第572期:英语美文-想通人生中的痛苦与无聊

 之前看过一部叫做Dead Poets Society《死亡诗社》的电影。它是罗宾·威廉姆斯、领衔主演的一部励志电影。该片讲述的是一个有思想的老师和一群希望突破的学生之间的故事。电影中有两个场景我记忆犹新，第一个场景是这位老师带着学生们在大堂中看他们之前的校友，并且说了那句让人记忆犹新的 “carpe diem”（活在当下）。第二个场景是这位老师说起他们当年的神秘小团体“死亡诗社”在石穴居中大声的朗读伟人诗句时那种激情和超越生命的快乐。他说：“我们不止是读诗，我们会感到那些诗句如果蜜一般留在唇齿之间。”

下面的这段文字，我在朗读的时候，就真切的体会到了这种快乐。这段文字摘选自叔本华的《人生的智慧》。叔本华的可爱，和真诚以及深刻就在于，能一语中的讲述清楚我们人类所有喜与悲的根源。我在读的时候，时常就在想，他是站在怎样的高度，才观察和总结出这样深刻的真理的？这段文字（不管是英文还是中文）都需要好好的品味，思考，才能真正的体会和理解。

New Words:

foe¹ n.敌人，仇敌;

oscillation n.振动; 波动; 动摇; <物>振荡;

antagonism² n.对立; 相克作用;

susceptibility n.易受影响或损害的状态，感受性;

proportionate adj.相称的; 成比例的; 适当的;

temperament³ n.性格; （人或动物的） 气质;

pretext⁴ n.借口，托辞; 假象，掩饰;

multifarious adj.许多的，多方面的; 各式各样的;

invigorate vt. 使生气勃勃，使精力充沛，使健壮;

The most general survey shows us that the two foes⁵ of human happiness are pain and boredom⁶. We may go further, and say that in the degree in which we are fortunate enough to get away from the one, we approach the other. Life presents, in fact, a more or less violent oscillation between the two. The reason of this is that each of these two poles stands in a double antagonism to the other, external or objective, and inner or subjective⁷. Needy⁸ surroundings and poverty produce pain; while, if a man is more than well off, he is bored.
对生活稍作考察就可以知道:痛苦和无聊是人类幸福的两个死敌，关于这一点，我可以作-一个补充: 每当我们感到快活，在我们远离上述的一个敌人的时候，我们也就接近了另一个敌人，反之亦然。所以说，我们的生活确实就是在这两者当中或强或弱地摇摆。这是因为痛苦与无聊之间的关系是双重的对立关系。一种是外在的或是客观的，另一种则是内在的或是主观的。贫穷和匮乏的环境会让人痛苦（外在的），而丰裕和安定就产生无聊（内在的）。

Accordingly, while the lower classes are engaged in a ceaseless struggle with need, in other words, with pain, the upper carry on a constant and often desperate battle with boredom. The inner or subjective antagonism arises from the fact that, in the individual, susceptibility to pain varies inversely⁹ with susceptibility to boredom, because susceptibility is directly proportionate to mental power.
因此，我们看见低下的劳动阶层与匮乏-亦即痛苦-进行着永恒的斗争，而有钱的上流社会却旷日持久地与无聊进行一场堪称绝望的搏斗。而内在的或者说主观的痛苦与无聊之间的对立关系则基于以下这一事实:一个人对痛苦的感受能力和对无聊的感受能力成反比，这是由一个人的精神能力的大小所决定的。

Let me explain. A dull mind is, as a rule, associated with dull sensibilities, nerves which no stimulus¹⁰ can affect, a temperament, in short, which does not feel pain or anxiety very much, however great or terrible it may be. Now, intellectual dullness is at the bottom of that vacuity¹¹ of soul which is stamped on so many faces, a state of mind which betrays itself by a constant and lively attention to all the trivial circumstances in the external world. This is the true source of boredom--a continual panting after excitement, in order to have a pretext for giving the mind and spirits something to occupy them. The kind of things people choose for this purpose shows that they are not very particular, as witness the miserable¹² pastimes they have recourse to, and their ideas of social pleasure and conversation: or again, the number of people who gossip on the doorstep or gape¹³ out of the window. It is mainly because of this inner vacuity of soul that people go in quest of society, diversion, amusement, luxury of every sort, which lead many to extravagance and misery¹⁴.
也就是说，一个人精神的迟钝一般是和感觉的迟钝和缺乏兴奋密切相关的，因此原因，精神迟钝的人也就较少感受到各种强度不一的痛苦和要求。但是，精神迟钝的后果就是内在的空虚。这种空虚烙在了无数人的脸上。并且，人们对于外在世界发生的各种事情-甚至最微不足道的事情一所表现出的--刻不停的、强烈的关注，也暴露出他们的这种内在空虚。人的内在空虚就是无聊的真正根源，它无时无刻不在寻求外在刺激，试图借助某事某物使他们的精神和情绪活动起来。他们做出的选择真可谓饥不择食，要找到这方面的证明只须看一看他们紧抓不放的贫乏、单调的消遣，还有同一样性质的社交谈话， 以及许许多多的靠门站着的和从窗口往外张望的人。正是由于内在的空虚，他们才追求五花八门的社交、娱乐和奢侈;而这些东西把许多人引人穷奢极欲，然后以痛苦告终。

Nothing is so good a protection against such misery as inward wealth, the wealth of the mind, because the greater it grows, the less room it leaves for boredom. The inexhaustible activity of thought! Finding ever new material to work upon in the multifarious phenomena¹⁵ of self and nature, and able and ready to form new combinations of them, there you have something that invigorates the mind, and apart from moments of relaxation¹⁶, sets it far above the reach of boredom.
使我们免于这种痛苦的手段莫过于拥有丰富的内在-即丰富的精神思想。因为人的精神思想财富越优越和显著，那么留给无聊的空间就越小。这些人头脑里面的思想活泼奔涌不息，不断更新;它们玩味和摸索着内在世界和外部世界的多种现象;还有把这些思想进行各种组合的冲动和能力-所有这些， 除了精神松弛下来的个别时候，都使卓越的头脑免受无聊的袭击。

1 foe   

n.敌人，仇敌

参考例句：

• He knew that Karl could be an implacable foe.他明白卡尔可能会成为他的死敌。
• A friend is a friend;a foe is a foe;one must be clearly distinguished from the other.敌是敌，友是友，必须分清界限。

2 antagonism   

n.对抗，敌对，对立

参考例句：

• People did not feel a strong antagonism for established policy.人们没有对既定方针产生强烈反应。
• There is still much antagonism between trades unions and the oil companies.工会和石油公司之间仍然存在着相当大的敌意。

3 temperament   

n.气质，性格，性情

参考例句：

• The analysis of what kind of temperament you possess is vital.分析一下你有什么样的气质是十分重要的。
• Success often depends on temperament.成功常常取决于一个人的性格。

4 pretext   

n.借口，托词

参考例句：

• He used his headache as a pretext for not going to school.他借口头疼而不去上学。
• He didn't attend that meeting under the pretext of sickness.他以生病为借口，没参加那个会议。

5 foes   

敌人，仇敌( foe的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• They steadily pushed their foes before them. 他们不停地追击敌人。
• She had fought many battles, vanquished many foes. 她身经百战，挫败过很多对手。

6 boredom   

n.厌烦，厌倦，乏味，无聊

参考例句：

• Unemployment can drive you mad with boredom.失业会让你无聊得发疯。
• A walkman can relieve the boredom of running.跑步时带着随身听就不那么乏味了。

7 subjective   

a.主观(上)的，个人的

参考例句：

• The way they interpreted their past was highly subjective. 他们解释其过去的方式太主观。
• A literary critic should not be too subjective in his approach. 文学评论家的看法不应太主观。

8 needy   

adj.贫穷的，贫困的，生活艰苦的

参考例句：

• Although he was poor,he was quite generous to his needy friends.他虽穷，但对贫苦的朋友很慷慨。
• They awarded scholarships to needy students.他们给贫苦学生颁发奖学金。

9 inversely   

adj.相反的

参考例句：

• Pressure varies directly with temperature and inversely with volume. 压力随温度成正比例变化，与容积成反比例变化。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The amount of force needed is inversely proportional to the rigidity of the material. 需要的力度与材料的硬度成反比。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

11 vacuity   

n.(想象力等)贫乏，无聊，空白

参考例句：

• Bertha thought it disconcerted him by rendering evident even to himself the vacuity of his mind. 伯莎认为这对他不利，这种情况甚至清楚地向他自己证明了他心灵的空虚。
• Temperature and vacuity rising can enhance osmotic flux visibly. 升高温度和降低膜下游压力可明显提高膜的渗透通量。

12 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

13 gape   

v.张口，打呵欠，目瞪口呆地凝视

参考例句：

• His secretary stopped taking notes to gape at me.他的秘书停止了记录，目瞪口呆地望着我。
• He was not the type to wander round gaping at everything like a tourist.他不是那种像个游客似的四处闲逛、对什么都好奇张望的人。

14 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

15 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

16 relaxation   

n.松弛，放松；休息；消遣；娱乐

参考例句：

• The minister has consistently opposed any relaxation in the law.部长一向反对法律上的任何放宽。
• She listens to classical music for relaxation.她听古典音乐放松。