1
一

The plain man on a plain day wakes up, slowly or quickly according to his temperament, and greets the day in a mental posture which might be thus expressed in words:

平凡人在平凡的一天醒来，依着心情的好坏而动作或快或慢，他迎接这一天的心理状态用语言表示就是：“上帝啊！又是一天！真遭罪！”

If you ask me whom I mean by the plain man, my reply is that I mean almost every man. I mean you. I certainly mean me. I mean the rich and the poor, the successful and the unsuccessful, the idle and the diligent, the luxurious and the austere. For, what with the limits of digestion, the practical impossibility of wearing two neckties at once, the insecurity of investments, the responsibilities of wealth and of success, the exhaustingness of the search for pleasure, and the cheapness of travel—the real differences between one sort of plain man and another are slight in these times. (And indeed they always were slight.)

你要是问我这个平凡人指谁，我的回答是：每个人，包括你，当然也包括我，包括富人、穷人，成功的人、不成功的人，懒散的人、勤快的人，奢侈的人和吝啬的人。每个人消化能力有限，同时戴两条领带也不现实，考虑到投资存在风险，富人和成功人士都有一定的责任，人们极尽所能地寻求乐趣以及廉价旅行——现今一种平凡人和另一种平凡人之间真正的差距很小。（其实一直以来都挺小的。）

The plain man has a lot to do before he may have his breakfast—and he must do it. The tyrannic routine begins instantly he is out of bed. To lave limbs, to shave the jaw, to select clothes and assume them—these things are naught. He must exercise his muscles—all his muscles equally and scientifically—with the aid of a text-book and of diagrams on a large card; which card he often hides if he is expecting visitors in his chamber, for he will not always confess to these exercises; he would have you believe that he alone, in a world of simpletons, is above the faddism of the hour; he is as ashamed of these exercises as of a good resolution, and when his wife happens to burst in on them he will pretend to be doing some common act, such as walking across the room or examining a mole in the small of his back. And yet he will not abandon them. They have an empire over him. To drop them would be to be craven, inefficient. The text-book asserts that they will form one of the pleasantest parts of the day, and that he will learn to look forward to them. He soon learns to look forward to them, but not with glee. He is relieved and proud when they are over for the day.

平凡人吃早餐以前有很多事情要做——都是必须做的事儿。强制性的日程从一下床就开始了：洗漱、剃须、选了衣服比比划划——这些事情根本不算什么。必须做的事儿是锻炼肌肉——全面又科学地锻炼全身的肌肉——参考着教科书和一张大卡片上的图示。在家里等候访客时，他通常会把这张卡片藏起来，因为不愿承认自己在锻炼；平凡人想让你相信，在这个人人都头脑简单的世界，只有他一个人不追赶时髦；他对锻炼感到羞愧，就像羞愧于下决心改正自己一样，如果妻子正巧撞上他锻炼，平凡人会假装自己正在做些平常的事儿，比如在房间里踱步或是检查腰背上的一颗痣。然而他不会放弃锻炼，锻炼对他来说意义重大。放弃锻炼就意味着自己是个懦夫，是个没用的人。教科书里宣称锻炼会成为一天中最愉快的时光之一，所以他也会学会期待锻炼。很快平凡人就学会了期待锻炼，但心情却不怎么愉快。当天的锻炼结束后他会觉得松了口气，也觉得很骄傲。

He would enjoy his breakfast, thanks to the strenuous imitation of diagrams, were it not that, in addition to being generally in a hurry, he is preoccupied. He is preoccupied by the sense of doom, by the sense that he has set out on the appointed path and dare not stray from it. The train or the tram-car or the automobile (same thing) is waiting for him, irrevocable, undeniable, inevitable. He wrenches himself away. He goes forth to his fate, as to the dentist. And just as he would enjoy his breakfast in the home, so he would enjoy his newspaper and cigarette in the vehicle, were it not for that ever-present sense of doom. The idea of business grips him. It matters not what the business is. Business is everything, and everything is business. He reaches his office—whatever his office is. He is in his office. He must plunge—he plunges. The day has genuinely begun now. The appointed path stretches straight in front of him, for five, six, seven, eight hours.

平凡人早餐时胃口会不错，因为照着图示做动作很累人；若不是因为锻炼，早晨通常的匆忙中他会若有所思。占据平凡人思绪的是一种命中注定的感觉，一种自己已走上指定的轨道不敢偏离的感觉。火车、电车、或是汽车（都是一样的）正在等着他，无法取消，无法拒绝，无法避免。他强制自己离开，径直走向命运，就像是去看牙医。和在家享受早餐一样，要不是那挥之不去的命中注定之感，平凡人也会在车上很享受地读报和抽烟。而工作的念头攫住了他，是什么样的工作无关紧要。工作就是一切，一切都是工作。平凡人到了办公地点——不论他在什么样的地方办公。在自己的办公室里，他必须一头埋进去——他一头埋进去了。现在一天才真正开始。规定好的道路平铺在他面前，他要工作五、六、七或八个小时。

Oh! But he chose his vocation. He likes it. It satisfies his instincts. It is his life. (So you say.) Well, does he like it? Does it satisfy his instincts? Is it his life? If truly the answer is affirmative, he is at any rate not conscious of the fact. He is aware of no ecstasy. What is the use of being happy unless he knows he is happy? Some men know that they are happy in the hours of business, but they are few. The majority are not, and the bulk of the majority do not even pretend to be. The whole attitude of the average plain man to business implies that business is a nuisance, scarcely mitigated. With what secret satisfaction he anticipates that visit to the barber's in the middle of the morning! With what gusto he hails the arrival of an unexpected interrupting friend! With what easement he decides that he may lawfully put off some task till the morrow! Let him hear a band or a fire-engine in the street, and he will go to the window with the eagerness of a child or of a girl-clerk. If he were working at golf the bands of all the regiments of Hohenzollern [1] would not make him turn his head, nor the multitudinous blazing of fireproof skyscrapers. No! Let us be honest. Business constitutes the steepest, roughest league of the appointed path. Were it otherwise, business would not be universally regarded as a means to an end.

噢！但职业是平凡人自己选择的，他喜欢。职业能满足他的本能，是他的生活。（可以这么说。）那么，平凡人喜欢这职业吗？工作能满足他的本能吗？是他的生活吗？即使这些答案真的是肯定的，至少平凡人自己还没有意识到。他感受不到喜悦。要是自己都不知道自己是快乐的，那快乐有什么用？有些人知道自己在工作时是快乐的，但这类人很少。大部分人是不快乐的，而这些人中的大部分甚至连假装快乐都不会。一般的平凡人对工作的整体态度说明工作是件烦人的事儿，非常烦人。他内心期待上午十点多钟去理发的心情不知道有多满足！招呼那打断他工作的不速之客时不知道有多开心！决定可以把一些任务合理地推到明天时不知道有多轻松！听到街上有乐队或是消防车的声音，他就会像小孩或女店员一样急切地冲到窗边。要是正在玩高尔夫，即使霍亨索伦王室所有的军乐团都出动，他也不会转一下头，哪怕一大批防火的摩天大楼同时着火也不会让他分神。不！我们实话实说吧。工作是规定好的道路上最难接受、最棘手的一部分。要不然，工作是不会被普遍当作达成目的的手段的。

Moreover, when the plain man gets home again, does his wife's face say to him: "I know that your real life is now over for the day, and I regret for your sake that you have to return here. I know that the powerful interest of your life is gone. But I am glad that you have had five, six, seven, or eight hours of passionate pleasure"? Not a bit! His wife's face says to him: "I commiserate with you on all that you have been through. It is a great shame that you should be compelled to toil thus painfully. But I will try to make it up to you. I will soothe you. I will humour you. Forget anxiety and fatigue in my smiles." She does not fetch his comfortable slippers for him, partly because, in this century, wives do not do such things, and partly because comfortable slippers are no longer worn. But she does the equivalent—whatever the equivalent may happen to be in that particular household. And he expects the commiseration and the solace in her face. He would be very hurt did he not find it there.

再者，平凡人又回到家，他妻子的表情会像是在这样说吗：“我知道你今天真正的生活已经结束，真为你难过你又要回到这里。我知道你生活中浓厚的兴趣已经没了，但很高兴你充满热情地度过了五、六、七或八个小时的愉快时光”？根本不是！他妻子的表情会像是在说：“我同情你经受的一切，真不幸你不得不这么辛苦操劳。但我会试着补偿你、安慰你、逗你开心。在我的笑脸中忘记焦虑和疲惫吧。”她没有给他拿来舒服的拖鞋，部分原因是因为在当今这个世纪妻子都不做这样的事了，还有部分原因是现在人们不穿舒服的拖鞋了。但她会做等同于拿拖鞋的事——不管在具体家庭中这个等同于拿拖鞋的事是什么。平凡人期待看到妻子脸上的同情和安慰。如果看不到，就会很受伤。

And even yet he is not relaxed. Even yet the appointed path stretches inexorably in front, and he cannot wander. For now he feels the cogs and cranks of the highly complex domestic machine. At breakfast he declined to hear them; they were shut off from him; he was too busy to be bothered with them. At evening he must be bothered with them. Was it not he who created the machine? He discovers, often to his astonishment, that his wife has an existence of her own, full of factors foreign to him, and he has to project himself, not only into his wife's existence, but into the existences of other minor personages. His daughter, for example, will persist in growing up. Not for a single day will she pause. He arrives one night and perceives that she is a woman and that he must treat her as a woman. He had not bargained for this. Peace, ease, relaxation in a home vibrating to the whir of such astounding phenomena? Impossible dream! These phenomena were originally meant by him to be the ornamentation of his career, but they are threatening to be the sole reason of his career. If his wife lives for him, it is certain that he lives just as much for his wife; and as for his daughter, while she emphatically does not live for him, he is bound to admit that he has just got to live for her—and she knows it!

即使现在，平凡人也没有放松。现在规定好的道路还是在面前无情地延伸，他不能有丝毫懈怠，因为现在他感觉到的是高度复杂的家庭机器里的齿轮和曲柄。早餐时他拒绝听到这些，这些事被拒之门外；他忙得根本顾不上。到了晚上就逃不掉了。不就是他自己创造了这台机器吗？平凡人经常惊奇地发现，妻子是个独立的存在，很多方面自己都不了解她，而平凡人必须把自己置于他人的存在中，不光有他的妻子，还有其他小人物。比如说，女儿一直在长大，一天也不耽搁。有天晚上回到家，他发觉女儿已经长大成人了，自己则必须像对待女人那样对待她。他可没预料到会是这样。平静、安逸、放松，在一个被种种惊人现象搅得不得安宁的家中，这些可能吗？不可能，做梦去吧！这些现象原本该是他职业生涯中的点缀，却逐渐就要成为他工作的唯一原因。如果说妻子是为他而活，那么他肯定也同样地为妻子而活；至于女儿，虽然她显然不是为父亲而活，他必须得承认自己要为她而活——而且这一点女儿很清楚！

To gain money was exhausting; to spend it is precisely as exhausting. He cannot quit the appointed path nor lift the doom. Dinner is finished ere he has begun to recover from the varied shock of home. Then his daughter may negligently throw him a few moments of charming cajolery. He may gossip in simple idleness with his wife. He may gambol like any infant with the dog. A yawn. The shadow of the next day is upon him. He must not stay up too late, lest the vigour demanded by the next day should be impaired. Besides, he does not want to stay up. Naught is quite interesting enough to keep him up. And bed, too, is part of the appointed, unescapable path. To bed he goes, carrying ten million preoccupations. And of his state of mind the kindest that can be said is that he is philosophic enough to hope for the best.

挣钱让人筋疲力尽，花钱也同样让人筋疲力尽。平凡人不能逃脱规定好的道路，也不能摆脱命中注定之感。还没有开始从家里的种种震惊中恢复过来，晚餐已经结束了。然后女儿可能心不在焉地对他说些甜言蜜语，他也可能和妻子懒洋洋地说点闲话，或者像所有小孩子一样和狗一起嬉戏。打个呵欠。另一天的阴影又来了。他不能睡得太晚，否则会影响第二天必需的精力。此外他也不想熬夜，没什么东西让他有兴趣一直不睡。床也是不能逃避的规定道路的一部分。上床后，他的脑子里思绪万千。至于现在的思想状态，往最好了说，也只是他足够明智，希望一切尽可能地好。

And after the night he wakes up, slowly or quickly according to his temperament, and greets the day with:

这一夜过去，他醒来，依着心情的好坏而动作或快或慢，为迎接这天说道：

"Oh, Lord! Another day! What a grind!"

“上帝啊！又是一天！真遭罪！”

2
二

The interesting point about the whole situation is that the plain man seldom or never asks himself a really fundamental question about that appointed path of his—that path from which he dare not and could not wander.

整个情况中有趣的一点是，平凡人很少或从不自问与规定道路——即他不敢也不能偏离的道路——有关的真正基本的问题。

Once, perhaps in a parable, the plain man travelling met another traveller. And the plain man demanded of the traveller:

一次，也许这只是在某个寓言中，平凡人在旅途中遇到了另一个旅人。平凡人问旅人：

"Where are you going to?"

“你要去哪儿？”

The traveller replied:

旅人回答：

"Now I come to think of it, I don't know."

“我来想想这个问题，我真不知道要去哪儿。”

The plain man was ruffled by this insensate answer. He said:

平凡人对这个冷漠的回答有点气恼。他说：

"But you are travelling?"

“你是在旅行吧？

The traveller replied:

旅人回答：

"Yes."

“是的。”

The plain man, beginning to be annoyed, said:

平凡人开始感到恼火了，他说：

"Have you never asked yourself where you are going to?"

“你从不问自己要到哪儿去吗？”

"I have not."

“没问过。”

"But do you mean to tell me," protested the plain man, now irritated, "that you are putting yourself to all this trouble, peril, and expense of trains and steamers, without having asked yourself where you are going to? "

“你是想告诉我说，”平凡人有意见了，他现在真的生气了，“你不顾麻烦和危险，花钱坐火车和轮船，却连要去哪儿也不问问自己吗？”

"It never occurred to me," the traveller admitted. "I just had to start and I started."

“我从未想过。”旅人承认说，“我只是不得不出发，所以就出发了。”

Whereupon the plain man was, as too often with us plain men, staggered and deeply affronted by the illogical absurdity of human nature. "Was it conceivable," he thought, "that this traveller, presumably in his senses—”etc. (You are familiar with the tone and the style, being a plain man yourself.) And he gave way to moral indignation.

就这样，平凡人，我们这样的平凡人经常会如此，为人性中不合逻辑的荒谬震惊，感觉受到了深深的伤害。“这可能吗？”他想，“这个旅人的神智大概还正常吧——”等等。（你对这种语调和风格很熟悉，因为你自己也是个平凡人。）然后他就任凭自己在道德上义愤了。

Now I must here, in parenthesis, firmly state that I happen to be a member of the Society for the Suppression of Moral Indignation. As such, I object to the plain man's moral indignation against the traveller; and I think that a liability to moral indignation is one of the plain man's most serious defects. As such, my endeavour is to avoid being staggered and deeply affronted, or even surprised, by human vagaries. There are too many plain people who are always rediscovering human nature—its turpitudes, fatuities, unreason. They live amid human nature as in a chamber of horrors. And yet, after all these years, we surely ought to have grown used to human nature! It may be extremely vile—that is not the point. The point is that it constitutes our environment, from which we cannot escape alive. The man who is capable of being deeply affronted by his inevitable environment ought to have the pluck of his convictions and shoot himself. The Society would with pleasure pay his funeral expenses and contribute to the support of his wife and children. Such a man is, without knowing it, a dire enemy of true progress, which can only be planned and executed in an atmosphere from which heated moral superiority is absent.

这里必须插一句，我坚定地声明我是“抑制道德义愤协会”的会员。鉴于此，我反对平凡人对旅人的道德义愤；我认为义愤倾向是平凡人最严重的缺点之一。所以，我努力的方向是，避免为人类的古怪行为感到震惊或深深冒犯，甚至都不要惊奇。有太多的平凡人一直在重新认识人性——人性的卑鄙、昏庸和不理性。他们生活在人性中，就像是生活在鬼屋里。然而，这么多年过去，我们当然应该已经习惯人性！人性可能极端卑鄙——但这不是问题的关键，关键是它构成了我们生活的环境，只要活着就无法逃避的环境。一个人要是能被他不可逃避的生存环境所深深冒犯，就应该有勇气为自己定罪，然后一枪打死自己。协会将很乐意支付他的葬礼费用，并帮忙供养他的遗孀和孩子。这样的人自己不知道，他们构成了真正进步的死敌，真正的进步只有在没有狂热的道德优越感的环境下才能得以计划和实施。

I offer these parenthetical remarks as a guarantee that I shall not over-righteously sneer at the plain man for his share in the sequel to the conversation with the traveller. For there was a sequel to the conversation.

我在这里加上评论是为了保证，在平凡人和旅人后续的谈话中，我不会义愤填膺地对平凡人的话嗤之以鼻。因为这段谈话的确还有后续。

"As questions are being asked, where are you going to?" said the traveller.

“既然说起了这个问题，那么你要去哪儿呢？”旅人说。

The plain man answered with assurance:

平凡人肯定地答复：

"Oh, I know exactly where I'm going to. I'm going to Timbuctoo." "Indeed!" said the traveller. "And why are you going to Timbuctoo?" Said the plain man: "I'm going because it's the proper place to go to. Every self-respecting person goes to Timbuctoo.”

“我很肯定地知道要去哪儿。我要去提姆巴克图。”“是吗！”旅人说。“你为什么要去提姆巴克图呢？”平凡人说：“因为那是个合适的地方。每个自重的人都去提姆巴克图。”

"But why?"

“为什么呢？”

Said the plain man:

平凡人说：

"Well, it's supposed to be just about unique. You're contented there. You get what you've always wanted. The climate's wonderful." "Indeed!" said the traveller again. "Have you met anybody who's been there?"

“这个，据说它几乎是独一无二的。在那儿你会觉得满足，能得到一直想要的东西，气候也很好。”“是吗！”旅人又说，“你遇见过去过那儿的人吗？”

"Yes, I've met several. I've met a lot. And I've heard from people who are there."

“是的，遇见过好几个，可不少呢。我还收到过在那儿的人写来的信呢。”

"And are their reports enthusiastic?"

“他们的讲述热情吗？”

"Well—” The plain man hesitated.

“这个嘛——”平凡人犹豫了。

"Answer me. Are their reports enthusiastic?" the traveller insisted, rather bullyingly.

“回答我，他们的讲述热情吗？”旅人坚持问，相当霸道。

"Not very," the plain man admitted. "Some say it's very disappointing. And some say it's much like other towns. Every one says the climate has grave drawbacks."

“不是很热情，”平凡人承认，“有人说那里很让人失望，有人说和其他城镇差不多，大家都说那里的气候有严重的缺陷。”

The traveller demanded:

旅人问：

"Then why are you going there?"

“那你为什么还要去？”

Said the plain man:

平凡人说：

"It never occurred to me to ask why. As I say, Timbuctoo's supposed to be—”

“我从没想过为什么。像我所说的那样，据说提姆巴克图是——”

"Supposed by whom?"

“据谁说？”

"Well—generally supposed," said the plain man, limply.

“这个嘛——大家都这么说，”平凡人无力地说。

"Not by the people who've been there?" the traveller persevered, with obstinacy.

“不是据去过那里的人说吗？”旅人固执地坚持问道。

"Perhaps not," breathed the plain man.

“也许不是，”平凡人吸了口气说道。

"But it's generally supposed—” He faltered.

“但大家都这么——”他结巴了。

There was a silence, which was broken by the traveller, who inquired: "Any interesting places en route?"

没人说话，旅人打破沉默，问“路上有什么有趣的地方吗？”

"I don't know. I never troubled about that," said the plain man. "But do you mean to tell me," the traveller exclaimed, "that you are putting yourself to all this trouble, peril, and expense of trains and steamers and camel-back without having asked yourself why, and without having satisfied yourself that the thing was worth while, and without having even ascertained the most agreeable route?”

“我不知道，我从不在意这些，”平凡人说。“你是想告诉我说，”旅人惊呼道，“你不顾麻烦和危险，花钱坐火车、轮船，骑骆驼，却也不问问自己为什么，也没有说服自己这件事是值得的，甚至都没有弄清最适合的路线吗？”

Said the plain man, weakly:

平凡人软弱地说：

"I just had to start for somewhere, so I started for Timbuctoo." Said the traveller:

“我只是需要出发去某个地方，所以我出发去提姆巴 克图。”旅人说：

"Well, I'm of a forgiving disposition. Shake hands."

“好吧，我现在不想计较了，握手言和吧。”

3
三

The two individuals in the foregoing parable were worrying each other with fundamental questions. And what makes the parable unrealistic the plain man, for instance, has almost ceased to deal in fundamental questions in these days, the reason is not difficult to find. The reason lies in the modern perception that fundamental questions are getting very hard to answer. In a former time a dogmatic answer was ready waiting for every fundamental question. You asked the question, but before you asked it you knew the answer, and so there was no argument and nearly no anxiety. In that former time a mere child could glance at your conduct and tell you with certainty exactly what you would be doing and how you would be feeling ten thousand years hence, if you persisted in the said conduct. But knowledge has advanced since then, and the inconvenience of increased knowledge is that it intensifies the sense of ignorance, with the result that, though we know immensely more than our grandfathers knew, we feel immensely more ignorant than they ever felt. They were, indeed, too ignorant to be aware of ignorance—which is perhaps a comfortable state. Thus the plain man nowadays shirks fundamental questions. And assuredly no member of the Society for the Suppression of Moral Indignation shall blame him.

上面寓言中这两个人互相追问基本问题来折磨对方，而这个寓言的不真实之处在于现实中没有人会这样做。举例来说，平凡人现在几乎不再应对基本问题，原因也就不难弄清。原因在于按照现代人的想法，基本问题变得很难回答。以前每一个基本问题都有一个现成的答案。你问了一个问题，但在提问之前就已经知道了答案，所以就不会产生争论，也几乎不会产生焦虑。在以前那个时代，一个小孩子只需要看一眼你的行为，就能很肯定地告诉你，如果坚持这么做，那么一万年后你会在干什么，感觉会如何。但自那之后人类知识取得了进步，所增加知识的不利之处在于它强化了无知的感觉，结果就是，尽管我们比祖父辈的人知道的要多得多，但无知的感觉却也比他们强烈得多。实际上他们因为太无知而意识不到自己的无知——这也许是一种舒服的状态。所以现今的平凡人逃避基本问题。当然了，“抑制道德义愤协会”的会员也不能指责他。

All fundamental questions resolve themselves finally into the following assertion and inquiry about life: "I am now engaged in something rather tiresome. What do I stand to gain by it later on?" That is the basic query. It has forms of varying importance. In its supreme form the word "eternity" has to be employed. And the plain man is, today, so sensitive about this supreme form of the question that, far from asking and trying to answer it, he can scarcely bear to hear it even discussed—I mean discussed with candour. In practice a frank discussion of it usually tempts him to exhibitions of extraordinary heat and bitterness, and wisdom is thereby but obscured. Therefore he prefers the disadvantage of leaving it alone to the dissatisfaction of attempting to deal with it. The disadvantage of leaving it alone is obvious. Existence is, and must be, a compromise between the claims of the moment and the claims of the future—and how can that compromise be wisely established if one has not somehow made up one's mind about the future? It cannot. But—I repeat—I would not blame the plain man. I would only just hint to him, while respecting his sensitiveness, that the present hour is just as much a part of eternity as another hour ten thousand years off.

所有的基本问题最后都会归结为以下关于生活的看法和疑问：“我现在做的事情相当无聊，忍受下去能有什么好处呢？”这是基本问题。它还有一些重要性不一的形式。在终极的形式中，还要用到“永恒”这个词。平凡人如今对这个问题的终极形式如此敏感，别说提出或试着回答这个问题，他甚至不能忍受听到别人讨论它——我指的是坦白的讨论。现实中关于这个问题开诚布公地讨论，会诱使平凡人表现出异常的狂热和刻薄，从而掩盖智慧的光辉。所以他宁愿承担放弃这个问题的不利后果，而不是面对试图解决它带来的不满。放弃这个问题的不利后果很明显。生存是而且必须是对当下的要求和对未来要求的折衷——而如果一个人对于未来都没规划好，那么这个折衷怎样才能达成呢？根本不能达成。但是——我要重申——我不会责备平凡人。我只会向他暗示，而且是在照顾到他的敏感的基础上，现在的一个钟头和一万年后的一个钟头一样，都是永恒的一部分。

The second—the most important—form of the fundamental question embraces the problem of old age. All plain men will admit, when faithfully cross-examined, a sort of belief that they are on their way to some Timbuctoo situate in the region of old age. It may be the Timbuctoo of a special ambition realized, or the Timbuctoo of luxury, or the Timbuctoo of material security, or the Timbuctoo of hale health, or the Timbuctoo of knowledge, or the Timbuctoo of power, or even the Timbuctoo of a good conscience. It is anyhow a recognizable and definable Timbuctoo. And the path leading to it is a straight, wide thoroughfare, clearly visible for a long distance ahead.

根本问题的第二个形式——也是最重要的形式——围绕着晚年这个问题。被质询时，所有的平凡人都会承认他们有种想法，自己在向某个类似于提姆巴克图的目标进发，而这个目标应在自己的晚年实现。这个目标可能是实现某个抱负，或是奢华的生活，或是物质的保障，或是健康的身体，或是知识，或是权力，甚至可能是问心无愧。无论如何这个目标是具体而且可辨识的。而通向它的道路也是一条笔直宽广的大道，可以清楚地看到前面很长一段路途。

The theory of the mortal journey is simple and seldom challenged. It is a twofold theory—first that the delight of achievement will compensate for the rigours and self-denials of the route, and second that the misery of non-achievement would outweigh the immediate pleasures of dallying. If this theory were not indestructible, for reasons connected with the secret nature of humanity, it would probably have been destroyed long ago by the mere cumulative battering of experience. For the earth's surface is everywhere thickly dotted with old men who have achieved ambition, old men drenched in luxury, old men as safe as Mont Blanc from overthrow, old men with the health of camels, old men who know more than anybody ever knew before, old men whose nod can ruin a thousand miles of railroad, and old men with consciences of pure snow; but who are not happy and cannot enjoy life.

关于凡人人生旅途的道理简单且很少有人质疑。这个道理是具有两面性的——首先，成就带来的喜悦可以补偿路途上的艰辛和自我否定；其次，一事无成的痛苦超过了及时行乐的乐趣。因为人性的某些神秘特质，这个道理是不可颠覆的，否则的话仅仅把以往的失败经验累积起来，也早就能驳倒这个道理了。因为世界上这种老人多的是：实现了抱负的、享受荣华富贵的、地位像勃朗峰一样坚不可摧的、身体像骆驼一样健康的、有史以来知识最丰富的、点下头就能摧毁一千英里铁路的，还有心地像白雪一样纯洁的；但与此同时却一点都不快乐、不能享受生活的。

The theory, however, does happen to be indestructible, partly because old age is such a terrible long way off, partly because the young honestly believe themselves to have a monopoly of wisdom, partly because every plain man is convinced that his case will be different from all the other cases, and chiefly because endeavour—not any particular endeavour, but rather any endeavour!—is a habit that corresponds to a very profound instinct in the plain man. So the reputation of Timbuctoo as a pleasure resort remains entirely unimpaired, and the pilgrimages continue with unabated earnestness.

而这个道理碰巧是不可颠覆的，部分原因在于晚年还早得很，部分在于年轻人诚恳地相信只有自己才有智慧，部分在于每个平凡人都确信自己的人生和别人有所不同，但主要原因在于：努力，是一种习惯，这里并非特指某种努力，而是指任何努力，这习惯出于平凡人根深蒂固的本能。所以提姆巴克图作为度假胜地的美名一点儿都没有受到损害，人们怀着诚挚的热忱源源不断地继续朝圣之旅。

And there is another and a paramount reason why the pilgrimages should continue. The two men in the parable both said that they just had to start—and they were right. We have to start, and, once started, we have to keep going. We must go somewhere. And at the moment of starting we have neither the sagacity nor the leisure to invent fresh places to start for, or to cut new paths. Everybody is going to Timbuctoo; the roads are well marked. And the plain man, with his horror of being peculiar, sets out for Timbuctoo also, following the signposts. The fear of not arriving keeps him on the trot, the fear of the unknown keeps him in the middle of the road and out of the forest on either side of it, and hope keeps up his courage.

这个朝圣之旅之所以要继续，还有另一个极其重要的原因。寓言里的两个人都说他们必须要出发——说得没错。我们必须出发，而且一旦出发就要坚持走下去，并且到达某个地方。而我们出发的时候，既无脑力也无闲暇去创造全新的地方作为目的地，也无法开拓新的道路。人人都去提姆巴克图，路线已经标识得清清楚楚。平凡人害怕与众不同，也踏上了提姆巴克图之旅，一路紧随路标。怕不能到达，他一路疾驰；因对未知感到恐惧，他一直走在路当中，不敢涉足路边的森林；是希望给了他继续前行的勇气。

Will any member of the Society for the Suppression of Moral Indignation step forward and heatedly charge the plain man with culpable foolishness, ignorance, or gullibility; or even with cowardice in neglecting to find a convincing answer to the fundamental question about the other end of his life?

会有“抑制道德义愤协会”的会员上前激烈地指责平凡人吗？怪他愚蠢、无知、好骗，甚至指责他懦弱到没去找一个令人信服的答案，来回答关于人生终点这样的基本问题？

4
四

There is, however, a third form of the fundamental question which is less unanswerable than the two forms already mentioned. The plain man maybe excused for his remarkable indifference as to what his labour and his tedium will gain for him "later on," when "later on" means beyond the grave or thirty years hence. But we live also in the present, and if proper existence is a compromise between the claims of the present and the claims of the future the present must be considered, and the plain man ought surely to ask himself the fundamental question in such a form as the following: "I am now—this morning—engaged in something rather tiresome. What do I stand to gain by it this evening, tomorrow, this week—next week?" In this form the fundamental question, once put, can be immediately answered by experience and by experiment.

这个基本问题还有第三种形式，没有以上两种那么难以回答。只要“以后”指的是死后或30年后，平凡人对于现在的劳累困苦能为“以后”带来什么便漠不关心，这是可以原谅的。但我们同时也生活在当下，如果正确的生存是对当下要求和未来要求的折衷，那么就必须同样考虑当下。这样的话平凡人再自问基本问题，就要采取这样的形式：“现在，也就是今天上午，我在做相当无聊的事，这样忍下去的话，今晚、明天或这周、下周，我能得到什么？”一旦以此形式提问，基本问题的答案就能立刻从经验或试验中找到。

But does the plain man put it? I mean—does he put it seriously and effectively? I think that very often, if not as a general rule, he does not. He may—in fact he does—gloomily and savagely mutter: "What pleasure do I get out of life?" But he fails to insist on a clear answer from himself, and even if he obtains a clear answer—even if he makes the candid admission, "No pleasure," or "Not enough pleasure"—even then he usually does not insist on modifying his life in accordance withthe answer. He goes on ignoring all the interesting towns and oases on the way to his Timbuctoo. Excessively uncertain about future joy, and too breathlessly preoccupied to think about joy in the present, he just drives obstinately ahead, rather like a person in a trance. Singular conduct for a plain man priding himself on common sense!

但平凡人会这么问吗？我是说，他会认真、有效地对待这个问题吗？我想除了偶尔例外，通常情况下，他不会。他也许会，事实上也真的会，沮丧又粗鲁地嘟囔：“我这生活有什么乐趣？”但不会坚持自己找出答案，即使得到了明确的答案——即使他坦白承认，“得不到乐趣，”或者“乐趣不够”——他还是不太可能根据这答案来改变自己的生活。在去提姆巴克图的途中，他一如既往地无视路边所有可爱的小镇和绿洲。对于未来的乐趣极不确定，而忙得透不过来气的他就更无暇去思考当下的乐趣，于是只好固执地前行，就像陷入昏迷的人一样。一个平凡人以头脑清醒为荣，这是多么不同寻常的行为啊！

For the case of the plain man, conscientious and able, can only too frequently be summed up thus: faced with the problem of existence, which is the problem of combining the largest possible amount of present satisfaction with the largest possible amount of security in the future, he has educated himself generally, and he has educated himself specially for a particular profession or trade; he has adopted the profession or trade, with all its risks and responsibilities—risks and responsibilities which often involve the felicity of others; he has bound himself to it for life, almost irrevocably; he labours for it so many hours a day, and it occupies his thoughts for so many hours more. Further, in the quest of satisfaction, he has taken a woman to wife and has had children. And here it is well to note frankly that his prime object in marrying was not the woman's happiness, but his own, and that the children came, not in order that they might be jolly little creatures, but as extensions of the father's individuality. The home, the environment gradually constructed for these secondary beings, constitutes another complex organization, which he superimposes on the complex organization of his profession or trade, and his brain has to carry and vitalize the two of them. All his energies are absorbed, and they are absorbed so utterly that once a year he is obliged to take a holiday lest he should break down, and even the organization of the holiday is complex and exhausting.

对能干又尽职尽责的平凡人，我们通常只能这样总结：面对生存这一问题，即同时保证现在尽可能满足与未来尽可能安定的问题，平凡人进行了全面的自我教育，也专门学习了某个职业或行当。选择这一职业或行当也就选择了其附带的所有风险和责任——这些风险和责任往往涉及他人的幸福。他将自己的一生交付于这一职业或行当，几乎不能反悔；每天花很多小时做这份工作，花更多的时间来琢磨它。而且为了寻求满足，他娶了个女人作妻子，然后有了孩子。这里最好坦白指出，他娶妻的首要目的不是为了让这女人幸福，而是让自己幸福，孩子的到来也并非因为孩子们会快活，而是因为他们是父亲个体的延续。家庭，这个为了次要个体而逐渐建立起来的环境，构成了另一套复杂的体系；他把这个体系强加在自己的职业或行当这一复杂体系上，结果脑子就必须同时担负起这两个体系，让它们好好运作。他所有的精力都被耗尽，而且耗得一干二净，每年都不得不度一次假，以防崩溃。可连假期这个体系也是复杂且令人疲惫的。

Now assuming—a tremendous assumption!—that by all this he really is providing security for the future, what conscious direct, personal satisfaction in the present does the onerous programme actually yield? I admit that it yields the primitive satisfaction of keeping body and soul together. But a Hottentot [2] in a kraal gets the same satisfaction at less expense. I admit also that it ought theoretically to yield the conscious satisfaction which accompanies any sustained effort of the faculties. I deny that in fact it does yield this satisfaction, for the reason that the man is too busy ever to examine the treasures of his soul. And what else does it yield? For what other immediate end is the colossal travail being accomplished?

现在假设，这可是个大胆的假设，他所做的这一切都是为了未来的保障，那么这个沉重的体系能让现在有什么可感知的、直接的个人满足呢？我承认它能产生维持生活所带来的原始满足感。但是住着茅屋的霍屯督人不这么费劲也能同样维持生活。我也承认理论上它应该让人产生能意识得到的满足感，就是那种任何持续的努力后都会产生的满足感。但我不承认事实上它真能带来这种满足感，因为人们忙碌得没有时间审视自己灵魂的财富。那它还能产生什么？这项吃力的苦劳还能有什么其他的直接效果？

Well, it may, and does, occur that the plain man is practising physical and intellectual calisthenics, and running a vast business and sending ships and men to the horizons of the earth, and keeping a home in a park, and oscillating like a rapid shuttle daily between office and home, and lying awake at nights, and losing his eyesight and his digestion, and staking his health, and risking misery for the beings whom he cherishes, and enriching insurance companies, and providing joy-rides for nice young women whom he has never seen—and all his present profit therefrom is a game of golf with a free mind once a fortnight, or half an hour's intimacy with his wife and a free mind once a week or so, or a ten minutes' duel with that daughter of his and a free mind on an occasional evening! Nay, it may occur that after forty years of incessant labour, in answer to an inquiry as to where the genuine conscious fun comes in, he has the right only to answer: "Well, when I have time, I take the dog out for a walk. I enjoy larking with the dog."

的确，平凡人会练习身体或思想上的柔软体操、经营一项巨大的事业、派出人员和轮船到世界各地、有一个环境优美的家、每天穿梭于办公室和家之间、夜里失眠、视力和消化能力慢慢退化、赔上健康、为了珍爱的人情愿冒痛苦的风险、让保险公司发财、带着从未见过的美丽姑娘去兜风——而他眼下能从这一切中得到的全部好处就是：可以每两周心无旁骛地打一次高尔夫；或是大约一周左右和妻子享受一次半小时的亲密时间，脑子里什么都不想；或是和女儿吵上十分钟的架，偶尔晚上能歇歇脑子！更有甚者，也许在连续操劳四十年后，当被问起真正感受到的乐趣是什么时，他唯一的答案就是：“我有时间就会去遛狗，我喜欢和狗一起玩儿。”

The estimable plain man, with his horror of self-examination, is apt to forget the immediate end of existence in the means. And so much so, that when the first distant end—that of a secure old age—approaches achievement, he is incapable of admitting it to be achieved, and goes on worrying and worrying about the means—from simple habit! And when he does admit the achievement of the desired end, and abandons the means, he has so badly prepared himself to relish the desired end that the mere change kills him! His epitaph ought to read: "Here lies the plain man of common sense, whose life was all means and no end."

这位可敬的平凡人，因为害怕自我反省，往往只记得手段而忘记当下的目的。如此一来，当第一个较长期的目标——也就是有保障的晚年——快要达到时，他也无法承认这个目标已经完成，反而会仅仅出于习惯而继续为手段不停担忧！当他终于承认期盼的目标已经达到并丢弃了手段后，却因为缺乏准备而完全不能享受成果，光这个变化就够他受的！平凡人的墓志铭应该这样写：“这里长眠着一位头脑清醒的平凡人，他的人生里只有手段，没有目的。”

A remedy will be worth finding.

应该想个对策解决这个问题。

---

[1] 霍亨索伦王室，该王室于1415-1701年间统治勃兰登堡，1701-1918年间统治普鲁士，1871-1918年间统治德意志帝国。

[2] 霍屯督人，非洲南部的一个种族。 LHAVemMVgkc671NJld41QC17STaHjJTT9XHb0TfwhfT04STkFuheplVlb0xcpyKk