中英双语 爱默生 Self-Reliance 论自助

Self-Reliance (Excerpt)

《论自助》（节选）

By Ralph Waldo Emerson

文/拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生

译/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.

每个人在求知期间，有一天会得出这样一种信念：嫉妒等于无知，模仿无异于自杀，一个人不管好坏，必须把自己看作自己的命运，虽然广阔的宇宙不乏善举，可是若不在自己得到的那块土地上辛勤耕耘，一粒富有营养的粮食也不会自行送上门来。

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.

蕴藏在他身上的力量实际上非常新奇，因此除他而外，谁也不知道他有什么本领，而且不经过尝试，连他自己也不知道。

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.

一张面孔，一个人物，一件事实，给他留下了深刻的印象，给另一个人却没有留下任何印象，这不是平白无故的。记忆中的这种雕刻不能不说没有前定的和谐。

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线应当照到的地方，这样它才可以看到那道光线。我们还不能充分表现自己，而且对我们各自所代表的那种神圣的观念感到惭愧。完全可以认为，这种观念非常适当，一定会产生良好的结果，因此应当忠实地传达，不过上帝是不愿意让懦夫来阐明他的功业的。

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.

一个人只有尽心竭力地工作，方能感到宽慰和欢乐；如果他说的或做的并非如此，他将得不到安宁。那是一种没有解脱的解脱。还在尝试之中，他的天才就抛弃了他，没有灵感眷顾，没有发明，没有希望。