UNIT 4 Professions for Women
女性的职业
Virginia Woolf
弗吉尼亚·伍尔夫
When your secretary invited me to come here, she told me that your Society is concerned with the employment of women and she suggested that I might tell you something about my own professional experiences. It is true I am a woman; it is true I am employed; but what professional experiences have I had?
你们的秘书邀请我来到这里时告诉我，你们的妇女服务团关注女性就职问题。她建议我讲一讲我自己的职业体验。我的确是一个女人，也的确有工作，但是我又有什么职业体验呢？
It is difficult to say. My profession is literature; and in that profession there are fewer experiences for women than in any other, with the exception of the stage—fewer, I mean, that are peculiar to women. For the road was cut many years ago—by Fanny Burney, by Aphra Behn, by Harriet Martineau, by Jane Austen, by George Eliot—many famous women, and many more unknown and forgotten, have been before me, making the path smooth, and regulating my steps.
这就很难说了。我以文学写作为职业。对女人来说，这个职业，当然戏剧行业例外，并没有像从事其他的职业那么特别的体验，我是说没有那么多女性的特别的体验。很多年前，范妮·伯尼、阿芙拉·贝恩、哈丽雅特、马蒂诺、简·奥斯汀、乔治·艾略特这些著名的女性作家以及更多的不那么出名或被遗忘的作家已经打通了这条路，指引我前行。
Thus, when I came to write, there were very few material obstacles in my way. Writing was a reputable and harmless occupation. The family peace was not broken by the scratching of a pen. No demand was made upon the family purse. For ten and sixpence one can buy paper enough to write all the plays of Shakespeare—if one has a mind that way. Pianos and models, Paris, Vienna and Berlin, masters and mistresses, are not needed by a writer.
所以，当我开始从事写作时，已没有什么实际的障碍！写作是一个名声好且没有危害的职业。家庭的节奏不会因为写作的沙沙声而打乱。写作不需要家庭开销，如果愿意，任何人都可以花上16便士买下纸张。这些纸足够写出莎士比亚的戏剧全集了。钢琴和模特，去巴黎、维也纳和柏林，或者是请家庭教师——作家不需要这些！