《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 秋 16

《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。

以下是由網(wǎng)友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 秋 16的內(nèi)容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

I stood to-day watching harvesters at work, and a foolish envy took hold upon me. To be one of those brawny, brown-necked men, who can string their muscles from dawn to sundown, and go home without an ache to the sound slumber which will make them fresh again for to-morrow's toil! I am a man in the middle years, with limbs shaped as those of another, and subject to no prostrating malady, yet I doubt whether I could endure the lightest part of this field labour even for half an hour. Is that indeed to be a man? Could I feel surprised if one of these stalwart fellows turned upon me a look of good-natured contempt? Yet he would never dream that I envied him; he would think it as probable, no doubt, that I should compare myself unfavourably with one of the farm horses.

今天，我看到農(nóng)夫在收割莊稼，心上感到一種愚蠢的妒忌。如果能成為像他們一樣肌肉結(jié)實、脖子曬得黝黑的人該多好，每天日出而作，日落而息，回家時身體不帶一點酸痛，美美地休息一晚，第二天又精神抖擻地下地勞動。我現(xiàn)在已步入中年，四肢和常人無異，沒有什么疾病纏身，但即使只是最輕松的農(nóng)活，我都懷疑自己能否堅持半個小時。這樣能算是一個男人嗎？如果田里的一個壯漢對我善意地拋來一個輕視的眼神，我會感到驚訝嗎？但是他做夢都想不到我會妒忌他；他很可能想，我無疑會把自己和田里的一匹馬比較，并自愧不如。

There comes the old idle dream: balance of mind and body, perfect physical health combined with the fullness of intellectual vigour. Why should I not be there in the harvest field, if so it pleased me, yet none the less live for thought? Many a theorist holds the thing possible, and looks to its coming in a better time. If so, two changes must needs come before it; there will no longer exist a profession of literature, and all but the whole of every library will be destroyed, leaving only the few books which are universally recognized as national treasures. Thus, and thus only, can mental and physical equilibrium ever be brought about.

我又產(chǎn)生那個虛妄的老夢想了：頭腦和身體的平衡，健康體魄和健全心智的結(jié)合。如果喜歡的話，我為什么不能在農(nóng)田里收割勞作，同時還為思想而活？許多理論家都認為這是可能的，并且等待著它在一個更好的時代實現(xiàn)。如果是這樣，事先必須發(fā)生兩個變化：文學(xué)作為一個職業(yè)將不復(fù)存在；所有圖書館都被毀掉，只留下幾本舉世公認為國寶的書籍。這樣，也只有這樣，頭腦和身體的平衡才能實現(xiàn)。

It is idle to talk to us of "the Greeks." The people we mean when so naming them were a few little communities, living under very peculiar conditions, and endowed by Nature with most exceptional characteristics. The sporadic civilization which we are too much in the habit of regarding as if it had been no less stable than brilliant, was a succession of the briefest splendours, gleaming here and there from the coasts of the Aegean to those of the western Mediterranean. Our heritage of Greek literature and art is priceless; the example of Greek life possesses for us not the slightest value. The Greeks had nothing alien to study—not even a foreign or a dead language. They read hardly at all, preferring to listen. They were a slave-holding people, much given to social amusement, and hardly knowing what we call industry. Their ignorance was vast, their wisdom a grace of the gods. Together with their fair intelligence, they had grave moral weaknesses. If we could see and speak with an average Athenian of the Periclean age27, he would cause no little disappointment—there would be so much more of the barbarian in him, and at the same time of the decadent, than we had anticipated. More than possibly, even his physique would be a disillusion. Leave him in that old world, which is precious to the imagination of a few, but to the business and bosoms of the modern multitude irrelevant as Memphis28 or Babylon.

跟我們談“希臘人”是無益的。我們給他們這樣命名時，指的不過是幾個小社區(qū)的居民，生活在非常特殊的環(huán)境，獲得最優(yōu)越的天賦。我們習(xí)慣上認為輝煌又穩(wěn)固的希臘文明，不過是一連串極為短暫的光輝歲月，零散分布在愛琴海到西地中海沿岸，此起彼伏地閃耀著光芒。希臘文學(xué)和藝術(shù)的遺產(chǎn)是無價的，但希臘人樹立的生活榜樣對我們沒有什么價值。希臘人不用學(xué)習(xí)任何外來的事物——甚至都不用學(xué)習(xí)一門外語或已經(jīng)廢棄的語言。他們幾乎不讀書，更愿意傾聽。他們是一個蓄奴的民族，熱衷于社交娛樂，對我們所謂的工業(yè)幾乎一無所知。他們可以說非常無知，而他們的智慧是神明的恩賜。他們擁有不錯的智慧，同時也有嚴重的道德缺陷。如果能看見一個培里克里斯時代的雅典人，和他交談后，你會大失所望——他身上的蠻性和墮落會遠遠超出我們的預(yù)想。很可能連他的體格也會讓你失望。把他留在那個古老的世界吧，這世界對少數(shù)人的想象力來說是彌足珍貴的，但對現(xiàn)代多數(shù)人的所思所想和日常事務(wù)來說，它和古埃及孟斐斯或巴比倫一樣無關(guān)緊要。

The man of thought, as we understand him, is all but necessarily the man of impaired health. The rare exception will be found to come of a stock which may, indeed, have been distinguished by intelligence, but represented in all its members the active rather than the studious or contemplative life; whilst the children of such fortunate thinkers are sure either to revert to the active type or to exhibit the familiar sacrifice of body to mind. I am not denying the possibility of mens sana in corpore sano; that is another thing. Nor do I speak of the healthy people (happily still numerous) who are at the same time bright-witted and fond of books. The man I have in view is he who pursues the things of the mind with passion, who turns impatiently from all common interests or cares which encroach upon his sacred time, who is haunted by a sense of the infinity of thought and learning, who, sadly aware of the conditions on which he holds his mental vitality, cannot resist the hourly temptation to ignore them. Add to these native characteristics the frequent fact that such a man must make merchandise of his attainments, must toil under the perpetual menace of destitution; and what hope remains that his blood will keep the true rhythm, that his nerves will play as Nature bade them, that his sinews will bide the strain of exceptional task? Such a man may gaze with envy at those who "sweat in the eye of Phoebus," 29 but he knows that no choice was offered him. And if life has so far been benignant as to grant him frequent tranquillity of studious hours, let him look from the reapers to the golden harvest, and fare on in thankfulness.

有思想的人，在我們的理解中，差不多都是健康受損的人。也有少數(shù)例外，他們往往智慧出眾，生活積極，而非沉迷于學(xué)問和沉思。這些幸運的思想者的兒女肯定要么成為積極的類型，要么會像常見的那樣，為頭腦犧牲了身體。我并不否認“健全之心寓于健全之身”的可能性；但那又是另外一回事。我談的也不是那些才思敏捷、酷愛讀書的健康人（讓人高興的是，這類人還有很多）。我考慮的是這樣的人，他充滿激情地探索思想領(lǐng)域，不耐煩地避免任何普通愛好和瑣事去侵蝕他神圣的時間，心里始終感到思維和學(xué)問的無限，他意識到思想所寄身的現(xiàn)實條件，雖然感覺憂傷，卻又忍不住要忽視現(xiàn)實生活。在這些天然的特征外，還有一個普遍的事實，即他必須把成就作為商品出賣，因為面臨窮困的不斷威脅而必須辛苦工作。我們還能指望他的血流會保持正常的節(jié)奏，他的神經(jīng)會根據(jù)自然規(guī)律活動，他的肌肉會承受超常工作的壓力？這種人可能會妒忌地望著那些“在日神的眼里流汗”的人們，但他知道自己別無選擇。如果生活待他不薄，經(jīng)常賜予他許多安靜時光來讀書的話，那么讓他把視線從收割的農(nóng)夫身上轉(zhuǎn)到金燦燦的稻谷上，懷著一顆感恩的心繼續(xù)生活吧。