What is immortal
TO see the golden sun and the azure sky, the outstretched ocean, to walk upon the green earth , and to be a lord of a thousand creatures to look down giddy precipices or over distant flowery vales, to see the world spread out under one's finger in a map, to bring the stars near, to view the smallest insects in a microscope, to read history and witness the revolutions of empirees and the succession of generations ,to hear the gloryof Sidon and Tyre of Babylon and Susa,as of a fade pegeant,anf ti say all these wereand are now nothing. to think that we exist in such a point of time, and in such a corner of space,to be at once spectators and a part of the moving scene to watch the return of the seasons, of spring and autumn, to hear---
The stock dove plain amid the forest deep,
That drowsy rustles to the sighing gale.
---to traverse desert wildness, to listen to thedungeon's gloom,or sit in crowded theatres and see life itself mocked, to feel heat and cold,pleasure and pain right and wrong,truth and falsehood, to study the works of art and refine the sense of beauty to agony, to worship fame and to dream ofimmortality, to have read Shakespeare and Beloit to the same species as Sir isaac Newton to be and to do all this and then in a moment to be nothing to have it all snatched from one like a juggler's ball or a phantasmagoria.....
我們看到金色的太陽(yáng)，蔚藍(lán)的天空，廣闊的海洋;我們漫步在綠油油的大地上，做萬(wàn)物的主人;我們俯視令人目眩心悸的懸崖峭壁，遠(yuǎn)眺鮮花盛開(kāi)的山谷;我們把地圖攤開(kāi)，任意指點(diǎn)全球;我們把星辰移到眼前觀看，還在顯微鏡下觀察極其微小的生物，我們學(xué)歷史，親自目睹帝國(guó)的興亡，時(shí)代的交替;我們聽(tīng)人談?wù)撐黝D、推羅、巴比倫和蘇撒的勛業(yè)，如同聽(tīng)一番往昔的盛會(huì)，聽(tīng)了以后，我們說(shuō)這些事確實(shí)發(fā)生過(guò)，但現(xiàn)在卻是過(guò)眼云煙了;我們思考著自己生活的時(shí)代，生活的地區(qū);我們?cè)谌松幕顒?dòng)舞臺(tái)上既當(dāng)觀眾，又當(dāng)演員;我們觀察四季更迭，春秋代序，我們聽(tīng)見(jiàn)了___
野鴿在濃密的樹(shù)林中哀訴，
樹(shù)林隨微風(fēng)的嘆息而低語(yǔ)。
___ 我們橫絕大漠;我們傾聽(tīng)了子夜的歌聲;我們光顧燈火輝煌的廳堂，走下陰森森的地牢，或者坐在萬(wàn)頭攢動(dòng)的劇院里觀看生活本身受到的摩擬;我們親身感受炎熱和寒冷，快樂(lè)和痛苦，正義和邪惡，真理和謬誤;我們鉆研藝術(shù)作品，把自己的美感提高到極其敏銳的程度;我們崇拜榮譽(yù)，夢(mèng)想不朽;我們閱讀莎士比亞，或者把自己和牛頓爵士視為同一族類(lèi)，正當(dāng)我們面臨這一切，從事這一切的時(shí)候，自己卻在一剎那之間化為虛無(wú)，眼前的一切像是魔術(shù)師手中的圓球，像是一場(chǎng)幻影，一下子全都消失得無(wú)影無(wú)蹤......
