英語經典美文閱讀:無知的快樂

英語經典美文閱讀:無知的快樂

　　人類的本能的確是知道趨利避害的，所以人類天生就不是完全無知的。人類知道吃飽穿暖是快樂的，所以人們致力于提高物質生活水平，提高的方法就是掌握更多的知識。于是人們不愿安于無知。

　　The Pleasures of Ignorance

　　無知的快樂

　　It is impossible to take a walk in the country with an average townsman—especially, perhaps, in April or May-without being amazed at the vast continent of his ignorance. It is impossible to take a walk in the country oneself without being amazed at the vast continent of one's own ignorance. Thousands of men and women live and die without knowing the difference between a beech and an elm, between the song of a thrush and the song of a blackbird. Probably in a modern city the man who can distinguish between a thrush's and a blackbird's song is the exception. It is not that we have not seen the birds. It is simply that we have not noticed them. We have been surrounded by birds all our lives, yet so feeble is our observation that many of us could not tell whether or not the chaffinch sings, or the colour of the cuckoo.

　　和一個普通的城里人在鄉村漫步—特別是，可能在四五月份——你不可能不對他無知的領域之廣而感到驚訝。一個人去鄉間散步，你不可能不對自己無知的領域之廣而感到驚訝。成千上萬的男男女女活著然后死去，一輩子也不知道山毛櫸和榆樹之間有什么區別，不知道畫眉和黑鸝的啼鳴有什么不同�，F代都市中能辨別畫眉和黑鸝叫聲的人大概是極其罕見的。并非我們沒有見過這兩種鳥兒，僅僅是因為我們從不去注意它們。我們一生中都有鳥兒生活在我們周圍，然而我們的觀察力是如此微弱，以致我們中間許多人弄不清楚蒼頭燕雀是否全唱歌，說不出布谷鳥是什么顏色。

　　This ignorance, however, is not altogether miserable. Out of it we get the constant pleasure of discovery. Every fact of nature comes to us each spring, if only we are sufficiently ignorant, with the dew still on it. If we have lived half a lifetime without having ever even seen a cuckoo, and know it only as a wandering voice, we are all the more delighted at the spectacle of its runaway flight as it hurries from wood to wood conscious of its crimes, and at the way in which it halts hawk-like in the wind, its long tail quivering, before it dares descend on a hill-side of fir-trees where avenging presences may lurk.

　　然而，這種無知并不完全是不幸的。從無知中，我們能源源不斷地獲取發現帶來的喜悅。但愿我們真的一無聽知，那么每到春天，各種自然現象就會帶著清新的露珠呈現在我們眼前。如果我們已生活半生，甚至未曾見過一只布谷鳥，而僅僅把它當成一個四處飄蕩的聲音，那么.當我們親眼目睹它因為自知自己的罪惡在林木間匆匆逃離穿梭，看到它如何如鷹般在風中驟然停止鳴叫，擺動著瑟瑟發抖的長尾翼，不敢在小山旁的冷杉上停歇，擔心那里危機四伏時，我們一定會更加欣喜。

　　It would be absurd to pretend that the naturalist does not also find pleasure in observing the life of the birds, but his is a steady pleasure, almost a sober and plodding occupation, compared to the morning enthusiasm of the man who sees a cuckoo for the first time. And, as to that, the happiness even of the naturalist depends in some measure upon his ignorance, which still leaves him new worlds of this kind to conquer.He may have reached the very Z of knowledge in the books, but he still feels half ignorant until he has confirmed each bright particular with his eyes. Assuredly the men of science have no reason as yet to weep over their lost ignorance. There will always be a fortune of ignorance waiting for them under every fact they turn up.

　　如果假設博物學家在觀察鳥類的生活時發現不到樂趣，那是荒謬可笑的。和清晨有人第一次看到布谷鳥的興奮相比，博物學家的快樂是穩固的，他們的工作是嚴肅和漫長的。為此，甚至是博物學家的幸福在某種程度上也取決他的無知，無知給他留下這類新天地讓他去征服。他的書本知識可能已經達到了頂峰，但是，在他親眼證實每一個光輝的細節之前，他仍然感到自己是半無知的，無疑，科學家們迄今沒有理由為他們錯過的無知而哭泣。在他們發掘出的每一個事實下面總將會有一筆無知的財富在等待著他們。

　　But your and my ignorance is not confined to cuckoos. It dabbles in all created things, from the sun and moon down to the names of the flowers, including nearly everything you and I have taken for granted. One of the greatest joys known to man is to take such a flight into ignorance in search of knowledge. The great pleasure of ignorance is, after all, the pleasure of asking questions. The man who has lost this pleasure or exchanged it for the pleasure of dogma, which is the pleasure of answering, is already beginning to stiffen. Do not forget that Socrates. was famed for wisdom not because he was omniscient but because he realised at the age of seventy that he still knew nothing. Once more I shall see the world as a garden through the eyes of a stranger, my breath taken away with surprise by the painted fields.

　　但是，你我的無知絕不僅僅局限于布谷鳥，它涉及所有的創造物，上到太陽和月亮，下到百花的名稱，幾乎包括所有你我認為是理所當然的事物。人類感受過的最大快樂之一就是迅速逃到無知中去追求知識。無知的巨大樂趣，歸根結底，是提問的樂趣。已經失去了這種快樂的人，或已經用這種快樂去換取教條的樂趣(即回答問題的樂趣)的人，已經開始僵化。不要忘記蘇格拉底之所以以智慧聞名于世，并不是因為他無所不知而是因為他在70歲的時候認識到他還什么都不知道.而我將再一次用陌生人的眼光來審視這個花園一樣的世界，每當我看到那如畫的田野，我都將驚嘆不已。

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