《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 秋 10

《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(xué)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(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

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It may well be that what we call the unknowable will be for ever the unknown. In that thought is there not a pathos beyond words? It may be that the human race will live and pass away; all mankind, from him who in the world's dawn first shaped to his fearful mind an image of the Lord of Life, to him who, in the dusking twilight of the last age, shall crouch before a deity of stone or wood; and never one of that long lineage have learnt the wherefore of his being. The prophets, the martyrs, their noble anguish vain and meaningless; the wise whose thought strove to eternity, and was but an idle dream; the pure in heart whose life was a vision of the living God, the suffering and the mourners whose solace was in a world to come, the victims of injustice who cried to the Judge Supreme—all gone down into silence, and the globe that bare them circling dead and cold through soundless space. The most tragic aspect of such a tragedy is that it is not unthinkable. The soul revolts, but dare not see in this revolt the assurance of its higher destiny. Viewing our life thus, is it not easier to believe that the tragedy is played with no spectator? And of a truth, of a truth, what spectator can there be? The day may come when, to all who live, the Name of Names will be but an empty symbol, rejected by reason and by faith. Yet the tragedy will be played on.

我們稱為未知的東西可能將永遠(yuǎn)不為我們所知。這樣想來豈不是有一種言語無法盡述的惆悵？也許人類生存萬代，終將滅絕；從世界熹微之時在他敬畏的頭腦中塑造出“生命之神”形象的第一人，到那個在末世紀(jì)的幽暗暮色中最后一人，都會蜷縮在石質(zhì)或木質(zhì)神像前；而在長長的人類譜系里，沒有一個人能夠了解自己存在的原因。那些預(yù)言家和殉道者，他們高貴的悲痛是虛妄、沒有意義的；睿智的人，他們的思想苦苦探求永恒的意義，卻不過是一場虛幻的夢；心靈純凈的人，他們的生活是神靈活在現(xiàn)世的幻像；那受苦的和哀悼的人，他們的慰藉寄托在來世；那些社會公正的受害者，他們向最高法官哭訴——所有這些人都將歸入沉默，地球?qū)е麄儽涞氖w在死寂的太空中盤旋。這一悲劇的最可悲之處在于，它并非是不可想象的。靈魂奮起反抗，但在這反抗中卻不敢保證有更高的神靈。這樣看待我們的生活，是不是更容易相信悲劇上演時沒有觀眾？而就真相來說，在真相面前又有什么觀眾呢？那一天會到來，對于所有活著的人，“神明之名”不過是一個被理智和信仰摒棄的空虛符號。悲劇將繼續(xù)上演。

It is not, I say, unthinkable; but that is not the same thing as to declare that life has no meaning beyond the sense it bears to human intelligence. The intelligence itself rejects such a supposition; in my case, with impatience and scorn. No theory of the world which ever came to my knowledge is to me for one moment acceptable; the possibility of an explanation which would set my mind at rest is to me inconceivable; no whit the less am I convinced that there is a Reason of the All; one which transcends my understanding, one no glimmer of which will ever touch my apprehension; a Reason which must imply a creative power, and therefore, even whilst a necessity of my thought, is by the same criticized into nothing. A like antinomy with that which affects our conception of the infinite in time and space. Whether the rational processes have reached their final development, who shall say? Perhaps what seem to us the impassable limits of thought are but the conditions of a yet early stage in the history of man. Those who make them a proof of a "future state" must necessarily suppose gradations in that futurity; does the savage, scarce risen above the brute, enter upon the same "new life" as the man of highest civilization? Such gropings of the mind certify our ignorance; the strange thing is that they can be held by any one to demonstrate that our ignorance is final knowledge.

我說過，它并非是不可想象的；但這并不等同于說，生活在人類智慧所能洞悉的意義外，就是空虛了。智慧本身就無法接受這一推測，而我自己對這一看法是不耐煩和蔑視的。我獲知的關(guān)于世界的理論，沒有一個是可接受的；我無法想象存在一個讓我心安的解釋，我還是相信存在所謂的“萬有理性”。它超越我的理解范疇，不能給我的理解帶來一點光亮；這種理性肯定包含一種創(chuàng)造力，就在它成為我思想必不可少的一部分時，還被我的思想批駁得一無是處。同樣的自相矛盾也影響著我們對時間和空間無限的觀念。理性思維是否已達(dá)到最終的發(fā)展階段，誰能這么說呢？也許在我們看來無法跨越的思維極限，不過是人類歷史早期階段的情形罷了。那些將之作為“未來狀態(tài)”之證據(jù)的人，一定是將未來劃定了層次；那些與畜生無異的野蠻人，能說進(jìn)入了和更高級文明的人一樣的“新生活”嗎？頭腦的這種探索證實了我們的無知；奇怪的是，它們可以被任何人拿來證明，我們的無知是最后的知識。