《GGAD通信集- Thirty-five Owls》忆绛珠

17、The Sixteen Owl (From AD) 1957.

　　May 17th, 1957

　　公元1957年，五月17日

　　Gellert,

　　盖勒特，

　　I'm afraid he's a little out of the infantile Dark Lord stage. We may be into skulking and temperamental early adolescence, a phase of Dark development I know well from my time with you. Unfortunately he has no friend to spend that troubled time with, and I have stretched this hapless metaphor to its snapping point.

　　我怕他已是有点离了早期黑魔王的阶段了。他可能正处于潜伏而喜怒无常的青春期早期，处于我在与你共度的时光里所熟知的黑暗成长阶段。不幸的是他没有朋友能与他共度这混乱的时光，我已把这个倒霉的比喻延伸过分，使其处于一触即崩的状态。

　　As for the choice you mention— it weighs on me heavily, yes. My Pensieve has been invaluable. And— at times my heart proves difficult to untangle as well.

　　至于你提及的选择——是的，它在将我压垮。我的冥想盆是无价的。但——有时我的心证明即便有它，记忆亦是难以理顺的。

　　Once can think almost endlessly on that question, that of Muggles. Though they've answered some of your wonders themselves— the further you look into, Muggle artistic criticism, the more you realize that there are valid criteria for judging creative output beyond its practical-magical usefulness. I'm enclosing a text that's been particularly helpful with that, if also dry. One thing I've found particularly difficult to realize, as a wizard, that to a Muggle a life of the mind does, in fact, entail losing any ability to affect reality directly. Yet, for that, it is often surprising how many of them choose such a life, and those who don't, who choose professions of battle and labor where they can change physical reality through their own natural means, are generally considered to be a second class. I'd heard it proposed that they're unconsciously mimicking wizarding society. I think perhaps the cause and effect there is off.

　　那个关于麻瓜们的问题的思考几乎从来是永无止境的。虽说他们自己已对你的一些讶异做出了解答——你对麻瓜艺术评判研究的愈深入，你对他们除去务实的魔法用处外对创造性作品的评判的合理标准，就会了解的愈多。我正随信装入一篇文章，如果它到了你那仍是干的话，会对你研究这一点大有裨益。作为一名巫师，我发现了一件极其难解的事——一名过着精神生活的麻瓜在现实中却必须失去任何直接改变它的能力。但为此，令人惊奇的是他们中如此多的选择了这样一种生活，而另一些则反之，他们选择了一种在拼搏与劳动中用自己天然的方式改变物质现实的职业，通常被认做第二阶级。我听过一种理论说他们在无意识地模仿着巫师社会。我想这其间的因果关系许不大准确。

　　But, I beg your pardon, I ramble. This topic has been my pet hobby as of late. And, as you've pointed out, I have a Dark Lord to attend to.

　　但，我恳请你原谅我的闲扯。谈论这个主题是我近来很喜欢的业余爱好，且，如你所指，我可有个黑魔王要对付。

　　[enclosure: Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism]

　　[附件：诺斯罗普·弗莱，《批评的剖析》]

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译者注：
《批评的剖析》这本书还没有费心去弄，大概是文学评论之流，唉，对这类书本来也没多少兴趣(除了看《石头记》的评点)，据说跟通信极瓜葛也不大就不多加赘述了（也许这样还更好毕竟我猜你们看我的废话烦都烦死了）