評論
打印
UNIT 4 Professions for Women
女性的職業
Virginia Woolf
弗吉尼亞·伍爾夫
When your secretary invited me to come here, she told me that your Society is concerned with the employment of women and she suggested that I might tell you something about my own professional experiences. It is true I am a woman; it is true I am employed; but what professional experiences have I had?
你們的秘書邀請我來到這里時告訴我，你們的婦女服務團關注女性就職問題。她建議我講一講我自己的職業體驗。我的確是一個女人，也的確有工作，但是我又有什么職業體驗呢？
It is difficult to say. My profession is literature; and in that profession there are fewer experiences for women than in any other, with the exception of the stage—fewer, I mean, that are peculiar to women. For the road was cut many years ago—by Fanny Burney, by Aphra Behn, by Harriet Martineau, by Jane Austen, by George Eliot—many famous women, and many more unknown and forgotten, have been before me, making the path smooth, and regulating my steps.
這就很難說了。我以文學寫作為職業。對女人來說，這個職業，當然戲劇行業例外，并沒有像從事其他的職業那么特別的體驗，我是說沒有那么多女性的特別的體驗。很多年前，范妮·伯尼、阿芙拉·貝恩、哈麗雅特、馬蒂諾、簡·奧斯汀、喬治·艾略特這些著名的女性作家以及更多的不那么出名或被遺忘的作家已經打通了這條路，指引我前行。
Thus, when I came to write, there were very few material obstacles in my way. Writing was a reputable and harmless occupation. The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. No demand was made upon the family purse. For ten and sixpence one can buy paper enough to write all the plays of Shakespeare—if one has a mind that way. Pianos and models, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, masters and mistresses, are not needed by a writer.
所以，當我開始從事寫作時，已沒有什么實際的障礙！寫作是一個名聲好且沒有危害的職業。家庭的節奏不會因為寫作的沙沙聲而打亂。寫作不需要家庭開銷，如果愿意，任何人都可以花上16便士買下紙張。這些紙足夠寫出莎士比亞的戲劇全集了。鋼琴和模特，去巴黎、維也納和柏林，或者是請家庭教師——作家不需要這些！
