《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 05

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對(duì)隱士賴克羅夫特醉心于書籍、自然景色與回憶過去生活的描述，其實(shí)是吉辛的自述，作者以此來抒發(fā)自己的情感，因而本書是一部富有自傳色彩的小品文集。

吉辛窮困的一生，對(duì)文學(xué)名著的愛好與追求，以及對(duì)大自然恬靜生活的向往，在書中均有充分的反映。本書分為春、夏、秋、冬四個(gè)部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國(guó)文學(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

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Sir, said Johnson, "all the arguments which are brought to represent poverty as no evil, show it to be evidently a great evil. You never find people labouring to convince you that you may live very happily upon a plentiful fortune."

“先生，”約翰遜說，“所有那些用來證明貧窮無害的論點(diǎn)明明白白地顯示貧窮是一個(gè)極大的惡魔。因?yàn)閺膩聿粫?huì)有人費(fèi)力說服你相信豐厚的資產(chǎn)可以讓人過上幸福生活?！?/p>

He knew what he was talking of, that rugged old master of common sense. Poverty is of course a relative thing; the term has reference, above all, to one's standing as an intellectual being. If I am to believe the newspapers, there are title-bearing men and women in England who, had they an assured income of five-and-twenty shillings per week, would have no right to call themselves poor, for their intellectual needs are those of a stable-boy or scullery wench. Give me the same income and I can live, but I am poor indeed.

這個(gè)世事洞明而率直的老先生明白自己在說什么。貧窮當(dāng)然是相對(duì)來說的，這個(gè)詞首先和一個(gè)人的知識(shí)境界相關(guān)。如果我可以相信報(bào)紙的話，英格蘭那些有頭銜的紳士貴婦們，假使每周的固定收入只有二十五先令，也沒有權(quán)利說自己貧窮，因?yàn)樗麄兊闹R(shí)需求和馬童或洗碗女工無異。給我同樣的收入，我可以維持生活，但我確實(shí)貧窮。

You tell me that money cannot buy the things most precious. Your commonplace proves that you have never known the lack of it. When I think of all the sorrow and the barrenness that has been wrought in my life by want of a few more pounds per annum than I was able to earn, I stand aghast at money's significance. What kindly joys have I lost, those simple forms of happiness to which every heart has claim, because of poverty! Meetings with those I loved made impossible year after year; sadness, misunderstanding, nay, cruel alienation, arising from inability to do the things I wished, and which I might have done had a little money helped me; endless instances of homely pleasure and contentment curtailed or forbidden by narrow means. I have lost friends merely through the constraints of my position; friends I might have made have remained strangers to me; solitude of the bitter kind, the solitude which is enforced at times when mind or heart longs for companionship, often cursed my life solely because I was poor. I think it would scarce be an exaggeration to say that there is no moral good which has not to be paid for in coin of the realm.

你告訴我金錢買不到最珍貴的東西，這種陳詞濫調(diào)證明了你從來不知道缺錢的滋味。當(dāng)我想到因?yàn)槊磕晟賿陰子醵鴮?dǎo)致生活變得哀痛不堪、毫無生氣，我便驚駭于錢的重大意義。因?yàn)樨毟F，許多溫情的快樂—每顆心原本都有份的簡(jiǎn)單的快樂—都與我失之交臂。年復(fù)一年，不能與親戚至愛重逢；那些因?yàn)椴荒茈S心所欲而產(chǎn)生的悲傷、誤解、拒絕和殘酷的疏遠(yuǎn)，如果有一點(diǎn)錢的幫助，本來都可以避免；因?yàn)樽浇笠娭?，那么多家常的樂趣都被削減或被剝奪。因?yàn)槲业奶幘乘?，我失去了一些朋友；一些本可以成為朋友的人現(xiàn)在還是陌生人；那種痛苦的孤獨(dú)感，心靈渴望陪伴時(shí)加倍的孤獨(dú)感，常常折磨著我，就因?yàn)槲业呢毟F。我想這樣說不算夸張：沒有金錢的代價(jià)便不會(huì)有道德的閃光。

Poverty, said Johnson again, "is so great an evil, and pregnant with so much temptation, so much misery, that I cannot but earnestly enjoin you to avoid it."

約翰遜又說：“貧窮真是一個(gè)大惡魔，孕育著許多誘惑，許多痛苦，我只能鄭重地告誡你千萬避開它?！?/p>

For my own part, I needed no injunction to that effort of avoidance. Many a London garret knows how I struggled with the unwelcomechamber-fellow. I marvel she did not abide with me to the end; it is a sort of inconsequence in Nature, and sometimes makes me vaguely uneasy through nights of broken sleep.

對(duì)我來說，我根本不需要他那逃避貧窮的告誡。倫敦的許多閣樓見證過我是如何與這位討厭的管家爭(zhēng)吵的。我感到驚訝的是，她居然沒有一直和我鬧下去。這種不符合自然規(guī)律的情況，有時(shí)讓我在夢(mèng)醒失眠的夜晚還模糊地感到不安。