the excitement, pain, beauty, and horror of what she termed, the Modern Age.

她稱為現代主義時代的欣喜、痛苦、美麗和恐怖

Born in 1882, she was conscious of herself as a distinctively modernist writer

生於 1882 年，吳爾芙有意識地將自己定義為一名現代主義作家

at odds with a raft of the staid and complacent assumptions of nineteenth-century English literature.

她的文學風格在十九世紀眾多偉大的英國文學名家中自成一格

She realized that a new era, marked by extraordinary developments in urbanism, technology, warfare,

吳爾芙注意到她所處的時代已然是一個新的時代，特徵是異常快速發展的都市主義

consumerism, and family life

科技、戰事、消費主義以及家庭生活

would need to be captured by a different sort of writer.

而新時代的現象需要由別於主流的作家擷取描繪出來

Along with Joyce and Proust, she was a relentlessly creative writer

吳爾芙和喬伊斯及普魯斯特同樣是創意型作家，她也從未放棄找尋

in search of new literary forms that could do justice to the complexities of modern consciousness.

各種新的文學形式以因應和闡述當代意識的複雜性

Her books and essays retain a power to convey the thrill and drama of living in the 20th century.

她所著作的書籍和散文保留傳達了 20 世紀的驚悚和戲劇般的情境張力

Woolf was born in London.

吳爾芙出生於倫敦

Her father was a famous author and mountaineer,

她的父親是著名的作家和登山家

and her mother, a well known model.

母親則是有名的模特兒

Her family hosted many of the most influential and important members of Victorian Literary Society.

許多維多利亞文藝圈最具影響力和重要的人物都出自她的家族

Woolf was largely cynical about these grand types,

不過吳爾芙經常嘲諷這個高大上的圈子

accusing them of pomposity and narrow-mindedness.

她的作品中經常控訴這個圈子浮誇裝腔作勢且心胸狹窄的文化

Woolf and her sister weren't even allowed to go to Cambridge like their brothers,

吳爾芙和姐姐無法和其他兄弟一樣能受教育去牛津念書

but had to steal an education from their father's study.

只能從父親的研究偷偷自學

After her mother died when she was only thirteen,

母親在她僅 13 歲時就過世了

Woolf had the first of a series of mental breakdowns that would plague her for the rest of her life;

吳爾芙開始出現嚴重精神疾病症狀，她的餘生一直飽受精神疾病折磨

partly caused, too, by the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her half-brother, George Duckworth.

她發病的原因有部分是因為曾遭受到同父異母兄弟·達克沃斯的性侵

Despite her illness, she became a journalist, and then a novelist,

儘管遭受精神疾病困擾，她仍然先後成為了記者和作家

and the central figure in the Bloomsbury Group,

以及布盧姆茨伯里派的中堅份子

which included John Maynard Keynes, E. M. Forster, and Lytton Strachey.

該團體成員包含約翰·梅納德·凱恩斯、愛德華·摩根·福斯特以及雷頓·斯特拉奇

She married one of the members: the writer and journalist, Leonard Woolf.

吳爾芙和團體中的其中一位成員，作家兼記者的李奧納德·伍爾芙結為夫婦

She and Leonard bought a small hand printing press, named it "The Hogarth Press,"

她和李奧納德買了台小型手工印刷機成立出版社，命名為「賀加斯岀版 (Hogarth Press)」

and published books from their dining room.

他們在自己家中的飯廳出版書籍

They printed Woolf's radical novels and political essays when no one else would

夫妻倆出版了吳爾芙具有激進言論的小說和政治隨筆散文

and they produced the first full English edition of Freud's works.

他們也是首先出版英文版佛洛伊德全著作書籍的出版者

In just four short years between World Wars I and II, Woolf wrote four of her famous works:

在一戰到二戰之間短短幾年，吳爾芙就寫出四部名作：

"Mrs. Dalloway," "To the Lighthouse," "Orlando," and the essay, "A Room of One's Own."

《達洛維夫人》、《到燈塔去》、《奧蘭多》以及散文隨筆《自己的房間》

In March 1941, feeling the onset of another bout of mental illness,

1941 年三月，憂鬱症再度襲擊吳爾芙

Woolf drowned herself in the River Ouse.

她步入歐塞河結束了自己的生命

Her work has many vital things to teach us.

她的作品中有幾個重要的概念值得人們學習

Woolf was one of the great observers of English literature.

英國文學史上吳爾芙也是一名以善於觀察聞名的作家

Perhaps the finest short piece of prose she ever wrote

算是她短篇隨筆中最好的作品《飛蛾之死》

was the essay, "The Death of the Moth," published in 1942.

於西元 1942 年出版

It contains her observations as she sits in her study, watching a humble moth trapped by a pane of glass.

這篇作品紀錄了坐著在看書時偶然的觀察經驗，她看到一隻飛蛾困在玻璃窗格間飛不出去

Rarely have so many profound thoughts been eked out from such an apparently mindless situation--

許多偉大的靈感想法往往就是來自於放空的狀態 --

though for Woolf, there were no such things as mindless situations.

雖然對吳爾芙而言，沒有所謂放空這回事

"One could not help watching him. One was, indeed, conscious of a queer feeling of pity for him.

「任誰都會不自覺的看到那隻飛蛾，那怪可憐的樣子怎麼可能察覺不到」

The possibilities of pleasure seemed, that morning, so enormous and so various,

那個早晨對飛蛾而言可能是充滿著無窮希望

that to have only a moth's part in life-- and a day moth's at that-- appeared a hard fate...

我和這隻飛蛾相遇在這個早晨 -- 但這天卻是他活著的最後一天，真的是時運不濟....

...and his zest in enjoying his meager opportunities to the full, pathetic.

他盡其全力去享受他那貧乏至極的短暫生命，可憐極了！

He flew vigorously to one corner of his compartment,

他振翅飛到他所在窗格的一角

and after waiting there a second, flew across to the other.

稍事停留幾秒後，接著又飛到對面角落

What remained for him, but to fly to a third corner and then to a fourth.

最後的選擇不過就是飛到第三個和第四個窗格角落

That was all he could do in spite of the width of the sky, the far off smooth of houses,

無論外面的天空有多遼闊、房屋有多整齊有致以及偶而傳來的海濤聲有多悅耳

and the romantic voice, now and then, of a steam out at sea.

飛蛾的一生註定只能囿於一隅

Woolf noticed everything that you and I tend to walk past:

吳爾芙留心觀察到了你我都容易忽視的事情：

the sky, the pain in others' eyes, the gaze of children, the stoicism of wives, the pleasures of department stores,

例如天空、他人眼中透露出的痛苦、孩童的凝視、妻子的禁慾、逛百貨公司的愉悅

the interests of harbors and docks.

港口和碼頭的有趣之處

Emerson, one of her favorite writers, may have been speaking generally,

愛默生是其中一位吳爾芙欣賞的作家，他的言談看似平淡無奇

but he captured everything that makes Woolf special when he remarked,

但是他提到的要點每件都能精確的指出吳爾芙的不凡之處

"In the work of a writer of genius, we rediscover our own neglected thoughts.”

「我們可以從這名天才作家的作品中從新找到被我們忽略的想法」

In another great essay, "On Being Ill," Woolf lamented how seldom writers stoop to describe illness--

吳爾芙在她另一部著名散文隨筆《在病中》曾感嘆作家極少會願意屈尊去描述病痛 --

an oversight that seemed characteristic of a snobbery against the everyday in literature.

這種失察的現象無疑是明顯的歧視也是文學的常態

English, which can express the thoughts of Hamlet and the tragedy of Lear,

英文既能傳達哈姆雷特和李爾王的悲劇性

has no words for the shiver and the headache.

為何卻對寒顫發抖和頭痛隻字未提

The mere schoolgirl, when she falls in love, has Shakespeare or Keats to speak her mind for her,

一個女學生能在陷入戀愛時有莎士比爾和濟慈的句子表達她的心聲

but let us suffer her trying to describe a pain in his head to a doctor and language at once runs dry.

但是當她面對醫生要描述頭顱內的疼痛時，卻苦於無法用語言描述傳達

This would be her mission; Woolf tried throughout her life to make sure language would do a better job

也許吳爾芙因此將此視為人生志業，她終生都致力於讓語言能更有效的

at defining who we really are,

定義我們自己

with all our vulnerabilities, confusions, and bodily sensations.

經由我們自身的脆弱、困惑以及身體感官

Woolf raised her sensitivity to the highest art form.

吳爾芙將她的感受性提高到最高的藝術境界

She had the confidence and seriousness to use what happened to her--

她擁有足夠的勇氣和嚴肅態度取用她自己親身經歷的事情 --

the sensory details of her own life--

將她對於人生所有的感官細節

as the basis for the largest ideas.

用作為極致創作的基礎

Woolf was always profound, but never afraid of what others called "trivial."

吳爾芙永遠著重於細微之處，但她從不畏懼別人將她這些觀察稱為「微不足道的事物」

She was confident that the ambitions of her mind

她對於自己熱愛美麗事務和思考偉大想法的任務目標

to love beauty and engage with big ideas

相當有信心

were completely compatible with an interest in shopping, cakes, and hats--

這個任務目標完全和她興趣相符 -- 購物、蛋糕和帽子

subjects on which she wrote with almost unique eloquence and depth.

她對於這些事物的描繪都有獨到的優雅和深度

In another particularly good essay of hers called the "Oxford Street Tide,"

在她的另一篇佳作隨筆《牛津街潮流》中

she celebrates the gaudy vulgarity of this huge London shopping street.

她頌揚了倫敦這條購物大街華而不實的庸俗

"The moral-less point the finger of scorn at Oxford Street;

「那些毫無道德感到處指指點點的人如同藐視牛津街；

it reflects, they say, the levity, the ostentation, the haste, and the irresponsibility of our age.

反映出我們這個時代的輕浮、虛有其表、倉促以及不負責任

Yet perhaps, they are as much out in their scorn as we should be if we asked of the lily

但也許，這些現象就好比我們要求百合應該要放在青銅器皿中

that it should be cast in bronze, or of the daisy that it should have petals of imperishable enamel.

或是要求雛菊的花瓣應該是不會腐爛的瓷釉一樣；

The charm of modern London is that it isn't built to last-- it is built to pass."

現代倫敦的魅力之處不在於恆久，而是在於路過。」

In an accompanying essay, equally open to the un-prestigious side of modern life,

在吳爾芙另一篇同樣是揭露當代生活不光彩的一面隨筆中

Woolf goes to visit the giant docks of London.

她造訪了倫敦的巨型碼頭

"A thousand ships with thousand cargoes are being unladen every week...

「每周都有數以千艘支船載運著數以千計的貨物在這裡卸貨....

and not only is each package of this vast and varied merchandise picked up and set down accurately,

各式各樣的商品不單單只是被挑揀出，還一一精準的地放在該放置的位置

but each is weighed and opened, sampled and recorded, and again stitched up and laid in its place,

每項貨物都要秤重並開箱，製作樣品並加以記錄，接著再移放回原先的位置

without haste or waste or hurry, or confusion, by a very few men in shirt sleeves

碼頭工人雖然只有幾個人，但捲起袖子工作起來不急不徐，沒有絲毫困惑的地方

who, working with the utmost organization in the common interest, are yet able to pause in their work

碼頭工人儘管工作極度繁忙，仍能忙裡偷閒站暫時放下手中的工作

and say to the casual visitor, 'Would you like to see what sort of thing we sometimes find in sacks of cinnamon?

對著偶然路過的人說：「想看看我們有時會在這些裝肉桂的麻布袋中發現甚麼嗎？」

Look at this snake!'"

「看！有蛇！」

Woolf was deeply aware that men and women fit themselves into rigid roles,

吳爾芙深深意識到男人和女人往往對自己會有刻板印象

and as they do so, overlook their fuller personalities.

而這往往會造成人們忽略自己完整的人格

In her eyes, in order to grow, we need to do something gender bending--

在她的眼中，一個人要成長，或多或少需要做一些性別混搭 --

we need to seek experiences that blur what it means to be a "real man" or a "real woman."

我們需要從過去對「真男人」和「真女人」的經驗中萃取各自特質加以混合

Woolf had a few lesbian affairs in her life, and she wrote a magnificently bold queer text,

吳爾芙一生中傳過幾件女同性戀的緋聞，她曾寫下十分大膽怪異的小說內容

"Orlando," a portrait of her lover, Vita, described as a nobleman who becomes a woman.

《奧蘭多》是以她的愛人 - 維塔為藍本，在小說中是以紳士變成女性來敘述。她寫道：

She wrote, "It is fatal to be a man or woman, pure and simple. One must be woman-manly, or man-womanly."

「男身或女身由命，再簡單不過。但實際上人不是男性傾向的女人就是女性傾向的男人。」

In her anti-war track, "Three Guineas," Woolf argued that we will only ever end war

在她反戰文集《三枚金幣》中，吳爾芙提出要終止戰爭

by rethinking the habit of pitting of sex against sex;

就必須要重新省思因性別對立而排除性別的情況

all this claiming of superiority and impudent inferiority belonged to the private school stage of human existence

所有對於優越感和厚顏無恥自卑情緒的主張源自於她就讀私立學校階段的經驗

where there are sides, and it is necessary for one side to beat another side, and of the utmost importance,

在她就讀期間，校內分成兩派，最重要的是其中一方必須打敗另一方

to walk up to a platform and receive from the hands of the headmaster, a highly ornamental pot.

才能上台從校長手上領受完全是裝飾性質的獎杯

Woolf wished desperately to raise the status of women in her society.

吳爾芙極度盼望著能提升婦女在當代社會中的地位

She recognized that the problem was largely down to money.

她認知到這個問題有很大一部份是和金錢收入有關

Women didn't have freedom, especially freedom of the spirit, because they didn't control their own income.

婦女之所以不自由，精神受到箝制，主要是因為無法掌控經濟收入

"Women have always been poor," she cried. "Not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time,

她控訴說「婦女一直以來無法掌控經濟，」，「這種現象不是僅僅近兩百年來，而是最初開始就發生。」

women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves.

婦女受教的權利還不如雅典的奴隸

Women have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry."

婦女可以寫詩的機會微乎其微

Her great feminist rallying cry, "A Room of One's Own," culminated in a specific political demand:

她富有女性主義號召的作品《自己的房間》，是以特定政治訴求作結

in order to stand on the same intellectual footing as men, women not only needed dignity,

為能獲得和男性相同的知識水平，女性不僅需要尊嚴，還需要

but also equal rights to education, an income of five hundred pounds a year, and a room of one's own.

平等的受教權、五百英鎊的年收入以及自己專屬的房間

Woolf was probably the best writer in the English language

吳爾芙可算是英文作家之中不需使用臨床心理學專業術語

for describing our minds without the jargon of clinical psychology.

即可描寫出我們內心最厲害的作家了

The generation before hers, the Victorians, wrote novels focused on external details:

在她前一代，也就是維多利亞時代的文人所寫的小說是著重於外在經驗細節：

city scenes, marriages, wills.

例如城市景色、婚姻、意志

Woolf envisaged a new form of expression that would focus instead,

而吳爾芙設想出的新表達形式則是著重於

on how it feels inside to know ourselves and other people.

對自己和其他人的內心感受

Books like Woolf's, which aren't overly sarcastic, aren't caught up in adventure plots, or cradled in convention

吳爾芙的作品不會過度挖苦、不會有冒險情節也不會流於俗套，有助於收縮

are our contract.

我們的注意力

She's expecting us to turn down the outside volume, to try on her perspective,

她希望讀者能關閉外在的音量，嘗試用她的方式

and to spend energy with subtle sentences...

專注在微妙精良的句子上

and in turn, she offers us the opportunity to notice the tremors we normally miss,

同時她也讓我們有機會留意到通常會忽略的顫抖

and to better appreciate moths, our own headaches, and our fascinating, fluid sexualities.

並且更加留意飛蛾、我們的頭痛問題以及迷人、變換的性別

If you like this video, then I think you'll really appreciate "Wisecrack," another fine channel on YouTube

如果你喜歡這支短片，那麼你可能也會喜歡「俏皮話 (Wisecrack)」這個同樣優良的 YouTube 頻道

that also celebrates literature, philosophy, cinema, psychology, and more.

這個頻道同樣也頌揚文學、哲學、電影、心理和其他主題

Click here to visit their channel page, and see how they're introducing important topics and critical analysis

請按一下這裡以造訪它們的頻道頁面，看看他們如何以幽默風趣的方式

through the lens of comedy.

介紹重要主題及進行評論分析

If you're interested in smart, yet hilarious, breakdowns of classic literature, be sure to watch their popular series,

如果你喜歡機智但搞笑令人噴飯的古典文學，請務必觀賞他們最具人氣的影片

"Thug notes."

「暴徒筆記 (Thug notes)」系列

They have over 80 titles in their library to choose from, including:

「俏皮話 (Wisecrack)」頻道公有 80 個主題可供選看，包括：

"Pride and Prejudice," "The Great Gatsby," "Lolita," "Dune," "Crime and Punishment," and many more.

《驕傲與偏見》、《大亨小傳》、《蘿莉塔》、《沙丘魔堡》、《罪與罰》等等

I think you'll enjoy them as much as we do.

觀看此頻道相信也可以讓你得到和我們頻道一樣多的樂趣喔！