唯美文章 15 论名人1

第九篇：On Meeting the Celebrated 论见名人

On Meeting the Celebrated

I have always wondered at the passion many people have to meet the celebrated. The prestige you acquire by being able to tell your friends that you know famous men proves only that you are yourself of small account. The celebrated develop a technique to deal with the persons they come across. They show the world a mask, often an impressive on, but take care to conceal their real selves. They play the part that is expected from them, and with practice learn to play it very well, but you are stupid if you think that this public performance of theirs corresponds with the man within.

I have been attached, deeply attached, to a few people; but I have been interested in men in general not for their own sakes, but for the sake of my work. I have not, as Kant enjoined, regarded each man as an end in himself, but as material that might be useful to me as a writer. I have been more concerned with the obscure than with the famous. They are more often themselves. They have had no need to create a figure to protect themselves from the world or to impress it. Their idiosyncrasies have had more chance to develop in the limited circle of their activity, and since they have never been in the public eye it has never occurred to them that they have anything to conceal.

译文：

论见名人

许多人热衷于见名人，我始终不得其解。在朋友面前吹嘘自己认识某某名人，同此而来的声望只能证明自己的微不足道。名人个个练就了一套处世高招，无论遇上谁，都能应付自如。他们给世人展现的是一副面具，常常是美好难忘的面具，但他们会小心翼翼地掩盖自己的真相。他们扮演的是大家期待的角色，演得多了，最后都能演得惟妙惟肖。如果你还以为他们在公众面前的表演就是他们的真实自我，那就你傻了。

我自己就喜欢一些人，非常喜欢他们。但我对人感兴趣一般不是因为他们自身的缘故，而是出于我工作需求。正如康德劝告的那样，我从来没有把认识某人作为目的，而是将其当作对一个作家有用的创作素材。比之名流显士，我更加关注无名小卒。他们常常显得较为自然真实，他们无须再创造另一个人物形象，用他来保护自己不受世人干扰，或者用他来感动世人。