雙語美文：推開那一塊的石頭

摘要：生活讓我感到快樂，因爲我對人、對人類的發展有無窮無盡的興趣。這一興趣使我不停地瞭解更多的人，而對人的深入瞭解則促使我相信人之初，性本善。

I enjoy life because I am endlessly interested inpeople and their growth. My interest leads me towiden my knowledge of people, and this in turncompels me to believe in the common goodness ofmankind. I believe that the normal human heart isborn good. That is, it’s born sensitive and feeling,eager to be approved and to approve, hungry forsimple happiness and the chance to live. It neitherwishes to be killed, nor to kill. If throughcircumstances, it is overcome by evil, it neverbecomes entirely evil. There remain in it elements ofgood, however recessive, which continue to hold the possibility ofrestoration.

生活讓我感到快樂，因爲我對人、對人類的發展有無窮無盡的興趣。這一興趣使我不停地瞭解更多的人，而對人的深入瞭解則促使我相信人之初，性本善。也就是說人生來就善解人意，有同情心，熱望被人認同，也認同他人，渴望單純的幸福和生存的機會。人不希望被人殺害也不希望去殺害被人。即使邪念因境而生，人也不會完全被邪念所左右。人總有其美好的一面，無論如何退化變質，總有棄惡從善的可能。

I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environmentsof uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his beingaware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Onlywhen the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up isinherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith inhuman beings.

我相信人類，但我的信念絕非是濫施情感。我知道，處於飢餓、恐懼、無法預測未來的環境中，人類沒有意識到他們的發展遇到了很大的阻力，正如石頭下的植物掙扎着生長卻不知道自己被石頭壓住了一樣。只有推開了石頭，植物才能自由地、蓬勃地在陽光下生長。但是，蓬勃生長的力量是植物固有的，只有死亡才能奪去它們的這種力量。

Life Confucius of old, I am absorbed in the wonder of earth, and the life upon it, and I cannotthink of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, than this onehas been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being. With so profound a faithin the human heart and its power to grow toward the light, I find here reason and causeenough for hope and confidence in the future of mankind. The common sense of people willsurely prove to them someday that mutual support and cooperation are only sensible for thesecurity and happiness of all. Such faith keeps me continually ready and purposeful with energyto do what one person can towards shaping the environment in which the human being cangrow with freedom. This environment, I believe, is based upon the necessity for security andfriendship.

如同古代的孔夫子一樣，我深深地沉醉於奇妙的大地和美好的塵世生活之中，不可能再去暢想什麼天堂和天使。此生我活得充實。如果沒有來世，今世也足以值得我爲它誕生，不枉爲一世人。對人心之善及其嚮往光明之力的堅定信念使我對人類的未來充滿希望和信心。人類的常識一定在未來的某一天向他們證明，互相支持與合作只會對全人類的安全和幸福有實際意義。這種信念使我精力充沛、盡我所能去營造人類能自由發展的環境且樂此不疲。營造這個環境，我相信，是以安全和友誼爲必要前提的。

I take heart in a promising fact that the world contains food supplies sufficient for the entireearth population. Our knowledge of medical science is already sufficient to improve the healthof the whole human race. Our resources and education, if administered on a world scale, can liftthe intelligence of the race. All that remains is to discover how to administer upon a worldscale, the benefits which some of us already have. In other words, to return to my simile, thestone must be rolled away. This too can be done, as a sufficient number of human beingscome to have faith in themselves and in each other. Not all will have such faith at the samemoment, but there is a growing number who have the faith.

我對未來充滿信心：世界的食物能供養人類;我們的醫學知識足以改善人類的健康狀況;我們的教育資源，若在世界範圍內統一管理，能提高各種族的智力;我們只需去發現如何在世界範圍內管理我們已經擁有的資源。換言之，用我剛提到的明喻來表示，石頭必須推開。這也是能做到的。因爲我們相當多的人已逐漸樹立了對自己的信念，彼此也相互信任。雖然並不是所有的人在同一時刻具備這種信念，但具備這種信念的人數在不斷增加。

Half a century ago, no one had thought of world food, world health, world education. Many arethinking today of these things. In the midst of possible world war, of wholesale destruction, Ifind my only question this: are there enough people now who believe? Is there time enough leftfor the wise to act? It is a contest between ignorance and death, or wisdom and life. My faithin humanity stands firm.

半個世紀以前，沒有人關注世界的食品問題、健康問題和教育問題。今天就有許多人想到這些了。在可能發生的世界戰爭中，在大規模的毀滅過程中，我發現我唯一的疑問是：有足夠多的人樹立了信仰嗎?有足夠的時間讓智者採取行動嗎?這是無知與死亡之間或是智慧與生命之間的較量。我對人類的這種信念堅定不移。

　　倘若人類真能再活五百年

人，可以從生物、精神與文化等各個層面來定義，或是這些層面定義的結合。生物學上，人被分類爲人科人屬人種，是一種高級動物。精神層面上，人被描述爲能夠使用各種靈魂的概念，在宗教中這些靈魂被認爲與神聖的力量或存在有關。文化人類學上，人被定義爲能夠使用語言、具有複雜的社會組織與科技發展的生物，尤其是能夠建立團體與機構來達到互相支持與協助的目的。

人類對長生不老的癡迷 For ever and ever

Immortality

For ever and ever

人類對長生不老的癡迷

Four narratives and an actuary

四個說法和一個精算師

Immortality: The Quest to Live Forever and How It Drives Civilisation. By Stephen Cave. Crown; 320 pages; $25. Biteback Publishing; ￡20. Buy from ,

《長生不老：對永生的追求及其如何推動人類文明》作者：斯蒂芬。卡夫，皇冠出版社。

IMMORTALITY is an age-old obsession. Plenty of literature deals with the subject, from the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamish to the poems of Homer and the writings of the Old Testament. The quest to live for ever has motivated medieval alchemists, modern techno-Utopians and mystics through the centuries。

長生不老是人類世世代代所癡迷的目標。從蘇美爾的吉爾伽美什史詩到荷馬史詩，再到舊約故事，數不清的文學作品觸及到這個主題。從中世紀的煉金術士到現代的科幻烏托邦主義者和神祕主義者，千百年來人們孜孜不倦地追求着永生。

In his survey of the subject, Stephen Cave, a British philosopher, argues that man’s various tales of immortality can be boiled down into four basic “narratives”. The first is the simplest, in theory at least: do what the medieval alchemists never managed and discover an elixir to simply avoid dying. The second concerns resurrection, or coming back to life after dying, a belief found in all three of the Abrahamic religions. The idea of an immaterial soul that can persist through death dates back, in a formal form, at least to Plato, and forms Mr Cave’s third narrative. His fourth narrative deals with immortality through achievement, by becoming so famous that one’s name lives on through the ages。

英國哲學家史蒂芬。卡夫在對這個主題的研究中，把人們關於永生的觀念概括爲四個基本的“說法”。第一個，也是最簡單的(至少在理論上)：找到中世紀煉金術士們從未找到的一種神藥，從而避免死亡。第二個是再生，即在死後又恢復生命，這是所有三個亞伯拉罕系宗教(____、猶太教和伊斯蘭教)所共有的信仰。第三個“說法”是關於非物質的靈魂不死的理念，這種理念的正式形態，至少可以追溯到柏拉圖。第四個，是通過個人成就獲得永生，即，一個人可以使自己變得非常有名，以至於人們將世代記住他的名字。

For the aspiring undying, Mr Cave unfortunately concludes that immortality is a mirage. But his demolition project is fascinating in its own right. The section on the soul is an able attack on the related doctrines of “vitalism”， the soul and mind-body dualism—the intuitive and still widely held body of ideas that hold that living creatures are animated by some sort of supernatural spark, and that an individual’s personality or consciousness can survive death. The chapters on resurrection will interest Christians, as Mr Cave examines how the literal recreation, by God, of dead people’s bodies remains the doctrine of most branches of Christianity. The idea of one’s soul, as opposed to one’s body, ending up in heaven or hell is a subsequent embellishment。

談到那令人神往的永生，很不幸，卡夫先生的結論是，長生不老只是一種幻想。不過，他摧毀這種幻想的論證過程還是很精彩的。在關於靈魂的章節裏，作者對與永生相關的“活力論”信條作了有力的抨擊。活力論是一種靈魂(及心靈)與肉體的二元論，這種理念很直觀，並且仍然被廣爲接受。它認爲，生物是被某種超自然的力量所激活的，個人的特性和知覺在死後仍然存在。書中關於復活的章節肯定會使_們感興趣，卡夫先生在其中討論了上帝使死人復活的故事，解釋了爲什麼復活到現在仍然是大多數____派的信條。在接下來的章節中，卡夫涉及到人的靈魂上天堂或入地獄的話題。

If anything, readers might want more of Mr Cave’s crisp conversational prose. There could be more on living longer; Mr Cave barely has time to give even the briefest overview of the emerging science of life extension, which has allowed researchers to lengthen the lifespans of mice by a third or more in the lab。

卡夫先生的文體清新，像對話式的散文。但讀者可能會覺得他應當涉及更多的話題。比如怎樣能夠更長壽。卡夫先生甚至沒有對新興的抗老醫學做簡單的介紹，抗老醫學的研究者們已經可以在實驗室裏把老鼠的壽命延長三分之一甚至更多。

There are a few quibbles. Mr Cave’s repeated claim that the quest for immortality drives every human activity feels overdone. Others might dispute his definition of immortality itself. Mr Cave’s chief argument against the desirability of living for ever (even assuming it is possible) is the familiar one of boredom. As the uncountable billions of years tick away, the argument runs, even the most vivacious will come to realise that they have done everything there is to do, hundreds of times. With yet more billions of years looming ahead they will be struck down with a debilitating ennui。

對卡夫先生的書，我有幾點吹毛求疵的意見。例如，他反覆強調，對永生的追求是人類所有行爲的推動力，這一點似乎言過其實了。另外，他對永生的定義本身可能也會引起爭議。再者，卡夫先生不贊成追求永生(假定能夠實現)的主要論點，仍然是常見的“永生會造成厭倦”的見解。這種見解認爲：在活過了算不清的數百萬年之後，即便是最生動活潑的人也終會意識到，世上所有能做的事都被做了幾百次了;如果再活數百萬年的話，只會越來越無聊了。

That argument only applies if these notional immortals are also invincible, and therefore impervious to accident. But that is an odd definition, and not one that crops up very often, especially in scientific research into ageing. The holy grail there is simply to arrest the ageing process. Indeed, Mr Cave quotes an actuary who has estimated that the average “medical immortal” would persist for around 6,000 years before dying in a plane accident or a car crash or the like. And besides, boredom seems to be a non-problem: after all, if an immortal does ever get truly bored of his vastly extended life, there would be nothing to prevent him from ending it。

然而，這種見解能夠成立的前提是：這些假想的長生不老者同時也是刀槍不入者，因而不會被任何事故所損傷。但這種前提是難以成立的，特別是與研究老化的科學成果相悖。這種科學的目的僅僅是延緩老化。確實，卡夫先生引用了一位精算師的估算結果：即使在醫學意義上能夠長生不老的人，平均壽命大約也只有六千年，因爲他們也終會由於飛機失事或汽車事故而死去。此外，厭倦看起來不是什麼問題：假如一個長生不老的人實在由於活得太長而厭倦了，他隨時可以結束自己的生命嘛。