He had a mania for being in the right. The slightest hint of disagreement, from anyone, onthe most trivial point, was enough to set him off on a harangue that might last for hours, in which he proved himself right in so many ways, and with such exhausting volubility, that in the end his hearer, stunned and deafened, would agree with him, for the sake of peace. It never occurred to him that he and his doing were not of the most intense and fascinating interest to anyone with whom he came in contact. He had theories about almost any subject under the sun, including vegetarianism, the drama, politics, and music; and in support of these theories he wrote pamphlets, letters, books ... thousands upon thousands of words, hundreds and hundreds of pages. He not only wrote these things, and published them—usually at somebody else's expense—but he would sit and read them aloud, for hours, to his friends, and his family.
他一味堅信自己總是正確的。任何人，在最無足輕重的問題上，哪怕露出一絲異議，也會惹得他大發議論。他也許會說上好幾小時，鼓起如簧之舌，千方百計證明自己正確無訛。聽的人弄得不知所措，到頭來為了圖個太平，也就同意他的說法了。他壓根兒沒有想到，與他有過交往的人，并不感到他這個人和他做的事最富有情趣，為之傾倒。他幾乎對世間一切問題都有自己的見解，包括素食主義、戲劇、政治以及音樂。為了證實自己的觀點，他寫了小冊子、書信、書……連篇累牘，好幾百頁。他不僅寫了這些東西，拿去出版——所需費用往往是別人支付——而且常常接連好幾小時坐著讀給朋友和家人聽。
He wrote operas, and no sooner did he have the synopsis of a story, but he would invite—or rather summon—a crowd of his friends to his house, and read it aloud to them. Not for criticism. For applause. When the complete poem was written,the friends had to come again, and hear that read aloud. Then he would publish the poem, sometimes years before themusic that went with it was written. He played the piano like a composer, in the worst sense of what that implies, and he would sit down at the piano before parties that included some of the finest pianists of his time, and play for them, by the hour, his own music, needless to say. He had a composer's voice. And he would invite eminent vocalists to his house, and sing them his operas, taking all the parts.
他寫歌劇，往往剛有了個故事梗概，就邀請——或者更確切些說召集——群友人到他家來，把梗概念給他們聽。不是請人批評指正，而是要人拍手叫好。整出戲的歌詞寫完后，朋友們得再來聽他朗誦全劇。然后他就送去發表。有時歌詞發表后好幾年，配詞的樂曲才創作出來。像一般作曲家那樣，他也彈鋼琴，可彈得糟透了。然而，盡管如此，他卻常常坐在鋼琴旁，面對包括他那個時代一些最杰出的鋼琴家在內的一群人，一小時接一小時地為他們演奏個不停。不消說，彈的都是他自己創作的音樂作品。他有一副作曲家的歌喉。他還常常把著名的聲樂家請到家里，親自演唱他的歌劇給他們聽，并且包攬所有角色。
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