妒忌（节译）

Envy （Excerpt）

约瑟夫·爱泼斯坦：1937年出生于美国芝加哥，著名的犹太籍作家、社会评论家，有论者称他为“仍然在世的最智慧的美国作家”。曾编辑著名的《美国学者》杂志，后在美国西北大学任教。主要作品有《似是而非的偏见：美国作品论集》（Plausible Prejudices：Essays on American Writing，1985）、《无期徒刑：文学评论集》（Life Sentences．Literary Essays，1997）和《美国式的势利》（Snobbery．The American Version，2002）等。

What has the world designated as enviable？ At a certain level of generality, wealth, beauty, power, talent and skill, knowledge and wisdom, and extraordinary good luck come close to completing the list. （I＇d add youth, more about which presently.） Some of these items are gifts received at birth; some are acquired at the expense of great effort. In the best of all worlds, one would be rich, beautiful, powerful, laden with talent, wise and learned, and （given the foregoing） obviously hugely fortunate. In the actual world, one is considered fairly lucky if in possession of any one of these items.