May 17th, 1957

1957年5月17日

Gellert,

盖勒特，

I'm afraid he's a little out of the infantile Dark Lord stage. We may be into skulking and temperamental early adolescence, a phase of Dark development I know well from my time with you. Unfortunately he has no friend to spend that troubled time with, and I have stretched this hapless metaphor to its snapping point.

恐怕，他已经不是婴幼儿时期的黑魔王了。我们大约是进入了他暗自行动、喜怒无常的青春期早期，一个黑暗的发展阶段，通过和你在一起的那段时间我对此深有体会。不幸的是，他没有朋友一起度过这段糟糕的时期，而我已经把这个不幸的比喻用到极致了。

As for the choice you mention—it weighs on me heavily, yes. My Pensieve has been invaluable. And—at times my heart proves difficult to untangle as well.

至于你的提议——是的，它沉重地压在我的心头。我的冥想盆已经是我的无价之宝。而且——有时，我真的无法解开自己的心结。

One can think almost endlessly on that question, that of Muggles. Though they've answered some of your wonders themselves—the further you look into Muggle artistic criticism, the more you realize that there are valid criteria for judging creative output beyond its practical-magical usefulness. I'm enclosing a text that's been particularly helpful with that, if also dry. One thing I've found particularly difficult to realize, as a wizard, that to a Muggle a life of the mind does, in fact, entail losing any ability to affect reality directly. Yet, for that, it is often surprising how many of them choose such a life, and those who don't, who choose professions of battle and labor where they can change physical reality through their own natural means, are generally considered to be a second class. I'd heard it proposed that they're unconsciously mimicking wizarding society. I think perhaps the cause and effect there is off.

那个关于麻瓜的问题，几乎可以无休无止的思考下去。尽管他们自己已经回答了一些你对他们的疑问——你越深入地了解麻瓜的艺术评论，你就越能意识到，除却魔法的实用性，评判一件造物还有许多合理有效的标准。随信附上可能会对此有所帮助的一篇文章，但愿它和信没被打湿。同时，我发现了一件对于巫师来说很难理解的事，那就是，麻瓜如果仅仅依靠意识是无法直接改变现实的。纵然如此，令人惊讶的是，他们中的很多人都选择过着这种生活；而那些选择战斗和劳动的职业，通过自己的自然手段改变物质现实的人，则往往被看做二等公民。我曾听说这是他们对巫师社会无意识的模仿，但我想这其中的因果关系可能存在偏差。

But, I beg your pardon, I ramble. This topic has been my pet hobby as of late. And, as you've pointed out, I have a Dark Lord to attend to.

不过，请原谅，我扯远了——这个话题是我最近的小爱好。而且，就像你所指出的那样，我还有一个黑魔王要处理。

[enclosure: Northrop Frye, Anatomy of Criticism]

[附：诺思洛普·福莱，批评的剖析]