《四季隨筆》節(jié)選 - 冬 13

《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(xué)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(xué)中小品文的珍品之一。

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If some stranger from abroad asked me to point out to him the most noteworthy things in England, I should first of all consider his intellect. Were he a man of everyday level, I might indicate for his wonder and admiration Greater London2, the Black Country3, South Lancashire, and other features of our civilization which, despite eager rivalry, still maintain our modern pre-eminence in the creation of ugliness. If, on the other hand, he seemed a man of brains, it would be my pleasure to take him to one of those old villages, in the midlands or the west, which lie at some distance from a railway station, and in aspect are still untouched by the baser tendencies of the time. Here, I would tell my traveller, he saw something which England alone can show. The simple beauty of the architecture, its perfect adaptation to the natural surroundings, the neatness of everything though without formality, the general cleanness and good repair, the grace of cottage gardens, that tranquillity and security which make a music in the mind of him who gazes—these are what a man must see and feel if he would appreciate the worth and the power of England. The people which has made for itself such homes as these is distinguished, above all things, by its love of order; it has understood, as no other people, the truth that "order is heaven's first law." With order it is natural to find stability, and the combination of these qualities, as seen in domestic life, results in that peculiarly English product, our name for which—though but a pale shadow of the thing itself—has been borrowed by other countries: comfort.

如果國外的某個陌生人央我為他指出英國最有特色的事物，我會首先考慮他的智慧。如果他只是個普通人，為博得他的驚異和欽羨，我可能會舉出大倫敦、黑鄉(xiāng)、南蘭開夏郡和我們文明的其他特色，雖然面臨激烈的競爭，這些地方在制造丑陋上還保持著現(xiàn)代的領(lǐng)先地位。而如果他是一個有智慧的人，那我會很樂意把他帶到中部或西部的一座古老村莊，這些村莊遠離火車站，還未受到時代卑劣趨勢的影響。我會告訴這位旅行者，他在這里看到的是英格蘭獨有的東西。這里的建筑有一種與自然環(huán)境渾然天成的簡約美，整齊而不拘謹，處處干凈完好。村舍花園雅致秀麗，那種平靜和安全感會讓人腦海中浮現(xiàn)一曲音樂——這些是一個想要體會英格蘭價值和力量的人必須看見和感受的事物。一個為自己建造出這樣家園的民族是卓越不群的，首先因為它對秩序的熱愛；它比其他任何民族都懂得“秩序是上天的第一法則”這一真理。有了秩序，自然可以找到穩(wěn)定，這些特點的結(jié)合，就像在家庭生活中看到的那樣，造就了一件獨特的英國產(chǎn)品，它的名字——盡管不過是事物本身一個蒼白的影子——被許多國家借用，那就是“舒適”。

Then Englishman's need of "comfort" is one of his best characteristics; the possibility that he may change in this respect, and become indifferent to his old ideal of physical and mental ease, is the gravest danger manifest in our day. For "comfort," mind you, does not concern the body alone; the beauty and orderliness of an Englishman's home derive their value, nay, their very existence, from the spirit which directs his whole life. Walk from the village to the noble's mansion. It, too, is perfect of its kind; it has the dignity of age, its walls are beautiful, the gardens, the park about are such as can be found only in England, lovely beyond compare; and all this represents the same moral characteristics as the English cottage, but with greater activities and responsibilities. If the noble grows tired of his mansion, and, letting it to some rude owner of millions, goes to live in hotels and hired villas; if the cottager sickens of his village roof, and transports himself to the sixth floor of a "block" in Shoreditch4; one sees but too well that the one and the other have lost the old English sense of comfort, and, in losing it, have suffered degradation alike as men and as citizens. It is not a question of exchanging one form of comfort for another; the instinct which made an Englishman has in these cases perished. Perhaps it is perishing from among us altogether, killed by new social and political conditions; one who looks at villages of the new type, at the workingclass quarters of towns, at the rising of "flats" among the dwellings of the wealthy, has little choice but to think so. There may soon come a day when, though the word "comfort" continues to be used in many languages, the thing it signifies will be discoverable nowhere at all.

英國人對“舒適”的需求是他最好的品質(zhì)之一；而他有可能在這方面發(fā)生改變，也許會淡漠了那種身心舒適的舊時理想，這種可能性是我們這個時代最嚴重的威脅。注意了，“舒適”并不只針對身體而言；英國人家的美麗和秩序獲得其價值，不，獲得其本身存在的來源，就是引導(dǎo)他整個生活的這種精神。從村莊步行到貴族的府邸，那兒也是舒適的完美典型：紅墻綠瓦，古樸莊嚴，周圍的花園無比可愛，只有在英格蘭才能看到。所有這些和英國的村舍一樣，代表了同樣的精神品質(zhì)，只不過這里容納著更多社會活動和更重要的責(zé)任。如果貴族厭倦了他的府邸，將它租給某個粗俗的百萬富翁，自己住到旅館和租來的別墅里；如果村民厭倦了村莊的房舍，住到肖爾迪奇一個“街區(qū)”公寓的第六層；人們可以清楚地看到，這兩者都丟失了英國舊時意義上的“舒適”，因此，他們在作為人和公民的雙重身份上都遭到了降格。這并非兩種舒適的居住方式之間互換的問題；使英國人成之為英國人的本能在這兩種情形下都消滅了。也許它正在我們之中逐漸消亡，被新的社會和政治條件扼殺；看到新型的村莊、城里工人們聚集的社區(qū)、富人區(qū)拔地而起的“公寓”，人們只能這么想。可能很快會有一天，雖然“舒適”一詞仍然在很多語言中使用，但它指代的事物將徹底無處可覓了。