作品原文

王蒙 《雅与俗》

我每天都吃三顿饭，睡八小时觉，大便一次，小便六七次，从来就没有考虑过这样是雅还是俗。
我爱听柴可夫斯基、贝多芬、马勒、舒曼的交响乐，是因为我爱听。不是因为它们雅或是还不够雅。
据说，素食是雅的，而“肉食者鄙”。但是，我还鄙鄙地常常吃肉，除了吃肉要票的那些年。所以，我深为吃肉不要票而欢欣鼓舞歌功颂德，不论这有多么卑鄙。
我爱听梆子戏、相声、芭芭拉·斯特拉桑德与凤飞飞的流行歌曲，不害怕也不避讳它们的俗，因为我爱听，能够从中得到某种愉悦。
写文章，我要稿费，因为我有这个俗俗的需要，也就不怕其俗。我又不会专门盯在稿费上，不是为了雅，而是为了文章的最佳效果和我与编辑出版部门的友谊。还有我作为一个作家的自尊和自信。
只有最俗的人才没有自信。只有没有自信的人才怕人家说自己俗。只有自恋不已的人才需要表白自己不俗。
最大的庸俗是装腔作势。最大的媚俗是人云我亦云。最大的卑俗是顾影自怜。
什么是俗？世俗、通俗、庸俗、卑俗都是俗，却大不一样。
迎合旁人是可悲的。适当照顾别人却是难免的，有时候是高尚的。坚持原则而不苟同是可敬的。为了不媚俗而不媚俗却是一无可取的空洞。
考虑雅与俗或是考虑是否媚了俗，都是活得找不到感觉的标志。就像一个人，只有消化不良的时候，才会没完没了地看自己的舌苔。
媚俗不好，媚外媚洋媚上媚下媚学者媚批评家媚潮流媚青媚中媚老，都同样不好。为什么不好？因为你正在装起来，你正在亮相，你成了架子花。生怕媚俗恐怕也是一种媚，就是媚那个批评媚俗的进口流行色。
什么样就是什么样，不掩盖本色，然后才有了进行价值评价的前提。

作品译文

Refined and Vulgar
Wang Meng

Every day I eat three meals, sleep eight hours, and go to the toilet several times. But I have never thought whether these things are refined or vulgar.
I like to listen to symphonies by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Mahler, and Schumann, simply because I enjoy them, not because they are refined or vulgar.
It is said that vegetarians are refined people while “meat eaters are vulgar”, but I am a vulgar person as I often eat meat except those years when meat was rationed and you could not buy meat unless you had meat coupons. So I would eulogize the canceling of meat coupons, no matter how vulgar it may sound.
I like to listen to Bangzi opera, comic dialogues, popular songs by Barbra Streisand and Feng Feifei, a famous popular singer star from Taiwan. I neither fear not evade them though some people say their songs are vulgar, because I like them and find much pleasure listening to them.
I am a writer and want to get paid for my writings, because I have this vulgar need, therefore, I am not afraid of this vulgarity. However, I do not care much about how much I am paid, not because I want to be a refined person, but for the best effect of my writings and the friendship between the editors, publishing institutions and me. In addition, as a writer, I have to retain my self-respect and self-dignity.
Only the most vulgar people have no self-confidence; only those who have no self-confidence will be afraid of being deemed vulgar; and only those who admire themselves need to profess they are not vulgar.
The most philistine vulgarity is putting on airs and making grand gestures; the most obsequious vulgarity is echoing the views of others, and the meanest vulgarity is looking at one's own image in the mirror and pitying oneself.
What is vulgarity? It is manifested in different ways, such as being worldly profane, following popular ways, practicing philistinism, or acting meanly. But they do vary in a sense.
It is pitiful to cater to others. It is inevitable and sometimes even noble to take certain care of others. It is respectable to uphold truth and refuse to agree without giving serous thought. However, it is very hollow and worthless to avoid being obsequiously vulgar for the sake of not being vulgar.
It is the mark of a senseless life for a person to think whether one is refined or vulgar, or whether one is fawning on the vulgar, just like a person who endlessly looks at the coating on his own tongue when he suffers from indigestion.
It is surely no good to fawn on the vulgar, nor is it good to fawn on foreigners, scholars, critics, or on the trendy, the young, the middle-aged, or the old, because in these cases you must pretend to be obsequiously vulgar, that is, to fawn on the popular color from abroad that criticizes that obsequious vulgarity.
Only by remaining one's true self and not trying to cover one's true color can one get the prerequisite to assess one's value.