「 生活的目的 」(节选)

THE END OF LIFE （Excerpt）

英文作者 | 林语堂

中文翻译 | 佚名

我们是一个古老的民族。在老人看来，我们民族的过去以及变化万端的现代生活，有不少是浅薄的，也有不少确实触及了生活的真谛。

We are an old nation. The eyes of an old people see in its past and in this changing modern life much that is superficial and much that is of true meaning to our lives. 

同任何一个老人一样，我们对进步有所怀疑，我们也有点懒散。

We are a little cynical about progress, and we are a little bit indolent, as are all old people. 

我们不喜欢为一只球在球场上争逐，而喜欢漫步于柳堤之上，听听鸟儿的鸣唱和孩子的笑语。生活是如此动荡不安，因而当我们发现了真正令自己满意的东西，我们就会抓住不放，就像一位母亲在黑暗的暴风雨之夜里紧紧搂住怀中的婴孩。

We do not want to race about in a field for a ball; we prefer to saunter along willow banks to listen to the bird's song and the children's laughter. Life is so precarious that when we know something truly satisfies us, we hold on to it tight, as a mother hugs her baby close to her breast in a dark, stormy night.

我们对探险南极或者攀登喜马拉雅山实在毫无兴趣，一旦西方人这样做，我们会问：“你做这件事的目的何在？你非得到南极去寻找幸福吗？”我们会光顾影院和剧场，然而内心深处却认为，相比荧幕上的幻象，现实生活中儿童的嬉笑同样能给我们带来欢乐和幸福。

We have really no desire for exploring the South Pole or scaling the Himalayas. When Westerners do that, we ask, “What do you do that for? Do you have to go to the South Pole to be happy?” We go to the movies and theaters, but in the heart of our hearts we feel that a real child's laughter gives us as much real joy and happiness as an imaginary child's laughter on the screen. 

如此一来，我们便情愿待在家里。我们不认为亲吻自己的老婆必定寡淡无味，而别人的妻子仅仅因为是别人的妻子就显得更加楚楚动人。

We compare the two and stay at home. We do not believe that kissing one's own wife is necessarily insipid, and that other people's wives are necessarily more beautiful because they are other people's wives.

我们在身处湖心之时并不渴望走到山脚下去，我们在山脚下时也并不企求登至山顶。我们信奉今朝有酒今朝醉，花开堪折直须折。

We do not ache to reach the foot of the mountain when we are in the middle of the lake, and we do not ache to be at the top of the hill when we are at its foot. We drink what wine there is in the pot and enjoy what scenery there is before our eyes.

人生在很大程度上不过是一场闹剧，有时最好做个超然的旁观者，或许比一味参与要强得多。我们就像一个刚刚醒来的睡梦者一样，看待人生用的是一种清醒的眼光，而不是带着昨夜梦境的浪漫色彩。

So much of life is merely a farce. It is sometimes just as well to stand by and look at it and smile, perhaps better than to take part in it. Like a dreamer awakened, we see life, not with the romantic color of yesternight's dream, but with a saner vision.

我们乐于放弃那些捉摸不定、令人向往却又难以达到的东西，同时紧紧抓住不多的几件我们清楚会给自己带来幸福的东西。

We are more ready to give up the dubious, the glamorous and the unattainable, but at the same time to hold on to the few things that we know will give us happiness.

我们常常喜欢回归自然，以之为美和真正的、深沉的、长久的幸福的永恒源泉。

We always go back to nature as an eternal source of beauty and of true and deep and lasting happiness. 

尽管丧失了进步与国力，我们还是能够打开窗子，聆听金蝉的鸣声，欣赏秋天的落叶，呼吸菊花的芬芳。秋月朗照之下，我们感到心满意足。

Deprived of progress and of national power, we yet throw open our windows and listen to cicadas or to falling autumn leaves and inhale the fragrance of chrysanthemums, and over the top there shines the autumn moon, and we are content.

我们现在身处民族生活的秋天。在我们生命中的某一时刻，无论是民族还是个人，都为新秋精神所渗透：绿色错落着金色、悲伤交织着欢乐、希望混杂着怀旧。

For we are now in the autumn of our national life. There comes a time in our lives, as nations and as individuals, when we are pervaded by the spirit of early autumn, in which green is mixed with gold and sadness is mixed with joy, and hope is mixed with reminiscence. 

在这一时刻，春天的单纯已成记忆，夏日的繁茂已为空气中微弱回荡着的歌吟。我们看待人生，不是在筹谋怎样发展，而是去考虑如何真正地活着；不是怎样奋发劳作，而是如何珍惜当下的宝贵时光尽情享乐；不是如何挥霍自己的精力，而是养精蓄锐应对冬天的到来。

There comes a time in our lives when the innocence of spring is a memory and the exuberance of summer a song whose echoes faintly remain in the air, when as we look out on life, the problem is not how to grow but how to live truly, not how to strive and labor but how to enjoy the precious moments we have, not how to squander our energy but how to conserve it in preparation for the coming winter.

我们感到自己已经到达某个地方，安顿了下来，并找到了自己想要的东西。我们还感到已经获得了某种东西，这与过去的荣华相比尽管微不足道，却像是褪去了夏日繁茂的秋林一样，仍然有些余晖在继续放光。

A sense of having arrived somewhere, of having settled and having found out what we want. A sense of having achieved something also, precious little compared with its past exuberance, but still something, like an autumn forest shorn of its summer glory but retaining such of it as will endure.

我喜欢春天，可它过于稚嫩；我喜欢夏天，可它过于骄矜。因而我最喜欢秋天，喜欢它泛黄的树叶、成熟的格调和斑斓的色彩。它带着些许感伤，也带着死亡的预兆。

I like spring, but it is too young. I like summer, but it is too proud. So I like best of all autumn, because its leaves are a little yellow, its tone mellower, its colors richer, and it is tinged a little with sorrow and a premonition of death.

秋天的金碧辉煌所展示的不是春天的单纯，也不是夏天的伟力，而是接近高迈之年的老成和睿智——明白人生有限因而知足，这种“生也有涯”的感知与丰富的人生经验变幻出和谐的秋色：绿色代表生命和力量，橘黄代表金玉的内容，紫色代表屈从与死亡。

Its golden richness speaks not of the innocence of spring, nor of the power of summer, but of the mellowness and kindly wisdom of approaching age. It knows the limitations of life and is content. From a knowledge of those limitations and its richness of experience emerges a symphony of colors, richer than all, its green speaking of life and strength, its orange speaking of golden content, and its purple of resignation and death. 

在月光照耀下，秋天陷入沉思，露出苍白的神情；而当夕阳的余晖抚摸她面容的时候，她仍然能够爽悦地欢笑。

And the moon shines over it, and its brow seems white with reflection, but when the setting sun touches it with an evening glow, it can still laugh cheerily. 

山间的晨风拂过，枝杈间片片颤动着的秋叶舞动着飘向大地，你真不知道这落叶的歌吟是欣喜的欢唱还是离别的泪歌，因为它是新秋精神的歌吟：镇定、智慧、成熟。这种歌吟用微笑面对悲伤，赞颂那种令人振奋、敏锐而冷静的神情——这种秋的精神在辛弃疾的笔下表现得最为恰切：

An early mountain breeze brushes by and sends its shivering leaves dancing gaily to the ground, and you do not know whether the song of the falling leaves is the song of laughter or of parting tears. For it is the Song of the Spirit of Early Autumn, the spirit of calm and wisdom and maturity, which smiles at sorrow itself and praises the exhilarating, keen, cool air—the Spirit of Autumn so well expressed by Hsin Ch‘ichi:

少年不识愁滋味，爱上层楼。爱上层楼，为赋新词强说愁。
而今识尽愁滋味，欲说还休。欲说还休，却道天凉好个秋。

“In my young days,

I had tasted only gladness,

But loved to mount the top floor,

But loved to mount the top floor,

To write a song pretending sadness.

“And now I've tasted

Sorrow's flavors, bitter and sour,

And can't find a word,

And can't find a word,

But merely say, ‘What a golden autumn hour! '”