《四季随笔》节选 - 秋 15

《四季随笔》是吉辛的散文代表作。其中对隐士赖克罗夫特醉心于书籍、自然景色与回忆过去生活的描述，其实是吉辛的自述，作者以此来抒发自己的情感，因而本书是一部富有自传色彩的小品文集。

吉辛穷困的一生，对文学名著的爱好与追求，以及对大自然恬静生活的向往，在书中均有充分的反映。本书分为春、夏、秋、冬四个部分，文笔优美，行文流畅，是英国文学中小品文的珍品之一。

以下是由网友分享的《四季随笔》节选 - 秋 15的内容，让我们一起来感受吉辛的四季吧!

Blackberries hanging thick upon the hedge bring to my memory something of long ago. I had somehow escaped into the country, and on a long walk began to feel mid-day hunger. The wayside brambles were fruiting; I picked and ate, and ate on, until I had come within sight of an inn where I might have made a meal. But my hunger was satisfied; I had no need of anything more, and, as I thought of it, a strange feeling of surprise, a sort of bewilderment, came upon me. What! Could it be that I had eaten, and eaten sufficiently, WITHOUT PAYING? It struck me as an extraordinary thing. At that time, my ceaseless preoccupation was how to obtain money to keep myself alive. Many a day I had suffered hunger because I durst not spend the few coins I possessed; the food I could buy was in any case unsatisfactory, unvaried. But here Nature had given me a feast, which seemed delicious, and I had eaten all I wanted. The wonder held me for a long time, and to this day I can recall it, understand it.

看到树篱上挂满了累累的黑莓果，我不由想起了很久之前的一件事。我不知怎么地躲到了乡下，有一次外出散步走了很远，时近正午，感觉饥饿难耐。路旁的野生黑莓正在结实，我摘下它的果子就吃，一直不停地吃，直到看见一家可以就餐的小饭馆。可那时我已经完全饱了，我不需要再吃什么了，意识到这一点，我忽然感到一种惊讶，一种困惑。什么！难道我不用付钱，就已经吃饱了吗？这真是一件惊人的事。那个时候，我无时无刻不在发愁如何挣钱以维持生存。有许多天我都忍饥挨饿，就是因为不敢花掉手头的几个硬币；我能买的食物根本谈不上美味，而且种类单调。然而在这里，大自然以一顿盛宴款待我，美味可口，我可以尽情享受。这一奇遇让我思索了很长时间，直到今天，我还能忆起，还能理解。

I think there could be no better illustration of what it means to be very poor in a great town. And I am glad to have been through it. To those days of misery I owe much of the contentment which I now enjoy; not by mere force of contrast, but because I have been better taught than most men the facts which condition our day to day existence. To the ordinary educated person, freedom from anxiety as to how he shall merely be fed and clothed is a matter of course; questioned, he would admit it to be an agreeable state of things, but it is no more a source of conscious joy to him than physical health to the thoroughly sound man. For me, were I to live another fifty years, this security would be a delightful surprise renewed with every renewal of day. I know, as only one with my experience can, all that is involved in the possession of means to live. The average educated man has never stood alone, utterly alone, just clad and nothing more than that, with the problem before him of wresting his next meal from a world that cares not whether he live or die. There is no such school of political economy. Go through that course of lectures, and you will never again become confused as to the meaning of elementary terms in that sorry science.

我想，这件事最好地说明了生活在大城市对穷人意味着什么。我很高兴自己捱过了那段苦难日子，拜它所赐，我才能充分享受今天这份满足感。不是出于今昔对比的力量，而是因为我比大多数人都更了解决定日常生存的客观条件。对于受过教育的普通人，衣食无忧是自然而然的事情，如果受到询问，他会承认这是一种愉快的状态。然而，这状态对他来讲，就如同健康对于一个身体强壮的人，不过是有意识之快乐的一个源头而已。而对我来说，如果还能再活五十年，这份安全感将会是一份历久弥新的愉快惊喜。只有和我有相同经历的人能够理解，拥有生存资本需要投入的一切。受过教育的普通人从没有孤单过，完全的孤单，即除了身上的衣物外一无所有，还面临着从一个不关心他死活的世界挣得下一餐饭的难题。这种政治经济学学校是绝无仅有的，如果挨过这几节课，你永远不会混淆这门可悲的科学的那些基本术语的含义。

I understand, far better than most men, what I owe to the labour of others. This money which I "draw" at the four quarters of the year, in a sense falls to me from heaven; but I know very well that every drachm is sweated from human pores. Not, thank goodness, with the declared tyranny of basest capitalism; I mean only that it is the product of human labour; perhaps wholesome, but none the less compulsory. Look far enough, and it means muscular toil, that swinking of the ruder man which supports all the complex structure of our life. When I think of him thus, the man of the people earns my gratitude. That it is gratitude from afar, that I never was, and never shall be, capable of democratic fervour, is a characteristic of my mind which I long ago accepted as final. I have known revolt against the privilege of wealth (can I not remember spots in London where I have stood, savage with misery, looking at the prosperous folk who passed?), but I could never feel myself at one with the native poor among whom I dwelt. And for the simplest reason; I came to know them too well. He who cultivates his enthusiasm amid graces and comforts may nourish an illusion with regard to the world below him all his life long, and I do not deny that he may be the better for it; for me, no illusion was possible. I knew the poor, and I knew that their aims were not mine. I knew that the kind of life (such a modest life!) which I should have accepted as little short of the ideal, would have been to them—if they could have been made to understand it—a weariness and a contempt. To ally myself with them against the "upper world" would have been mere dishonesty, or sheer despair. What they at heart desired, was to me barren; what I coveted, was to them for ever incomprehensible.

我比大多数人都明白，自己应该感激他人的劳动。我一年四季“领取”的钱，从某个意义上说，是从天而降的；但是，我很清楚每个硬币都是人们汗水的结晶。感谢老天，它与卑下至极的资本主义公开的暴政不沾边。我的意思只是说，它是人类劳动的成果；这种劳动或许有益健康，但依然是受到强制的。追本溯源的话，它意味着体力的劳作，正是粗人的勤劳支撑起了我们生活的复杂结构。这样想时，我便对广大体力劳动者心怀感激。但这是一种遥遥表达的感激，我从来没有也永远不会有民主的热情，这就是我思想的特点，很久以前我就这样下了定论。我确实厌恶有钱阶级享有的特权（我怎能忘记站在伦敦的街上，看着那些来来往往的体面人，痛苦得几乎疯狂），但却从未感觉和我居所周围的穷人是一体的。原因非常简单，我对他们太了解了。一个在优雅舒适的环境中培育起生活热情的人，可能终生都会对底层世界抱有一种幻想，我不否认他这样也许更好；但对我来说，是不可能有任何幻想的。我了解穷人，我知道他们的目标和我自己的不一样。我知道，那种我觉得非常接近理想的生活（很普通的生活！），他们如果能够理解的话，就会感到厌倦和鄙视。要我和他们联手对抗“上层世界”，不过是一种不诚实或完全绝望的做法。他们内心渴望的，在我眼里是贫乏空虚的；而我所觊觎的，则是他们永远不能理解的。

That my own aim indicated an ideal which is the best for all to pursue, I am far from maintaining. It may be so, or not; I have long known the idleness of advocating reform on a basis of personal predilection. Enough to set my own thoughts in order, without seeking to devise a new economy for the world. But it is much to see clearly from one's point of view, and therein the evil days I have treasured are of no little help to me. If my knowledge be only subjective, why, it only concerns myself; I preach to no one. Upon another man, of origin and education like to mine, a like experience of hardship might have a totally different effect; he might identify himself with the poor, burn to the end of his life with the noblest humanitarianism. I should no further criticize him than to say that he saw with other eyes than mine. A vision, perhaps, larger and more just. But in one respect he resembles me. If ever such a man arises, let him be questioned; it will be found that he once made a meal of blackberries—and mused upon it.

我自己的目标中，蕴藏了一个理想，我不会坚持它是所有人应该追求的最好理想。它可能是，也可能不是。我很久之前就知道，依据个人喜好来宣传变革是多么无聊。我只是整理好自己的思想就够了，不用试图为世界设计出一种新经济体系。但是，从自己的角度能获得透彻认识就很重要，在这一点上，我所珍视的那些苦难的日子对我帮助不小。如果我的认识是主观的，那它也只与我有关，我没有向任何人说教。如果换一个人，和我的出身和教育一样，那么同样苦难的经历可能会对他产生完全不同的影响；他可能会和穷人站在一起，终其一生为高尚的人道主义事业服务。我不会去抨击他，只会说他和我看待世界的角度不同。他的视野也许更广阔，更正义，但是他会和我在一个方面相似。如果确实有这样一个人，请你询问他，你会发现他曾经吃过一顿黑莓餐——并由此思索了一番。