悲劇的誕生The Birth Of Tragedy 第8期:生存意義的啓示

Now the Olympian magic mountain opens itself before us, showing us its very roots.

現在，奧林匹斯靈山彷彿對我們敞開，露出它的根基來了。

The Greeks were keenly aware of the terrors and horrors of existence; in order to be able to live at all they had to place before them the shining fantasy of the artificial Olympus.

希臘人認識了而且感覺到生存之可怖可懼；爲了能生活下去，他們不得不在恐懼面前設想這燦爛的奧林匹斯之夢的誕生。

Their tremendous distrust of the titanic forces of nature: Moira, mercilessly enthroned beyond the knowable world;

着自然暴力的絕大恐懼，那無情地統御着一切知識的命數，

the vulture which fed upon the great philanthropist Prometheus; the terrible lot drawn by wise Oedipus;

那面對那折磨着偉大愛人類者普羅密修斯的蒼鷹，那聰明的奧狄普斯的可怕命運，

the curse on the house of Atreus which brought Orestes to the murder of his mother:

那驅使奧瑞斯提斯去弒母的阿特柔斯家族災殃；

that whole Panic philosophy, in short, with its mythic examples, by which the gloomy Etruscans perished, the Greeks conquered--or at least hid from view--again and again by means of of this artificial Olympus.

總之，一切野鬼山神的全部哲學，以及它使得憂鬱的伊特魯利亞人終於滅亡的神祕事例，這一切，都被希臘人借賴奧林匹斯的藝術的緩衝世界一次又一次戰勝了；這一切畢竟被遮掩住，從眼前隱退了。

In order to live at all the Greeks had to construct these deities.

爲了能生活下去，由於這個迫切的要求，希臘人必須創造這些神靈；

The Apollinian need for beauty had to develop the Olympian hierarchy of joy by slow degrees from the original titanic hierarchy of terror, as roses are seen to break from a thorny thicket.

我們不妨設想這創造的過程大致如下，快樂的奧林匹斯神統，是通過夢神的愛美衝動，慢慢地從原來的恐怖的鐵旦神統演變而成的，正如薔薇的蓓蕾從多刺的叢林葩發那樣。

How else could life have been borne by a race so hypersensitive, so emotionally intense, so equipped for suffering?

假如希臘人不是從榮光高照的希臘神靈得到生存意義的啓示，試問這個如此敏感，如此熱衷於慾望，而獨能擔當大難的民族怎樣能夠忍受人生呢？

The same drive which called art into being as a completion and consummation of existence, and as a guarantee of further existence, gave rise also to that Olympian realm which acted as a transfiguring mirror to the Hellenic will.

正是這種產生藝術，使得生活豐富多彩，引誘人活下去的藝術衝動，促使奧林匹斯神界誕生，希臘的“意志”就以這神界爲明鏡，照見自己容光煥發。

The gods justified human life by living it themselves,the only satisfactory theodicy ever invented.

所以，神是人生的印證，因爲神本身也過着人類的生活，這是唯一令人滿意的神正論。

To exist in the clear sunlight of such deities was now felt to be the highest good, and the only real grief suffered by Homeric man was inspired by the thought of leaving that sunlight, especially when the departure seemed imminent.

生存在這樣的神靈之煦光下，才使人感到生存本身值得追求。對於荷馬的英雄，真正的悲哀莫大於身死，尤其是早死。

Now it became possible to stand the wisdom of Silenus on its head and proclaim that it was the worst evil for man to die soon, and second worst for him to die at all.

所以現在我們不妨把西列諾斯的警句顛倒過來，以論希臘人：“對於他們。最壞的是早死，其次是終有一天會死。”

Such laments as arise now arise over short-lived Achilles, over the generations ephemeral as leaves, the decline of the heroic age.

這種哀鳴一旦發出之後，便再度聽到短命的阿客琉斯的響應，他就抱怨秋葉飄零似的人生變幻，和英雄時代的日益衰微。

It is not unbecoming to even the greatest hero to yearn for an afterlife, though it be as a day laborer.

曠世英雄本不該眷戀人生，何況他寧可生而爲奴隸。

So impetuously, during the Apollinian phase, does man's will desire to remain on earth, so identified does he become with existence, that even his lament turns to a song of praise.

然而，希臘的“意志”，到了夢神出現的階段，這樣熱切地渴望現世生活，這位荷馬英雄又覺得自己與生存意志吻合爲一，所以生的哀歌也就成爲生的禮讚。