『譯作 · SUNDAY BEFORE THE WAR』

大战前的星期天 （节选）

[英] 亚瑟·克拉顿·布洛克

译 / 顾忆青

（译文）

      可是，当战争疯狂肆虐别处山谷，此处的平静又有何幸福可言？人们的内心又能否安定依旧呢？此地的美景一如既往，由人类的意志深扎大地。然而，与那些奔赴前线的人相比，在这里生活的人们本性并无二致，同样承受着近乎疯狂的本能支配。在我们人类身上，创造与毁灭的力量并存，时而有如神明般高瞻远瞩，时而又如野兽般愚昧无知。今天的我们或许并无过错，而为战之人也生就如此，他们的所做所为令我们憎恶，但他们何尝又不这么认为？这就是所谓宿命，自过去的兽性而来，我们至今难以掌控。如今，这命运彷佛源自寰宇间固有的恶，即便身处僻静优美的山谷，我们也依然无法摆脱它的嘲弄。但其实并非如此，我们并不像野兽那般孤立与冷漠。倘若我们的民族暂且忘却了我们共有的人性，以及对未来的希冀，那么另一个民族必将肩负起这一神圣的使命，抛却憎恨，毫不畏惧地坚守着它，直至疯狂平息。但愿这就是我们现在的职责，为了维护世界未来的和平而战，怀着恒久的勇气一往无前，而此般勇锐无需仇恨激起。

（原文）

Sunday Before The War
(Excerpt)

Arthur Clutton-Brock (1868-1924)

      But what happiness can there be in that peace, or what security in the mind of man, when the madness of war is let loose in so many other valleys? Here there is a beauty inherited from the past, and added to the earth by man’s will; but the men here are of the same nature and subject to the same madness as those who are gathering to fight on the frontier. We are all men with the same power of making and destroying, with the same divine foresight mocked by the same animal blindness. We ourselves may not be in fault today, but it is human beings in no way different from us who are doing what we abhor and they abhor even while they do it. There is a fate, coming from the beast in our own past, that the present man in us has not yet mastered, and for the moment that fate seems a malignity in the nature of the universe that mocks us even in the beauty of these lonely hills. But it is not so, for we are not separate and indifferent like the beasts; and if one nation for the moment forgets our common humanity and its future, then another must take over that sacred charge and guard it without hatred or fear until the madness is passed. May that be our task now, so that we may wage war only for the future peace of the world and with the lasting courage that needs no stimulant of hate.

© National Portrait Gallery, London

◎ 关于作者：Arthur Clutton-Brock

      亚瑟·克拉顿·布洛克 (1868-1924)，是英国散文家、文艺评论家和记者。他曾为英国《泰晤士报·文学增刊》（TLS: Times Literary Supplement）写过众多关于文学和艺术的批评散文。英国诗人欧那斯特·莱斯（Ernest Rhys）曾对他有过这样的评价：“他向我们展示了如何为期刊散文注入永恒的阅读价值”（"...shown again how to give the periodical essay the savour of permanent things." ）。布洛克的思想深受英国“工艺美术运动”的领导人、小说家、诗人威廉·莫里斯（William Morris）的社会主义、唯美主义思潮的影响，承袭了意大利哲学家、历史学家、美学家克罗齐（Benedetto Croce）对艺术精神及其真理质朴而又纯粹的追求。（顾忆青）

◎ 作品主题：

      《大战前的星期天》又译《战前星期天》(Sunday Before the War) ，是英国散文中的名篇。生活在边远山谷中的居民，本来过着世外桃源般的日子，却因战争的爆发而失去往日的宁静祥和，匆忙备战。作者将写景与议论抒情巧妙结合，文笔优美细腻，运用了对比衬托的手法，突出了文章的主题：为了“世界未来的和平”，大家必须鼓起勇气去作战。此文陆谷孙先生曾经翻译过。

◎ 延伸阅读：

《大战前的星期天》全文： Sunday Before the War