And then there was a smash. There was an explosion. There was foam and confusion. The imagination had dashed itself against something hard. The girl was roused from her dream. She was indeed in a state of the most acute and difficult distress. To speak without figure she had thought of something, something about the body, about the passions which it was unfitting for her as a woman to say. Men, her reason told her, would be shocked. The consciousness of what men will say of a woman who speaks the truth about her passions had roused her from her artist's state of unconsciousness. She could write no more. The trance was over. Her imagination could work no longer. This I believe to be a very common experience with women writers—they are impeded by the extreme conventionality of the other sex. For though men sensibly allow themselves great freedom in these respects, I doubt that they realize or can control the extreme severity with which they condemn such freedom in women.
随即，突然传来了猛烈的撞击声、爆炸声、水花和混乱。想象与具象相碰撞。女孩从昏睡中惊醒。她的确沉陷于最深刻、最艰难的痛苦状态。明白地说，她想到了，想到了她作为女人不易言说的身体和激情。理智告诉她，男人会感到震惊。男人们对一个敢于直言激情的女人的评价使她从艺术家的无意识状态中惊醒，她无法继续写作，昏睡状态结束，想象力随之中断。这就是女作家共同的切身体验——男性极端的因循守旧观念阻碍着她们。在这些方面，男人可以在理智上允许自我放任，可我怀疑他们未必会意识到或者能够控制住自己对这种女人的表达自由给予极其强烈的抨击。
These then were two very genuine experiences of my own. These were two of the adventures of my professional life. The first—killing the Angel in the House—I think I solved. She died. But the second, telling the truth about my own experiences as a body, I do not think I solved. I doubt that any woman has solved it yet. The obstacles against her are still immensely powerful and yet they are very difficult to define. Outwardly, what is simpler than to write books? Outwardly, what obstacles are there for a woman rather than for a man? Inwardly, I think, the case is very different; she has still many ghosts to fight, many prejudices to overcome. Indeed it will be a long time still, I think, before a woman can sit down to write a book without finding a phantom to be slain, a rock to be dashed against. And if this is so in literature, the freest of all professions for women, how is it in the new professions which you are now for the first time entering?
这就是我自己的两个真实的经历，是我职业生涯中两大冒险。第一个：杀死“家里的天使”。我已经做到了。她死了。但第二个：真实地表达自我亲身的体验，我还没有解决。我怀疑是否有任何女性解决了这个问题。那些障碍仍然力量强大，也很难下定义。从表面看，有什么比写书更容易呢？从表面看，什么样的障碍只针对女人而不是男人呢？但是从内心世界看，情况则极为不同。她还要与许多恶魔斗争，还要克服许多偏见。我敢肯定，如果女人不找到并杀死鬼影、不击碎岩石般的阻碍，就不能够坐下来专心写作。这还需要很长时间。如果不是在女性所能享有的最自由的文学领域，那么在你们第一次踏入的新职业里情况又将如何？