評論
打印
The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in the other professions.
寫作用紙的廉價當然就是女性先于其他行業(yè)而首先能夠以寫作為職業(yè)的原因。
But to tell you my story—it is a simple one. You have only got to figure to yourselves a girl in a bedroom with a pen in her hand. She had only to move that pen from left to right from ten o'clock to one. Then it occurred to her to do what is simple and cheap enough after all—to slip a few of those pages into an envelope, fix a penny stamp in the corner, and drop the envelope into the red box at the corner. It was thus that I became a journalist; and my effort was rewarded on the first day of the following month—a very glorious day it was for me—by a letter from an editor containing a cheque for one pound ten shillings and sixpence.
但是我要告訴大家我的故事。很簡單。你們只需自己想象一下，一個女孩兒在臥室里手里握著一支筆，她需要左右地移動它，從十點寫到一點。然后她就想到了一件很簡單，而且不用花很多錢的事：選出一些紙放到信封里，在一個角上貼上一便士郵票，把信封投到街角的紅箱子里。我就是這樣成為一個撰稿人的。下個月的第一天，我的努力得到了回報。那對我來說是快樂的一天，因為編輯寄來一封信，里面有一張一英鎊十先令六便士的支票。
But to show you how little I deserve to be called a professional woman, how little I know of the struggles and difficulties of such lives, I have to admit that instead of spending that sum upon bread and butter, rent, shoes and stockings, or butcher's bills, I went out and bought a cat—a beautiful cat, a Persian cat, which very soon involved me in bitter disputes with my neighbours.
但是我要告訴你們，我不配被稱作一個職業(yè)女性，也不知道生活中的掙扎與困苦，因為我得承認，我并沒有拿這筆錢買食物、付房租、買鞋襪和肉，而是出去買了一只貓，一只漂亮的波斯貓，它使我在不久后與鄰居發(fā)生嚴重糾紛。
What could be easier than to write articles and to buy Persian cats with the profits? But wait a moment. Articles have to be about something. Mine, I seem to remember, was about a novel by a famous man. And while I was writing this review, I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom.
有什么能比寫文章并用其報酬來買波斯貓更容易的事呢？但是，請等一下。文章要有內容。我記得那篇文章評論了一位男性名人的一部小說。寫這篇評論時，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，如果我想寫書評，我需要與某個鬼影抗爭。
