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悠游度过一天的24小时:第十章 生活中没有乏味的东西

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2020年02月11日

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CHAPTER X Nothing In Life Is Humdrum

第十章 生活中没有乏味的东西

Art is a great thing. But it is not the greatest. The most important of all perceptions is the continual perception of cause and effect—in other words, the perception of the continuous development of the universe—in still other words, the perception of the course of evolution. When one has thoroughly got imbued into one's head the leading truth that nothing happens without a cause, one grows not only large-minded, but large-hearted.

艺术是伟大的,但不是最伟大的。一切感知最重要之处在于不断体察因果联系,即感受宇宙的不断发展,亦即人类世界演变的过程。一个人若能完全领会万事皆有因这个伟大真理,其思想会更加开通,心胸会更加宽广。

It is hard to have one's watch stolen, but one reflects that the thief of the watch became a thief from causes of heredity and environment which are as interesting as they are scientifically comprehensible; and one buys another watch, if not with joy, at any rate with a philosophy that makes bitterness impossible. One loses, in the study of cause and effect, that absurd air which so many people have of being always shocked and pained by the curiousness of life. Such people live amid human nature as if human nature were a foreign country full of awful foreign customs. But, having reached maturity, one ought surely to be ashamed of being a stranger in a strange land!

手表被偷固然令人懊丧,但一细想,偷手表的人之所以那样一定有其遗传和环境上的原因,这种解释不仅有趣,而且合理科学;自己又买一只表,即便不是如何开心,至少也是不会愤恨的达观态度。很多人生活中遇到意外时,总会遭受打击和伤害,但只要分析事情的前因后果,就不会陷入那样的处境。对这些人而言,人性仿佛是充满可怕习俗的奇邦异国,他们就生活在这样的人性里。然而,随着思想的成熟,他们一定会为这种不合群的做法感到羞耻。

The study of cause and effect, while it lessens the painfulness of life, adds to life's picturesqueness. The man to whom evolution is but a name looks at the sea as a grandiose, monotonous spectacle, which he can witness in August for three shillings third-class return. The man who is imbued with the idea of development, of continuous cause and effect, perceives in the sea an element which in the day-before-yesterday of geology was vapour, which yesterday was boiling, and which tomorrow will inevitably ice.

探寻因果可减轻生命之痛苦,使生活变得多姿多彩。看不到事物演变的人遥望大海时,只看到恢宏却单调的景象,这景象八月里坐上往返仅3先令的三等舱就能看到。然而如果一个人深刻知晓发展的道理以及连续的因果关系的道理,那他看到海洋时,就会从地质学角度观察海里的某一物质前天是水汽、昨天在沸腾、而明天必然会结冰。

He perceives that a liquid is merely something on its way to be solid, and he is penetrated by a sense of the tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life. Nothing will afford a more durable satisfaction than the constantly cultivated appreciation of this. It is the end of all science.

他认识到液体不过是气体形成固体的中间过程,充溢他内心的是人生的无限丰富和变幻多姿,这种在不断提高修养的基础上获得的认识能给人带来最持久的满足感。这就是一切科学的目的。

Cause and effect are to be found everywhere. Rents went up in Shepherd's Bush1. It was painful and shocking that rents should go up in Shepherd's Bush. But to a certain point we are all scientific students of cause and effect, and there was not a clerk lunching at a Lyons Restaurant who did not scientifically put two and two together and see in the (once) Two-penny Tube the cause of an excessive demand for wigwams in Shepherd's Bush, and in the excessive demand for wigwams the cause of the increase in the price of wigwams.

随处可见因和果。谢菲尔德灌木区那一带的租金竟然上涨了。这真是令人头痛和震惊的事。但在某种程度上我们都是探究因果关系的理科学生,在里昂餐馆用午餐的职员无一不懂得推敲,从而知道正是由于这里的地铁票只需两便士(曾经如此),才使得谢菲尔德灌木区棚屋供不应求,也正是因为房屋的需求量加大,房价才上涨了。

Simple! you say, disdainfully. Everything—the whole complex movement of the universe—is as simple as that—when you can sufficiently put two and two together. And, my dear sir, perhaps you happen to be an estate agent's clerk, and you hate the arts, and you want to foster your immortal soul, and you can't be interested in your business because it's so humdrum.

“简单!”你不屑地说。如果你充分了解怎样根据事实进行推理判断,那么整个宇宙的复杂运动就那样简单。亲爱的先生,也许你恰好是房地产经纪公司的职员,讨厌艺术,也想培育不朽的灵魂,可你对自己的工作毫无兴趣,因为工作无聊极了。

Nothing is humdrum.

没有一件事是无聊的。

The tremendous, changeful picturesqueness of life is marvelously shown in an estate agent's office. What! There was a block of traffic in Oxford Street; to avoid the block people actually began to travel under the cellars and drains, and the result was a rise of rents in Shepherd's Bush! And you say that isn't picturesque! Suppose you were to study, in this spirit, the property question in London for an hour and a half every other evening. Would it not give zest to your business, and transform your whole life?

在房地产公司的办公室里,生活可以神奇地显示出瞬息万变的奇异风采!什么!牛津大街交通拥堵,为避免拥堵,人们只得开始改乘地铁,结果导致谢菲尔德灌木区房屋的租金上涨!你说那并不新奇!但试想一下,如果你以这样的精神隔天花一个半小时研究伦敦的房地产问题,岂不会使你工作起来更有激情以至改变你的整个人生吗?

You would arrive at more difficult problems. And you would be able to tell us why, as the natural result of cause and effect, the longest straight street in London is about a yard and a half in length, while the longest absolutely straight street in Paris extends for miles. I think you will admit that in an estate agent's clerk I have not chosen an example that specially favours my theories.

你会碰到更难的问题。你会给我们讲为什么,按因果逻辑自然得出结论,在伦敦笔直的马路最长不超过一码半,而在巴黎最长的直街绵延几公里。我想你会承认我并没有特地从某家房地产职员那里挑选事例来支持我的说法。

You are a bank clerk, and you have not read that breathless romance (disguised as a scientific study), Walter Bagehot's2 Lombard Street ? Ah, my dear sir, if you had begun with that, and followed it up for ninety minutes every other evening, how enthralling your business would be to you, and how much more clearly you would understand human nature.

你是银行职员,未曾读过那个引人入胜的浪漫故事(虽然表面上属科普类)——沃尔特.白芝霍特的《伦巴弟街》,是吧?哦,亲爱的先生,如果你以这本书作为开始,并且坚持隔天晚上读90分钟,你会发现你的工作对你是多么有吸引力,并且你将更清楚地了解人性的奥妙。

You are "penned in town," but you love excursions to the country and the observation of wild life—certainly a heart-enlarging diversion. Why don't you walk out of your house door, in your slippers, to the nearest gas lamp of a night with a butterfly net, and observe the wild life of common and rare moths that is beating about it, and co-ordinate the knowledge thus obtained and build a superstructure on it, and at last get to know something about something?

你被“禁锢在城市里”,但你喜欢去郊野远足,观察野生生物,这肯定是有利于扩大胸怀的趣好。那你晚上何不趿着拖鞋走出家门,拿着捕蝶网到离家最近的煤气灯那儿,观察平常而又罕见的飞蛾四下撞来撞去,综合你所有的知识,力求获得更高层面的解悟,直至更深入地了解一些事情?

You need not be devoted to the arts, not to literature, in order to live fully.

要拥有充实的人生,不一定要致力于艺术和文学。

The whole f ield of daily habit and scene is waiting to satisfy that curiosity which means life, and the satisfaction of which means an understanding heart.

每天的习性和生活氛围都在迎合我们的好奇心和满足感;好奇心意味着生活,满足好奇心就意味着拥有一颗善于感悟的心。

I promised to deal with your case, O man who hates art and literature, and I have dealt with it. I now come to the case of the person, happily very common, who does "like reading."

我答应谈及像你这种不喜欢艺术和文学的情况,这方面我已经谈过了。现在我来谈谈那些确实“热爱读书”的人,幸好这类人很多。

(1)谢菲尔德灌木区,位于英国伦敦西部哈默尔史密斯—富勒姆自治市。

(2)沃尔特•白芝霍特(1826—1877),英国经济学家、社会学家。


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