新视野大学英语读写教程第四册第一单元A篇原文及翻译

unit1A

The Tail of Fame
Para. 1 An artist who seeks fame is like a dog chasing his own tail who, when he captures it, does not know what else to do but to continue chasing it. The cruelty of success is that it often leads those who seek such success to participate in their own destruction.
Para. 2 “Don’t quit your day job!” is advice frequently given by understandably pessimistic family members and friends to a budding artist who is trying hard to succeed. The conquest of fame is difficult at best, and many end up emotionally if not financially bankrupt. Still, impure motives such as the desire for worshipping fans and praise from peers may spur the artist on. The lure of drowning in fame’s imperial glory is not easily resisted.
Para. 3a Those who gain fame most often gain it as a result of exploiting their talent for singing, dancing, painting, or writing, etc. They develop a style that agents market aggressively to hasten popularity, and their ride on the express elevator to the top is a blur. Most would be hard-pressed to tell you how they even got there. Artists cannot remain idle, though.
Para. 3b When the performer, painter or writer becomes bored, their work begins to show a lack of continuity in its appeal and it becomes difficult to sustain the attention of the public. After their enthusiasm has dissolved, the public simply moves on to the next flavor of the month.
Para. 3c Artists who do attempt to remain current by making even minute changes to their style of writing, dancing or singing, run a significant risk of losing the audience’s favor. The public simply discounts styles other than those for which the artist has become famous.
Para. 4 Famous authors’ styles—a Tennessee Williams play or a plot by Ernest Hemingway or a poem by Robert Frost or T.S. Eliot—are easily recognizable. The same is true of painters like Monet, Renoir, or Dali and moviemakers like Hitchcock, Fellini, Spielberg, Chen Kaige or Zhang Yimou. Their distinct styles marked a significant change in form from others and gained them fame and fortune. However, they paid for it by giving up the freedom to express themselves with other styles or forms.
Para. 5 Fame’s spotlight can be hotter than a tropical jungle—a fraud is quickly exposed, and the pressure of so much attention is too much for most to endure. It takes you out of yourself: You must be what the public thinks you are, not what you really are or could be. The performer, like the politician, must often please his or her audiences by saying things he or she does not mean or fully believe.
Para. 6a One drop of fame will likely contaminate the entire well of a man’s soul, and so an artist who remains true to himself or herself is particularly amazing. You would be hard-pressed to underline many names of those who have not compromised and still succeeded in the fame game. An example, the famous Irish writer Oscar Wilde, known for his un

compromising behavior, both social and sexual, to which the public objected, paid heavily for remaining true to himself.
Para. 6b The mother of a young man Oscar was intimate with accused him at a banquet in front of his friends and fans of sexually influencing her son. Extremely angered by her remarks, he sued the young man’s mother, asserting that she had damaged his “good” name. He should have hired a better attorney, though. The judge did not second Wilde’s call to have the woman pay for damaging his name, and instead fined Wilde.
Para. 6c He ended up in jail after refusing to pay, and even worse, was permanently expelled from the wider circle of public favor. When things were at their worst, he found that no one was willing to risk his or her name in his defense. His price for remaining true to himself was to be left alone when he needed his fans the most.
Para. 7 Curiously enough, it is those who fail that reap the greatest reward: freedom! They enjoy the freedom to express themselves in unique and original ways without fear of losing the support of fans. Failed artists may find comfort in knowing that many great artists never found fame until well after they had passed away or in knowing that they did not sell out. They may justify their failure by convincing themselves their genius is too sophisticated for contemporary audiences.
Para. 8a Single-minded artists who continue their quest for fame even after failure might also like to know that failure has motivated some famous people to work even harder to succeed. Thomas Wolfe, the American novelist, had his first novel Look Homeward, Angel rejected 39 times before it was finally published. Beethoven overcame his father, who did not believe that he had any potential as a musician, to become the greatest musician in the world.
Para. 8b And Pestalozzi, the famous Swiss educator in the 19th century, failed at every job he ever had until he came upon the idea of teaching children and developing the fundamental theories to produce a new form of education. Thomas Edison was thrown out of school in the fourth grade, because he seemed to his teacher to be quite dull. Unfortunately for most people, however, failure is the end of their struggle, not the beginning.
Para. 9 I say to those who desperately seek fame and fortune: good luck. But alas, you may find that it was not what you wanted. The dog who catches his tail discovers that it is only a tail. The person who achieves success often discovers that it does more harm than good. So instead of trying so hard to achieve success, try to be happy with who you are and what you do. Try to do work that you can be proud of. Maybe you won’t be famous in your own lifetime, but you may create better art.



艺术家追求成名，如同狗自逐其尾，一旦追到手，除了继续追逐不知还能做些什么。
成功之残酷正在于它常常让那些追逐成功者自寻毁灭。
对一名正努力追求成功并刚刚崭

露头角的艺术家，其亲朋常常会建议“正经的饭碗不能丢！”他们的担心不无道理。追求出人头地，最乐观地说也困难重重，许多人到最后即使不是穷困潦倒，也是几近精神崩溃。尽管如此，希望赢得追星族追捧和同行赞扬之类的不太纯洁的动机却在激励着他们向前。享受成功的无上光荣，这种诱惑不是能轻易抵挡的。成名者之所以成名，大多是因为发挥了自己在歌唱、舞蹈、绘画或写作等方面的特长，并能形成自己的风格。为了能迅速走红，代理人会极力吹捧他们这种风格。他们青云直上的过程让人看不清楚。
他们究竟是怎么成功的，大多数人也都说不上来。尽管如此，艺术家仍然不能闲下来。
若表演者、画家或作家感到无聊，他们的作品就难以继续保持以前的吸引力，也就难以保持公众的注意力。公众的热情消磨以后，就会去追捧下一个走红的人。
有些艺术家为了不落伍，会对他们的写作、跳舞或唱歌的风格稍加变动，但这将冒极大的失宠的危险。公众对于他们藉以成名的艺术风格以外的任何形式都将不屑一顾。
知名作家的文风一眼就能看出来，如田纳西·威廉斯的戏剧、欧内斯特·海明威的情节安排、罗伯特·弗罗斯特或 T.S.艾略特的诗歌等。同样，像莫奈、雷诺阿、达利这样的画家，希区柯克、费里尼、斯皮尔伯格、陈凯歌或张艺谋这样的电影制作人也是如此。
他们鲜明独特的艺术风格标志着与别人不同的艺术形式上的重大变革，这让他们名利双收，
但也让他们付出了代价，那就是失去了用其他风格或形式表现自我的自由。
名气这盏聚光灯可比热带丛林还要炙热。骗局很快会被揭穿，过多的关注带来的压力会让大多数人难以承受。它让你失去自我。你必须是公众认可的那个你，而不是真实的你或是可能的你。艺人，就像政客一样，必须常常说些违心或连自己都不完全相信的话来取悦听众。
一滴名气之水有可能玷污人的心灵这一整口井，因此一个艺术家若能保持真我，会格外让人惊叹。你可能答不上来哪些人没有妥协，却仍然在这场名利的游戏中获胜。
一个例子就是爱尔兰著名作家奥斯卡·王尔德，他在社交行为和性行为方面以我行我素而闻名于世。虽然他的行为遭到公众的反对，却依然故我，他也因此付出了惨痛的代价。
在一次宴会上，他一位密友的母亲当着他的朋友和崇拜者的面，指责他在性方面影响了她的儿子。他听了她的话以后大为光火，起诉了这个年轻人的母亲，声称她毁了自己的“好”名声。但是，他真该请一个更好的律师。
结果是，法官不仅不支持他提出的让这个女人赔偿他名声损失费的请求

，反而对他本人进行了罚款。他由于拒交罚款最终还被送进了监狱。更糟糕的是，他再也无法获得更多公众的宠爱。在最糟糕的时候，他发现没有一个人愿意拿自己的名声冒险来替他说话。
为保持真我，他付出的代价是，在最需要崇拜者时，谁也不理他。
奇怪的是，收获最大的恰恰是失败者。他们收获了自由！
他们可以自由地表达，独辟蹊径，不落窠臼，不用担心失去崇拜者的支持。
失败的艺术家寻求安慰时，可以想想许多伟大的艺术家都是过世多年以后才成名，或是他们没有出卖自己。
他们也可以为自己的失败辩解：自己的才华实在过于高深，不是当代听众或观众所理解得了的。那些失败了却仍不肯放弃的顽固派也许会乐于知道，某些名人曾经如何越挫越勇，直至成功。美国小说家托马斯·伍尔芙的第一本小说《向家乡看吧，安琪儿》被拒39次后，才最终得以出版。贝多芬战胜了父亲认为他毫无音乐家潜质的偏见，成为世界上最伟大的音乐家。19世纪瑞士著名教育家裴斯泰洛齐原先干的工作没有一件成功，直到他想到去教小孩子，并研究出一种新型教育模式的基础理论。托马斯·爱迪生在四年级时被赶出了学校，因为老师觉得他似乎太迟钝。但不幸的是，对大多数人而言，失败是奋斗的结束，而不是开始。
对那些孤注一掷的追名逐利之徒，我要说：祝你们好运。但是，遗憾的是，你会发现这不是你想得到的。狗自逐其尾所得到的只是一条尾巴而已。获得成功的人常常发现成功对他来说弊大于利。所以要为真实的你、为自己的所为感到高兴，而不是拼命去获得成功。
做那些你为之感到骄傲的事情。可能在有生之年你默默无闻，但你可能创作了更好的艺术。