Jack London
...I was not afraid of work. I loved hard work.
...as luck would have it,1 I found an employer. ...I thought I was learning a trade. In reality, I had displaced two men. I thought he was making an electrician out of me;2 as a matter of fact, he was making fifty dollars per month out of me. The two men I had displaced had received forty dollars each per month; I was doing the work of both for thirty dollars per month.
This employer worked me nearly to death. ...Too much work sickened me. I did not wish ever to see work again. I fled from work. I became a tramp, begging my way from door to door,3 wandering over the United States and sweating bloody sweats in slums and prisons.
— Jack London
rade n. 手艺
electrician n. 电工
fled (flee) v. 逃走
sweat v/n. 流汗；汗
bloody adj. 血污的
slum n. 贫民窟
中译 流浪汉（杰克·伦敦）
……我不怕干活，我喜欢干艰苦的活儿。
……我还算走运，找到了一位雇主。我以为我要学一门手艺了。事实上我干了两个人的活。我想，他要培养我成为一名电工。而实际上，他每月从我身上赚取五十美元。我顶替的那两个人的工资是每人每月四十美元。我干的是两个人的活，每月只得三十美元。
这个雇主让我干得差点累死。过于沉重的工作使我厌烦。
我不想再碰工作了。我逃走不干了，成了流浪汉，挨户乞讨，浪迹整个美国。血腥的汗水流淌在贫民窟和监狱里。
——〔美〕杰克·伦敦
原来如此！
Jack London（杰克·伦敦，1876-1916），美国作家，出身于贫穷家庭，小时候上学时就不得不做工谋生。他当过水手、洗衣店小工、金矿工人等，饱尝颠沛流离之苦。他曾以流浪罪被投入监狱。作品以浪漫主义手法描写争取生存的原始斗争。有自传体小说《马丁·伊登》（Martin Eden, 1909）及小说《荒野的呼唤》（The Call of the Wild, 1903）、《铁蹄》（The Iron Heel, 1907）等。
本篇是作者回忆过去的自述中的一个片段，以亲身经历揭露了资本主义社会劳动人民被残酷剥削的情况。他丰富的经历为他的文学创作提供了可贵的素材。他的作品反映了当时社会的种种矛盾。
增值英语
1 ...as luck would have it
这是一个惯用语，意为“仿佛是命运的安排”，既作 fortunately（幸运的是……）解，又作 unfortunately（不幸的是……）解：
As luck would have it, we arrived just as they were leaving.
事情很巧，他们刚要走，我们就到了。
He was a young keeper, as luck would have it, and new to the business. 不幸的是，他是个年轻的管理员，对职务还很生疏。
2 making an electrician out of me
句式 make...（out） of... 把……训练（或培养）成为……：
He made a teacher of his son. 他把他的儿子培养成为教师。
You’ll never make a musician of that boy. 你要把这男孩培养成音乐家是不可能的。
3 begging my way from door to door
句式 from door to door 逐门逐户：
She sells face cream from door to door. 她挨家挨户兜售润肤膏。
句式 由此而产生形容词 door-to-door（挨家挨户的；送货上门的），如：
a door-to-door salesman 挨户兜售的推销员
door-to-door delivery 送货上门
类似形式的形容词有：
a head-to-head competition 势均力敌的竞赛
a wall-to-wall carpet 铺满整个地板的地毯
名言
You can’t wait for inspiration.
You have to go after it with a club. —Jack London
灵感不是等来的，而是用棍棒追求得来的。——杰克·伦敦
