乔纳森·斯威夫特（Jonathan Swift，1667—1745年），大不列颠及爱尔兰联合王国作家，政论家，讽刺文学大师，曾被高尔基称为“世界文学创造者之一”。
乔纳森·斯威夫特以著名的《格列佛游记》和《一只桶的故事》等作品闻名于世，但更出名的是他的讽刺类文章。他犀利而平易的文学风格被评论家称作“斯威夫特式”（Swiftian）风格，成为文学批评的术语，从而在世界文坛留下了影响。
Hints Towards an Essay on Conversation
关于一篇谈话类杂文的提议（节译）
I know a man of wit, who is never easy but where he can be allowed to dictate and preside; he neither expecteth to be informed or entertained, but to display his own talents. His business is to be good company, and not good conversation, and therefore he chooseth to frequent those who are content to listen, and profess themselves his admirers.
我认识一位才子，决非易与之辈，但正于此，其口才及主持能力，才得以施展。他既不期望消息灵通，也无意受人款待，所作所为，只为展示其个人才华。他所在意的只是人气，并不在意交谈是否出色。故而喜爱与倾听人士经常交往，声称他们都是自己的崇拜者。
And, indeed, the worst conversation I ever remember to have heard in my life was that at Will’s coffee-house, where the wits, as they were called, used formerly to assemble; that is to say, five or six men who had written plays, or at least prologues, or had share in a miscellany, came thither, and entertained one another with their trifling composures in so important an air, as if they had been the noblest efforts of human nature, or that the fate of kingdoms depended on them.
真的，一生中我所能记起的最差的交谈，莫过于威尔咖啡屋了。人们所称的才子，以前就在那儿召集人气。也就是说，五六个人写了剧本，或者至少有个开场白，或分享一部杂录，就去那里相互犒劳一番，轻飘飘气定神闲，俨然一副重要无比的神情，似乎已为人性付出至高无上的努力，或系英王国之命运于一身；
And they were usually attended with a humble audience of young students from the inns of courts, or the universities, who, at due distance, listened to these oracles, and returned home with great contempt for their law and philosophy, their heads filled with trash under the name of politeness, criticism, and belles lettres.
通常会有谦逊的听众，是一些律师学院或大学的年轻学生，距离颇远，赶来倾听这般神谕。回家时，对于所学的法律，哲学，已然极为鄙视。他们头脑中充斥着优雅，批评，纯文学名义下的垃圾。
By these means the poets, for many years past, were all overrun with pedantry. For, as I take it, the word is not properly used; because pedantry is the too front or unseasonable obtruding our own knowledge in common discourse, and placing too great a value upon it; by which definition men of the court or the army may be as guilty of pedantry as a philosopher or a divine; and it is the same vice in women when they are over copious upon the subject of their petticoats, or their fans, or their china.
旧时诗人用这个方法买弄学问，泛滥成灾。我猜想，是由于用词不当。因为买弄学问的过于前沿，不合时宜地超出行文常理，且往往对于自己的文章赋予过高的价值。按此定义，宫廷人士与军人，也许与哲学家与牧师一样，负有迂腐之罪。女人们也有相同的罪过，谈论起衬裙，粉丝或瓷器来，滔滔不绝。
For which reason, although it be a piece of prudence, as well as good manners, to put men upon talking on subjects they are best versed in, yet that is a liberty a wise man could hardly take; because, beside the imputation of pedantry, it is what he would never improve by.
出于这个原因，人们往往喜欢谈论自己最在行的事物。这样做很谨慎，也很礼貌，但聪明人却很难接受这种自由自在的方式。除了有卖弄之嫌，本人也无法借此提高。
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[图像来源：百度]
