男主人公Charles Strickland,一位證券從業(yè)者,在倫敦過著富足的生活,漂亮賢惠的妻子,乖巧懂事的兒女陪伴左右。在四十歲某一天忽然忍受不了自己的生活,拋妻棄子,留下一封簡單的信,孑然一身、毫無牽掛地跑去了巴黎。
他隨身沒有什么財產(chǎn),住在巴黎最差街道上最差的旅店。為了什么?為了追求夢想—畫畫,完全從零開始,義無反顧地開始了追夢。不在乎別人怎么想、怎么看,不在乎自己是否能達到功成名就,只因為喜歡,就足夠了。
由于本身尚無名氣、人品不好以及自身的傲氣,畫的畫很難賣出去,沒有經(jīng)濟來源,身上衣裳、口中食都成問題,幸好有畫家Dirk Stroeve絲毫不在意被三番五次地冷嘲熱諷,多次熱心相助,主人公依靠救濟維持著活著。
在Charles Strickland病入膏肓的時候,Dirk Stroeve不顧妻子的強烈反對,堅持把Strickland接到自己家細心照料,Strickland才得以康復(fù)。
然而他卻恩將仇報奪走了Dirk至愛的妻子的心,且毫不珍惜,Dirk的妻子自殺身亡,Dirk家破人亡,孤身一人回到故鄉(xiāng), Strickland絲毫沒有罪惡感,認為此事與己無關(guān)。
我們的主人公繼續(xù)在追夢,到處找尋靈感,最后輾轉(zhuǎn)來到他夢想的地方,離天堂最近的地方,位于南太平洋的塔希提島。為了生活,工作兩三個月買點東西就返回叢林中畫畫,饑餓難耐,再走出叢林工作,往返于現(xiàn)實與夢想之間。
為了生活,與一位當(dāng)?shù)毓媚颰iare結(jié)婚,過了一段幸福的日子,可以衣食無憂,又可以隱居于大自然中,全心全意專注于畫畫這一件事。直到后來身患麻風(fēng)病,被當(dāng)?shù)厝烁綦x,依然堅持畫畫。
最后失明,在居住房屋墻壁畫出了這輩子最滿意的作品,完成一幅曠世之作,毫無遺憾告別人世。妻子遵從他的遺言,將這幅駭世之作焚燒殆盡。
Strickland多次將畫贈予他人,聲稱“It means nothing to you now, but it may be that one day you will be glad to have it."可見Strickland仿佛已經(jīng)預(yù)見到自己終將成名,而他并不在乎這些。生前窮困潦倒,死后流芳百世,看來也是藝術(shù)界見怪不怪的事情。
雖然不理解主人公的一些行事作風(fēng),但是他追求夢想的執(zhí)著讓人十分敬佩。看完這部小說后久久不能平靜,四十歲追求夢想都不晚,看來我還有時間??
這部小說還讓人感到些許壓抑,其一是,因為男主人公為了追求夢想,過著衣不蔽體、食不果腹的生活;其二是,因為文章所揭露的人性的自私、丑陋;其三是文章中隨處可見的對于女性一些偏激的觀點,讓人感到十分不舒服。
文章中所出現(xiàn)的一些經(jīng)典語錄,值得借鑒,摘抄下來比較喜歡的語段,待日后學(xué)習(xí)參考。
1. 成功與否?世人評價,幸福與否?冷暖自知,子非魚,又安知魚之樂?
“Is to do what you most want, to live under the conditions that please you, in peace with yourself, to make a hash of life; and is it success to be an eminent surgeon with ten thousand a year and a beautiful wife? I suppose it depends on what meaning you attach to life, the claim which you acknowledge to society, and the claim of the individual.”
2. 一顆不甘平凡的心
“I felt in such an existence, the share of the great majority, something amiss. I recognised its social values, I saw its ordered happiness, but a fever in my blood asked for a wilder course. There seemed to me something alarming in such easy delights. In my heart was a desire to live more dangerously. I was not unprepared for jagged rocks and treacherous shoals if I could only have change—change and the excitement of the unforeseen.”
3.用盡全身力氣過好平凡的一生
“The world is hard and cruel. We are here none knows why, and we go none knows whither. We must be very humble. We must see the beauty of quietness. We must go through life so inconspicuously that Fate does not notice us. And let us seek the love of simple, ignorant people. Their ignorance is better than all our knowledge. Let us be silent, content in our little corner, meek and gentle like them. That is the wisdom of life."
4.活在當(dāng)下
“I don't think of the past. The only thing that matters is the everlasting present."
(我不會去想過去的事情,我唯一在乎的是永恒的此時此刻。)
5.注孤生?No
“Each one of us is alone in the world. He is shut in a tower of brass, and can communicate with his fellows only by signs, and the signs have no common value, so that their sense is vague and uncertain. We seek pitifully to convey to others the treasures of our heart, but they have not the power to accept them, and so we go lonely, side by side but not together, unable to know our fellows and unknown by them. ”
6.天使還是惡魔?Both
“I had not yet learnt how contradictory is human nature; I did not know how much pose there is in the sincere, how much baseness in the noble, nor how much goodness in the reprobate.Now I am well aware that pettiness and grandeur, malice and charity, hatred and love, can find place side by side in the same human heart.”
(我當(dāng)時還不了解人性多么矛盾,我不知道真摯中含有多少做作,高尚中蘊藏著多少卑鄙,或者,邪惡里中有多少美德。現(xiàn)在我意識到卑鄙與偉大、惡毒與善良、仇恨與熱愛,是可以互不排斥地并存在同一顆心里的。)
7. 我們是“幸??鞓贰钡囊患胰耍?/span>
“I pictured their lives, troubled by no untoward adventure, honest, decent, and, by reason of those two upstanding, pleasant children, so obviously destined to carry on the normal traditions of their race and station, not without significance. They would grow old insensibly; they would see their son and daughter come to years of reason, marry in due course—the one a pretty girl, future mother of healthy children; the other a handsome, manly fellow, obviously a soldier; and at last, prosperous in their dignified retirement, beloved by their descendants, after a happy, not unuseful life, in the fullness of their age they would sink into the grave. That must be the story of innumerable couples, and the pattern of life it offers has a homely grace.”
(我想象著這一對夫妻的生活,不受任何災(zāi)殃禍變的干擾,誠實、體面,兩個孩子更是規(guī)矩可 愛,肯定會繼承和發(fā)揚這一家人的地位和傳統(tǒng)。在不知不覺間,他們倆的年紀越來越老,兒女卻逐漸長大成人,到了一定的年齡,就會結(jié)婚成家—這個美麗的姑娘,將來還會成為健康孩子的母親;另一個則是儀表堂堂的男子漢,顯然會成為一名軍人。最后這一對夫妻告老引退,受到子孫敬愛,過著富足、體面的晚 年,未曾虛度,直到年壽已高,才告別了人世。這一定是世間無數(shù)對夫妻的生活寫照,這種生活模式給人一種天倫之美。)
8.如何更好的了解一個男人?住一起!
“You can never tell what a man is like till you live with him.”
(直到你和一個男人住在一起,你才知道他是什么樣子。)
9.感情只為性需要?
“I don't want love. I haven't time for it. It's weakness. I am a man, and sometimes I want a woman. When I've satisfied my passion I'm ready for other things.”
10.相信愛情也???錯?赤裸裸的歧視女性!??
“Because women can do nothing except love, they've given it a ridiculous importance.They want to persuade us that it's the whole of life. It's an insignificant part. I know lust. That's normal and healthy. Love is a disease. Women are the instruments of my pleasure; I have no patience with their claim to be helpmates, partners, companions."
11.愛情與自由不可兼得?生命誠寶貴,愛情價更高;若為自由故,二者皆可拋?哪里有絕對的自由?!再次赤裸裸的歧視女性!????
“When a woman loves you she's not satisfied until she possesses your soul. Because she's weak, she has a rage for domination, and nothing less will satisfy her. She has a small mind, and she resents the abstract which she is unable to grasp. She is occupied with material things, and she is jealous of the ideal. The soul of man wanders through the uttermost regions of the universe, and she seeks to imprison it in the circle of her account-book. Do you remember my wife? I saw Blanche little by little trying all her tricks. With infinite patience she prepared to snare me and bind me. She wanted to bring me down to her level; she cared nothing for me, she only wanted me to be hers. She was willing to do everything in the world for me except the one thing I wanted: to leave me alone."
12.愛情是女人的全部,卻是男人的一小部分?看來作者要將歧視女性進行到底了!??????
“As lovers, the difference between men and women is that women can love all day long, but men only at times.”
13.追求夢想?永不嫌晚!
“But you are forty”. “That’s what made me think it was high time to begin”
(但是你已經(jīng)40了啊,所以我認為,是時候開始了。)
14.要么忙著活,要么忙著死?
“I tell you I've got to paint. I can't help myself. When a man falls into the water it doesn't matter how he swims, well or badly: he's got to get out or else he'll drown."
15.別人的看法靠邊站,Just Follow Your Hear!
“But here was a man who sincerely did not mind what people thought of him, and so convention had no hold on him.”
(這個人完全不在意別人的看法,因此傳統(tǒng)對他沒有產(chǎn)生任何約束力。)
是抬頭望明月,還是低頭撿便士?可不可以同時進行呢?望月望累了就低頭撿便士,撿便士撿無聊了再抬頭望月。好吧,我是一個世俗的人,能把藝術(shù)做到頂峰的人應(yīng)該都是純粹的人,哪能馬馬虎虎、三心二意。
有的時候,魚與熊掌是不可兼得。就像我,繼續(xù)工作的話會為沒有好好陪孩子而遺憾,全職在家又會為放棄工作技能繼續(xù)提升而遺憾。
只能好好想清楚自己最想做什么,做個選擇而已。但行好事,莫問前程,時光匆匆,只求心安。我想我做好了自己的選擇??
中秋佳節(jié)之際,不管是抬頭望月忙于追求夢想的人,還是低頭撿便士忙于生活的人,都可以暫時停下手頭的工作,抬起頭看看空中的那一輪明月,然后生活繼續(xù),夢想繼續(xù)!
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