悠游度過一天的24小時：第四章 煩惱之源

CHAPTER IV The Cause Of The Troubles

第四章 煩惱之源

In order to come to grips at once with the question of time-expenditure in all its actuality, I must choose an individual case for examination. I can only deal with one case, and that case cannot be the average case, because there is no such case as the average case, just as there is no such man as the average man. Every man and every man's case is special.

為了能立即確切地把握時間消費這一問題，我必須作個案分析。我只能舉一個例子，該例子不可能具有普遍性，因為不存在具有普遍性的例子，就像沒有一個人能代表所有人。每個人和每個人的情況都有其特殊性。

But if I take the case of a Londoner who works in an office, whose office hours are from ten to six, and who spends fifty minutes morning and night in travelling between his house door and his office door, I shall have got as near to the average as facts permit. There are men who have to work longer for a living, but there are others who do not have to work so long.

但是如果我以倫敦某辦公室職員為例，他上班朝十晚六，早晚各花50分鐘往返于從家到辦公室的路上，那么可以說這個例子已經(jīng)很接近一般情形。有人為了生計工作得更久，但也有人不必工作這么久。

Fortunately the financial side of existence does not interest us here; for our present purpose the clerk at a pound a week is exactly as well off as the millionaire in Carlton House-terrace.

幸好經(jīng)濟(jì)狀況不是我們的興趣點；就我們當(dāng)下的目的而言，周薪為一英鎊的職員與卡爾頓官邸平臺的百萬富翁是一樣的。

Now the great and profound mistake which my typical man makes in regard to his day is a mistake of general attitude, a mistake which vitiates and weakens two-thirds of his energies and interests. In the majority of instances he does not precisely feel a passion for his business; at best he does not dislike it. He begins his business functions with reluctance, as late as he can, and he ends them with joy, as early as he can. And his engines while he is engaged in his business are seldom at their full "h.p.1" (I know that I shall be accused by angry readers of traducing the city worker; but I am pretty thoroughly acquainted with the City, and I stick to what I say.)

我說的這位典型人士在對待每天的時間問題時，最嚴(yán)重的錯誤在于總體態(tài)度不對，這種錯誤損耗和減弱了他三分之二的精力和興趣。大多數(shù)情況下他對工作沒有熱情；充其量不過是不厭惡罷了。到實在不能推托的時候，他才勉勉強強開工，然后早早地結(jié)束工作，結(jié)束時他可是歡歡喜喜。工作時，他極少全力以赴（我知道憤怒的讀者會指控我詆毀這個城市的工薪一族；但我確實相當(dāng)熟悉這座城市，我仍然堅持這個觀點）。

Yet in spite of all this he persists in looking upon those hours from ten to six as "the day," to which the ten hours preceding them and the six hours following them are nothing but a prologue and epilogue. Such an attitude, unconscious though it be, of course kills his interest in the odd sixteen hours, with the result that, even if he does not waste them, he does not count them; he regards them simply as margin.

盡管這樣，他還是堅持把10點到6點這段時間看成“一天”，之前的十小時以及之后的六小時只不過是序曲和尾章而已。這種態(tài)度，或許他自己都沒意識到，自然會磨滅他對這剩余16小時的興趣。因此，即使他沒有浪費這16小時，卻也沒加以重視，不過把那段時間當(dāng)作余暇而已。

This general attitude is utterly illogical and unhealthy, since it formally gives the central prominence to a patch of time and a bunch of activities which the man's one idea is to "get through" and have "done with." If a man makes two-thirds of his existence subservient to onethird, for which admittedly he has no absolutely feverish zest, how can he hope to live fully and completely? He cannot.

這種態(tài)度完全缺乏邏輯，也不健康，因為這樣一來生活重心就是那一段時間和那一連串的事情，當(dāng)事人就一個想法，就是要“熬過去”和“完事”。如果一個人將時間的三分之二看成是另外三分之一的附庸，并且無可否認(rèn)的是，在那三分之一的時間里他沒有投入高度的熱情，他又怎能指望過得充實美滿？不可能。

If my typical man wishes to live fully and completely he must, in his mind, arrange a day within a day. And this inner day, a Chinese box2 in a larger Chinese box, must begin at 6 p.m. and end at 10 a.m. It is a day of sixteen hours; and during all these sixteen hours he has nothing whatever to do but cultivate his body and his soul and his fellow men. During those sixteen hours he is free; he is not a wage-earner; he is not preoccupied with monetary cares; he is just as good as a man with a private income. This must be his attitude. And his attitude is all important. His success in life (much more important than the amount of estate upon what his executors will have to pay estate duty) depends on it.

如果這位典型人士想過得充實美滿，他腦子里必須在一天之內(nèi)還安排一天。這個內(nèi)在的一天就像大中國盒子中的小中國盒子，從下午6點到第二天早上10點，共有16小時。在這16個小時中，他要全部用來加強身心健康，結(jié)交朋友；在這16個小時中，他自由自在，不是上班族，不必為生計發(fā)愁；他跟有額外收入的人一樣。他必須抱持這樣的態(tài)度，這是非常重要的。他一生成功與否（遠(yuǎn)比他的財產(chǎn)數(shù)目更重要，他的遺囑執(zhí)行人還要據(jù)此繳納遺產(chǎn)稅）就取決與此。

What? You say that full energy given to those sixteen hours will lessen the value of the business eight? Not so. On the contrary, it will assuredly increase the value of the business eight. One of the chief things which my typical man has to learn is that the mental faculties are capable of a continuous hard activity; they do not tire like an arm or a leg. All they want is change—not rest, except in sleep.

什么？你說把全副精力投入到那16小時會降低8小時的工作效率？不然，正相反，這樣會提高那8小時的工作效率。這位典型人士需要了解的主要事情之一即人的大腦能持續(xù)繁忙地工作，不會像手臂或大腿那樣感到疲倦。大腦唯一需要的是調(diào)節(jié)——而不是休息，睡眠過程除外。

I shall now examine the typical man's current method of employing the sixteen hours that are entirely his, beginning with his uprising. I will merely indicate things which he does and which I think he ought not to do, postponing my suggestions for "planting" the times which I shall have cleared—as a settler clears spaces in a forest.

現(xiàn)在我將探究這位代表人物是如何安排那完全屬于他的16小時的，從他起床開始。我只想指出他所做的事情，以及我認(rèn)為他不該有的舉動，暫不建議如何“安置”我即將清理出來的時間——就像拓荒者在森林里開辟土地一樣。

In justice to him I must say that he wastes very little time before he leaves the house in the morning at 9.10. In too many houses he gets up at nine, breakfasts between 9.7 and 9.9 1/2, and then bolts. But immediately he bangs the front door his mental faculties, which are tireless, become idle. He walks to the station in a condition of mental coma. Arrived there, he usually has to wait for the train. On hundreds of suburban stations every morning you see men calmly strolling up and down platforms while railway companies unblushingly rob them of time, which is more than money. Hundreds of thousands of hours are thus lost every day simply because my typical man thinks so little of time that it has never occurred to him to take quite easy precautions against the risk of its loss.

平心而論，我必須說他早上9點10分離開家之前，他幾乎沒有浪費一點時間。很多人都是9點起床，在9點零7分到9點零9分半鐘之間吃完早餐，然后鎖門。然而一旦他哐地一聲關(guān)上前門，他不知疲倦的大腦就閑下來了。他步行至車站的路上，頭腦一片空白。走進(jìn)車站后，通常得等會兒。每天早上在數(shù)百個地鐵站里，你會看見人們在月臺上悠哉游哉地踱來踱去，鐵路公司毫不歉疚地掠奪他們比金錢還寶貴的時間。每天不計其數(shù)的時間就這么浪費了，就因為這個典型人士對時間如此無動于衷，從未想過采取一些相當(dāng)簡單的預(yù)防措施阻止時間的流逝。

He has a solid coin of time to spend every day—call it a sovereign3. He must get change for it, and in getting change he is content to lose heavily.

每天都是一塊堅硬的時間硬幣，可供他花費——就稱它為一枚沙弗林金幣吧。他必須把金幣換成零錢，換零的過程中，他甘愿折損，哪怕折損很大。

Supposing that in selling him a ticket the company said, "We will change you a sovereign, but we shall charge you three halfpence for doing so," what would my typical man exclaim? Yet that is the equivalent of what the company does when it robs him of five minutes twice a day.

試想公司賣給他一張票后說：“我們?yōu)槟銉稉Q這枚金幣，但我們要收取1.5便士的手續(xù)費。”這位典型人士會作怎樣的抗議？可這與鐵路公司每天兩次奪去他五分鐘并無二致。

You say I am dealing with minutiae. I am. And later on I will justify myself.

你說我所說的都是些瑣事，的確如此，然而過后我會給你一個交代。

Now will you kindly buy your paper and step into the train?

現(xiàn)在就請買張報紙，踏上列車吧？

(1)馬力，此處為horsepower縮寫形式。

(2)中國盒子，來源于中國古代的一種設(shè)計，即將形狀相同，尺寸逐漸變小的盒子套在一起。后被世界各地采用，如俄羅斯的“套娃”。此處為隱喻的用法。

(3)沙弗林金幣，英國舊時的一鎊金幣，又稱作君主金幣。