During the journey back to England I thought much of Strickland. —
在返回英格兰的旅途中，我想起了斯特里克兰德。 —

I tried to set in order what I had to tell his wife. —
我试图整理好我要告诉他妻子的事情。 —

It was unsatisfactory, and I could not imagine that she would be content with me; —
这让人不满意，我无法想象她会对我满意； —

I was not content with myself. Strickland perplexed me. I could not understand his motives. —
我也不满意自己。斯特里克兰德让我困惑。我无法理解他的动机。 —

When I had asked him what first gave him the idea of being a painter, he was unable or unwilling to tell me. —
当我问他最初是什么让他有成为画家的想法时，他无法或不愿告诉我。 —

I could make nothing of it. I tried to persuade myself than an obscure feeling of revolt had been gradually coming to a head in his slow mind, but to challenge this was the undoubted fact that he had never shown any impatience with the monotony of his life. —
我弄不懂。我试图说服自己，认为他的迟钝思维中渐渐酝酿着一种微妙的反叛情绪，但这一观点挑战了一个无可置疑的事实，即他从未对生活的单调感到不耐烦。 —

If, seized by an intolerable boredom, he had determined to be a painter merely to break with irksome ties, it would have been comprehensible, and commonplace; —
如果，被一种无法忍受的无聊所困扰，他决定成为画家只是为了摆脱烦人的束缚，那就可以理解了，而且是司空见惯的； —

but commonplace is precisely what I felt he was not. —
但我觉得他一点也不平凡。 —

At last, because I was romantic, I devised an explanation which I acknowledged to be far-fetched, but which was the only one that in any way satisfied me. —
最后，因为我浪漫，我想出了一个解释，虽然自认为牵强，但是这是唯一让我有些满意的解释。 —

It was this: I asked myself whether there was not in his soul some deep-rooted instinct of creation, which the circumstances of his life had obscured, but which grew relentlessly, as a cancer may grow in the living tissues, till at last it took possession of his whole being and forced him irresistibly to action. —
就是这样：我自问他的灵魂中是否存在某种根深蒂固的创造本能，生活的环境虽然使其黯然无光，但这种本能却无情地生长，如同癌细胞在活体组织中蔓延，直到最终控制了他的整个存在，并迫使他不可抗拒地行动。 —

The cuckoo lays its egg in the strange bird’s nest, and when the young one is hatched it shoulders its foster-brothers out and breaks at last the nest that has sheltered it.
布谷鸟在异鸟窝中产卵，小布谷鸟孵化后挤出养父兄弟，并最终打破曾经庇护过它的巢。

But how strange it was that the creative instinct should seize upon this dull stockbroker, to his own ruin, perhaps, and to the misfortune of such as were dependent on him; —
多么奇怪，创造的本能如何会选择这个迟钝的股票经纪人，或许导致他自身毁灭，也许对依赖于他的人不利； —

and yet no stranger than the way in which the spirit of God has seized men, powerful and rich, pursuing them with stubborn vigilance till at last, conquered, they have abandoned the joy of the world and the love of women for the painful austerities of the cloister. —
但这并不比上帝的灵感如何降临在强大富有的人身上更奇怪，追随他们直至最终征服他们，让他们放弃世界的欢乐和女人的爱，转而选择苦行僧院中的痛苦禁欲。 —

Conversion may come under many shapes, and it may be brought about in many ways. —
信仰转变可能具有多种形式，可能经多种途径达成。 —

With some men it needs a cataclysm, as a stone may be broken to fragments by the fury of a torrent; —
对于一些人来说，需要一场灾难，就像石头可能被洪水的狂涌打破成碎片； —

but with some it comes gradually, as a stone may be worn away by the ceaseless fall of a drop of water. —
但对于有些人来说，这种激情是逐渐产生的，就像一块石头可能会被不断滴落的水侵蚀。 —

Strickland had the directness of the fanatic and the ferocity of the apostle.
Strickland有狂热信徒和使徒般的残酷。

But to my practical mind it remained to be seen whether the passion which obsessed him would be justified of its works. —
但对于我实际的思绪来说，他所沉迷的激情是否能证明其价值还有待观察。 —

When I asked him what his brother-students at the night classes he had attended in London thought of his painting, he answered with a grin:
当我问他在伦敦晚间课程中的同学们对他的绘画有何看法时，他笑着回答：

“They thought it a joke. “
“他们认为这是个笑话。”

“Have you begun to go to a studio here?”
“你在这里开始去画室了吗？”

“Yes. The blighter came round this morning – the master, you know; —
“是的。该家伙今天早上过来了–老师，你知道的； —

when he saw my drawing he just raised his eyebrows and walked on. “
当他看到我的画时，他只是扬了扬眉毛然后走开了。”

Strickland chuckled. He did not seem discouraged. He was independent of the opinion of his fellows.
Strickland笑了笑。他似乎并未感到气馁。他对同辈的看法毫不在意。

And it was just that which had most disconcerted me in my dealings with him. —
而这正是我在与他交往中最让我困惑的地方。 —

When people say they do not care what others think of them, for the most part they deceive themselves. —
当人们说他们不在乎别人对他们的看法时，大多数时候他们是在自欺欺人。 —

Generally they mean only that they will do as they choose, in the confidence that no one will know their vagaries; —
他们一般只是意味着他们会按照自己的选择行事，有信心没有人会知道他们的古怪之处； —

and at the utmost only that they are willing to act contrary to the opinion of the majority because they are supported by the approval of their neighbours. —
最多只是说他们愿意违背大多数人的意见，因为他们得到了邻居的赞同。 —

It is not difficult to be unconventional in the eyes of the world when your unconventionality is but the convention of your set. —
当你的不拘一格只是你所处圈子的惯例时，在世人眼中变得与众不同并不困难。 —

It affords you then an inordinate amount of self-esteem. —
这会给予你过多的自尊。 —

You have the self-satisfaction of courage without the inconvenience of danger. —
你拥有了勇气的自我满足，却没有了危险的麻烦。 —

But the desire for approbation is perhaps the most deeply seated instinct of civilised man. —
但是被赞许的渴望或许是文明人最根深蒂固的本能。 —

No one runs so hurriedly to the cover of respectability as the unconventional woman who has exposed herself to the slings and arrows of outraged propriety. —
没有人像那些暴露于公众道德愤怒箭矢之下的不拘一格的女人那样匆匆奔向体面屏障。 —

I do not believe the people who tell me they do not care a row of pins for the opinion of their fellows. —
我不相信那些告诉我他们不在乎他人看法的人。 —

It is the bravado of ignorance. They mean only that they do not fear reproaches for peccadillos which they are convinced none will discover.
这是无知者的吹嘘。他们只是表示自己并不害怕别人发现他们认为别人都不会察觉的小过失。

But here was a man who sincerely did not mind what people thought of him, and so convention had no hold on him; —
但是这里有个人真的不在乎别人对他的看法，因此传统对他没有影响； —

he was like a wrestler whose body is oiled; you could not get a grip on him; —
他就像一名身上涂滑了油的摔跤手；你无法抓住他； —

it gave him a freedom which was an outrage. —
这让他拥有了一种肆无忌惮的自由。 —

I remember saying to him:
我记得曾对他说：

“Look here, if everyone acted like you, the world couldn’t go on. “
“听着，如果每个人都像你一样行事，这个世界可就无法继续了。”

“That’s a damned silly thing to say. Everyone doesn’t want to act like me. —
“那说法真是愚蠢透顶。并不是每个人都想像我这样行事。” —

The great majority are perfectly content to do the ordinary thing. “
“绝大多数人完全满足于做点平凡事。”

And once I sought to be satirical.
有一次我试图调侃。

“You evidently don’t believe in the maxim: —
“显然你不信奉这句箴言： —

Act so that every one of your actions is capable of being made into a universal rule. “
行事应当使得每一件行为都能成为一种普世法则。”

“I never heard it before, but it’s rotten nonsense. “
“我之前从未听过这种说法，但这根本就是胡说八道。”

“Well, it was Kant who said it. “
“嗯，这是康德说的。”

“I don’t care; it’s rotten nonsense. “
“我不在乎，这根本就是胡说八道。”

Nor with such a man could you expect the appeal to conscience to be effective. —
即使对于这样一个人，你也不能期望良心的呼吁会有效。 —

You might as well ask for a reflection without a mirror. —
你可以问一个没有镜子的反射一样。 —

I take it that conscience is the guardian in the individual of the rules which the community has evolved for its own preservation. —
我认为良心是个体中社区为了自身保存进化出的规则的守护者。 —

It is the policeman in all our hearts, set there to watch that we do not break its laws. —
它是所有我们内心深处的警察，旨在监督我们不违反它的法律。 —

It is the spy seated in the central stronghold of the ego. —
它就坐在自我中央要塞的间谍。 —

Man’s desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that he himself has brought his enemy within his gates; —
人对于他同伴的认可渴望如此之强烈，他对于他们的指责如此猛烈，以至于他自己将敌人引入了自己的门中； —

and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd. —
它时刻在兴致主人摧毁任何半形成的违背群体的愿望。 —

It will force him to place the good of society before his own. —
它会强迫他把社会的利益置于个人之前。 —

It is the very strong link that attaches the individual to the whole. —
它是将个体与整体联系在一起的强有力纽带。 —

And man, subservient to interests he has persuaded himself are greater than his own, makes himself a slave to his taskmaster. —
而人，臣服于他已经说服自己是比自己更伟大的利益，使自己成为他的苛刻主人的奴隶。 —

He sits him in a seat of honour. At last, like a courtier fawning on the royal stick that is laid about his shoulders, he prides himself on the sensitiveness of his conscience. —
他坐在光荣的位置上。最后，就像一个对着他肩膀上击打的皇家权杖阿谀奉承的朝臣，他为自己的良心的敏感自豪。 —

Then he has no words hard enough for the man who does not recognise its sway; —
然后，他对于不认同它统治的人毫不客气。 —

for, a member of society now, he realises accurately enough that against him he is powerless. —
对于一个现代社会的成员来说，他准确地意识到，他是无能为力的。 —

When I saw that Strickland was really indifferent to the blame his conduct must excite, I could only draw back in horror as from a monster of hardly human shape.
当我看到斯特里克兰对于他的行为引起的指责实际上是漠不关心的时候，我只能像对待一个几乎不像人类的怪物一样退后。

The last words he said to me when I bade him good-night were:
当我给他道晚安时，他对我说的最后一句话是：

“Tell Amy it’s no good coming after me. Anyhow, I shall change my hotel, so she wouldn’t be able to find me. “
“告诉艾米不必来找我了。无论如何，我会换旅馆，所以她找不到我。”

“My own impression is that she’s well rid of you, ” I said.
“我个人觉得她摆脱了你，”我说。

“My dear fellow, I only hope you’ll be able to make her see it. But women are very unintelligent. “
“亲爱的朋友，我只希望你能让她明白。但是女人很不聪明。”