Greenwich Village set the pattern. Since the Seven-ties a dwelling place for artists and writers who settled there because living was cheap, the village had long enjoyed a dubious reputation for Bohemianism and eccentricity.
格林威治村为他们树立了榜样。自七十年代因其生活消费低廉而成为艺术家和作家聚居地以来,格林威治村在很长时间里一直享有波希米亚式生活和怪僻行为的说不清是好还是坏的名声。
It had also harbored enough major writers, especially in the decade before World War I, to support its claim to being the intellectual center of the nation.
过去,尤其是在第一次世界大战之前的十年中,这地方还曾栖居过许多大作家,因而使它成了名副其实的全美国文人雅士中心。
After the war, it was only natural that hopeful young writers, their minds and pens inflamed against war, Babbittry,
战后,那些脑子里和笔杆子里都充满着对战争、
and "Puritanical" gentility,should flock to the traditional artistic center (where living was still cheap in 1919) to pour out their new-found creative strength, to tear down the old world, to flout the morality of their grandfathers, and to give all to art, love, and sensation.
市侩气和"清教徒式的"道德修养的仇恨的怒火的年轻有为的作家们便自然而然地云集到这个传统的艺术中心(那儿的生活消费在1919年仍很低廉),去倾泻他们那新近获得的创造力,去摧毁旧世界,嘲弄前辈们所信守的道德规范,把自己的一切献给艺术、爱情和感官享受。
Soon they found their imitators among the non-intellectuals.
很快,知识分子阶层以外的人便也开始仿效他们了。
As it became more and more fashionable throughout the country for young persons to defy the law and the conventions and to add their own little matchsticks to the conflagration of "flaming youth", it was Greenwich Village that fanned the flames.
在全国各地,青年人蔑视法律和一切传统习惯,为"燃烧着的青年"的大火添柴加油越来越成为时髦之举,而煽起这场大火的正是格林威治村。
"Bohemian" living became a fad. Each town had its "fast" set which prided itself on its unconventionality , although in reality this self-conscious unconventionality was rapidly becoming a standard feature of the country club class and its less affluent imitators -throughout the nation.
"波希米亚"生活方式已成为人们追求的时尚,每个城镇都有一群"生活放荡者",他们为自己的反传统行为感到自豪。可实际上,这种有意识的反传统行为正迅速在全国范围内成为乡村俱乐部的富人们以及一些不那么富有的效仿者所共有的一个基本特征。