秘訣和落瓦的散文雙語

　　by Carroll Binder

　　"We are all at the mercy of a falling tile," Julius Caesar reminds us in Thornton Wilder's Ides of March. None of us knows at what hour something we may love may suffer some terrible blow by a force we can neither anticipate nor control.

　　Fifty-five years of living, much of the time in trouble centers of a highly troubled era, have not taught me how to avoid being hit by falling tiles. I have sustained some very server blows. My mother died when I was three years old. My first-born son, a gifted and idealistic youth, was killed in the war. While I was still cherishing the hope that he might be alive, circumstance beyond my control made it impossible for me to continue work into which I had poured my heart's blood for twenty years.

　　I speak of such things here in the hope of helping others to believe with me that there are resources within one's grasp which enable one to sustain such blows without being crushed or embittered by them.

　　I believe the best hope of standing up to falling tiles is through developing a sustaining philosophy and state of mind all through life. I have seen all sorts of people sustain all sorts of blows in all sorts of circumstances by all sorts of faiths, so I believe anyone can find a faith that will serve his needs if he persists in the quest.

　　One of the best ways I know of fortifying oneself to withstand the vicissitudes of his insecure and unpredictable era is to school oneself to require relatively little in the way of material possessions, physical satisfactions or the praise of others. The less one requires of such things the better situated one is to stand up to changes of fortune.

　　I am singularly rich in friendships. Friends of all ages have contributed enormously to my happiness and helped me greatly in times of need. I learned one of the great secrets of friendship early in life - to regard each person with whom one associates as an end in himself, not a means to one's own ends. That entails trying to help those with whom one comes in contact to find fulfillment in their own way while seeking one's own fulfillment in one's own way.

　　Another ethical principle that has stood me in good stead is: Know thyself! I try to acquaint myself realistically with my possibilities and limitations. I try to suit my aspirations to goals within my probable capacity to attain. I may have missed some undiscovered possibilities for growth but I have spared myself much by not shooting for stars it clearly was not given me to attain.

　　I have seen much inhumanity, cheating, corruption, sordidness and selfishness but I have not become cynical. I have seen too much that is decent, kind and noble in men to lose faith in the possibility for a far finer existence than yet has been achieved. I believe the quest for a better life is the most satisfying pursuit of men and nations.

　　I love life but I am not worried about death. I do not feel that I have lost my son and a host of others dear to me by death. I believe with William Penn that "they that love beyond the World cannot be separated by it. Death is but Crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; they live in one another still." Death, I believe, teaches us the things of deathlessness.

　　關于秘訣和落瓦

　　卡羅爾.賓德

　　在桑頓.懷爾德的《三月的愛德斯》中，朱利葉斯.愷撒這樣提醒我們：“我們所有人都處在落瓦的掌控之下。”沒有人知道，我們的所愛會在何時遭到難以估量與控制的力量的沉重打擊。

　　55年來，我的絕大多數日子都是在多事的年月中度過，然而，我還是沒有學會如何避免遭到落瓦的重擊。我經歷了好幾次沉痛的打擊。母親在我3歲時離開人世。我的長子——一個擁有天賦的理想主義青年，在戰爭中陣亡。而我依然抱著他可能存活的希望，傾盡心血苦苦尋找了20年，最終，在無法控制的環境的逼迫下，我放棄了努力。

　　我之所以講這些事情，是希望人們能夠像我一樣，堅信人一定要有精神依托，這樣才能在遭受嚴重打擊時，不致被打垮或是痛苦不堪。

　　我相信，人一生中若能信仰并保持一種哲學與思想狀態，便擁有了能夠承受起落瓦打擊的最大希望。我看見過擁有各種信仰的形形色色的人們，在各種不同的環境中承受著各種不同的打擊。因此我相信，只要堅持不懈地尋求，每個人都能找到需求的信仰。

　　對物質擁有、身體滿足及他人的贊賞不予奢求，這是我所知道的最佳辦法之一，它能使我們更堅強地承受不安全、難以預知的時代興衰。人的所求越少，那他對命運變化的'應對能力就越強。

　　友誼是我最大的財富。不同年齡段的朋友帶給我莫大的愉悅，在我需要時給予我最大的幫助。孩提時，我便明白了維持友誼的最大秘訣之一——將每一位朋友都視為自己最重要的人，而不是利用他們來達到自己的目的。當我們在用自己的方式實現自我價值時，也應幫助身邊的人通過他們的途徑來實現自身的價值。

　　認知自己，這是令我頗為受益的另一個道德準則。我總是努力實事求是地了解自己的能力與局限，并在自己的能力范圍之內樹立目標。也許我會錯過一些發展自我潛能的機會，但我并沒有浪費精力去奢求遙不可及的事物。

　　我看到過無數的殘暴、欺詐、腐敗、骯臟與自私，但我并未因此變得憤世嫉俗。我看到過太多正直、善良與高尚的人們失去了創造更美好生活的信念。我相信，無論是對人類，還是國家而言，更美好的生活都是最令人滿意的追求目標。

　　我熱愛生命，但我不懼怕死亡。我并不認為，死亡讓我失去了兒子與其他的許多親人。我相信威廉.佩恩所說的話，“在那個世界中，死亡無法將那些有愛心的人分開。死亡不過是去另一個世界的過渡，就像朋友跨越海洋一樣；他們依然活在另一個世界里。”我堅信，是死亡教會了我們永生。

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