雙語名篇欣賞：To Be or Not to Be

摘要：生存與毀滅——是活得熱烈而豐富，還是活得像行屍走肉，那都取決於我們自己。讓我們擴大並加強我們的聯繫吧。活着就要精彩!

To Be or Not to Be

生存還是毀滅

“生存還是毀滅。”除《聖經》以外，這六個字是整個世界文學中最著名的六個字。這六個字是哈姆雷特喃喃自語時所說的，而這六個字也是莎士比亞作品中最有名的幾個字，因爲哈姆雷特不僅道出了自己的心聲，也道出了所有在思考的人的心聲。生存還是毀滅——是活下去還是不要活下去，是要生活得豐富充實、興致勃勃，還是生活得枯燥委瑣、貧乏無味。一位哲人曾想弄清自己是否在活着，其實這個問題我們每個人都應該不時地捫心自問。他對這個問題的答案是：“我思，故我在。”

“To be or not to be”. Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be---to live or not to live; to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: “I think, therefore I am.”

但是我所見過的關於生存最好的定義卻出自另一位哲學家：“生活即是聯繫。”如果這句話不假，那麼一個生物擁有的聯繫越多，它就越有活力。所謂要活得豐富也即是要擴大和加強我們的各種聯繫。不幸的是，我們天生就容易陷入自己的陳規舊套。試問除去我們的日常事務，我們在多大程度上是活着的?如果你只對日常事務感興趣，那你的生命也就侷限於那個範圍之內。就其他事物而言——詩歌、散文、音樂、美術、體育、無私的友誼、政治、國際事務等等——你只是一個死人。

But the best definition of existence ever saw was one given by another philosopher who said: “To be is to be in relations.” If this is true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interested only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead.

反之，每當你有了一種新的興趣——甚至是一種新的技藝——你就增加了自己生命的能量。一個對許多事物都深感興趣的人不可能總不快樂，真正的悲觀者是那些失去興趣的人。

Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest.

培根曾說，一個人每當失去朋友便死一次，但是通過結交新朋友，我們就能獲得新的生命。這條對於生物來說千真萬確的道理也完全適用於人的思想，思想也是有生命的。你思想之所在即是你生命之所在。如果你的思想只侷限於自己的工作、自己的物質利益、自己所居住的城鎮內狹小的生活圈子，那麼你的生命也是侷限的、狹小的。但是如果你對當前中國所發生的種種事感興趣，那麼你就相當於生活在那些極有趣的人中間;如果你能全神貫注地聽絕妙的音樂，你就會超脫周圍環境而生活在一個充滿激情與想象的世界之中。

Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow circumscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China; if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people; if you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination.

生存與毀滅——是活得熱烈而豐富，還是活得像行屍走肉，那都取決於我們自己。讓我們擴大並加強我們的聯繫吧。活着就要精彩!

To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let us live!