第10章 忙碌的人生
- 有一種智慧叫包容(英文愛藏雙語系列)
- 吳文智 方雪梅
- 1439字
- 2013-08-02 22:23:06
Extreme Busyness
羅伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森 / Robert Louis Stevenson
Extreme busyness, whether at school or college, kirk or market, is a symptom of deficient vitality; and a faculty for idleness implies a catholic appetite and a strong sense of personal identity. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation. Bring these fellows into the country, or set them abroad ship, and you will see how they pine for their desks or their study. They have no curiosity; they cannot give themselves over to random provocations; they do not take pleasure in the exercise of their faculties for its own sake; and unless necessity lays about them with a stick, they will even stand still.
It is no good speaking to such folk: they cannot be idle, their nature is not generous enough; and they pass those hours in a sort of coma, which are not dedicated to furious moiling in the gold-mill. When they do not require to go to the office, when they are not hungry and have no mind to drink, the whole breathing world is a blank to them. If they have to wait an hour or so for a train, they fall into a stupid trance with their eyes open. To see them, you would suppose there was nothing to look at and no one to speak with; you would imagine they were paralyzed or alienated; and yet very possibly they are hard workers in their own way, and have good eyesight for a flaw in a deed or a turn of the market.
They have been to school and college, but all the time they had their eyes on the medal; they have gone about in the world and mixed with clever people, but all the time they were thinking of their own affairs. As if a man’s soul were not too small to begin with, they have dwarfed and narrowed theirs by a life of all work and no play; until here they are at forty, with a listless attention, a mind vacant of all material of amusement, and not one thought to rub against another, while they wait for the train. Before he was breeched, he might have clambered on the boxes, when he was twenty, he would have stared at the girls; but now the pipe is smoked out, the snuff-box empty, and my gentleman sits bolt upright upon a bench, with lamentable eyes. This does not appeal to me as being successful in life.
無論在中學還是在大學,在教會還是在市場,忙忙碌碌都是欠缺生命力的一種表現。閑散的本領意味著廣泛的興趣與對個性的強烈意識。這些無精打采、陳腐之人,除了一些常規的工作外,幾乎沒有生存的意識。如果把他們帶到鄉村,或是讓他們乘船到國外去,你們就會看到他們是多么渴望辦公桌和書房了;他們全無好奇心,也不會任由自己宣泄怒氣;他們不會在展現自己本領的活動上開心或是獨自陶醉;除非緊急情況,例如用棒子打他,他們才會前行。
與這些朋友根本無法交談:他們不會放松,天生不懂豪放;他們只會昏沉地度過那些時間,他們不會傾注全力在碾金廠里。當他們不想工作時,當他們不感到饑餓、不打算飲酒時,這個生機勃勃的世界對他們來說就是空白的。如果他們必須要等一個小時的火車,他們就會睜著眼睛陷入恍惚之中。看到他們,你就會猜到沒有什么可看的,也沒有人可以交流;你能夠想象得到他們已經麻痹或是與世隔絕了。然而,他們很可能以自己的方式成為勤奮的工作者,而且眼光銳利,可以看出一張契約上的瑕疵或是市場行情的變化。
他們在中學和大學讀書,但目光始終盯著獎章;他們外出活動,與聰明之人交往,但是他們始終惦記著自己的事情。好像一個人嫌自己的靈魂太大,他們一生中只有工作,沒有娛樂,致使靈魂萎縮并縮小了;直到40歲時,他們注意力分散,頭腦中缺乏一切有關娛樂的東西,對于其他想法全然不知,他們等候火車時就是這個樣子。他沒穿褲子的時候,也許可以在箱子上爬來爬去,20歲時,可以盯著女孩看;但是煙抽完了,鼻煙壺空了,我的這位閣下,在長椅上正襟危坐,目光哀傷。我認為,這不是成功的人生。
1. Bring these fellows_______the country, or set them abroad ship, and you_______see how they pine for their desks or their_______. They have no curiosity; they cannot give themselves over to random provocations;_______do not take pleasure in the exercise of their faculties_______its own sake; and_______necessity lays about them with a stick, they will even stand still.
2. To see them, you would suppose there was_______to look at and no one to speak with; you would imagine they_______paralyzed or alienated; and yet very possibly they are_______workers in their own way, and have_______eyesight for a flaw in a deed or a_______of the market.
1. 無論在中學還是在大學,在教會還是在市場,忙忙碌碌都是欠缺生命力的一種表現。
2. 當他們不想工作時,當他們不感到饑餓、不打算飲酒時,這個生機勃勃的世界對他們來說都是空白的。
3. 他們很可能以自己的方式成為勤奮的工作者,而且眼光銳利,可以看出一張契約上的瑕疵或是市場行情的變化。
1. There is a sort of dead-alive, hackneyed people about, who are scarcely conscious of living except in the exercise of some conventional occupation.
a sort of:一種;有點兒;所謂的
2. You will see how they pine for their desk or their study.
pine for:渴望