10. Oliver Goldsmith 奥利弗.哥尔德斯密斯
There are few writers for whom the reader feels such personal kindness as for Oliver Goldsmith, for few have so eminently possessed the magic gift of identifying themselves with their writings. We read his character in every page and grow into familiar intimacy with him as we read. The artless benevolence that beams throughout his works; the whimsical, yet amiable views of human life and human nature; the unforced humor, blending so happily with good feeling and good sense, and singularly dashed at times with a pleasing melancholy; even the very nature of his mellow, and flowing and softly tinted style,—all seem to bespeak his moral as well as his intellectual qualities, and make us love the man at the same time that we admire the author. While the productions of writers of loftier pretension and more resounding names are suffered to molder on our shelves, those of Goldsmith are cherished and laid in our bosoms. We do not quote them with ostentation, but they mingle with our minds, sweeten our tempers, and harmonize our thoughts; they put us in good humor with ourselves and with the world, and in so doing they make us happier and better men.
像奥利弗.哥尔德斯密斯那样使读者倾心爱慕其人品的作家，实属屈指可数，因为极少作家具有他那种把自己融化于作品之中的奇才。在他作品的每一页中，我们都可看到其性格，因此在阅读过程中对他越来越了解，越来越感到亲切。在他的全部作品中，闪烁着赤诚的慈悲之心。他对人生和人性的看法虽离奇却不乏温情；他的幽默毫不勉强，揉入了美好的感情与良知理性，是那么恰如其分，有时夹杂一丝宜人的忧郁感，更是独具一格，而且他的文笔风格醇厚、流畅、色彩柔和，这一切似乎都表明了他的道德品质与智慧，使我们不仅因他是作家而钦佩他，同时还对他本人产生爱慕之情。在我们听任自命不凡的名声更大的作家的作品躺在书架上发霉的同时，哥尔德斯密斯的作品却被我们棒在怀中，视若至宝。这并不是因为我们想引用他的作品以示卖弄，而是它们已融入了我们的心灵，陶冶了我们的性情，融洽了我们的思想；它们使我们对己对人都胸怀开朗，并因而使我们更加幸福和完美。
An acquaintance with the private biography of Goldsmith lets us into the secret of his gifted pages. We there discover them to be little more than transcripts of his own heart and picturing of his fortunes. There he shows himself the same kind, artless, good-humored, excursive, sensible, whimsical, intelligent being that he appears in his writings.
知悉哥尔德斯密斯的个人身世，可以使我们得以了解他那一页接一页的天才作品的秘密。我们发现，他的作品正是他内心的表白及其个人命运的写照。他自己就是他作品中所描写的那个仁慈、质朴、幽默、散漫、明智、聪明且又充满奇思妙想的人。
Scarcely an adventure or character is given in his works that may not be traced to his own party-colored story. Many of his most ludicrous scenes and ridiculous incidents have been drawn from his own blunders and mischances, and he seems really to have been buffeted into almost every maxim imparted by him for the instruction of his reader.
在他的作品中，几乎没有一桩事件或一个人物不是取材于他本身丰富多彩的生活经历。作品中许多最滑稽的情节和最可笑的插曲都是来自于他自己做过的愚蠢事或经历的不幸遭遇。看来，他传授给读者并借以教育读者的每一句箴言，都是他在生活经历感悟中磨练出来的。 |