胡适留学日记卷十四一一、萧伯纳之愤世语

卷十四一一、萧伯纳之愤世语

　　（八月十五日）

　　A friend of mine, a physician who had devoted himself specially to ophthalmic surgery, tested my eyesight one evening, and informed me that it was quite uninteresting to him because it was "normal". I naturally took this to mean that it was like everybody else's; but he rejected this construction as paradoxical, and hastened to explain to me that I was an exceptional and highly fortunate person optically, "normal" sight conferring the power of seeing things accurately, and being enjoyed by only about ten per cent of the population, the remaining ninety percent being abnormal. I immediately perceived the explanation of my want of success in fiction. My mind's eye, like my body's, was "normal": it saw things differently from other people's eyes, and saw them better.

　　Bernard Shaw—in Preface toPlays Pleasant and Unpleasant

　　Better see rightly on a pound a week than squint on a million.

　　——Ibid.

　　The only way for a woman to provide for herself decently is for her to be good to some man that can afford to be good to her.

　　——Shaw inMrs. Warren's Profession

　　〔中译〕

　　我有一个特别忠于其职业的眼科医生朋友。有一天晚上他对我的眼睛作了检查，告知我说，他对我的眼睛一点都不必操心了，因为它是“正常”的。我很自然地将这句话理解为我的眼就像别人的一样，但他表示反对，认为这样的理解是错误的。他马上向我解释说，在眼睛方面我是一个少见的特别幸运的人。他指出，“正常”的眼睛是指其具备敏锐地观看东西的能力，但一般只有百分之十的人拥有这样的眼睛，而其余的百分之九十的人都属于不正常。听了他的话，我立刻领悟到我在虚构小说方面之所以失败的原因了，我的心灵之眼跟我身体上的眼睛一样，是“正常”的，它以异于他人的方式观看事物，并把它们看得更好。

　　——萧伯纳《愉快与不愉快戏剧》前言

　　将一磅看上一星期比只对一百磅瞟上一眼强。

　　——萧伯纳《愉快与不愉快戏剧》前言

　　对于一个女人来说，想体面地养活自己的唯一方法就是忠实于某一个有能力忠实于她的男人。

　　——萧伯纳《华伦夫人的职业》

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