(版主執筆翻譯英文)

Vanity Fair

As the manager of the Performance sits before the curtain on the boards and looks into the Fair, a feeling of profound melancholy comes over him in his survey of the bustling place. There is a great quantity of eating and drinking, making love and jilting, laughing and the contrary, smoking, cheating, fighting, dancing and fiddling; there are bullies pushing about, bucks ogling the women, knaves picking pockets, policemen on the look-out, quacks (OTHER quacks, plague take them!) bawling in front of their booths, and yokels looking up at the tinselled dancers and poor old rouged tumblers, while the light-fingered folk are operating upon their pockets behind. Yes, this is VANITY FAIR; not a moral place certainly; nor a merry one, though very noisy. Look at the faces of the actors and buffoons when they come off from their business; and Tom Fool washing the paint off his cheeks before he sits down to dinner with his wife and the little Jack Puddings behind the canvas. The curtain will be up presently, and he will be turning over head and heels, and crying, “How are you?”

《浮華世界序言》

劇團領班坐在舞台的布幕前面，冷眼看著市集上紛擾的芸芸眾生，心中不覺泛起一股深沉的憂鬱感。市集上有人大啖美食、狂飲美酒，有人尋歡作樂，有人拋棄舊愛，有人不斷嘻笑；相反的，有人猛抽煙袋，有人作弊行騙，有人打架鬧事，有人翩翩起舞，更有人欺瞞詭詐。有些人是橫行霸道的粗漢，有些則是色瞇瞇的紈絝子弟，有些人是專門行竊的扒手，甚至有些人是四處巡邏的警察。不僅如此，市集上亦可見江湖郎中 (還有那些不得好死的庸醫！) 在自己攤子前，扯起破嗓子嚷嚷。身著亮片服裝的舞女賣力跳著舞，粉末登場的可憐老頭使勁翻著跟斗，台下的鄉巴佬目不轉睛地瞧著，絲毫未察覺手腳不乾淨的扒手正在掏他們的口袋。沒錯，這裡就是「浮華世界」！熱鬧歸熱鬧，卻是個道德淪喪、令人生厭的地方。瞧瞧那些戲子和丑角下臺後的面孔。你看，傻子湯姆剛剛卸妝，準備跟老婆和肥都都的傻兒子在後台吃飯。不久之後，開場作戲，湯姆又會在台上連翻觔斗，大聲高喊：「嘿，大家好！」