|
by Pico Iyer 方金凤 译
“There is nothing either good or bad,” I had heard in high school, from Hamlet, “but thinking makes it so.” I had been lucky enough at that point to 1)stumble into the life I might have dreamed of as a boy: a great job writing on world affairs for Time magazine, an apartment on 2)Park Avenue, enough time and money to take vacations in 3)Burma, 4)Morocco, 5)El Salvador. But every time I went to one of those places, I noticed that the people I met there, 6)mired in difficulty and often warfare, seemed to have more energy and even optimism than the friends I’d grown up with in privileged, peaceful 7)Santa Barbara, Calif., many of whom were on their fourth marriages and seeing a 8)therapist every day. Though I knew that poverty certainly didn’t buy happiness, I wasn’t convinced that money did either.
So—as post-1960s cliché 9)decreed—I left my comfortable job and life to live for a year in a temple on the backstreets of 10)Kyoto. My 11)high-minded year lasted all of a week, by which time I’d noticed that the depthless contemplation of the moon and composition of 12)haiku I’d imagined from afar was really more a matter of cleaning, sweeping and then cleaning some more. But today, more than 21 years later, I still live 13)in the vicinity of Kyoto, in a two-room apartment that makes my old 14)monastic 15)cell look almost luxurious by comparison. I have no bicycle, no car, no television I can understand, no media—and the days seem to stretch into eternities, and I can’t think of a single thing I lack.
…
If you’re the kind of person who prefers freedom to security, who feels more comfortable in a small room than a large one and who finds that happiness comes from matching your wants to your needs, then 31)running to stand still isn’t where your joy lies. In New York, a part of me was always somewhere else, thinking of what a simple life in Japan might be like. Now I’m there, I find that I almost never think of Rockefeller Center or Park Avenue at all.
高中时我从《哈姆雷特》中读到下面这句话：“事情并没有好坏之分，只不过取决于人的想法。”我一直很幸运，无意间过上了从孩提时代便一直梦想着的生活：一份为《时代》杂志报道国际事务的好工作、一套位于派克大街上的公寓、有足够的时间和金钱去缅甸、摩洛哥和萨尔瓦多度假。但是，每一次去那些地方，我都注意到那里的人们，纵使深陷困境及战争，但相比那些和我一起在条件优越、和平的加州圣巴巴拉市长大的朋友，他们看起来更有活力，甚至更乐观。我的那些朋友很多都正经历第四次婚姻，每天都去看心理治疗师。虽然我知道贫穷一定买不到快乐，但是我相信金钱同样无能为力。
所以——就像20世纪60年代后的那股风潮那样——我放弃了舒适的工作及生活，在日本京都后街的一个庙宇生活了一年。我那修心之旅进行了一个星期后，我发现自己遥想中对月沉思苦想俳句的生活实际上更多只是清洁、打扫，然后继续清洁。但今天，21年多以后，我仍然居住在京都附近的一套两居室公寓里，相比之下，以前我住的那个僧房看起来几乎算奢华了。我没有自行车，没有汽车，没有能够看得懂的电视，没有媒体——这样的日子似乎绵绵无尽，而我想不到有什么东西是我缺少的。
……
如果你喜欢自由多于安全，在一个小房子里比在一个大房子里感觉更舒适，发现快乐来源于满足你的想要与所需，那么，营营役役、超这赶那的生活不是你的快乐所在。在纽约，我总感觉心系别处，想着在日本的简单生活会是怎么样的。而现在，在这里，我发现自己几乎从来不会想起洛克菲勒中心或者派克大街。
注释：
1) stumble into 偶尔走入，无意中卷入
2) Park Avenue 派克大街，美国纽约市的一条繁华大街，是许多高级商业大楼的集中地，常用作奢华时髦阶层的同义语
3) Burma n. 缅甸，东南亚一国家，仰光是其首都和最大城市
4) Morocco n. 摩洛哥，非洲西北部一国家，拉巴特是其首都
5) El Salvador n. 萨尔瓦多，中美洲一国家，圣萨尔瓦多是其首都和最大城市
6) mire v. 陷入困境
7) Santa Barbara 圣巴巴拉，美国加州南部一城市
8) therapist n. 临床医学家，心理治疗师
9) decree v. 宣告
10) Kyoto n. 京都，日本本州中西部一城市，长期以来一直是日本的文化、艺术和宗教中心
11) high-minded 品格高尚的，高洁的
12) haiku n. 俳句，一种日本抒情诗，由三句分别有五、七、五个音节的不压韵诗行构成，通常吟诵自然或四季风光
13) in the vicinity of 在…附近
14) monastic adj. 僧院的
15) cell n. 小房间，隐居者住的小屋
31) run to stand still <习语> 指为保优势，为了不落后他人而不断向前冲，甚至有点超负荷运作
|
