瞎说什么大实话--「毒舌小王子」王尔德语录(2)
生活是太重要的事,不能认真地谈论它。
4. Thinking is the most unhealthy thing in the world, and people die of it just as they die of any other disease. Fortunately, in England at any rate, thought is not catching.
思考是世界上最不健康的事,它像别的疾病一样可以夺人性命。谢天谢地,思考不会传染——至少在英国如此。
5. There is a great deal to be said in favour of reading a novel backwards. The last page is as a rule the most interesting, and when one begins with the catastrophe or the dénouement one feels on pleasant terms of equality with the author. It is like going behind the scenes of a theatre, One is no longer taken in, and the hair-breadth escapes of the hero and the wild agonies of the heroine leave one absolutely unmoved. One knows the jealously guarded secret, and one can afford to smile at the quite unnecessary anxiety that the puppets of fiction always consider it their duty to display.
小说从尾读起的好处一言难尽。最后一页通常最有兴味,当读者从灾难或结局开始,就会感到和作者平起平坐的愉悦,好比去剧场后台探班一样。人不再沉迷于故事,男主角绝处逢生,女主角呼天抢地,都完全令人无动于衷。读者知道了精心埋藏的秘密,那么,面对小说中傀儡们义不容辞地表现出的不必要的焦灼,就大可一笑而过。
6. It is always a silly thing to give advice, but to give good advice is absolutely fatal. I hope you will never fall into that error. If you do, you will be sorry for it.