十六篇大家经典之作:优美的双语散文(9—16)

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楼主: 十六篇大家经典之作:优美的双语散文(9—16)
           9、The Choice of Companion
           
              Anonymous
           
              A good companion is better than a fortune, for a fortune cannot
            purchase those elements of character which make companionship a
            blessing. The best companion is one who is wiser and better than
            ourselves, for we are inspired by his wisdom and virtue to nobler
            deeds. Greater wisdom and goodness than we possess lifts us higher
            mentally and morally.
           
              “A man is known by the companion he keeps.” It is always true.
            Companionship of a high order is powerful to develop character.
            Character makes character in the associations of life faster than
            anything else. Purity begets purity, like begets like; and this fact
            makes the choice of companion in early life more important even than
            that of teachers and guardians
           
              It is true that we cannot always choose all of our companions,
            some are thrust upon us by business or the social relations of life,
            we do not choose them, we do not enjoy them; and yet, we have to
            associate with them more or less. The experience is not altogether
            without compensation, if there be principle enough in us to bear the
            strain. Still, in the main, choice of companions can be made, and
            must be made. It is not best or necessary for a young person to
            associate with “Tom, Dick, and Harry” without forethought or
            purpose. Some fixed rules about the company he or she keeps must be
            observed. The subject should be uttermost in the thoughts, and
            canvassed often
           
              Companionship is education, good or not; it develops manhood or
            womanhood, high or low; it lifts soul upward or drags it downward;
            it minister to virtue or vice. There is no half way work about its
            influence. If it ennobles, it does grandly, if it demoralizes, it
            doest it devilishly. It saves or destroys lustily. Nothing in the
            world is surer than this. Sow virtue, and the harvest will be
            virtue, Sow vice, and the harvest will be vice. Good companionships
            help us to sow virtue; evil companionships help us to sow vice.
           
              ―――――――――――
           
          择友
           
              佚名
           
    一个好友胜过一笔财富。人性中有一些品质会让友谊变成一种幸福的事,而金钱买不到这些品质。最好的朋友是那些比我们更睿智和更出色的人,他们的智慧和美德会激发我们去做更高尚的事情。他们有着比我们更多的智慧和更高尚的情操,可以在精神上和道德上将我们带入一个新的境界。
           
           
    “观其友而知其人”,这句话总是对的。高层次的交往会有力地塑造一个人的性情。在交往中,品性对品性的影响胜过其它任何因素。纯洁的品格会培养纯洁的品格,爱好会引发相同的爱好。这些表明,在年少时,选择朋友甚至比选择老师和监护人还要重要。
           
    不可否认,有些朋友总是我们不能选择的。有些是工作和社会关系强加于我们的。我们没有选择他们,也不喜欢他们,可是我们不得不或多或少地与他们交往。不过,只要我们心中有足够的原则来承担压力,与他们交往也并非毫无益处。在大多数情况下,我们还是可以选择朋友的,而且,必须选择。一个年轻人毫无前瞻性,也无目的性地随意与张三李四交往,是不好的,也是没必要的。他必须遵守一些确定的交友原则,应当把它们摆在心中最高的位置,并经常加以审视。
           
    无论是有益的还是有害的友谊,都是一种教导。它可以培育或是高贵,或是卑微的品格;它可以使灵魂升华,也可以使之堕落;它可以滋生美德,也可以催生邪恶;它的影响没有折中之道:如果它让人高尚,就会用一种无比高贵的方式,如果让人堕落,也会用一种无比邪恶的方式。它可以有力地拯救一个人,也可以轻易地毁掉一个人。播种美德,就会收获美德;播种邪恶,就会收获邪恶,这是非常确定的,而有益的友谊帮我们播种美德,有害的友谊则支使我们撒下邪恶的种子。
      
            10、YOUTH
           
              by Samuel Ullman
           
              Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind;
              it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees;
              it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor
            of the emotions;
              it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
              Youth means a tempera-mental predominance of courage over
            timidity, of the appetite for adventure over the love of ease. This
            often exists in a man of 60 more than a boy of 20.
               Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by
            deserting our ideals.
             Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the
            soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spring
            back to dust. Whether 60 or 16, there is in every human being’s
            heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing childlike appetite of what’s
            next and the joy of the game of living.
              In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless
            station:
               so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage
            and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.
              When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows
            of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even
            at 20, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch waves of
            optimism, there is hope you may die young at 80.
           
           青春
           
              塞缪尔·厄尔曼
           
    青春不是年华,而是心境;
    青春不是桃面、丹唇、柔膝,而是深沉的意志,恢宏的想象,炙热的恋情;
    青春是生命的深泉在涌流。青春气贯长虹,勇锐盖过怯弱,进取压倒苟安。如此锐气,二十后生而有之,六旬男子则更多见。
    年岁有加,并非垂老,理想丢弃,方堕暮年。岁月悠悠,衰微只及肌肤;热忱抛却,颓废必致灵魂。忧烦,惶恐,丧失自信,定使心灵扭曲,意气如灰。
           
    无论年届花甲,拟或二八芳龄,心中皆有生命之欢乐,奇迹之诱惑,孩童般天真久盛不衰。人人心中皆有一台天线,只要你从天上人间接受美好、希望、欢乐、勇气和力量的信号,你就青春永驻,风华常存。
    一旦天线下降,锐气便被冰雪覆盖,玩世不恭、自暴自弃油然而生,即使年方二十,实已垂垂老矣;然则只要树起天线,捕捉乐观信号,你就有望在八十高龄告别尘寰时仍觉年轻。
             11、Ignorance Make One Happy
           
              Robert Lynd
           
              The average man who uses a telephone could not explain how a
            telephone works. He takes for granted the telephone, the railway
            train, the linotype, the airplane, as our grandfathers took for
            granted the miracles of the gospels. He neither question nor
            understand them. It is as though each of us investigated and made
            his own a tiny circle of facts. Knowledge outside the day’s work is
            regarded by most men as a gewgaw. Still we are constantly in
            reaction against our ignorance. We rouse ourselves at intervals and
            speculate. We revel in speculations about anything at all --- about
            life after death or about such questions as that which is said to
            have puzzled Aristotle, “Why sneezing from noon to midnight was
            good, but from night to noon unlucky?” One of the greatest joys
            known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of
            the knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the
            pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or
            exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of
            answering, is already beginning to stiffen. One envies so
            inquisitive a man as Jewell, who sat down to the study of physiology
            in his sixties. Most of us have lost the sense of our ignorance long
            before that age. We even become vain of our squirrel’s hoard of
            knowledge and regard increasing age itself as a school of
            omniscience. We forget that Socrates was famed for wisdom not
            because he was omniscient but because he realized at the age of
            seventy that he still knew nothing.
           
              ――――――――――――――――――――――
    罗伯特.林德(1879-1949),英国近代散文名家,生于爱尔兰,曾任伦敦《新闻报》文学编辑,工作之余著作颇丰,在散文创作方面有较高成就。
              ――――――――――――――――――――――
           
           无知常乐
           
              罗伯特.林德
           
    一般用电话的人都不懂电话是怎样工作的,他们总是把电话、铁路、排字机、飞机等看成是自然而然的东西,就像我们的祖先觉得福音书里的奇事都是很自然的一样。他们不懂,也不问。似乎我们每个人都只钻研、弄懂很小范围内的一些事情。大多数人都认为日常生活之外的知识是花里胡哨的东西。然而,我们也在不停地抗拒着我们的无知。有时,我们会振奋起来,进行思考。我们会信手拈来一个问题,然后沉浸在思考中――如死后的生活,或者其它问题,比如一个据说曾经困扰亚里士多德的问题:“为什么从中午到午夜打喷嚏是好运气,而从午夜到中午打喷嚏代表坏运气?”在寻找知识的过程中陷入无知,是人类的一大乐事。无知的快乐,说到底,是提问题的快乐。一个已经不会提问的人,一个用教条的答案回答问题并以此为乐的人,他的头脑已经开始僵化了。我们很羡慕裘伊,他在六十多岁的时候居然开始做下来学习生理学,而大多数人在远未达到这个年龄就已经不知道什么是无知了。我们甚至会为我们的一点浅薄的知识而沾沾自喜,甚至觉得,流逝的时光本身就会自然地给我们所有的知识。我们忘了,苏格拉底之所以流芳百世,不是因为他什么都懂,而是他发现在他七十岁的时候,仍然什么都不懂。
      
             12、Appeal to American
           
              Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi
           
              In my opinion, the Indian struggle for freedom bears its
            consequence not only upon India and England but upon the whole
            world. It contains one-fifth of the human race. It represents one of
            the most ancient civilizations. It has traditions handed down from
            tens of thousands of years, some of which, to the astonishment of
            the world, remain intact. No doubt the ravages of time have affected
            the purity of that civilization as they have that of many other
            cultures and institutions.
           
              If India is to revive the glory of her ancient past, she can only
            do so when she attains her freedom. The reason for the struggle
            having drawn the attention of the world I know does not lie in the
            fact that we Indians are fighting for our liberty, but in the fact
            the means adopted by us for attaining that liberty are unique and,
            as far as history shows us, have not been adopted by any other
            people of whom we have any record.
           
              The means adopted are not violence, not bloodshed, not diplomacy
            as one understands it nowadays, but they are purely and simply truth
            and non-violence. No wonder that the attention of the world is
            directed toward this attempt to lead a successful bloodless
            revolution. Hitherto, nations have fought in the manner of the
            brute. They have wreaked vengeance upon those whom they have
            considered to be their enemies.
           
              We find in searching national anthems adopted by great nations
            that they contain imprecations upon the so-called enemy. They have
            vowed destruction and have not hesitated to take the name of God and
            seek divine assistance for the destruction of the enemy. We in India
            have endeavored to reverse the process. We feel that the law that
            governs brute creation is not the law that should guide the human
            race. That law is inconsistent with human dignity.
           
              I, personally, would wait, if need be, for ages rather than seek
            to attain the freedom of my country through bloody means. I feel in
            the innermost of my heart, after a political extending, over an
            unbroken period of, close upon thirty-five years, that the world is
            sick unto death of blood spilling. The world is seeking a way out,
            and I flatter myself with the belief that perhaps it will be the
            privilege of the ancient land of India to show the way out to the
            hungering world.
           
              ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
    甘地(1869-1948),印度民族运动领袖。毕业于英国伦敦大学。1893年在南非进行反种族歧视斗争,多次被捕。第一次世界大战后返回印度,倡导对英国殖民政府“非暴力不合作运动”,曾两度出任国民大党主席,主张印度教徒和伊斯兰教徒团结,反对歧视妇女和贱民。二战后反对英国对印度和巴基斯坦分治,被一名狂热的印度教徒枪杀。毕生为印度的独立而斗争,获得了人们的广泛尊敬,被尊称为“圣雄”。
    此篇文章是他1931年受英国BBC电台之邀所发表的演说。
              ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
           
      向美国呼吁
           
              [印度] 莫罕达斯.卡拉姆纪德.甘地
           
    在我看来,印度为争取自由的斗争不仅影响到印度和英国,而且影响了整个世界。她有着世界五分之一的人口,她代表了最古老的文明之一。她拥有流传了数万年的传统,并让世界感到惊奇的是,其中一些至今依然是完好无损的。当然,和其它文明和传统一样,印度文明的纯净也遭到了时光的侵蚀。
           
    如果印度想恢复她古老的荣誉的话,只有当她获得自由了才能做到。我知道,世人的目光被这场印度人争取自由的斗争所吸引,不在于我们争取自由这件事,而在于我们为争取自由所采取的独特方式。从历史来看,并无记载有民族曾经采取过这种方式。
           
    我们采取的方式不是暴力,不是流血,不是大家现在所熟知的手段,而是完全的、简单的理智和非暴力,所以并不奇怪世界的目光会被这种旨在一场无流血牺牲的成功革命的尝试所吸引。而迄今为止,人们仍然以野蛮动物的方式进行斗争,对他们所认定的敌人实行报复惩罚。
           
    翻开一些大国的国歌,我们都会发现有诅咒所谓敌人的内容。他们发誓要消灭敌人,也毫不迟疑地以上帝的名义,并乞求神灵的帮助来消灭他们的敌人。而我们在印度的人努力使用相反的方法。我们觉得支配野蛮动物界的法则并不应该支配人类,因为那违背了人类的高贵本质。
           
    如果需要的话,我自己情愿等待很多年,而不是用流血牺牲的手段来使我的国家获得自由。35年连续不断的政治生涯使我从内心深处由衷感受到,人类已对血肉横飞深恶痛绝,人类需要一种新的方式,我自以为,古老的印度大陆或许拥有为饥渴的人类展现这种新方式的优先权。
      
            13、The Road of Life
           
              William.S.Maugham
           
              The lives of most men are determined by their environment. They
            accept the circumstances amid which fate has thrown them not only
            with resignation but even with good will. They are like streetcars
            running contentedly on their rails and they despise the sprightly
            flitter that dashes in and out of the traffic and speeds so jauntily
            across the open country. I respect them; they are good citizens,
            good husbands, and good fathers, and of course somebody has to pay
            the taxes; but I do not find them exciting. I am fascinated by the
            men, few enough in all conscience, who take life in their own hands
            and seem to mould it to their own liking. It maybe that we have no
            such thing as free will, but at all events, we have the illusion of
            it. At a cross-road it does seem to us that we might go either to
            the right or the left and, the choice once made, it is difficult to
            see that the whole course of the world’s history obliged us to take
            the turning we did.
           
              ―――――――――――――――――
           
           生活之路
           
              威廉.S.毛姆
           
    大多数人的生活都是由他们所处的环境决定。他们顺从地甚至乐意地接受命运把他们所扔进的环境。他们就像电车一样满足地行驶于他们的轨道上,并且瞧不起那些在敏捷地出没车水马龙中,快乐地奔驰于旷野上的车子。我尊重他们,他们是好公民、好丈夫和好父亲,当然总得要有人来交税。但是,他们并没有令人兴奋的地方。我被另外一些人深深吸引,他们将命运掌握在自己手中,并且似乎把它改造成他们所喜欢的样子,这样的人是很少的。而或许我们并没有所谓的自由意志,但不管怎样我们总有那样的幻觉。在一个十字路口前,似乎我们可以走这条路也可以走那一条路,不过一旦做出选择,我们很难意识到其实是整个世界历史进程迫使我们选择那个方向的。
           
              ―――――――――――――――――
    威廉.S.毛姆(1874-1965),英国著名小说家、剧作家、散文家。
            14、Expressing One’s Individuality
           
              Arnold Bennett
           
             A most curious and useful thing to realize is that one never knows
            the impression one is creating on other people. One may often guess
            pretty accurately whether it is good, bad, or indifferent --- some
            people render it unnecessary for one to guess, they practically
            inform one --- but that is not what I mean. I mean much more than
            that. I mean that one has one’s self no mental picture corresponding
            to the mental picture which one’s personality leaves in the minds of
            one’s friends. Has it ever struck you that there is a mysterious
            individual going around, walking the streets, calling at houses for
            tea, chatting, laughing, grumbling, arguing, and that all your
            friends know him --- without saying more than a chance, cautious
            word to you; and that that person is you? Supposing that you came
            into a drawing-room where you were having tea, do you think you
            would recognize yourself as an individuality? I think not. You would
            be apt to say to yourself as guests do when disturbed in
          drawing-rooms by other guests: “Who’s this chap? Seems rather queer. 
          I hope he won’t be a bore.” And your first telling would be slightly
            hostile. Why, even when you meet yourself in an unsuspected mirror
            in the very clothes that you have put on that very day and that you
            know by heart, you are almost always shocked by the realization that
            you are you. And now and then, when you have gone to the glass to
            arrange your hair in the full sobriety of early morning, have you
            not looked on an absolute stranger, and has not that stranger piqued
            your curiosity? And if it is thus with precise external details of
            form, colour, and movement, what may it not be with the vague
            complex effect of the mental and moral individuality?
           
              A man honestly tries to make a good impression. What is the
            result? The result merely is that his friends, in the privacy of
            their minds, set him down as a man who tries to make a good
            impression. If much depends on the result of a single interview, or
            a couple of interviews, a man may conceivably force another to
            accept an impression of himself which he would like to convey. But
            if the receiver of the impression is to have time at his disposal,
            then the giver of the impression may just as well sit down and put
            his hands in his pockets, for nothing that he can do will modify or
            influence in any way the impression that he will ultimately give.
            The real impress is, in the end, given unconsciously, not
            consciously; and further, it is received unconsciously, not
            consciously. It depends partly on both persons. And it is immutably
            fixed beforehand. There can be no final deception…
           
              ――――――――――――――――
           自我的展现
           
              阿诺德.本涅特
           
    一个人永远也不知道他给别人留有什么样的印象,明白这点是有益的,也是让人觉得奇怪的。一个人很容易准确猜出这种印象是好的、坏的,还是不好不坏的,因为有些人让你不用去猜,他们几乎直接就告诉你了。但那不是我要说的,我要说的不止这些。我要说的是,一个人对他在别人脑子里留有的印象毫无所知。你曾想过这样的事吗:有个神秘的人,到处闲逛,走在大街上,去茶馆喝茶,和人聊天,谈笑风生,发牢骚,与人争辩,你所有的朋友都认识他,都与他很熟,而且对他是什么样的人早下了定论,但除了一两次谨慎的只言片语外,他们从未对你提过他,但这个人就是你?假如“你”走进一个休息室,你正在里面喝茶,你会认出那个人是“你”吗?我想不会。你或许会对自己说,正如休息室里被人打扰的客人一样:
   “这个家伙是谁?挺让人不舒服的,希望他不要讨人嫌。”你的第一反应会是带有点敌意。甚至当你自己在一面突然撞见的镜子里看到自己穿着那件你非常熟悉的衣服,从而你意识到那就是你自己时,你为何总会为这种念头而感到几乎震惊呢?时常,在清晨很清醒的时候,你在镜子前梳头,你是否看到了一个完全陌生的人,而且对他很好奇呢?如果说诸如形象、颜色、动作这些精确的外观细节都会让你感到这样,更不用说像精神、道德这样不易把握的、复杂的个性特征所形成的印象呢?
           
    一个人极力试图给别人留下好印象,结果如何呢?结果仅仅是,他的朋友们在内心里会把他看作是一个努力给别人留有好印象的人罢了。如果仅仅是一次或几次会面,一个人也许可以使别人信服地接受他所期望展现出来的印象,可是如果接受者可以随意安排他的时间来认识这个人的话,那么印象制造者最好还是坐下来,什么事情都不做,因为他无论如何都无法改变或影响他所最终给别人的印象。真实的印象,最终不是刻意地而是无意地做出的。此外,它也不是刻意地而是无意地被接收的,它取决于双方。而且是事先就已经确定了的,是没办法欺骗到底的……
           
              ――――――――――――
    阿诺德.本涅特(1867-1931), 本世纪初期英国著名小说家、散文家。他的文风受法国自然主义风格影响较深,行文冷静客观。
              15、Shall We Choose Death?
           
              Bertrand Russell
           
              I am speaking not as a Briton, not as a European, not as a member
            of a western democracy, but as a human being, a member of the
            species Man, whose continued existence is in doubt. The world is
            full of conflicts: Jews and Arabs; Indians and Pakistanis; White men
            and Negroes in Africa; and, overshadowing all minor conflicts, the
            titanic struggle between communism and anticommunism.
           
              Almost everybody who is politically conscious has strong feelings
            about one or more of these issues; but I want you, if you can, to
            set aside such feelings for the moment and consider yourself only as
            a member of a biological species which has had a remarkable history
            and whose disappearance none of us can desire. I shall try to say no
            single word which should appeal to one group rather than to another.
            All, equally, are in peril, and if the peril is understood, there is
            hope that they may collectively avert it. We have to learn to think
            in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves not what steps can
            be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for
            there no longer are such steps. The question we have to ask
            ourselves is: What steps can be taken to prevent a military contest
            of which the issues must be disastrous to all sides?
           
              The general public, and even many men in position of authority,
            have not realized what would be involved in a war with hydrogen
            bombs. The general public still thinks in terms of the obliteration
            of cities. It is understood that the new bombs are more powerful
            than the old and that, while one atomic bomb could obliterate
            Hiroshima, one hydrogen bomb could obliterate the largest cities
            such as London, New York, and Moscow. No doubt in a hydrogen-bomb
            war great cities would be obliterated. But this is one of the minor
            disasters that would have to be faced. If everybody in London, New
            York, and Moscow were exterminated, the world might, in the course
            of a few centuries, recover from the blow. But we now know,
            especially since the Bikini test, that hydrogen bombs can gradually
            spread destruction over a much wider area than had been supposed. It
            is stated on very good authority that a bomb can now be manufactured
            which will be 25, 000 times as powerful as that which destroyed
            Hiroshima. Such a bomb, if exploded near the ground or under water,
            sends radioactive particles into the upper air. They sink gradually
            and reach the surface of the earth in the form of a deadly dust or
            rain. It was this dust which infected the Japanese fishermen and
            their catch of fish although they were outside what American experts
            believed to be the danger zone. No one knows how widely such lethal
            radioactive particles might be diffused, but the best authorities
            are unanimous in saying that a war with hydrogen bombs is quite
            likely to put an end to the human race. It is feared that if many
            hydrogen bombs are used there will be universal death – sudden only
            for a fortunate minority, but for the majority a slow torture of
            disease and disintegration.
           
              Here, then, is the problem which I present to you, stark and
            dreadful and inescapable: Shall we put an end to the human race; or
            shall mankind renounce war? People will not face this alternative
            because it is so difficult to abolish war. The abolition of war will
            demand distasteful limitations of national sovereignty. But what
            perhaps impedes understanding of the situation more than anything
            else is that the term “mankind” feels vague and abstract. People
            scarcely realize in imagination that the danger is to themselves and
            their children and their grandchildren, and not only to a dimly
            apprehended humanity. And so they hope that perhaps war may be
            allowed to continue provided modern weapons are prohibited. I am
            afraid this hope is illusory. Whatever agreements not to use
            hydrogen bombs had be reached in time of peace, they would no longer
            be considered binding in time of war, and both sides would set to
            work to manufacture hydrogen bombs as soon as war broke out, for if
            one side manufactured the bombs and the other did not, the side that
            manufactured them would inevitable be victorious…
           
              As geological time is reckoned, Man has so far existed only for a
            very short period --- one million years at the most. What he has
            achieved, especially during the last 6,000 years, is something
            utterly new in the history of the Cosmos, so far at least as we are
            acquainted with it. For countless ages the sun rose and set, the
            moon waxed and waned, the stars shone in the night, but it was only
            with the coming of Man that these things were understood. In the
            great world of astronomy and in the little world of the atom, Man
            has unveiled secrets which might have been thought undiscoverable.
            In art and literature and religion, some men have shown a sublimity
            of feeling which makes the species worth preserving. Is all this to
            end in trivial horror because so few are able to think of Man rather
            than of this or that group of men? Is our race so destitute of
            wisdom, so incapable of impartial love, so blind even to the
            simplest dictates of self-preservation that the last proof of its
            silly cleverness is to be the extermination of all life on our
            planet? – for it will be not only men who will perish, but also the
            animals, whom no one can accuse of communism or anticommunism.
           
              I cannot believe that this is to be the end. I would have men
            forget the ir quarrels for a moment and reflect that, if they will
            allow themselves to survive, there is every reason to expect the
            triumphs in the future to exceed immeasurably the triumphs of the
            past. There lies before us, if we choose continual progress in
            happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death,
            because we cannot forget our quarrels? I appeal, as a human being to
            human beings: remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you
            can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot,
            nothing lies before you but universal death.
           
              ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
    伯兰特.罗素(1872-1970),英国哲学家、逻辑学家。毕业于剑桥大学三一学院,英国皇家学会会员。第一次世界大战期间因宣传和平而被监禁。1950年获诺贝尔文学奖。1963年创立罗素和平基金。在数学上提出“罗素悖论”,对20世纪数学基础产生很大的影响。在哲学上,提出逻辑原子论即所谓“中立一元论”。在政治上,反对侵略战争,主张和平主义。在美国制造出氢弹并进行爆炸试验后,他成了核武器的积极反对者。本篇是他在这方面具有代表性的演说。
              ―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――
           
         我们该选择死亡吗?
           
              [英国] 伯兰特.罗素
           
    在此,我不是以一个英国人,或是欧洲人,或是一位西方人民,而是仅作为一个人,作为人类这个生死未卜的种族中的一员来说这些话的。世界上充满了冲突:犹太人和阿拉伯人之间、印度人和巴基斯坦人之间、白人和非洲黑人之间,以及,让所有小的冲突相形见绌的共产主义和非共产主义之间的严重对抗。
           
    几乎每个对政治敏感的人都会这些事情有强烈的感受,但是,如果可以的话,我希望你们此刻能把这些感受放到一边,而是只以你们是一个物种的一员来思考问题,这个物种有过辉煌的历史,谁也愿看到它消失。我努力做到不对任何群体说一个厚此薄彼的字眼,所有的人,都同样地处于危险之中,不过如果大家可以意识到这种危险的话,还是有希望共同避免它的。我们需要以一种新方式来思考。我们要学会不再问自己用什么样的方法才能使我们钟爱的那一方获得军事胜利,因为不会再有这些方法了。我们要问自己的是:我们如何才能阻止一个两败俱伤的军备竞赛?
           
    公众,甚至许多当权者,都未曾意识到氢弹战争意味着什么。公众仍然以为那只是摧毁一些城市。大家已知道新型比旧的威力更大,一颗原子弹可以夷平广岛,而一颗氢弹可以毁灭像伦敦、纽约、莫斯科这样的大城市。毫无疑问氢弹战争中大城市会被毁灭,但那不过是我们可能遇到的小灾难之一。如果伦敦、纽约、莫斯科的人都死光了,人类也许要历经数个世纪才能从这种打击中恢复元气。可是现在,尤其在比基尼核试验后,我们很清楚,氢弹的破坏力可以慢慢扩散到一个比我们原先预料的更大的范围内。一个极具权威的机构声称如今可以制造出一种原子弹,它的威力是毁灭广岛那颗原子弹的25000倍。这样一个,如果在近地或者水下爆炸,会将放射性粒子送入高空,它们会慢慢下沉,然后以一种致命的灰尘或者雨水的形式抵达地面。就是这种灰尘感染了日本的渔民,影响了他们的捕鱼业,尽管他们处于美国专家们所认为的危险区域之外。没人知道这种致命的放射性粒子会扩散多广,不过所有最权威的机构一致认为氢弹战争很可能将整个人类毁灭。我们担心如果在战争中使用很多氢弹的话,所有人都会死光――而且只有少数幸运的人可以迅速死掉,而大部分人则会忍受长时间的疾病和核辐射的折磨。
           
    在此,我向大家提出一个直接的、让人讨厌的,而不可回避的问题:我们要让人类灭绝吗,还是让人类放弃战争?人们不愿面对这个抉择,因为放弃战争实在是太难了。那意味着对主权的限制,这是让人不舒服的。但或许最阻止人们认清形式的原因是“人类”这个概念是让人感到模糊和抽象的。人们不仅对人类这个概念一知半解,甚至很少想到这种危险是针对他们自己以及他们的孩子、孙子们的。他们期待着,或许只要禁止使用现代武器,战争还是可以继续的。但我恐怕这种期望仅仅是幻想。无论在和平时期哪些禁止使用氢弹的条约曾经发挥效用,它们在战时都会失去效力。一旦战争爆发,双方就会立即着手制造氢弹,因为如果一方制造氢弹而另一方没有的话,胜利就会毫无疑问地属于前者。
           
    按地质年代来计算,迄今为止人类只存在了很短的一段时间,至多一百万年。可是他们所取得的成绩,尤其在最近6000年里,是在我们所知道的宇宙历史上全新的。亿万年的岁月中,日升日落,月圆月缺,星空闪耀,而只有人类来到世界上才理解了这一切。在天文学的宏观世界和原子的微观世界,人类揭示了原先或许认为是不可了解的秘密。在艺术、文学和宗教领域,许多人展现了一种崇高的情感,这些崇高情感让人类这个种族是值得保全的。难倒说仅仅是因为很少有人不是仅仅考虑这群或那群人,而是考虑到整个人类, 所有这一切都要消失在那毫无意义的恐怖活动中吗?
    我们的种族真的如此缺乏智慧,不能毫无偏袒地去爱,并对自我保存这种最简单的要求都视而不见,以至于我们愚蠢的小聪明的最后证明就是毁灭地球上所有的生物?要知道,人类不仅会毁灭自己,所有的动物都会被毁灭,而无人可以指责它们是信奉共产主义还是非共产主义的。
           
    我无法相信这就是结局。如果人类想继续生存下去,我希望人们能暂停忘却争吵,并仔细反省,这样我们很有理由期待未来我们将取得比过去大无数倍的成就。假如我们做此选择,我们未来会持续得到更多的快乐、知识、智慧。难倒仅仅因为我们不能忘却我们的争端,我们就要选择死亡吗?作为一个人,我向人类呼吁:记住你们是人类,忘记其它的。如果你们可以做到的话,一个新的天堂将会展现在我们面前,反之,只有整个世界的共同灭亡。
      
           16、The Hippocratic Oath
           
              I swear by Apollo the physician, by Aesculapius, Hygeia, and
            Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to
            keep according to my ability and my judgement the following oath.
              To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art,
            to live in common with him, and if necessary to share my goods with
            him, to look upon him children as my own brothers, to teach them
            this art if they so desire without fee or written promise, to impart
            to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the
            disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules
            of the profession, but to these alone, the precepts and the
            instruction.
              I will prescribe regimen for the good of my patients according to
            my ability and my judgement and never do harm to anyone. To please
            no one will I prescribe a deadly drug, nor give advice which may
            cause his death. Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure
            abortion. But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art. I
            will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is
            manifest. I will leave this operation to be performed by
            practitioners (specialist in this art). In every house where I come
            I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far
            from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction. All that may come
            to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily
            commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep
            secret and will never reveal it.
              If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice
            my art, respected by all men and in all times, but if I swerve from
            it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot.
           
           
           
          希波克拉底誓言(公元前5世纪)
           
    仰赖医神阿波罗·埃斯克雷彼斯及天地诸神为证,鄙人敬谨宣誓愿以自身能力及判断力所急,遵守此约。凡授我艺者敬之如父母,作为终身同业伴侣,彼有急需我接济之。视彼儿女,犹我兄弟,如欲受业,当免费并无条件传授之。凡我所知无论口授书传俱传之吾子,吾师之子及发誓遵守此约之生徒,此外不传他人。
    我愿尽余之能力与判断力所及,遵守为病家谋利益之信条,并检束一切堕落及害人行为,我不得将危害药品给予他人,并不作该项之指导,虽有人请求亦不与之。尤不为妇人施堕胎手术。我愿以此纯洁与神圣之精神,终身执行我职务。凡患结石者,我不施手术,此则有待于专家为之。
    无论至于何处,遇男或女、贵人及奴婢,我之唯一目的,为病家谋幸福,并检点吾身,不作各种害人及恶劣行为,尤不作诱奸之事。凡我所见所闻,无论有无业务关系,我认为应守秘密者,我愿保守秘密。尚使我严守上述誓言时,请求神抵让我生命与医术能得无上光荣,我苟违誓,天地鬼神实共亟之。
           
   注:希波克拉底(约公元前460—371),古希腊著名医生,治学严谨,医术精湛,医德高尚。
 
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