We should also have to regard our German character with sorrowful despair, if it had already become inextricably entangled in, or even identical with, its culture, as we may observe to our horror in the case of civilized France.
我们也定必为德国民族性惨然感到失望,如果它已经陷入这种文化的樊笼而不能自拔,甚或与之同化,像我们触目惊心地见到文明的法兰西就是这样情况。
What for a long time was the great advantage of France and the cause of her vast superiority, namely, this very identity of people and culture, might compel us in view of this sight to congratulate ourselves that this so questionable culture of ours has as yet nothing in common with the noble core of our people's character?
长久以来,法国的最大优点和巨大优越性的原因,在于人民与文化之一致,但是今日我们见到这点,反而不禁为自己庆幸:我们那颇成问题的文化,向来与我们民族性的高贵心灵,毫无相同之处。
On the contrary, all our hopes stretch out longingly toward the perception that beneath this restlessly palpitating cultural life and convulsion there is concealed a glorious, intrinsically healthy, primordial power that, to be sure, stirs vigorously only at intervals in stupendous moments, and then continues to dream of a future awakening.
反之,我们的一切希望,都无限眷恋地寄托在一点认识:即,在忐忑不安的文化生活和痛苦挣扎的教育制度下面,隐藏着一种壮丽的、精力充沛的原始力量,当然它仅在伟大时代偶或有力地骚动起来,然后再度陷入梦中,梦想着未来的苏醒。
It is from this abyss that the German Reformation came forth; and in its chorales the future tune of German music resounded for the first time.
德国的宗教改革,就是从这深渊里成长起来的,在它的赞美诗中,第一次听到德国音乐的未来旋律。
So deep, courageous, and spiritual, so exuberantly good and tender did this chorale of Luther sound--as the first Dionysian luring call breaking forth from dense thickets at the approach of spring. And in competing echoes the solemnly exuberant procession of Dionysian revelersresponded, to whom we are indebted for German music--and to whom we shall be indebted for the rebirth of German myth.
路德的赞美诗的音调,是这样深刻、勇敢、感情丰富,非常温柔美好,宛若在阳春已临近时,从茂密的丛林里,传出酒神祭第一声迷人的呼唤,酒神信徒的热情磅礴的行列,就以赛过它的回响答复这呼唤,我们为德国音乐感激他们,我们为德国神话的再生也将感激他们。
I know that I must now lead the sympathizing and attentive friend to an elevated position of lonely contemplation, where he will have but a few companions, and I call out encouragingly to him that we must hold fast to our luminous guides, the Greeks.
我想,我现在必须带引乐意追随的朋友到一所高处,让他独自静观。那儿他只有三数伴侣,我将鼓励他喊道:我们必须紧紧跟住我们的辉煌的引路者古希腊人呀!
To purify our aesthetic insight, we have previously borrowed from them the two divine figures who rule over separate realms of art, and concerning whose mutual contact and enhancement we have acquired some notion through Greek tragedy.
为了澄清我们的美学知识,我们事前向他们借用两个神灵形象,每个统辖着一个独立的艺术领域。由于他们彼此接触,相得益彰,我们从希腊悲剧上获得一个概念。
It had to appear to us that the demise of Greek tragedy was brought about through a remarkable and forcible dissociation of these two primordial artistic drives. To this process there corresponded a degeneration and transformation of the character of the Greek people, which calls for serious reflection on how necessary and close the fundamental connections are between art and the people, myth and custom, tragedy and the state.
由于这两种原始艺术冲动的显然缺裂,希腊悲剧的崩溃过程似乎是势所难免的,希腊民族性的衰落及其变质,同悲剧的崩溃过程如响斯应,这就唤起我们严肃的深思:艺术与人民,神话与风俗,悲剧与国家,在根基深入必然紧密地同根连理。
This demise of tragedy was at the same time the demise of myth.
悲剧的崩溃同时也是神话的崩溃。
Until then the Greeks had felt involuntarily impelled to relate all their experiences immediately to their myths, indeed to understand them only in this relation. Thus even the immediate present had to appear to them right away sub specie aeterni [Under the aspect of the eternal.] and in a certain sense as timeless.
在崩溃之前,希腊人不由自主地,必须把他们的一切经历,立刻同他们的神话联系起来;真的,只有通过这联系,他们才能了解往事;所以,在他们看来,甚至当前的事件也必然是subspecieaeterni(属于永恒范畴),就某种意义来说,是超时间的。