經典英語散文:愛是特殊的激情

Your letter of the 1st hath this moment reached me. I answer it according to our agreement, which shall be inviolable. Truly did you say that, at our arising in the morning, Nature assumes a different aspect.

我剛才收到您1號的來信，按我們之間的約定給您復信，這一約定是不可違背的。你確實說過，在我們早起的時候，大自然總是有不同的面貌。

Who could have conjectured the circumstances of my last letter? Friend of my soul, this is terrible, dismaying: it makes one's heart sink, it withers vital energy

誰能猜想到我上次寫信的境況呢?我心靈的知己，這太可怕，太令人沮喪了。我的心為之一沉，渾身的銳氣消磨殆盡……

Dear being, I am thine again; the happiness shall again predominate over this fleeting tribute to self-interest. Yet who would not feel now? Oh'twere as reckless a task to endeavor to annihilate perception while sense existed, as to blunt the sixth sense to such impressions as these!

親愛的心，我又是您的了，這幸福又將壓倒我這短暫的孤芳自賞。然而在這種時候，誰又不會有相同的感受呢? 啊，如果一息尚存而欲對其不聞不問豈非與使第六感覺對這樣一些印象變得遲鈍同樣的不顧后果了嗎?

Forgive me, dearest friend? I pour out my whole soul to you. I write by fleeting intervals: my pen runs away with my senses. The impassionateness of my sensations grows upon me. Your letter, too, has much affected me.

最親愛的朋友，能寬恕我嗎? 我把整個心都掏給您了。幾度舉筆，筆不從心。但我理智的情感終于又涌現(xiàn)上我的心頭，您的信也深深地影響著我。

Never, with my consent, shall that intercourse cease which has been the day-dawn of my existence, the sun which has shed warmth on the cold drear length of the anticipated prospect of life. Prejudice might demand the sacrifice, but she is an idol to whom we bow not.

我從不認為我們之間的交往會永遠終止，您與我的交往給我?guī)砹松氖锕?，是灑在我冰涼而漫長的人生旅途上的期待的溫暖陽光。偏見可能要求人們以犧牲為代價，那只不過是幽靈，您我都不會向這個幽靈屈服。

The world might demand it; its opinion might require; but the cloud which flees over yon mountain were as important to our happiness, to our usefulness. This must never be, never whilst this existence continues; and when time has enrolled us in the list of the departed, surely this friendship will survive to bear our identity to heaven.

世俗可能要我們做出犧牲，輿論也會提出要求;但遙望飄過遠方山嶺的云彩，不是也樂在其中，有益于我們的身心嗎?這決不可能，只要一息尚存，決不屈服，決不低頭;即使時光把我們列入告別的名單中，毫無疑問，我們這般友情在天國中也一同相聚。

What is love, or friendship? Is it something material a ball, an apple, a plaything which must be taken from one to be given to another? Is it capable of no extension, no communication? Lord Kaimes defines love to be a particularization of the general passion.

何謂愛情?何謂友情?是一些實在的東西嗎?是球、蘋果、玩偶……可以信手拈來、隨意給人的實物嗎?是不能深化、不能交流的嗎?Kaimes勛爵給愛情下的定義是，愛情是一般激情的特殊體現(xiàn)。

But this is the love of sensation, of sentiment the absurdest of absurd vanities: it is the love of pleasure, not the love of happiness. The one is a love which is selfcentered, selfinterested: It desires its own interest; it is the parent of jealousy. Its object is the plaything which it desires to monopolize.

但這是肉欲之愛、情欲之愛……是荒謬絕倫的逢場作戲，是尋歡作樂的愛，不是幸福的愛。這是一種自私自利的愛，它只求利已，是嫉妒之源，其目的在于壟斷追求的玩物，其本質是私心、壟斷。

Selfishness, monopoly, is its very soul, and to communicate to others part of this love were to destroy its essence, to annihilate this chain of straw.

這種愛的表現(xiàn)也是對愛的褻瀆，使脆如纖草的愛泯滅殆盡。

But love, the love which we worship , virtue, heaven, disinterestedness in a word, Friendship which has as much to do with the senses as with yonder mountains; that which seeks the good of all the good of its object first, not because that object is a minister to its Pleasures, not merely because it even contributes to its happiness, but because it is really worthy, because it has powers, sensibilities, is capable of abstracting itself, and loving virtue's own loveliness

但我們崇拜的愛，象征美德、天意和無私，一句話，真情……它既能感知，又與遠方山頭上的云朵息息相通。它追求大家的幸福……首先是對方的幸福，不是因為對方給予歡樂，有愧于心，因為它有力量，有情感，并能無私奉獻，因為美德的可愛而受美德……

Desiring the happiness of others not from the obligation of fearing the happiness of others not from the obligation of fearing hell or desiring heaven: but for pure, simple, unsophisticated virtue. You will soon hear again. Adieu, my dearest friend. Continue to believe that when I am insensible to your excellence, I shall cease to exist.

不是因為怕下地獄或升天堂而為他人求得幸福，而是出于純樸無華的美德。你不久又會收到我的倍。再見了，我最親愛的朋友。請你繼續(xù)相信這一點：我什么時候對閣下不忠，我便將不復存在。