《四季随笔》节选 - 春 19

《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 春 19的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

Some one, I see, is lifting up his sweet voice in praise of Conscription. It is only at long intervals that one reads this kind of thing in our reviews or newspapers, and I am happy in believing that most English people are affected by it even as I am, with the sickness of dread and of disgust. That the thing is impossible in England, who would venture to say? Every one who can think at all sees how slight are our safeguards against that barbaric force in man which the privileged races have so slowly and painfully brought into check. Democracy is full of menace to all the finer hopes of civilization, and the revival, in not unnatural companionship with it, of monarchic power based on militarism, makes the prospect dubious enough. There has but to arise some Lord of Slaughter, and the nations will be tearing at each other's throats. Let England be imperilled, and Englishmen will fight; in such extremity there is no choice. But what a dreary change must come upon our islanders if, without instant danger, they bend beneath the curse of universal soldiering! I like to think that they will guard the liberty of their manhood even beyond the point of prudence.

我听到有人在用美妙的声音为征兵大唱赞歌了。隔很长时间后，人们才能在评论或报纸上读到这种东西，我愉快地以为大多数英国人和我一样，对这种征兵赞歌感到忧惧和憎恶。而谁敢打包票这种事不可能在英格兰发生呢？任何一个有头脑的人都能看到，我们抵制人类体内野蛮力量的努力是多么脆弱，优势种族驯服这种力量的过程是多么缓慢艰难。民主对于人类文明所有更美好的希望都充满了威胁，通常还自然地伴有以军国主义为基础的君主权力的复活，让文明的前景更加黯淡。最后势必出现一个“嗜血暴君”，招致各国混战。如果英格兰受到威胁，英国人会奋起反抗，在这种极端情形下别无选择。但是如果没有迫在眉睫的危险，而我们却被迫接受全民皆兵的厄运，那么我们这个岛国居民的生活将会迎来怎样让人担忧的变化啊！我愿意相信他们会万分谨慎地捍卫成年人这方面的自由。

A lettered German, speaking to me once of his year of military service, told me that, had it lasted but a month or two longer, he must have sought release in suicide. I know very well that my own courage would not have borne me to the end of the twelvemonth; humiliation, resentment, loathing, would have goaded me to madness. At school we used to be "drilled" in the playground once a week; I have but to think of it, even after forty years, and there comes back upon me that tremor of passionate misery which, at the time, often made me ill. The senseless routine of mechanic exercise was in itself all but unendurable to me; I hated the standing in line, the thrusting-out of arms and legs at a signal, the thud of feet stamping in constrained unison. The loss of individuality seemed to me sheer disgrace. And when, as often happened, the drill-sergeant rebuked me for some inefficiency as I stood in line, when he addressed me as "Number Seven!" I burned with shame and rage. I was no longer a human being; I had become part of a machine, and my name was "Number Seven." It used to astonish me when I had a neighbour who went through the drill with amusement, with zealous energy; I would gaze at the boy, and ask myself how it was possible that he and I should feel so differently. To be sure, nearly all my schoolfellows either enjoyed the thing, or at all events went through it with indifference; they made friends with the sergeant, and some were proud of walking with him "out of bounds." Left, right! Left, right! For my own part, I think I have never hated man as I hated that broad-shouldered, hard-visaged, brassy-voiced fellow. Every word he spoke to me, I felt as an insult. Seeing him in the distance, I have turned and f led, to escape the necessity of saluting, and, still more, a quiver of the nerves which affected me so painfully. If ever a man did me harm, it was he; harm physical and moral. In all seriousness I believe that something of the nervous instability from which I have suffered since boyhood is traceable to those accursed hours of drill, and I am very sure that I can date from the same wretched moments a fierceness of personal pride which has been one of my most troublesome characteristics. The disposition, of course, was there; it should have been modified, not exacerbated.

一位德国的文人，曾和我谈起他在军队服役的岁月。他告诉我，如果服役时间再延长一两个月，他肯定会自杀以寻求解脱。而我很明白，依我自己的勇气，可能连十二个月也撑不下去，屈辱、忿恨和厌恶会把我逼疯的。在学校，我们曾经每周一次在操场上进行“军训”，虽然已经过了四十年，但每每回想起来，我还能感觉到那种强烈的痛苦引起的战栗，当时，我常常因此病倒。那套无意义的机械式训练本身就让我无法忍受，我憎恨站队列，讨厌在一声口令下伸出胳膊和腿，脚步被迫齐声踏地作响。那种个性的丧失在我看来简直是一种屈辱。站在队列中的我经常因为动作不过关遭到教官的训斥，每当他叫我“七号”时，都让我感觉羞辱和气愤，怒火中烧。我不再是一个人，而成了机器的一部分，我的名字是“七号”。而让我吃惊的是站在我旁边的一个男孩，他兴致勃勃地接受军训，还热情洋溢、活力十足。我时常盯着他，自问我们的感受怎么可能会差别那么大。可以肯定的是，我所有的同学对军训的态度大致分为两派，要么觉得很有趣，要么逆来顺受，觉得无所谓。他们跟教官成为朋友，一些人还和教官在军训场外同行，并以此为荣。左右左，左右左！而对我来说，我一生中最憎恶的人就是那个肩膀宽阔、面色严厉、声如铜铃的家伙。他对我说的每一句话，我都觉得是一种侮辱。远远地看到他，我会转身逃掉，避免向他行军礼，更要避免让我的神经遭受一次痛苦的颤栗。如果说有人伤害过我，那就是他，这伤害是肉体和心灵两方面的。严肃地说，我觉得自己打小就深受其苦的神经系统紊乱可以追本溯源到那段该诅咒的军训岁月，我也非常肯定自己太过强烈的自尊心也是那段悲惨的时光造成的，这是我性格中最让人不安的特点之一。当然，性情本就如此，它应该改良，而不是恶化。

In younger manhood it would have flattered me to think that I alone on the school drill-ground had sensibility enough to suffer acutely. Now I had much rather feel assured that many of my schoolfellows were in the same mind of subdued revolt. Even of those who, boylike, enjoyed their drill, scarce one or two, I trust, would have welcomed in their prime of life the imposition of military servitude upon them and their countrymen. From a certain point of view, it would be better far that England should bleed under conquest than that she should be saved by eager, or careless, acceptance of Conscription. That view will not be held by the English people; but it would be a sorry thing for England if the day came when no one of those who love her harboured such a thought.

年轻时，想到唯独我在学校军训场上还有足够的理智来敏锐地感受痛苦，还会觉得自鸣得意。现在我宁愿自己能确信当时许多同学都如我一样心里暗暗地藏着反叛。即使是那些少年时喜欢军训的，我相信他们到了壮年只有一两个人可能会赞成国家强迫自己和同胞入伍服役。从某个特定角度来看，英格兰与其在对征兵热切或草率的认同下得到救赎，还不如在征服者的铁蹄下流血。这个观点不会被英国人民认同；但是如果有一天，没有一个热爱这个国家的人怀有这种想法，这对英格兰将是一件遗憾的事情。