給一位青年詩人的信 （2）Letters to a Young Poet(2)

 Letter Two

Viareggio, near Pisa (Italy)

April 5, 1903

You must pardon me, dear Sir, for waiting until today to gratefully remember your letter of February 24. I have been unwell all this time, not really sick, but oppressed by an influenza-like debility, which has made me incapable of doing anything. And finally, since it just didn't want to improve I came to this southern sea, whose beneficence helped me once before. But I am still not well, writing is difficult, and so you must accept these few lines instead of the letter I would have liked to send.

Of course, you must know that every letter of yours will always give me pleasure, and you must be indulgent with the answer, which will perhaps often leave you empty-handed; for ultimately, and precisely in the deepest and most important matters, we are unspeakably alone; and many things must happen, many things must go right, a whole constellation of events must be fulfilled, for one human being to successfully advise or help another.

Today I would like to tell you just two more things:

Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments. When you are fully creative, try to use it, as one more way to take hold of fife. Used purely, it too is pure, and one needn't be ashamed of it; but if you feel yourself becoming too familiar with it, if you are afraid of this growing familiarity, then turn to great and serious objects, in front of which it becomes small and helpless. Search into the depths of Things: there, irony never descends and when you arrive at the edge of greatness, find out whether this way of perceiving the world arises from a necessity of your being. For under the influence of serious Things it will either fall away from you (if it is something accidental), or else (if it is really innate and belongs to you) it will grow strong, and become a serious tool and take its place among the instruments which you can form your art with.

And the second thing I want to tell you today is this:Of all my books, I find only a few indispensable, and two of them are always with me, wherever I am. They are here, by my side: the Bible, and the books of the great Danish poet Jens Peter Jacobsen. Do you know his works? It is easy to find them, since some have been published in Recalm's Universal Library, in a very good translation. Get the little volume of Six Stories by J.P. Jacobsen and his novel Niels Lyhne, and begin with the first story in the for mer, which is cared "Mogens." A whole world will envelop you, the happiness, the abundance, inconceivable vastness of a world. Live for a while in these books, learn from them what you feel is worth learning, but most of &U love them. This love will be returned to you thousands upon thousands of times, whatever your life may become - it will, I am sure, go through the whole fabric of your being, as one of the most important threads among all the threads of your experiences, disappointments, and joys.

If I were to say who has given me the greatest experience of the essence of creativity, its depths and eternity, there are just two names would mention: Jacobsen, that great, great poet, and Auguste Rodin, the sculptor, who is without peer among all artists who are alive today.

And all success upon your path!

Yours,

Rainer Maria Rilke

第二封

您必須原諒我，親愛的先生，原諒我到了今天才想起回覆您2月24日的來信：我的身體在這段時間裏一直不好，並不是真的病了，而是被一種象流行感冒一樣的虛弱壓迫着，使我無法做任何事情。最後，因爲不見好轉，我就到了南部的這個海邊，我的身體曾在這兒得以康復，但這次仍不見好，寫作變得艱難，所以您本應見到的長信就成了現在的幾行字。

當然，您一定知道您的每一封信都給我帶來了快樂；對我的答覆，請您給以寬容，它們經常令您兩手空空；其實按照絕對的說法，在那些最深刻和重大的事情上，不用說，我們都是獨自一個人完成的；一定有許多事情發生，一定有許多事情必須做得對，對那些希望成功地給別人建議或幫助的人來說，得做完一連串光彩的情。 

今天我想和您說兩件事：

諷刺：不要讓自己受控於它，特別是在沒有創作力的時候。當您充滿了創作力，就試着使用它，作爲一種抓取生活的方式。使用時要純粹。它本是很純粹的，沒有必要爲它感到害羞；但是如果您感到自己用得太濫了，如果您擔心它將到處氾濫，就轉向偉大而嚴肅的主題，在它們面前它會變得渺小而無能爲力。深入這些東西，諷刺在那兒將不再卑躬屈膝--而且當您到了偉大的臨界的時候，您將發現這是您必須使用的一種透視世界的方式。在嚴肅題材的影響下，諷刺或許將遠離您（如果是偶然的話），或許在另外的情況下（如果它是您內在的反映），它將變得強壯起來，並且成爲一個嚴肅的工具，成爲您的一部分藝術手段。

想要和您說的第二件事是：

我發現在我所有的書裏只有一小部分是不可缺少的，其中兩本永遠伴隨我，無論我在哪裏。現在它們也在我的身邊：《聖經》和偉大的丹麥詩人傑克布森的書。您知道他的作品嗎？很容易找到，裏卡爾姆的大學圖書館裏就有，翻譯得很好。買一本J.P.傑克布森寫的含有六個小說的書和他的小說《尼爾斯.林妮》去讀吧，從前邊提到的第一個故事開始讀，那故事的名字叫"摩根一家"（MOGENS）。一個完整的世界將包裹着您，快樂、充實、難以置信的博大的世界。在這些書中呆一段時間，學習那些您認爲是值得學習的。大多數人都熱愛它們。這種愛將無數次地在您的生活中迴盪--它將，我確信，穿透您的每根纖維，成爲那些構成您的經驗--失望和快樂--的重要纖維中之最緊要的那根。 如果要我說是誰給了我對創作力的精髓、深度和永恆的體驗，我就只想提兩個名字；傑克布森，那個真正偉大的詩人，和奧古斯丁.羅丹，那個當今世上無人能和他匹敵雕刻家。

再就是，讓我祝願您滿載而歸吧！

 您的，

 瑞那.瑪里亞.李爾克

 意大利的比薩附近

 1903年4月5日