1891年,处在写作生涯巅峰期的王尔德遇见了阿尔弗雷德·“波西”·道格拉斯(Alfred "Bosie" Douglas),两人很快成为了同性恋人。四年后,因为这段“不敢说出名字的爱”,王尔德被判“有伤风化”罪而入狱。在狱中,王尔德开始反思从前的生活,思索痛苦和人生的意义,艺术和爱的真谛,最终将那些痛苦的泪水都化作优美而深沉的文字,写成了这封名为"de profundis"(从深处)的长信。

作者简介:奥斯卡·王尔德(Oscar Wilde, 1854-1900),英国维多利亚时代著名作家,“唯美主义运动”的领军人物,倡导“为艺术而艺术”(Art for art's sake)。他的代表作有戏剧《莎乐美》(Salome)《认真的重要性》(The Importance of Being Earnest),童话《快乐王子》(The Happy Prince) 《夜莺与玫瑰》(The Nightingale and the Rose),小说《道连·格雷的画像》(The Picture of Dorian Gray),以及书信《自深深处》(De Profundis)等。

【原著选段】

The gods had given me almost everything. I had genius, a distinguished name, high social position, brilliancy, intellectual daring: I made art a philosophy, and philosophy an art: I altered the minds of men and the colours of things: there was nothing I said or did that did not make people wonder: I took the drama, the most objective form known to art, and made it as personal a mode of expression as the lyric or the sonnet, at the same time that I widened its range and enriched its characterisation: drama, novel, poem in rhyme, poem in prose, subtle or fantastic dialogue, whatever I touched I made beautiful in a new mode of beauty: to truth itself I gave what is false no less than what is true as its rightful province, and showed that the false and the true are merely forms of intellectual existence. I treated Art as the supreme reality, and life as a mere mode of fiction: I awoke the imagination of my century so that it created myth and legend around me: I summed up all systems in a phrase, and all existence in an epigram.

【朱纯深译本】

诸神几乎给了我一切。天赋、名望、地位、才华、气概。我让艺术成为一门哲学,让哲学成为一门艺术;我改变人的心灵、物的颜色;我所言所行,无不使人惊叹;戏剧,这本是最为客观的艺术形式,在我手里却成为像抒情诗和商籁诗那样抒个人情怀的表达方式,同时范围更为开阔、人物更为丰富;戏剧、小说、韵律诗、散文诗、微妙含蓄或奇妙非凡的对白,我笔之所至,无不以美的新形态展现其美;我让真实本身不但显其真,同样也显其假,亦真亦假,以此作为它天经地义的内涵,显明了无论真假,都不过是心智存在的形式。我视艺术为最高的现实,而生活不过是一个虚构的形态;我唤醒了这个世纪的想象力,它便在我身边创造神话与传奇;万象之繁,我一言可以蔽之,万物之妙, 我一语足以道破。

【读书笔记】

1、distinguished a.卓越的,杰出的;著名的;地位高的;显得高贵的
【举例】a distinguished performance 出色的表演
He is distinguished for his erudition. 他以博学而著称。
a distinguished guest 贵宾
He looks distinguished in his custom-made suit. 他穿上定制的西服显得气度不凡。
【相关词汇】
distinguish v.区分;辨认出
distinguish A from B 使A区别于B
distinguish oneself 出人头地,享有盛名 

2、alter v.改变,改动
【举例】alter one's attitude 改变态度
alter one's mind 改变主意
alter course 改道

3、enrich v.使富裕;使丰富;装饰,美化;浓缩
【举例】The expanding economy enriched the peasants. 不断发展的经济使农民们富裕起来。
Foreign words and phrases have enriched the English language. 众多外来词丰富了英语。
enrich the walls with frescoes 用壁画装饰墙壁
enriched uranium 浓缩铀

4、fiction n.小说;虚构的事;谎言
【举例】Truth is often stranger than fiction. 真相往往比小说还要离奇。
The reason he gave was pure fiction. 他给出的理由完全是杜撰。

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