雙語(yǔ)美文《自由人的信仰》
A Freeman's Worship
The life of Man, viewed outwardly, is but a small thing in comparison with the forces of Nature. The slave is doomed to worship Time and Fate and Death, because they are greater than anything he finds in himself, and because all his thoughts are of things which they devour. But, great as they are, to think of them greatly, to feel their passionless splendour, is greater still. And such thought makes us free men; we no longer bow before the inevitable in Oriental subjection, but we absorb it, and make it a part of ourselves. To abandon the struggle for private happiness, to expel all eagerness of temporary desire, to burn with passion for eternal things--this is emancipation, and this is the free man's worship. And this liberation is effected by a contemplation of Fate; for Fate itself is subdued by the mind which leaves nothing to be purged by the purifying fire of Time.
United with his fellow-men by the strongest of all ties, the tie of a common doom, the free man finds that a new vision is with him always, shedding over every daily task the light of love. The life of Man is a long march through the night, surrounded by invisible foes, tortured by weariness and pain, towards a goal that few can hope to reach, and where none may tarry long. One by one, as they march, our comrades vanish from our sight, seized by the silent orders of omnipotent Death. Very brief is the time in which we can help them, in which their happiness or misery is decided. Be it ours to shed sunshine on their path, to lighten their sorrows by the balm of sympathy, to give them the pure joy of a never-tiring affection, to strengthen failing courage, to instil faith in hours of despair. Let us not weigh in grudging scales their merits and demerits, but let us think only of their need--of the sorrows, the difficulties, perhaps the blindnesses, that make the misery of their lives; let us remember that they are fellow-sufferers in the same darkness, actors in the same tragedy as ourselves. And so, when their day is over, when their good and their evil have become eternal by the immortality of the past, be it ours to feel that, where they suffered, where they failed, no deed of ours was the cause; but wherever a spark of the divine fire kindled in their hearts, we were ready with encouragement, with sympathy, with brave words in which high courage glowed.
Brief and powerless is Man's life; on him and all his race the slow, sure doom falls pitiless and dark. Blind to good and evil, reckless of destruction, omnipotent matter rolls on its relentless way; for Man, condemned to-day to lose his dearest, to-morrow himself to pass through the gate of darkness, it remains only to cherish, ere yet the blow falls, the lofty thoughts that ennoble his little day; disdaining the coward terrors of the slave of Fate, to worship at the shrine that his own hands have built; undismayed by the empire of chance, to preserve a mind free from the wanton tyranny that rules his outward life; proudly defiant of the irresistible forces that tolerate, for a moment, his knowledge and his condemnation, to sustain alone, a weary but unyielding Atlas, the world that his own ideals have fashioned despite the trampling march of unconscious power.
自由人的信仰
從外表看來(lái)，人的生命與自然的力量相比是微不足道的。奴隸注定要崇拜時(shí)間、命運(yùn)和死亡。因?yàn)樗麅?nèi)心沒(méi)有比這些更偉大的思想，因?yàn)樗妓氲囊磺卸紵o(wú)它們所吞噬。但是它們雖然偉大，我們?nèi)裟茏鹁此鼈�，體認(rèn)它們無(wú)情的壯麗，就比它們更偉大。這些思想使我們成為自由人。我們不再東方式地聽(tīng)天由命，屈服在無(wú)法逃避的威力前。我們承受它們，使它們成為我們生活的一部分，放棄為私人利益的奮斗，不對(duì)片刻的欲望孜孜以求。充滿激情地追求永恒的事物--這就是解放;這就是自由人的信仰。這種解放是對(duì)命運(yùn)深思熟慮后產(chǎn)生的，而被時(shí)間精煉之火凈化得毫無(wú)雜質(zhì)的意識(shí)決定著命運(yùn)本身。
自由人以一切聯(lián)系中最強(qiáng)的一種聯(lián)系與他的同類團(tuán)結(jié)起來(lái)，這種聯(lián)系就是共同的命運(yùn)，他保持著一種新的視野，讓愛(ài)之光灑滿一切日常事務(wù)，人的生命是黑暗中的長(zhǎng)途跋涉，被隱形的敵人所包圍。為困倦和痛苦所折磨，朝向一個(gè)難以到達(dá)而且不能久留的目標(biāo)前進(jìn)，在前進(jìn)途中，我們的同伴一個(gè)一個(gè)地從我們眼前消失，被全能的死亡悄悄下令攜走了。我們幫助他們的時(shí)間非常短暫，而正是這短暫的時(shí)間決定了他們悲喜禍福，愿我們能把陽(yáng)光灑向他們的旅途，以同情的.撫慰減輕他們的哀傷，以源源不斷的愛(ài)心使他們感受純潔的歡樂(lè)，在他們勇氣消退時(shí)使他們振作，在他們絕望時(shí)給他們信心。我們不要用分分計(jì)較的天平去衡量他們的優(yōu)點(diǎn)和缺點(diǎn)，而應(yīng)考慮他們的需要，考慮那些使他們受苦的憂傷、痛苦或盲目無(wú)知。我們應(yīng)該記住，他們和我們一樣在黑暗中受苦受難，在同一個(gè)悲劇里扮演角色，因此，當(dāng)他們的年壽已盡，當(dāng)時(shí)間把他們的善與惡化為不朽的過(guò)去而成為永恒時(shí)，愿我們能感到，我們從來(lái)不是使他們受苦受挫折的原因;愿我們能感到，當(dāng)他們的心中閃爍著圣火時(shí)，我們?cè)樗麄�，安慰他們，并曾用豪言壯語(yǔ)鼓舞他們。
人的生命是短暫而脆弱的，不可避免的死亡雖然緩慢，但一定會(huì)降臨在每一個(gè)人身上，陰森而無(wú)情，這個(gè)全能的物質(zhì)世界毫不容情地滾滾前行無(wú)視善惡，任意摧毀，對(duì)與人來(lái)說(shuō)，注定今天要失去最親愛(ài)的親人朋友，明天自己也要通過(guò)黑暗的死亡之門，人的生命存在就在于死亡來(lái)襲之前，珍惜那些使他短暫的生命變得高貴的思想，鄙棄對(duì)命運(yùn)的恐懼，對(duì)自建的圣壇頂禮膜拜，不受機(jī)緣的擺布，擺脫主宰他外部生活的粗暴統(tǒng)治而取得心靈的自由，敢于驕傲地向那些不可抗拒的壓力挑戰(zhàn)----這些壓力對(duì)其認(rèn)識(shí)和判斷力不過(guò)是暫時(shí)的----他就像疲憊而不屈的擎天巨神，獨(dú)自支撐著他自己的理想世界，對(duì)這種無(wú)意識(shí)力量的肆意踐踏毫不理會(huì)。
【雙語(yǔ)美文《自由人的信仰》】相關(guān)文章：
雙語(yǔ)美文《醒來(lái)》06-09
雙語(yǔ)美文《如果》12-23
雙語(yǔ)美文《青春》06-12
雙語(yǔ)美文《勇氣》12-23
雙語(yǔ)美文：信任02-21
雙語(yǔ)美文《人生的回音》05-22
雙語(yǔ)美文：朱自清《匆匆》06-07
雙語(yǔ)美文《1℃ love》06-06