悠游度过一天的24小时：第三章 开始前的提醒

CHAPTER III Precautions Before Beginning

第三章 开始前的提醒

Now that I have succeeded (if succeeded I have) in persuading you to admit to yourself that you are constantly haunted by a suppressed dissatisfaction with your own arrangement of your daily life; and that the primal cause of that inconvenient dissatisfaction is the feeling that you are every day leaving undone something which you would like to do, and which, indeed, you are always hoping to do when you have "more time"; and now that I have drawn your attention to the glaring, dazzling truth that you never will have "more time," since you already have all the time there is—you expect me to let you into some wonderful secret by which you may at any rate approach the ideal of a perfect arrangement of the day, and by which, therefore, that haunting, unpleasant, daily disappointment of things left undone will be got rid of!

既然我已经把你劝服（如果是这样的话），你承认自己总觉得压抑，老对自己的生活安排不满意；之所以这么郁郁不安，主要原因在于你总觉得每天都有很多你想完成的事情无法完成。确实，你总希望要是有“更多时间”就可以做那些想做的事。现在，既然我已经让你们注意到这样一个扎眼的、炫目的事实：你永远不会有“更多的时间”，因为你所有的时间就是这些——你一定期望我给你传授巧妙的秘诀，据此你至少可以接近理想，把每天的生活安排得尽善尽美，这样一来，先前那挥之不去的、总觉得事情没做完的不快与失望就会消散。

I have found no such wonderful secret. Nor do I expect to find it, nor do I expect that anyone else will ever find it. It is undiscovered. When you first began to gather my drift, perhaps there was a resurrection of hope in your breast. Perhaps you said to yourself, "This man will show me an easy, unfatiguing way of doing what I have so long in vain wished to do." Alas, no! The fact is that there is no easy way, no royal road. The path to Mecca is extremely hard and stony, and the worst of it is that you never quite get there after all.

我尚未找到这样巧妙的秘诀。我不期望自己能找到，也不指望别人能找到，因为那根本就找不到。当你最初开始领会我的大意时，也许你心中会涌起希望。也许你心想：“这人会给我指明一条路，怎样轻松地、不用劳神费力地实现我很久以来渴望实现却从没实现的愿望。”哦，不可能！事实上，没有这种简便方法，也没有任何捷径可走。通往麦加的路极其艰辛不易，最糟的是，你可能最终都不能到达那里。

The most important preliminary to the task of arranging one's life so that one may live fully and comfortably within one's daily budget of twenty-four hours is the calm realisation of the extreme difficulty of the task, of the sacrifices and the endless effort which it demands. I cannot too strongly insist on this.

为了妥善安排生活以便利用好一天24小时这笔财富，过得充实而舒适，最重要的准备工作就是要冷静地预见到这件事十分困难，不仅需要牺牲，还需要不懈的努力。这一点我怎样强调都不过分。

If you imagine that you will be able to achieve your ideal by ingeniously planning out a time-table with a pen on a piece of paper, you had better give up hope at once. If you are not prepared for discouragements and disillusions; if you will not be content with a small result for a big effort, then do not begin. Lie down again and resume the uneasy doze which you call your existence.

如果你以为用一张纸一支笔别出心裁地作出一张时间表，就可以实现理想，你最好立刻放弃这种想法。如果你还没准备好去面对失意和幻灭，如果你不情愿付出多、回报少，那就不要开始。继续躺着，照样慵懒却不安地打瞌睡，这就是你所谓的生存。

It is very sad, is it not, very depressing and sombre? And yet I think it is rather fine, too, this necessity for the tense bracing of the will before anything worth doing can be done. I rather like it myself. I feel it to be the chief thing that differentiates me from the cat by the fire.

很可悲，难道不是吗？还很压抑、阴郁？我倒觉得很好，在做任何有价值的事之前，都有必要振作精神，我自己很喜欢这样。我认为这是我与炉火边那只猫的主要区别。

Well, you say, "assume that I am braced for the battle. Assume that I have carefully weighed and comprehended your ponderous remarks; how do I begin?" Dear sir, you simply begin. There is no magic method of beginning. If a man standing on the edge of a swimming-bath and wanting to jump into the cold water should ask you, "How do I begin to jump?" you would merely reply, "Just jump. Take hold of your nerves, and jump."

“好的，”你说，“就算我振作起来准备战斗，就算我仔细掂量并理解你这番沉重的言辞，我要如何开始呢？”亲爱的先生，你开始就是了。对于开始，没有什么神奇妙方。如果一个人站在游泳池边，准备跳进冰冷的池水，问你：“我该怎么起跳？”你也不过这样回答道：“随便跳吧，鼓起勇气，跳吧！”

As I have previously said, the chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career. Which fact is very gratifying and reassuring. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.

如先前所说，时间最美妙之处在于你不能预支时间拿去浪费。来年、明天、下一小时都为你准备好了，全新的，未被使用过，仿佛你整个生涯都没浪费或滥用一分一秒的时间。这着实令人无比欣慰。如果愿意，你随时可以开始崭新的一页。

Therefore no object is served in waiting till next week, or even until tomorrow. You may fancy that the water will be warmer next week. It won't. It will be colder.

因此没有什么事会一直等你到下周，甚至到明天，直到你作出决定。也许你幻想下星期池水会变暖，其实不会，只会更加冰冷。

But before you begin, let me murmur a few words of warning in your private ear.

尽管如此，你开始之前，还是让我在你耳边小声提醒你几句。

Let me principally warn you against your own ardour. Ardour in welldoing is a misleading and a treacherous thing. It cries out loudly for employment; you can't satisfy it at first; it wants more and more; it is eager to move mountains and divert the course of rivers. It isn't content till it perspires. And then, too often, when it feels the perspiration on its brow, it wearies all of a sudden and dies, without even putting itself to the trouble of saying, "I've had enough of this."

我主要想提醒你不要热情过度。希望成功的热情给人误导，很不可靠，它对你疾呼，让你使用它；一开始你就无法满足它，可它的需求越来越大，甚至渴望移山导流；不到汗水涔涔它就不会满足。可往往是当它汗流满面时，就会瞬间精疲力竭，倒地而亡，甚至懒得说一句：“我受够了。”

Beware of undertaking too much at the start. Be content with quite a little. Allow for accidents. Allow for human nature, especially your own.

注意开始时不要包揽太多，要满足于哪怕是微小的收获。允许意外事件的发生，给人之性情留下空间，尤其是你自己的性情。

A failure or so, in itself, would not matter, if it did not incur a loss of self-esteem and of self-confidence. But just as nothing succeeds like success, so nothing fails like failure. Most people who are ruined are ruined by attempting too much. Therefore, in setting out on the immense enterprise of living fully and comfortably within the narrow limits of twenty-four hours a day, let us avoid at any cost the risk of an early failure. I will not agree that, in this business at any rate, a glorious failure is better than a petty success. I am all for the petty success. A glorious failure leads to nothing; a petty success may lead to a success that is not petty.

一两次的失败本身是无关紧要的，只要没损害你的自尊和自信。就像“一事如意，事事顺利；一事失利，事事不利”，大多数人之所以一败涂地，是因为他们贪多。因此，我们要在一天24小时这么有限的时间里，经营这巨大的事业，即过上充实愉快的生活，无论如何应避免过早失败。说光辉的失败胜于渺小的成功，就这件事而言，我无论如何不敢苟同。我百分之百宁愿拥有渺小的成功。伟大的失败之后，一无所获；渺小的成功之后，可能还会带来并不渺小的成功。

So let us begin to examine the budget of the day's time. You say your day is already full to overflowing. How? You actually spend in earning your livelihood—how much? Seven hours, on the average? And in actual sleep, seven? I will add two hours, and be generous. And I will defy you to account to me on the spur of the moment for the other eight hours.

因此，现在让我们来探讨一下每日时间的分配。你说你每天的时间已经排得满满的。怎么会？实际上你用以维持生计的时间——有多少？平均一天七小时？实际的睡眠时间呢？也是七小时？我慷慨些，给你多加两小时。接下来，我倒要来请你讲讲剩下那八小时是如何度过的。