THE BABY HAD been crying all night, and the poor mother had been doing her best to quiet him. She sang to him, she scolded him, she petted and rocked him; but it was no good. The baby must have been teething, and it was a weary night for the whole family. But now the dawn was coming over the dark trees, and at last the baby became quiet. There was a peculiar stillness as the sky grew lighter and lighter. The dead branches were clear against the sky, slender and naked; a child called, a dog barked, a lorry rattled by, and another day had begun. Presently the mother came out carrying the baby, carefully wrapped, and walked along the road past the village, where she waited for a bus. Presumably she was taking him to the doctor. She looked so tired and haggard after that sleepless night, but the baby was fast asleep.
小宝宝哭了一晚上，可怜的母亲一直在尽力安抚他。 她唱歌给他，她责骂他，她抚摸和摇晃他；但都没有用。 宝宝一定在长牙齿，这对全家人来说都是一个疲惫的夜晚。 但现在黎明已经降临在黑暗的树上，宝宝终于安静了。 伴随着一种奇怪的静，天渐渐地亮了。 枯枝在天空中清晰可见，纤细而裸露； 孩子的呼唤、狗叫声、嘎嘎作响的卡车，另一天开始了。 这时，母亲抱着婴儿出来，小心翼翼地裹着， 沿着马路穿过村子，她到那儿等公交车。 大概是带他去看医生。 在那个不眠之夜之后，她看起来很疲惫和憔悴，但宝宝很快就睡着了。
Soon the sun was over the tree tops, and the dew sparkled on the green grass. Far away a train whistled, and the distant mountains looked cool and shadowy. A large bird flew noisily away, for we had disturbed her brooding. Our approach must have been very sudden, for she hadn’t had time to cover her eggs with dry leaves. There were over a dozen of them. Even though uncovered they were hardly visible, she had so cleverly concealed them, and now she was watching from a distant tree. We saw the mother with her brood a few days later, and the nest was empty.
很快，太阳落在了树梢上，露珠在绿草坪上闪亮。 远去的火车呼啸而过，远处的群山看起来清凉而朦胧。 一只大鸟吵吵闹闹地飞走了，因为我们打扰到她的育雏。 我们的接近一定很突然， 因为她没有时间用干叶片覆盖她的蛋，有十多个。 尽管没有盖住，也很难发现它们，她巧妙地隐藏着它们， 现在她正在远处的树上观望。 几天后，我们看到这位母亲带着她的一窝孩子，而鸟巢已经空了。
It was shady and cool along the path, which led through the damp woods to the distant hilltop, and the wattle was in bloom. It had rained heavily a few days before, and the earth was soft and yielding. There were fields of young potatoes, and far down in the valley was the town. It was a beautiful, golden morning. Beyond the hill the path led back to the house.
沿途的小路荫凉而爽快， 穿过潮湿的树林，抵达远处的山顶，金合欢树正在盛开。 几天前下过大雨，大地温柔而依从。 那里有一片年幼的土豆，山谷的深处是城镇。 这是一个美丽、金色的早晨。在山外，小路通向这所屋子。
She was very clever. She had read all the latest books, had seen the latest plays, and was well informed about some philosophy which had become the latest craze. She had been analysed and had apparently read a great deal of psychology, for she knew the jargon. She made a point of seeing all the important people, and had casually met someone who brought her along. She talked easily and expressed herself with poise and effect. She had been married, but had had no children; and one felt that all that was behind her, and that now she was on a different journey. She must have been rich, for she had about her that peculiar atmosphere of the wealthy. She began right away by asking, “In what way are you helping the world in this present crisis?” It must have been one of her stock questions. She went on to ask, more eagerly, about the prevention of war, the effects of Communism, and the future of man.
她很聪明。 她读过所有最新的书籍，看过最新的戏剧， 并且对一些已经成为最新热潮的哲学了如指掌。 她被分析过，显然读过大量的心理学，因为她知道行话。 她特意去拜访所有的重要人物， 而偶然间，碰到了一个人，带她一起来到这儿， 她说话很轻松，带着自信和表达自己的魅力。 她结过婚，却没有孩子； 一个人觉得这一切都在她身后，现在她正踏上不同的旅程。 她一定是有钱人，因为她身上有富人的那种奇特的气氛。 她马上问：“在当前的危机中，你以什么方式帮助世界？” 这一定是她储藏的问题之一。她接着更热切地询问 关于防止战争、共产主义的影响和人类的未来。
Are not wars, the increasing disasters and miseries, the outcome of our daily life? Are we not, each one of us, responsible for this crisis? The future is in the present; the future will not be very different if there is no comprehension of the present. But do you not think that each one of us is responsible for this conflict and confusion? “It may be so; but where does this recognition of responsibility lead? What value has my little action in the vast destructive action? In what way is my thought going to affect the general stupidity of man? What is happening in the world is sheer stupidity, and my intelligence is in no way going to affect it. Besides, think of the time it would take for individual action to make any impression on the world.”
战争、日益增加的灾难和悲痛，不就是我们日常生活的结果吗？ 难道我们每个人对这场危机没有责任吗？ 未来蕴藏于现在； 如果不理解现在，未来就不会有太大的不同。 但你不觉得我们每一个人都要为这场冲突与困惑负责吗？ “也许是的；但是，意识到了这个责任，会导向何方？ 在巨大的破坏性行动中，我小小的行动有什么价值？ 我的思想会以什么方式影响人类的普遍性的愚蠢？ 世界上正在发生的事情完全是愚蠢的， 我的智慧没有办法去影响它。此外， 还得考虑个人的行动给世界带来的任何影响，所需耗费的时间。”
Is the world different from you? Has not the structure of society been built up by people like you and me? To bring about a radical change in the structure, must not you and I fundamentally transform ourselves? How can there be a deep revolution of values if it does not begin with us? To help in the present crisis, must one look for a new ideology, a new economic plan? Or must one begin to understand the conflict and confusion within oneself, which, in its projection, is the World? Can new ideologies bring unity between man and man? Do not beliefs set man against man? Must we not put away our ideological barriers – for all barriers are ideological – and consider our problems, not through the bias of conclusion and formulas, but directly and without prejudice? We are never directly in relationship with our problems, but always through some belief or formulation. We can solve our problems only when we are directly in relationship with them. It is not our problems which set man against man, but our ideas about them. Problems bring us together, but ideas separate us.
世界与你不同吗？ 难道社会结构不是由你我这样的人构建的吗？ 为了给这个结构带来根本性的改变， 你和我难道不必从根本上改变我们自己吗？ 如果不从我们开始，怎么会有一场深刻的价值观革命？ 为了在当前的危机中提供帮助，一个人必须去寻找一种新的意识形态、新的经济计划吗？ 还是一个人必须开始理解自己内在的冲突与困惑， 也就是，在它投影的区域中的这个世界？ 新的意识形态能带来人与人之间的联合吗？ 难道不是信仰使人与人相互对立吗？ 难道我们还不扔掉我们意识形态上的障碍 —— 因为所有的障碍都是意识形态上的 —— 来考虑我们的问题， 不是通过结论和规则化的偏见，而是直接和不带成见的？ 我们从不与我们的问题直接触碰， 却总是通过某种信念或规则来着手。 只有当我们与问题直接建立关系时，我们才能解决这些问题。 不是我们的问题使人与人对立，而是我们对这些问题的想法。 问题使我们走到一起，但想法使我们分道扬镳。
If one may ask, why are you so apparently concerned about the crisis? “Oh, I don’t know. I see so much suffering, so much misery, and I feel something must be done about it.”
如果一个人可以问，你为什么如此明显地担心这场危机？ “哦，我不知道。我看到如此多的苦难，如此多的悲惨， 我觉得必须对它做些什么。”
Are you really concerned, or are you merely ambitious to do something? “When you put it that way, I suppose I am ambitious to do something in which I shall succeed.”
你是真的在担心，还是你有做某些事情的雄心？ “当你那样说的时候， 我想我有雄心，想做一些我会成功的事情。”
So few of us are honest in our thinking. We want to be successful, either directly for ourselves, or for the ideal, the belief with which we have identified ourselves. The ideal is our own projection, it is the product of our mind, and our mind experiences according to our conditioning. For these self-projections we work, we slave away and die. Nationalism, like the worship of God, is only the glorification of oneself. It is oneself that is important, actually or ideologically, and not the disaster and the misery. We really do not want to do anything about the crisis; it is merely a new topic for the clever, a field for the socially active and for the idealist.
我们中很少有人正直地思考。 我们想要成功，要么直接为自己，要么为了理想， 为了我们所认同的信念。 这个理想，是我们自己的投影， 它是我们头脑的产物，我们的头脑根据我们的局限来体验。 为了这些自我投影，我们工作，奴役我们自身，然后死亡。 民族主义，就像崇拜上帝一样，只是对自我的歌颂。 重要的是自我，无论是在现实中，还是在意识形态上，而不是灾难和悲惨。 对于这场危机，我们真的不想做任何事情； 它只是聪明人的一个新话题， 为社会活动家和理想主义者提供了一个新的场地。
Why are we ambitious? “If we were not, nothing would get done in the world. If we were not ambitious we would still be driving about in horse carriages. Ambition is another name for progress. Without progress, we would decay, wither away.”
我们为什么有雄心？ “如果我们没有，世界上就没事可做了。 如果我们没有雄心，我们仍然会驾着马车四处走动。 雄心是进步的另一个名称。没有进步，我们就会衰败、枯萎。”
In getting things done in the world, we are also breeding wars and untold miseries. Is ambition progress? For the moment we are not considering progress, but ambition. Why are we ambitious? Why do we want to succeed, to be somebody? Why do we struggle to be superior? Why all this effort to assert oneself, whether directly, or through an ideology or the State? Is not this self-assertion the main cause of our conflict and confusion?
当我们在这世界上折腾的时候，我们也滋生出战争和诉不尽的苦难。 雄心是进步吗？目前，我们考虑的不是进步，而是雄心。 我们为什么有雄心？我们为什么想成功，想成为某个人物？ 我们为什么要挣扎着成为优越者？ 为什么要耗费所有这些努力来维护自己，无论是直接的，还是通过某种意识形态或政府？ 这种自我维护，难道不是我们冲突与困惑的主要原因吗？
Without ambition, would we perish? Can we not physically survive without being ambitious ?
没有雄心，我们会灭亡吗？ 如果没有雄心，我们就不能在物质世界上生存吗？
“Who wants to survive without success, without recognition?”
，谁想在这种情况下生存？”
Does not this desire for success, for applause, bring conflict both within and without? Would being free of ambition mean decay? Is it stagnation to have no conflict? We can drug ourselves, put ourselves to sleep with beliefs, with doctrines, and so have no deep conflicts. For most of us, some kind of activity is the drug. Obviously, such a state is one of decay, disintegration. But when we are aware of the false as the false, does it bring death? To be aware that ambition in any form, whether for happiness, for God, or for success, is the beginning of conflict both within and without, surely does not mean the end of all action, the end of life.
这种对成功的渴望，对掌声的渴望，难道没有带来内在和外在的冲突吗？ 摆脱雄心就意味着腐朽吗？没有冲突就是停滞不前吗？ 我们可以给自己下毒，用信仰、教义让自己入睡，这样就没有了深刻的冲突。 对于我们大多数人来说，某种类型的活动就是这种毒药。 明显，这样的状态是一种腐败、崩溃的状态。 但是，当我们意识到假就是假时，就带来了死亡吗？ 任何一种形式的雄心，无论是为了幸福，为了上帝，还是为了成功， 就是引发冲突的导火索 —— 无论它是内在，还是外在的冲突。 意识到这一点，可以肯定的说，并不意味着所有行动的终结、生命的终结。
Why are we ambitious? “I would be bored if I were not occupied in striving to achieve some kind of result. I used to be ambitious for my husband, and I suppose you would say it was for myself through my husband; and now I am ambitious for myself through an idea. I have never thought about ambition, I have just been ambitious.”
我们为什么有雄心？ “如果我不忙于为取得某种结果而奋斗，我会感到无聊。 我曾经对我的丈夫满怀期盼， 我想你会说这是通过我的丈夫来成就自我； 现在我通过一个理念，来点燃自己的雄心。 我从来没有想过野心，我只是有雄心。”
Why are we clever and ambitious? Is not ambition an urge to avoid what is? Is not this cleverness really stupid, which is what we are? Why are we so frightened of what is? What is the good of running away if whatever we are is always there? We may succeed in escaping, but what we are is still there, breeding conflict and misery. Why are we so frightened of our loneliness, of our emptiness? Any activity away from what is is bound to bring sorrow and antagonism. Conflict is the denial of what is or the running away from what is; there is no conflict other than that. Our conflict becomes more and more complex and insoluble because we do not face what is. There is no complexity in what is, but only in the many escapes that we seek.
为什么我们聪明而有雄心？ 雄心不是一种逃避现状的冲动吗？ 这种聪明难道不是真正的愚蠢吗？这不就是我们的现状吗？ 为什么我们如此害怕现状？ 如果我们总是在那里，逃避有什么好处？ 我们可能成功地逃脱，但我们依然在那儿，滋生着冲突与悲惨。 为什么我们如此恐惧我们的孤独、我们的空虚？ 任何远离现状的活动，都必然会带来悲伤与敌对。 冲突是对现实的拒绝或逃逸现场的冷漠； 除此之外，再无冲突。 我们的冲突变得越来越复杂和难以解决，因为我们不面对现实。 现实不复杂，复杂的只是我们所追求的各种逃跑路线。