《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 05

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對文學名著的愛好與追求，以及對大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學中小品文的珍品之一。

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Sir, said Johnson, "all the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil, show it to be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful fortune."

“先生，”約翰遜說，“所有那些用來證明貧窮無害的論點明明白白地顯示貧窮是一個極大的惡魔。因為從來不會有人費力說服你相信豐厚的資產(chǎn)可以讓人過上幸福生活?！?/p>

He knew what he was talking of, that rugged old master of common sense. Poverty is of course a relative thing; the term has reference, above all, to one's standing as an intellectual being. If I am to believe the newspapers, there are title-bearing men and women in England who, had they an assured income of five-and-twenty shillings per week, would have no right to call themselves poor, for their intellectual needs are those of a stable-boy or scullery wench. Give me the same income and I can live, but I am poor indeed.

這個世事洞明而率直的老先生明白自己在說什么。貧窮當然是相對來說的，這個詞首先和一個人的知識境界相關。如果我可以相信報紙的話，英格蘭那些有頭銜的紳士貴婦們，假使每周的固定收入只有二十五先令，也沒有權(quán)利說自己貧窮，因為他們的知識需求和馬童或洗碗女工無異。給我同樣的收入，我可以維持生活，但我確實貧窮。

You tell me that money cannot buy the things most precious. Your commonplace proves that you have never known the lack of it. When I think of all the sorrow and the barrenness that has been wrought in my life by want of a few more pounds per annum than I was able to earn, I stand aghast at money's significance. What kindly joys have I lost, those simple forms of happiness to which every heart has claim, because of poverty! Meetings with those I loved made impossible year after year; sadness, misunderstanding, nay, cruel alienation, arising from inability to do the things I wished, and which I might have done had a little money helped me; endless instances of homely pleasure and contentment curtailed or forbidden by narrow means. I have lost friends merely through the constraints of my position; friends I might have made have remained strangers to me; solitude of the bitter kind, the solitude which is enforced at times when mind or heart longs for companionship, often cursed my life solely because I was poor. I think it would scarce be an exaggeration to say that there is no moral good which has not to be paid for in coin of the realm.

你告訴我金錢買不到最珍貴的東西，這種陳詞濫調(diào)證明了你從來不知道缺錢的滋味。當我想到因為每年少掙幾英磅而導致生活變得哀痛不堪、毫無生氣，我便驚駭于錢的重大意義。因為貧窮，許多溫情的快樂—每顆心原本都有份的簡單的快樂—都與我失之交臂。年復一年，不能與親戚至愛重逢；那些因為不能隨心所欲而產(chǎn)生的悲傷、誤解、拒絕和殘酷的疏遠，如果有一點錢的幫助，本來都可以避免；因為捉襟見肘，那么多家常的樂趣都被削減或被剝奪。因為我的處境所限，我失去了一些朋友；一些本可以成為朋友的人現(xiàn)在還是陌生人；那種痛苦的孤獨感，心靈渴望陪伴時加倍的孤獨感，常常折磨著我，就因為我的貧窮。我想這樣說不算夸張：沒有金錢的代價便不會有道德的閃光。

Poverty, said Johnson again, "is so great an evil, and pregnant with so much temptation, so much misery, that I cannot but earnestly enjoin you to avoid it."

約翰遜又說：“貧窮真是一個大惡魔，孕育著許多誘惑，許多痛苦，我只能鄭重地告誡你千萬避開它?！?/p>

For my own part, I needed no injunction to that effort of avoidance. Many a London garret knows how I struggled with the unwelcomechamber-fellow. I marvel she did not abide with me to the end; it is a sort of inconsequence in Nature, and sometimes makes me vaguely uneasy through nights of broken sleep.

對我來說，我根本不需要他那逃避貧窮的告誡。倫敦的許多閣樓見證過我是如何與這位討厭的管家爭吵的。我感到驚訝的是，她居然沒有一直和我鬧下去。這種不符合自然規(guī)律的情況，有時讓我在夢醒失眠的夜晚還模糊地感到不安。