评论
打印
This essay on a famous man, whose name is not revealed until almost the end of the piece, is a study of monstrous conceit. Filled with biographical details that keep the reader guessing to the last moment, the essay concludes with a challenging view on the nature of genius: If a genius was so prolific, "is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man?"
这篇关于一位名人的文章探讨了骇人听闻的自负，但几乎直到结尾才道出他的姓名。文中写满关于此人的生平细节，让读者一直猜到最后一刻。文章在结尾提出了关于天才本质的具有挑战性的观点：如果一位天才如此多产，"时间不允许他像常人一样生活，这有什么好奇怪的呢？"
The Monster
怪杰
Deems Taylor
迪姆斯·泰勒
He was an undersized little man, with a head too big for his body—a sickly little man.His nerves were bad. He had skin trouble. It was agony for him to wear anything next to his skin coarser than silk. And he had delusions of grandeur.
他五短身材，头倒挺大，与他的身躯极不相称——是个一副病态的矮子。他神经脆弱，患有皮肤病。贴身穿戴若比丝绸稍稍粗糙一点，便会使他痛苦不堪。他还有夸大妄想的毛病。
He was a monster of conceit. Never for one minute did he look at the world or at people,except in relation to himself. He was not only the most important person in the world, to himself; in his own eyes he was the only person who existed. He believed himself to be one of the greatest dramatists in the world, one of the greatest thinkers, and one of the greatest composers. To hear him talk, he was Shakespeare, and Beethoven, and Plato, rolled into one. And you would have had no difficulty in hearing him talk. He was one of the mostexhausting conversationalists that ever lived. An evening with him was an evening spent in listening to a monologue. Sometimes he was brilliant; sometimes he was maddeningly tiresome. But whether he was being brilliant or dull, he had one sole topic of conversation: himself. What he thought and what he did.
他是个十分自负的怪物。他从来不屑对世界或世人瞧上一眼，除非事情与己有关。他不但自以为是天下头号重要人物，而且在他眼里唯有他一人生活在世间。他确信自己是世上最伟大的戏剧家之一，最伟大的思想家之一，最伟大的作曲家之一。听他侃侃而谈，他便是莎士比亚、贝多芬、柏拉图，集三人于一身。听他谈话其实并无难处，他是世上论事不厌其详的健谈者之一。同他度过一个夜晚，就是听他独自滔滔不绝讲一个夜晚。有时他妙语连珠，有时却令人厌烦不已，但不管是妙趣横生，还是枯燥乏味，他只有一个话题：他自己。总是讲自己想些什么，干些什么。
