胡適留學日記卷十四一一、蕭伯納之憤世語

卷十四一一、蕭伯納之憤世語

　　（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

　　〔中譯〕

　　我有一個特別忠於其職業的眼科醫生朋友。有一天晚上他對我的眼睛作了檢查，告知我說，他對我的眼睛一點都不必操心了，因為它是「正常」的。我很自然地將這句話理解為我的眼就像別人的一樣，但他表示反對，認為這樣的理解是錯誤的。他馬上向我解釋說，在眼睛方面我是一個少見的特別幸運的人。他指出，「正常」的眼睛是指其具備敏銳地觀看東西的能力，但一般只有百分之十的人擁有這樣的眼睛，而其餘的百分之九十的人都屬不正常。聽了他的話，我立刻領悟到我在虛構小說方面之所以失敗的原因了，我的心靈之眼跟我身體上的眼睛一樣，是「正常」的，它以異於他人的方式觀看事物，並把它們看得更好。

　　——蕭伯納《愉快與不愉快戲劇》前言

　　將一磅看上一星期比只對一百磅瞟上一眼強。

　　——蕭伯納《愉快與不愉快戲劇》前言

　　對於一個女人來說，想體面地養活自己的唯一方法就是忠實於某一個有能力忠實于她的男人。

　　——蕭伯納《華倫夫人的職業》

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