George Gordon Byron
His terror of getting fat was so great that he reduced his diet1 to the point of absolute starvation. When he added to his weight, even standing was painful, so he resolved to keep down to eleven stone or2 shoot himself. He said everything he swallowed was instantly converted to tallow and deposited on his ribs. He was the only human being I ever met with who had sufficient self-restraint3 and resolution to resist his proneness4 to fatten. As he was always hungry, his merit was the greater. Occasionally he relaxed his vigilance, when he swelled apace. I remember one of his old friends saying, “Byron, how well you are looking!” If he had stopped there it had been well, but when he added, “You are getting fat,” Byron’s brow reddened, and his eyes flashed— “Do you call getting fat looking well, as if I were a hog？” and turning to me he muttered, “The beast, I can hardly keep my hands off5 him.”
— E. J. Trelawney
absolute adj. 完全的
stone n. 英石（重量單位）
convert v. 改變
tallow n. 油脂
deposit v. 使沉積
self-restraint n. 自我克製
resolution n. 決心
proneness n. 傾向；
prone adj. 易於……的
merit n. 功績
vigilance n. 警惕性
apace adv. 迅速地
中譯 肥胖（拜倫）
他對發胖非常恐懼，以致把飲食量減少到完全挨餓的地步。當體重有所增加時，哪怕站著他也會痛苦不堪，所以他決意要把體重降到十一英石（1英石≈6.35千克），否則就開槍了結自己。他說他所吞下的全部食物都會馬上變成脂肪，儲存在肋骨上。要是有誰有足夠的自我克製力並決心抵禦不斷肥胖，那他就是我遇見到的唯一一個有自製力的人了。由於他總是處於饑餓狀態，他減肥的效果更好了。偶爾，他放鬆警惕，這時他就會很快發胖。我記得他的一位老朋友說：“拜倫，你看上去真不錯！”如果他的話到此為止就好了，可他接著說，“你在發胖了。”這時，拜倫的臉色變得通紅，眼睛裏閃著光，說：“你把發胖也說成好看，看來我就像頭公豬啦？”說罷轉過身來對我嘟噥道，“這畜生，我可不會放過他。”
——〔英〕特裏勞尼
原來如此！
George Gordon Byron（拜倫，1788-1824），英國詩人，詩路寬廣，擅長諷刺，在投身希臘民族獨立戰爭中病逝，代表作有《恰爾德·哈羅爾德遊記》（Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, 1812）、《唐璜》（Don Juan, 1819）等。
這則軼事正好是現代不少為愛美而節食減肥的人士的寫照。過分節食往往會使人患上厭食症（anorexia）或暴食症（bulimia）。