马歇尔?普鲁斯特 1871-1922原名叫Valentin Louis Georges Eugène Marcel Proust,汉译大概为“瓦伦廷?路易斯?乔治?尤金?马歇尔?普鲁斯特”,不过,人们一般都只称他为马歇尔?普鲁斯特。他是法国人,因为写出了这本《追忆似水年华》而一跃成为法国*有名的小说家。同时,他也是文学评论家、散文作家。《追忆似水年华》以七大部分,于1913年到1927年陆续出版。现在马歇尔?普鲁斯特被公认为20世纪*伟大的作家之一。
For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not even time to say "I''m going to sleep." And half an hour later the thought that it was time to go to sleep would
awaken me; I would try to put away the book which, I imagined, was still in my hands, and to blow out the light; I had been thinking all the time, while I was asleep, of what I had just been reading, but my thoughts had run into a channel of their own, until I myself seemed actually to have become the subject of my book: a church, a quartet, the rivalry between Fran?ois I and Charles V. This impression would persist for some moments after I was awake; it did not disturb my mind, but it lay like scales upon my eyes and prevented them from registering the fact that the candle was no longer burning. Then it would begin to seem unintelligible, as the thoughts of a former existence must be to a reincarnate spirit; the subject
of my book would separate itself from me, leaving me free to choose whether I would form part of it or no; and at the same time my sight would return and I would be astonished to find myself in a state of darkness, pleasant and restful enough for the eyes, and even more, perhaps, for my mind, to which it appeared
incomprehensible, without a cause, a matter dark indeed.