林语堂译《幽梦影》等文章
人生——之一
情之一字，所以维持世界；才之一字，所以粉饰乾坤。
*（吴）雨若曰：世界原从情字生出。有夫妇然后有父子，有父子然后有兄弟，有兄弟然后有朋友，有朋友然后有君臣。
Passion holds up the bottom of the universe, and the poet gives it a new dress.
Yujo: All human life begins with love between man and woman, from which the other human
relationships such as between father and son and between brothers follow.
人生——之二
情必近于痴而始真，才必兼乎趣而始化。
（陆）云士曰：真情种，真才子，能为此言。
（顾）天石曰：才兼乎趣，非心斋不足当之。
（尤）慧珠曰：余情而痴则有之，才而趣则未能也。
Love is not true love without a form of madness. A literary artist must have zest in life to enter
into nature's spirit.
Yunshih: Here speaks a born lover and artist.
Tienshih: Shintsai really understands the zest of life besides being a literary artist.
[Miss] Hueichu: I think I know the passion of love, but I have not the zest combined with talent.
人生——之三
律己宜带秋气，处世宜带春气。
One should discipline on
人生——之四
能闲世人之所忙者，方能忙世人之所闲。
Only those who take leisurely what the people of the world are busy about can be busy about what
the people of the world take leisurely.
人生——之五
人莫乐于闲，非无所事事之谓也。闲则能读书，闲则能游名胜，闲则能交益友，闲则能饮酒，
闲则能著书。天下之乐，孰大于是？
（陈）隺山曰：然则正是极忙处。
（尤）悔庵曰：昔人云，忙里偷闲，闲则而偷，盗亦有道矣。
（李）若金曰：闲固难得，有此五者，方不负闲字。
Of all things on
freedom to read, to travel, to make friends, to drink, and to write. Where is there a greater pleasure
than this?
Hoshan: Then you are really busy.
Huei-an: The proverb says, “Steal leisure from business.” It can be stolen methodically.
Jochin: Those five things make leisure really worthwhile.
人生——之六
妾美不如妻贤，钱多不如境顺。
（张）竹坡曰：此所谓竿头欲进步者。然妻不贤安用妾美，钱不多那得境顺。
（张）迂庵曰：此盖谓两者不可得兼，舍一而取一者也。又曰：世固有钱多而境不顺者。
I think it is better to have an understanding wife than a pretty concubine, and better to have peace of mind than wealth.
[Nephew] Chupo: There is no limit to desires. How can on
Yu-an: He means a choice of alternatives. And there are indeed people with plenty of money but no peace of mind.
人生——之七
值太平世，生湖山郡，官长廉静，家道优裕，娶妻贤淑，生子聪慧，人生如此,可云全福。
（许）筱林曰：若以 直 愚蠢之?当之，则负却造物。
（江）含噅曰：此是黑面老子，要思量做鬼处。
（吴）岱观曰：过屠门而大嚼，虽不得肉，亦觉快意。
（李）荔园曰：贤淑聪慧，尤贵永年，否则福不全。
The perfect life: to live in a world of peace in a lake district where the magistrate is good and honest, and to have an understanding wife and bright children.
Shiaolin: It would be a pity to have a vulgarian enjoy all this.
Hanchen: Here is a black-faced Laotse thinking of becoming a devil.
Taikuan: Yes, and rather like imagining eating a juicy steak before a butcher's shop window!
Liyuan: An understanding wife, yes, but also a long life. Otherwise the blessing is not complete.
人生——之八
有功夫读书，谓之福；有力量济人，谓之福；有学问著述，谓之福；无是非到耳，谓之福；有多闻直谅之友，谓之福。
（杨）圣藻曰：在我者可必，在人者不能必。
（王）丹麓曰：备此福者，惟我心斋。
（李）水樵曰：五福骈臻固佳，苟得其半者，亦不得谓之无福。
（倪）永清曰：直谅之友，富贵人久拒之矣，何心斋反求之也？
Blessed are those who have time for reading, money to help others, the learning and ability to write, who are not bothered with gossip and disputes, and who have learned friends frank with advice.
Shengtsao: We can take care of those things which depend on ourselves, but not those which depend on others.
Tanlu: Shintsai has them all.
Shuichiao: I would be satisfied with half of these five.
Yungching: I thought successful men never wanted friends with frank advice. Shintsai asks for them instead!
人生——之九
不治生产，其后必致累人；专务交游，其后必致累己。
圣藻曰：晨钟夕磬，发人深省。
（冒）巢民曰：若在我，虽累己累人，亦所不悔。
（宗）子发曰：累己犹可，若累人则不可矣。
含徵曰：今之人未必肯受你累，还是自家隐些的好。
Those who despise money end up by sponging on their friends; those who mix freely with all sorts of people will eventually hurt themselves.
Shengtsao: What a profound warning!
Tsaomin: For myself, I do not regret it on
Tsefa: It does make a difference, though, whether you hurt others or on
Hanchen: Nowadays people do not welcome being sponged up on. So it is better to be careful.
人生——之十
胸中小不平，可以酒消之；世间大不平，非剑不能消也。
（周）星远曰：看剑饮杯长，一切不平皆破除矣。
迂庵曰：苍苍者未必肯以太阿假人，似不能代作空空儿也。
悔庵曰：龙泉太阿，汝知我者，岂止苏子美以一斗读《汉书》耶？
A small injustice can be drowned by a cup of wine; a great injustice can be vanquished on
Shingyuan: So you drown all sorrows by holding a cup of wine with a sword in sight.
Yu-an:I do not think the Blessed Lord would easily give such a sword to men. It might raise more trouble than it can settle.
Huei-an: O, Lungchuan [famous wine] and Tai-o [famous sword], trust me! I can handle both!
人生——之十一
多情者必好色，而好色者未必尽属多情；红颜者必薄命，而薄命者未必尽属红颜；能诗者必好酒，而好酒者未必尽属能诗。
竹坡曰：情起于色者，则好色也，非情也。祸起于颜色者，则薄命在红颜，否则，亦止曰命而已矣。
（洪）秋士曰：世亦有能诗而不好酒者。
A great lover loves women, but on
Chupo: Passion which is based on sex must after all be distinguished from true love. Tragedy sometimes comes from being a great beauty, but sometimes has to connection with it, but is just fate.
Chiushih: There are poets who cannot drink.
人生——之十二
有青山方有绿水，水惟借色于山；有美酒便有佳诗，诗亦乞灵于酒。
（李）圣许曰：有青山绿水，乃可酌美酒而咏佳诗，是诗酒亦发端于山水也。
Green hills come with blue waters which borrow their blueness from the hills; good wine produces beautiful poems, which draw sustenance from the spirits.
Shengshu: Green hills and blue waters make it possible to enjoy wine and poetry. So everything goes back to the hills and waters.
人生——之十三
酒可好不可骂座，色可好不可伤生，财可好不可昧心，气可好不可越理。
（袁）中江曰：如灌夫使酒，文园病肺，昨夜南塘一出，马上挟章台柳归，亦自无妨，觉愈见英雄本色也。
Drink by all means, but do not make drunken scenes; have women by all means, but do not destroy your health; work for money by all means, but do not let it blot out your conscience; get mad about something but do not go beyond reason.
Chungchiang: There are some who go to excess and seem the more genuinely great for it.
人生——之十四
天下无书则已，有则必当读；无酒则已，有则必当饮；无名山则已，有则必当赏玩；无才子佳人则已，有则必当爱慕怜惜。
弟木山曰：谈何容易，即我家黄山，几能得一到耶？
If there were no books, then nothing need be said about it, but since there are books, they must be read; if there were no wine, then nothing need be said. But since there is, it must be drunk; since there are famous mountains, they must be visited; since there are flowers and the moon, they must be enjoyed; and since there are poets and beauties they must be loved and protected.
[Younger brother] Mushan: Easier said than done. There is the famous Yellow Mountain right in our district. But how many have visited it?
人生——之十五
不得已而谀之者，宁以口，毋以笔；不可耐而骂人者，亦宁以口，毋以笔。
（张）豹人曰：但恐未必能自主耳。
竹坡曰：上句立品，下句立德。
迂庵曰：匪惟立德，亦以免祸。
天石曰：今人笔不谀人，更无用笔之处矣。心斋不知此苦，还是唐宋以上人耳。
云士曰：古笔铭曰：“毫毛茂茂，陷水可脱，陷文不活。”正此谓也。亦有谄以笔而实讥之者，亦有以笔而若誉之者，总以不笔为高。
If on
Paojen: You have no control over it sometimes.
Chupo: The first half of the sentence helps on
Yu-an: It not on
Tienshih: There are writers today who find no other use for their pen except writing eulogies. Shintsai is not aware of the circumstances which force them to do it. He lives mentally in the Golden Age.
Yunshih: An ancient inscription on a pen says, “The little hair-brush. You can get out when dipped in water, but when you get into writing, you may be crushed.” There are eulogies with tongue-in-check sarcasms and apparent denunciations which cover real praise. But the best thing is not to commit it to paper at all.
人生——之十六
万事可忘，难忘者名心一段；千般易淡，未淡者美酒三杯。
竹坡曰：是闻鸡起舞，酒后耳热气象。
丹麓曰：予性不耐饮，美酒亦易淡，所最难忘者，名耳。
云士曰：惟恐不好名，丹麓此言，具见真处。
One can forget everything except the thought of fame, and learn to be cool toward everything except three cups of wine.
Chupo: Now I hear someone who is feeling hot behind the ears and who wants to get up at dawn and practice fencing.
Tanlu: I can't drink, but I cannot forget the thought of fame.
Yunshih: It is not a bad occupation, this thought about fame. Tanlu is sincere.
人生——之十七
物之能感人者，在天莫如月，在乐莫如琴，在动物莫如鹃，在植物莫如柳。
Of all things in the universe, those that move men most deeply are the moon2 in heaven, the chin in music, the cuckoo among birds, and the willow among plants.
人生——之十八
阅《水浒传》，至鲁达打镇关西，武松打虎，因思人生必有一桩极快意事，方不枉在生一场。即不能有其事，亦须著得一种得意之书，庶几无憾耳。
竹坡曰：此等事必须无意中方做得来。
弟木山曰：兄若打中山狼更极快意。
When you read the Shuihu and come to the passage where Luta smashes Chenkuanshi or where Wusung kills the tiger with his bare hands, you feel good. A man must have such moments of supreme satisfaction in his life. Then he will not have lived in vain. If he cannot, he can hope to
make up for it by writing a fine book.
Chupo: Such moments of supreme satisfaction have to happen naturally. They cannot be striven for.
[Younger brother] Mushan: If elder brother could kill the Ungrateful Wolf [in a story], it would be on
人生——之十九
胸藏丘壑，城市不异山林；兴寄烟霞，阎浮有如蓬岛。梧桐为植物中清品，而形家独忌之甚，且谓梧桐大如斗，主人往外走⋯⋯俗言之不足据，类如此夫。
含徵曰：爱碧桐者遂艰于白镪。造物盖忌之，如靳之也，有何吉凶休咎之可关。只是打秋风时，光棍样可厌耳。
In possession of a lively imagination, on
Hanchen: Those who love the plane tree are often poor. But that is because the Lord does not want us to have all the blessings at the same time. It is true, however, that in autumn its bare-knuckled and knobbed branches are difficult to look at.
人生——之二十
有地上之山水，有画上之山水，有梦中之山水，有胸中之山水。地上者妙在邱壑深邃，画上者妙在笔墨淋漓，梦中者妙在景象变幻，胸中者妙在位置自如。
星远曰：心斋《幽梦影》中文字，其妙亦在景象变幻。
（殷）日戒曰：若诗文中之山水，其幽深变幻，更不可以名状。
含徵曰：但不可有面上之山水。
（余）香祖曰：余境况不佳，水穷山尽矣。
There are hills and waters on the earth, in paintings, in dreams, and in on
good composition.
Shingyuan: The writing of this book has grace and variety also.
Jihchieh: In literature, the changes and surprises are even more exciting and difficult to describe.
Hanchen: But please not those changes of expression on the face (of snobbery, etc.)!
Shiangtsu: But sometimes when on
人生——之二十一
鳞虫中金鱼，羽虫中紫燕，可云物类神仙。正如东方曼倩避世金马门，人不得而害之。
含徵曰：金鱼之所以免汤镬者，以其色胜而味苦耳。昔人有以重价觅奇特者，以馈邑侯。
邑侯他日谓之曰：“贤所赠花鱼殊无味。”盖已烹之矣。世岂少削圆方竹杖者哉。
Be a goldfish among the fish and a swallow among the birds. There are like Taoist fairies who go through life like the witty Tungfang Manching, safe from harm from those in power.
Hanchen: The goldfish escapes from harm because its flesh is bitter to the taste. Once there was aman who paid a high price for a beautiful variety and sent it as a present to a magistrate. Later the magistrate said to him, “The beautiful fish you sent me seemed to be perfectly tasteless." He meant that he had cooked and tasted it. There are such people in the world!
人生——之二十二
人须求可入诗，物须求可入画。
（龚）半千曰：物之不可入画者，猪也，阿堵物也，恶少年也。
竹坡曰：诗亦求可见得人，画亦求可像个物。
（石）天外曰：人须求可入画，物须求可入诗，亦妙。
So live that your life may be like a poem. Arrange things so that they look like they are in a painting.
Panchien: There are things that will never look like they are in a painting: pigs, dollar bills, and juvenile delinquents.
Chupo: Poems, on the other hand, would also like to be like real life, and paintings would like to be like things.
Tienwai: It is also possible to say: "So live as to be like a painting, and arrange furniture so that the room looks like a poem."
人生——之二十三
昔人云，若无花、月、美人，不愿生此世界。予益一语云，若无翰墨、棋、酒，不必定作人身。
日戒曰：枉为人身生在世界，急宜猛省。
天石曰：海外诸国决无 墨棋酒，即有?亦不与吾同，一般有人，何也？
（胡）会来曰：若无豪杰文人，亦不需要此世界。
An ancient writer said, “Life would not be worth living if there were no moon, no flowers, and no beautiful women.” I might add, “It might not be important to be born a man, if there were no pen and paper, and no chess and wine."
Jihchieh: Beware of living in vain!
Tienchih: I am sure that foreigners have no pen and paper and chess and wine, or if they have, these things must be all different. Why, then, are human beings also born there?
Hueilai: Life would not be worth living without great heroes and writers.
人生——之二十四
愿在木而为樗，愿在草而为蓍，愿在鸟而为鸥，愿在兽而为廌，愿在虫而为蝶，愿在鱼而为鲲。
（郑）破水曰：我愿生生世世为顽石。
悔庵曰：愿在人而为梦。
慧珠曰：愿在梦而为影。
That I might be the shy among the trees (which is never cut down because of its worthless timber),the shy among the grass (which can foretell events), the sea gull among the birds (which merges with the elements), the chih among animals (a kind of deer which attacks the guilty on
Poshui: I wish to be a rock!
Huei-an: I wish to be a dream!
[Miss] Hueichu: I wish to be the shadow in a dream!
人生——之二十五
庄周梦为蝴蝶，庄周之幸也；蝴蝶梦为庄周，蝴蝶之不幸也。
（黄）九烟曰：惟庄周乃能梦为蝴蝶，惟蝴蝶乃能梦为庄周耳。若世之扰扰红尘者，其能有此等梦乎？
（孙）恺似曰：君于梦之中，又占其梦耶？
含徵曰：周之喜梦为蝴蝶者，以其入花深也。若梦甫酣而乍醒，则又如嗜酒者梦赴席而为妻惊醒，不得不加痛诟谇矣。
It was fortunate of Chuangtse to dream of being a butterfly, but a misfortune for the butterfly to dream of being Chuangtse.
Chiuyuan: This is unfair to Chuangtse. Only he could have dreamed of being a butterfly.
Kaisze: Are you dreaming of being a dream interpreter?
Hanchen: Chuangtse had that dream because he was deeply associated with the flowers. Others might begin such a dream on
2、洪斌：董桥散文中的英语之趣
在看董桥的散文自选集《品味历程》的过程中，看到了很多英语句子，根据上下文来体会，确实别有一番意趣，所以不揣冒昧，挑录一二。但辛苦过后，却发现那种感觉和自己看书时不太相同，会否是吃力不讨好的活，真的不得而知，姑且试之。
注：中文和英文皆出自该书，但为了意思连贯，中文部分做了些微的改动，“亵渎”了董桥先生字字珠玑的中文，实在是“不敬”，罪过罪过！
1、 西方十二世纪就有人劝人以书为友，视满架图书为乐园花圃（Make thy books thy companions, Let thy cases and shelves be thy pleasure grounds and gardens）。多少书虫于是神魂颠倒，一生以书缠绵，进去了出不来。
2、 法国文豪大仲马一生放浪形骸，既不自律也不律人，还让自己宠爱过的尤物和儿子相好。有一天儿子抱怨说：你总是把旧情人送给我睡，把新皮靴交给我穿松了才给你穿，闷死人了！大仲马曰：尔当视此为殊荣，证明尔一桩伟岸，双腿秀窄也。（You should look on it as an honor. It proves you have a thick organ and a narrow foot.）呵呵，有如此佳趣，难怪他红透半边天。
3、 在开往伦敦的火车上，一男在看一叠文稿，一女的一眼瞥见了那叠文稿，就和男的搭起讪来。她说真不好意思，看他的文稿，但又不习惯没东西可读，像赤身裸体似的。男的说，那我就借点东西给遮一遮，虽然他倒觉得女的裸得有格调。（“Forgive me looking,” she said. “but I am not used to being without something to read. It’s like being naked.” “Allow me to lend you something to cover your nakedness, though I must say you wear it with a good deal of style.”）小说（作者是：Frederic Raphael）中那女的有这样的感觉,相信坐过英国火车的人不难想象：英国人生性内向，坐火车绝少跟邻居搭讪，只好看书读报，以免尴尬。
4、 学术与创作都讲求“创意”（originality），不得拾人牙慧。此事伤透了脑筋。Samuel Johnson有致作者信说：Your manuscript is both good and original; but the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good. ( 尊稿既好又有创意；可惜好的地方毫无创意，有创意之处又不甚好。这话刻薄，确实常见的实情。天下文章一大抄，有的露出破绽，有的不露痕迹；前者多半生手所为，后者肯定是老手伎俩。W·R Ince于是说，创意乃隐不可探之剽窃（Originality is undetected plagiarism）。至于博士论文，十之八九无足观赏，不外把一堆尸骨从一个坟墓搬到另一个坟墓（The average PhD thesis is nothing but the transference of bones from one graveyard to the other.）。好的学术文章通常是拿了博士当了教授之后才写出来的，当了讲师教授还制造不出一篇像样的文章则可以休矣。
5、 英国的工党是个永远长不大的政党……Harold Nicholson的日记里记录了工党先驱领袖Keir Hardie的一席话，说是一九零五年，一个朋友对他说下议院里的工党议员实在少得可怜。哈蒂当时回答说“对啊，英国工人要花二十年时间才学会投票选那些更他同一等级的人代表他。然后再花二十年时间才学会不选举跟他同一等级的人代表他。”（Yes, it will take the British working man twenty years to learn to elect his equals to represent him. And it will take him another twenty years not to elect his equals.）
6、 英国下议院里的男厕有一道长长的解手槽，工党党魁艾德礼有一天先一步进去解手，保守党议员丘吉尔跟着进来。丘翁看清形势，马上走到最远的地方去 小便。艾德礼说：“我知道你我是政敌，可是，我们实在不必把歧见带进男厕来”（Winston, I know we are political opponent, but we don’t have to carry our differences into the gentlemen’s lavatory.）。丘吉尔回答说：“你们这些社会主义信徒一见到任何粗壮坚实的玩意，马上就要政府去约束它、管制它，烦透了。”（Clement, the trouble with you Socialists is that whenever you see anything in robust and sturdy condition you want the government to regulate it.）保守党再也找不到像丘吉尔这样有文才、有智慧、有胆识的头头了。
7、 丘吉尔父亲是英国人，母亲是美国人，对美国天生一份特殊的感情。他三十年代到美国巡回访问之后绕道加拿大回国。有加拿大记者问他对美国有什么批评，他想了好久才答了一句：“厕所纸太薄，报纸太厚”（Toilet paper too thin! Newspapers too fat!）
8、 战后美国弗吉尼亚州里兹蒙市雕了一座战时首相丘吉尔的雕像。丘翁亲临观礼。有一位身材健美的女士对他说，她天一亮就开车赶了百英里路来看他的胸像的揭幕礼（Mr. Churchill, I want you to know I got up at dawn and drove a hundred miles for the unveiling of your bust.）丘吉尔连忙说：“夫人，我想让你知道，我非常乐意回敬一下。”（Madam, I want you to know that I would happily reciprocate the honour.）
9、 一九三九年二次大战纳粹德国空袭伦敦前夕，英王乔治六世在圣诞广播中引用女诗人Minnie Louise Haskins 《沙漠》一诗中的一句话：“我对站在岁月之门的那人说，给我光，让我平安走向难卜的未来。”（I said to the man who stood at the Gate of the year, give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown”.）战云下的英国国民听了深深感动，女诗人声名大噪。
10、 女作家Rosamond Lehman有一本书书名是“Dusty Answer”，书名原典来自George Meredith的两句诗：Ah, what a dusty answer gets the soul/ When hot for certainties in the world! 人生处处遇到灰蒙蒙的解说，追而难究；满心疑团求个明白的时刻，换来的往往是盘古的混沌。
11、 王尔德说人生在世成不了艺术品也该穿一身艺术品（one should either be a work of art ,or wear a work of art）。
12、 曾荫权那天出席户外活动，鸭舌帽、黑墨镜、皮夹克配上厚毛的衣领说是飞机师装束，看起来倒像上海滩上长胖了的瘪三。曾先生跟着英国人进进出出几十年，早该学会低调而贵气的衣着，一下子摆出火红的战斗架势，不啻品行自杀：“Carelessness in dressing is moral suicide”!
13、 “在报界，九十九个正直老实的人结婚成家一生快乐并不值得怎么高兴，大家情愿听到一个恶棍一刀宰掉女朋友的消息。”（There is more joy in the newspaper world over one sinner who cuts his sweet heart’s throat than over the ninety-nine just men who marry and live happily ever after.）
14、 传媒的信实报道不啻淑女之贞节操守，只是前者错了可以道歉撤回，后者一失足成千古恨。这个理念是美国报人说的：“Accuracy to a newspaper is what virtue is to a lady, except that a newspaper can always print a retraction”。新闻界要的是遵守自己的专业守则，不是道歉撤回，更不是法改会的阉割政策，正如淑女们要的是家教，不是贞操带。
15、 西方专挖丑闻的记者套了一句名言做座右铭：“To err is human, to get it on tape, divine”(犯错难免；能录下那桩错事则是神助之天才)。一位刚去世的女明星生前说：“在好莱坞，你有头脑没关系，最好把它藏在低胸装里。”（In Hollywood, having a mind is all right, if you conceal it behind a low-cut bosom”）。
16、 一九九○年伊拉克入侵科威特之际，布什总统在电视上发表讲话，说“一条线已经画在沙地上了”（ “a line has been drawn in the sand” ）,意思是底线在此，不得逾越。这句话也描写出阿拉伯沙漠的形象。《纽约时报》视为绝妙好句，大字标题说忧心之国支持美国沙地之线（ “Worried nation Backs U.S. Line in the Sand”）。
17、 布什步上总统宝座的过程中，几度提倡国人献身社群，照应民生，说美国……像繁星，“像宁静辽远的夜空中那千万点光芒”（like a thousand points of light in a broad and peaceful sky）。过不了几年，民主党攻击布什治下领公援的人根本没钱付电费，成不了千万点光芒的一点光（“You can’t hardly pay your light bill and be one of the thousand points of light”.）！布什语塞，克林顿上台。
18、 Happiness was but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.
19、 董建华……他还没修炼出美国前总统约翰逊的胸襟和智慧和幽默。约翰逊恨不得敌手过来找他，说是“宁愿他在我们的帐篷里撒尿出去，好过他在我们帐篷外面把尿撒进来“（Sure let him join our campaign. I’d prefer to have him inside our tent pissing out than outside our tent pissing in.”）。……这是举重若轻。
20、 犯罪小说家Agatha Christie嫁给了一位考古学家，说是妇女以考古学家为夫婿最妙，佳人愈迟暮，彼对之兴趣愈浓矣（An archaeologist is the best husband any woman can have; the older she gets, the more interest he is in her.）事隔多年，她矢口否认，大骂说这种话的人是笨蛋！大诗人W. H. Auden一九三九年有一句诗：“We must love one another or die”(我们必须相爱，不然会死)。后来诗人说这句诗是他写的最不诚实的诗……一九五五年出诗选的时候，坚持改为：”We must love one another and die”(我们相爱至死)。
21、 二三年代颜名满纽约的鸨母Polly Adler一九四五年终于决定关掉妓院，带一笔钱隐居郊区养花种菜写回忆录。书一九五年才出版，书商建议她以“永远的爱得乐”（Forever Adler）为书名，她不同意。她说了个很有趣的故事：有一天，她正在家里后花园给几株玫瑰浇水，朵拉·毛姆刚好来看她，很高兴看到她洗尽铅华过着这样平淡清净的生活。朵拉幽幽说：“那些警察如果看到你现在的生活，不知道会怎么想？”Polly说：“他们也许会很失望，我家不是窑子了。”朵拉突然说：“太妙了，把那句话倒过来就成了你的回忆录的书名了！”于是，书名就叫A House is not a House( 窑子不是家)。Polly说：那是苹果掉在牛顿头上以来花园里勾起的最美妙的神来之思（It was the most inspired piece of thinking anyone had done in a garden since the day Isaac Newton got conked by an apple.）。勾栏中人吐属如此不凡，几可收入《板桥杂记》里头。
22、 过去电视台有一位英文甚佳的人，经常替电视节目起英文名字，连续剧《家变》的英文剧名就是她听了故事之后灵机一动想出来的，叫A House is not a House，点出了家道变幻，家不像家了，比中文剧名悲惨多了。
23、 都说语言文字之道衰敝是基本功夫训练出错所致；其实此中更大的原因也许是世运升平、物力丰裕之际，整个社会的文化气息流于庸俗浮躁，再也见不到灯火阑珊处那个人了。德国纳粹时期一位党性甚强的剧作家Hanns Johst有一句对白说，一听到“文化”，我马上伸手拨枪（when I hear the word “Culture” I reach for my revolver）。一九六○年代，纽约一条街上的一堵墙上出现了一行字，套的正是这句名言：“一听到枪这个字，我赶紧掏我的文化”（Whenever I hear the word gun, I reach for my culture）。
24、 有人举英文佳句数款做范本，真的“皮光肉滑”，看了舒服： To be or not to be, that is the question; In the beginning was the word; We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep; Out, out, brief candle; The rest is silence; 读来简洁的英文，大半吝啬形容词，that、 which也用得小心，可免则免。听说法国人有一句老话说形容词是名词的敌人（The adjective is the enemy of the noun.），确是内行。
25、 Aldous Huxley是美籍英国作家……今日一说到和平与战争，大半用错字……用的字不能表露当前实情。他们甚至用一些字去掩饰事实。他们于是用歪曲了的文字传媒去衡量现实。赫胥黎于是举了坎特伯雷大主教说的一句话为例：“国家动武动剑，是上苍保庇百姓之举“（The use of force, of the sword, by the State, is the ministry of god for the protection of the people.）赫胥黎说，“武”与“剑”是两个关键字，前者空洞抽象，毫无确切意思可言。后者落伍过时，不符合当代实情，只教人联想起豪侠义行和武士闪亮的盔甲。其实，大主教这句门面话背后的真相不外是说，国家动武，用火焰炸弹，用芥子弹，用飞机装烈性炸药炸脆弱无助的人民大众，是上苍保庇百姓之举（The use of force by the State, that is to say the use of firebombs, mustard gas and high explosives dropped by aeroplanes upon defenceless civil populations, is the ministry of god for the protection of the people.）。
26、 Stephen White谈写作风格，说作家往往过分讲究文句之抑扬顿挫，陶醉在自己创造的文字声色之中，他说，有一位文章大家曾下令写作的人必须忍痛杀掉笔下的一些心肝宝贝（kill your darlings）。文章里诱人的一字、一句、一段，往往只顾引人入胜而不守本分，读者于是叹为观止而忘其所以（words, sentences, paragraphs that call much attention to themselves are not doing the job they are intended to do. While the reader is paying them due reverence, he is likely to ignore the message they were meant to convey.）
27、 文章字句诱人是“巧”的功力；杀掉这些巧妙之处，为的是追求就事论事，依情说情的“常道”。此中牵涉太多的阅历。路易十四的近亲Liselotte书信集里说，才艺之士不宜太过饱学，反而不可不谙世故、通人情；人情世故书中学不到，全靠阅历（It is not at all suitable for people of great quality to be very learned, but highly necessary for them to know the world and be able to deal with people, and they can’t learn that from books but only from experience.）。
28、 读书消化，阅世通达，即便是说风花雪月，也另有意境；经典也可以引得自然顺当。有一次我在英国图书馆里翻书，书页之间偶然掉出一张小小的牛皮纸，上面录了George Eliot的一段话，说是她们到大英博物馆去看书，视之为求知之畏途。她说，要是她有一盏阿拉丁神灯就好，要看什么书一说就有（We are going now to the British Museum to read----a fearful way of getting knowledge. If I had Aladdin’s lamp I should certainly use it to get books served up to me at a moment’s notice.）。阿拉丁神灯典故人人皆知，用在这样显浅的句子里，表达这样显浅的心愿，既有笔墨，又有情致。
29、 英文说I miss you very much, 那是客套；说I miss you，有点真情；弃掉一个字，就miss you，简直是甜甜的悄悄话。Christina Foyle坐计程车，司机跟她聊天，突然说：人老了不机灵有什么用（What is the good of getting old, if you don’t get artful.）。“机灵”毕竟是艺术的灵魂；笨笨的有什么看头，不如杀掉它。
30、 E.B. White在康奈尔大学念书，选修William Strunk jr.教授开的一科English 8。那科是薄薄的一本书，叫《文体指要》（The Elements of Style,本人说明：该书后来风靡全球，被誉为写作的圣经，中央编译出版社出了中英对照版，叫“风格的要素”）怀特尊敬他的老师，怀念他的老师……每次重读老师这一条六十三个字的箴言，都有观止之叹：“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subject only in outline, but that every word tell.”我试译之为简洁的中文，也得六十三个字：铿然有力之文必简洁。一段之中无赘句，犹如丹青无冗枝，机器无废件。此说不求作者下笔句句精短，摒弃细节，概而述之；但求字字有着落耳。
31、 朱虹的《文学翻译：中译英琐谈》说，她大二时上朱光潜先生的课，朱先生一周布置中译英，一周布置英译中，然后把同学们的作业拿到堂上讲各种乙法的优劣等于让同学之间相互学习。当时有一篇关于志愿军的报道，标题是《与冰的斗争》。朱虹套用斯坦贝克小说Of Mice and Men(《人鼠之间》)的标题，译成Of Ice and Men……朱先生肯定了她的设想和对英语的敏感，但认为译名不能表达“斗争”的意味。翻译和写作一样，都要求对文字的敏感。朱虹的翻译，不能不说是神来之笔。至于对文字的敏感，最主要是了解文字潜在的含义，往往也等于借用典故营造情景和意象。斯坦贝克的小说题目几乎都经典的出处：To a God Unknown, The Grapes of Wrath, The Winter of Our Discontent, East of Eden等等。
32、 有一个笨蛋说个一句聪明话，他说英国的冬天到七月才完，八月又来了。（The English winter ending in July, to recommence in August.）
33、 加拿大原本可以英国的政府制度，法国的文化传统，美国的科学技术，结果竟落得要忍受英国的科学技术，法国的政府制度，美国的文化传统(Canada could have enjoyed English government, French culture and American know-how. Instead it ended up with English know-how, French government and American culture.)一个英国人说大英帝国太阳不落，因为上帝信不过黑暗中的英国人（The sun never sets on the British Empire because God wouldn’t trust an Englishman in the dark.）。政治制度的专制与开明，决定语言文字的衰落与生机。Carlos Fuentes说：在苏联，会挑刺儿的作家都送去精神病院，在美国则请去做清谈节目（In the Soviet union a writer who is critical is taken to a lunatic asylum. In United States, he is taken to a talk show.）。
34、 南非名士Desmond Tutu说：传教士初来非洲的时候，他们有《圣经》，我们有土地。他们说，让我们祈祷吧。我们闭上眼睛。我们再张开眼的时候，我们有《圣经》，他们有土地。（When the missionaries came to Africa they had the Bible and we had the land. They said “Let us pray”. We closed our eyes. When we opened them we had the Bible and they had the land.）。
35、 最倒霉的澳洲人，始终是笑柄：长住澳洲，有点想出去参加派对，整晚只跟妈妈跳舞（To live in Australia permanently is rather like going to a party and dancing all night with your mother.）。
36、 Around me I behold, / Where’er there casual eyes are cast, / The mighty minds of old.意译成七言该是：眼前处处圣贤书。 37、 “Adultery is the application of democracy to love.”读H·L Mencken此话，顿悟：通奸乃情场上之民主；民主乃政坛上之通奸。 (The end)
董桥的另外一本自选集《旧情解构》，感情基调似乎更加深沉，顺带着的英语“碎片”也凝重了不少。
1、《南华早报》增刊有一篇文章谈九七回归的香港，题目大书The Remain of the Day(落日余辉，编按：台湾译为《长日将尽》)。这是旅英日裔作家石墨一雄一九八九年得奖小说的书名……杜鲁门时代的国务卿Dean Acheson早在1962年就在西点军校说过，英国丧失了一个王国，至今还找不到角色……：“Great British has lost an Empire and not yet found a role.”这话伤透了英国人的心，认为是”存心侮辱“（a calculated insult）。1976年英国财相希利削减公共开支，左翼议员大力反对，希利居然骂这些人”中国人似的小脑袋全浑了“（They must be out of their tiny Chinese minds.），引起华人社会和中国大使馆严正抗议。日落了，到处是幽深的余辉，英国人听差似的脑袋里在盘算什么？
2、人民入境事务处处长梁铭彦突然以私人理由申请卸任，港府照准。梁酷爱看金庸的武侠小说，也是港府高官中摆得出去的（presentable）人物……丘吉尔公开挖苦政敌clement Attlee说一部空计程车开进堂宁街十号，车门一开，下车的是艾德礼（An empty taxi arrived at 10 Downing Street, and when the door opened Attlee got out.）。……正像丘吉尔说的：政治壮烈近似战争，战争中一死就了，政坛上则一死再死（Politics are almost as exciting as war and quite as dangerous. In war you can only be killed once, but in politics many times.）,可是丘翁没有坐过江西牛棚。
3、现在的人都认为只有晦涩深奥的东西才能成为经典……海明威骂一位女作家说：She is so unreadable that people will finally believe her to be a classic.
4、 没有经历伤春悲秋的笔，到头来是一枝天阉的笔。雪莱到死都不怕伤春悲秋：“Fresh spring, and summer, and winter hoar/ move my faint heart with grief, but with delight/ no more/ oh, never more!”
5、美国一位最高法院法官AnthonyKennedy来香港最高法院演讲，吴蔼仪给我看过他的讲稿，我永远忘不了这句话：The law is a promise。It is a promise of neutrality。
6、西方文化的精髓是： In god we trust, the rest pay cash.
7、我突然闻到淡淡的荷香，心中浮起学生时代读《莲的联想》的哀愁。“Sometimes the details in a poem will remind me of a day I would otherwise have forgotten”。
8、Arthur Brisbane劝新闻记者一生俯首读莎翁（read Shakespeare all through life），还要读一些经典古籍，要新闻记者紧记歌德的话：在默默中培养才华，在世界潮流中锻炼品格（Talent is built in the silence, character in the stream of the world.）
9、郭沫若太渊博太世故了。古之学者为己，今之学者为人（Men of antiquity studied to improve themselves; men today study to impress others）。
10、五四运动之后，中国文人学者不少都放过洋留过学，谙外文的不在少数，真正精通而又有外文著述的似乎不太多。近日读到钱钟书1946到1948年在英文杂志《书林季刊》Philobiblon发表的几篇英文书评……好好享受了钱先生精致漂亮的英文……钱钟书评Kenneth Scott Latourette一九四六年出版的The Chinese: Their history and Culture，整篇长文详细品评了那本著作，引经据典，举重若轻，最后一段结语更是典型的钱氏笔调： It would be invidious to mention names, but anyone who has made a close study of contemporary China will see that my picture is nearer to the fact than Professor Latourette’s. Augustin Thierry ridiculed the German conception of history as a perpetual war of ideas, and revived Prudentius’s word psychomachia to designate it. But psychomachia or war of ideas is becoming a grim reality in China as in the world at large. What makes it so damnable is that it does not spend its force and fury in mere controversies. Words lead to blows and an inky affair becomes a bloody one. Whether blood is thicker than ink, I do not know; it is certainly nastier.（我查不到psychomachia是什么意思啊，是war of ideas的意思？在Google上查，好象是一首长长的诗歌，不像是英语。这是Google上的另一段说明：Psychomachia (with an i) is the title of of a poem by Prudentius from around 400 AD It’s a Greek word, meaning ’a struggle or fight for life’. As used by Prudentius, it meant ’conflict within one’s soul’ and was used of the battle between the spirit and the flesh. ...）
11、知识是非常难求的宝藏。写作是非常艰苦的工作。我常常想起George Gissing《四季零墨》里的一段话：Innumerable are the men and women now writing for bread, who have not the least chance of finding in such work a permanent livelihood. They took to writing because they knew not what else to do, or because the literary calling tempted them by its independence and its dazzling prices. They will hang on to the squalid profession, their earnings eked out by begging and borrowing, until it is too late for them to do anything else----and what then? With a lifetime of dread experience behind me, I say that he who encourages any young man or woman to look for his living to “literature”, commits no less than a crime.
12、……最混帐是J·B·Priestley， 硬说英国人上了茶瘾是东方人慢性报复，把黄河的水绕过来往英国人的喉咙灌（Our trouble is that we drink too much tea, I see in this the slow revenge of the Orient, which has diverted the yellow river down our throats.）吃吃喝喝扯上了政治往往成了笑话。有个日本人说， MacDonald’s in Tokyo is a terrible revenge for Pearl harbour。活该！
13、陆谷孙的那段英文是这样写的：I myself became a dictionary-maker not by purposeful upbringing but by sheer accident. It happened in 1970 during China’s Cultural revolution when I was stigmatized, judged ideologically unfit for teaching, and assigned the punitive busywork of compiling A New English-Chinese Dictionary (NEC) on the assumption that in dealing with words instead of with live persons who were my students my presumably unorthodox thinking would play less havoc, I was thus plunged into the sea of lexicography without having been first taught how to swim. Sure enough, I was all but drowned and had to learn swimming little by little----the hard way。
14、《李鸿章传》的作者Lytton Strachey称李鸿章是“瞎子堆里的独眼龙”（one-eyed man among the blind）。史特拉奇的历史名著确是不朽的巨构，兼具深远的史识和清明的文才。他认定每一个社群里的领袖人物都是“瞎子堆里的独眼龙”。他说：But, in truth, the description applies equally well to every leader in thought or action in every community under the sun. In Europe, no less than in china, the vast majority of men are blind----blind through ignorance and superstition and folly and senseless passions; and the statesmen and the thinkers are one-eyed leaders, who see neither very far nor very many objects, but who see what they do see quite clearly。
15、……这样的李鸿章难怪史特拉奇觉得他的弱点和他的魅力都昭然若揭，从来不轻信择善而固执，也不甘心贬精明敏锐之思为深厉浅揭之虑（His limitations were no less remarkable than his powers. He was never in the slightest danger of believing in a principle, or allowing his astuteness to degenerate into profundity.）
16、1968年夏天，夏志清先生在校阅张爱玲自己翻译的《金锁记》，在一封给张爱玲的信上引录了无处原文和译文同她商榷。他在按语里说：张爱玲是他的平辈，出过三本英文小说，实在不敢擅自改动她的译稿。这五处译文，第四和第五最有意思，值得推敲。第四处原文是：两人并排在公园里走，很少说话，眼角里带着一点对方的衣服与移动着的脚步，女人的粉香，男子的淡八菰气，这单纯而可爱的印象便是他们身边的栏杆，栏杆把他们与众人隔开了。张爱玲这样翻译： The two of them walked side by side in the park in the autumn sun talking very little, each with a bit of the other’s clothes and moving feet at the corner of the eyes and the fragrance of women’s face powder and men’s tobacco smell, this simple and lovely impression forming the railings alongside that separated them from the crowd. ……夏先生结果还是重译了这一段，删去“这单纯而可爱的印象”不译。夏先生的译文果然更见顺当：The two of them walked side by side in the park in the autumn sun, talking very little, each content with a partial view of the other’s clothes and moving feet. The fragrance of her face powder and his tobacco smell served as invisible railings that separated them from the crowd. 第五处原文说到世舫、长安在公园散步遇雨：隔着半透明的蓝绸伞，千万粒雨珠闪着光，像一天的星。一天的星到处跟他们，在水珠银烂的车窗上，汽车驰过了红灯、绿灯，窗子外营营飞着一窠红的星，又是一窠绿的星。这句话完全看出张爱玲中文的功力，夏先生说“文字特别美，译文也美”：Through the translucent blue silk umbrella myriad raindrops twinkled like a skyful of stars that followed them about everywhere, and later on the taxi’s glistening window of crushed silver and as the car ran through red and green lights. A nestful of red stars flew humming outside the window and a nestful of green star.夏先生后来只改了三处：第一个字through改为upon；everywhere和and不要；flew 改为would fly。金子于是更加亮丽了。
17、A Room with a View里的牧师说爱默生具有讲真话的美德，“了解讲真话的人真不容易”（He has the merit----if it is one----of saying exactly what he means. It is so difficult----at least I find it difficult----to understand people who speak the truth.）……我常常想到胡适先生抿着嘴微微一笑的神情：“……When dead men meet, on lips of living men.”。（这是Samuel Butler Life after Death一诗里的话：Yet meet we shall, and part, and meet again, where dead men meet, on lips of living men.）
18、1940年夏天赵瑞蕻毕业了，他请吴宓在一部《丁尼生诗集》的扉页上题字留念，吴宓的写了几段Matthew Arnold 的Culture and Anarchy 里的名言：The pursuit of perfection, then, is the pursuit of sweetness and light……Culture looks beyond machinery, culture hates hatred; Culture has one great passion, the passion of sweetness and light……We must work for sweetness and light.我也读过这段话，中间还有一句是：He who works for sweetness and light united, works to make reason and the will of God prevail。阿诺德在牛津教书……我查出“甜蜜与光明”之论，典出Johathan Swift 的The Draper’s letters: Instead of dirt and poison we have rather chosen to fill our hives with honey and wax; thus furnishing mankind with the two noblest of things, which are sweetness and light。想不到吴宓高尚生命中的最后几十年，竟在他心爱的祖国土地上活活给尘垢和毒药埋葬，再也尝不到一滴蜂蜜的甜蜜，看不到一点良知的光明。
(来源：洪斌老师的网易博客）
2012年2月19日 00:00
3、戴望舒：《雨巷》
撑着油纸伞，独自
彷徨在悠长、悠长
又寂寥的雨巷，
我希望逢着
一个丁香一样地
结着愁怨的姑娘。
她是有
丁香一样的颜色，
丁香一样的芬芳，
丁香一样的忧愁，
在雨中哀怨，
哀怨又彷徨；
她彷徨在这寂寥的雨巷，
撑着油纸伞
像我一样，
像我一样地
默默行着
冷漠，凄清，又惆怅。
她默默地走近，
走近，又投出
叹息一般的眼光
她飘过
像梦一般地，
像梦一般地凄婉迷茫。
像梦中飘过
一枝丁香地，
我身旁飘过这个女郎；
她默默地远了，远了，
到了颓圮的篱墙，
走尽这雨巷。
在雨的哀曲里，
消了她的颜色，
散了她的芬芳，
消散了，甚至她的
叹息般的眼光
丁香般的惆怅。
撑着油纸伞，独自
彷徨在悠长、悠长
又寂寥的雨巷，
我希望飘过
一个丁香一样地
结着愁怨的姑娘。
翻译参考：
（一）
A Lane in the Rain
Dai Wangshu
Alone holding an oil-paper umbrella,
I wander along a long
Solitary lane in the rain,
Hoping to encounter
A girl like a bouquet of lilacs
Gnawed by anxiety and resentment.
A girl
The colour of lilacs,
The fragrance of lilacs,
With the worries of lilacs,
Feeling melancholy in the rain,
Plaintive and hesitating.
She wanders along the solitary lane in the rain,
Holding an oil-paper umbrella
Just as I do,
Just like me,
Walking slowly in silence,
Aloof, sad and melancholy.
Silently she comes closer,
Closer, giving me
A glance like a sigh;
Then she floats past
Like a dream,
Dreary and blank like a dream.
Like a lilac
Floating past in a dream,
the girl floats past me;
Silently she goes further and further,
To the crumbling wall,
Out of the lane in the rain.
In the mournful melody of the rain,
Her colour has faded,
Her fragrance has disappeared,
Vanished into the void;
Even her glance like a sigh,
Melancholy like lilacs.
Alone holding an oil-paper umbrella,
I wander along a long
Solitary lane in the rain,
Hoping to pass
A girl like a bouquet of lilacs
Gnawed by anxiety and resentment.
The Alley in the Rain
Holding an umbrella, I'm alone
Wandering about the long, long,
Lonely alley in the rain,
Hoping to encounter
A girl who bears her melancholy
Like a lilac flower.
She has
The color of a lilac,
The fragrance of a lilac,
And the melancholy of a lilac.
She looks sorrowful in the rain,
Sorrowful and depressed.
She paces the lonely alley,
Holding an umbrella,
Like me,
Just like me—
Walking quietly and slowly
In coldness, solitude and melancholy.
Quietly she comes close,
Close to me and casts
A glance, like a sigh.
She drifts away
Like a dream—
So dreary and deep.
Like a lilac flower drifting by
In a dream,
The girl passes by me;
Quietly she is walking away and away,
To a broken hedge,
To the end of the alley in the rain.
In the plaintive tune of the rain
Her color fades,
Her fragrance disappears,
So do her sighing glance
And lilac-like melancholy.
Holding an umbrella, I'm alone
Wandering about the long, long,
Lonely alley in the rain,
Hoping to see passing by
A girl who bears her melancholy
Like a lilac flower.
（唐正秋 译）
（二）
Rainy Alley
Dai Wangshu
Holding a light umbrella
I walk back and forth alone
In a silent, rainy alley,
A long, an endlessly long alley,
Hoping to meet
A girl as sweet, as blue
As the lilac bud that knits her brows.
As graceful as lilac,
As fragrant as lilac,
As sad as lilac:
Back and forth she walks,
Worried in the rain,
Sad in the rain.
Holding a light umbrella
Back and forth she walks, and walks,
In this silent, rainy alley,
As I pace and plod,
Silent, alone,
Wearing my solitude, my sadness and pain.
Quietly she walks close by me,
Then closer, then closer,
Casting a glance
As if of a sign,
She floats on by me
Plaintive as a dream,
A hazy dream,
A sad dream.
As if what flies by me
Is a branch of lilac in a dream,
The girl flits by me
In silence, in a distance
More distant, more distant,
Floats to a ruined wattled wall
At the end of this rainy alley.
And her roselike color fades,
Her sweet, sweet fragrance fades,
To the sad tune of the rain.
Her glance disappears, her sign disappears,
Her lilac-like sadness.
Holding a light umbrella
I walk back and forth alone
In a silent, rainy alley,
A long, an endlessly long alley,
Hoping to meet
A girl as sweet, as blue
As the lilac bud that knits her brows.
（丁祖馨 译）
2012年2月25日 00:00
4、艾青：镜子
仅只是一个平面
却又是深不可测
它最爱真实
决不隐瞒缺点
它忠于寻找它的人
谁从它发现自己
或是醉后酡颜
或是鬓如霜雪
有人喜欢它
因为自己美
有人躲避它
因为它直率
甚至会有人
恨不得把它打碎
The Mirror
Though just a plain surface,
Yet it seems unfathomable.
It loves truth deeply,
Never hiding defects.
It is honest with those who seek it,
Anyone can discover himself in it.
Whether one is flushed with wine
Or wears hair white as snow.
Some like it
Because they are good-looking.
Some avoid it
Because it is too frank.
There are even some
Who hate it and wish to smash it.
— Tr. 中国文学出版社
2012年3月4日 00:00
5、多喜百合子：大地的哀鸣
[ Japan]Taki Yuriko
The Grumbling of the Earth
The long ice age was over.
The ice melted, and moss grew.
The moss died,
And a little leaf mold appeared.
This was earth’s beginning.
In thin soil, accreting in 1/100 mm layers,
Soft, downy grass began to sprout.
Dying, sprouting, dying again, over and over,
And the soil thickened.
After several thousand years, small trees appeared.
Every fallen leaf from those trees
Nourished the great forest that followed.
Ten thousand years had passed since the first ice began melting.
Spoiled son, squandering your inheritance,
You have felled the trees of the forest with great ease.
But with no forest, no leaves fall, and no new soil will accumulate.
Direct sunlight will harden the earth.
Fruits, grains, and other plants will not grow.
Even grazing grass will not grow.
Sheep and cattle will not survive.
Despite ten thousand years to create this forest, will you keep cutting its trees down?
Do you wish to make the entire earth a desert?
My spoiled son,
Will you finally resort to gambling?
Will you use up all the oil and coal
And take on the double-edged sword of nuclear power?
One false step and the earth would die.
Will you trifle with nuclear power?
(Translated by John and Deborah Saxon)
[日本]多喜百合子
大地的哀鸣
漫长的冰河时代已经结束。
寒冰融化，苔藓长出。
苔藓凋亡，
然而一小片叶子的摸样出现，
这是地球的开端。
在稀薄的土壤里，
附着百分之一毫米的土层，
柔软的，毛茸茸的青草开始长大。
枯死了，得到重生，再死去，不停循环。
使土壤变得坚厚。
经历了几千年的变迁，小树出现了。
每片落叶都从那些树上掉下，
肥沃了往后的大深林。
一万年过去了
自从第一次冰河开始融化。
溺爱的儿子，挥霍着你的遗产，
你毫不费力地砍倒了深林的树
但是没有了森林，没有了叶落，也没有新土壤的聚集
直射的太阳将使土地变硬。
果木，粮食，其它的植物都不再生长。
甚至牧场将不会生长。
羊和牛将不会生存。
尽管这森林的建造用了一万年的时光，
你还会不停地砍伐它的那些树木吗？
难道你希望整个地球都变成荒野吗？
我溺爱的孩子呀，
你最终还要去光顾赌博吗？
你要用尽所有的石油和煤
而且拔出那核武器的双刃剑吗？
一步走错，就意味着地球的死亡。
你会与核武器开玩笑吗？
（约翰和黛博拉·萨克森 英译；霍冬克 汉译）
About the Author:
TAKI Yuriko, born in Tokyo, Japan, worked in NIPPON RADIO BROADCASTING, works now in Institute of Education. MEMBER of : International Writers and Artists Association, The International Forum for the Literature and Culture of Peace, World Congress of Poets-World Academy of Arts and Culture, World Poets Society (W.P.S.), Poetas del Mundo by Luis Arias Manzo. WORKS: The World of Atomic Bomb Poem Anthology (published by Kadokawa), My Revolution Square (published by Shichousha), The Japan of Atomic Bomb Literature Anthology (published by Horupu), Poems Against The War Anthology, joint with USA poets 2003 (published by Souhuusha), Genocide written with Dr.Ernesto Kahan (published by Nihon Tosho center in July 2006), SEIT JENVEM TAG ANTHOLOGY (published by Fisher Taschenbuch Verlag), 8500 CHRISTS, LES 8500 CHRISTS (published by Stand @ rt, the first edition in 2002 and the second edition in 2003). In 2007 award from International Forum for the Literature and culture of peace in Argentina. In 2007 award from The Embassy of Honduras in Argentina. In 2007 award from The National Museum in Buenos Aires, Argentina. In 2006 “THE BEST POETS OF 2006” from International Writers and Arts Association. In 2006 “Neoung Keoum prize”from the Hangchon Culture Foundation in Korea. In 2005 “Medal Festos”from International Society of Greek Writers & Arts. In the Newspaper or Magazine of Australia, Brazil, China, Korea, Mongolia, India, Greece and France. Literary Works translated into 11 Languages from poetry book “8500 Christs” English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Hangul, Chinese, Russian, Romanian, Mongolian, Greek.
作者简介：
多喜百合子，生于日本东京。曾在日本有线广播电台工作，现在教育研究机构工作。她是国际作家艺术家协会会员、国际文化与文学和平论坛成员、世界诗人大会/世界文化艺术学院成员、世界诗人协会会员、路易斯·阿里亚斯·曼佐主办的国际诗人运动成员。著作有：《原子弹世界诗选》（由角川出版），《我的革命广场》（由新潮社出版），《日本原子弹文学选集》（由霍尔普出版），《反战诗选》，2003年与美国诗人合作（由Souhuusha出版），与欧内斯托·卡亨博士合作的诗集：《种族屠杀》（2006年7月由日本图书中心出版），诗集 《Seit Jenvem Tag》（由费舍尔·埃那出版社出版），《8500名基督徒》（由Standart出版，2002年第一版，2007年第二版）。2007年，她在阿根廷荣获国际文化与文学和平论坛奖，2007年在阿根廷获得洪都拉斯大使馆的嘉奖。同年，获得阿根廷布宜诺斯艾利斯国家博物馆奖。2006年，获得国际作家艺术家协会“2006年度最佳诗人”奖。2006年获得韩国Hangchon文化基金会NeoungKeoum 奖。2005年获得希腊国际作家艺术家协会“费思托斯奖章”。她的诗作先后发表在澳大利亚、巴西、中国、朝鲜、蒙古、印度、希腊和法国的报章杂志上。其文学作品：诗集《8500名基督徒》被翻译成英语、法语、德语、西班牙语、葡萄牙语、韩语、汉语、俄语、罗马尼亚语、蒙古语、希腊语等十一种文字。
（来源：野鬼的DIABLO新浪博客）
2012年3月11日 00:00
6、Biografieto pri L.L.Zamenhof（一）： 我的理想
Mia penso
Sur la kampo, for de l’ mondo,
Antaû nokto de somero,
Amikino en la rondo
Kantas kanton pri l’ espero.
Kaj pri vivo detruita
Ŝi rakontas kompatante,--
Mia vundo refrapita
Min doloras resangante .
“Ĉu vi dormas? Ho, sinjoro,
Kial tia senmoveco?
Ha, kredeble rememoro
El la kara infaneco?”
Kion diri? Ne ploranta}
Povis esti parolado
Kun fraûlino ripozanta
Post somera promenado!
Mia penso kaj turmento,
Kaj doloroj kaj esperoj!
Kiom de mi en silento
Al vi iris jam oferoj1
Kion havis mi plej karan—
La junecon—mi ploranta
Metis mem sur la altaron
De la devo ordonanta!
Fajron sentis mi interne,
Vivi ankaû mi deziras,—
Io pelas min eterne,
Se mi al gajuloj iras.
Se ne plaĉas al la sorto
Mia peno kaj laboro—
Venu tuj al mi la morto,
En espero—sen doloro!
我的理
anna译
夏日傍晚的田野上，
远离开喧嚣的城市，
队里的女孩子歌唱着
希望和被毁灭的生活。
她动情的歌声撕扯着
我的旧创，伤口重又
鲜血奔涌，痛彻骨髓。
“哦，先生，你在安眠？
为什么这样一动不动？
呵，想必是回忆起了珍贵的童年？”
该说什么呢？对散步后
正在休息的女孩子们
哭着讲述，多么不合适！
我的理想和折磨，
希望和痛苦呵！
我向你奉献了这么多，
而自己却默默地走向死亡！
我流着泪亲手把青春—
我珍贵的时光，放到
正在发号施令的责任的祭坛上。
我感到体内烈火在燃烧，
我也希望生活，—
如果我去追求快乐享受，
理想将永远驱赶我。
如果命运之神不喜欢
我的努力和劳动，—
死神快来把我带走吧，
没有痛苦—怀着希望。
Lazaro Ludoviko Zamenhof(1859--1917), ruslanda hebreo, kreinto de la internacia helpa lingvo Esperanto kaj verkinto de la unuaj originalaj poemoj Esperantaj. Ĉefaj verkoj literaturaj: Hamleto(1894); La Revizoro(1907); La Predikanto(1907); Gerogo Dandin(1908); Ifigenio en Taûrido(1908);La Rabisto(1908); La Psalmaro(1908); La Sentencoj de Salomono(1909); La Rabeno de Baĥaraĥ(1909); La Gimnazio(1909); La Batalo de l’Vivo(tradukita en 1891, eldonita libroforme en 1910); La malnova Testamento(reviziita de biblia komitato 1926); Originala Verkaro(1929). Li estas unu el la gravaj stilistoj profunde influantaj. Lia stilo karakteriziĝas per klareco.
2012年3月18日 00:00
7、庄子：《庖丁解牛》
吾生也有涯，而知也无涯，以有涯随无涯，殆已！已而为知者，殆而已矣！为善无近名，为恶无近刑。 缘督以为经，可以保身，可以全生，可以养亲，可以尽年。
庖丁为文惠君解牛，手之所触，肩之所倚，足之所履，膝之所踦，砉然響然，奏刀騞然。莫不中音：合于《桑林》之舞，乃中《经首》之会。
文惠君曰：“嘻，善哉！技盖至乎此乎？”
庖丁释刀对曰：“臣之所好者，道也，进乎技矣。始臣之解牛之时，所见无非牛者；三年之后，未尝见全牛也；方今之时，臣以神遇而不以目视，官知止而神欲行。依乎天理，批大隙，导大窾，因其固然。技经肯綮之未尝，而况大軱乎！良庖岁更刀，割也；族庖月更刀，折也；今臣之刀，十九年矣，所解数千牛矣，而刀刃若新发于硎。彼节者有间，而刀刃者无厚；以无厚入有间，恢恢乎其于游刃必有余地矣。是以十九年而刀刃若新发于硎。虽然，每至于族，吾见其难为，怵然为戒，视为止，行为迟，动刀甚微，謋然已解，如土委地。提刀而立，为之四顾，为之踌躇满志，善刀而藏之。”
文惠君曰：“善哉！吾闻庖丁之言，得养生焉。”
Fundamentals for Nourishing Life
Zhuang Zi
There is a limit to our life, but to knowledge there is no limit. To pursue what is unlimited with what is limited is an exhausting undertaking. If we, knowing this, still seek to increase our knowledge, we will be depleted. When doing what is good, keep away from fame. When doing what is bad, avoid punishment. Following the middle course is the way of preserving the body, maintain one’s nature, preserving health and completing one’s natural span of life.
A cook was cutting up an ox for Wen Hui. Wherever his hand touched, his shoulder leaned, his foot tread and his knee thrust, there was the sound of ripping and the sound of slicing, which kept time with the rhythm of the dance of Mulberry Grove and were as melodious as the music of Jingshou.
"Ah! Very good!” Wen Hui said, “How did you achieve such perfection in your skill?”
The cook put down his knife and replied, “What I love is the Tao, which is more advanced than skills. When I first began to cup up an ox, I saw nothing but the whole ox. Three years later, I saw no more the whole ox. Now I deal with the ox in my mind instead of my eyes. The senses stop functioning, but the mind is activated. Following the ox’s natural veins, my knife slips through openings between its muscles and slides through crevices in the joints. I take advantage of what is already there. The knife has never hesitated at the juncture of blood vessels, not to mention the big bones.
A good cook changes his knife every year because he uses his knife to cut. An ordinary cook changes his knife every month because he uses his knife to hack. My knife has been in use for nineteen years and has cup up several thousand oxen, and yet its edge is still sharp as if it were newly whetted. There are crevices in the joints, but the blade of the knife ahs no thickness. There is certainly plenty of room for the blade of a knife without thickness to enter the joints where there are crevices. This is why the blade of the knife that has been in use for nineteen years is still sharp as if it were newly whetted.
Nevertheless, when I come to a complicated joint and see that there will be difficulty, I proceed cautiously, fixing my eyes on it, moving slowly and cutting gently until the part is quickly separated and drops like a clod of earth to the ground. Then standing with the knife in my hand, I look all around with triumphant satisfaction. I then clean the knife and put it away.”
Wen Hui said, “Very good! From the cook’s words I have learned the way of nurturing life.”
2012年3月27日 00:00
8、亨利·霍华德：The Soote Season
Henry Howard
The soote season, that bud and bloom forth brings,
With green hath and the hill and eke the vale;
The nightingale with feathers new she sings;
The turtle to her mate hath told her tale.
Summer is come, for every spray now spings;
The hart hath hung his old head on the pale;
The buck in brake his winter coat he flings;
The fishes float with new repair'd scale;
The adder all her slough away she slings;
The swift swallow pursueth the flies' small;
The busy bee her honey now she mings.
Winter is worn, that was the flowers' bale.
And thus I see among these pleasant things,
Each care decays, and yet my sorrow spings.
温和的季节
亨利·霍华德
温和的季节，催生叶芽和花蕾，
绿树青草覆盖了山峦和山谷，
换上新羽毛的夜莺把歌声放飞，
斑鸠对她的伴侣倾诉心曲。
夏日来临，繁花茂叶压弯了树枝根根，
雄鹿把他暗褐色的角挂上篱桩，
公羊把他的冬装遗弃于灌木丛，
披上新鳞的鱼儿漂浮在水上。
蛇儿蜕去她的旧皮，
轻捷的燕子追逐着小小的苍蝇，
忙碌的蜜蜂正在酿造花蜜，
严冬，戕害花儿的凶煞，如今筋疲力尽。
目光所至，万物一片生机，一览无余，
忧郁的事在消亡，悲哀依然袭上我的心头。
2012年4月2日 00:00
9、Biografieto pri L.L.Zamenhof（二）：道路
LA VOJO
Tra densa mallumo briletas la celo,
Al kiu kuraĝe ni iras ,
Simile al stelo en nokta ĉielo,
Al ni la direkton ĝi diras.
Kaj nin ne timigas la noktaj fantomoj,
Nek batoj de l’sorto, nek mokoj de l'homoj,
ĉar klara kaj rekta kaj tre difinita
Ĝi estas, la voj’ elektita.
Ni semas kaj semas, neniam laciĝas,
Pri la tempoj estontaj pensante.
Cent semoj perdiĝas, mil semoj perdiĝas,_
Ni semas kaj semas konstante,
“Ho, ĉesu!” mokante la homoj admonas,-
“Ne ĉesu, ne ĉesu!” La nepo vin benos,
Se vi pacience eltenos .
Se longa sekeco aû ventoj subitaj
Velkantajn foliojn de ŝiras,
Ni dankas la venton,kaj, repurigitaj,
Ni forton pli freŝhan akiras,
Ne mortos jam nia bravega anaro,
Ĝin jam ne timigos la vento, nek staro,
Obstine ĝi paŝas, provita,hardita,
Al cel’,unu fojon signita!
Nur rekte, kuraĝe kaj ne flankiĝante
Ni iru la vojon celitan!
Eĉ guto malgranda, konstante frapante,
Traboras la monton granitan,
L’espero, l’obstino kaj la pacienco-
Jen estas la signaj, per kies potenco
Ni paŝo post paŝo, post longa laboro,
Atingos la celon en gloro.
道路
叶念先译
透过浓暗目标在闪现，
我们勇敢地向它走去
就像夜空中的星，
它给我们指示着方向。
我们不怕夜晚的恶魔，
不怕命运的打击，不怕他人的嘲笑
因为选定的道路
我们播种啊播种，永不疲倦，
想着那未来的时刻。
百粒种子丢失，千粒种子丢失，
我们仍不断地播种啊播种，
"哈，停止吧！"有人讥嘲地相劝，
"不停，不停！" 如果你意志坚，
子孙会把你祭奠。
也许会有长期的干旱或狂风，
叶子枯干被撕下，
我们感谢那风，我们更新吸氧，
获得鲜活的力量。
我们是不会灭亡的，最勇敢的一群
狂风已不能使我们惧怕，我们坚韧
地站在那里，经受考验，
向既定的目标前进。
我们勇往直前不偏斜
向明确的目标走去！
即使是小水滴，不断滴下，
也会穿透花岗岩的石山，
希望，坚韧和耐力-
这就是我们，用这样的气劲
我们一步步前行，通过长期努力，
我们将光荣地达到目的。
2012年4月14日 00:00
10、Biografieto pri L.L.Zamenhof（三）：希望
La Espero
En la mondo venis nova sento,
Tra la mondo iras forta voko;
Per flugiloj de facila vento,
Nun de loko flugu ĝi al loko.
Ne al glavo sangon soifanta,
Ĝila homon tiras familio;
Al la mond eterne militanta,
Ĝi promesas sanktan harmonion.
Sub la sankta signo de l’espero
Kolektiĝas pacaj batalantoj,
Kaj rapide kreskas la afero
Per laboro de la esperantoj.
Forts staras muroj de miljaroj
Inter la popoloj dividitaj;
Sed dissaltos la obstinaj baroj
Per la sankta amo disbatitaj.
Sur neŭtrala linga fundamento
Komprenante unu la alian,
La poploj faros en konsento
Unu grandan rondon familian.
Nia diligenta kolegaro
En laboro paca ne laĝos;
Ĝis la bela sonĝo de l’homaro
Por eterna ben’ efektiviĝos.
希望
邱关瑾译
新的感情已经来到人间，
强烈呼声正在世界传遍；
快让它乘上顺风的翅膀，
轻捷地飞遍那地角天边。
它不是把人类幸福家庭
引向那杀人嗜血的利剑；
面对这战乱无尽的世界，
它承诺给予神圣的和谐。
和平的战士们正集合在
那神圣的“希望”旗下，
经过希望者们辛勤劳动，
我们的事业正迅速得到发展。
千百年来的一道道高墙，
把各族人民分隔离间；
但那顽固障碍终将崩溃，
被那神圣之爱打成碎片，
在中立语言的基础上边，
人们彼此能够互相理解，
各族人民必将和衷共济，
结成一个大家庭的集团，
我们勤奋努力的同志们，
为了和平奔忙永不厌倦；
直到全人类的美好理想，
为了永恒祝福彻底实现。
2012年4月22日 00:00
11、
Mourid Barghouti：枕头
[Palestine]
[ Palestine] Mourid Barghouti
The Pillow
The pillow said:
at the end of the long day
only I know
the confident man’s confusion,
the nun’s desire,
the slight quiver in the tyrant’s eyelash,
the preacher’s obscenity,
the soul’s longing
for a warm body where flying sparks
become a glowing coal.
Only I know
the grandeur of unnoticed little things;
only I know the loser’s dignity,
the winner’s loneliness
and the stupid coldness one feels
when a wish has been granted.
穆里德·巴尔古提
枕头
枕头说：
一天过去时
只有我知道
自信者的恍惚，
修女的欲望，
暴君眼睑中轻微的颤动，
布道者的下俗，
灵魂的渴望
温暖的身体中飞动的火星
变成温烁的炭火。
只有我知道
不被人注意的小东西的壮丽；
只有我知道失败者的尊严，
赢者的孤独
一个人感受到的愚蠢和冷寂
当一个愿望得以实现。
（张智中 译）
About the Author:
Mourid Barghouti, born in a village near Ramallah in 1944, can rightly be referred to as a poet in exile. His first exile began when he was studying in Cairo in 1967 and the West Bank was closed to him. In 1976, he was banished from Egypt, and subsequently also from Lebanon and Jordan. Who is well known as a writer and as a translator of poetry, and his five-month-old son Tamim, who was a guest at Poetry International in 2002. Mourid Barghouti has an aversion to rhetoric and fine words. His collection Poems of the Pavement (1980) was written, according to him, “with a camera − visual, concrete, no abstract nouns”. His dislike of rhetoric is also visible in the collection Midnight and Other Poems (2008). Despite the despair that he articulates in these poems, this collection contains no propaganda and no polemics – only touching elegies, biting irony and gallows humour. He now lives once more in Cairo.
作者简介：
穆里德·巴尔古提，1944年生于约旦河西岸拉马拉市郊的一个村庄，可以被当之无愧地被称为流亡诗人。1967年他在埃及首都开罗学习时，约旦河西岸对他关闭，他便开始了第一次流亡生活。1976年被驱逐出埃及，后又被驱逐出黎巴嫩和约旦。是著名的诗人和诗歌译者，他五个月大的儿子塔米姆是2002年国际诗会的客人。穆里德·巴尔古提反对修辞和华丽的辞藻，其诗集《人行道之诗》(1980)，按照他自己的话来说，“是用照相机写出来的：具体、直观，没有抽象名词”。另一部诗集《午夜及其它诗歌》(2008)也体现了诗人不尚修辞的特色。这些诗中虽然有悲观的成分，但这部诗集却不含任何宣传和争辩的成分——只有动人的挽歌，辛辣的讽刺，和面对大难时的幽默。巴尔古提现再次定居开罗。
（来源：野鬼DIABLO新浪博客）
2012年4月30日 00:00
12、发现你自己
Find Yourself
The only problem unconsciously assumed by all Chinese Philosophers to be of any importance is: How shall we enjoy life, and who can best enjoy life? No perfectionism, no straining after the unattainable, no postulating of the unknowable, but taking poor, mortal human nature as it is, how shall we organize our life so that we can work peacefully, endure nobly and live happily?
Who are we? That is the first question. It is a question almost impossible to answer. But we all agree that the busy self occupied in our daily activities is not quite the real self. We are quite sure we have lost something in the mere pursuit of living. When we watch a person running about looking for something in a field, the wise man can set a puzzle for all the spectators to solve: what has that person lost? Some one thinks it is a watch; another thinks it is a diamond brooch; and others will essay other guesses. After all the guesses have failed, the wise man who really doesn’t know what the person is seeking after, tells the company, “I’ll tell you. He has lost some breath.” And no one can deny that he is right. So we often forget out true self in the pursuit of living, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis, which again forgets its own danger in pursuit of another prey, as is so beautifully expressed in a parable by Chuangtse.
不知不觉中，所有的中国哲人都认为最重要的一个问题是：该怎样享受生活？谁最能享受生活？没有至善论，没有未果的追求，没有无知的假定，仅仅是把可怜的、致命的人类本性视为生命。我们该怎样组织我们的生命，以使我们能携带着崇高平静地工作、幸福地生活？
第一个问题我们是谁？这是一个几乎无法回答的问题。但是，我们都认为日常生活中忙碌的自我，并不是十分真正的自我。我们相当确定，在纯粹的生活追求中我们丢失了一些什么。当我们看到一个人在一片田地中来回地寻找什么东西时，智者会为旁观者设置一个迷：那个人丢失了什么?有人认为丢了手表，有人认为是钻石胸针，还有人作着其他的猜测。然而，所有的猜测都是错误的，后来，那个其实并不知道真相的智者告诉那些人说：“我来告诉你们吧，他丢了一些气息。”没有人能够否认他的话的正确性。因此，在生活的追求中我们往往会忘记真实的自我，就像庄子的寓言——一只鸟在捕食螳螂时忘记了自身的危险，而那只螳螂在捕捉另一只猎物时也忘记了自身的危险一样，惟妙惟肖。
（来源：普特英语听力）
2012年5月6日 00:00
13、
梁继璋：给儿子的信
Michael Leung’s Letter to His Son
西学宗用：意外收到几年前的老生发来的《香港名DJ梁继璋给儿子的信》，读后深有感触，沉思良久，遂译成英文，作为翻译课之用。译法会在课堂上作详细讲解。
西学宗用：梁继璋给儿子的信英译
我儿:
My dear son,
写这备忘录给你，基于三个原则：
This memo to you is based on three hard facts:
(一) 人生福祸无常，谁也不知可以活多久，有些事情还是早一点说好。
I. Whatever it is weal or woe, we are in sheer ignorance of our lifespan. For that matter, something must be said sooner than later.
(二) 我是你的父亲，我不跟你说，没有人会跟你说。
II. Since I am your father, I have to offer you a word of advice. No one else will.
(三) 这备忘录里记载的，都是我经过惨痛失败得回来的体验，可以为你的成长省回不少冤枉路。
III. What is recorded in this memorandum has come from the misfortunes I have experienced, which I hope will save you plenty of unworthy tries.
以下，便是你在人生中要好好记住的事：
The following is what you’ve got to remember well in life:
（一）对你不好的人，你不要太介怀，在你一生中，没有人有义务要对你好，除了我和你妈妈。至于那些对你好的人，你除了要珍惜、感恩外，也请多防备一点，因为，每个人做每件事，总有一个原因，他对你好，未必真的是因为喜欢你，请你必须搞清楚，而不必太快将对方看作真朋友。
I. Don’t take it too much to heart if someone is not kind to you. All your life, nobody lies under an obligation to treat you kindly except your mother and father. As for some others who do get along with you, please be watchful besides being deeply grateful and thankful. The reason—there is always a motivation behind every action. His good manners don’t necessarily mean that he likes you a lot. Thereby, you must remain clearheaded and don’t look on him in a rush as a friend indeed.
（二）没有人是不可代替，没有东西是必须拥有。看透了这一点，将来你身边的人不再要你，或许失去了世间上最爱的一切时，也应该明白，这并不是甚么大不了的事。
II. Nobody is irreplaceable, just as nothing is a must-have. By seeing through this, you’ll be able to cope with either of the tragic moments: your beloved one is no longer around you, or perhaps, you’ve lost what you cherish most in this world. You ought to wake up to the situation that they are no big deal, after all.
（三）生命是短暂的，今日你还在浪费着生命，明日会发觉生命已远离你了。因此，愈早珍惜生命，你享受生命的日子也愈多，与其盼望长寿，倒不如早点享受。
III． Life is short. So far you’ve been fooling away your youth, but tomorrow you’ll suddenly realize that life is past and gone. Hence, the sooner you begin to value life, the more happy times in life you’ll hold to yourself. Longing for longevity in vain is not as good as pursuing happiness at an earlier stage.
西学宗用：梁继璋给儿子的信英译
（四）世界上并没有最爱这回事，爱情只是一种霎时的感觉，而这感觉绝对会随时日、心境而改变。如果你的所谓最爱离开你，请耐心地等候一下，让时日慢慢冲洗，让心灵慢慢沉淀，你的苦就会慢慢淡化。不要过分憧憬爱情的美，不要过分夸大失恋的悲。
IV．There is no such thing as best love on earth, for love is merely a feeling in a twinkling. Feeling will definitely change over time and mood. If your so-called best lover chooses to leave you, please wait with calm endurance of pain, which, bit by bit, will be thinned as everything is bound to be rinsed out by time, and your heart is tranquil again. Don’t put too high a hope on the sweetness of love, while aggrandizing the sorrow it brings about.
（五）虽然，很多有成就的人士都没受过很多教育，但并不等如不用功读书，就一定可以成功。你学到的知识，就是你拥有的武器。人，可以白手兴家，但不可以手无寸铁，紧记！
V．Many people have gained fame and fortune名利 even though they were not well-educated, but it by no means amounts to any chances that you’ll make good as somebody for sure without hitting the books. You’ll be well-armed with the knowledge you have acquired. Please bear in mind: a man may start his career from scratch, but he can’t be defenseless without even a single weapon in hand!
（六）我不会要求你供养我下半辈子，同样地我也不会供养你的下半辈子，当你长大到可以独立的时候，我的责任已经完结。以后，你要坐巴士还是Benz，吃鱼翅还是粉丝，都要自己负责。
VI．I wouldn’t ask you to support me for the rest of my life, nor would I support that of yours. My responsibility for you will come to an end when you become a grown man of independence. After that, you have to take over the responsibility for your own life, be it a life in luxury or a life of mediocrity.
（七）你可以要求自己守信，但不能要求别人守信，你可以要求自己对人好，但不能期待人家对你好。你怎样对人，并不代表人家就会怎样对你，如果看不透这一点，你只会徒添不必要的烦恼。
VII．You may request yourself to keep your word, but you can’t demand the same from others; you may do your best to be nice to people, but again you can’t expect any reward from them. Your kindness to people doesn’t always yield good results. The fact is, you will be pestered with all the frustrations if you don’t take it philosophically.
（八）我买了十多二十年六合彩，还是一穷二白，连三奖也没有中，这证明人要发达，还是要努力工作才可以，世界上并没有免费午餐。
VIII．I have kept on with buying Mark Six—the Hong Kong Jockey Club lottery for the past ten to twenty years, but I am still a man far less than a well-to-do, having never won even a third prize. This has simply proved that money is to be earned by working hard. There is no free lunch in the world.
西学宗用：梁继璋给儿子的信英译
（九）亲人只有一次的缘份，无论这辈子我和你会相处多久，也请好好珍惜共聚的时光，下辈子，无论爱与不爱，都不会再见。
IX．Do treasure our time together as family is composed of loved ones with predestined relationships once in a lifetime. No matter how long I’ll be staying with you, we are destined to never meet again in our next life, with or without love.
你们的爸爸梁继璋
Father, Michael Leung
（来源：西学宗用的新浪博客）
2012年5月13日 00:00
14、茅盾：《黄昏》
海是深绿色的，说不上光滑；排了队的小浪开正步走，数不清有多少，喊着口令“一、二——一”似的，朝喇叭口的海塘来了。挤到沙滩边，噗澌！——队伍解散，喷着忿怒的白沫。然而后一排又赶着扑上来了。
三只五只的白鸥轻轻地掠过，翅膀扑着波浪——一点一点躁怒起来的波浪。
风在掌号。冲锋号！小波浪跳跃着，每一个像个大眼睛，闪射着金光。满海全是金眼睛，全在跳跃。海塘下空隆空隆地腾起了喊杀。
而这些海的跳跃着的金眼睛重重叠叠一排接一排，一排怒似一排，一排比一排浓溢着血色的赤，连到天边，成为绀金色的一抹。这上头，半轮火红的夕阳！
半边天烧红了，重甸甸地压在夕阳的光头上。
愤怒地挣扎的夕阳似乎在说：
哦，哦！我已经尽了今天的历史的使命，我已经走完了今天的路程了！现在，现在，是我的休息时间到了，是我的死期到了！哦，哦！却也是我的新生期快开始了！明天，从海的那一头，我将威武地升起来，给你们光明，给你们温暖，给你们快乐！
呼——呼——
风带着永远不会死的太阳的宣言到全世界。高的喜马拉雅山的最高峰，汪洋的太平洋，阴郁的古老的小村落，银的白光冰凝了都市，——一切，一切，夕阳都喷上了一口血焰！
两点三点白鸥划破了渐变为赭色的天空。
风带着夕阳的宣言去了。
像忽然熔化了似的；海的无数跳跃着的金眼睛摊平为暗绿的大面孔。
远处有悲壮的笳声。
夜的黑幕沉重地将落未落。
不知到什么地方去过一次的风，忽然又回来了，这回是打着鼓似的：勃仑仑，勃仑仑！不，不单是风，有雷！风挟着雷声！
海又动荡，波浪跳起来，轰！轰！
在夜的海上，大风雨来了！
Dusk
Mao Dun
The sea is deep blue, and cannot be called smooth, for countless rows of small breakers are marching in parade-step as if following the shouted command, "One, two! One!" — towards the trumpet-shaped jetty. Crowded close together, they rush to the sandy beach-splash! The marching ranks scatter and burst into angry spray. The rows immediately behind follow suit.
A few white seagulls flicker across the surface of the sea, quickly and lightly, wings skimming the waves which become, little by little, increasingly restive.
The wind is trumpeting, a bugle calling to charge! Small breakers spring up, each breaker like a large eye casting out golden sparks. The whole sea is full of golden eyes, all leaping. Rumble—rumble... beneath the jetty a battle cry bursts forth.
The sea's golden eyes fall into ranks, each rank pursued by the next, each angrier than the last and deepening to blood-red as they stretch to the golden line of the horizon. There, above, lies the fiery half circle of the setting sun!
Half the sky burns red, pressing heavily down upon the bald head of the sun.
The indignantly struggling sun seems to be saying:
"Oh! Oh! I have completed today's historic duty; I have finished today's journey! Now, now, my time to rest has come; my time to die is here. Oh! Oh! And yet, it is also my rebirth that will soon begin! Tomorrow, from the other end of the sea, I shall bravely hoist myself up, give you light, give you warmth, give you joy!"
Whooo-huuu...
The wind carries the declaration of the never-dying sun to all the world. The highest peaks of the Himalayas; the endless waters of the Pacific; small, old, gloomy villages; cities frozen by silver lights upon each and every one, the setting sun scatters its blood-red flames!
The sky, deepening to ochre, is broken by two or three seagulls.
The wind that carried the countless leaping golden eyes smooth themselves down into a great, dull, green face.
From near, then far, comes the solemn, tragic sound of a flute.
Night's black curtain will be heavily lowered, but has not yet completely fallen.
The wind, having gone no-one-knows-where, suddenly returns, returns as a beating drum: Boom-lum-lum, Boom-lum-lum! No, not the wind alone, but thunder! The wind carries the voice of thunder!
The sea roils again, waves surging high, Crash! Crash!
To the night-bound sea a storm has come!
郝启成、Katherine Boller 译
2012年5月20日 00:00
15、冯亦代：《向日葵》
看到外国报刊登载了久已不见的梵高名画《向日葵》，以三千九百万美元的高价，在伦敦拍卖成交，特别是又一次看到原画的照片，心中怏怏若有所失者久之；因为这是一幅我所钟爱的画。当然我永远不会有可以收藏这幅画的家财，但这也禁不住我对它的喜欢。如今归为私人所有，总有种今后不复再能为人们欣赏的遗憾。我虽无缘亲见此画，但我觉得名画有若美人，美人而有所属，不免是件憾事。
记得自己也曾经有过这幅同名而布局略异的复制品，是抗战胜利后在上海买的。有天在陕西南路街头散步，在一家白俄经营小书店的橱窗里看到陈列着一帖梵高名画集的复制品。梵高是十九世纪以来对现代绘画形成颇有影响的大师，我不懂画，但我喜欢他的强烈色调，明亮的画幅上带着些淡淡的哀愁和寂寞感。《向日葵》是他的系列名画，一共画了七幅，四幅收藏在博物馆里，一幅毁于第二次世界大战时的日本横滨，这次拍卖的则是留在私人手中的最后两幅之一。当下我花了四分之一的月薪，买下了这帖梵高的精致复制品。
我特别喜欢他的那幅向日葵，朵朵黄花有如明亮的珍珠，耀人眼目，但孤零零插在花瓶里，配着黄色的背景，给人的是种凄凉的感觉，似乎是盛宴散后，灯烛未灭的那种空荡荡的光景，令人为之心沉。我原是爱看向日葵的，每天清晨看它们缓缓转向阳光，洒着露珠，是那样的楚楚可怜亦复可爱。如今得了这幅画便把它装上镜框，挂在寓所餐室里。向日葵衬在明亮亮的黄色阳光里，挂在漆成墨绿色的墙壁上，宛如婷婷伫立在一望无际的原野中，特别怡目，但又显得孤清。每天我就这样坐在这幅画的对面，看到了欢欣，也尝到了寂寞。以后我读了欧文·斯通的《生活的渴望》，是关于梵高短暂的一生的传记。他只活了三十七岁，半生在探索色彩的癫狂中生活，最后自杀了。他不善谋生，但在艺术上走出了自己的道路，虽然到死后很久，才为人们所承认。我读了这本书，为他执著的生涯所感动，因此更宝贵他那画得含蓄多姿的向日葵。我似乎懂得了他的画为什么一半欢欣、一半寂寞的道理。
解放了，我到北京工作，这幅画却没有带来：总觉得这幅画面与当时四周的气氛不相合拍似的。因为解放了，周围已没有落寞之感，一切都沉浸在节日的欢乐之中。但是曾几何时，我又怀念起这幅画来了。似乎人就像是这束向日葵，即使在落日的余晖里，都拼命要抓住这逐渐远去的夕阳。我想起了深绿色的那面墙，它一时掩没了这一片耀眼的金黄；我曾努力驱散那随着我身影的孤寂，在作无望的挣扎。以后星移斗转，慢慢这一片金黄，在我的记忆里也不自觉地淡漠起来，逐渐疏远得几乎被遗忘了。
十年动乱中，我被谪放到南荒的劳改农场，每天做着我力所不及的劳役，心情惨淡得自己也害怕。有天我推着粪车，走过一家农民的茅屋，从篱笆里探出头来的是几朵嫩黄的向日葵，衬托在一抹碧蓝的天色里。我突然想起了上海寓所那面墨绿色墙上挂着的梵高的《向日葵》。我忆起那时家庭的欢欣，三岁的女儿在学着大人腔说话，接着她也发觉自己学得不像，便嬉嬉笑了起来，爬上桌子指着我在念的书，说“等我大了，我也要念这个”。而现在眼前只有几朵向日葵招呼着我，我的心不住沉落又漂浮，没个去处。以后每天拾粪，即使要多走不少路，也宁愿到这处来兜个圈。我只是想看一眼那几朵慢慢变成灰黄色的向日葵，重温一些旧时的欢乐，一直到有一天农民把熟透了的果实收藏了进去。我记得那一天我走过这家农家时，篱笆里孩子们正在争夺丰收的果实，一片笑声里夹着尖叫；我也想到了我远在北国的女儿，她现在如果就夹杂在这群孩子的喧哗中，该多幸福！但如果她看见自己的父亲，衣衫褴褛，推着沉重的粪车，她又作何感想？我噙着眼里的泪水往回走。我又想起了梵高那幅《向日葵》，他在画这画时，心头也许远比我尝到人世更大的孤凄，要不他为什么画出行将衰败的花朵呢？但他也梦想欢欣，要不他又为什么要用这耀眼的黄色作底呢？
梵高的《向日葵》已经卖入富人家，可那幅复制品，却永远陪伴着我的记忆；难免想起作画者对生活的疯狂渴望。人的一生尽管有多少波涛起伏，对生活的热爱却难能泯灭。阳光的金色不断出现在我的眼前，这原是梵高的《向日葵》说出了我未能一表的心思。
Sunflowers
Feng Yidai
When I learned from a foreign newspaper that Vincent van Gogh's "Sunflowers" was auctioned off in London for 39 million U.S. dollars, especially when I again saw its photo that I had long missed seeing, I was kind of depressed, as if something were getting away from me, because it was the painting I doted on. I knew I could never be wealthy enough to afford it, but I cherished a great love for it. Now, having fallen into some private collection, it would not be available for the public to appreciate any more. What a pity! I had never had the good luck to see the original but, to me, a masterpiece is like a beauty and when the beauty is claimed by someone else you feel a pain of being deprived of your access to her.
I remember I once had a reproduction of the painting under the same title but its composition was slightly different. I bought it in Shanghai after the War of Resistance against Japan. One day, I was strolling along Shanxi-nan Street when I caught sight of the painting in the window of a small bookstore run by some Russian. It was a copy from the collection of van Gogh's masterpieces. Vincent van Gogh was a master who has been a great influence on modern painting since the 19th century. I do not know much about art, but I enjoy the intense hues with a tinge of forlornness against the brilliance in his paintings. "Sunflowers" is one of the seven masterpieces of a series, four of which were in museums, one damaged in Yokohama, Japan, during World War II and the one auctioned in London was one of the last two in private hands. I took the exquisite reproduction there and then for a quarter of my salary of that month.
I like his "Sunflowers" in particular, with its glorious blossoms glittering like pearls, but the blossoms, held in a vase placed against a yellow background, look lonesome and make you feel miserable, the way you feel when the feast is over and the guests are gone but the lights and candles are still glimmering in the deserted hall. I enjoy the sight of sunflowers when in the morning they slowly turn to the sun, dripping with dew — pitiful but gorgeous. I put the painting in a frame and hung it on the wall of our dining room. The wall was painted dark green and the sunflowers in the painting, as if standing in an endless field bathed in bright sunshine, looked pleasing but solitary. Every day I sat in front of it, filled with joy and shrouded in loneliness. Later I came to know from Irving Stone's Lust for Life, a biography of van Gogh's short life, that he lived for 37 years only but spent half of his lifetime trying crazily to find out about the mystery of colors until he ended up in death by suicide. Vincent van Gogh was not good at making a living, but he had carved a new path for himself in art, though the artist was not recognized till many years after his death. Having read this book, I was moved by his devotedness to art and loved his "Sunflowers" all the more for its gracefulness and suggestiveness. I seemed to understand why joyfulness and loneliness are inherently mixed in his works.
After liberation in 1949 I was transferred to Beijing. I did not take the painting with me, as I felt that it was quite out of tune with the milieu of the time. In the liberated society we were immersed in a festival atmosphere and there was not slightest suggestion of loneliness. But soon I began to be missing the painting again. It seemed as if man, like this bunch of sunflowers, would try to hang on to the setting sun in its afterglow. I thought of that dark green wall that seemed to have engulfed the brilliant yellow. I tried desperately to disperse the loneliness that followed me like a shadow but in vain. With the passage of time the golden yellow in my memory grew dim and gradually it was almost forgotten.
During the chaotic ten years (1966-76) I was banished to a farm in Nanhuang to reform through labor. I was forced to work beyond my endurance and I was in such a gloomy state of mind that I often found myself scared. One day as I was pushing a dung-cart past a farmer's thatched hut, I saw some fresh yellowish sunflowers, against a blue sky, craning out of its fence. They reminded me of the "Sunflowers" on the dark green wall in my house in Shanghai, calling back to mind the joys of the family: our three-year-old daughter was trying to speak the way adults do and, when she realized that her mimicking was funny, she giggled and then, climbing up to the desk and pointing to the book I was reading, said, "When I am grown, I will read this too." But now in front there were only a few sunflowers nodding at me and my heart began to sink and float around, not knowing where to stop. Since then each time I went dung-collecting, I would go and pass that hut even if it meant more walk in the round of my daily journey. I wanted to see the sunflowers that were turning grayish yellow, reminiscing the cheerfulness of the days gone by, until one day the farmer got the crops in. When I passed the farmer's hut that day, I heard some kids laughing and screaming over the fence, each trying to get a fair share of the seeds from the crops. I then thought of my daughter in the far north. How excited she would be if she were among the kids, making noises with them. However, if she had seen her own dad pushing the heavy dung-cart in the shabby clothes as they were, how would that have made her feel? I was on my way back with tears in my eyes and my thoughts turned to van Gogh and his "Sunflowers" again. When he was working on the painting, he might have felt more loneliness and misery of life, otherwise why did he paint the petals about to wither? However, I believed he had also dreamed of joy, or why should he have placed the petals against an intense yellow background?
Now van Gogh's "Sunflower" has become a rich man's private property but that reproduction of the painting lives on in my memory, reminding me of the artist's crazy lust for life. Though one has ups and downs to face down the road, his love for life is hard to fade away. That the golden color of the sunshine keeps popping up before my eyes is an indication that van Gogh's "Sunflowers" speaks for what I have been unable to bring out from my heart.
2012年5月27日 00:00
16、萧红：永远的憧憬和追求
一九一一年，在一个小县城里边，我生在一个小地主的家里。那县城差不多就是中国的最东北部——黑龙江省，所以一年之中，倒有四个月飘着白雪。
父亲常常为着贪婪而失掉了人性。他对待仆人，对待自己的儿女，以及对待我的祖父都是同样的吝啬和疏远，甚至于无情。
有一次，为着房屋租金的事情，父亲把房客的全套的马车赶了过来。房客的家属们哭着，诉说着，向我的祖父跪了下来，于是祖父把两匹棕色的马从车上解了下来还了回去。
为着这两匹马，父亲向祖父起着终夜的争吵。“两匹马，咱们是算不了什么的，穷人，这匹马就是命根。”祖父这样说着，而父亲还是争吵。
九岁时，母亲死去。父亲也就更变了样，偶然打碎了一只杯子，他就要骂到使人发抖的程度。后来就连父亲的眼睛也转了弯，每从他的身边经过，我就像自己的身上生了针刺一样：他斜视着你，他那高傲的眼光从鼻梁经过嘴角而后往下流着。
所以每每在大雪中的黄昏里，围着暖炉，围着祖父，听着祖父读着诗篇，看着祖父读着诗篇时微红的嘴唇。
父亲打了我的时候，我就在祖父的房里，一直面向着窗子，从黄昏到深夜——窗外的白雪，好像白棉花一样飘着；而暖炉上水壶的盖子，则像伴奏的乐器似的振动着。
祖父时时把多纹的两手放在我的肩上，而后又放在我的头上，我的耳边便响着这样的声音：
“快快长吧！长大就好了。”
二十岁那年，我就逃出了父亲的家庭。直到现在还是过着流浪的生活。
“长大”是“长大”了，而没有“好”。
可是从祖父那里，知道了人生除掉了冰冷和憎恶而外，还有温暖和爱。
所以我就向这“温暖”和“爱”的方面，怀着永久的憧憬和追求
My Longing and Yearning
Xiao Hong
In 1911 I was born into a small landlord family in a small county town in Heilongjiang—China's far northeastern province where it snowed for four months of the year.
Father was almost inhumanly avaricious. To his servants, his children and even his own father, he was just as miserly and indifferent, or heartless for that matter.
Once because a tenant failed to pay his rent, father detained his cart and horse. The tenant's family knelt in front of Grandpa, pleading for mercy with tears in their eyes. Grandpa unharnessed the two brown horses from the cart and gave them back to the tenant. Over this Father wrangled with him for the whole night. "Two horses don't mean much to us," said Grandpa, "but they are the life-blood to the poor." Father bickered on.
When I was nine years old Mother died and Father became worse. If you accidentally broke a small thing like a cup, he would keep throwing curse at you until you shivered all over. Later even his eyes could cast crooked glances. Whenever I passed by him, he would eye me sideways with his arrogant look streaming down the bridge of his nose and then off the corner of his mouth, making me feel as if pricked on needles.
In snowy evenings I would sit with Grandpa by the stove, listening to him reading poems, watching his pink lips while he was reading.
When Father beat me, I would go to Grandpa's room and stood by the window from evening till late into the night, watching the white snow falling like cotton, while the lid of the kettle over the stove clinked like a musical instrument playing accompaniment. Grandpa would put his wrinkled hand on my shoulder and then my head, saying into my ear:
"Grow quickly, my child. When you're grown, thing will be better."
At the age of twenty I fled home. Even today I am still wandering around like a hobo.
"Grown"as I am, but things are not any "better".
However, from Grandpa I have learned that in life there is not only coldness and hatred, but also warmth and love. For that "warmth" and "love" I will keep longing and yearning.
(张培基 译）
2012年6月3日 00:00
17、谬崇群：花床
冬天，在四周围都是山地的这里，看见太阳的日子真是太少了。今天，难得雾是这么稀薄，空中融融地混合着金黄的阳光，把地上的一切，好像也照上一层欢笑的颜色。
我走出了这黝暗的小阁，这个作为我们办公的地方，（它整年关住我！）我扬着脖子，张开了我的双臂，恨不得要把谁紧紧地拥抱起来。
由一条小径，我慢慢地走进了一个新村。这里很幽静，很精致，像一个美丽的园子。可是那些别墅里的窗帘和纱门都垂锁着，我想，富人们大概过不惯冷清的郊野的冬天，都集向热闹的城市里去了。
我停在一架小木桥上，眺望着对面山上的一片绿色，草已经枯萎了，惟有新生的麦，占有着冬天的土地。
说不出的一股香气，幽然的吹进了我的鼻孔，我一回头，才发现了在背后的一段矮坡上，铺满着一片金钱似的小花，也许是一些耐寒的雏竹，仿佛交头接耳地在私议着我这个陌生的来人：为探寻着什么而来的呢？
我低着头，看见我的影子正好像在地面上蜷伏着。我也真的愿意把自己的身子卧倒下来了，这么一片估计宁馥的花朵，她们自然地成就了一张可爱的床铺。虽然在冬天，土下也还是温暖的罢？
在远方，埋葬着我的亡失了的伴侣的那块土地上，在冬天，是不是不只披着衰草，也还生长着不知名的花朵，为她铺着一张花床呢？
我相信，埋葬着爱的地方，在那里也蕴藏着温暖。
让悼亡的泪水，悄悄地洒在这张花床上罢，有一天，终归有一天，我也将寂寞地长眠在它的下面，这下面也一定是温暖的。
仿佛为探寻什么而来，然而，我永远不能寻见什么了，除非我也睡在花床的下面，土地连接着土地，在那里面或许还有一种温暖的，爱的交流？
一九四一年十二月十日
A Flower Bed
Miao Chongqun
In winter, sunny days were scarce here, as it was surrounded by hills all around. Today, however, the fog was wonderfully thin and the air was filtered through with golden sunlight that tinted everything on the ground with a joyful hue.
I stepped out of the small dim garret — our office — where I was shut in all year round. I lifted my head and opened my arms wide as if to embrace someone in front.
I went ambling along a narrow path and came to a new village. It was a quiet and well-knit cluster of villas, like a beautiful garden. As I noticed the curtains of the windows were drawn and the screen doors locked, I guessed the wealthy residents, unaccustomed to the cold and lonesome winter there, must have swarmed into the bustling city.
Coming to a small wooden bridge, I looked toward the hill opposite and saw a patch of green spread out on the slope. The grass there had withered and new wheat was sprouting up across the wintry hillside.
As a faint aromatic scent seemed to be wafting into my nostrils, I turned only to find a stretch of a gentle incline thickly strew with golden-coin-like flowers. They were probably the tough daisies, whispering in private to each other about this intruder: what on earth is he looking for there?
Looking down I saw my own shadow nestling on the ground. To be sure, I would like to nestle on the ground, for these lonely and fragrant flowers would naturally make a lovely bed. Though it was winter, it had to be warm underground, I guessed.
I thought of the place in the distance where my departed other half was buried. I hoped that it was not covered with withered grass only, and that there were flowers, known or unknown, growing, and growing thick enough to make a flower bed for her.
I believe in a place where love is buried, there is warmth to be found there.
Let my memorial tears drop quietly on the flower bed and, one day, and I believe the day will eventually come, I will be lying underneath it in my long sleep and it must be warm there.
I seem to have come here is search of something, but I will never be able to find anything, except hoping that some day I will go and sleep underneath a flower bed where the land is one in which there is an interflow of warmth and love.
刘士聪 译
2012年6月10日 00:00
18、许地山：《落花生》
我们屋后有半亩隙地。母亲说：“让它荒芜着怪可惜，既然你们那么爱吃花生，就辟来做花生园罢。”我们几姊弟和几个小丫头都很喜欢——买种的买种，动土的动土，灌园的灌园；过不了几个月，居然收获了！
妈妈说：“今年我们可以做一个收获节，也请你们爹爹来尝尝我们的新花生，如何？”我们都答应了。母亲把花生做成好几样的食品，还吩咐这节期要在园里底茅亭举行。
那晚上的天色不大好，可是爹爹也到来，实在很难得！爹爹说：“你们爱吃花生么？”
我们都争着答应：“爱！”
“谁能把花生的好处说出来？”
姊姊说：“花生的气味很美。”
哥哥说：“花生可以制油。”
我说：“无论何等人都可以用贱价买它来吃；都喜欢吃它。这就是它的好处。”
爹爹说：“花生的用处固然很多；但有一样是很可贵的。这小小的豆不像那好看的苹果、桃子、石榴，把它们底果实悬在枝上，鲜红嫩绿的颜色，令人一望而发生羡慕的心。他只把果子埋在地底，等到成熟，对容人把他挖出来。你们偶然看见一棵花生瑟缩地长在地上，不能立刻辨出它有没有果实，非得等到你接触他才能知道。”
我们都说：“是的。”母亲也点点头。爹爹接下去说：“所以你们要像花生，因为他是有用的，不是伟大、好看的东西。”我说：“那么，人要做有用的人，不要做伟大、体面的人了。”爹爹说：“这是我对于你们的希望。”
我们谈到夜阑才散，所有花生食品虽然没有了，然而父亲的话现在还印在我心版上。
Peanuts
Xu Dishan
Behind our house there lay half a mou vacant land. Mother said: “It’s a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?” That exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!
Mother said, “How about giving a party this evening to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?” We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.
It looked like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless.”Do you like peanuts?” asked father.
“Yes, we do!”we vied in giving the answer.
“Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?”
“Peanuts taste good,” said my elder sister.
“Peanuts produce edible oil,” said my elder sister.
“Peanuts are so cheap,” said I, “that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyone’s favourite. That’s why we call peanuts good.”
“It’s true that peanuts have many uses,” said father, “but they’re most beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win people’s admiration with their brilliant colours, tiny little peanuts bury themselves underground and remain unearthed until they’re ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bears any nuts until you touch them.”
“That’s true,” we said in unison. Mother also nodded. “So you must take after peanuts,” father continued, “because they’re useful though not great and nice-looking.”
“Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking,” I said.
“That’s what I expect of you,” father concluded.
We kept chatting until the party broke up late at night. Today, though nothing is left of the goodies made of peanuts, father’s words remain engraved in my mind.
（张培基 译）
2012年6月17日 00:00
19、夏衍：野草
有这样一个故事。
有人问：世界上什么东西的气力最大？回答纷纭的很，有的说“象”，有的说“狮”，有人开玩笑似的说：是“金刚”，金刚有多少气力，当然大家全不知道。
结果，这一切答案完全不对，世界上气力最大的，是植物的种子。一粒种子所可以显现出来的力，简直是超越—切。这儿又是一个故事。
人的头盖骨，结合得非常致密与坚固，生理学家和解剖学者用尽了一切的方法，要把它完整地分出来，都没有这种力气. 后来忽然有人发明了一个方法，就是把一些植物的种子放在要剖析的头盖骨里，给它以温度与湿度，使它发芽，一发芽，这些种子便以可怕的力量，将一切机械力所不能分开的骨骼，完整地分开了，植物种子力量之大，如此如此。
这，也许特殊了一点，常人不容易理解，那么，你看见笋的成长吗？你看见过被压在瓦砾和石块下面的一颗小草的生成吗？它为着向往阳光，为着达成它的生之意志，不管上面的石块如何重，石块与石块之间如何狭，它必定要曲曲折折地，但是顽强不屈地透到地面上来，它的根往土壤钻，它的芽往地面挺，这是—种不可抗的力，阻止它的石块，结果也被它掀翻，一粒种子的力量的大，如此如此。
没有一个人将小草叫做“大力士”，但是它的力量之大，的确是世界无比。这种力，是一般人看不见的生命力，只要生命存在，这种力就要显现，上面的石块，丝毫不足以阻挡，因为它是一种“长期抗战”的力，有弹性，能屈能伸的力，有韧性，不达目的不止的力。
种子不落在肥土而落在瓦砾中，有生命力的种子决不会悲观和叹气，因为有了阻力才有磨炼。生命开始的一瞬间就带了斗争来的草，才是坚韧的草，也只有这种草，才可为傲然地对那些玻璃棚中养育着的盆花哄笑。
Wild Grass
Xia Yan
There is a story which goes like this:
Someone asks, “What is the most powerful thing in the world?”
There is a variety of answers.
“The elephant,” someone says.
“The lion,” another says.
“Buddha's guardian warriors,” still another says, half jokingly. As to how powerful Buddha's guardian warriors are, no one can tell, of course.
The fact is, none of the answers is correct. The most powerful thing in the world is the seed of the plant. The force displayed by a plant seed is simply incomparable. Here goes another story:
The bones of a human skull were so tightly and firmly joined that physiologists and anatomists had tried ways and means to take them apart, but they were not powerful enough to do it. Then someone invented a method. He put some seeds of a plant into a skull which was to be dissected, and provided it with the necessary temperature and moisture so as to make the seeds germinate. Once the seeds germinated, they manifested a terrible force which succeeded in opening the human skull that had failed to be opened even by mechanical means.
This story tells us how powerful the seeds of a plant can be.
You may think this is too unusual a story to be grasped by the common mind. Well, have you ever seen how bamboo shoots grow? Have you ever seen how a frail young grass grows out from under debris and rubble? In order to get the sunshine and bring its will of growth into play, the grass will wind its way up irresistibly, its roots drilling downward and its sprouts shooting upward, in spite of the heavy rocks and the narrow space between them. Here is a force that no other force can ever stop. Any rock lying in its way will be overturned.
This shows how powerful a seed can be.
Though the little grass has never had the honor of being compared to a “hercules”, the power it shows is really matchless in the world. It is an invisible force of life. So long as there is life, the force will show itself. The rock above it is not heavy enough to prevent it from growing because it is a force that will keep on growing, because it is an elastic force—it can shrink and expand, and because it is an a tenacious force—it will not give in until it is fully grown.
The seed does not choose to fall on fertile land but among debris. If the seed is full of life, it is never pessimistic or sad, for it is tempered through resistance and pressure. Only the grass that begins to fight its way out the moment it is born can be called a “strong” and “tenacious” grass; only this grass can laugh with a pride at the potted plants in glassed greenhouses.
（刘先农 译）
2012年6月24日 00:00
20、刘心武；《人情似纸》
不要续上一个“薄”字。不是那意思。
把许多复杂的事物归结为一个简单意思的时代已经过去。
但离开了简单的归结，许多人又不知如何面对复杂。其实，从来都复杂。难道以前不复杂吗？也许，从前无论如何不如今天这般复杂。但细想，从前也复杂。
提心吊胆地说真话那阵，说了那么多。毋庸提心吊胆便可倾吐真话这阵，却什么也懒得说。
我曾到那间小屋子去看他。其实根本不是一间小屋子。只有门，没有窗，甚至没有透气孔，因此，人进去以后便必须把门敞着。那是个储藏室。空间极狭小。气息极窒闷。但我们交流得很畅快。至少在我这方面是这样想。有的话还得压低嗓门。眼波的流动中也有许多的情谊。但现在他有了二十、三十倍大的空间，许多的门，许多的窗；门紧闭着，窗半开着；“硬件”好，“软件”更棒，我却不去迈进那门槛。他也不来请我迈进那门槛。似乎也并没有什么过不去的地方。只是不再有那么多的情感了。淡了，薄了，甚至弥散了。”
据说人情似纸的“纸”现在不是“秀才人情纸半张”的那“纸”，而是赵公元帅笔下的那“纸”，即通货。由“官本位”向“金本位”转化，值得欢迎。但我更渴望“人本位”、“情本位”。社会的物质繁荣据说必须付出精神沦丧的代价。又据说落伍者看来是精神沦丧，而先锋眼中却是可喜的精神瓦解，但先锋们犹未能指出旧精神瓦解后应运诞生的新精神究竟是什么，有的先锋中的先锋则说只需瓦解无需重构：“凤凰涅盘”是可笑的，凤凰只应焚毁，何必重生？
我却仍愿抓住一点自认是永恒的东西，哪怕只有游丝般微弱。那永恒的东西里就有人情，似纸的人情。纸很薄，却可以写情书，写诗，写温情的句子，写必要的问候，当然还可以画画儿，可以折成一只小船，放到小溪里，任其顺细碎的波浪旋转着飘向远方。
转眼一年整了。一年多以前正在美国。记得到纽约的头一天，傍晚时分，曼哈顿万家灯火中，也有了我小小的一盏。在简单而舒适的下榻处，桌上有小小的花瓶，小小的花束，还有小小的卡片，卡片上写着温暖的句子。人情似卡片么？我却自从去冬以后，再没给留下卡片的人寄去哪怕是一张薄薄的纸。我总埋怨着别人的情在淡在薄在弥散，自己呢？从别人的眼中看到，该也吃了一惊吧，怎么会变成了这样？比以前冷，比以前硬，比以前懒，却比以前更会为自己辩解。
以前的时代，人情或许似醍醐，厚重粘稠？如今是人被纷至沓来的信息和事务碾扁熨平的时代，人情随之也轻薄寡淡了，人更多的依靠内心的支撑而更少希冀心外的扶持。人类在进步而人情在萎缩。真的么？
也许是因为现在“移情”的条件好多了，可以移向唱片，移向真古董和假古董，移向需要每天饲食的猫、鸟、鱼、兔，移向需要浇水剪枝施肥换盆的花草，移向小小的邮票，移向书报，总之可以更彻底地从活生生的人面前移开去。最省事的“雅移”法是寄情山水，最省事的“俗移”法则是坐到打开的电视机前剥食着花生米不分节目好赖地一直看到荧屏上现出“再见”的字样。
但心中仍不免时时逸出一丝两丝一缕几缕一片几片的对活生生的人的沟通欲望，化为思念，化为莫可名状的思绪，最后可能就拽过一张纸来，想在上面写一些情，一些别人可能并不呼应并不需要的字、词、句和标点符号……人情确确实实就是一张纸。
当我从淡薄中想起人家时，人家或许正从残存的印象中摆脱出去而正在忘却我。曼哈顿的灯火呵，哪一盏下面尚有关于我的一缕思绪？
Human Relationships Are Like Paper
Liu Xinwu
Don't add the word "thin", I don't mean that.
The times of summing up the many complicated matters into a simple one has gone.
But without simple summing up many people don't know how to face complicated situations. Actually they were complicated from the very beginning. Weren't they in the past? Maybe at any rate things in the past were not as complicated as they are today. Pondering carefully, I find things in the past were just the same.
In the past, we had to be on tenterhooks in speaking truth, we said so much. Today we don't have to be on tenterhooks in telling truth, but we don't feel like saying anything.
I once called upon an old friend in that small room. In fact, it was by no means a small room. It had only a door, no window and not even a ventilation hole. Therefore, when a man came in, the door must be opened wide. It was a store room with very small space and very stuffy. But we had a very pleasant time exchanging our views. At least on my own part it was so. Some words were said in whispers. The movement of our eyes was full of friendship. But now he has a bigger space, twenty or thirty times bigger, with many doors and windows. The doors are tightly closed and the windows half open. His "hardwares" are fine and his "softwares" still excellent. I never enter that door and he never invites me either... It seems as if we are not hard on each other but we don't share the same feelings. Our relation has become light and thin, in fact completely disappeared.
It is said that the "paper" in "Human relationships are like paper" by no means bears the current meaning of the "paper" in "The relationship between scholars is but half a sheet of paper". But the "paper" under the pen of Marshal Zhao (Zhao Gongming, God of wealth in Chinese folklore), i.e. the currency. The transition from the "Official Standard" to "Gold Standard" is appreciable, but I am still curious about "Human Standard" and "Sentimental Standard". It is said that the material boom of a society must be done at the cost of the reduction of its ideology. It is also said that those who lag behind are ideologically reduced, but in the eyes of the pioneers, it is a gratifying ideological disintegration. But then the pioneers may not point out what is the new ideology when the old ideology has gone. Some pioneers said that only disintegration is needed and there is no need for reconstruction. "Phoenix Nirvana" (1) is laughable; the phoenix can only be burned to death, why should there be rebirth?
As for me, I still grasp firmly at the hits of things which I regard as being eternal, even if they are as tiny as a hairspring. Eternal things include human relationships, which are as thin as paper. The paper is very thin, but it can be used to write love letters, poems, tender words and necessary greetings. Of course, it can be used to draw pictures or to fold into small paper boats and to be put into a stream, drifting upon gentle ripples to faraway places.
A year has elapsed in a blink. A year ago I was in America. I remember the first day when I went to New York it was dusk. Among the myriads of twinkling lights in Manhattan, there was a small light of mine. In the simple and soft residence on the table was a pretty flower vase with a very small bouquet of flowers and a pretty card, on which were written some warm words. Are human relationships as thin as paper? Since last winter I have never sent even a thin piece of paper to the man who left me the card. I often complain about other's feelings becoming light and thin and even disappearing. But what of me? In the eyes of others, it may be a shock as well. How is it that I have become so? I have become cooler, lazier, and more guarded than I was before.
In the past, human relationships were probably like the finest cream, too thick, heavy and sticky. Nowadays man is being pressed flat and ironed into something smooth by the continuous stream of information and affairs. Accordingly, human relationships are becoming light and thin. Man is relying more on their inner world support rather than on the support from the outside. Human beings are advancing but human relationships are dwindling. Isn't it true?
Perhaps it is because of too many conditions that can shift our feelings. We can shift to records, to ancient curios, and artificial curios, from daily-fed cats, birds, fish, rabbits to flowers and grass which need attention, shearing, applying fertilizer and changing pots, from small stamps to books and newspapers. In short, it can be shifted thoroughly from living man to other things. The easiest way of "Elegant Shifting" is to place one's feeling upon landscapes. The simplest "Humble Shifting" method is to turn on your TV set. Sit in front of it and watch its programmes on the screen while eating peanuts, regardless of whether the programmes are good or bad, till they say "Good night!"
But sometimes I can not refrain from the desire to communicate with others… one or two bits, one or more strands, one or more words, which changes into nameless feeling and deep-felt void... then I might finally take a sheet of paper and trace these feelings of affection. My words, sentences and marks may or may not get a response. Human relationships are really a piece of paper.
When I think of others in my light and thin feeling, others may forget me in their faintest memory about me. Oh, the lights in Manhattan... under which lamp still remains this feeling of mine?
(1)Phoenix Nirvana: a religious term in Buddhism, meaning an illusionary realm beyond life and death.
（张梦井、杜耀文 编译）
2012年7月1日 00:00
21、杰基·罗宾逊：自由思想与心灵的作用
Free Minds and Hearts at Work by Jackie Robinson
自由思想与心灵的作用 杰基·罗宾逊
At the beginning of the World Series of 1947, I experienced a completely new emotion, when the National Anthem was played.This time, I thought, it is being played for me, as much as for anyone else. This is organized major league baseball, and I am standing here with all the others; and everything that takes place includes me.
1947年的世界职业棒球大赛开赛那天，当美国国歌奏响的那一刻，我产生了一种全新的情感。这一次，国歌是为我而奏，就像为其他人奏一样。我终于能和其他人一样，站在职业棒球大联盟球赛的赛场上，成为这一切的一部分。
About a year later, I went to Atlanta, Georgia, to play in an exhibition game. On the field, for the first time in Atlanta, there were Negroes and whites. Other Negroes, besides me. And I thought: What I have always believed has come to be.
大约一年以后，我参加了在乔治亚州首府亚特兰大举办的一次棒球表演赛。这是亚特兰大的赛场上第一次同时出现白人和黑人运动员。除我之外，还有其他黑人选手。那一刻，我一直坚守的信念终于实现了。
And what is it that I have always believed? First, that imperfections are human. But that wherever human beings were given room to breathe and time to think, those imperfections would disappear, no matter how slowly. I do not believe that we have found or even approached perfection. That is not necessarily in the scheme of human events. Handicaps, stumbling blocks, prejudices — all of these are imperfect. Yet, they have to be reckoned with because they are in the scheme of human events.
我一直坚守的信念是什么呢？首先，我知道人类不可避免会有缺陷。但只要人类有一息尚存，只要人类还能思考，这些缺陷一定会逐渐消失，无论过程会多么漫长。我并不认为我们已经到达或正在接近完美无缺的境界。完美无缺的境界并非人类社会不可或缺的一部分。有些缺陷，例如残疾、障碍和偏见，在人类社会中都存在，也就需要我们勇敢地去面对。
Whatever obstacles I found made me fight all the harder. But it would have been impossible for me to fight at all, except that I was sustained by the personal and deep-rooted belief that my fight had a chance. It had a chance because it took place in a free society. Not once was I forced to face and fight an immovable object. Not once was the situation so cast-iron rigid that I had no chance at all. Free minds and human hearts were at work all around me; and so there was the probability of improvement. I look at my children now, and know that I must still prepare them to meet obstacles and prejudices.
我一路上遇到的阻碍都促使我更加努力地去抗争、去奋斗。然而，如果不是我内心深处坚信我的奋斗有希望，我就根本无法坚持。我的奋斗有希望，因为这是一个自由的社会。在这里，我不止一次遇到过无法逾越的障碍，也不止一次经历过令人绝望的境况。但那时，思想与心灵的自由便能起作用，让我摆脱困境。如今我看着自己的孩子们，我知道我仍需要他们准备面对困难与歧视。
But I can tell them, too, that they will never face some of these prejudices because other people have gone before them. And to myself I can say that, because progress is unalterable, many of today's dogmas will have vanished by the time they grow into adults. I can say to my children: There is a chance for you. No guarantee, but a chance.And this chance has come to be, because there is nothing static with free people. There is no Middle Ages logic so strong that it can stop the human tide from flowing forward. I do not believe that every person, in every walk of life, can succeed in spite of any handicap. That would be perfection. But I do believe — and with every fiber in me — that what I was able to attain came to be because we put behind us (no matter how slowly) the dogmas of the past: to discover the truth of today; and perhaps find the greatness of tomorrow.
然而，我可以告诉他们，正因为前人的努力奋斗，他们今后不必再经受我们现在承受的某些偏见。我也告诉自己，社会进步是必然的，当我的孩子们长大成人时，现在社会上的许多教条一定会消失。因此，我可以告诉我的孩子们：你们有希望——我不敢保证什么，但肯定有希望。有自由思想的人决不会停滞不前，所以你们有希望。再也没有中世纪强大荒谬的逻辑能阻挡人类历史的潮流滚滚向前。我并不认为从事任何职业的任何人都能排除一切障碍获得成功——这样的完美不现实。但我的确有一条坚定不疑的信念——我现在所做到的一切是因为我们能够抛开从前的教条（无论多么缓慢），能探寻当下的真理，也许还能发现未来的美好。
I believe in the human race. I believe in the warm heart. I believe in man's integrity. I believe in the goodness of a free society. And I believe that the society can remain good only as long as we are willing to fight for it — and to fight against whatever imperfections may exist.My fight was against the barriers that kept Negroes out of baseball. This was the area where I found imperfection, and where I was best able to fight. And I fought because I knew it was not doomed to be a losing fight. It couldn't be a losing fight-not when it took place in a free society. And in the largest sense, I believe that what I did was done for me — that it was my faith in God that sustained me in my fight. And that what was done for me must and will be done for others.
我相信人类。我相信热诚的心。我相信人们的正直与诚实。我相信自由社会中的美德。我相信只要我们愿意为之奋斗，愿意与所存在的缺陷抗争到底，这个社会就能永远美好。棒球比赛将黑人拒之门外就是人类社会的一种缺陷。既然我有这个能力，我就要和这种现象抗争到底。我抗争，因为我知道这场战斗并非注定以失败告终。这场战斗不会失败——在一个自由社会中这场战斗不可能失败。大而言之，我所做到的一切都市上苍的眷顾——正是我对上帝的信仰支撑着我，给我抗争的勇气。我相信被眷顾的不仅仅是我一个人，而应是、也将是我们所有人。
2012年7月15日 00:00
22、鲁藜：《贝壳》
请你留下这一枚贝壳
是我拣拾自人生的海洋
这里有层层浪潮滚饰的花边
这里有大时代的狂风暴雨锻铸的刚毅的棱角
这里有血痕也有泪痕
那泪珠所凝结的珍珠已沉落海底
现在留在贝壳里的
是一颗热烈而痛苦之心的模型
请你留下这一枚贝壳
把它放在你的窗前
这里有如同象牙雕刻的小小天宇
乳白色的晨光正在扫荡着残夜
这里有一丝红斑像晴空一道彩虹
将会让你极目而充满希望
这里有一滴血渍像一片火烧云
将会点燃你那灵魂的火焰，理想的火花
请你留下这一枚贝壳
把它放在你的身旁
你就会听到大海的奔腾呼号
好像一万支金色铜号在吹奏
你就会看见东方最壮丽的日出
好像一万珠玫瑰在开放
你就会再度感到人生至高无上的欢乐
当你与艰险的恶浪搏斗的时刻
请你留下这一枚贝壳
是我拣拾自人生的海洋
不要因为它不是珍珠就嫌弃它
不要因为它来自沙砾就摈弃它
正因为它是生长在沙砾与苦水了
它才孕育了纯洁的明珠
正因为它是来自黑暗的深渊
它才那么爱抚着光明
The Shell
Please accept this shell
that I picked up from the sea of life
here is a patterned border, in a design of overlapping waves
here is a firm edge, forged by the tempests of a mighty age
here are blood-stains and tear-stains too
but the pearls formed by teardrops have sunk to the ocean depths
leaving behind in the shell
the matrix of a passionately grieving heart.
Please accept this shell
and put it on our windowsill
here is a miniature heaven, as if carved in ivory
where the milky light of dawn sweeps away the last traces of night
here is a crimson thread, like a rainbow in the clearing skies
which may fill you with hope as far as the eye can follow
here is a drop of blood like a burning cloud
which may set alight the flame in your heart,
the spark of your ideals.
Please accept this shell
and place it beside you
so you can hear the call of the turbulent ocean
like a thousand golden trumpets swelling
and see the most beautiful sunrise in the east
like a thousand roses blooming
and once again feel life's supreme joy
when you wrestle with the cruel waves of hard adversity.
Please accept this shell
that I picked up from the sea of life
don't discard it in disgust because it's not a pearl
or cast it carelessly aside because it comes from grit
because it grew from grit and salty water
it bore a pure bright pearl
because it came from a dark abyss
it cherishes the light.
译者：杨宪益、戴乃迭
2012年7月29日 00:00
23、刘安：《塞翁失马》
近塞上之人，有善术者。
马无敌亡而入胡，人皆吊之。其父曰：“此何遽不为福乎？”居数月，其马将胡骏马而归。
人皆贺之，其父曰：“此何遽不能为祸乎？”家富良马，其子好骑，堕而折其髀，人皆吊之，其父曰：“此何遽不为福乎？”居一年，胡人大入塞，丁壮者控弦而战。近塞之人，死者十九。
此独以跛之故，父子相保。
故福之为祸，祸之为福，化不可极，深不可测也。
The Old Man at the Fort from Huainantse
Liu An
There was an old man at a frontier fort in the north who understood Taoism. One day he lost his horse, which wandered into the land of the Hu tribesmen. His neighbors came to condole with him, and the man said, “How do you know that this is bad luck?”
After a few months, the horse returned with some fine horses of the Hu breed, and the people congratulated him. The old man said, “How do you know that this is good luck?”
He then became very prosperous with so many horses. The son one day broke his legs riding, and all the people came to condole with him again. The old man said, “How do you know that this is bad luck?”
One day the Hu tribesmen invaded the frontier fort. All the young men fought with arrows to defend it, and nine tenths of them were killed. Because the son was a cripple, both father and son escaped unharmed.
Therefore, good luck changes into bad, and bad luck changes into good. The workings of events are beyond comprehension.
2012年8月5日 00:00
24、叶圣陶：《我坐了木船》
I Took a Wooden Boat
叶圣陶
Ye Shengtao
从重庆到汉口，我坐了木船。
I took a wooden boat from Chongqing to Hankou.
木船危险，当然知道。一路上数不清的滩，礁石随处都是，要出事，随时可以出。还有盗匪——实在是最可怜的同胞，他们种地没得吃，有力气没处出卖，当了兵经常饿肚皮，无可奈何只好出此下策。——假如遇见了，把铺盖或者身上衣服带下去，也是异常难处的事儿。
Of course I know it is risky to travel by wooden boat. With countless shoals and reefs to negotiate, accidents may happen any time. To complicate matters, there are bandits lurking around－those pitiful fellow countrymen who, unable to ward off starvation by farming or soldiering or whatnot, have been reduced to the disreputable business as a last resort. I'll be in a real fix if they should rob me of, say, my bedding or clothes.
但是，回转来想，从前没有轮船，没有飞机，历来走川江的人都坐木船。就是如今，上上下下的还有许多人在那里坐木船，如果统计起来，人数该比坐轮船坐飞机的多。人家可以坐，我就不能坐吗？我又不比人家高贵。至于危险，不考虑也罢。轮船飞机就不危险吗？安步当车似乎最稳妥了，可是人家屋檐边也可以掉下一张瓦片来。要绝对避免危险就莫要做人。
Now, on reflection, I realize that in the days before steamers and aircraft came into use, people used to travel by wooden boat up and down the Sichuan section of the Yangtze River. Even today, many continue to do so, and statistic will invariably show a higher percentage of people travelling by wooden boat than by steamer or aircraft. Why shouldn't I do the same? Why should I think it beneath myself to travel by wooden boat? As for safety, is it less dangerous to travel by steamer or aircraft? Going on foot seems to be the best choice, but a tile falling off the eaves of somebody's house might prove equally disastrous to foot passengers. Enjoying absolute safety is humanly impossible.
要坐轮船坐飞机，自然也有办法。只要往各方去请托，找关系，或者干脆买张黑票。先说黑票，且不谈付出超过定额的钱，力有不及，心有不甘，单单一个“黑”字，就叫你不愿领教。“黑”字表示作弊，表示越出常轨。你买黑票，无异同作弊，赞助越出常轨。一个人既不能独立转移风气，也该在消极方面有所自守，邦同作弊，赞助越出常轨的事儿，总可以免了吧，——这自然是书生之见，不免通达的人一笑。
It stands to reason that I can go by steamer or aircraft if I care to. I can simply go around fishing for help or personal connections, or just buy a "black" ticket. But I'll have to pay more than the regular price for a "black" ticket, which I can ill afford and which I disdain to do. And the very word "black" generates in me a feeling of repulsion. "Black" signified fraud or illegal practice. Buying a "black" ticket is as good as getting involved in a fraud or an illegal practice. If it is beyond one's capacity to single-handedly stem the prevailing social evils, one should at least be self-disciplined so as not to make matters worse. All this is undoubtedly the pedantic view of bookish person—a view which must sound ridiculous to all sensible gentlemen.
再说请托找关系，听人家说他们的经验，简直与谋差使一样的麻烦。在传达室恭候，在会客室恭候，幸而见了那要见的人，他听说你要设法买船票，或是飞机票，爱理不理的答复你说，“困难呢……下个星期再来打听吧……”于是你觉得好像有一线希望，又好像毫无把握，只得挨到下星期再去。跑了不知多少趟，总算有眉目了，又得往这一处签字，那一处盖章，看种种的脸色，候种种的传唤，为的是得一份充分的证据，可以去换张票子。票子到手，身分可以改变了，什么机关的部属，什么长的秘书，什么人的本人或是父亲，或者姓名仍旧，或者必须改名换姓，总之要与你自己暂时脱离关系。最有味的是冒充什么部的士兵，非但改名换姓，还得穿上灰布棉军服，腰间束条皮带。我听了这些，就死了请托找关系的念头。即使饿得要死，也不定要去奉承颜色谋差使，为了一张票子去求教人家，不说我自己犯不着，人家也太费心。重庆的路又那么难走，公共汽车站排队往往等上一个半钟头，天天为了票子去跑，实在吃不消。再说与自己暂时脱离关系，换上他人的身分，虽然人家不大爱惜名气，我可不愿滥用那些名气。我不是部属，不是秘书，不是某人，不是某人的父亲，我是我。我毫无成就，样样不长进，我可不愿与任何人易地而处，无论长期的或是暂时的。为了走一趟路，必须易地而处，在我总觉着像被剥夺了什么似的。至于穿灰布棉衣更为难了，为了走一趟路才穿上那套衣服，岂不亵渎了那套衣服？亵渎的人固然不少，我可总不忍——这一套又是书生之见。
Some people have told me from their own experience that soliciting help or speaking personal connections is something as difficult as hunting for a job. You may be kept cooling your heels in a janitor's office or a reception room before an interview is granted. Hearing that you are trying to get a steamer or air ticket, the much sought-after interview may reply in a cold and indifferent manner, "Ah, that's difficult...Come see me next week..." Thereupon you seem to see a ray of hope, and you may also feel totally uncertain of success. All you can do is wait until then. After making you don't know how many visits, there eventually appear signs of positive outcome. Then you have to go here and there to get a signature or a seal, meet with all sorts of cold reception and wait for all sorts of summonses—all for the purpose of obtaining a useful certificate to buy a ticket with. Once with a ticket in hand, your status automatically changes. You can now call yourself the employee of certain government office or certain official's secretary. You can call yourself so-and-so or so-and-so's father. You can either keep your original name or have it changed. In short, you must temporarily break off relations with your old self. The funniest thing is when you try to pass for a soldier of a certain army unit, you must not only have your name changed, but also wear a grey-cloth cotton-padded army uniform with a leather belt around your waist. All that kills my idea of soliciting help or seeking personal connections. I disdain to go humbly begging for a job even when I am starving, let alone to go asking for other people's help in getting me a mere ticket. Neither is it necessary for me to go to all that trouble, nor should I bother other people for that matter. Going around is hard in the city of Chongqing. You have to queue up for at least 30 minutes or more to get on a bus. It would really be too much for me to go about for the ticket every day. As to the temporary divorce from my old self and the concealing of my identity, I hate to usurp all those designations though other people may think otherwise. I'm neither a government employee, nor a secretary, nor so-and-so, nor so-and-so's father. I am myself. I am just an ordinary man with no urge to do better, so I hate to change places with anybody else, whether for a while or for good. To change places just for the sake of a trip would make me feel like being deprived. Wouldn't it be sinful for me to wear the grey-cloth cotton-padded army uniform for nothing more than making a single trip? Though many other people violate the taboo, I for my part cannot bear to do the same. This again is the impractical view of a bookish person.
抱着书生之见，我决定坐木船。木船比不上轮船，更比不上飞机，千真万确。可是绝对不用找关系，也无所谓黑票。你要船，找运输行，或者自己到码头上去找，找着了，言明价钱，多少钱坐到汉口，每块钱花得明明白白。在这一点上，我觉得木船好极了，我可以不说一句讨情的话，不看一副难看的嘴脸，堂堂正正的凭我的身分东西归。这是大多数坐轮船坐飞机的朋友办不到的，我可有这种骄傲。
It was with this impractical view that I decided to take a wooden boat. It is absolutely true that a wooden boat cannot compare with a steamer, much less an airplane. But there is no need for soliciting help or seeking personal connections, nor the need for the so-called "black" ticket. All you need to do is contact the transport company, or go direct to the wharf to look for a wooden boat. Once you have located it, you will know what the fare is from Chongqing to Hankou, and every dollar will be paid for what it is worth, no more, no less. I find the wooden boat super in this respect. I am saved the humiliation of begging for help or the need of confronting the nasty look on somebody's face. I can travel with my true identity. This is something quite beyond the majority of those travelling by steamer or aircraft. I am proud of it.
决定了之后，有两位朋友特来劝阻，一位从李家沱，一位从柏滨，不怕水程跋涉，为的是关爱我，瞧得起我。他们说了种种理由，预想了种种可能的障害，结末说，还是再考虑一下的好。我真感谢他们，当然不敢说不必再行考虑，只好带玩笑的说，“吉人天相，”安慰他们激动的心情。现在，他们接到我平安到达的消息了，他们也真的安慰了。
After I had made up my mind, two friends of mine, in spite of the difficult boat journey all the way from Li Jia Tuo and Bai Bin respectively, came to dissuade me from taking the wooden boat out of concern and respect for me. They enumerated various reasons against my decision as well as various possible mishaps, advising me in the end to re-consider the matter. I felt very grateful to them, and of course refrained from showing any reluctance to re-consider the matter. By way of allaying their anxiety, I said jokingly, "A good guy always enjoys Heaven's protection." Now, the subsequence news of my safe arrival in Hankou must have set their mind at rest.
（张培基 译）
2012年8月19日 00:00
25、席慕容：《前缘》/查一路：《若水人生》
前缘
诗/席慕容
Predestination
A poem by Xi Murong
人若真能转世
Should man really be reincarnated,
世间若真有轮回
Had the samsara of life truly occurred.
那麽我的爱
So my love,
我们前世曾经是什麽
what in prior lives could we have been?
你若曾是江南采莲的女子
If you were a southern girl of lotus-picking,
我必是你皓腕下错过的那朵
I could have been a lotus that your pale wrist is missing.
你若曾是逃学的顽童
If you were a truant urchin,
我必是从你袋中掉下的那颗崭新的弹珠
I could have been a brand new hoodle
在路旁的草丛中
Slipping through your pocket and in the grass by the road,
目送你毫不知情地远去
Peeping you far off but not in the know.
你若曾是面壁的高僧
If you were a monk always meditating to face the wall,
我必是殿前的那一柱香
I could have been an incense in front of the hall,
焚烧著 陪伴过你一段静默的时光
Burning for a serene time to accompany you.
因此 今生相逢
Even though we've thus encountered in the present life,
总觉得有些前缘未尽
Always lingering is a feel that our predestination
却又很恍忽 无法仔细地去分辨
Has not fully fulfilled, but too vague to discern
无法一一地向你说出
And yet to detail you.
若水人生
他曾是一个顽劣的孩子。用文具盒夹住前排女生的头发，在老师粉笔盒里放一只青蛙，让课桌抽屉里雏鸟的叫声响彻整个教室。
父亲吊起他的双手，用粗粗的皮带抽打他。重重的体罚只会加重他的叛逆。
最后一次，他打碎了全教室的玻璃。
他被叫到老师办公室。走在去办公室的路上，他做好了种种应付老师的心理准备。他想，老师这次一定不会轻易饶他的。
老师安详地坐着，手中的茶杯冒着热气。意外地，老师叫他坐下，和颜悦色地。这让他猝不及防。他有些惶恐，也有些不明就里。老师说话了：“你说这水里的杯子像什么？”他感到意外，想了想，说：“像杯子。”
老师点点头，对！你再看看面盆里的水像什么，他说，像面盆！再看看塑料桶里。他迷茫了：“像塑料桶啊？”他弄不明白，到底水像什么呢？
跟着老师，他走到了学校不远处的一小块烂泥塘边。烂泥塘水面漂浮着各种垃圾，散发出熏人的恶臭。老师指着塘里的水说，这里也是水，你愿意做这里的水吗？人有不同的状态，进入了不同的状态，就如同水进了杯子、面盆、塑料桶和烂泥塘。
那个冬日，走在回校的路上。这孩子的心里第一次产生了自责。老师亲切地抚着他的头，指着远方跟他说：“一路同学，你很聪明，我希望你将来能流进大海！”
流进大海，人生的形状就像大海，人就成了大海，获得了大海的丰富和博大。几十年过去了。我没有流进浩渺无垠的大海。可是，想起老师的话，我常常从梦中惊醒。不能流进烂泥塘而万劫不复。如果人生像水一样注定要流进一个容器，我愿意像杯子、像面盆、哪怕是塑料桶。即便没有大海的宽阔和深沉，即便平庸。但是，活得简单、干净、透明、实用。
Life is Like Water
He used to be a mischievous boy, often up to tricks like pinching the hair of the girl in front of him with his pencil-box, putting a frog in the teacher's chalk box and making the whole classroom resound with the twitters of a nestling hid in his desk drawer.
His father had to resort to such severe punishment as hanging him by the hands and flogging him with a strong belt, which only drove him further to defiance.
To reach the limit, he smashed all the window panes of the classroom.
He was consequently summoned to the teacher's office. On the way he was trying to steel himself for the teacher's impending reproaches; he knew he would not be spared this time.
The teacher kept himself seated in serenity, a steaming teacup in hand. All of a sudden the teacher amiably bade him sit down, which was totally out of his expectation. He was caught off guard, disturbed and somewhat confused. "What do you think the water is like in my cup?" the teacher broke the silence. He felt surprised at the question and after a moment answered, "It's like the cup." "That's right." The teacher nodded, and asked him what shape the water had in the basin. He said it was shaped after the basin. Again the teacher made him look at the water in a plastic bucket. He was perplexed, "Why, it's like the bucket." He couldn't figure out what shapes water did take.
Then the teacher took him to a small dirty pond near the school, which was filled with drifting rubbish and overpowering foul smells. Pointing at the pond, the teacher said, "This is also water; would you allow yourself to identify with it? You see, life can be of various shapes, just like water can take the shape of a cup, a basin, a plastic bucket or a dirty pond."
On the way back the boy felt the first prick of conscience in his life that winter day. Touching his head affectionately, and pointing to the distance, the teacher remarked, "You are a smart boy, Yilu, I hope you will take the shape of the sea in future."
Yes indeed, only when you join the sea and become one with it, can you gain the sea's richness and broadness. Several decades have elapsed without me, the once mischievous boy, joining the sea or acquiring its greatness; however, the teacher's remarks often startle me out of my sleep, warning me against getting lost for good in the dirty pond. If life must be shaped by its container, I'd rather mine take the shape of a cup, a basin or even a plastic bucket; lacking the width and depth of the sea, plain and common as it is, my life is at least simple, upright, transparent and useful.
（朱柏桐 译）
2012年9月1日 00:00
26、夏丏尊：《我之于书》
二十年来，我生活费中至少十分之一二是消耗在书上的。我的房子里比较贵重的东西就是书。
我一向没有对于任何问题作高深研究的野心，因之所买的书范围较广，宗教，艺术，文学，社会，哲学，历史，生物，各方面差不多都有一点。最多的是各国文学名著的译本，与本国古来的诗文集，别的门类只是些概论等类的入门书而已。
我不喜欢向别人或图书馆借书。借来的书，在我好像过不来瘾似的，必要是自己买的才满足。这也可谓是一种占有的欲望。买到了几册新书，一册一册地加盖藏书印记，我最感到快悦的是这时候。
书籍到了我的手里，我的习惯是先看序文，次看目录。页数不多的往往立刻通读，篇幅大的，只把正文任择一二章节略加翻阅，就插在书架上。除小说外，我少有全体读完的大部的书，只凭了购入当时的记忆，知道某册书是何种性质，其中大概有些什么可取的材料而已。什么书在什么时候再去读再去翻，连我自己也无把握，完全要看一个时期的兴趣。关于这事，我常自比为古时的皇帝，而把插在架上的书譬诸列屋而居的宫女。
我虽爱买书，而对于书却不甚爱惜。读书的时候，常在书上把我所认为要紧的处所标出。线装书大概用笔加圈，洋装书竟用红铅笔划粗粗的线。经我看过的书，统体干净的很少。
据说，任何爱吃糖果的人，只要叫他到糖果铺中去做事，见了糖果就会生厌。自我入书店以后，对于书的贪念也已消除了不少了，可是仍不免要故态复萌，想买这种，想买那种。这大概因为糖果要用嘴去吃，摆存毫无意义，而书则可以买了不看，任其只管插在架上的缘故吧。
Books and I
For twenty years past, books have eaten into at least 10-20 percent of my pocket. Now the only things of some value under my roof, if any, are my books.
Since I have never entertained ambition for making a profound study of any subject, the books I have acquired cover almost everything-religion, art, literature, sociology, philosophy, history, biology, etc. Most of them are Chinese translations of literary works by famous foreign writers and anthologies of Chinese poetry and prose through the ages. The rest, often called an outline or introduction, are merely on rudiments of various subjects.
I never care to borrow books from other people or a library. It seems that books bought can better satisfy my bibliomania than books borrowed. You may also attribute this to some sort of desire for personal possessions. Whatever I have some new acquisitions, it always gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to stamp my exlibris on them one-by-one.
As soon as a new book comes to hand, I always read the preface first and then the table of contents. If it happens to be a thin one, I often finish it at one sitting. Otherwise, I often browse through one or two chapters or sections before putting it onto my bookshelf. I seldom read a thick book from cover to cover unless it is a novel. By dint of the first impression it made on me at the time of buying, I have a rough idea of what a book is about and what useful materials in it are available to me. But I have little idea which book is to be read or looked over again at what time. It is completely subject to the whims of the moment. This often prompts me to liken myself and the books on my shelf respectively to an ancient emperor and his concubines housed separately in a row of adjoining rooms.
Much as I loved books, I take little care of them. In doing my reading, I often mark out what I regard as important in a book. If it is a thread-bound Chinese book, I use a writing brush to draw small circles as markings. Otherwise, I use a red pencil to draw heavy underlines. Consequently, the books I have read are rarely clean.
It is said that those who have a great liking for candies will sicken to see them when later they happen to work in a candy store. Likewise, ever since I began to work in a bookstore, my obsession with books has been very much on the decline. Nevertheless, I still cannot help slipping back into the same old rut, eager to buy this or that book. This is probably because candies are to be eaten with the mouth and not worth keeping as knickknacks while books can be bought without being read and just left on a shelf.
(张培基 译)
2012年9月16日 00:00
27、季羡林：《文学批评无用论》
读最近一期的《文学评论》，里面有几篇关于“红学” 的文章，引起了我的注意。有的作者既反省，又批判。有的作者从困境中找出路。有的作者概叹，“红学”出了危机。如此等等，煞是热闹。文章的论点都非常精彩，很有启发。但是，我却忽然想到了一个怪问题：这样的“红学”有用处吗？对红学家本身，对在大学里和研究所里从事文学理论研究的人，当然有用。但是对广大的《红楼梦》的读者呢？我看是没有用处。
《红楼梦》问世二百年以来 ，通过汉文原文和各种译文读过本书的人，无虑多少个亿。这样多的读者哪一个是先看批评家的文章，然后再让批评家牵着鼻子走，按图索骥地去读原作呢？我看是绝无仅有。一切文学作品，特别是像《红楼梦》这样伟大的作品 ，内容异常地丰富，涉及到的社会层面异常地多，简直像是一个宝山，一座迷宫。而读者群就更为复杂，不同的家庭背景，不同的社会经历，不同的民族，不同的国家，不同的文化传统，不同的心理素质，不同的年龄，不同的性别，不同的职业，不同的爱好——还可以这样“不同”下去，就此打住——，他们来读《红楼梦》，会各就自己的特点，欣赏《红楼梦》中的某一个方面，受到鼓舞，受到启发，引起了喜爱；也可能受到打击，引起了憎恶，总之是千差万别。对这些读者来说，“红学家”就好象是住在“太虚幻境” 里的圣人、贤人，与自己无关。他们不管“红学家”究竟议论些什么，只是读下去，读下去。
因此我说，文学批评家无用。
不但对读者无用，对作者也无用。查一查各国文学史，我敢说，没有哪一个伟大作家是根据文学批评家的理论来进行创作的。
那么，文学批评家的研究不就是毫无意义了吗？也不是的。他们根据自己的文学欣赏的才能，根据不同的时代潮流，对文学作品提出自己的看法，互相争论，互相学习，互相启发，互相提高，这也是一种创作活动，对文学理论的建设会有很大的好处。只是不要幻想，自己的理论会对读者和作者有多大影响。这样一来，就可以各安其业，天下太平了。
上面这些话其实只有幼儿园的水平 ，可是还没有见有什么人这样坦率地说了出来,就让我当一个“始作俑者”吧！
On the Futility of Literary Criticism
In the latest issue of the Literary Review, several articles on Redology have attracted my attention. Some of the authors are introspective as well as critical; some try to find a way out of their academic predicament; some sigh with regret that Redology is faced with a crisis; and so on and so forth. The discussion is quite animated. The arguments set forth in the articles are very interesting and enlightening. Nevertheless, a strange question has occurred to me: Is this kind of Redology of any use at all? It is of course useful to the Redologists themselves as well as to those engaged in the study of literary theory at universities and research institutes. But, to my mind, it is of little use to readers of A Dream of Red Mansions at large.
Ever since the publication of this novel some 200 years ago, hundreds of millions of people have read its Chinese original or its translations in various languages. Of these innumerable people, how many have read the novel by starting with a perusal of the critics’ articles and allowing themselves to be led by the nose by the critics as to how to read the novel? Next to none. All literary works, especially a monumental one like A Dream of Red Mansions, are extremely rich in content and involve diverse social strata—to such an extent that they virtually resemble a mountain of treasure or a labyrinth. And the readers are even more complicated, differing from each other in family background, social experience, nationality, country, cultural tradition, psychological condition, age, sex, profession, hobby, etc., etc. The list could go on endlessly, so I wouldn’t mind stopping here. They will each appreciate a certain aspect of the novel according to their own individuality. They may feel inspired and enlightened, and hence love it, or they may feel hurt, and hence loathe it. In short, the reactions vary. To them, the Redologists seem to be sages and men of virtue residing in the “Illusory Land of Great Void” and having nothing whatsoever to do with them. They just read on and on, caring not what the Redologists may say.
Therefore, I reiterate, literary criticism is useless.
It is useless not only to the readers, but also to writers. Looking up the literary history of each and every country, I dare say that none of the world’s great literary figures ever did their writing in line with the theory of literary critics.
On the other hand, however, does it follow that the research done by literary critics is totally meaningless? No, that is not true either. In accordance with their own capacity for literary appreciation and the different historical trends, the views they put forward for mutual discussion, study, inspiration and improvement are also something creative and conducive to the development of literary theory. Only they should be under no illusion about their theories exerting powerful influence on the readership or writers. That is the way for each to have a role of his own to play and peace to reign under heaven.
What I’ve said above is only skin-deep, of kindergarten level. But so far none else have ventured to be equally candid. Therefore, let me be reconciled to being saddled with the epithet of “originator of a bad pract
(张培基 译)
2012年10月8日 00:00
28、赵丽宏：《沉默》
赵丽宏，上海市崇明县人，1951年2月生于上海市区，是著名的散文家，诗人，现为中国作家协会全委会委员，上海作家协会副主席，《上海文学》杂志社社长，专业作家，全国政协委员。著作有散文集、诗集、报告文学集等各种专著共六十余部，有五卷本《赵丽宏文集》、二卷本《赵丽宏诗选》行世。
沉默
无声即沉默。沉默有各式各样——
腹中空泛，思想一片苍白，故而无言可发，这是沉默；热情已如柴薪尽燃，故而冷漠处世，无喜无悲，无忧无愤，对人世的一切都失去兴趣和欲望，这也是沉默。
有过爱，有过恨，有过迷茫，有过颖悟，有过一呼百应的呐喊，有过得不到的呼唤，然而却守口如瓶，只是平静地冷眼察看世界，这是沉默；饱经忧患，阅尽人世百态，胸有千山万壑的屐痕，有江河湖海的涛声，然而却深思不语，这也是沉默。
一把价值连城的意大利小提琴，和一枝被随手削出的芦笛，不去触动它们，便都是沉默，但沉默的内涵却并不一样。即便永远不再有人去触动它们，你依然可以凭想象听见它们可能发出的绝然不同的鸣响。
一块莹洁无瑕的美玉，和一块粗糙朴实的土砖，放在那里也都是沉默。然而谁能把它们所代表的内容划一个等号呢？
其实，对活着的生命而言，真正的沉默是不存在的。沉默本身也是一种思想和心境的流露，是灵魂的另一种形式的回声。
有的人以沉默掩饰思想的空虚。
有的人以沉默叙述迷茫和惆怅。
有的人以沉默表达内心的愤怒和忧伤。
沉默常常是暂时的。就像古塔檐角下的铜铃，无风时，它们只是一种古色古香的装饰，一起风，它们便会发出奇妙的金属音响，似乎是许多古老故事的悠远的回声……
沉默的人们不也一样？
“沉默是金”，是怎样的一种“金”呢？
这个“金”中，可以包含正直，善良，可以代表淡泊，超脱，也可以包含虚伪，圆滑，懦弱的一种托辞。
金子的光泽，未必是世界上最动人的光泽。
是不是只有死亡才是永远的沉默？
也许，死亡也未必是真正的沉默，灵魂的载体可以化为尘土，那些真诚睿智的心声，却会长久地在人心的海洋中引起悠长的回声……
Silence
Silence is soundlessness; silence exists in different forms.
An empty head or a blank mind which leads to speechlessness—that is silence.
Enthusiasm fades like dying embers and thus leads to cynicism and indifference to life, which arouses neither happiness nor sadness, neither worries nor anger, and which costs people their interest in and desire for anything—that is silence.
Despite all the experiences of love and hate, of disorientation and reorientation, of order-giving that was answered by hundreds and call-issuing that was not answered by a single soul, there is not a word uttered, but only a clam eye that watches on this world—that is also silence.
Worries and sufferings, tastes of changes and vicissitudes of the world, footprints left in mountains and valleys and noises of rivers and oceans cherished in the heart are all but hidden unrevealed—that is still silence.
Either an invaluable Italian violin or a reed whistle cut out casually would remain silent if they are not played, although the connotations of their silences differ greatly. For even though they are never touched by anybody, you can still imagine the vastly different sounds they can possibly produce.
A flawless jade ornament, or a coarse, gross brick will always remain silent if it is left untouched, but who can draw an equal sign between them?
Indeed, for a living being there is no such thing as true silence, for silence itself is a revelation of the mind and the heart, an echo of the soul of a different form.
Some people use silence as a disguise of the emptiness of the head.
Some use it as a means to depict their disorientation and melancholy.
And some use it as a way of expressing their angers and sorrows.
Silence usually is ephemeral. It reminds one of the bronze bells dangling from a pagoda's eaves; on windless days they are a decoration upon the age-weathered beauty, but with wind they give out wonderful tinkling and jingling metallurgic sounds, as if echoing age-old stories of long, long ago...
Do you not think the same of silent people?
They say that "silence is golden", but of what nature is this “gold”? It can include integrity, honesty and kindness; it can stand for indifference to and detachment from fame and fortune; but it can also act as an excuse for hypocrisy, slyness and cowardice... the glittering of gold may not necessarily be the most brilliant lustre in the world.
Can it be that permanent silence is only represented by death?
Perhaps even death cannot represent true silence, for the carrier of the soul can turn into dust, so that the sincere and wise voices from the bottom of the heart will trigger long-lasting echoes in the seas of human hearts...
(申雨平 译)
2012年10月28日 00:00
29、戴望舒：《寻梦者》
戴望舒（1905.3.5～1950.2.28）现代诗人。又称“雨巷诗人”，中国现代派象征主义诗人。戴望舒为笔名，原名戴朝安，又名戴梦鸥。笔名艾昂甫、江恩等。 浙江杭县（ 今杭州市余杭区）人。他的笔名出自屈原的《离骚》：“前望舒使先驱兮，后飞廉使奔属 。”意思是说屈原上天入地漫游求索，坐着龙马拉来的车子，前面由月神望舒开路，后面由风神飞廉作跟班。望舒就是神话传说中替月亮驾车的天神，美丽温柔，纯洁幽雅。曾赴法国留学，受法国象征派诗人影响。
寻梦者
梦会开出花来的，
梦会开出娇妍的花来的：
去求无价的珍宝吧。
在青色的大海里，
在青色的大海的底里，
深藏着金色的贝一枚。
你去攀九年的冰山吧，
你去航九年的旱海吧，
然后你逢到那金色的贝。
它有天上的云雨声，
它有海上的风涛声，
它会使你的心沉醉。
把它在海水里养九年，
把它在天水里养九年，
然后，它在一个暗夜里开绽了。
当你鬓发斑斑了的时候。
当你眼睛朦胧了的时候，
金色的贝吐出桃色的珠。
把桃色的珠放在你怀里，
把桃色的珠放在你枕边，
于是一个梦静静地升上来了。
你的梦开出花来了，
你的梦开出娇妍的花来了，
在你已衰老了的时候。
Dream-seeker
Flowers will bloom from dreams.
Charming, delicate flowers will bloom from dreams:
Go then to seek your invaluable jewels.
In the great blue sea,
At the bottom of the great blue sea,
Is hidden a gold-colored shell.
You climbed the iceberg for nine years.
You sailed the dry sea for nine years.
Then, you encountered this gold-colored shell.
It has the clouds and rains of the sky.
It has the winds and waves of the sea.
It will make your heart all drunken.
Fed by the sea-water for nine years,
Fed by the sky-water for nine years,
And then, in on dark night, it bloomed.
When your hair and sideburns turn frostwhite,
When your eyes blur with everything,
The gold-colored shell will spit out a peach pearl.
Hold the peach pearl in your bosom,
Put the peach pearl by your pillow,
A dream, thus, quietly arises.
Flowers are blooming from your dreams.
Charming, delicate flowers are blooming from your dreams,
When you are getting old, getting old.
(Wai-Lim Yip 译)
2012年11月11日 00:00
30、茅盾：《白杨礼赞》
茅盾：原名沈德鸿，字雁冰。浙江桐乡人。中国现代著名作家、文学评论家、文化活动家以及社会活动家，五四新文化运动先驱者之一，我国革命文艺奠基人之一。1896年7月4日生于浙江桐乡县乌镇。这是个太湖南部的鱼米之乡，是近代以来中国农业最为发达之区，它毗邻着现代化的上海，又是人文荟萃的地方，这里成就了茅盾勇于面向世界的开放的文化心态，以及精致入微的笔风。茅盾于1981年3月27日辞世。
白杨礼赞
白杨树实在是不平凡的，我赞美白杨树！
当汽车在望不到边际的高原上奔驰，扑入你的视野的，是黄绿错综的一条大毡子；黄的，那是土，未开垦的处女土，几十万年前由伟大的自然力所堆积成功的黄土高原的外壳；绿的呢，是人类战胜自然的结果，是麦田，和风吹送，翻起了一轮一轮的绿波——这时你会真心佩服昔人所造的两个字“麦浪”，若不是妙手偶得，便确是经过锤炼的语言的精华；黄与绿主宰着，无边无垠，坦荡如砥，这时如果不是宛若并肩的远山的连峰提醒了你（这些山峰凭你的肉眼来判断，就知道是在你脚底下的），你会忘记了汽车是在高原上行驶。这时你涌起来的感想也许是“雄壮”，也许是“伟大”，诸如此类的形容词；然而同时你的眼睛也许觉得有点倦怠，你对当前的“雄壮”或“伟大”闭了眼，而另一种味儿在你的心头潜滋暗长了——“单调”！可不是，单调，有一点儿吧？
然而刹那间，要是你猛抬眼看见了前面远远地有一排，——不，或者甚至只是三五株，一二株，傲然地耸立，像哨兵似的树木的话，那你的恹恹欲睡的情绪又将如何？我那时是惊奇地叫了一声的！
那就是白杨树，西北极普通的一种树，然而实在不是平凡的一种树！
那是一种力争上游的一种树，笔直的干，笔直的枝。它的干呢，通常是丈把高，像是加过人工似的，一丈以内，绝无旁枝；它所有的丫枝呢，一律向上，而且紧紧靠拢，也像是加过人工似的，成为一束，绝无横斜逸出；它的宽大的叶子也是片片向上，几乎没有斜生的，更不用说倒垂了；它的皮，光滑而有银色的晕圈，微微泛出淡青色。这是虽在北方的风雪的压迫下却保持着倔强挺立的一种树！哪怕只有碗来精细罢，它却努力向上发展，高到丈许，二丈，参天耸立，不折不挠，对抗着西北风。
这就是白杨树，西北极普通的一种树，然而决不是平凡的树！它没有婆娑的姿态，没有屈曲盘旋的虬枝，也许你要说它不美丽，——如果美是专指“婆娑”或“横斜逸出”之类而言，那么白杨树算不得树中的好女子；但是它却是伟岸，正直，朴质，严肃，也不缺乏温和，更不用提它的坚强不屈与挺拔，它是树中伟丈夫！当你在积雪初融的高原上走过，看见平坦的大地上傲然挺立这么一株或一排白杨树，难道你觉得树只是树？难道你就想不它的朴质，严肃，坚强不屈，至少也象征了北方的农民；难道你竟一点也不联想到，在敌后的广大土地上，到处有坚强不屈，就像这白杨树一样傲然挺立的守卫他们家乡的哨兵，难道你又不更远一点想到这样枝枝叶叶靠紧团结，力求上进的白杨树，宛然象征了今天在华北平原纵横激荡，用血写出新中国历史的那种精神和意志。
白杨不是平凡的树。它是西北极普遍，不被人重视，就跟北方农民相似；它有极强的生命力，磨折不了，压迫不倒，也跟北方的农民相似。我赞美白杨树，就因为它不但象征了北方的农民，尤其象征了今天我们民族解放斗争中所不可缺的朴质，坚强，以及力求上进的精神。
让那些看不起民众，贱视民众，顽固的倒退的人们去赞美那贵族化的楠木（那也是直干秀颀的），去鄙视这极常见，极易生长的白杨罢，但是我要高声赞美白杨树！
Tribute to the White Poplar
The white poplar is no ordinary tree. Let me sing its praises.
When you travel by car through Northwest China’s boundless plateau, all you see before you is something like a huge yellow-and-green felt blanket. Yellow is the soil—the uncultivated virgin soil. It is the outer covering of the loess plateau accumulated by Mother Nature several hundred thousand years ago. Green are the wheat fields signifying man’s triumph over nature. They become a sea of rolling green waves whenever there is a soft breeze. One is here reminded of Chinese expression mai lang meaning “rippling wheat” and cannot help admiring our forefathers’ ingenuity in coining such a happy phrase. It must have been either the brainwave of a clever scholar, or a linguistic gem sanctioned by long usage. The boundless highland, with dominant yellow and green, is flat like a whetstone. Were it not for distant mountain peaks standing side by side (which, as your naked eyes tell you, are bellow where you stand), you would probably forget that you are on the highland. The sight of the scene will probably call up inside you a string of epithets like “spectacular” or “grand”. Meanwhile, however, your eyes may become weary of watching the same panorama, so much so that you are oblivious of its being spectacular or grand. And you may feel monotony coming on. Yes, it is somewhat monotonous, isn’t it?
Now what will become of your weariness if you suddenly raise your eyes only to catch sight of distant row of trees (or just a couple of them) standing there proudly like sentries. For my part, I cannot keep from uttering an exclamation of surprise!
They are white poplars. Though very common in Northwest China, they are no ordinary trees!
With straight trunks and branches, white poplars aim high. Their trunks are usually over ten feet tall and, as if wrought by human effort, utterly bare of branches below ten feet. Their twigs, also like things artificially shaped, all reach out towards the sky and grow close together in a cluster without any sideway growth. Their leaves are broad and point upwards with very few slanting sideways, much less upside down. Their glossy barks are a faint light green with hazy silver spots. They stand erect and unbending in face of North China’s violent wind and snow. Though they may be only as big as the mouth of bowl, they strive to grow upwards until they reach the towering height of some twenty feet and stand indomitable against the northwest wind.
They are white poplar. Though very common in Northwest China, they are no ordinary tree! You may call them unattractive because they have neither the graceful carriage of a dancer, nor such branches as can twine and climb. But nevertheless they are big and tall, honest and upright, simple and plain, earnest and unyielding—and not without gentleness and warmth though. They are giants among trees! When you trudge through the melting snow of the highland and see one or a row of white poplars standing proudly on the vast plains, how could you look upon them as nothing but mere trees? How could you forget that with all their simplicity, earnestness and unyieldingness, they are symbolic of our peasants in the North? How could you fail to associate them with our dauntless soldiers guarding our homeland all over the vast rear? How could you fail to see that these trees, ever striving to put out their closely knit branches and leaves in an upward direction, are symbolic of the spirit and will of our men who, fighting heroically all over the northern plains, are writing the history of New China with their own blood?
White poplars are no ordinary trees. But these common trees in Northwest China are as much ignored as our peasants in the North. However, like our peasants in the North, they are bursting with vitality and capable of surviving any hardship or oppression. I pay tribute to them because they symbolize our peasants in the North and, in particular, the spirit of honesty, tenacity and forging ahead—a spirit central to our struggle for national liberation.
The reactionary diehards, who despise and snub the common people, can do whatever they like to eulogize the elite nanmu (which is also tall, straight and good-looking) and look down upon the common, fast-growing white poplar. I, for my part, will be loud in my praise of the latter!
(张培基 译)
2012年11月25日 00:00
