发信人: oceann (dany), 信区: English
标 题: 好文共赏]林语堂：人生的盛宴(转载)
发信站: 哈工大紫丁香 (Fri Aug 29 22:21:16 2003)
I APPROACH TO LIFE
IN what follows I am presenting the Chinese point of view, because I canno
t help myself.
I am interested only in presenting a view of life and of things as the bes
t and wisest Chinese minds have seen it and expressed it in their folk wisdom
and their literature.
It is an idle philosophy born of an idle life, evolved in a different age,
I am quite aware. But I cannot help feeling that this view of life is essenti
ally true, and since we are alike under the skin, what touches the human heart
in one country touches all.
I shall have to present a view of life as Chinese poets and scholars evalu
ated it with their common sense, their realism and their sense of poetry. I sh
all attempt to reveal some of the beauty of the pagan world, a sense of the pa
thos and beauty and terror and comedy of life, viewed by a people who have a s
trong feeling of the limitations of our existence, and yet somehow retain a se
nse of the dignity of human life.
The Chinese philosopher is one who dreams with one eye open, who views lif
e with love and sweet irony, who mixes his cynicism with a kindly tolerance, a
nd who alternately wakes up from life s dream and then nods again, feeling mor
e alive when he is dreaming than when he is awake, thereby investing his wakin
g life with a dream-world quality.
He sees with one eye closed and with one eye opened the futility of much t
hat goes on around him and of his own endeavors, but barely retains enough sen
se of reality to determine to go through with it. He is seldom disillusioned b
ecause he has no illusions, and seldom disappointed because he never had extra
vagant hopes. In this way his spirit is emancipated.
For, after surveying the field of Chinese literature and philosophy, I com
e to the conclusion that the highest ideal of Chinese culture has always been
a man with a sense of detachment (tukuan ) toward life based on a sense of wis
e disenchantment.
From this detachment comes high-mindedness ( k’uunghuui ), a high-mindedn
ess which enables one to go through life with tolerant irony and escape the te
mptations of fame and wealth and achievement, and eventually makes him take wh
at comes. And from this detachment arise also his sense of freedom, his love o
f vagabondage and his pride and nonchalance. It is only with this sense of fre
edom and nonchalance that one eventually arrives at the keen and intense joy o
f living.
在下面的文章里，我要表现中国人的观点，因为我没有办法不这样做。我只想表现一
种
为中国最优越最睿智的哲人们所知道，并且在他们的民间智慧和文学里表现出来的人
生观和
事物观。我知道这是一种在与现代不同的时代里发展出来的，从闲适的生活中产生出
来的闲
适哲学。可是，我终究觉得这种人生观根本是真实的；我们的心性既然是相同的，那
么在一
个国家里感动人心的东西，自然也会感动一切的人类。我得表现中国诗人和学者用他
们的常
识，他们的现实主义，与他们的诗的情绪所估定的一种人生观。我打算显示一些异教
徒的世
界之美，一个民族所看到的人生的悲哀、美丽、恐怖和喜剧；这一个民族对于我们生
命的有
限发生强烈的感觉，然而不知何故却保持着一点人生庄严之感。
中国哲学家是一个睁着一只眼睛做梦的人，是一个用爱及温和的嘲讽来观察人生的人
，
是一个把他的玩世主义和慈和的宽容心混合起来的人，是一个有时由梦中醒来，有时
又睡了
过去的，在梦中比在醒时更觉得生气蓬勃，因而在他清醒的生活中放进了梦意的人。
他睁着
一只眼，闭着一只眼，看穿了他周遭所发生的事情和他自己的努力的徒然，可是还保
留着充
分的现实感去走完人生的道路。他很少幻灭，因为他没有虚幻的憧憬，很少失望，因
为他从
来没有怀着过度的希望。他的精神就是这样解放了的。
因为在研究了中国的文学和哲学以后，我得到了这样的结论：中国文化的最高理想始
终
是一个对人生有一种建筑在明慧的悟性上的达观的人。这种达观产生了宽怀，使人能
够带着
宽容的嘲讽度其一生，逃开功名利禄的诱惑，而且终于使他接受命运给他的一切东西
。这种
达观也使他产生了自由的意识，放浪的爱好，与他的傲骨和淡漠的态度。一个人只有
具着这
种自由的意识和淡漠的态度，结果才能深切地热烈地享受人生的乐趣。
--
好想振作一点点，真的好想
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