偉大與渺小 Random Thoughts

約翰·博因頓·普里斯特利/John Boynton Priestley

This matter of other people's learning and accomplishments has been worrying me for some time. I never read the life of any important person without discovering that he knew more and could do more than I could ever hope to know or to do in half a dozen lifetimes. To begin with, unless these people chance to be obvious invalids like Stevenson or Chehov, they are always tremendous athletes, with surprising strength, powers of endurance, and so forth.

They could all walk and run and climb our heads off, even when they were seventy. Then they all have the gift of tongues. You never catch a glimpse of them sitting down to learn a new language, not even running an eye over its irregular verbs, yet it is admitted that they speak any number with an astonishing fluency and purity of accent. They never confine themselves to one science, but are inevitably masters of several. The big book of Nature they know by heart. Only the other day I was reading an account of a great novelist, a most sophisticated and subtle person, and was told that he knew the name and habits and history of every wild flower and plant and tree and bird in the country. Nor is that all. There is not one of these bigwigs who is not ( I quote the customary phrases ) a sensitive and accomplished musician, or an extraordinarily fine amateur water-colourist, or the possessor of a magnificent prose style. We are always told that, had circumstance been different, their talents were such that they need only have given their serious attention to one or other of these arts to have procured for themselves lasting and perhaps world-wide reputations. So runs the legend of the eulogist.

I am baffled. How is it done? I ask the question again, my voice rises to a scream of envy and vexation. Consider what is involved in this matter (so lightly touched upon and dismissed) of music or water-colour painting or fine writing, what years of serious application, of drudgery at the keyboard, the easel, or the writing desk. It is one thing to strum on the piano, as you and I do, faking the left hand passages as we go along, or to daub a few patchy water colours, or to paste on to clumsy prose some old spangles of rhetoric, and it is quite another thing to be an accomplished musician or artist or writer. If the first were meant, I could understand it; but the second and as a mere recreation, too! And then to add the athleticism, the sciences, the tongues, the natural history! I am bewildered and crushed. The very idle rumour of fellow-creatures so wonderfully gifted makes me dwindle in my own estimation to the size of a gnat.

一直以來，對別人的淵博學識及深厚造詣，我感到很憂慮。只要隨便讀一讀某位重要人物的傳記，我就總會發現，他的學問和才能就算我活六輩子也休想學到和做到。第一個理由是，除了像史蒂文森或契訶夫那樣明顯體弱多病的人以外，他們總是像卓越的運動員一樣，有著驚人的氣力和耐力。

他們即使年屆七旬，在走路、跑步、翻山越嶺時，都走在他人前面。并且，他們也都是語言方面的天才。你從來沒有看見他們坐下來學習一種新的語言，甚至連不規則動詞表也沒見他們瀏覽過，但是他們都可以講幾種語言，不僅流利，而且發音純正。他們一般都精通幾門學科，而且不會使自己局限在某一門科學里，大自然這部巨著被他們熟記在心。不久以前，我還讀到一位杰出的小說家的事跡。他是一位非常老練且細致的人，據說他熟悉鄉村每一種野花野草、樹木和禽鳥的名稱、習性和生活史。除此之外，請原諒我用一些套話來形容，這些大人物都是富于靈感的音樂大師，或是精妙絕倫的業余水彩畫家，或是風格優美的文體家。更使我們感到驚訝的是，盡管他們的境遇不同，只要他們認真從事這門或那門藝術，憑著他們的才能，日后都會獲得不朽的聲譽，甚至還會享譽全球。這些對他們的描述總是神乎其神。

但是我非常困惑。他們憑什么做得到？我再次想問這個問題，甚至嫉妒和煩惱得要遙問蒼天。我們應該仔細地想一想，一首樂曲、一幅水彩畫或一篇美妙的文章究竟意味著什么（這一點卻被他們輕輕帶過或略而不談），這需要很多年專心致志地在鍵盤上、在畫架上或者在寫字臺上辛勤工作才能有所成就。而像你我這樣胡亂彈奏鋼琴曲，同時還用左手插入即興的過門，或者不管色彩是否協調蘸上水彩亂涂幾筆，或者在一篇粗制濫造的散文里貼上幾句閃閃爍爍的陳詞濫調，是不會成為一個有成就的音樂家、畫家或作家的。要是成功指的是前者，我可以理解；但是如果指的是后者呢？——尚且還不過是作為一種業余的消遣！更不用說他們還要從事體育運動、研究各門科學、學習各種語言，甚至自然史！這使我迷惑不解，佩服得五體投地。這就是使我覺得自己越來越渺小，小得像個小蚊蟲的原因。而他們有如此神奇的天賦，正像傳說中講的那樣。

心靈小語

茫茫宇宙，廣闊的大自然，我們在其中都是那么渺小。不論多么偉大的人，都會發出這樣的感慨！我們渺小，但有存在的價值。一切偉大與渺小都是相對的！

詞匯筆記

tremendous [tri?mend?s] adj. 巨大的；卓越的；驚人的

例 We witness the tremendous change of this city.

我們目睹了這個城市的巨大變化。

confine [?k?nfain] v. 限制；閉居

例 Don't confine your learning only to class.

不要把自己的學習只局限于課堂。

extraordinarily [iks?tr?:dnrili] adv. 非常；格外地；非凡地

例 Computers and robots could be reduced to extraordinarily small sizes.

電腦和機器人的尺寸將可以縮得非常小。

reputation [?repju?tei??n] n. 聲望；信用；名譽

例 Can you cash reputation in a bank?

你能在銀行兌現你的信用嗎？

小試身手

你從來沒有看見他們坐下來學習一種新的語言，甚至連不規則動詞表也沒見他們瀏覽過。

譯_______________

大家都認為他們隨便就可以講幾種語言，不僅流利，而且發音純正。

譯_______________

這使我迷惑不解，佩服得五體投地。

譯_______________

短語家族

To begin with, unless these people chance to be obvious invalids like Stevenson or Chehov……

to begin with：首先；第一；原先

造_______________

You never catch a glimpse of them sitting down to learn a new language……

catch a glimpse of；瞥見

造_______________