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In my college reading I have become somewhat familiar with French and German literature. The German puts strength before beauty, and truth before convention, both in life and in literature. There is a vehement, sledge-hammer vigour about everything that he does. When he speaks, it is not to impress others, but because his heart would burst if he did not find an outlet for the thoughts that burn in his soul.
在上大学期间，我比较熟悉的是法语和德语的文学作品。德国人总是使美好的事物凸显某种力量，使传统习俗蕴涵某种真理，这种民族性格在他们的生活和文学作品中随处可见。不妨说，在他们所做的每一件事情中，大都具有某种澎湃而个性鲜明的激情。当他们说话的时候，你并不觉得有何感人之处，这是因为，如果他们没有为灵魂深处灼热沸腾的思想寻找到一个出路，那么，他们的心就会爆裂。所以，他们不会轻易地使自己灭亡。
Then, too, there is in German literature a fine reserve which I like; but its chief glory is the recognition I find in it of the redeeming potency of woman's self-sacrificing love. This thought pervades all German literature and is mystically expressed in Goethe's "Faust": All things transitory But as symbols are sent. Earth's insufficiency Here grows to event. The indescribable Here it is done. The Woman Soul leads us upward and on!
我很喜欢德国文学作品中的丰富内涵，而最令我推崇备至的，就是作品中对于女性自我牺牲精神的昭示和不遗余力的赞颂。可以说，这种思想遍及所有的德国文学作品，而对其神秘性最为深刻的阐释当属歌德的《浮士德》：万物皆短暂，唯其意象绵绵不绝。尘世间人心不古，事端频生充满了大地。乱世难以言说，所行皆不义。唯女人之性灵引领我们迈向天际！
Of all the French writers that I have read, I like Moliere and Racine best. There are fine things in Balzac and passages in Merimee which strike one like a keen blast of sea air. Alfred de Musset is impossible! I admire Victor Hugo—I appreciate his genius, his brilliancy, his romanticism; though he is not one of my literary passions. But Hugo and Goethe and Schiller and all great poets of all great nations are interpreters of eternal things, and my spirit reverently follows them into the regions where Beauty and Truth and Goodness are one.
在我所读过的所有法国作家的作品当中，我最喜爱莫里哀和拉辛的（戏剧）著作。而巴尔扎克的鸿篇巨制和梅里美笔下的精彩段落就像一股强劲的海风，令人的精神为之一振。阿尔弗莱德·缪塞绝不可能有这样的感召力！我很推崇维克多·雨果——我欣赏他的创作才能，他的睿智，他的浪漫主义精神。虽然他并不是激发我的文学热情的启蒙者，但是雨果、歌德和席勒，以及所有伟大民族中的所有伟大诗人，他们都是永恒价值的阐释者，而且，我的心灵就会无比虔诚地追随他们进入真、善、美的世界。
