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I was a man who stood in symbolic relations to the art and culture of my age. I had realised this for myself at the very dawn of my manhood, and had forced my age to realise it afterwards. Few men hold such a position in their own lifetime and have it so acknowledged. It is usually discerned, if discerned at all, by the historian, or the critic, long after both the man and his age have passed away. With me it was different. I felt it myself, and made others feel it. Byron was a symbolic figure, but his relations were to the passion of his age and its weariness of passion. Mine were to something more noble, more permanent, of more vital issue, of larger scope[63a].
我曾经是我这个时代艺术文化的象征。我在刚成年时就意识到了这一点，而后又迫使我的时代意识到这一点。很少有人能在有生之年身居这种地位，这么受到承认。这样的象征关系，如果真有人看到的话，那通常也是史学家或批评家；等看到时，那个人，那个时代，已然作古。而我就不同。我自己感觉到了，也使别人感觉到了。拜伦曾是个象征性人物，但他象征的是他那个时代的激情，及其激情的萎顿。我所象征的则更为崇高，更为永恒，更为重大，更为广博[63a]。
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