[美文欣賞]
What Is Immortal
To see the golden sun and the azure sky, the outstretched ocean, to walk upon the green earth, and to be lord of a thousand creatures, to look down giddy precipices or over distant flowery vales, to see the world spread out under one's finger in a map, to bring the stars near, to view the smallest insects in a microscope, to read history, and witness the revolutions of empires and the succession of generations, to hear of the glory of Simon and Tire, of Babylon and Susan, as of a faded pageant, and to say all these were, and are now nothing, to think that we exist in such a point of time ,and in such a corner of space, to be at once spectators and a part of the moving scene, to watch the return of the seasons, of spring and autumn, to hear---
The stock dove plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustles to the sighing gale.
---to traverse desert wilderness, to listen to the dungeon's gloom, or sit in crowded theatres and see life itself mocked, to feel heat and cold, pleasure and pain, right and wrong, truth and falsehood, to study the works of art and refine the sense of beauty to agony, to worship fame and to dream of immortality, to have read Shakespeare and Beloit to the same species as Sir Isaac Newton; to be and to do all this, and then in a moment to be nothing, to have it all snatched from one like a juggler's ball or a phantasmagoria……
[參考譯文]
何為不朽--威廉·赫茲里特
我們看到金色的太陽(yáng)，蔚藍(lán)的天空，廣闊的海洋;我們漫步在綠油油的大地之上，做萬(wàn)物的主人 ;我們俯視令人目炫心悸的懸崖峭壁，遠(yuǎn)眺鮮花盛開(kāi)的山谷;我們把地圖攤開(kāi)，任意指點(diǎn)全球 ;我們把星辰移到眼前觀看，還在顯微鏡下觀察極其微小的生物;我們學(xué)歷史，親自目睹帝國(guó)的興亡、時(shí)代的交替;我們聽(tīng)人談?wù)撐黝D、推羅、巴比倫和蘇撒的勛業(yè)，如同聽(tīng)一番往昔的盛會(huì)，聽(tīng)了之后，我們說(shuō)：這些事確實(shí)發(fā)生過(guò)，但現(xiàn)在卻是過(guò)眼云煙了;我們思考著自己生活的時(shí)代、生活的地區(qū);我們?cè)谌松幕顒?dòng)舞臺(tái)上既當(dāng)觀眾、又當(dāng)演員;我們觀察四季更迭、春秋代序 ;我們聽(tīng)見(jiàn)了——
野鴿在濃密的樹(shù)林中哀訴，
樹(shù)林隨微風(fēng)的嘆息而低語(yǔ) ;
我們橫絕大漠;我們傾聽(tīng)子夜的歌聲 ;我們光顧燈火輝煌的廳堂，走下陰森森的地牢，或者坐在萬(wàn)頭攢動(dòng)的劇院里觀看生活本身受到的摹擬;我們親身感受炎熱和寒冷，快樂(lè)和痛苦，正義和邪惡，真理和謬誤 ;我們鉆研藝術(shù)作品，把自己的美感提高到極其敏銳的程度 ;我們崇拜榮譽(yù)，夢(mèng)想不朽 ;我們閱讀莎士比亞，或者把自己和牛頓爵士視為同一族類 ;——正當(dāng)我們面臨這一切、從事這一切的時(shí)候，自己卻在一剎那之間化為虛無(wú)，眼前的一切，象是魔術(shù)師手中的圓球，象是一場(chǎng)幻影，一下子全都消失得無(wú)影無(wú)蹤.....
