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I was born in New York, but have lived only in pockets of it.
我出生于纽约，但生活范围只限于纽约的一些小角落，
In Paris, I lived in all parts of the city-on the Right bank and the Left,
而在巴黎，我的生活足迹却遍及全市的每一个角落--在右岸区和左岸区，
among the bourgeoisie and among les miserables, and knew all kinds of people, from pimps and prostitutes in Pigalle to Egyptian bankers in Neuilly.
在有钱的资产阶级中间和"悲惨世界"里的穷人中间。我还结识了各式各样的人物，从皮加叶区的老鸨和妓女到纳伊区的埃及银行家都接触过。
This may sound extremely unprincipled or even obscurely immoral:
这听起来可能很不正经，甚至有点不道德，
I found it healthy.
但我觉得这是正常的。
I love to talk to people, all kinds of people, and almost everyone, as I hope we still know, loves a man who loves to listen.
我喜欢与人交谈，与各种各样的人交谈，而几乎每一个人--正如我所希望人们仍然明白的-都是喜欢爱听人讲话的人。
This perpetual dealing with people very different from myself caused a shattering in me of preconceptions I scarcely knew I held.
与这些跟我自己大不相同的人的不断交往，破除了我思想上原先并没有意识到的一些偏见。
The writer is meeting in Europe people who are not American, whose sense of reality is entirely different from his own.
作者在欧洲遇见的一些人并不是美国人，他们对现实的感受同他本人的感受完全两样。
They may love or hate or admire or fear or envy this country-they see it, in any case, from another point of view, and this forces the writer to reconsider many things he had always taken for granted.
对于美国这个国家，他们或是热爱，或是憎恨，或是敬佩，或是畏惧，或是妒忌-反正他们是从另一个不同的角度来看待美国的，这就迫使作者对许多他原以为是理所当然的事情重新加以考虑。
This reassessment, which can be very painful, is also very valuable.
这个重新认识的过程是非常痛苦的，但也是很有价值的。
This freedom, like all freedom, has its dangers and its responsibilities.
这种自由，像任何一种自由一样，也带来一些危险和责任。
One day it begins to be borne in on the writer, and with great force, that he is living in Europe as an American.
总有一天，在欧洲的美国作家会意识到，而且是强烈地意识到，他是作为一个美国人居住在欧洲的。
If he were living there as a European, he would be living on a different and far less attractive continent.
倘若他是作为一个欧洲人居住在欧洲，那么，他所居住的这块大陆在他心目中的地位就会大不一样，其对他的吸引力也会大打折扣。
