William Plomer - On Not Answering the Telephone (Excerpt) 汉译

Suppose you ignore the telephone when it rings, and suppose that, for once, somebody has an important message for you. I can assure you that if a message is really important it will reach you sooner or later. Think of the proverb:“Ill news travels apace.”I must say good news seems to travel just as fast. And think of the saying:“The truth will out.”It will. But suppose you answer the telephone when it rings. If, when you take off the receiver, you say “Hullo!” just think how absurd that is. Why, you might be saying “Hullo!” to a total stranger. a thing you would certainly think twice about before doing in public, if you were English.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

But perhaps, when you take off the receiver, you give your number or your name. But you don’t even know whom you are giving it to! Perhaps you have been indiscreet enough to have your name and number printed in the telephone directory, a book with a large circulation, a successful book so often reprinted as to make any author envious, a book more in evidence than Shakespeare or the Bible, and found in all sorts of private and public places. By your self-advertisement you have enabled any stranger, bore, intruder, or criminal to engage you in conversation at a moment’s notice in what ought to be the privacy of your own home.

假定电话铃响你置之不理，又假定刚好这次那人有重要的消息要告诉你。我可以向你保证，如果那消息是真正重要的话，它迟早总会传达给你听的。想到那句谚语：“恶事传千里”，我一定要说好的消息好像也同样地传达得很快的呀。再想想那句常言：“真相总会水落石出的”，确是如此。但是假定你听到电话铃响，你就去接。当你拿起听筒，如果你说“哈罗！”的话，试想这是多么荒谬呀。哼，你也许正在对一个完全不相识的陌生人在说着“哈罗！”如果你是英国国民的话，这确实是一件在人前你要三思而后行的事。