The story of Ruth, too—how Oriental it is! Yet how different is the life of these simple country folks from that of the Persian capital! Ruth is so loyal and gentle-hearted, we cannot help loving her, as she stands with the reapers amid the waving corn. Her beautiful, unselfish spirit shines out like a bright star in the night of a dark and cruel age. Love like Ruth's, love which can rise above conflicting creeds and deep-seated racial prejudices, is hard to find in all the world.
《路得记》也属于这样的故事——这是一个多么具有东方情调的故事啊!然而这些淳朴的乡下(犹太)人又是多么难以融入波斯人的首都!路得是如此地善良而忠诚,当她和收割者们一同站在起伏的麦田里时,我们都会禁不住对她产生喜爱之情。美丽而无私的路得如同黑暗岁月中一颗光芒四射的星辰,如果人们都怀有像路得一样的爱心,那么这种爱一定可以超越宗教教义和根深蒂固的种族偏见,继而成为普世之爱,但是你很难在世界上找到这样的爱。
The Bible gives me a deep, comforting sense that "things seen are temporal, and things unseen are eternal."
《圣经》带给我最深切而抚慰的感受,就是“眼目可见之物均属过眼云烟;眼目不可见之物实乃永恒”。
I do not remember a time since I have been capable of loving books that I have not loved Shakespeare. I cannot tell exactly when I began Lamb's "Tales from Shakespeare"; but I know that I read them at first with a child's understanding and a child's wonder. "Macbeth" seems to have impressed me most. One reading was sufficient to stamp every detail of the story upon my memory forever. For a long time the ghosts and witches pursued me even into Dreamland. I could see, absolutely see, the dagger and Lady Macbeth's little white hand—the dreadful stain was as real to me as to the grief-stricken queen.
在我喜好的书籍中当然少不了莎士比亚。我无法确切说出我是什么时候开始读兰姆的《莎士比亚故事集》的,但是我知道我最初是以一个孩童的理解力和好奇心来读莎士比亚的。《麦克白》似乎是令我印象最深的一部作品。这出悲剧的震撼力足可以让我永远记住其中的每一处故事情节。有很长一段时间,幽灵和女巫甚至追逐至我的梦乡。我能看见,实实在在地看见,匕首和麦克白夫人娇小而苍白的手——极度悲伤的王后境况堪忧,这一幕在我看来是如此地真切,仿佛历历在目。
I read "King Lear" soon after "Macbeth," and I shall never forget the feeling of horror when I came to the scene in which Gloster's eyes are put out. Anger seized me, my fingers refused to move, I sat rigid for one long moment, the blood throbbing in my temples, and all the hatred that a child can feel concentrated in my heart.
在《麦克白》之后,我读了《李尔王》。我决不会忘记格罗斯特的双眼被弄瞎时的恐怖景象。愤怒攫住了我的内心,我的手指不再移动(读取文字),我怔怔地坐了良久,血液在我的太阳穴里汩汩涌动,那一刻,我体会到了一个小孩子胸中所能积蓄的所有憎恨。
I must have made the acquaintance of Shylock and Satan about the same time, for the two characters were long associated in my mind. I remember that I was sorry for them. I felt vaguely that they could not be good even if they wished to, because no one seemed willing to help them or to give them a fair chance. Even now I cannot find it in my heart to condemn them utterly. There are moments when I feel that the Shylocks, the Judases, and even the Devil, are broken spokes in the great wheel of good which shall in due time be made whole.
回想起来,我一定是在同一个时期熟悉夏洛克和撒旦的,在我的意识里,总会把这两个人物联系在一起。我记得我当时还为他们难过了一阵子,我模模糊糊地感觉到,即使他们愿意也不可能成为好人,因为似乎没有人肯帮助他们,或者给他们一个公平的机会。直到现在,我也无法做到无条件地谴责他们的不义。曾经有那么一个瞬间,我觉得像夏洛克,犹大,乃至魔鬼之流就像一根根折断的辐条——但不管轮子被毁坏得多么厉害,承载人类历史的巨大车轮总会被及时地修复如初。
It seems strange that my first reading of Shakespeare should have left me so many unpleasant memories. The bright, gentle, fanciful plays—the ones I like best now—appear not to have impressed me at first, perhaps because they reflected the habitual sunshine and gaiety of a child's life. But "there is nothing more capricious than the memory of a child: what it will hold, and what it will lose."
我第一次读莎士比亚时就留下了那么多令人不快的回忆,这似乎显得有些奇怪。明快、柔美而充满幻想的戏剧——也就是我目前最喜欢的戏剧类型——最初并没有给我留下什么深刻的印象,这或许是因为它们所反映的不过是一个小孩子的无忧无虑的快乐生活而已。但是“没有什么东西能比一个小孩子的记忆更反复无常的了:哪些是该拥有的,哪些又是该失去的,我无从说清”。