在七十寿辰宴会上的讲话（1/1）
On His Seveh Birthday
乔治·萧伯纳 / Gee Bernard Shaw
乔治·萧伯纳（1856—1950），爱尔兰作家、戏剧家和政论家，出身于都柏林一个公务员之家，曾当过抄写员、会计，赴伦敦后开始从事创作。1925年获诺贝尔文学奖，他的主要作品有《巴巴拉上校》《苹果车》《圣女贞德》等。
Acethe Hole
Uand these new words before you read this article.
1.nstitutional [,k?nst?tu:??n?l] adj.宪法规定的，合乎宪法的；宪法的；体质上的，生来的
2.proise [k?pr?aiz]n.妥协，折中方法
3.capitalis [k?pit?liz?]n.资本主义（制度）；资本（或财富）的拥有；资本（私人占有和生产盈利）的支配地位
4.proulgate [pr??l,geit] v.宣扬（某事物）；传播；公布，颁布（法令、新法律等）
5.absurdity [?bs?:d?t?] n.极端无理性，悖理；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为
Of te years the public have been tryg to tackleevery way they possibly , and failg to ake anythg of it they have turas a great an.This is a dreadful fate to overtake anybody.There has been a distct attept to do it aga now, and for that reason I absotely decle to say anythg about the celebration of y seveh birthday.But when the Labor Party, y old friends the Labor Party, vitedhere,I khat I should be all right.
Now, however, we have built up a stitutional Party.We have built it up on a socialistic basis.My friend, Mr.Sidney Webb, Mr.Maald and yself said defitely at the begng that what we had got to do was to ake the Socialist Party a nstitutional party to whiy respectable God-fearg an uld belong without the slightest proise of his respectability.We got rid of all those traditions that is why Governntsthe present day are ore afraid ofthan they were of any of the Radical people.
Our position is a perfectly siple one and we have the great advantage of uandg our position.We oppose socialis to capitalis.
A to the capitalists, there will be a guarao the world that every anthe untry would get a job.They didn’t ntend it would be a well-paid job, becae if it was well paid a an would save up enough oo s w theweek, and they were detered to keep a an w the whole ti on a bare subsistence wage—and, oher hand, divide an auution of capital.
They said capitalis not only secured this for the w an, but, by surg fabulo wealththe hands of a sall css of people, they would save oney whether they liked it or not and would have to vest it.That is capitalis, and this Governnt is always terferg with capitalis.Instead of givg a an a job or lettg hi starve they are givg hi doles after akg sure he has paid for the first.They are givg capitalists subsidies and akg all sorts utions that are breakg up their own syste.All the ti they are dog it, and we are tellg the it is breakg up, they don’t uand.
We saycriticis of capitalis: Your syste has never kept its proises for one sgle day shildren starve.You have stood produ on its head.Instead of begng with the thgs the nation needs ost, you are begng at jt the opposite end.We say distribution has bee sly ridiculo that there are only o people out of the forty-seven illion peoplethis untry rove of the present syste of distribution one is the Duke of Northubernd and the other is Lord Banbury.
We are opposed to that theory.Socialis, which is perfectly clear and unistakable, says the thg you have got to take care of is your distribution.We have to beg with that, and private property, if it standsthe way of good distribution, has got to go.
A an who holds public property t hold it on the pub1idition on which, for stance, I carry y walkg stick.I a not allowed to do what I like with it.I t not knock you on the head with it.We say that if distribution goes wrong, everythg else goes wrion, orals, governnt.And we say, therefore （this is the whole ang of our socialis），we t beg with distribution and take all the necessary steps.
I thk we are keepg itour ds becae our bess is to take care of the distribution of wealththe world and I tell you, as I have told you before, that I dont thk there are o n, or perhaps one an,our forty-seven illion roves of the existg distribution of wealth.I will go even further and say that you will not fd a sgle personthe whole of the civilized world who agrees with the existg syste of the distribution of wealth.It has been reduced to a bnk absurdity.
I thk the day will e when we will be able to ake the dist beeen the capitalists and .We t get certa leadg ideas before the people.We should annouhat we are not gogfor what was the old-fashioned idea of redistribution, but the redistribution of e.Let it always be a question of e.
I have been very happy here to night.I entirely uand the dist ade by our Chairan tonight when he said you holdsocial estee and a certa aount of personal affe.I a not a senttal an, but I a not sensible to all that.I know the vae of all that, and it gives , now that I have e to the age of seventy （it will not a and I a sayg it for the first ti），a great feelg of pleasure that Isay what a good any people ’t say.