110
111
And it is the imaginative quality of Christ’s own nature that makes him this palpitating centre of romance. The strange figures of poetic drama and ballad are made by the imagination of others, but out of his own imagination entirely did Jesus of Nazareth create himself[111a]. The cry of Isaiah had really no more to do with his coming than the song of the nightingale has to do with the rising of the moon—no more, though perhaps no less. He was the denial as well as the affirmation of prophecy. For every expectation that he fulfilled, there was another that he destroyed. In all beauty, says Bacon, there is “some strangeness of proportion,” [111b] [111.1] and of those who are born of the spirit, of those, that is to say, who like himself are dynamic forces, Christ says that they are like the wind that “bloweth where it listeth and no man can tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth.” [111.2] That is why he is so fascinating to artists. He has all the colour-elements of life: mystery, strangeness, pathos, suggestion, ecstasy, love. He appeals to the temper of wonder, and creates that mood by which alone he can be understood.
正是基督本人天性中那富有想象力的气质，使他成为这生气勃勃的罗曼司中心。诗剧和歌谣中奇特的人物是别人的想象造出来的，但拿撒勒的耶稣创造自己，凭的全是自己的想象[111a]。以赛亚的呼唤同他的降世，其间的关系就像夜莺的歌声同月亮的升起，两者相差不多——不多，虽然也许也不少。他既是对预言的确认，也是对预言的否认。因为他每成就一个期望，便摧毁了另一个。所有的美，培根说了，都存在着“某种比例上的奇特之处” [111b]；至于那些生就这种精神，也就是说，那些同他一样具有勃勃生机的人，基督说，他们就像风“随着意思吹，你听见风的响声，却不晓得它从哪里来，往哪里去”。这就是为什么他那么让艺术家着迷。他具备了生活所有的色调：神秘、奇特、悲情、暗示、狂喜、挚爱。他打动人的惊叹之心，并营造出这样一种情调，只有借助这情调才能理解他。
111
112
And it is to me a joy to remember that if he is “of imagination all compact,” [112.1] the world itself is of the same substance. I said in Dorian Gray[112.2] that the great sins of the world take place in the brain, but it is in the brain that everything takes place[112a]. We know now that we do not see with the eye or hear with the ear. They are merely channels for the transmission, adequate or inadequate, of sense-impressions. It is in the brain that the poppy is red, that the apple is odorous, that the skylark sings[112b]. 我很高兴地想到，假如他是“集想象之大成者”，那世界本身也是如此。我在《道林?格雷》中说过，天下的大罪大恶产生于头脑，但世上的一切都是在头脑中产生的[112a]。现在知道，我们并不是用眼睛看，用耳朵听。眼睛耳朵不过是传递感官印象的通道而已，传递得充分不充分另当别论。是在头脑里罂粟花红了，苹果香了，云雀唱了[112b]。
112
113
Of late I have been studying the four prose-poems about Christ with some diligence. At Christmas I managed to get hold of a Greek Testament, and every morning, after I have cleaned my cell and polished my tins, I read a little of the Gospels, a dozen verses taken by chance anywhere. It is a delightful way of opening the day. To you, in your turbulent ,ill-disciplined life, it would be a capital thing if you would do the same. It would do you no end of good, and the Greek is quite simple. Endless repetition, in and out of season, has spoiled for us the na?veté, the freshness, the simple romantic charm of the Gospels. We hear them read far too often, and far too badly, and all repetition is anti-spiritual. When one returns to the Greek it is like going into a garden of lilies out of some narrow and dark house[113a].
近来我下了点功夫钻研了关于基督的那四部散文诗。圣诞节时想法弄到了一本希腊语的《新约》，每天早晨洗好牢房刷好盆罐，就读一点福音书，随手翻他十几节读读。这样来开始一天很愉快的。对于你，在那纷纷攘攘、没有节制的生活中，要能这么做那简直是天大的一件事。那对你可是有说不完的好处，而希腊语也挺简单的。一年到头没完没了的重复，已经败坏了我们对福音书那份率真、清新，那份朴实无华的浪漫神韵的感受。我们听别人读太多太多遍了，读得也太糟太糟了，而所有的重复都是反精神的。当你回到希腊文本时，感觉就像从一所狭窄黑暗的房子里走进一个百合花花园似的[113a]。
113
114
And to me the pleasure is doubled by the reflection that it is extremely probable that we have the actual terms, the ipsissima verba,[114.1] used by Christ. It was always supposed that Christ talked in Aramaic. Even Renan thought so. But now we know that the Galilean peasants, like the Irish peasants of our own day, were bilingual, and that Greek was the ordinary language of intercourse all over Palestine, as indeed all over the Eastern world. I never liked the idea that we only knew of Christ’s own words through a translation of a translation. It is a delight to me to think that as far as his conversation was concerned, Charmides[114.2] might have listened to him, and Socrates reasoned with him, and Plato understood him: that he really said ?γ? ε?μι ? ποιμ?ν ? καλó?:[114.3] that when he thought of the lilies of the field, and how they neither toil nor spin, his absolute expression was καταμ?θετε τ? κρ?να το? ?γρο? π α?ξ?νει? ο? κοπι? ο?δ? ν?θει,[114.4] and that his last word when he cried out “My life has been completed, has reached its fulfillment, has been perfected,” was exactly as St John tells us it was τετ?λεσται:[114.5] no more.
对于我，这愉悦又是双份的，因为心想极有可能我们读到基督所用的原话，他的ipsissima verba。从来都以为基督说的是阿拉姆语，就连勒南也这样想。可现在我们知道，加利利的农民，就像我们现在的爱尔兰农民一样，是操双语的，而那希腊语又是整个巴勒斯坦的一般交际语言，的确就像在整个东部地区那样。我向来就不喜欢那个观念，认为只能通过翻译的翻译来知道基督自己的话语。令我高兴的是，就他的谈话而言，查密迪斯也许听过他的话，苏格拉底同他理论过，柏拉图明白了他的话；他也当真用希腊语说过“我是好牧人”；当他想到野地里的百合花，它们不劳苦也不纺线，千真万确地用希腊语说了“你想野地里的百合花，怎么长起来，他也不劳苦，也不纺线”；而当他最后一句话喊出“我的生命完成了，成就了，圆满了”，这时用的确实就是约翰告诉我们的：τετ?λεσται —— “成了”，没多话。
114
115
And while in reading the Gospels—particularly that of St John himself, or whatever early Gnostic took his name and mantle—I see this continual assertion of the imagination as the basis of all spiritual and material life[115a], I see also that to Christ imagination was simply a form of Love, and that to him Love was Lord in the fullest meaning of the phrase[115b]. Some six weeks ago I was allowed by the Doctor to have white bread to eat instead of the coarse black or brown bread of ordinary prison fare. It is a great delicacy. To you it will sound strange that dry bread could possibly be a delicacy to anyone. I assure you that to me it is so much so that at the close of each meal I carefully eat whatever crumbs may be left on my tin plate, or have fallen on the rough towel that one uses as a cloth so as not to soil one’s table[115c]: and do so not from hunger—I get now quite sufficient food—but simply in order that nothing should be wasted of what is given to me. So one should look on love.
在读《福音书》时——尤其是圣约翰本人的福音，或者说早期诺斯替教认为是他的名份真传的那些东西——我看到了书中不断在强调，想象是一切精神和物质生活的基础[115a]， 也看到了对基督来说，想象简直就是爱的一个形式，而爱又是主的全部意义所在[115b]。大概六周前医生允许我吃白面包，而不是通常监狱伙食那粗糙的黑或半黑面包。真是可口美味。你听着会奇怪，怎么可能干巴巴的面包也有人当成美味佳肴。我郑重地告诉你，对我是这样的美味可口，每顿饭吃完了，要是盘里还留一点面包屑，或者权当桌布的粗毛巾上掉了一点，我都会认认真真地吃干净[115c]：而且不是因为肚子饿——我现在饭食足够——只是因为给的东西我一点也不愿浪费。人当以此心向着爱。
115
116
Christ, like all fascinating personalities, had the power not merely of saying beautiful things himself, but of making other people say beautiful things to him; and I love the story St Mark tells us about the Greek woman—the γυν? ?λληνí? —who, when as a trial of her faith he said to her that he could not give her the bread of the children of Israel, answered him that the little dogs—κυν?ρια, “little dogs” it should be rendered—who are under the table eat of the crumbs that the children let fall.[116.1] Most people live for love and admiration. But it is by love and admiration that we should live[116a].[116.2] If any love is shown us we should recognise that we are quite unworthy of it. Nobody is worthy to be loved. The fact that God loves man shows that in the divine order of ideal things it is written that eternal love is to be given to what is eternally unworthy. Or if that phrase seems to you a bitter one to hear, let us say that everyone is worthy of love, except he who thinks that he is. Love is a sacrament that should be taken kneeling[116b], and Domine, non sum dignus[116.3] should be on the lips and in the hearts of those who receive it. I wish you would sometimes think of that. You need it so much.
基督就像所有个性迷人的人物那样，不但自己有能力讲出美好的道理，也能叫别人对他讲出美好的道理。 我喜欢圣马可讲的那个希腊妇人的故事。为了考验她的信念，基督对她说不能把以色列孩子们的面包给她，她听了回答说小狗——照希腊文应该译为“小狗”的——在桌子底下，吃孩子们丢下的碎渣儿呢。大部分人活着是为了爱和赞美。但我们应该是凭借爱和赞美活着[116a]。假如有任何爱向我们显露了，我们应该认识到这爱自己是很不配的。没有谁配得到爱。上帝爱世人，这一事实显示，在神定下的事物的理想法则中，写明了要把永恒的爱给予那些永远不配的人。倘若那话你不高兴听，那就这么说吧，每个人都配得到爱，除了那些自认为配得到爱的人。爱是神圣的，必须双膝跪接[116b]，承受的人嘴里和心里都要默念“主啊，我不配。”我希望你有时会想想这一点。这对你太需要了。
116
117
If I ever write again, in the sense of producing artistic work, there are just two subjects on which and through which I desire to express myself[117a]: one is “Christ, as the precursor of the Romantic movement in life:” the other is “the Artistic life considered in its relation to Conduct.” The first is, of course, intensely fascinating, for I see in Christ not merely the essentials of the supreme romantic type, but all the accidents, the wilfulnesses even, of the romantic temperament also. He was the first person who ever said to people that they should live “flower-like” lives[117.1]. He fixed the phrase. He took children as the type of what people should try to become. He held them up as examples to their elders, which I myself have always thought the chief use of children, if what is perfect should have a use. Dante describes the soul of man as coming from the hand of God “weeping and laughing like a little child,” and Christ also saw that the soul of each one should be “a guisa di fanciulla, che piangendo e ridendo pargoleggia.” [117.2] He felt that life was changeful, fluid, active, and that to allow it to be stereotyped into any form was death[117b]. He said that people should not be too serious over material, common interests: that to be unpractical was a great thing: that one should not bother too much over affairs. “The birds didn’t, why should man?” He is charming when he says, “Take no thought for the morrow. Is not the soul more than meat? Is not the body more than raiment?” [117.3] A Greek might have said the latter phrase. It is full of Greek feeling. But only Christ could have said both, and so summed up life perfectly for us[117c]. 如果我真的重新提笔，指的是艺术创作，那只有两个主题我希望提出自己的看法并通过它们来表达自己[117a]：一个是“基督乃生活中浪漫主义运动的先驱”；另一个是“艺术生命与为人处世的关系”。第一个，当然了，很是引人入胜，因为我在基督身上不单看到了浪漫主义最高楷模不可或缺的精要，还看到了浪漫气质所有随机的、甚至是率性的成分。他是天下第一人，要大家过“花一样的”生活。他落实了这句话。他把儿童作为人们学习的楷模，把儿童树立为长辈的榜样。我本人一向都认为这是儿童的首要作用，如果完美的事物也应该有点用的话。但丁把人的灵魂描写为“像个小孩一样又哭又笑的”从上帝手中出来，而基督也认为每个人的灵魂应该“像个小小女孩，躺在地上又哭又笑”。他感到生活是变化的、流动的、积极的，让它僵化成为任何形式都意味着死亡[117b]。他说人不该太过执着于物质的、世俗的利益，能变得不实际是了不起的事，不要太汲汲于大小事务。“鸟都不用操心，何况人呢？” 他说得真好，“不要为明天忧虑。灵魂不胜于饮食么？身体不胜于衣裳么？” 希腊人也许会说这后一句，那句充满了希腊感。但只有基督才会两句都说，替我们把生活总结得如此一丝不差[117c]。
117
118
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be. If the only thing he had ever said had been “Her sins are forgiven her because she loved much,” [118.1] it would have been worth while dying to have said it. His justice is all poetical justice, exactly what justice should be[118a]. The beggar goes to heaven because he had been unhappy.[118.2] I can’t conceive a better reason for his being sent there. The people who work for an hour in the vineyard[118.3] in the cool of the evening receive just as much reward as those who had toiled there all day long in the hot sun. Why shouldn’t they? Probably no one deserved anything. Or perhaps they were a different kind of people. Christ had no patience with the dull lifeless mechanical systems that treat people as if they were things, and so treat everybody alike: as if anybody, or anything for that matter, was like aught else in the world[118b]. For him there were no laws: there were exceptions merely.
他的道德完全是同情，道德就应该这样。 即使他说过的话中只有一句“她许多的罪都赦免了，因为她的爱多”，此言既出，一死无憾。他的公义完全是扬善惩恶，公义就应该这样[118a]。乞丐进天堂因为他苦。我再也想不出更好的理由，来解释乞丐为什么送进了天堂。凉爽的傍晚时分在葡萄园里干一个钟头的人，同大太阳底下干了一整天的人，所得报酬一样。为什么不能这样呢？大概谁也不配得到什么。也许他们是不同的人吧。基督才不耐烦去同那些机械呆板、了无生气的体系周旋呢，这种体系把人当作物，拿谁都一样不当人看––好像不管是什么人，也不管是什么东西，在世界上都是一回事[118b]。在他看来没有法则，只有例外。
118
119
That which is the very keynote of romantic art was to him the proper basis of actual life. He saw no other basis. And when they brought him one taken in the very act of sin and showed him her sentence written in the law and asked him what was to be done, he wrote with his finger on the ground as though he did not hear them, and finally, when they pressed him again and again, looked up and said “Let him of you who has never sinned be the first to throw the stone at her.” [119.1] It was worth while living to have said that[119a].
浪漫主义艺术的根本主旨，对于他正是真实生活的基础。在他看来没有别的基础。有人犯罪被当场逮着，带到了他跟前，人们指给他看律法上写明的她该得的刑罚，问他该怎么处置，他用手指在地上画字，好像没听到他们的话似的。人们一再地催问，他才抬起头来说， “你们中间谁是没有罪的，谁就可以先拿石头打她。” 此言既出，一生无憾[119a]。
119
120
Like all poetical natures, he loved ignorant people. He knew that in the soul of one who is ignorant there is always room for a great idea. But he could not stand stupid people, especially those who are made stupid by education—people who are full of opinions not one of which they can understand, a peculiarly modern type, and one summed up by Christ when he describes it as the type of one who has the key of knowledge, can’t use it himself, and won’t allow other people to use it, though it may be made to open the gate of God’s Kingdom. His chief war was against the Philistines. That is the war every child of light has to wage[120a]. Philistinism [120.1] was the note of the age and community in which he lived. In their heavy inaccessibility to ideas, their dull respectability, tedious orthodoxy, their worship of vulgar success, their entire preoccupation with the gross materialistic side of life, and their ridiculous estimate of themselves and their importance, the Jew of Jerusalem in Christ’s day was the exact counterpart of the British Philistine of our own. Christ mocked at the “whited sepulchers”[120.2] of respectability, and fixed that phrase for ever. He treated worldly success as a thing to be absolutely despised. He saw nothing in it all. He looked on wealth as an encumbrance to a man[120b]. He would not hear of life being sacrificed to any system of thought or morals. He pointed out that forms and ceremonies were made for man, not man for forms and ceremonies[120c]. He took Sabbatarianism as a type of the things that should be set at nought. The cold philanthropies, the ostentatious public charities[120d], the tedious formalisms so dear to the middle-class mind, he exposed with utter and relentless scorn. To us, what is termed Orthodoxy is merely a facile unintelligent acquiescence, but to them, and in their hands, it was a terrible and paralysing tyranny. Christ swept it aside. He showed that the spirit alone was of value[120e]. He took a keen pleasure in pointing out to them that though they were always reading the Law and the Prophets they had not really the smallest idea of what either of them meant. In opposition to their tithing of each separate day into its fixed routine of prescribed duties, as they tithed mint and rue,[120.3] he preached the enormous importance of living completely for the moment.
同一切有诗情的灵性一样，他爱无知的人。他知道，在一个无知的人的灵魂里，总是有地方容纳伟大的理念。但是他受不了愚蠢的人，尤其是那些被教育弄愚蠢了的人——那些一肚子意见可自己一条也不懂得的人，一个乖戾的现代类型，用基督的话概括，就是他说的那类人，手里拿着知识的钥匙，自己不知道怎么用，又不让别人用，尽管这钥匙可以用来开启上帝国度的大门。他首要的敌人是平庸的非利士人。这种人是每个明白人都得讨伐的[120a]。平庸是他生活的那个时代和社会的特征。那种孤陋寡闻、装腔作势，那种讨厌的正统规范、庸俗的好大喜功、忘乎所以地耽迷于物质生活、可笑的自视甚高，凡此种种，都使基督时代耶路撒冷的犹太人同我们英国自己出的庸人市侩如出一辙。基督挖苦那装腔作势为 “粉饰的坟墓”，这话遂成了千古定评。他视功名如粪土，视财富为拖累[120b]。他不愿听到生活成为哪个思想或道德体系的牺牲品。他指出，形式和礼仪是为人而设的，而不是人为形式和礼仪而生[120c]。他认为守安息日之类的作为算不了什么。冷冰冰的慈善捐输、招摇过市的当众施舍[120d]、让中产阶级推崇备至的繁文缛节，这些东西他嗤之以鼻，毫不留情地加以指斥。对于我们，所谓的正统不过是一种随便的不聪不明的默认，可在他们眼里，到了他们手上，就成了可怕的、令人不知所措的暴政。基督将它扫在一边，显明了有价值的只是精神[120e]。他乐得向那些人指出，虽然他们老是读《法律书》与《预言书》，却丝毫不懂这两者的意义。他们把每一天的十分之一交出来，按部就班地执行派定的事务﹐就像把薄荷和芸香献上十分之一那样；与此恰恰相反，基督宣讲的是完完全全为眼前一刻而活的无比重要性。
120
121
Those whom he saved from their sins are saved simply for beautiful moments in their lives. Mary Magdalen, when she sees Christ, breaks the rich vase of alabaster that one of her seven lovers had given her and spills the odorous spices over his tired, dusty feet, and for that one moment’s sake sits for ever with Ruth and Beatrice in the tresses of the snow-white Rose of Paradise.[121.1] All that Christ says to us by way of a little warning is that every moment should be beautiful, that the soul should always be ready for the coming of the Bridegroom, always waiting for the voice of the Lover. Philistinism[121.2] being simply that side of man’s nature that is not illumined by the imagination, he sees all the lovely influences of life as modes of Light: the imagination itself is the world-light τò φ το? κοσμο?: the world is made by it, and yet the world cannot understand it: that is because the imagination is simply a manifestation of Love, and it is love, and the capacity for it, that distinguishes one human being from another[121a].
