第572期:英語美文 想通人生中的痛苦與無聊

之前看過一部叫做Dead Poets Society《死亡詩社》的電影。它是羅賓·威廉姆斯、領銜主演的一部勵志電影。該片講述的是一個有思想的老師和一羣希望突破的學生之間的故事。電影中有兩個場景我記憶猶新，第一個場景是這位老師帶着學生們在大堂中看他們之前的校友，並且說了那句讓人記憶猶新的 “carpe diem”（活在當下）。第二個場景是這位老師說起他們當年的神祕小團體“死亡詩社”在石穴居中大聲的朗讀偉人詩句時那種激情和超越生命的快樂。他說：“我們不止是讀詩，我們會感到那些詩句如果蜜一般留在脣齒之間。”

下面的這段文字，我在朗讀的時候，就真切的體會到了這種快樂。這段文字摘選自叔本華的《人生的智慧》。叔本華的可愛，和真誠以及深刻就在於，能一語中的講述清楚我們人類所有喜與悲的根源。我在讀的時候，時常就在想，他是站在怎樣的高度，才觀察和總結出這樣深刻的真理的？這段文字（不管是英文還是中文）都需要好好的品味，思考，才能真正的體會和理解。

New Words:

foe n.敵人，仇敵;

oscillation n.振動; 波動; 動搖; <物>振盪;

antagonism n.對立; 相剋作用;

susceptibility n.易受影響或損害的狀態，感受性;

proportionate adj.相稱的; 成比例的; 適當的;

temperament n.性格; （人或動物的） 氣質;

pretext n.藉口，託辭; 假象，掩飾;

multifarious adj.許多的，多方面的; 各式各樣的;

invigorate vt. 使生氣勃勃，使精力充沛，使健壯;

The most general survey shows us that the two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom. We may go further, and say that in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two. The reason of this is that each of these two poles stands in a double antagonism to the other, external or objective, and inner or subjective. Needy surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored.
對生活稍作考察就可以知道:痛苦和無聊是人類幸福的兩個死敵，關於這一點，我可以作-一個補充: 每當我們感到快活，在我們遠離上述的一個敵人的時候，我們也就接近了另一個敵人，反之亦然。所以說，我們的生活確實就是在這兩者當中或強或弱地搖擺。這是因爲痛苦與無聊之間的關係是雙重的對立關係。一種是外在的或是客觀的，另一種則是內在的或是主觀的。貧窮和匱乏的環境會讓人痛苦（外在的），而豐裕和安定就產生無聊（內在的）。

Accordingly, while the lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom. The inner or subjective antagonism arises from the fact that, in the individual, susceptibility to pain varies inversely with susceptibility to boredom, because susceptibility is directly proportionate to mental power.
因此，我們看見低下的勞動階層與匱乏-亦即痛苦-進行着永恆的鬥爭，而有錢的上流社會卻曠日持久地與無聊進行一場堪稱絕望的搏鬥。而內在的或者說主觀的痛苦與無聊之間的對立關係則基於以下這一事實:一個人對痛苦的感受能力和對無聊的感受能力成反比，這是由一個人的精神能力的大小所決定的。

Let me explain. A dull mind is, as a rule, associated with dull sensibilities, nerves which no stimulus can affect, a temperament, in short, which does not feel pain or anxiety very much, however great or terrible it may be. Now, intellectual dullness is at the bottom of that vacuity of soul which is stamped on so many faces, a state of mind which betrays itself by a constant and lively attention to all the trivial circumstances in the external world. This is the true source of boredom--a continual panting after excitement, in order to have a pretext for giving the mind and spirits something to occupy them. The kind of things people choose for this purpose shows that they are not very particular, as witness the miserable pastimes they have recourse to, and their ideas of social pleasure and conversation: or again, the number of people who gossip on the doorstep or gape out of the window. It is mainly because of this inner vacuity of soul that people go in quest of society, diversion, amusement, luxury of every sort, which lead many to extravagance and misery.
也就是說，一個人精神的遲鈍一般是和感覺的遲鈍和缺乏興奮密切相關的，因此原因，精神遲鈍的人也就較少感受到各種強度不一的痛苦和要求。但是，精神遲鈍的後果就是內在的空虛。這種空虛烙在了無數人的臉上。並且，人們對於外在世界發生的各種事情-甚至最微不足道的事情一所表現出的--刻不停的、強烈的關注，也暴露出他們的這種內在空虛。人的內在空虛就是無聊的真正根源，它無時無刻不在尋求外在刺激，試圖藉助某事某物使他們的精神和情緒活動起來。他們做出的選擇真可謂飢不擇食，要找到這方面的證明只須看一看他們緊抓不放的貧乏、單調的消遣，還有同一樣性質的社交談話， 以及許許多多的靠門站着的和從窗口往外張望的人。正是由於內在的空虛，他們才追求五花八門的社交、娛樂和奢侈;而這些東西把許多人引人窮奢極欲，然後以痛苦告終。

Nothing is so good a protection against such misery as inward wealth, the wealth of the mind, because the greater it grows, the less room it leaves for boredom. The inexhaustible activity of thought! Finding ever new material to work upon in the multifarious phenomena of self and nature, and able and ready to form new combinations of them, there you have something that invigorates the mind, and apart from moments of relaxation, sets it far above the reach of boredom.
使我們免於這種痛苦的手段莫過於擁有豐富的內在-即豐富的精神思想。因爲人的精神思想財富越優越和顯著，那麼留給無聊的空間就越小。這些人頭腦裏面的思想活潑奔涌不息，不斷更新;它們玩味和摸索着內在世界和外部世界的多種現象;還有把這些思想進行各種組合的衝動和能力-所有這些， 除了精神鬆弛下來的個別時候，都使卓越的頭腦免受無聊的襲擊。

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