中英雙語 愛默生 Self-Reliance 論自助

Self-Reliance (Excerpt)

《論自助》（節選）

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

文/拉爾夫·沃爾多·愛默生

譯/蒲隆

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.

每個人在求知期間，有一天會得出這樣一種信念：嫉妒等於無知，模仿無異於自殺，一個人不管好壞，必須把自己看作自己的命運，雖然廣闊的宇宙不乏善舉，可是若不在自己得到的那塊土地上辛勤耕耘，一粒富有營養的糧食也不會自行送上門來。

The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

蘊藏在他身上的力量實際上非常新奇，因此除他而外，誰也不知道他有什麼本領，而且不經過嘗試，連他自己也不知道。

Not for nothing one face, one character, one fact, makes much impression on him, and another none. This sculpture in the memory is not without pre-established harmony.

一張面孔，一個人物，一件事實，給他留下了深刻的印象，給另一個人卻沒有留下任何印象，這不是平白無故的。記憶中的這種雕刻不能不說沒有前定的和諧。

The eye was placed where one ray should fall, that it might testify of that particular ray. We but half express ourselves, and are ashamed of that divine idea which each of us represents. It may be safely trusted as proportionate and of good issues, so it be faithfully imparted, but God will not have his work made manifest by cowards.

眼睛被安置在一道光線應當照到的地方，這樣它才可以看到那道光線。我們還不能充分表現自己，而且對我們各自所代表的那種神聖的觀念感到慚愧。完全可以認為，這種觀念非常適當，一定會產生良好的結果，因此應當忠實地傳達，不過上帝是不願意讓懦夫來闡明他的功業的。

A man is relieved and gay when he has put his heart into his work and done his best; but what he has said or done otherwise, shall give him no peace. It is a deliverance which does not deliver. In the attempt his genius deserts him; no muse befriends; no invention, no hope.

一個人只有盡心竭力地工作，方能感到寬慰和歡樂；如果他說的或做的並非如此，他將得不到安寧。那是一種沒有解脫的解脫。還在嘗試之中，他的天才就拋棄了他，沒有靈感眷顧，沒有發明，沒有希望。