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Your little book should have brought with it Sicilian and Arcadian airs, not the pestilent foulness of the criminal dock or the close breath of the convict cell. Nor would such a dedication as you proposed have been merely an error of taste in Art; it would from other points of view have been entirely unseemly. It would have looked like a continuance of your conduct before and after my arrest. It would have given people the impression of being an attempt at foolish bravado: an example of that kind of courage that is sold cheap and bought cheap in the streets of shame. As far as our friendship is concerned Nemesis has crushed us both like flies[55a]. The dedication of verses to me when I was in prison would have seemed a sort of silly effort at smart repartee, an accomplishment on which in your old days of dreadful letter-writing — days never, I sincerely hope for your sake, to return — you used openly to pride yourself and about which it was your joy to boast. It would not have produced the serious, the beautiful effect which I trust — I believe indeed — you had intended. Had you consulted me, I would have advised you to delay the publication of your verses for a little; or, if that proved displeasing to you, to publish anonymously at first, and then when you had won lovers by your song — the only sort of lovers really worth the winning — you might have turned round and said to the world “These flowers that you admire are of my sowing, and now I offer them to one whom you regard as a pariah and an outcast, as my tribute to what I love and reverence and admire in him.” But you chose the wrong method and the wrong moment[55b]. There is a tact in love, and a tact in literature: you were not sensitive to either.
你的小书，本来应该带着西西里岛的神韵和阿卡狄亚的田园风味，而不是罪犯被告席的龌龊和囚牢的恶浊。你提议的这样一种献诗，还不只是艺术品味的错误；从别的观点来看也是完全不恰当的。它会显得像是你在我被捕前后的举止态度的延续。它会给人一种印象，认为这是愚蠢地虚张声势，是那种在人所不齿的偏街小巷被贱卖贱买的勇气。就我们的友谊而言，复仇女神已把你我像苍蝇似的打得稀烂[55a]。在我身陷囹圄时献诗给我，实在像是一种自以为聪明的耍贫嘴，在过去你还只是写信的那些个可怕的日子里——为了你好我真心希望那些日子是一去不复返了——你常常公开以这种耍贫嘴的顶撞功夫为荣，很得意地自我吹嘘。这样做，不会产生我料想——我确实相信——你所属意的那种严肃的、美好的效果。你要是征求了我的意见，我会劝你暂缓一阵出版你的诗集；如果不喜欢这样的话，最初可以先匿名出版，等你的歌为你赢来了仰慕者——唯一一种值得争取的仰慕者——那时你可以转过身来对世界说道：“你们赞赏的这些花是我种的，现在我要把它们献给一个人，这个人你们把他遗弃了、赶走了，我以这些花来表达对他人品的热爱、尊敬和钦慕。” 但是，你选的方式错了，选的时间也不对[55b]。爱是讲策略的，文学是讲策略的：这两样你都不敏感。
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