面貌

弗朗西斯•帕金森•凯丝

这篇文章是女作家凯丝为了在新书广告上刊登相片而引发的一段感想。文中先由林肯的名言谈起容貌对人的影响，进而反观自己脸上烙印的“时间轨迹”，终而肯定人生的经历远比刻意妆点修饰的外表重要。

“忠于自身。”——莎士比亚

我很喜欢一个故事。那是有关林肯内阁推荐职务的。他的一位顾问极力向他推荐一位候选人，但是林肯拒绝接受这个建议。因此，林肯被要求给出原因来。

“我不喜欢那人的面貌长相。”林肯简明扼要地回答到。

“可是那个可怜的人不应对他的长相负责。”推荐人坚持道。

“每个人一旦过了40岁就应该对自己的长相负责。”林肯答复完就转到其他事情的讨论上了。

最近在出版商的游说之下，我拍了一些照片。他提醒我，我已经很久没给他新照片了，我不能总使用一样的姿势呀。我不喜欢拍相的过程，当我看到最近一次痛苦经历的结果后，就不喜欢这些照片了。我把新照片和25年前的一张照片比较之后，想到我要以现在的面貌面对公众时，我的女性虚荣心开始遭受剧痛。我的第一个直觉就是“修饰”一下这些照片，虽然我从不修饰自己的脸或头发，因为我一直认为女人这么做，除了骗自己之外谁也骗不了。当我深思过这些照片之后，我明白这其中蕴含着一个更重要的原则。

四分之一世纪的生活在女人脸上除了留下了一些皱纹及不受欢迎的皱痕之外，还有更多的东西。在这段漫长的时间里，她已经饱尝痛苦与欢乐、开心与伤心以及生生死死。她生存与斗争，失败和成功。她失去又重获信心。作为结果，她应该比年轻时更英明、高雅、有耐心、有度量。她的幽默感应该成熟起来了，见解也应该更为拓展，同情心应该加深了。而所有的这一切都会表现出来。如果她试图擦除这些岁月的痕迹，同时也冒了摧毁经验与性格印痕的危险。

我知道自己比25年前更有经验，也希望我比以前更有个性。所以我按照原样公布了我的照片。

Face and Fortune

Frances Parkinson Keyes

“To thine own self be true. ”

——Shakespeare

There is a story about a proposed appointment in Lincoln's cabinet that I have always liked very much. One of his advisers urgently recommended a candidate and Lincoln declined to follow the suggestion. So he was asked to give his reasons.

“I don't like the man's face. ” Lincoln explained briefly.

“But the poor man is not responsible for his face. ” his advocate insisted.

“Every man over forty is responsible for his face. ” Lincoln replied, and turned to the discussion of other matters.

Recently, at the instigation of my publisher, I had some photographs taken. It was a long time, he reminded me, since I had supplied him with a new one; I could not go on using the same pose indefinitely. I do not enjoy the process of being photographed, and when I saw the results of this latest ordeal, I enjoyed these still less. I compared the new photograph with one that had been taken twenty five years ago, and my feminine vanity suffered an acute pang at the thought of being presented to the public as I am today. My first instinct was to have the prints “touched up, ” though I have never “touched up” my own face or my own hair because I have always maintained that women who did this deceived no one except themselves. As I thoughtfully considered the photographs, I knew that a still more important principle was involved.

A quarter century of living should put a great deal into a woman's face besides a few wrinkles and some unwelcome folds around the chin. In that length of time she has become intimately acquainted with pain and pleasure, joy and sorrow, life and death. She has struggled and survived, failed and succeeded. She has lost and regained faith. And, as a result, she should be wiser, gentler, more patient and more tolerant than she was when she was young. Her sense of humor should have mellowed, her outlook should have widened, her sympathies should have deepened. And all this should show. If she tries to erase the imprint of age, she runs the risk of destroying, at the same time, the imprint of experience and character.

I know I am more experienced than I was a quarter century ago and I hope I have more character. I released the pictures as they were.