評論
打印
1. If men would steadily observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, life, to compare it with such things as we know, would be like a fairy tale and the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments.
[結構簡析] 虛擬條件句，主句中to compare it with… know是插入語，也有假設之意。
[參考譯文] 如果人們堅持只觀察現實，不讓自己被蒙蔽，那么生活，把它和我們知道的事情相比較，就象神話，象一千零一夜中描述的一切。
2. When we are unhurried and wise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence, --that petty fears and petty pleasure are but the shadow of reality.
[結構簡析] 主句中兩個that. 第一個是perceive 的賓語從句。破折號的第二個 that從句是說明，對比前一個that 句。
[參考譯文] 在我們冷靜和明智時，我們會感到只有偉大的和有價值的東西才能永恒絕對地存在，而那些微不足道的恐懼和歡樂僅僅是現實的陰影而已。
3. By closing the eyes and slumbering, by consenting to be deceived by shows, men establish and confirm their daily life of routine and habit everywhere, which still is built on purely illusory foundation.
[參考譯文] 閉上眼睛，昏昏欲睡，允許自己被表面現象所蒙蔽，人們通過這些手段來建立和確定他們的生活日程和各種習慣。這仍然是建立在幻(覺)想基礎上的東西。
4. So soul, from the circumstances in which it is placed, mistakes its own character, until the truth is revealed to it by some holy teacher, and then it knows itself to be Brahme.”
[結構簡析] from the circumstances in which … ，介詞短語+定從，實際上都是修飾mistake
[參考譯文] 從它所處的環境中出發，靈魂把自己的身份搞錯了。直到某個神圣的先生揭示的事實，那時它才知道自己是個貴族。
5. We think that that is which appears to be.
[結構簡析] 第一個that 是引導think的賓語從句的連接詞，第二個that 是代詞，作賓從中的主語，指上述“靈魂”整個句子。
[參考譯文] 我們想那就是看起來那個樣子(情況似乎就是那樣)。
