翻译天堂  2016-08-23

彬彬有礼的面具

You never really know anybody--until you have either lived with them, travelled with them, or drunk a glass of port with them quietly over the fireside. In almost every other instance, what you become acquainted with is one of a variety of masks! And everyone has a fine assortment of these, haven’t they? For the most part you don them unconsciously—or rather, you have got so used to assuming them suddenly that you have lost all consciousness of effort. But they are masks, nevertheless—and a mask always hides the truth, doesn’t it?

除非是一起生活过，一起旅游过，或在炉边一起静静地喝过一杯葡萄酒，否则对任何人你都谈不上真正了解。在几乎所有别的场合，你熟识的不过是许多面具中的一副而已，而每个人都有一整套各式各样的面具，不是吗？通常情形下你不知不觉地戴上了它们，或者不如说它们召之即来，连想都不用想。但面具毕竟是面具，它总是掩藏起真相，是不是？

Not that I am one of those, however, who dislike camouflage because it is camouflage. In fact, most of the time I thank Heaven for it—my own and other people’s! The “assumed” is so often so much more agreeable than the natural, and nine times out of ten all you require of men and women is that they should at least look pleasant. You’ve got to get through this life day after day somehow, and time passes ever so much quicker for everyone if the hypocrite be a smiling hypocrite at all times. At every moment of the everyday--preserve me from the—sour—visaged saint.

这倒不是说我属于那种人：就因为它是伪装所以就讨厌它。事实上，大多时候我都为自己和别人能拥有感到万幸。“雕饰“的东西总是比天然的更惬人意，十之八九，你对男人和女人的全部要求，不过是他们至少应当看着舒服。人这一生日子总得一天一天地过，如果一个伪君子永远都是一个笑容满面的伪君子，对每个人来说日子都要好过得多。哪怕是一分一秒，我都不想面对一位愁眉苦脸的圣人。

After all, only love and friendship and the law demand the truth and nothing but the truth. Among acquaintances, among all the many thousands you meet through life only to discuss the weather and your own influenza symptoms—all you ask of them is that they should bring out their smiling mask as readily as you struggle to assume your own.

毕竟，只有爱情、友谊和法律才需要真相，并且是彻彻底底的真相。对于泛泛之交，对于所有那些只是与对方谈谈天气和自己的流感症状的人——这样的人一辈子不知要结识多少——你所有的要求，只是他们应当像你尽力去做的那样，心甘情愿地戴上他们微笑的面具。

Only, as I said before, in love and friendship and the courts of law is the mask an insult, a tragic disillusion and a sham. In every other circumstance it is usually a blessing. Without it society, as a social entertainment, would become impossible. For society is but a collection of men and women wearing masks, each one vying with the others to make his mask the most attractive, and, at the same time, the most concealing. But the worst of wearing masks is, that we become tired at last of holding them in front of our features.

前面已经说过，只有在恋爱中、友谊里和法庭上，面具才成为一种侮辱，才导致不幸的幻灭感，才构成欺诈。在任何其他情形下，有了它往往倒是一种幸事。没有它，作为一个娱乐群体的社会将成为不可能。因为社会不过是戴着面具的男男女女的一个集合体，每个人都竞相把自己的面具打造得最有吸引力，同时又最为隐蔽。然而最糟糕的是，我们脸前的面具终有举得疲乏的时候。

This makes the entertainment of watching the truth peering through the camouflage one of the most amusing among the many unpremeditated amusements of the social world. After all, as I said before, so long as your lover and your friend, and the witnesses you have subpoenaed on behalf of your own case, show you—truth all you ask of the others is the most agreeable mask they can put on for the occasion. But even lovers and friends may deceive you, while some witnesses’ idea of the truth in the law courts hasn’t that semblance of reality possessed by the Medium’s description of life in the world beyond. That is what makes matrimony often such a gamble with loaded dice, and holidays so often more tedious than work. To be in the company of one’s lover for one ecstatic hour tells one nothing of what he will be when, day after day, one has to live with him in deadly intimacy until death doth part us both.

于是观赏伪装后面若隐若现的真实面目，就成为社交领域许多不期而遇的赏心乐事中最为有趣的一项。如前所述，归根结底，只要你的爱人、朋友，还有你为自己的案子而传唤的证人对你诚实不欺，那么旁人只要适时戴上他们最讨人喜欢的面具你就别无所求。但即便是爱人和朋友也可能欺骗你，而有些证人在法庭上对于真相的理解，又与事实毫不相关。这就是为什么婚姻常常成为一种使用灌铅骰子的赌博，假期往往比工作还要单调乏味。与爱人共同度过一个小时心醉神迷的时光，并不能证明将来——待到你日复一日不得不与他朝夕相处，直到死亡把彼此分开——他会是什么样子。

Neither do you really know how much, or how little, your friend means to you, until you have been with her on a cold railway station for hours, when fate has done its best to make you both lose your tempers and your luggage. Only a very—real love can survive smiling through that period when, from almost maudlin appreciation, a husband gradually sinks into the commonplace mood of taking his soul’s mate “for granted.” Only—real friendship can live through the disillusionment of irritable temper, lack of imagination, and boredom so often revealed while travelling in the company of friends. More than half the mutual life of lovers and friends is spent behind masks--for masks are sometimes necessary to keep love and friendship great and true.

同样，你无法真正了解你的朋友在你心目中的分量有多重，或有多轻，直到你与她在一个寒冷的火车站上一同等了好几个小时，偏又霉运当头，让你们既丧失了耐心，又丢失了行李。一位丈夫对他的爱侣，从近乎伤感的激赏渐渐变成熟视无睹，这个过程中，只有一个十分真诚的爱人还能抱有她的笑容。乱发脾气、缺乏想象力，还有共同旅行时常易流露出的疲倦，这一切引起的失望，只有真正的友谊才能承受。与爱人和朋友在一起的岁月，有大半是在面具后面度过的，为了保持爱与友谊的伟大与真诚，面具有时是必要的。

But one must, nevertheless, know—something of the real man and woman—behind the mask—even though that which lies behind it may prove disappointing--before you can prove that your love is—real love, that your friendship is—real friendship, that you love your lover or your friend, not only for what they are, but also in spite of what they are—not.

然而尽管如此，你必须对面具后面那个真实的男人和女人有几分了解，即使掩藏起来的东西可能确实令人失望；这以后你才可以证明你的爱是真正的爱，你的友谊是真正的友谊，你爱你的爱人和朋友不仅仅因为他们是其所是，也因为你并不在意他们非其所是。