双语有声阅读 | 恭维的艺术

2019-07-22 08:57:55  每日学英语
恭维

 

下面的这段文字是疯狂宅男拜读完切斯特菲尔德写给儿子菲利普.斯担赫普的书信,从中摘录下来的。从这段描写女人对于外表的感观文字,我不禁对这个老男人丰富的人生阅历、深厚的文字功底和敏锐的洞察力佩服得五体投地。

Flattery on Women 恭维女人

Women have, in general, but one object, which is their beauty; upon which scares any flattery is too gross for them to follow. Nature has hardly formed a woman ugly enough to be insensible to flattery upon her person; if her face is so shocking that she must, in some degree, be conscious of it, her figure and air, she trusts, make ample amends for it. If her figure is deformed, her face, she thinks, counterbalances it. If they are both bad, she comforts herself that she has graces, a certain manner, a je ne sais quoi, still more engaging than beauty.

至于女人们,她们大体而言只有一个话题,那就是他们的美貌;在这方面,再露骨的谄媚之辞在她们听来也不为过。大自然从来没有造就过这样一个女人:她是如此丑陋,以致对别人对其外貌的恭维话都无动于衷。假如她们的容貌非常难看,连她自己都在一定程度上意识到了这一点,那么她便会相信,自己的身材和气质定然充分地弥补了这一缺陷。假如她的身材十分糟糕,她则会认为自己的容貌之美足以抵消身材之差。假如她的容貌和身材都不好,她就会相信自己具有魅力,具有某种难以描述的、比美貌还要迷人的风度。

This truth is evident from the studied and elaborate dress of the ugliest woman in the world.

世上最丑的女人往往身着华丽考究的礼服,就充分地表明了这一点。

An undoubted, uncontested, unconscious beauty is of all women, the least sensible of flattery upon that head; she knows it is her due, and is therefore obliged to nobody for giving it her. She must be flattered upon her understanding, which though she may possibly not doubt of herself, yet she suspects that men may distrust.

在女人当中,那些的确具有绝世之姿容并深知自己貌美的女子,是对外表方面的恭维话最不敏感的;她知道这些赞美之辞是她理所应当享有的,因而不会对别人的奉承怀有任何的感激之情。但是如果人们赞美她聪明机智,她必然大为得意,因为尽管她自己或许对此并不怀疑,她却担心男人们不相信她具有这些优点。

Do not mistake me, and think that I mean to recommend to you abject and criminal flattery: no, flatter nobody's vices or crimes: on the contrary, abhor and discourage them. But there is no living in the world without a complaisant indulgence for people's weaknesses, and innocent, though ridiculous vanities. If a man has a mind to be thought wiser, and a woman handsomer, than they really are, their error is a comfortable on to themselves, and an innocent one with regard to other people; and I would rather make them my friends by indulging them in it, than my enemies by endeavoring (and that to no purpose) to undeceive them.

请不要误解,不要以为我是想让你去学那种卑躬屈膝、厚颜无耻的阿谀奉承——不是这样的。绝不可以吹捧别人的恶习或罪行,相反,对这些要深恶痛绝和尽心阻止。但世上的每个人都会因想要讨好别人而迁就他的弱点,他们都有着虽然可笑却无害的虚荣,如果一个男人想让自己显得更聪明,一个女人想让自己看上去更漂亮,他们的错误想法令他们自己觉得欣慰,而对他人来说也没有害处,我宁可宽容他们的这一错误与他们交朋友,而不愿意想方设法地揭穿真相而与他们为敌——这样做是毫无意义的。

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