The Moon And Sixpence 41.6

"I don'twant love. I haven't time for it. It's weakness. I am a man, and sometimes Iwant a woman. When I've satisfied my passion I'm ready for other things. Ican't overcome my desire, but I hate it; it imprisons my spirit; I look forwardto the time when I shall be free from all desire and can give myself withouthindrance to my work. Because women can do nothing except love, they've givenit a ridiculous importance. They want to persuade us that it's the whole oflife. It's an insignificant part. I know lust. That's normal and healthy. Loveis a disease. Women are the instruments of my pleasure; I have no patience withtheir claim to be helpmates, partners, companions. "

I had neverheard Strickland speak so much at one time. He spoke with a passion ofindignation. But neither here nor elsewhere do I pretend to give his exactwords; his vocabulary was small, and he had no gift for framing sentences, sothat one had to piece his meaning together out of interjections, the expressionof his face, gestures and hackneyed phrases.

"Youshould have lived at a time when women were chattels and men the masters ofslaves, " I said.

"It justhappens that I am a completely normal man. "

I could nothelp laughing at this remark, made in all seriousness; but he went on, walkingup and down the room like a caged beast, intent on expressing what he felt, butfound such difficulty in putting coherently.

“我不需要爱情。我没有时间搞恋爱。这是人性的一个弱点。我是个男人，有时候我需要一个女性。但是一旦我的情欲得到了满足，我就准备做别的事了。我无法克服自己的欲望，我恨它，它囚禁着我的精神。我希望将来能有一天，我会不再受欲望的支配，不再受任何阻碍地全心投到我的工作上去。因为女人除了谈情说爱不会干别的，所以她们把爱情看得非常重要，简直到了可笑的地步。她们还想说服我们，叫我们也相信人的全部生活就是爱情。实际上爱情是生活中无足轻重的一部分。我只懂得情欲。这是正常的，健康的。爱情是一种疾病。女人是我享乐的工具，我对她们提出什么事业的助手、生活的侣伴这些要求非常讨厌。”

思特里克兰德从来没有对我一次讲这么多话。他说话的时候带着一肚子的怒气。但是不论是这里或是在其他地方，我都不想把我写下来的假充为他的原话。思特里克兰德的词汇量很少，也没有组织句子的能力，所以一定得把他的惊叹词、他的面部表情、他的手势同一些平凡陈腐的词句串联起来才能弄清楚他的意思。

“你应该生活在妇女是奴隶、男人是奴隶主的时代。”我说。

“偏偏我生来是一个完全正常的男人。”

他一本正经地说了这么一句话，不由得又使我笑起来。他却毫不在意地只顾说下去，一边在屋子里走来走去。但是尽管他全神贯注地努力想把自己感觉到的表达出来，却总是辞不达意。