BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ELLIS AND ACTON BELL 

埃利斯与阿克顿·贝尔的生平简介

It has been thought that all the works published under the names of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, were, in reality, the production of one person. This mistake I endeavoured to rectify by a few words of disclaimer prefixed to the third edition of Jane Eyre. These, too, it appears, failed to gain general credence, and now, on the occasion of a reprint of Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, I am advised distinctly to state how the case really stands.

人们一直认为，所有以库勒、埃利斯和阿克顿·贝尔之名出版的作品，实际上都出自同一人之手。为了纠正这一误解，我在《简·爱》第三版的开头附上了一段免责声明。但看来这些声明也未能获得普遍认可，因此，值此《呼啸山庄》和《艾格尼丝·格雷》再版之际，有人建议我明确说明事情的真相。

Indeed, I feel myself that it is time the obscurity attending those two names – Ellis and Acton – was done away. The little mystery, which formerly yielded some harmless pleasure, has lost its interest; circumstances are changed. It becomes, then, my duty to explain briefly the origin and authorship of the books written by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell.

诚然，我深感是时候消除围绕埃利斯和阿克顿这两个名字的迷雾了。那曾经带来些许无害乐趣的小小谜团，如今已不再引人入胜；时过境迁。因此，我有责任简要说明库勒、埃利斯和阿克顿·贝尔所著书籍的来源及其作者身份。

About five years ago, my two sisters and myself, after a somewhat prolonged period of separation, found ourselves reunited, and at home. Resident in a remote district where education had made little progress, and where, consequently, there was no inducement to seek social intercourse beyond our own domestic circle, we were wholly dependent on ourselves and each other, on books and study, for the enjoyments and occupations of life. The highest stimulus, as well as the liveliest pleasure we had known from childhood upwards, lay in attempts at literary composition; formerly we used to show each other what we wrote, but of late years this habit of communication and consultation had been discontinued; hence it ensued, that we were mutually ignorant of the progress we might respectively have made.

大约五年前，我和我的两个姐姐在分别了一段时间后，终于重聚在家中。我们居住在一个偏远地区，那里教育发展滞后，因此也没有什么动力去寻求家庭圈子之外的社交往来。在生活中，我们完全依靠自己、依靠彼此，依靠书籍和学习来获得乐趣和消遣。自幼以来，我们所经历的最大激励，也是最鲜活的乐趣，便在于尝试文学创作；过去我们常互相展示自己的作品，但近几年这种交流与商讨的习惯已不复存在；因此，我们彼此都不知道对方可能取得了怎样的进步。

One day, in the autumn of 1845, I accidentally lighted on a MS. volume of verse in my sister Emily’s handwriting. Of course, I was not surprised, knowing that she could and did write verse: I looked it over, and something more than surprise seized me, – a deep conviction that these were not common affusions, nor at all like the poetry women generally write. I thought them condensed and terse, vigorous and genuine. To my ear, they had also a peculiar music – wild, melancholy, and elevating.

1845年秋天的一天，我偶然发现了一本手写诗集，字迹是我妹妹艾米莉的。当然，我并不感到惊讶，因为我知道她不仅会写诗，而且确实写过诗。我翻阅了一遍，一种比惊讶更强烈的情绪涌上心头——我深信这些并非寻常的感怀之作，也完全不同于女性通常所写的诗歌。我认为这些诗句凝练简洁，充满活力且真挚动人。在我听来，这些诗还蕴含着一种独特的韵律——狂野、忧郁，却又令人心潮澎湃。

My sister Emily was not a person of demonstrative character, nor one, on the recesses of whose mind and feelings, even those nearest and dearest to her could, with impunity, intrude unlicensed; it took hours to reconcile her to the discovery I had made, and days to persuade her that such poems merited publication. I knew, however, that a mind like hers could not be without some latent spark of honourable ambition, and refused to be discouraged in my attempts to fan that spark to flame.

我的妹妹艾米丽性格内敛，绝非那种连最亲近的人也能随意窥探其内心深处的人；要让她接受我的发现，花了数小时；而要说服她这些诗作值得发表，则耗费了数日。然而，我深知像她这样的人心中必然潜藏着一丝崇高的抱负火花，因此我并未因此而气馁，仍坚持尝试将那火花煽动成熊熊烈焰。

Meantime, my younger sister quietly produced some of her own compositions, intimating that since Emily’s had given me pleasure, I might like to look at hers. I could not but be a partial judge, yet I thought that these verses too had a sweet sincere pathos of their own.

与此同时，我妹妹悄悄拿出了她自己写的一些诗作，暗示说既然艾米丽的诗让我感到愉悦，我或许也会喜欢看看她的。我虽难免有些偏袒，但仍觉得这些诗句也自有其甜美而真挚的感人之处。

We had very early cherished the dream of one day becoming authors. This dream, never relinquished even when distance divided and absorbing tasks occupied us, now suddenly acquired strength and consistency: it took the character of a resolve. We agreed to arrange a small selection of our poems, and, if possible, get them printed. Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because – without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called ‘feminine’ – we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.

我们很早就怀揣着有朝一日成为作家的梦想。这个梦想，即便在距离将我们分隔、繁重的工作占据我们心神之时也从未放弃，如今却突然变得坚定而明确：它已化作一种决心。我们商定要整理出一小部分诗作，并尽可能将其付梓。由于厌恶个人曝光，我们用库勒、埃利斯和阿克顿·贝尔这些笔名掩盖了本名； 这一模棱两可的选择源于某种良心的顾虑——我们不愿直接使用明显男性化的名字，同时又不愿表明自己是女性，因为——尽管当时并未意识到我们的写作和思考方式并非所谓的“女性化”——我们隐约感到女作家往往容易受到偏见； 我们曾注意到，评论家有时会以人身攻击作为惩罚的武器，而作为褒奖的，却是一种并非真正赞美之词的奉承。

The bringing out of our little book was hard work. As was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted; but for this we had been prepared at the outset; though inexperienced ourselves, we had read the experience of others. The great puzzle lay in the difficulty of getting answers of any kind from the publishers to whom we applied. Being greatly harassed by this obstacle, I ventured to apply to the Messrs Chambers, of Edinburgh, for a word of advice; they may have forgotten the circumstance, but I have not, for from them I received a brief and business-like, but civil and sensible reply, on which we acted, and at last made a way.

出版这本小书实属不易。不出所料，无论是我们本人还是我们的诗作，都无人问津；但对此我们早有心理准备；尽管我们自己缺乏经验，却也读过他人的经历。最大的难题在于，无论向哪家出版社求助，都难以得到任何回应。受此阻碍之苦，我冒险向爱丁堡的钱伯斯先生们求教；他们或许已忘却此事，但我却记忆犹新，因为我从他们那里收到了一封简短而干练、却又礼貌且中肯的回信，我们据此采取行动，最终开辟了一条出路。

The book was printed: it is scarcely known, and all of it that merits to be known are the poems of Ellis Bell. The fixed conviction I held, and hold, of the worth of these poems has not indeed received the confirmation of much favourable criticism; but I must retain it notwithstanding.

这本书已付梓：它鲜为人知，而其中唯一值得传颂的，便是埃利斯·贝尔的诗作。我过去和现在都坚信这些诗作的价值，尽管这一信念并未得到多少好评的印证；但我仍将坚持这一看法。

Ill-success failed to crush us: the mere effort to succeed had given a wonderful zest to existence; it must be pursued. We each set to work on a prose tale: Ellis Bell produced Wuthering Heights, Acton Bell, Agnes Grey, and Currer Bell also wrote a narrative in one volume. These MSS were perseveringly obtruded upon various publishers for the space of a year and a half; usually, their fate was an ignominious and abrupt dismissal.

失败并未击垮我们：仅仅是追求成功的努力，就为生活注入了美妙的激情；我们必须继续追求。我们各自着手创作一部散文小说：埃利斯·贝尔写了《呼啸山庄》，阿克顿·贝尔写了《艾格尼丝·格雷》，库勒·贝尔也写了一部单卷本的小说。在长达一年半的时间里，我们坚持不懈地将这些手稿投给各大出版社；通常，它们的命运都是遭到可耻而突然的拒绝。

At last Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey were accepted on terms somewhat impoverishing to the two authors; Currer Bell’s book found acceptance nowhere, nor any acknowledgment of merit, so that something like the chill of despair began to invade his heart. As a forlorn hope, he tried one publishing house more – Messrs Smith and Elder. Ere long, in a much shorter space than that on which experience had taught him to calculate – there came a letter, which he opened in the dreary expectation of finding two hard hopeless lines, intimating that Messrs Smith and Elder ‘were not disposed to publish the MS,’ and, instead, he took out of the envelope a letter of two pages. He read it trembling. It declined, indeed, to publish that tale, for business reasons, but it discussed its merits and demerits to courteously, so considerately, in a spirit so rational, with a discrimination so enlightened, that this very refusal cheered the author better than a vulgarly-expressed acceptance would have done. It was added, that a work in three volumes would meet with careful attention.

最终，《呼啸山庄》和《艾格尼丝·格雷》虽被接受，但对两位作者而言，出版条件却颇为苛刻；而柯勒·贝尔的书则处处碰壁，其价值也未获任何认可，于是，一种近乎绝望的寒意开始侵袭他的内心。作为最后的希望，他又试着联系了一家出版社——史密斯与埃尔德公司。没过多久，比经验告诉他预估的时间要短得多，一封信便寄到了。他怀着沉重的期待拆开信封，本以为会看到两行冷酷绝望的字句，暗示史密斯与埃尔德公司“不打算出版该手稿”，然而，他从信封里取出的却是一封长达两页的信。他颤抖着读了这封信。信中确实以商业理由婉拒了出版该故事，但对作品的优缺点所作的评述，却如此彬彬有礼、体贴入微，充满理性精神，且见解如此开明，以致这份拒绝本身给作者的鼓舞，远胜于一封措辞粗俗的接受函所能带来的。信中还补充道，若是一部三卷本的作品，定会受到审慎的关注。

I was then just completing Jane Eyre, at which I had been working while the one volume tale was plodding its weary round in London: in three weeks I sent it off; friendly and skilful hands took it in. This was in the commencement of September 1847 it came out before the close of October following, while Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey, my sisters’ works, which had already been in the press for months, still lingered under a different management.

当时我正写完《简·爱》，这部作品是我在那部单卷本小说在伦敦辗转求刊期间创作的；三周后，我便将它寄出；一些友善而精明的编辑欣然接纳了它。那是1847年9月初的事，该书在次年10月底前便已出版，而我的姐妹们的作品《呼啸山庄》和《艾格尼丝·格雷》——尽管已在印刷厂待了数月——却仍在另一家出版社那里耽搁着。

They appeared at last. Critics failed to do them justice. The immature but very real powers revealed in Wuthering Heights were scarcely recognized; its import and nature were misunderstood; the identity of its author was mis-represented; it was said that this was an earlier and ruder attempt of the same pen which had produced Jane Eyre. Unjust and grievous error! We laughed at it at first, but I deeply lament it now. Hence, I fear, arose a prejudice against the book. That writer who could attempt to palm off an inferior and immature production under cover of one successful effort, must indeed be unduly eager after the secondary and sordid result of authorship, and pitiably indifferent to its true and honourable meed. If reviewers and the public truly believed this, no wonder that they looked darkly on the cheat.

它们终于问世了。评论家们未能公正地评价它们。《呼啸山庄》中展现出的虽显稚嫩却真实不虚的才华几乎未被认可；其意义与本质遭到了误解；作者的身份也被曲解；有人说这是创作了《简·爱》的同一支笔所作的早期且粗糙的尝试。多么不公且严重的谬误！起初我们对此一笑置之，但如今我对此深感痛惜。因此，我担心，这便滋生了针对该书的偏见。那位作家若试图借某部成功作品之名，将一部劣质且不成熟的著作蒙混过关，那他必定是过度热衷于写作所带来的次要而卑劣的利益，却对写作应得的真正而崇高的回报漠不关心，实在可悲。如果评论家和公众真的相信了这一点，难怪他们会对这种欺骗行为投以阴沉的目光。