第1个回答 2011-10-23
The Eloquent Sounds of Silence
沉默的雄辩高谈 或 沉默的大辩不言
EVERY ONE OF US KNOWS THE SENSATION OF GOING UP, on retreat, to a high place and feeling ourselves so lifted up that we can hardly imagine the circumstances of our usual lives, or all the things that make us fret. In such a place, in such a state, we start to recite the standard litany: that silence is sunshine, where company is clouds; that silence is rapture, where company is doubt; that silence is golden, where company is brass.
大家都知道当我们退隐去攀登高山的那种节节高升感觉, 那种欣然振奋的情绪使我们忘却了平凡的生活, 或使人烦躁的琐事。此情此景，促使我们开始吟咏标准的祷文：当喧嚣若云雾迷蒙，沉默是拨云艳阳；当喧嚣若重重迷惑，沉默是欣喜若狂；当喧嚣若普通黄铜，沉默是珍贵黄金。
But silence is not so easily won. And before we race off to go prospecting in those hills, we might usefully recall that fool's gold is much more common and that gold has to be panned for, dug out from other substances. "All profound things and emotions of things are preceded and attended by Silence," wrote Herman Melville, one of the loftiest and most eloquent of souls. Working himself up to an ever more thunderous cry of affirmation, he went on, "Silence is the general consecration of the universe. Silence is the invisible laying on of the Divine Pontiff's hands upon the world. Silence is the only Voice of our God." For Melville, though, silence finally meant darkness and hopelessness and self-annihilation. Devastated by the silence that greeted his heartfelt novels, he retired into a public silence from which he did not emerge for more than 30 years. Then, just before his death, he came forth with his final utterance -- the luminous tale of Billy Budd -- and showed that silence is only as worthy as what we can bring back from it.
然而，沉默可不是随手拈来的。当我们兴致勃勃冲向群山寻找它之前，也许应该紧记愚笨的人误为金子的黄铁矿是较容易获取的，而真金却需要费力淘洗、挖掘才能有所收获。一位最傲慢和最能言善辩的作家，Herman Melville 写道：“一切精辟深奥的事物以及它们的情感都是受沉默的先导和眷顾。”他继续激发起更高昂雷鸣般的肯定呼声写道：“沉默是宇宙的一种献祭。沉默是神圣造物者以无形的按手给予这世界的恩赐。沉默是我们上帝的唯一声音。”然而，对 Melville 而言，沉默最终意味黑暗、绝望与自我湮灭。由于他诚挚的作品只得到沉默的反应，使他备受打击而身心交瘁，从此缄默无声地退隐长达三十年。随后，在他溘然长逝之前，他重现身影发出最后的言辞 - 《比利巴德》的光辉故事 – 以此显示沉默的价值只与我们从中的得益等值。
We have to earn silence, then, to work for it: to make it not an absence but a presence; not emptiness but repletion. Silence is something more than just a pause; it is that enchanted place where space is cleared and time is stayed and the horizon itself expands. In silence, we often say, we can hear ourselves think; but what is truer to say is that in silence we can hear ourselves not think, and so sink below our selves into a place far deeper than mere thought allows. In silence, we might better say, we can hear someone else think.
沉默是需要我们去赚取的；然后要努力争取让它存在而不是消失，充实而不是空虚。沉默并非是片刻的静默；它是一处引人入胜的迷人地方，在那，有毫无障碍的空间、时间停滞不前、界限自我延伸不断。我们时常说，沉默让我们听到自己的思考；然而更确切的说，沉默使我们听到的不是思考，而是潜入那超越我们思维所允许的更深刻境界。也许我们更恰当的说，在沉默中，我们能够听到别人的思想。
Or simply breathe. For silence is responsiveness, and in silence we can listen to something behind the clamor of the world. "A man who loves God, necessarily loves silence," wrote Thomas Merton, who was, as a Trappist, a connoisseur, a caretaker of silences. It is no coincidence that places of worship are places of silence: if idleness is the devil's playground, silence may be the angels'. It is no surprise that silence is an anagram of license. And it is only right that Quakers all but worship silence, for it is the place where everyone finds his God, however he may express it. Silence is an ecumenical state, beyond the doctrines and divisions created by the mind. If everyone has a spiritual story to tell of his life, everyone has a spiritual silence to preserve.
或者仅仅是其呼吸声。因为沉默就是一种响应，沉默让我们听到喧嚣世界背后的事物。作为强调缄默苦修的特拉比斯教会的信徒, Thomas Merton 就是一位深谙沉默的行家, 也是沉默的守护者,他曾写道：“一个热爱上帝的人，他必然也喜爱沉默。”所以敬拜上帝的地方即是静默之地，这显然并非巧合。如果赋闲是魔鬼的活动场地，那沉默就属于是天使的。难怪沉默是许可证的变位词。而贵格会的信徒崇拜沉默就更理所当然了，因为这里是各人找到他自己上帝的地方。沉默是一种普世的境界，超越思想所构成的教义和级别。如果每个人都有其可倾诉的人生心灵故事，那每个人就有其可保留的心灵沉默。
So it is that we might almost say silence is the tribute we pay to holiness; we slip off words when we enter a sacred space, just as we slip off shoes. A "moment of silence" is the highest honor we can pay someone; it is the point at which the mind stops and something else takes over (words run out when feelings rush in). A "vow of silence" is for holy men the highest devotional act. We hold our breath, we hold our words; we suspend our chattering selves and let ourselves "fall silent," and fall into the highest place of all.
所以，我们几乎可以说，沉默是我们向神圣的献礼；当我们进入一个神圣空间时，我们会舍弃言语，犹如脱掉鞋子一样。“默哀片刻”是我们给予某人的最高荣誉；就在这一刻我们的思维停止运作，其他东西取而代之（当情感涌入时会导致欲言无语）。“发誓沉默”则是神圣虔诚人的最高奉献行为。我们屏住呼吸，我们缄默不语，暂停我们喋喋不休的一面而让我们“安静下来”，直臻最高的境界。
It often seems that the world is getting noisier these days: in Japan, which may be a model of our future, cars and buses have voices, doors and elevators speak. The answering machine talks to us, and for us, somewhere above the din of the TV; the Walkman preserves a public silence but ensures that we need never -- in the bathtub, on a mountaintop, even at our desks -- be without the clangor of the world. White noise becomes the aural equivalent of the clash of images, the nonstop blast of fragments that increasingly agitates our minds. As Ben Okri, the young Nigerian novelist, puts it, "When chaos is the god of an era, clamorous music is the deity's chief instrument."
现今世界往往显得越发喧嚣：在日本这个可能成为我们未来生活样板的国家, 汽车和公交车会发声, 门和电梯会讲话。留言机会向我们说话；而我们是生活在电视机的嘈杂声之上；尽管随身听维护了公共场合的安静，但它却保证了我们无论是在浴缸里、山顶上、甚至在书桌旁，都不能离开这个不绝于耳的世界铿锵之声。白噪音成为在听觉上相当于形象的冲突，日益不断烦扰我们头脑的零星轰鸣。犹如年轻的尼日利亚小说家所说的：“当混乱是一个时代的上帝时，神灵的主要工具就是吵闹的音乐。 ”
There is, of course, a place for noise, as there is for daily lives. There is a place for roaring, for the shouting exultation of a baseball game, for hymns and spoken prayers, for orchestras and cries of pleasure. Silence, like all the best things, is best appreciated in its absence: if noise is the signature tune of the world, silence is the music of the other world, the closest thing we know to the harmony of the spheres. But the greatest charm of noise is when it ceases. In silence, suddenly, it seems as if all the windows of the world are thrown open and everything is as clear as on a morning after rain. Silence, ideally, hums. It charges the air. In Tibet, where the silence has a tragic cause, it is still quickened by the fluttering of prayer flags, the tolling of temple bells, the roar of wind across the plains, the memory of chant.
当然，就像日常生活一样，噪音也有它的场所。咆哮、棒球赛的狂喜呐喊、圣歌与祈祷、管弦乐和愉快的叫声，它们都各有其所。沉默，犹如其他最美好的事物，当它不在的时侯才是被最珍惜的时刻；如果说噪音是这世界标志性的曲调，那沉默就是另一世界的音乐，是我们已知的最接近宇宙大同的东西。但噪音的最大魅力是在它终止之际；忽然间的宁静，仿佛世界所有的窗户都敞开了，万物皆犹如雨后清晨的清晰可见。沉默，理想的发出嗡嗡之声，它在为空气充电。在西藏，沉默有它悲惨的起因，如今经幡的迎风飘扬、寺庙的缓缓钟鸣、旷野的狂风呼啸、圣咏的犹新记忆，都还在为它加速进程。
Silence, then, could be said to be the ultimate province of trust: it is the place where we trust ourselves to be alone; where we trust others to understand the things we do not say; where we trust a higher harmony to assert itself. We all know how treacherous are words, and how often we use them to paper over embarrassment, or emptiness, or fear of the larger spaces that silence brings. "Words, words, words" commit us to positions we do not really hold, the imperatives of chatter; words are what we use for lies, false promises and gossip. We babble with strangers; with intimates we can be silent. We "make conversation" when we are at a loss; we unmake it when we are alone, or with those so close to us that we can afford to be alone with them.
因此，沉默可谓是信任的最后领域：在这我们放心地孤身独处；我们相信别人对某些事情能够不言而喻，我们对更高层次和谐的自我表现能力充满信心。我们都知道言语是多么地靠不住，经常用其掩饰我们的尴尬，或空虚，或是沉默所带来的更宽阔空间的畏惧。“言语、言语、言语”让我们陷入不可巩固的位置以及闲聊的规律；言语是我们用于架谎凿空、虚假承诺及流言蜚语。我们与陌生人喋喋不休；与密友却可以恭默守静。当不知所措时，我们可以闲扯；当我们超然独处，或者当我们欣然接受与亲密关系的人共处一室时，我们采取沉默。
In love, we are speechless; in awe, we say, words fail us.
堕入爱河，我们相对无言；惊叹不已，我们顿口无言。
【言语牛人团】