評(píng)論
打印
Yet, there was something else about our man that kept our thoughts on him, and which keeps our thoughts on him still. He was there, in the essential, classic circumstance. Man in nature. The man in the water. For its part, nature cared nothing about the five passengers. Our man, on the other hand, cared totally. So the age-old battle began again in the Potomac. For as long as that man could last, they went at each other, nature and man; the one making no distinctions of good and evil, acting on no principles, offering no lifelines; the other acting wholly on distinctions, principles and, perhaps, on faith.
然而，關(guān)于我們的這位英雄，還有其他的原因使我們時(shí)刻想著他，至今仍然不能忘懷。在那生死攸關(guān)、最典型的環(huán)境中，我們看見了他，這個(gè)身處自然中的人，這個(gè)深陷水中的人。對自然界來說，它并不在意這五個(gè)乘客的生命。而相反，我們的英雄則非常在意。因此，古老的戰(zhàn)爭在波托馬克河重演。只要人類還有最后一口氣，人類與大自然的斗爭就不會(huì)結(jié)束；一方不分善與惡，不講原則，拒絕給予生還的希望；而另一方則明辨是非、遵守原則，或者憑自身的信仰行事。
Since it was he who lost the fight, we ought to come again to the conclusion that people are powerless in the world. In reality, we believe the opposite, and it takes the act of the man in the water to remind us of our true feelings in the matter. It is not to say that everyone would have acted as he did, or as did Usher, Windsor and Skutnik. Yet whatever moved these men to challenge death on behalf of their fellows is not peculiar to them. Everyone feels the possibility in himself. That is the enduring wonder of the story. That is why we would not let go of it. If the man in the water gave a lifeline to the people gasping for survival, he was likewise giving a lifeline to those who watched him.
由于戰(zhàn)敗的一方是這位“水中人”，我們按說應(yīng)該得出這一結(jié)論：人類面對自然界無能為力。事實(shí)上，我們卻相信與之相反的結(jié)論，而“水中人”的壯舉喚醒了我們對人的能量的真實(shí)感受。這并不是說我們每個(gè)人都可能會(huì)效仿“水中人”，或者是仿效厄舍、溫莎或是斯庫特尼克。然而，無論是何種力量驅(qū)使這些英雄代表人類與死亡相抗?fàn)帲@種力量并非他們所獨(dú)有。我個(gè)人都感覺到自己身上隱藏著這種可能性。這就是這個(gè)故事的恒久魅力之所在。這就是為什么我們不能忘懷這件事的緣故。如果“水中人”給了渴望生存的人一根救生索的話，他同樣也給了那些看著他的人一根救生索。
