旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅵ 壯闊-5

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但是為什么會(huì)產(chǎn)生這種欣悅？為什么要追求這種渺小的感覺、甚至因此而感到高興？為什么要離開埃拉特城的安逸，背起沉重的背包，跟隨一組沙漠愛好者沿著亞喀巴灣的海灘行走數(shù)英里，來到一個(gè)只有巖石的沉寂之所？還必須像一個(gè)逃犯那樣躲在少數(shù)幾塊巨大巖石的陰影之下，以躲避烈日的曝曬？為什么我們充滿歡欣地期盼花崗石床、砂礫烤盤，以及那向遠(yuǎn)處伸展、山峰鑲嵌在深藍(lán)天空一角的凝固火山熔巖，而不感到沮喪呢？

But why the pleasure? Why seek out this feeling of smallness-delight in it even? Why leave the comforts of Eilat, join a group of desert devotees and walk for miles with a heavy pack along the shores of the Gulf of Aqaba, to reach a place of rocks and silence, in which one must shelter from the sun like a fugitive in the scant shadow of giant boulders? Why contemplate with exhilaration rather than despair beds of granite and baking gravel pans and a frozen lava of mountains extending into the distance until the peaks dissolve on the edge of a hard blue sky?

有一種解釋是，那些比我們強(qiáng)大威猛的東西不一定令我們感到憎恨。那些與我們意志相違的東西可能引起我們的憤怒和怨恨，然而它也可能讓我們心生敬畏。而它們是否能引發(fā)我們的敬畏，則完全取決于它們貌似挑釁、惡劣和傲慢的同時(shí)，是否也具尊貴之風(fēng)度?？撮T人的自大傲慢令人生怨，迷霧籠罩的高山奇險(xiǎn)則使人心生尊崇之意。強(qiáng)大卻卑劣之物讓人有被羞辱之感，但強(qiáng)大且尊貴之物則使我們敬畏。讓我們?cè)俅我瓴岁P(guān)于動(dòng)物的比喻：一頭野?；蛟S能引起壯闊之感，但一條水虎魚卻不能。其關(guān)鍵似乎在于動(dòng)機(jī)：我們視水虎魚的力量為邪惡且具掠奪性的，卻把野牛的力量視為坦率和正大光明的。

One answer is that not everything which is more powerful than us must always be hateful to us. What defies our will can provoke anger and resentment; it may also arouse awe and respect. It depends on whether the obstacle appears noble in its defiance or squalid and insolent. We begrudge the defiance of the cocky doorman, we honour the defiance of the mistshrouded mountain. We are humiliated by what is powerful and mean, but awed by what is powerful and noble. To return to and extend Burke's animal analogy, a bull may arouse a feeling of the sublime, a piranha does not. It seems a matter of motives: we interpret the piranha's power as vicious and predatory, the bull's as guileless and impersonal.

即使我們不在沙漠中，別人的行為及自己的缺點(diǎn)也會(huì)讓我們感到渺小。羞辱感是人類永遠(yuǎn)的危機(jī)。我們的意志常被違抗，愿望也常被阻撓。崇高的景觀不會(huì)因此而直接揭示我們的不足。它們的吸引力在于提供我們一個(gè)新穎和有效的方法，去面對(duì)我們?cè)咽煜さ娜焙?。壯闊的景致以宏偉的方式，重?fù)著日常生活經(jīng)常施予我們的教訓(xùn)：“宇宙 強(qiáng)而有力，而人類脆弱不堪；人的生命是脆弱和短暫的；我們除了接受加諸于意志之上的限制外，別無選擇；許多的必然性不是我們可以對(duì)抗的，面對(duì)它們時(shí)，我們只能臣服。”

Even when we are not in deserts, the behaviour of others and our own flaws are prone to leave us feeling small. Humiliation is a perpetual risk in the world of men. It is not unusual for our will to be defied and our wishes frustrated. Sublime landscapes do not therefore introduce us to our inadequacy. Rather, to touch on the crux of their appeal, they allow us to conceive of a familiar inadequacy in a new and more helpful way. Sublime places repeat in grand terms a lesson that ordinary life typically teaches viciously: that the universe is mightier than we are, that we are frail and temporary and have no alternative but to accept limitations on our will; that we must bow to necessities greater than ourselves.

這便是寫在沙漠巖石上和南北兩極冰地上的教誨。因?yàn)闀鴮懙萌绱藟邀悾覀冊(cè)陔x開這些景點(diǎn)后不會(huì)有任何挫折之感，反倒為這些超越自身的東西所感動(dòng)，并在回憶中歸返這些我們精神生活所不可或缺的莊嚴(yán)壯美的景象。我們的敬畏之心也可能演化為崇拜之情。

This is the lesson written into the stones of the desert and the icefields of the poles. So grandly is it written there that we may come away from such places, not crushed, but inspired by what lies beyond us; privileged to be subject to such majestic necessities. The sense of awe may even shade into a desire to worship.