演讲背景：1954年，海明威以他的小说《老人与海》等获得了诺贝尔文学奖，海明威由于健康不佳，患有多种疾病，而且精神抑郁，他没有出席在瑞典首都斯德哥尔摩举行的诺贝尔文学奖的颁奖仪式，他只是亲自撰写了一篇演讲辞，同时向斯德哥尔摩发了一份感谢电。而这篇演讲词是由美国驻瑞典大使约翰·卡波特（John M. Cabot）代为宣读的。
Having no facility for speech-making and no command of oratory nor any domination of rhetoric, I wish to thank the administrators of the generosity of Alfred Nobel for this Prize.我不善辞令，缺乏演说的才能，只想感谢阿弗雷德·诺贝尔评奖委员会的委员们慷慨授予我这项奖金。No writer who knows the great writers who did not receive the Prize can accept it other than with humility. There is no need tolist these writers. Everyone here may make his own list according to his knowledge and his conscience.没有一个作家，当他知道在他以前不少伟大的作家并没有获得此项奖金的时候，能够心安理得领奖而不感到受之有愧。这里无须一一列举这些作家的名字。在坐的每个人都可以根据他的学识和良心提出自己的名单来。It would be impossible for me to ask the Ambassador of my country to read a speech in which a writer said all of the things which are in his heart. Things may not be immediately discernible in what a man writes,and in this sometimes he is fortunate; but eventually they are quite clear and by these and the degree of alchemy that he possesses he will endure or be forgotten.要求我国的大使在这儿宣读一篇演说，把一个作家心中所感受到的一切都说尽是不可能的。'一个人作品中的一些东西可能不会马上被人理解，在这点上，他有时是幸运的；但是它们终究会十分清晰起来，根据它们以及作家所具有的点石成金本领的大小，他将青史留名或被人遗忘。Writing, at its best, is a lonely life. Organizations for writers palliate the writer's loneliness but I doubt if they improve his writing. He grows in public stature as he sheds his loneliness and often his work deteriorates. For he does his work alone and if he is a good enough writer he must face eternity, or the lack of it, each day.写作，在最成功的时候，是一种孤寂的生涯。作家的组织固然可以排遣他们的孤独，但是我怀疑它们未必能够促进作家的创作。一个在稠人广众之中成长起来的作家，自然可以免除孤苦寂寥之虑，但他的作品往往流于平庸。而一个在岑寂中孤独工作的作家，假若他确实不同凡响，就必须天天面对永恒的东西，或者面对缺乏永恒的状况。For a true writer each book should be a new beginning where he tries again for something that is beyond attainment. He should always try for something that has never been done or that others have tried and failed. Then sometimes, with great luck, he will succeed.对于一个真正的作家来说，每一本书都应该成为他继续探索那些尚未到达的领域的一个新起点。他应该永远尝试去做那些从来没有人做过或者他人没有做成的事。这样他就有幸会获得成功。How simple the writing of literature would be if it were only necessary to write in another way what has been well written. It is because we have had such great writers in the past that a writer is driven far out past where he can go, out to where no one can help him.如果已经写好的作品，仅仅换一种方法又可以重新写出来那么文学创作就显得太轻而易举了。我们的前辈大师们留下了伟大的业绩，正因为如此，一个普通作家常常被他们逼人的光辉驱赶到远离他可能到达的地方，陷入孤立无援的境地。I have spoken too long for a writer. A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it. Again I thank you.作为一个作家，我讲得已经太多了。作家应当把自己要说的话写下来，而不是讲出来，再一次谢谢大家了。
