Cocksure Women and Hensure Men (自信的女人與溫馴的男人)

It seems to me there are two aspects to women. There is the demure and the dauntless. Men have loved to dwell, in fiction at least, on the demure maiden whose inevitable reply is: Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir! The demure maiden, the demure spouse, the demure mother--this is still the ideal. A few maidens, mistresses and mothers are demure. A few pretend to be. But the vast majority are not. And they don't pretend to be. We don't expect a girl skilfully driving her car to be demure, we expect her to be dauntless. What good would demure and maidenly Members of Parliament be, inevitably responding: Oh, yes, if you please, kind sir! --Though of course there are masculine members of that kidney. --And a demure telephone girl? Or even a demure stenographer? Demureness, to be sure, is outwardly becoming, it is an outward mark of femininity, like bobbed hair. But it goes with inward dauntlessness. The girl who has got to make her way in life has got to be dauntless, and if she has a pretty, demure manner with it, then luck girl. She kills two birds with two stones.

With the two kinds of femininity go two kinds of confidence: There are the women who are cocksure, and the women who are hensure. A really up-to-date woman is a cocksure woman. She doesn't have a doubt nor a qualm. She is the modern type. Whereas the old-fashioned demure woman was sure as a hen is sure, that is, without knowing anything about it. She went quietly and busily clucking around, laying the eggs and mothering the chickens in a kind of anxious dream that still was full of sureness. But not mental sureness. Her sureness was a physical condition, very soothing, but a condition out of which she could easily be startled or frightened.

It is quite amusing to see the two kinds of sureness in chickens. The cockerel is, naturally, cocksure. He crows because he is certain it is day. Then the hen peeps out from under her wing. He marches to the door of the henhouse and pokes out his head assertively: Ah ha! daylight, of course, just as I said! --and he majestically steps down the chicken ladder towards terra firma, knowing that the hens will step cautiously after him, drawn by his confidence. So after him, cautiously, step the hens. He crows again: Ha-ha! here we are! --It is indisputable, and the hens accept it entirely. He marches towards the house. From the house a person ought to appear, scattering corn. Why does the person not appear? The cock will see to it. He is cocksure. He gives a loud crow in the doorway, and the person appears. The hens are suitably impressed but immediately devote all their henny consciousness to the scattered corn, pecking absorbedly, while the cock runs and fusses, cocksure that he is responsible for it all.

So the day goes on. The cock finds a tit-bit, and loudly calls the hens. They scuffle up in henny surety, and gobble the tit-bit. But when they find a juicy morsel for themselves, they devour it in silence, hensure. Unless, of course, there are little chicks, when they most anxiously call the brood. But in her own dim surety, the hen is really much surer than the cock, in a different way. She marches off to lay her egg, she secures obstinately the nest she wants, she lays her egg at last, then steps forth again with prancing confidence, and gives that most assured of all sounds, the hensure cackle of a bird who has laid her egg. The cock, who is never so sure about anything as the hen is about the egg she has laid, immediately starts to cackle like the female of his species. He is pining to be hensure, for hensure is so much surer than cocksure.

Nevertheless, cocksure is boss. When the chicken-hawk appears in the sky, loud are the cockerel's calls of alarm. Then the hens scuffle under the verandah, the cock ruffles his feathers on guard. The hens are numb with fear, they say: Alas, there is no health in us! How wonderful to be a cock so bold! -And they huddle, numbed. But their very numbness is hensurety.

Just as the cock can cackle, however, as if he had laid the egg, so can the hen bird crow. She can more or less assume his cocksureness. And yet she is never so easy, cocksure, as she used to be when she was hensure. Cocksure, she is cocksure, but uneasy. Hensure, she trembles, but is easy.

It seems to me just the same in the vast human farmyard. Only nowadays all the cocks are cackling and pretending to lay eggs, and all the hens are crowing and pretending to call the sun out of bed. If women today are cocksure, men are hensure. Men are timid, tremulous, rather soft and submissive, easy in their very henlike tremulousness. They only want to be spoken to gently. So the women step forth with a good loud cock-a-doodle-do!

The tragedy about cocksure women is that they are more cocky, in their assurance, than the cock himself. They never realize that when the cock gives his loud crow in the morning, he listens acutely afterwards, to hear if some other wretch of a cock dare crow defiance, challenge. To the cock, there is always defiance, challenge, danger and death on the clear air; or the possibility thereof.

But alas, when the hen crows, she listens for no defiance or challenge. When she says cock-a-doodle-do! then it is unanswerable. The cock listens for an answer, alert. But the hen knows she is unanswerable. Cock-a-doodle-do! and there it is, take it or leave it!

And it is this that makes the cocksureness of women so dangerous, so devastating. It is really out of scheme, it is not in relation to the rest of things. So we have the tragedy of cocksure women. They find, so often, that instead of having laid an egg, they have laid a vote, or an empty ink-bottle, or some other absolutely unhatchable object, which means nothing to them.

It is the tragedy of the modern woman. She becomes cocksure, she puts all her passion and energy and years of her life into some effort or assertion, without ever listening for the denial which she ought to take into count. She is cocksure, but she is a hen all the time. Frightened of her own henny self, she rushes to mad lengths about votes, or welfare, or sports, or business: she is marvellous, out-manning the man. But alas, it is all fundamentally disconnected. It is all an attitude, and one day the attitude will become a weird cramp, a pain, and then it will collapse. And when it has collapsed, and she looks at the eggs she has laid, votes, or miles of typewriting, years of business efficiency --suddenly, because she is a hen and not a cock, all she has done will turn into pure nothingness to her. Suddenly it all falls out of relation to her basic henny self, and she realizes she has lost her life. The lovely henny surety, the hensureness which is the real bliss of every female, has been denied her: she had never had it. Having lived her life with such utmost strenuousness and cocksureness, she has missed her life altogether. Nothingness!



據我看來女人有兩種類型，即矜持端莊型和勇敢無畏型。男人愛戀溫馴的女孩子，至少在小說中是如此，因為她總愛回答：噢，是的，親愛的先生，如果你願意！矜持端莊的女孩子、妻子、母親――這依然是理想中的女性。有些女孩子、家庭主婦和母親是矜持端莊的，有些是故作如此，但大部分都不是，她們也不假裝是。我們希望一個女孩子熟練駕駛汽車時不要太矜持端莊，而應是大膽無畏的。如果議會的議員是個溫馴淑女，並總是回答：「噢，是的，親愛的先生，如果你願意！」――當然儘管也有那種性格的男議員。――如果接線女孩是溫馴嫻靜的，或甚至速記員是溫馴嫻靜的，那會有什麼好處呢？溫柔謙卑當然在外表上很吸引人，它是女性氣質的外部特徵，就如同女人剪的短髮一樣。 但外表的矜持端莊與內心的勇敢無畏卻是並存的。為生計所打拚的女孩子不得不勇敢無畏，如果她舉止又溫馴嫻淑，那她就是個幸運的女孩。她兩方面都很成功。

存在這兩種類型的女性氣質的同時也存在著兩種類型的自信：自信外露的女人和溫馴謙卑的女人。一個真正的當代女性是一個自信幹練的女人，她不會疑慮重重、恐懼緊張，她是現代型的。而傳統的溫馴女人的自信就如同母雞的自信一樣，也就是說，是毫不自知的。她安靜而忙碌地四處咯咯叫著，產蛋，撫育小雞，帶著一種仍然充滿自信的焦急的夢想。但這自信不是精神上的，而是一種身體狀態，非常鎮靜，但是當脫離這種狀態時她會很容易受驚嚇。

在雞身上看到這兩種類型的自信非常有趣。小公雞自然是極其自信的。他喔喔地叫起來，因為他確信天亮了。然後母雞躲在自己翅膀底下向外偷看。他走到母雞的雞舍門口，自信地探進頭去：啊哈！當然就像我說的，天亮了！――然後他威嚴地從雞舍的梯子走到地面上，他知道母雞被他的自信吸引，並將小心翼翼地跟在後面。於是，果真如此，在他後面，跟著的是小心翼翼的母雞。他又啼叫開了：哈哈！我們來了！――這種自信不容置疑，而母雞也完全接受。他朝房子走去。應該有人從房子里出來撒些穀物的。為什麼這人還沒出現呢？公雞要查看一下。他是自信滿滿的。他在門口一聲高啼，人就出現了。母雞對此欽佩極了，但很快就把她們所有的母雞意識投入到撒落的穀物上，專心致志地啄起食來。這時公雞在一旁不停地走動，相信他有義務對此負責。

如此日復一日。公雞發現了一點精美的食物，就大聲呼喚母雞。母雞帶著特有的安詳自信拖著腳走來，大口大口地吃著食物。但當是她們自己發現了一小塊美食時，就會悄悄地很溫馴地吞下去。當然，除非有小雞在時，她們會很焦急地呼喚小雞。但是母雞內斂的溫馴卻以不同的方式顯得比公雞更具自信。她走過去產蛋，堅持安頓好她想要的巢，終於產下蛋來，然後再神氣十足地走上前去發出最自信的聲音，那是產下蛋來的充滿自信的母雞的咯咯聲。公雞對任何東西從來沒有像母雞產下蛋時那麼自信過，因此他立即開始學他的同類母雞一樣咯咯叫起來。他渴望表現出母雞一樣的自信，因為母雞的自信比公雞的要有力得多。

儘管如此，公雞的自信具有領導風度。當抓小雞的老鷹出現在天空上時，是公雞大聲啼叫鳴警。然後母雞笨拙地走到廊檐下，公雞豎起羽毛，保衛她們。母雞因為害怕而麻木了，她們喃喃道：「哎呀，我們身體沒那麼健壯啊！要是成為一隻勇敢的公雞該多了不起啊！――她們渾身麻木，擠成一堆。但她們的麻木正是母雞的本性。

母雞也能喔喔叫的，就如同公雞也能咯咯叫著像他生了蛋一樣。母雞可以多多少少地裝出公雞的自信。但她表現出公雞般自信時，卻不如溫馴謙卑時感到自在。她的確很自信，但不自在。在她瑟瑟發抖時表現出溫馴謙卑時，卻感覺很舒服。

我認為在廣闊的人類這個農院里，情況亦然。只是如今所有的公雞都咯咯叫，假裝會下蛋，所有母雞都喔喔啼，假裝叫太陽起床。如果說現在的女人自信外露，那男人則溫柔順從。男人膽小發抖，非常溫馴，並如母雞一樣瑟瑟發抖時才感到自在。他需要別人輕輕地對他講話才行。那麼女人就會走上前，喔喔地大聲啼叫起來。

可悲的是，自信外露的女人在自信時比公雞本身表現更趾高氣揚。她們從未意識到，當公雞清晨高聲啼叫時，他接著是要敏銳地聆聽，聽聽有沒有其他討厭的公雞膽敢對抗著啼叫來挑釁。對於公雞，潔凈的空氣中總是存在著或有可能存在著對抗、挑戰、危險和死亡。

哎呀，但當母雞喔喔叫時，她沒有傾聽有無對抗還是挑戰。當她喔喔啼叫時，是無責任心的。公雞警惕地傾聽一種回應，但母雞知道她是無責任心的，喔喔喔！我叫就叫了，聽不聽隨便你們！

正是這個原因使得女人的自信如此危險，如此具有毀滅性。它真地是超出常規之外，不與外界協調。因此我們發現了自信女人的悲劇。她們經常發現她們產下的不是蛋，而是選票、空墨水瓶或其他完全孵不出東西的玩意兒，所有這些對她們來說毫無價值。

這就是現代女人的悲劇。她如公雞一般自信，她把她所有的熱情、精力和時間投入到某項事業或追求中，而不傾聽那些她理應考慮的反對意見。她如公雞一般自信，但她始終只是一隻母雞。她因為懼怕自己如母雞一樣的身份，就很極端地拚命投入選舉、福利事業、體育事業或商業當中去：她相當出色，勝過男人。哎呀，但情況完全亂了套。它完全是一種人生觀，某天這種觀念將不可思議地成為一種束縛，一種痛苦，然後這種觀點會倒塌。當這種觀點倒塌時，她瞅瞅她產下的蛋，即選票、或長長的打字稿，多年的公司績效――突然間，因為她是一隻母雞，而不是公雞，她所做的一切對她來說都將毫無意義。瞬間這一切與她如母雞一樣的本性毫無關係，她意識到她已失去了自己的生活。那可愛的母雞般的自信，即作為每個女人的真正幸福的溫馴謙卑已拋棄了她：她從來就沒有擁有過。儘管她用最大的努力和公雞般的自信生活，卻完全錯過了自己真正的生活。一切毫無價值！

在這篇文章里，作者勞倫斯主要是為了闡述這樣的觀點：現代女性並不幸福，因為她們一般要在社會中扮演和男人一樣的角色。勞倫斯不是直截了當地表達自己的觀點，相反，他先把自己的觀點隱藏起來，開篇區分兩類女性：矜持端莊型的(demure)和勇敢無畏型的(dauntless)，進而指出現代女性多屬後者。這時作者沒有強調哪一類型更好，反而說在現代社會中，女性需要勇敢無畏。這樣勞倫斯先提出我們大多數人都願意接受的觀點，以緩和讀者開始的對抗情緒。接下來的幾段中，作者把人類生活與雞的生活進行類比，這些雞有著人類才具有的各種感覺和思想。其中使用了cocksure這個詞，並創造了hensure一詞與之對應，語言生動準確又頗富情趣。 其實作者是在不動聲色地為陳述自己的觀點鋪路。最後作者筆鋒一轉，從農家雞院轉到廣闊的人類舞台。作者在表達觀點時用詞生動形象，如「她們產下的不是蛋而是選舉權、空墨水瓶或其他完全孵不出東西的玩意兒，所有這些對她們都毫無價值。」女人與生俱來溫馴謙卑，受人保護，但現代社會卻迫使她們必須和男人一樣勇敢無畏，為此她們必須拚命努力，到頭來卻感覺不到真正的幸福，因為她們逆自然規律而行事。作者通過詳細的描寫，得出男人和女人的本質和職責不同，因而相互不可替換的觀點。不管讀者是否同意這樣的觀點，但勞倫斯生動有趣的寫作手法、縝密高超的說理技巧卻是值得回味的。

轉自英語學習