V. HUMAN LIFE A POEM Page 30
D9ZUrghx2wMW0pA5bP3E6tsCdf8lQnKRuzIGYOXH
五 詩樣人生
FChxgKDcY9qevBjUTwLynR6i5EImXWN8a7ZsH0Pu
1. I think that, from a biological standpoint, human life almost reads like a poem. It has its own rhythm and beat, its internal cycles of growth and decay. It begins with innocent childhood, followed by awkward adolescence trying awkwardly to adapt itself to mature society, with its young passions and follies, its ideals and ambitions; then it reaches a manhood of intense activities, profiting from experience and learning more about society and human nature; at middle age, there is a slight easing of tension, a mellowing of character like the ripening of fruit or the mellowing of good wine, and the gradual acquiring of a more tolerant, more cynical and at the same time a kindlier view of life; then in the sunset of our life, the endocrine glands decrease their activity, and if we have a true philosophy of old age and have ordered our life pattern according to it, it is for us the age of peace and security and leisure and contentment; finally, life flickers out and one goes into eternal sleep, never to wake up again. One should be able to sense the beauty of this rhythm of life, to appreciate, as we do in grand symphonies, its main theme, its strains of conflict and the final resolution. The movements of these cycles are very much the same in a normal life, but the music must be provided by the individual himself. In some souls, the discordant note becomes harsher and harsher and finally overwhelms or submerges the main melody. Sometimes the discordant note gains so much power that the music can no longer go on, and the individual shoots himself with a pistol or jumps into a river. But that is because his original leit-motif has been hopelessly over-shadowed through the lack of a good self-education. Otherwise the normal human life runs to its normal end in a kind of dignified movement and procession. There are sometimes in many of us too many staccatos or impetuosos, and because the tempo is wrong, the music is not pleasing to the ear; we might have more of the grand rhythm and majestic tempo of the Ganges, flowing slowly and eternally into the sea.
mt65uqe4o7sVIcDnlEQjaRCBgiKSFGNrkY932Mxy
1. 從生物學角度看，我認為人生幾乎是像一首詩。它有韻律和節拍，有盛與衰的內在迴圈。它始於無邪的童年，隨後尷尬的青春期，笨拙地適應成熟的社會，帶著青年的熱情和愚憨，理想和野心，後來到了活動緊張的成年，累積經驗，對社會及人性理解更深；已至中年，才稍微減輕緊張感，性格也沉穩了，像水果成熟或好酒的醇熟般，對人生漸抱有較寬容、玩世，也較溫和的態度；步入老年，內分泌腺減少了活動，倘若我們對老年有真正的哲學觀，照此安排生活，則為我們和平安定、閒逸滿足之期；最後生命的火花閃滅，一個人便長眠不醒了。我們當能體驗出這種人生韻律的美感，像欣賞大型交響樂那樣來欣賞人生的主旨、急緩的旋律和最終解決。這些迴圈動作在正常生活裡大概相同，不過那音樂須由個人自己去演奏。在某些人的靈魂中，那個不調和的音符漸刺耳，竟將主旋律淹沒了，若其力量太大，就使音樂無法演奏下去，是以此人開槍自戕，或跳河自盡了。這均因其缺乏良好的自我教育，無望地給原有主題蒙上陰影。反之，正常的人生會保持嚴肅的動作與佇列，邁向正常結局。有時我們中的許多人，有太多斷音或者過於激越魯莽，步調又出錯，是以樂音刺耳；我們也許該有些如恒河般威嚴雄壯的氣勢與節奏緩緩永久地流入大海。
RqTNswvx3VfEOzCAkZY16ymQu7cWoHSJKMnDejP4
qpn2G3XvmBH8NktaoOFlZQsEhPzefgLTuMjUwYd9
2. No one can say that a life with childhood, manhood and old age is not a beautiful arrangement; the day has its morning, noon and sunset, and the year has its seasons, and it is good that it is so. There is no good or bad in life, except what is good according to its own season. And if we take this biological view of life and try to live according to the seasons, no one but a conceited fool or an impossible idealist can deny that human life can be lived like a poem. Shakespeare has expressed this idea more graphically in his passage about the seven stages of life, and a good many Chinese writers have said about the same thing. It is curious that Shakespeare was never very religious, or very much concerned with religion. I think this was his greatness; he took human life largely as it was, and intruded himself as little upon the general scheme of things as he did upon the characters of his plays. Shakespeare was like Nature herself, and that is the greatest compliment we can pay to a writer or thinker. He merely lived, observed life and went away.
nRQocDWjGKFyqdIfiTPAur31J2OkBgs0Va6L5C9z
wbWNcDYoSXRZG43a19uytiCOf2HQxU6sdnAprVIk
2. 無人會覺得一生有童年、壯年和老年是不美滿的。一日裡有早晨、晌午、日落，一年裡有四季，再好不過。人生無謂好壞，只有“在那一季裡何物為好”的問題。倘若我們抱此生物學的人生觀，依季生活，那麼除自大的呆子和無可救藥的理想主義者之外，無人會否認人生可詩意地度過。莎士比亞曾其論人生七階段的文章裡，生動闡述了此觀念，許多中國作家也表述過類似的。好奇的是莎士比亞從未富於宗教理念，也不曾問津過宗教。我想這便是其偉大之處：將人生當作人生看，隱匿自己，不打擾世間萬物的調配，正如對創作的戲劇角色那樣。莎翁和大自然本身相似，這是我們對一位作家或思想家的最高讚譽。他只是活在世界上，觀察人生而後駕鶴西遊了。
eKEULgcDMVHsN38oQFr0yfmTzRdaSknJx7wp6tql
nlyiVR65csrBSUMvN2jG3pXgEaYTwWA08t9qOKZe
