英譯現(xiàn)代散文●論包裝 ◎ 季羨林

On Packaging

◎　季羨林

◎　Ji Xianlin

我先提一個問題：人類是變得越來越精呢?還是越來越蠢?

Let me begin with this question. Are human beings getting increasingly intelligent or stupid?

答案好像是明擺著的：越來越精。

The following answer seems beyond dispute: They are getting more and more intelligent.

在幾千年有文化的歷史上，人類對宇宙，對人世，對生命，對社會，總之對人世間所有的一切，越來越了解得透徹、細(xì)致，如犀燭隱，無所不明。例子伸手可得。當(dāng)年中國人對月亮覺得可愛而又神秘，于是就說有一個美女嫦娥奔入月宮。連蘇東坡這個宋朝偉大的詩人，也不禁要問出：“明月幾時有?把酒問青天。不知天上宮闕，今夕是何年?”可是到了今天，人類已經(jīng)登上了月球，連月球上的土塊也被帶到了地上來。哪里有什么嫦娥，有什么廣寒宮?

In the course of several thousand years of his cultural history, man has acquired a more and more thorough and detailed understanding of the universe, the human world, life and society — in short, everything under heaven. Examples are legion. Our ancestors, out of their fondness for the moon and curiosity about it, created the legend of beautiful Chang'e flying to the moon. And Su Dongpo, a great poet of the Song Dynasty, wrote the following lines as a matter of course:

The Bright Moon, when will she appear?

Wine cup in hand, I ask the azure sky.

I don't know inside the heavenly palace

What time of year it is tonight.

Today, man has managed to land on the moon and even come back bringing with him some of its clods. Chang'e and her heavenly palace simply don't exist.

人類倘不越變越精，能做到這一步嗎?

Could man have achieved that without becoming more and more intelligent?

可是我又提出了問題，說明適得其反。例子也是伸手即得。我先舉一個包裝。

Nevertheless, I also would like to bring forward some facts to show just the opposite. Examples are only too numerous. Packaging is the first thing I want to deal with.

人類活動在社會上，有時候是需要包裝的。特別是女士們。在家中穿得樸樸素素，但是一出門，特別是參加什么“派對”(party，借用香港話)，則必須打扮得珠光寶氣，花枝招展，渾身灑上法國香水，走在大街上，高跟鞋跟敲地作金石聲，香氣直射十步之外，路人為之“側(cè)目”。這就是包裝，而這種包裝，我認(rèn)為是必要的。

People, especially women, sometimes need packaging in their social activities. Women dress casually at home, but when they go out, especially when they attend parties, they have to be gorgeously dressed and sprayed all over with French perfume. On the streets, the loud clip-clop of their high-heeled shoes and the strong aroma of their perfume will attract public attention far and wide. That's what we mean by packaging and I call it a kind of necessary packaging.

可是還有另外一種包裝，就是商品的包裝。這種包裝有時也是必要的，不能一概而論。我從前到香港，買國產(chǎn)的商品，比大陸要便宜得多。一問才知道，原因是中國商品有的質(zhì)量并不次于洋貨，正是由于包裝不講究，因而價錢賣不上去。我當(dāng)時就滿懷疑惑：究竟是使用商品呢?還是使用包裝?

But there is another kind of packaging — the packaging of commodities. Such packaging is sometimes also necessary and, therefore, should not be mentioned in the same breath. Some time ago, as a visitor to Hong Kong, I found Chinese-made goods there selling at a much lower price than in the mainland and I also learned on inquiry that it was due to plain packaging that they were selling cheap though of equal quality as imported goods. I was quite puzzled about what the customers actually need. The goods or the package?

我因而想到一件事：我們樓上一位老太太到菜市場上去買雞，說是一定要黃毛的。賣雞的小販問老太太：“你是吃雞?還是吃雞毛?”

That reminds me of a little story. An old lady who lived in the upstairs of my building one day went to the food market insisting on buying a chicken with yellowish feathers. The chicken vendor asked,“What do you eat? Chicken or the feathers?”

到了今天，有一些商品的包裝更達(dá)到了匪夷所思的地步。外面盒子，或木，或紙，或金屬，往往極大。裝扮得五彩繽紛、璀璨耀目。擺在貨架上時，是龐然大物;提在手中或放在車中，更是運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)不靈，左提，右提，橫擺，豎擺，都煞費(fèi)周折。及至拿到或運(yùn)到家中，打開時也是煞費(fèi)周折。在龐然大物中，左找，右找，找不到商品究在何處。很希望發(fā)現(xiàn)一張紙條上面寫著：此處距商品尚有10公里!庶不致使我失去尋找的信心。據(jù)我粗略的統(tǒng)計，有的商品在大包裝中僅占空間十分之一，二十分之一，甚至五十分之一。想到那個雞和雞毛的故事，我不禁要問：我們使用的是商品，還是包裝?而負(fù)擔(dān)那些龐大的包裝費(fèi)用的，羊毛出在羊身上，還是我們這些顧客，而華美絕倫的包裝，商品取出后，不過是一堆垃圾。

Nowadays, the packaging of some commodities is fantastically overdone. The boxes, made of wood, paper or metal, are usually very large and very colorful and dazzling. They take up a lot of space on the goods shelves and are very cumbersome whether carried by car or by hand. Very unwieldy whether carried by left hand or right hand, placed vertically or horizontally. And it is also a big headache to have it opened at home. Search left and right, and you still cannot locate the commodity in the huge box. You will probably wish for a slip of paper therein bearing the written note,“10 more kilometers to the commodity!”so as to retain your confidence in the search. According to my rough statistics, some commodities take up only one tenth, one twentieth or even one fiftieth of the space in the huge package. Thinking back to the above-mentioned story of chickens and chicken feathers, I cannot but ask,“The commodity or the package, which do you need?”After all, the wool still comes from the sheep's back as the saying goes. It is customers like us that will have to bear all the heavy expenses for packaging. And the flashy package, when emptied of its contents, will be nothing but a garbage heap.

如果我回答我在開頭時提出的問題：人類越變越蠢。你怎樣反駁?!

Here is my answer to the question I raised at the beginning: Man is becoming more and more stupid. What could you say in retort?

《論包裝》是季羨林寫于1997年8月的一篇雜文，文章針砭社會時弊，亦莊亦諧，信手拈來，皆成妙品。