I mentioned before that I was in Europe. It's not the first time that I was in Europe, I was in Europe many years ago with Ernest Hemingway.
我前面提到我去过欧洲,那不是我第一次去欧洲,许多年以前,我在欧洲跟厄内斯特·海明威在一起。
Hemingway had just written his first novel, and Gertrude Stein and I read it, and we said that is was a good novel, but not a great one, and that it needed some work, but it could be a fine book.
海明威刚写完他的第一部长篇小说,葛楚德·斯坦因【1】和我读了一下,我们说那是一部好小说,但还称不上伟大,需要有所改进,但仍不失为一本好书。
And we laughed over it. Hemingway punched me in the mouth.
为此我们笑了起来,海明威照着我嘴巴就是一拳。
That winter Picasso lived on the Rue d'Barque, and he had just painted a picture of a naked dental hygienist in the middle of the Gobi Desert.
那年冬天,毕加索住在巴克街,他刚画完一幅画——戈壁沙漠中的裸体牙齿卫生师。
Gertrude Stein said it was a good picture, but not a great one, and I said it could be a fine picture.
葛楚德·斯坦因说那是一幅好画,但还称不上伟大,我说那仍不失为一幅好画。
We laughed over it and Hemingway punched me in the mouth.
为此我们笑了起来,海明威照着我嘴巴就是一拳。
I remember Francis Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald came home from their wild New Year's Eve party. It was April.
弗朗西斯·斯科特和泽尔达·菲茨杰拉德【2】从他们疯狂的新年除夕晚会回家,那是在四月份。
Scott had just written Great Expectations, and Gertrude Stein and I read it, and we said it was a good book, but there was no need to have written it, 'cause Charles Dickens had already written it.
斯科特刚写完《远大前程》【3】,葛楚德·斯坦因和我读了一下,我们说那是一本好书,但是没必要写它,因为查尔斯·狄更斯已经写过了。
We laughed over it, and Hemingway punched me in the mouth.
为此我们笑了起来,海明威照着我嘴巴就是一拳。
That winter we went to Spain to see Manolete fight, and he was looked to be eighteen, and Gertrude Stein said no, he was nineteen, but that he only looked eighteen, and I said sometimes a boy of eighteen will look nineteen, whereas other times a nineteen year old can easily look eighteen.
有年冬天我们去西班牙看马诺来特【4】斗牛,他看上去像是18岁,葛楚德·斯坦因说不,他是19岁,他只是看起来像18岁。我说有时一个18岁的男孩看起来像是19岁,而有时一个19岁的男孩很容易被看成是18岁。
That's the way it is with a true Spaniard. We laughed over that and Gertrude Stein punched me in the mouth.
真正的西班牙人就是这个样子。为此我们笑了起来,葛楚德·斯坦因照着我嘴巴就是一拳。
Good night.
晚安。