The cheapness of writing paper is, of course, the reason why women have succeeded as writers before they have succeeded in the other professions.
写作用纸的廉价当然就是女性先于其他行业而首先能够以写作为职业的原因。
But to tell you my story—it is a simple one. You have only got to figure to yourselves a girl in a bedroom with a pen in her hand. She had only to move that pen from left to right from ten o'clock to one. Then it occurred to her to do what is simple and cheap enough after all—to slip a few of those pages into an envelope, fix a penny stamp in the corner, and drop the envelope into the red box at the corner. It was thus that I became a journalist; and my effort was rewarded on the first day of the following month—a very glorious day it was for me—by a letter from an editor containing a cheque for one pound ten shillings and sixpence.
但是我要告诉大家我的故事。很简单。你们只需自己想象一下，一个女孩儿在卧室里手里握着一支笔，她需要左右地移动它，从十点写到一点。然后她就想到了一件很简单，而且不用花很多钱的事：选出一些纸放到信封里，在一个角上贴上一便士邮票，把信封投到街角的红箱子里。我就是这样成为一个撰稿人的。下个月的第一天，我的努力得到了回报。那对我来说是快乐的一天，因为编辑寄来一封信，里面有一张一英镑十先令六便士的支票。
But to show you how little I deserve to be called a professional woman, how little I know of the struggles and difficulties of such lives, I have to admit that instead of spending that sum upon bread and butter, rent, shoes and stockings, or butcher's bills, I went out and bought a cat—a beautiful cat, a Persian cat, which very soon involved me in bitter disputes with my neighbours.
但是我要告诉你们，我不配被称作一个职业女性，也不知道生活中的挣扎与困苦，因为我得承认，我并没有拿这笔钱买食物、付房租、买鞋袜和肉，而是出去买了一只猫，一只漂亮的波斯猫，它使我在不久后与邻居发生严重纠纷。
What could be easier than to write articles and to buy Persian cats with the profits? But wait a moment. Articles have to be about something. Mine, I seem to remember, was about a novel by a famous man. And while I was writing this review, I discovered that if I were going to review books I should need to do battle with a certain phantom.
有什么能比写文章并用其报酬来买波斯猫更容易的事呢？但是，请等一下。文章要有内容。我记得那篇文章评论了一位男性名人的一部小说。写这篇评论时，我发现，如果我想写书评，我需要与某个鬼影抗争。