13. Characteristics of Byron 拜伦的性格
He was anxious to show you that he possessed no Shakespeare or Milton; “because,” he said, “I have been accused of borrowing from them!” He affected to doubt whether Shakespeare was so great a genius as he has been taken for, and whether fashion had not a great deal to do with it. Spenser he could not read—at least he said so. All the gusto of that most poetical of the poets went with him for nothing. I lent him a volume of the Faerie Queene, and he said he would try to like it. Next day he brought it to my study window, and said: “Here, Hunt, here is your Spenser. I cannot see anything in him;” and he seemed anxious that I should take it out of his hands, as if he was afraid of being accused of copying so poor a writer. That he saw nothing in Spenser is not likely; but I really do not think that he saw much. Spenser was too much out of the world, and he too much in it…
他急于让你知道，莎士比亚或弥尔顿的作品他一本也有，因为，他说，“竟有人指责我妙袭他们，”他假装怀疑，难道莎士比亚真是如大家公认的那样伟大的天才？那样推崇莎士比亚是否多半与时尚有关?斯宾塞的作品他读不下去—至少他这样说过。在他着来，这位“最富诗意的诗人”的巨大热情一无可取。我借给他一本《仙后》，他说他要设法喜欢它。第二天，他把书带到我书房的窗前，说，.喂，亨特，这是你的斯宾塞，我看不出他有什么名堂。他好象急于要我把书从他手里收回，仿佛害怕会受到指责，说他竟抄袭这样一个蹩脚作家。要说他看不出斯宾塞有什么名堂，那是不可能的，不过我确实相信他也不会看出多少。斯宾塞过于超脱尘世，而拜伦却太执著于现世。
He would make confessions of vanity, or some other faults, or of inaptitude for a particular species of writing, partly to sound what you thought of it, partly that while you gave him credit for the humility, you were to protest against the concession. All the perversity of his spoiled nature would then come into play; and it was in these, and similar perplexities, that the main difficulty of living with him consisted. If you made everything tell in his favor, as most people did, he was pleased with you for not differing with him; but then nothing was gained. He lumped you with the rest, and was prepared to think as little of you in the particular as he did of anyone else. If you contested a claim, or allowed him to be right in a concession, he could neither argue the point nor readily concede it. He was only mortified, and would take his revenge.
他有时承认有虚荣心，或者别的什么缺点，或者承认对某种问题不熟练、其目的有二，一则是想试探你对这点的看法， 二则你如相信他的谦虚是出于真心，就会抗辩他所承认的那种缺点不真实，于是他那任性的脾气就会充分表演。主要正是诸如此类令人困惑不解之处，才使他难以相处。如果你跟大多数人一样，同他谈话时处处迎合他，他会对你很中意，一因为你没有跟他唱反调，可是这样也就一无所获。他就对你视若等闲， 并且立意把你当作常人而不屑一顾。如果你反驳他的某项主张， 或者作为让步姑且认为他是对的，他就既不能在这一点上同你争辩，又不乐意认输。你就会耿耿于怀，总要伺机报复。
Lastly, if you behaved, like his admirers in general, in a sulky or disputatious manner, but naturally, and as if you had a right to your jest and your independence—whether to differ or admire, and apart from an eternal consideration for himself—he thought it an assumption, and would perplex you with all the airs and humors of an insulted beauty. Then nobody could rely, for a comfortable intercourse with him, either upon admissions or non-admissions, or even upon flattery itself. An immeasurable vanity kept even his adorers at a distance; like Xerxes enthroned with his millions a mile off. And if in fit of desperation he condescended to come close, and he fond, he laughed at you for thinking you were of consequence to him, if you were taken in; and hated you if you stood out, which was to think yourself of greater consequence. Neither would a knowledge of all this, if you made him conscious, have lowered his self-admiration a jot. He would have thought it the mark of a great man—a noble capriciousness—an evidence of power, which none but the Alexanders and Napoleons of the intellectual world could venture upon.
最后，如果你象他的一般崇拜者一样， 或者对他板着脸， 或者同他争论，但态度很自然，仿佛你有权开个玩笑，也有权保持独立见解—不论持不同意见或是表示钦佩，但不是永远把他看得了不起一一这时他就会认为你是个骄慢自负的人，就会象一个受到侮辱的美人似地忽儿傲慢异常，忽儿傲出百般骄纵的姿态使你不知如何是好一因此，不论是谁想间他处得融洽都不行，认错不行，不认错不行，甚至诌媚奉承也不行。这种无法估量的盛荣心使敬慕他的人都不敢接近他。一他就象波斯王泽克西斯那样，远离他的百万臣民一英里登基.要是在他无可奈何时竟曲尊与你亲近，如果你上了当，以为他少不了你，他就 作弄你，并且嘲笑你，如果你不肯上当，他就恨你，因为你自命不凡。即使你让他认识到这一切，也不会使他自我崇拜的意识降分毫。他会认为这正是一个伟人的标志—种高贵的任性，一种力量的证明，只有知识界的亚历山大和拿破仑才敢于这样。
Mr. Hazlitt had some reason to call him “a sublime coxcomb.” Who but he (or Rochester, perhaps, whom he resembled) would have thought of avoiding Shakespeare, lest he should be thought to owe him anything? And talking of Napoleon—he delighted, when he took the additional name of Noel, in consequence of his marriage with an heiress, to sign himself “N.B”, “because,” said he, “Bonaparte and I are the only public persons whose initials are the same.”
因此，赫兹利特把他称傲‘至高无上的花花公子”是不无道理的。除了他(也许还有罗彻斯特，拜伦很象他)，谁会想到要回避莎士比亚，免得被认为欠了莎士比亚的情呢？至于拿破仑一拜伦由手同一位女继承人结婚而获得一个额外的姓氏诺埃尔(Noel），因此他在签名时就乐于写成N.B，因为，他说：在名人当中，只有拿破仑（Bonaparte)和我，姓名的首字母是相同的。 |