評論
打印
In my college reading I have become somewhat familiar with French and German literature. The German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature. There is a vehement, sledge-hammer vigour about everything that he does. When he speaks, it is not to impress others, but because his heart would burst if he did not find an outlet for the thoughts that burn in his soul.
在上大學期間，我比較熟悉的是法語和德語的文學作品。德國人總是使美好的事物凸顯某種力量，使傳統(tǒng)習俗蘊涵某種真理，這種民族性格在他們的生活和文學作品中隨處可見。不妨說，在他們所做的每一件事情中，大都具有某種澎湃而個性鮮明的激情。當他們說話的時候，你并不覺得有何感人之處，這是因為，如果他們沒有為靈魂深處灼熱沸騰的思想尋找到一個出路，那么，他們的心就會爆裂。所以，他們不會輕易地使自己滅亡。
Then, too, there is in German literature a fine reserve which I like; but its chief glory is the recognition I find in it of the redeeming potency of woman's self-sacrificing love. This thought pervades all German literature and is mystically expressed in Goethe's "Faust": All things transitory But as symbols are sent. Earth's insufficiency Here grows to event. The indescribable Here it is done. The Woman Soul leads us upward and on!
我很喜歡德國文學作品中的豐富內(nèi)涵，而最令我推崇備至的，就是作品中對于女性自我犧牲精神的昭示和不遺余力的贊頌。可以說，這種思想遍及所有的德國文學作品，而對其神秘性最為深刻的闡釋當屬歌德的《浮士德》：萬物皆短暫，唯其意象綿綿不絕。塵世間人心不古，事端頻生充滿了大地。亂世難以言說，所行皆不義。唯女人之性靈引領我們邁向天際！
Of all the French writers that I have read, I like Moliere and Racine best. There are fine things in Balzac and passages in Merimee which strike one like a keen blast of sea air. Alfred de Musset is impossible! I admire Victor Hugo—I appreciate his genius, his brilliancy, his romanticism; though he is not one of my literary passions. But Hugo and Goethe and Schiller and all great poets of all great nations are interpreters of eternal things, and my spirit reverently follows them into the regions where Beauty and Truth and Goodness are one.
在我所讀過的所有法國作家的作品當中，我最喜愛莫里哀和拉辛的（戲劇）著作。而巴爾扎克的鴻篇巨制和梅里美筆下的精彩段落就像一股強勁的海風，令人的精神為之一振。阿爾弗萊德·繆塞絕不可能有這樣的感召力！我很推崇維克多·雨果——我欣賞他的創(chuàng)作才能，他的睿智，他的浪漫主義精神。雖然他并不是激發(fā)我的文學熱情的啟蒙者，但是雨果、歌德和席勒，以及所有偉大民族中的所有偉大詩人，他們都是永恒價值的闡釋者，而且，我的心靈就會無比虔誠地追隨他們進入真、善、美的世界。
