Sunday Beforethe War

　　Arthur Clutton-Brock

　　On Sunday, in a remote valley inthe West of England, where the people are few and scattered and placid, therewas no more sign among them than the quiet hills of the anxiety that holds theworld. They had no news and seemed to want none. The postmaster was ordered tostay all day in his little post-office, and that something unusual thatinterested them, just only because it affected the postmaster.

掃描下方二維碼，進(jìn)入“每日一練”免費(fèi)在線測試

　　It rained in the morning, but theafternoon was clear and glorious and shining, with all distances revealed farinto the heart of Wales and to the high ridges of the Welsh mountains. Thecottages of that valley are not gathered into villages, but two or threetogether or lonely among their fruit-trees on the hillside; and the cottagers,who are always courteous and friendly, said a word or two as one went by, butjust what they would have said on any other day and without any question aboutthe war. Indeed, they seemed to know, or to wish to know, as little about thatas the earth itself, which beautiful there at any time, seemed that afternoonto wear an extreme and pathetic beauty. The country, more than any other in theEngland, has the secret of peace. It is not wild, though it looks into thewildness of Wales; but all its cultivation, its orchards and hopyards andfields of golden wheat, seem to have the beauty of time upon them, as if menthere had long lived happily upon the earth with no desire for change nor fearof decay. It is not a sad beauty of a past cut off from the present, but amellowness that the present inherits from the past; and in the mellowness allthe hillside seems a garden to the spacious farmhouses and the little cottages;each led up to by its own narrow, flowery lane. There the meadows are all lawnswith the lustrous green of spring even in August, and often over-shadowed byold fruit-trees – cherry, or apple, or pear; and on Sunday after the rain therewas an April glory and freshness added to the quiet of the later summer.

　　Nowhere and never in the world canthere have been a deeper peace; and the bells from the little red church downby the river seemed to be the music of it, as the song of birds is the music ofspring. There one saw how beautiful the life of man can be, and how men by theinnocent labours of many generations can give to the earth a beauty it hasnever known in its wildness. And all this peace, one knew, was threatened; andthe threat came into one’s mind as if it were a soundless message from over thegreat eastward plain; and with it the beauty seemed unsubstantial and strange,as if it were sinking away into the past, as if it were only the memory ofchildhood.

　　So it is always when the mind istroubled among happy things, and then one almost wishes they could share one’stroubles and become more real with it. It seemed on that Sunday that a goldenage had lasted till yesterday, and that the earth had still to learn the newsof its ending. And this change has come, not by the will of God, not even bythe will of man, but because some few men far away were afraid to be open andgenerous with each other. There was a power in their hands so great that itfrightened them. There was a spring that they knew they must not touch, and,like mischievous and nervous children, they had touched it at last, and now allthe world was to suffer for their mischief.

　　So the next morning one saw areservist in his uniform saying goodbye to his wife and children at hiscottage-gate and then walking up the hill that leads out of the valley with acheerful smile still on his face. There was the first open sign of trouble, avery little one, and he made the least of it; and, after all, this valley isvery far from any possible war, and its harvest and its vintages of perry andcider will surely be gathered in peace.

　　But what happiness can there be inthat peace, or what security in the mind of man, when the madness of war is letloose in so many other valleys? Here there is a beauty inherited from the past,and added to the earth by man’s will; but the men here are of the same natureand subject to the same madness as those who are gathering to fight on thefrontiers. We are all men with the same power of making and destroying, withthe same divine foresight mocked by the same animal blindness. We ourselves maynot be in fault today, but it is human beings in no way different from us whoare doing what we abhor and they abhor even while they do it. There is a fate,coming from the beast in our own past, that the present man in us has not yetmastered, and for the moment that fate seems a malignity in the nature of theuniverse that mocks us even in the beauty of these lonely hills. But it is notso, for we are not separate and indifferent like the beasts; and if one nationfor the moment forgets our common humanity and its future, then another musttake over that sacred charge and guard it without hatred or fear until themadness is passed. May that be our task now, so that we may wage war only forthe future peace of the world and with the lasting courage that needs nostimulant of hate.

　　戰(zhàn)前星期天

　　阿瑟·克拉頓

　　星期天，在英格蘭西部一處居家稀少、民性平靖的幽遠(yuǎn)山谷，如在寂靜的群山之中一樣，全無世人憂心忡忡的跡象。谷地的人們沒有外部世界的消息，看來也不想打聽。當(dāng)?shù)剜]差接獲通知，讓他整日守著小小的辦公室。這是引人關(guān)注的不尋常事態(tài)，不過也只是因?yàn)槭玛P(guān)郵差而已。

　　早晨下了雨，午后放晴，陽光明媚，逶迤伸展到遠(yuǎn)處威爾士腹地以及威爾士山脈巍峨群峰的景致，全部呈現(xiàn)在眼前。谷地的農(nóng)舍并不集成村落，而是三兩簇聚，要不就孤零零的，掩埋在山腰的果樹叢中。農(nóng)舍的住戶從來都彬彬有禮，態(tài)度友善，見人走過，會(huì)說上一兩句話，然而也只是任何尋常日子的家常話，全不問打仗的事。看來，對于戰(zhàn)爭，他們知之甚少，也不想了解更多，漠然宛若他們腳下的大地。這兒的土地常年秀美，而在這天下午更是披上了一種極度凄婉動(dòng)人的美。這片鄉(xiāng)野，比起英格蘭的任何鄉(xiāng)野，更得和平的奧秘。雖說面對威爾士的荒原，這片鄉(xiāng)野并非蠻荒，倒是以其耕作的成績，以其果園、啤酒花藤栽培場和金黃色的麥田，顯示出日月流逝留下的美，仿佛這兒的人長年以來一直在土地上幸福度日，既不期盼變更，也不畏懼衰亡。這不是一種與現(xiàn)今隔絕的往昔的悲涼美，而是現(xiàn)今繼承自往昔的一種醇美。就在這一片醇美之中，四周的山坡似乎成了寬敞的農(nóng)舍和玲瓏家舍的家園，每座都由各自花色爛漫的小徑引至門前。這兒的牧場全是精心整理的草地，即使在八月仍是一片春日的蔥郁;不少地方更有栽培經(jīng)年的櫻桃、蘋果和梨樹等果樹掩映。在這雨后的星期天，除了殘夏特有的恬靜。田鄉(xiāng)還透出一種四月的輝耀和新生氣息。

　　世間任何地方在任何時(shí)候都不可能領(lǐng)略比這兒更為深沉的和平。從山下河畔那座紅磚小教堂傳出的鐘聲，像是和平的主題音樂，正如啁啾的鳥語是春天的音樂一樣。在這兒，你看到了人類生活可有多么美好，人類又如何以迭代的誠實(shí)勞動(dòng)給土地帶來一種土地在蠻荒時(shí)代從未領(lǐng)略到的美。然而，你也意識到，這兒的和平景象正遭到威脅。這威脅如同穿越向東延伸的大平原傳來的無聲訊息，隨之，田野之美頓時(shí)變得虛空而詭奇，似乎正融入往昔而漸漸消失，渺遠(yuǎn)宛若童年的回憶。

　　置身幸福環(huán)境的人，在思想受到困擾的時(shí)候，總有這種體驗(yàn)。接著，他幾乎會(huì)奢望幸福環(huán)境能分擔(dān)他的困擾并在分擔(dān)過程中變得更為真實(shí)。在那個(gè)星期天，人們感到，一個(gè)黃金時(shí)代已在昨日宣告結(jié)束，而大地對這消息猶渾然不覺。這場變化之所以發(fā)生，不是上帝的旨意使然，甚至也不是人類的意志使然，而是因?yàn)檫h(yuǎn)在別處的少數(shù)人怯于開誠布公地善待同類。他們手中握有足以令他們戰(zhàn)栗的大權(quán)。有一條他們知道不可去觸動(dòng)的彈簧發(fā)條，可是如同喜歡搗蛋又戰(zhàn)戰(zhàn)兢兢的孩子，他們畢竟去觸動(dòng)了，為了他們的淘氣，如今全世界的人要受罪了。

　　于是，翌日早晨，人們看見一名預(yù)備役士兵穿上制服，在農(nóng)舍門口告別妻孥，爬山出谷去了，臉上仍掛著欣喜的笑容。那是出現(xiàn)麻煩的第一個(gè)朕兆，一點(diǎn)蛛絲馬跡而已，當(dāng)事人更是盡量不事聲張。歸根到底，這片谷地遠(yuǎn)在可能燃起的戰(zhàn)火之外，這兒的一應(yīng)作物以及用于今年釀造的梨子和蘋果都將在和平環(huán)境中收摘?dú)w倉。

　　但是，在這么一種和平中，有什么幸�？裳�?當(dāng)戰(zhàn)爭的瘋狂在其他許多山谷中自由逡巡之際，人的心態(tài)又怎能平安釋然?這兒存在一種往昔傳下又被人的意志賦予大地的美，可是這兒的居民跟那些聚集在國境線上廝殺的士兵有同樣的人性，又為同樣的瘋狂所驅(qū)遣。我們都是人，具有同樣的創(chuàng)造力量和毀滅力量，又都有神一般的遠(yuǎn)見卓識，只是這種識見時(shí)被共同的盲目獸性所嘲弄。今天，我們自己興許并未做錯(cuò)事。然而，正在從事令我們厭憎不已的惡行的是一些同我們完全一樣的人;這些惡行同樣使他們自己即使作惡的同時(shí)也感到厭憎。今人的人性尚未馴服早年原始人的獸性，正是這種獸性形成了某種必 然性。眼下，宿命的必 然性似乎正表現(xiàn)為存在于宇宙本原中的邪惡力量�？v然這兒的山景美輪美奐，邪惡力量正向我們發(fā)出嘲弄的獰笑。但是，事情終究不是這樣，因?yàn)槲覀儾皇歉髯詾檎�又無動(dòng)于衷的獸類。倘若一個(gè)民族必須接過那神圣的使命，不懷仇恨也不抱恐懼地捍衛(wèi)它，直至瘋狂殞消。但愿這一點(diǎn)成為今日我們的職責(zé)，以使我們只為世界的未來和平而作戰(zhàn)，帶著不需要由仇恨激化的永恒的勇氣去作戰(zhàn)。

　　口譯： 翻譯資格考試二級口譯模擬題

　　筆譯： 翻譯資格考試二級筆譯模擬題

　　資料來源考試網(wǎng)校老師主講教材精講班課程，完整講義下載進(jìn)入個(gè)人中心>>