妙译欣赏——煮字以疗飢者

Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least chance of finding in such work a permanent livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary calling tempted them by its independence and its dazzling prices. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing, until it is too late for them to do anything else——and what then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me , I say that he who encourages any young man or woman to look for his living to “literature”, commits to less than a crime.

今之男女，煮字以疗飢者多不胜数，实则得以靠此维生者万中无一。此辈中人或因别无他技而舞文弄墨，或因惯见文人一行自立门户、风光无穷而效颦操觚，不惜乞哀告怜，举债渡日，终致进退维谷，悔之晚矣，不知如何是好？区区一生命途多舛，回首前尘，深感鼓励晚辈以文谋生，简直罪过。