《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 16

《四季隨筆》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中對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，對文學名著的愛好與追求，以及對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、冬四個部分，文筆優(yōu)美，行文流暢，是英國文學中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由網友分享的《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 春 16的內容，讓我們一起來感受吉辛的四季吧!

I am no friend of the people. As a force, by which the tenor of the time is conditioned, they inspire me with distrust, with fear; as a visible multitude, they make me shrink aloof, and often move me to abhorrence. For the greater part of my life, the people signified to me the London crowd, and no phrase of temperate meaning would utter my thoughts of them under that aspect. The people as country-folk are little known to me; such glimpses as I have had of them do not invite to nearer acquaintance. Every instinct of my being is anti-democratic, and I dread to think of what our England may become when Demos rules irresistibly.

我不是人民的朋友。作為一種決定時代進程的力量，他們使我感到懷疑和恐懼；作為一個隨處可見的群體，他們讓我畏而遠之，甚至時常感到憎惡。在我的大半生中，人民指的就是倫敦人民，我對他們的感想無法用任何溫和的詞匯來表達。而作為鄉(xiāng)下人的人民對我來說是不熟悉的，我曾瞥見過他們，但這沒有引起我和他們進一步熟識的愿望。我身體里的每一種本能都是敵視民主的，我根本不敢想象如果人民當家作主,無人可擋，我們的英格蘭將會變成什么樣子。

Right or wrong, this is my temper. But he who should argue from it that I am intolerant of all persons belonging to a lower social rank than my own would go far astray. Nothing is more rooted in my mind than the vast distinction between the individual and the class. Take a man by himself, and there is generally some reason to be found in him, some disposition for good; mass him with his fellows in the social organism, and ten to one he becomes a blatant creature, without a thought of his own, ready for any evil to which contagion prompts him. It is because nations tend to stupidity and baseness that mankind moves so slowly; it is because individuals have a capacity for better things that it moves at all.

不管對錯，這就是我的真實想法。但是如果誰以此推論，說我對所有社會地位比我低的人都無法容忍，他就大錯特錯了。我心中最根深蒂固的思想，莫過于個體和階級有天淵之別。一個人作為個體來說，通常還可以發(fā)現他多少有些理智，有些向善的性情；而如果把他和同伴們一起放入社會組織中，他有九成可能變成一個喧嘩之徒，沒有自己的思想，一旦受到某種思想的蠱惑，便會無惡不作。正因為國民容易做愚蠢和卑鄙的事情，人類的進步才如此緩慢；正因為人人有做善事的能力，人類才可以向前發(fā)展。

In my youth, looking at this man and that, I marvelled that humanity had made so little progress. Now, looking at men in the multitude, I marvel that they have advanced so far.

年輕時的我，看到這個人那個人，曾感嘆人類幾乎沒有什么進步。現在，看到群體中的這些人，我驚嘆人類竟然能取得這么大的進步。

Foolishly arrogant as I was, I used to judge the worth of a person by his intellectual power and attainment. I could see no good where there was no logic, no charm where there was no learning. Now I think that one has to distinguish between two forms of intelligence, that of the brain, and that of the heart, and I have come to regard the second as by far the more important. I guard myself against saying that intelligence does not matter; the fool is ever as noxious as he is wearisome. But assuredly the best people I have known were saved from folly not by the intellect but by the heart.

曾經的我愚蠢傲慢，判斷一個人的價值常以他的智力和成就作為衡量標準。在我看來，沒有邏輯便沒什么值得贊揚的，沒有學識便沒什么吸引力。而現在我認為要區(qū)分兩種不同的智慧，一種是頭腦的，一種是心靈的?，F在的我將后者看得更加重要。我并不是說頭腦的智慧無關緊要，一個愚蠢的人不僅可憎也讓人厭倦。但可以確定的是，我所認識的最優(yōu)秀的人，都是心靈而不是頭腦拯救了他們。他們來到我面前，顯得極其無知，有很深的偏見，甚至會作出最荒誕不經的錯誤推理；但是他們的臉上閃耀著最極致的美德、善良、和藹、謙遜和慷慨。在擁有這些品質的同時，他們也知道如何運用它們。他們具有心靈的智慧。

They come before me, and I see them greatly ignorant, strongly prejudiced, capable of the absurdest mis-reasoning; yet their faces shine with the supreme virtues, kindness, sweetness, modesty, generosity. Possessing these qualities, they at the same time understand how to use them; they have the intelligence of the heart. This poor woman who labours for me in my house is even such a one. From the first I thought her an unusually good servant; after three years of acquaintance, I find her one of the few women I have known who merit the term of excellent. She can read and write—that is all. More instruction would, I am sure, have harmed her, for it would have confused her natural motives, without supplying any clear ray of mental guidance. She is fulfilling the offices for which she was born, and that with a grace of contentment, a joy of conscientiousness, which puts her high among civilized beings. Her delight is in order and in peace; what greater praise can be given to any of the children of men?

為我打理家務的貧窮女人正是這樣的一個人。起初我只覺得她是個難得的好仆人，經過三年的相處，我發(fā)現她是我認識的女人中少數幾個可以用“卓越”來形容的。她能讀能寫—這就足夠了。再多的教育，我敢說一定對她有害，因為那將會迷惑她的自然本性，而又不能提供任何清晰的心智指導。她盡力做好她天生注定要做的這份工作，同時，她還滿足感恩，勤勉樂天，這讓她在文明人中站在了比較高的地位。她喜歡一切井井有條，喜歡和平安靜。對于人類之子，我們還能給予比這更高的褒揚嗎？

The other day she told me a story of the days gone by. Her mother, at the age of twelve, went into domestic service; but on what conditions, think you? The girl's father, an honest labouring man, PAID the person whose house she entered one shilling a week for her instruction in the duties she wished to undertake. What a grinning stare would come to the face of any labourer nowadays, who should be asked to do the like! I no longer wonder that my housekeeper so little resembles the average of her kind.

那天，她給我講述了一件家族舊事。她的母親在十二歲時開始從事家政服務，但是你能想到以什么條件嗎？這個女孩的父親，一個淳樸的農民，為了讓她在服務工作中得到教導，向雇主的家庭每周付一個先令的費用。現在如果讓任何一個勞動者做同樣的事，那他的臉上會現出怎樣的目瞪口呆和裂口冷笑的表情啊！我也終于恍然大悟，明白為什么我的管家如此卓爾不群了。