miss Canby's story.
事實上，那時我不但讀了《冰雪仙子》，我還在我寫的信中借用了肯拜小姐的一些觀點。我在一封信中找到了佐證，這封信是寫給阿納戈諾斯先生的，時間是1891年9月29日，信中的措辭和觀點確實很像那本書的語言。當時，我正在寫《冰雪之王》，就像我寫的很多別的信一樣，這封信中也包含了那篇故事所使用的語句。當然，這些成語都是被我融會貫通后，能夠代表我思想的詞句。比如，我是這樣描述老師所說的秋日中的金黃色的樹葉的：“是的，它們的美麗足以安撫我們對逝去夏日的眷戀之情?！薄@樣的一個觀點直接來自于肯拜小姐的故事。
This habit of assimilating what pleased me and giving it out again as my own appears in much of my early correspondence and my first attempts at writing. In a composition which I wrote about the old cities of Greece and Italy, I borrowed my glowing descriptions, with variations, from sources I have forgotten. I knew Mr. Anagnos's great love of antiquity and his enthusiastic appreciation of all beautiful sentiments about Italy and Greece. I therefore gathered from all the books I read every bit of poetry or of history that I thought would give him pleasure.
這種深受周圍事物同化的習性令我樂此不疲，我在早期通信和最初的寫作中無不透露出同化因素的影響。我曾在自己的作文中寫到了希臘和意大利的古老城市，我借用了多姿多彩的生動描述，但是我已經不記得它們的出處了。我知道阿納戈諾斯先生對古代希臘和羅馬的遺跡情有獨鐘，并且對它們所創造的古代文明推崇備至。于是，我便從我讀過的所有書本中搜集出相關的詩歌和歷史，我想這一定會令他很開心。
