An Illusion

在豆瓣上偶然看到，忍不住翻来覆去看了几遍。每次看到毛姆写的东西，都要感叹这人真是个天才。不过我要羞愧地承认，刚一来美国就兴冲冲地买的一套企鹅版毛姆，我至今看了不到半本。本来就觉着看英文累，再加上被当代英文读物的短句子短词惯坏了，看几十年以前写的英文都觉得很拗口。也许明年的resolution可以是把它们都读完，原文里的很多小东西是翻译无法体现的。毛姆的这一段用词是出奇地简单。可能是因为以前跟LJ说笑过那么多次“大毒草”的问题，这一段真令我心冒七七烟。哈哈。

An Illusion
　　　　　　
　　　　　　William S. Maugham
　　　　　　
　　　　　　It is an illusion that youth is happy, an illusion of those who have lost it; but the young know they are wretched, for they are full of the truthless ideals which have been instilled into them, and each time they come in contact with the real they are bruised and wounded. It looks as if they were victims of a conspiracy; for the books they read, ideal by the necessity of selection, and the conversation of their elders, who look back upon the past through a rosy haze of forgetfulness, prepare them for an unreal life.
　　　　　　
　　　　　　They must discover for themselves that all they have read and all they have been told are lies, lies, lies; and each discovery is another nail driven into the body on the cross of life. The strange thing is that each one who has gone through that bitter disillusionment add to it in his turn,, unconsciously, by the power within him which is stronger than himself.