ToBeorNottoBe生存还是毁灭.doc

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To Be or Not to Be 生存还是毁灭
William Lyon Phelps
Outside the Bible, these six words are the most famous in all the literature of the world. They were spoken by Hamlet when he was thinking aloud, and they are the most famous words in Shakespeare because Hamlet was speaking not only for himself but also for every thinking man and woman. To be or not to be, to live or not to live, to live richly and abundantly and eagerly, or to live dully and meanly and scarcely. A philosopher once wanted to know whether he was alive or not, which is a good question for everyone to put to himself occasionally. He answered it by saying: "I think, therefore am." 

“生存还是毁灭。”除《圣经》以外，这六个字是整个世界文学中最著名的六个字。这六个字是哈姆雷特喃喃自语时所说的，而这六个字也是莎士比亚作品中最有名的几个字，因为哈姆雷特不仅道出了自己的心声，也道出了所有在思考的人的心声。生存还是毁灭——是活下去还是不要活下去，是要生活得丰富充实、兴致勃勃，还是生活得枯燥委琐、贫乏无味。一位哲人曾想弄清自己是否在活着，其实这个问题我们每个人都应该不时地扪心自问。他对这个问题的答案是：“我思，故我在。”

But the best definition of existence ever saw did another philosopher who said: "To be is to be in relations." If this true, then the more relations a living thing has, the more it is alive. To live abundantly means simply to increase the range and intensity of our relations. Unfortunately we are so constituted that we get to love our routine. But apart from our regular occupation how much are we alive? If you are interest-ed only in your regular occupation, you are alive only to that extent. So far as other things are concerned--poetry and prose, music, pictures, sports, unselfish friendships, politics, international affairs--you are dead. 

但是我所见过的关于生存最好的定义却出自另一位哲学家：“生活即是联系。”如果这句话不假，那么一个生物拥有的联系越多，它就越有活力。所谓要活得丰富也即是要扩大和加强我们的各种联系。不幸的是，我们天生就容易陷入自己的陈规旧套。试问除去我们的日常事务，我们在多大程度上是活着的？如果你只对日常事务感兴趣，那你的生命也就局限于那个范围之内。就其他事物而言——诗歌、散文、音乐、美术、体育、无私的友谊、政治、国际事务等等——你只是一个死人。

Contrariwise, it is true that every time you acquire a new interest--even more, a new accomplishment--you increase your power of life. No one who is deeply interested in a large variety of subjects can remain unhappy; the real pessimist is the person who has lost interest. 

反之，每当你有了一种新的兴趣——甚至是一种新的技艺——你就增加了自己生命的能量。一个对许多事物都深感兴趣的人不可能总不快乐，真正的悲观者是那些失去兴趣的人。
Bacon said that a man dies as often as he loses a friend. But we gain new life by contacts, new friends. What is supremely true of living objects is only less true of ideas, which are also alive. Where your thoughts are, there will your live be also. If your thoughts are confined only to your business, only to your physical welfare, only to the narrow circle of the town in which you live, then you live in a narrow cir-conscribed life. But if you are interested in what is going on in China, then you are living in China~ if you’re interested in the characters of a good novel, then you are living with those highly interesting people, if you listen intently to fine music, you are away from your immediate surroundings and living in a world of passion and imagination. 

培根曾说，一个人每当失去朋友便死一次，但是通过结交新朋友，我们就能获得新的生命。这条对于生物来说千真万确的道理也完全适用于人的思想，思想也是有生命的。你思想之所在即是你生命之所在。如果你的思想只局限于自己的工作、自己的物质利益、自己所居住的城镇内狭小的生活圈子，那么你的生命也是局限的、狭小的。但是如果你对当前中国所发生的种种事感兴趣，那么你就相当于生活在那些极有趣的人中间；如果你能全神贯注地听绝妙的音乐，你就会超脱周围环境而生活在一个充满激情与想象的世界之中。
To be or not to be--to live intensely and richly, merely to exist, that depends on ourselves. Let widen and intensify our relations. While we live, let live! 

生存与毁灭——是活得热烈而丰富，还是活得像行尸走肉，那都取决于我们自己。让我们扩大并加强我们的联系吧。活着就要精彩！
英语单词：
1) pessimist  n. 悲观主义者

2) circumscribed  adj. 限制的

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