THE TRAIN SOUTH was very crowded, but more people were squeezing in, with their bundles and their trunks. They were dressed in every kind of way. Some wore heavy overcoats, while others had hardly anything on, even though it was quite cold. There were long coats and tight chudidars, sloppily tied turbans and turbans that were neatly tied and of different colours. When everybody had more or less settled down, the shouts could be heard of the vendors on the station platform. They were selling almost everything: soda water, cigarettes, magazines, peanuts, tea and coffee, sweets and cooked things, toys, rugs – and, strangely enough, a flute, made of polished bamboo. Its vendor was playing upon a similar one, and it had a sweet tone. It was an excited and noisy crowd. Many people had come to see off a man who must have been a fairly important person, for he was weighed down with garlands, which had a goodly smell amidst the acrid smoke of the engine and the other unpleasant odors associated with railroad stations. Two or three people were helping an old woman get into a compartment, for she was rather stout and insisted on carrying her own heavy bundle. An infant was screaming at the top of its voice, while the mother was trying to hold it to her breast. A bell rang, the engine whistle screeched, and the train began to move, not to stop again for several hours.
南线的火车非常拥挤， 却有越来越多的人在往里挤，带着他们的包裹和行李箱。 他们穿着各种样式的服饰。 有些人穿着厚重的大衣，而另一些人则几乎没有穿任何东西，即便天气很冷。 有长长的外套和紧身的丘迪达尔(印度的连衣裙)，胡乱扎着的头巾 和整洁地扎着的各种色彩的头巾。 当每个人都或多或少地安顿下来时， 可以听到站台上流动小贩的叫卖声。 他们几乎卖所有东西：苏打水、香烟、杂志、花生、茶和咖啡、糖果和熟食、玩具、地毯 —— 而奇怪的是，有用竹子打磨成的长笛。 卖它的人正在吹奏类似的曲子，它有一个甜美的音调。 这是兴奋和嘈杂的一群人。 很多人来这儿探望一个必定是相当重要的人物， 因为他被花环压得喘不过气来， 不过，在发动机刺鼻的烟雾和 火车站上的其它令人不愉快的气味中，花环有一股好闻的气味。 两三个人正在帮助一个老妇人进入一个卧车包间， 因为她相当粗壮，坚持要背着自己的沉重的包裹。 一个婴儿在高音地尖叫，而母亲正试图把它抱在胸前。 一声铃响，发动机的汽笛声呼叫，火车开始移动，几个小时都没有停下来。
It was beautiful country, and the dew was still on the fields and on the leaves of the spreading trees. We ran for some distance beside a full-flowing river and the countryside seemed to open out into endless beauty and life. Here and there were small, smoky villages, with cattle roaming about the fields, or pulling water from a well. A boy clad in dirty rags was driving two or three cows before him along a path; he waved, smiling, as the train roared by. On that morning the sky was intensely blue, the trees were washed and the fields well-watered by the recent rains and the people were going about their work; but it wasn’t for this reason that heaven was very close to the earth. There was in the air a feeling of something sacred, to which one’s whole being responded. The quality of the blessing was strange and healing; the solitary man walking along that road, and the hovel by the wayside, were bathed in it. You would never find it in churches, temples or mosques, for these are handmade and their gods hand-wrought. But there in the open country, and in that rattling train, was the inexhaustible life, a blessing that can neither be sought nor given. It was there for the taking, like that small yellow flower springing up so close to the rails. The people in the train were chatting and laughing, or reading their morning paper, but it was there among them, and among the tender, growing things of the early spring. It was there, immense and simple, the love which no book can reveal, and which the mind cannot touch. It was there on that wondrous morning, the very life of life.
这是一个美丽的乡村， 在田野上和茂盛的树木的叶子上，露珠依然还在。 我们在一条流淌的河边跑了一段距离， 乡村似乎敞开了无尽的美丽和生命。 这里和那里有烟雾缭绕的小村庄， 牛在田野里游荡，或者从井中饮水。 一个穿着脏布的男孩，沿着一条小路，驱赶着前面的两三头牛。 当火车呼啸而过，他微笑着挥手。 那天早上，天空湛蓝， 树木被洗刷，田野被最近的雨水浇灌， 人们正在劳作。 却不是因为这个原因使得天空离大地如此的亲密。 空气中弥漫着某种神圣的东西的感觉，一个人的整个生命都在回应。 祝福的品质是奇怪和治愈的； 沿着那条路独自行走的人，以及路边的小屋，都沐浴在其中。 你永远不会在教堂、寺庙或清真寺中找到它， 因为那些是手工制作的，他们的神是手工品。 但是，在开阔的乡村里，在那辆嘎嘎作响的火车里， 有取之不尽、用之不竭的生命，一种既不能寻求也不能给予的祝福。 它在那儿等待着拿走，就像那朵黄色的小花蔓延在铁轨附近。 火车上的人们在聊天和大笑，或读他们的早报， 但它就在他们中间，在早春温柔的、不断生长的万物中。 它在那里，无边无际和淳朴， 那个任何书本都无法揭示的、头脑无法触及的爱。 它就在那个奇妙的早晨，恰是那生命中的生命。
There were eight of us in the room, which was pleasantly dark, but only two or three took part in the conversation. Just outside they were cutting the grass; someone was sharpening a scythe and the children’s voices came into the room. Those who had come were very much in earnest. They all worked hard in various ways for the betterment of society, and not for outward, personal gain; but vanity is a strange thing, it hides under the cloak of virtue and respectability.
我们八个人在这个房间里，有一种令人愉快的黑暗， 但只有两三个人参加了谈话。 他们正在外面割草。 有人正在磨镰刀，孩子们的声音传进了房间。 那些到这儿来的人们非常勤勉。 他们都以各种方式艰苦工作，以改善社会， 而不是为了外在的个人利益； 但虚荣心是一个奇怪的东西，它隐藏在美德和尊敬的外衣下。
“The institution we represent is disintegrating,” began the oldest one; “it has been sinking for the past several years, and we must do something to stop this disintegration. It is so easy to destroy an organization, but so very difficult to build it up and maintain it. We have faced many crises, and somehow we have always managed to survive them, bruised, but still able to function. Now, however, we have reached a point where we have to do something drastic; but what? That is our problem.”
“我们所代表的机构正在瓦解，” 最年长的说； “它在过去的几年里一直在下沉， 我们必须做些什么，以阻止这种破裂。 摧毁一个机构是如此地容易， 但建立和维护它却非常困难。 我们面对过许多危机，不知何故，我们总有办法幸存下来， 尽管伤痕累累，却仍然能够发挥作用。 然而，现在我们已经到了必须采取一些激烈行动的地步。 但该做什么？这就是我们的问题。”
What needs to be done depends on the symptoms of the patient, and upon those who are responsible for the patient. “We know very well the symptoms of disintegration, they are all too obvious. Though outwardly the institution is recognized and flourishing, inwardly it is rotting. Our workers are what they are; we have had our differences, but have managed to pull along together for more years than I care to remember. If we were satisfied with mere outward appearances, we would consider all to be well; but those of us who are on the inside, know there is a decline.”
需要做什么取决于患者的症状， 以及那些对患者负责的人。 “我们非常清楚破裂的症状，它们都太明显了。 虽然从表面上看，这个机构是被大家认可的和繁荣的，但从内在上看，它正在腐烂。 我们的工作人员就是他们现在的样子；我们有过分歧， 但很多年以来，比我能记住的时间还久，我们一直设法团结在一起。 如果我们仅仅满足于外表，我们就会认为一切都很好。 但是我们这些在内部的人，知道出现了下滑。”
You and others who have built up and are responsible for this institution, have made it what it is; you are the institution. And disintegration is inherent in every institution, in every society or culture, is it not? “That is so,” agreed another. “As you say, the world is of our own making; the world is us, and we are the world. To change the world, we must change ourselves. This institution is part of the world; as we rot, so do the world and the institution. Regeneration must therefore begin with ourselves. The trouble is, sir, that life to us is not a total process; we act at different levels, each in contradiction with the others. This institution is one thing, and we are another. We are managers, presidents, secretaries, the top officials by whom the institution is run. We don’t regard it as our own life; it is something apart from us, something to be managed and reformed. When you say that the organization is what we are we admit it verbally, but not inwardly; we are concerned with operating upon the institution, and not upon ourselves.”
你和其他建立并负责这个机构的人们， 使它成为现在的样子；你们是这个机构。 破裂是每个机构、每个社会或文化所固有的性质，不是吗？ “就是那样，” 另一位同意。“正如你所说，世界是我们自己创造的； 世界就是我们，我们就是世界。为了改变世界，我们必须改变自己。 这个机构是世界的一部分；当我们腐败时，世界和机构也是如此。 因此，重生必须从我们自己开始。 麻烦的是，先生，我们的生命不是一个完整的过程； 我们在不同的层面上行动，每个层面都与其他层面相冲突。 这个机构是一个实体，我们是另一个实体。 我们是经理、总统、秘书、管理该机构的高级官员。 我们不把它当作我们自己的生命； 它是与我们不同的东西，是需要管理和改革的东西。 当你说机构就是我们时，我们是在口头上承认了，却不是在内心； 我们关心的是机构的运转，而不是我们自己。”
Do you see that you are in need of an operation? “I see that we are in need of a drastic operation,” said the oldest one; “but who is to be the surgeon?”
你看到你需要做手术了吗？ “我看到我们需要一场激烈的手术，” 最年长的一位说。 “但谁来当外科医生？”
Each one of us is the surgeon and the patient; there is no outside authority who is going to wield the knife. The very perception of the fact that an operation is necessary sets in motion an action which will in itself be the operation. But if there’s to be an operation, it means considerable disturbance, disharmony, for the patient has to stop living in a routine manner. Disturbance is inevitable. To avoid all disturbance of things as they are is to have the harmony of the graveyard, which is well-kept and orderly, but full of buried putrefaction.
我们每个人都是外科医生和病人； 没有外在的权威会舞动这把刀。 感知到手术的必要性，这个事实本身 触发一种行动，它自发性地操作。 但是，如果要进行手术，这意味着相当大的干扰，不和谐， 因为患者必须停止常规的生活方式。干扰是不可避免的。 避免事物的一切干扰，放任它们， 就是踏入坟墓的和谐，那个地方保存得完好和有秩序， 却填满了埋葬的腐烂。
“But is it possible, being constituted as we are, to operate upon ourselves?”
“但是，我们现在已经成了这个样子，还有可能对自己作手术吗？”
Sir, by asking that question, are you not building a wall of resistance which prevents the operation from taking place? Thus you are unconsciously allowing deterioration to continue. “I want to operate upon myself, but I don’t seem able to do it.”
先生，通过提出那个问题， 你不是在建造一堵抵抗的围墙，阻止行动的发生吗？ 因此，你无意识地放任恶化继续。 “我想对自己做手术，但我似乎没有能力去做。”
When you try to operate upon yourself, there is no operation at all. Making an effort to stop deterioration is another way of avoiding the fact; it is to allow deterioration to go on. Sir, you don’t really want an operation; you want to tinker, to improve outward appearances with little changes here and there. You want to reform, to cover the rot with gold in order that you may have the world and the institution you desire. But we are all getting old, and we are going to die. I am not foisting this on you; but why don’t you remove your hand and let there be an operation? Clean, healthy blood will flow if you don’t hinder it.
当你试图对自己进行手术时，根本不是手术。 努力去阻止恶化的行为，是另一种逃避事实的方式； 它是在放任恶化继续。先生，你真的不想做手术； 你想修补，以改善外观，在这里和那里小打小闹。 你想改革，用金子遮盖腐烂， 这样你就可以拥有你想要的世界和机构。 但是我们都在变老，我们要死了。 我不是把这些硬塞给你； 但你为什么不把你的手移开，让手术进行呢？ 干净、健康的血液会流动，如果你不去阻碍它。