But he was quickly bored if the conversation ran down in gossip or trivialitiestriviality n.琐事 . The personnel at his parties naturally changed over the course of years， but from Bertram Brooker and Wilson Knight in the thirties to Marshall Mcluhan and Douglas Grant in the sixties， he never wavered in his affection for friends who could talk， and talk with spirit， content， and something to say.
His entire poetic careercareer n.(原意：道路， 轨道)事业， 生涯， 速度 was spent as a fullname member of the teaching staff of Victoria College. He never made a song and dance about being “creativecreative adj.创造性的 ，” and he never felt the need of compensating for the way he earned his living by issuing antiacademicpronouncements.
The College took unobstrusive measures to make it easier for him to get on with his work， but it could not have helped beyond a certain point.
然而，假如话题转到说三道四或琐屑小事，奈德马上就会感到厌烦。他邀请的客人自然会随岁月的变迁而有不同，但从三十年代的贝特朗·布鲁克和威尔逊·奈特到六十年代的马歇尔·麦克卢汉与道格拉斯·格兰特，他对那些善于言谈、言之有物而又声情并茂的朋友的感情从来都没有动摇过。
奈德从事诗歌创作的生涯都是在维多利亚学院任专职教员期间。他从未声称自己如何“富有创造性”，也从没觉得有必要发表反学术界的言论来弥补自己在教学方面的缺陷。
维多利亚学院曾悄悄地采取过一些措施为他的创作提供方便，可惜这些有限的措施收效不大。
His reputation as absentminded and as a complete duffer in practical affairs was carefully staged by himself， in order to stay clear of the enormous complication of committees and similar substitutes for thought and action that are such a bane of university life.
He taught students， and worked harder to get to know them than anyone on the staff. (Even after his retirement he gave luncheonluncheon n.午宴， 正式的午餐 parties for the students in the classes he had previously taught.) He worked with colleagues， to such effect that one came to recognize a special kind of affectionateaffectionate adj.亲爱的， 挚爱的 smile that preceded any reference to Ned.
But he stuck to the essentials of university work， to teaching and his own writing， and as a result it was hardly noticed that he was an academicacademic adj.学院的， 理论的 poet.
其实，所谓心不在焉的作风以及对日常杂务工作毫无办法的名声都是他自己精心编造出来的，目的就是为了避免卷入纷繁复杂的委员会之类的机构。他认为这些机构代替了思想和行动，其实就是大学生活的祸害。
可是在教学当中，他却比其他的教师都下功夫去了解自己的学生（即使在退休后，他还为自己以前教过的学生举办过午餐会）。他与同事合作，彼此亲密无间，以致一提到奈德，大家脸上便露出了非常亲切的笑容。
奈德恪守大学制定的各项基本职责，坚持教学和科研，于是，很少有人注意到他其实是一位学术界的诗人。
He was also a Canadian writer without either trying to be one or trying not to be one. Not many Canadian writers would really be content to be popularpopular adj.通俗的， 流行的， 受欢迎的 inside the country and largely unknown outside it. I am not saying that he was wholly content with this either—nor am I.
But he did realize that he was addressing a specific community， and he showed extraordinary integrity in addressing also the general reader in that communitycommunity n.公社， 团体， 社会， (政治)共同体， 共有， instead of writing for other poets.
He was never in fashion， and he never tried to be out of fashion， and as a result he has introduced hundreds of Canadians to poetic experienceexperience n.vt.经验， 体验， 经历， 阅历 who would not otherwise have got it， or who would have tried to get it from some phony antiintellectual doggerelistdoggerelist n.打油诗人.
他还是一位加拿大作家，尽管他并不刻意追求，但也不努力去回避。加拿大的作家中，很少有人会满足于只在本国内受欢迎而在国外默默无闻的境况。我并不是说他对此感到满足——连我都不满意。
但是他懂得写诗是为了一个特定的社会。他一成不变地为其中的普通读者，十分忠诚地以他们为创作对象而不是为了其他诗人而写作。
