When so much has been written about Charles Strickland, it may seem unnecessary that I should write more. —
当提到查尔斯·斯特里克兰德时，已经有太多的文章被写了，我写更多或许显得多余。 —

A painter’s monument is his work. It is true I knew him more intimately than most: —
一位画家的纪念是他的作品。 我认识他比大多数人更亲密： —

I met him first before ever he became a painter, and I saw him not infrequently during the difficult years he spent in Paris; —
我第一次见到他时还不是画家，他在巴黎艰难度日的岁月里，我经常见到他； —

but I do not suppose I should ever have set down my recollections if the hazards of the war had not taken me to Tahiti. —
但如果战争的危害不曾把我带到塔希提，我想我不会记录下我的回忆。 —

There, as is notorious, he spent the last years of his life; —
众所周知，他在那里度过了生命的最后岁月； —

and there I came across persons who were familiar with him. —
我在那里遇到了熟悉他的人。 —

I find myself in a position to throw light on just that part of his tragic career which has remained most obscure. —
我发现自己正好能够为他那最为模糊的悲惨经历部分，提供一些启示。 —

If they who believe in Strickland’s greatness are right, the personal narratives of such as knew him in the flesh can hardly be superfluous. —
如果那些相信斯特里克兰德伟大之处的人是正确的，那些亲眼见证他的人的个人叙述几乎不可能是多余的。 —

What would we not give for the reminiscences of someone who had been as intimately acquainted with El Greco as I was with Strickland?
如果我们有人能像我了解斯特里克兰德一样熟悉格列柯，我们会为此付出什么代价？

But I seek refuge in no such excuses. I forget who it was that recommended men for their soul’s good to do each day two things they disliked: —
但我没有这样的借口。 我忘记了是谁建议为了灵魂的好，每天做两件自己不喜欢的事： —

it was a wise man, and it is a precept that I have followed scrupulously; —
那是一个智者，我一直遵循这个教训； —

for every day I have got up and I have gone to bed. —
因为每天我起床然后上床。 —

But there is in my nature a strain of asceticism, and I have subjected my flesh each week to a more severe mortification. —
但我的本性中却有一种苦行主义的倾向，所以我每周对我的肉体进行更严格的折磨。 —

I have never failed to read the Literary Supplement of The Times. It is a salutary discipline to consider the vast number of books that are written, the fair hopes with which their authors see them published, and the fate which awaits them. —
我从未没有读过《泰晤士报》的文学增刊。 想想写出来的很多书，它们的作者满怀希望地看着它们出版，接着等待着它们的命运。 —

What chance is there that any book will make its way among that multitude? —
在这么多书中，有多少的机会一个书能够脱颖而出呢？ —

And the successful books are but the successes of a season. —
而成功的书籍只是一个季节的成功。 —

Heaven knows what pains the author has been at, what bitter experiences he has endured and what heartache suffered, to give some chance reader a few hours’ relaxation or to while away the tedium of a journey. —
谁知道作者付出了多少辛劳，经历了多少痛苦，才给某个偶然的读者一点放松的时光，或者消磨一段旅途的无聊。 —

And if I may judge from the reviews, many of these books are well and carefully written; —
而根据评论来看，许多这类书都写得很好，非常用心； —

much thought has gone to their composition; —
在它们的构思中投入了很多思考； —

to some even has been given the anxious labour of a lifetime. —
甚至有些人将终身的焦虑劳动都投入其中。 —

The moral I draw is that the writer should seek his reward in the pleasure of his work and in release from the burden of his thought; —
我得出的教训是，作家应该从创作的乐趣中寻找回报，从思想负担中解脱出来； —

and, indifferent to aught else, care nothing for praise or censure, failure or success.
并对他人赞扬或批评、失败或成功都不感兴趣。

Now the war has come, bringing with it a new attitude. —
如今战争降临了，带来了一种新的态度。 —

Youth has turned to gods we of an earlier day knew not, and it is possible to see already the direction in which those who come after us will move. —
年轻人转向我们早期不了解的诸神，可以已经看出他们后来的方向。 —

The younger generation, conscious of strength and tumultuous, have done with knocking at the door; —
年轻一代自信而汹涌澎湃，不再敲门； —

they have burst in and seated themselves in our seats. The air is noisy with their shouts. —
他们闯入并坐在我们的座位上。空气中充斥着他们的吶喊声。 —

Of their elders some, by imitating the antics of youth, strive to persuade themselves that their day is not yet over; —
他们中的一些长者通过模仿青年的滑稽动作，试图说服自己，他们的时代还未结束； —

they shout with the lustiest, but the war cry sounds hollow in their mouth; —
他们和最狂热的青年一起吶喊，但战争的呼声在他们口中听起来虚假； —

they are like poor wantons attempting with pencil, paint and powder, with shrill gaiety, to recover the illusion of their spring. —
他们像贫穷的娼妇，试图用笔、颜料和粉饰，用尖叫的快乐，重新找回春天的幻境。 —

The wiser go their way with a decent grace. In their chastened smile is an indulgent mockery. —
那些更明智的人用得体的态度走自己的路。在他们收敛的微笑中是一种嘲讽的宽容。 —

They remember that they too trod down a sated generation, with just such clamor and with just such scorn, and they foresee that these brave torch-bearers will presently yield their place also. —
他们记得他们也踏着一代人的肥胖踩过，就像这样高声疾呼，就像这样蔑视，他们预见这些勇敢的火炬手也将很快让位。 —

There is no last word. The new evangel was old when Nineveh reared her greatness to the sky. —
没有最后的结语。新的福音在尼尼微拔起壮丽的天空时就已经老了。 —

These gallant words which seem so novel to those that speak them were said in accents scarcely changed a hundred times before. —
这些英勇的言辞对说这些话者似乎是如此新颖，但在以前同样的口吻中已经说过数百遍。 —

The pendulum swings backwards and forwards. —
振荡器来回摆动。 —

The circle is ever travelled anew.
圆圈不断重新旅行。

Sometimes a man survives a considerable time from an era in which he had his place into one which is strange to him, and then the curious are offered one of the most singular spectacles in the human comedy. —
有时候一个人从他曾属于的时代活到了一个对他而言陌生的时代，那时奇特的人们将看到人类喜剧中最奇特的景象之一。 —

Who now, for example, thinks of George Crabbe? —
现在，比方说，谁还会想起乔治·克拉伯？ —

He was a famous poet in his day, and the world recognised his genius with a unanimity which the greater complexity of modern life has rendered infrequent. —
他在他的时代是一位著名的诗人，世界以一种在现代生活的更大复杂性已经难以找到的一致性认可了他的天才。 —

He had learnt his craft at the school of Alexander Pope, and he wrote moral stories in rhymed couplets. —
他在亚历山大·蒲柏的学派中学习手艺，他用押韵对叙述道德故事。 —

Then came the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, and the poets sang new songs. —
然后法国大革命和拿破仑战争来了，诗人们唱起新的歌谣。 —

Mr. Crabbe continued to write moral stories in rhymed couplets. —
克拉伯先生继续用押韵对叙述道德故事。 —

I think he must have read the verse of these young men who were making so great a stir in the world, and I fancy he found it poor stuff. —
我想他一定读过正在搅动世界的这些年轻人的诗句，我想他觉得那些诗句糟糕透了。 —

Of course, much of it was. But the odes of Keats and of Wordsworth, a poem or two by Coleridge, a few more by Shelley, discovered vast realms of the spirit that none had explored before. —
当然，其中很多确实如此。但是济慈和华兹华斯的颂歌，柯勒律治的一两首诗，谢利的更多一些诗篇，发现了前所未探索的广阔精神领域。 —

Mr. Crabbe was as dead as mutton, but Mr. Crabbe continued to write moral stories in rhymed couplets. —
克拉伯先生早已不在人世，但克拉伯先生继续用押韵对叙述道德故事。 —

I have read desultorily the writings of the younger generation. —
我零零散散地读过年轻一代的作品。 —

It may be that among them a more fervid Keats, a more ethereal Shelley, has already published numbers the world will willingly remember. —
也许他们中间已经有一个更热情的济慈，一个更空灵的雪莱，他们已经发表了一些世人愿意铭记的作品。 —

I cannot tell. I admire their polish – their youth is already so accomplished that it seems absurd to speak of promise – I marvel at the felicity of their style; —
我无法确定。我欣赏他们的文采—他们的青年已经如此有成就感，以至于谈论未来的潜力似乎有些荒谬—我对他们的文风感到惊叹； —

but with all their copiousness (their vocabulary suggests that they fingered Roget’s Thesaurus in their cradles) they say nothing to me: —
但尽管他们丰富的文字表达(他们的词汇量让人觉得他们从小玩过Roget的词典)，他们对我无所谓。 —

to my mind they know too much and feel too obviously; —
在我看来，他们知识渊博，情感表露太过明显； —

I cannot stomach the heartiness with which they slap me on the back or the emotion with which they hurl themselves on my bosom; —
我无法接受他们过于热情地拍我后背，或者以激动之情扑向我怀中； —

their passion seems to me a little anaemic and their dreams a trifle dull. I do not like them. —
他们的激情在我看来有些虚弱，他们的梦想有点乏味。我不喜欢他们。 —

I am on the shelf. I will continue to write moral stories in rhymed couplets. —
我已经老了。我会继续写带有道德寓意的押韵故事。 —

But I should be thrice a fool if I did it for aught but my own entertainment.
但我若不是为自己的娱乐而写这些故事，那我就是个大傻瓜。