評論
打印
They had this extraordinary appreciation of fact that we shall notice again and again. When disaster comes, the English instinct is to do what can be done first, and to postpone the feeling as long as possible. Hence they are splendid at emergencies. No doubt they are brave—no one will deny that—bravery is partly an affair of the nerves, and the English nervous system is well equipped for meeting physical emergency. It acts promptly and feels slowly. Such a combination is fruitful, and anyone who possesses it has gone long way toward being brave. And when the action is over, then the Englishman can feel.
英國人注意的是我們應該一再注意的事實。當災難來臨時，英國人的本能是去做最先能做的事，并且盡量推遲感情的到來。因此英國人在緊急情況下異常鎮靜。無疑他們是勇敢的，這一點毋庸置疑，但是勇敢的性情歸功于神經而英國人的神經系統是為身體上的緊急情況而準備的。它（英國人的神經系統）行動迅速，感覺遲緩。這二者的結合的確有用，具備這一結合的人多半都很勇敢。動作結束時，英國人才會有感覺。
There is one more consideration—most important one. If the English nature is cold, how is it that it has produced a great literature and a literature that is particularly great in poetry? Judged by its prose, English literature would not stand in the first rank. It is its poetry that raises it to the level of Greek, Persian, or French. And yet the English are supposed to be so unpoetical. How is this? The nation that produced the Elizabethan drama and the Lake Poets cannot be a could, unpoetical nation. We can't get fire out of ice. Since literature always rests upon national character, there must be in the English nature hidden springs of fire to produce the fire we see. The warm sympathy, the romance, the imagination, that we look for in Englishmen whom we meet, and too often vainly look for, must exist in the nation as a whole, or we could not have this outburst of national song. An undeveloped heart—not a cold one.
這里有一個更重要的結論一最重要的一點。如果英國人天性冷漠，他們如何能夠創造出偉大的文學，尤其是詩體文學？就散文而言，英國文學不是一流的；是詩使得英國文學與希臘、波斯或法國文學齊名。然而英國人卻被認為不解詩情畫意，原因何在？擁有伊麗莎白時期的戲劇和湖畔詩人的民族絕不是一個冷漠、無詩情畫意的民族，冰不能生火。因為文學總是以民族特征為基礎，所以，英國特性中肯定隱藏著激情的源泉，這樣才會創造出我們讀到的火一般的文學作品。我們常常在周圍熟悉的人身上尋找熱情的同情心浪漫、想象力，但往往無功而返。然而，這些品質肯定存在于英國整體民族之中，否則我們不可能有如此熱情奔放的英國國歌只是一顆發育不全的心，而不是一顆冷酷的心。
The trouble is that the English nature is not at all easy to understand. It has a great air of simplicity, it advertises itself as simple, but the more we consider it, the greater the problems we shall encounter. People talk of the mysterious East, but the West also is mysterious. It has depths that do not reveal themselves at the first gaze. We know what the sea looks like from a distance: it is of one color, and level, and obviously cannot contain such creatures as fish. But if we look into the sea over the edge of a boat, we see a dozen colors, and depth below depth, and fish swimming in them. That sea is the English character—apparently imperturbable and even.
問題在于英國人的性格并不容易理解。英國人的性格彰顯著簡約的氣質，它標榜自己簡明，然而我們越探究它，遇到的問題就越多。人們往往認為東方是神秘的，其實西方也是神秘的，乍一看東西方都不會展現自身的本質。我們知道從遠處看海是什么樣子：顏色單一，水面平平，似乎里面不可能有魚類動物生存。但是，如果我們沿船舷向海底望去，我們會看到十幾種顏色，海水一層深似一層，魚兒在里面游來游去。大海猶如英國人的性格特點看似波瀾不驚，實則不然。
