水瓶面面書寫幸福

譯者：孟祥森

出版：雙月書屋，1999年10月1日

【水瓶面面如是說】

     珍古德(Jane Goodall)，從事黑猩猩研究，一生在世界各地推廣保育觀念，是一位我十分崇拜、景仰的女性。她對待動物的那份溫柔慈悲心，著實令人感動。以下和大家分享她在這本心靈自傳裡頭，寫下的其中三段文字。台灣出版的中譯本並無中英對照，你在下面讀到的英文內容，是因為我看了中譯本後實在喜歡，又欲罷不能地到圖書館尋找英文原著來閱讀當中幾個喜愛的段落，並隨手以電腦打字記下的。希望你會喜歡我的分享。

【書摘／語錄】

I ended with one of Albert Schweitzer’s moving prayers: “For animals that are over worked, underfed, and cruelly treated; for all wistful creatures in captivity that beat their wings against bars; for any that are hunted or lost or deserted or frightened or hungry; for all that must be put to death…and for those who deal with them we ask a heart of compassion and gentle hands and kindly words.”

我以史懷哲令人感動的祈禱文作為結束：「為那過度勞動、吃不飽和遭受殘忍待遇的動物祈求；為一切被困在囚籠中、生命的渴望不得舒展、翅膀拍著鐵欄杆的造物祈求；為任何被獵取的、走失的、被遺棄或驚嚇、飢餓的動物祈求；為所有必須被處死的動物祈求……為那些處理動物的人祈求----我們求他們有仁慈的心、溫柔的手與和善的語言。」

(水瓶面面的話：這段文字令我動容！我們一向將關懷的焦點放在人類自身，倘使我們都能像史懷哲、珍古德那樣，將愛與慈悲擴及至他種生命的身上，這世界一定會更祥和、更平安、更圓滿！) 

We were by no means a wealthy family, but money was not important.  It didn’t matter that we couldn’t afford a car, or even a bicycle, or expensive holidays abroad—we had enough to eat, some clothes to wear, and an abundance of love, laughter, and fun.  Indeed, mine was the very best kind of childhood: because every penny mattered, everything that was extra such as an ice cream, a journey on a train, a cinema, was a treat, exciting, to be treasured and remembered.  If only everyone could be blessed with such a childhood, such a family.  How different, I believe, the world would be.

我們家一點也談不上富裕，但錢並不重要。我們買不起汽車，甚至買不起腳踏車，沒錢出國度假，但這些都沒關係。我們有足夠的東西吃，有些衣服可穿，有豐富的愛與歡笑。其實，我的童年就是最好的童年：由於每一毛錢都當回事，凡是多得的----例如一客冰淇淋、一趟火車旅行、一場電影----都是大事，足以珍惜與回憶。如果人人都有這樣的童年和家庭多好！我相信世界會很不一樣。

(水瓶面面的話：現在孩子的生活十分富裕、物質不虞匱乏，以前人們所經驗到的那段簡樸而美好的時光，雖令人心嚮往，卻似乎很難再回去了！但我還是希望我能在滿足孩子的基本物質生活需求後，更看重其心靈生活的豐盈富足，那才是真正幸福的所在。) 

I lay flat on my back and looked up into the darkening sky.  How sad it would be, I thought, if we humans ultimately were to lose all sense of mystery, all sense of awe.  If our left brains were utterly to dominate the right so that logic and reason triumphed over intuition and alienated us absolutely from our innermost being, from our hearts, our souls.  I watched as, one by one, the stars appeared, the brightest first and then, as the sun’s light faded, more and more until the sky was studded with brilliant, flashing points of light.  Albert Einstein, undeniably one of the greatest scientists and thinkers of our time, had sustained a mystical outlook on life that was, he said, constantly renewed from the wonder and humility that filled him when he gazed at the stars.

我平平地仰臥，看著漸暗的天空。我想，如果我們人類最後失去了一切神秘感和敬畏感，那是多麼可悲啊。如果我們的左腦最後徹底控制了右腦，以致邏輯與推理凌駕了直覺，將我們絕對的與我們最內在的生命、我們的心、我們的靈魂隔離，將是多麼可悲。星星一個個出來了，最先是最亮的，隨著陽光漸退，愈來愈多，終致滿天繁星。愛因斯坦----我們這個時代最偉大的科學家和思想家之一----對生命一直保持著神秘感。他說，每當他注視群星，這神秘感就會增強，心中充滿驚奇與謙卑。

(水瓶面面的話：科學不是萬能，邏輯思維亦不能凌駕直覺感受。「對生命一直保持著神秘感」是我們對大自然懷抱謙卑與敬意的根源，若人類能永遠保有對自然、對生命這樣一份美麗的神秘感，當不會有所謂的全球暖化等令人驚懼恐慌的生態浩劫。) 

【延伸閱讀】
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