悲剧的诞生The Birth Of Tragedy 第8期:生存意义的启示

Now the Olympian magic mountain opens itself before us, showing us its very roots.

现在，奥林匹斯灵山仿佛对我们敞开，露出它的根基来了。

The Greeks were keenly aware of the terrors and horrors of existence; in order to be able to live at all they had to place before them the shining fantasy of the artificial Olympus.

希腊人认识了而且感觉到生存之可怖可惧；为了能生活下去，他们不得不在恐惧面前设想这灿烂的奥林匹斯之梦的诞生。

Their tremendous distrust of the titanic forces of nature: Moira, mercilessly enthroned beyond the knowable world;

着自然暴力的绝大恐惧，那无情地统御着一切知识的命数，

the vulture which fed upon the great philanthropist Prometheus; the terrible lot drawn by wise Oedipus;

那面对那折磨着伟大爱人类者普罗密修斯的苍鹰，那聪明的奥狄普斯的可怕命运，

the curse on the house of Atreus which brought Orestes to the murder of his mother:

那驱使奥瑞斯提斯去弑母的阿特柔斯家族灾殃；

that whole Panic philosophy, in short, with its mythic examples, by which the gloomy Etruscans perished, the Greeks conquered--or at least hid from view--again and again by means of of this artificial Olympus.

总之，一切野鬼山神的全部哲学，以及它使得忧郁的伊特鲁利亚人终于灭亡的神秘事例，这一切，都被希腊人借赖奥林匹斯的艺术的缓冲世界一次又一次战胜了；这一切毕竟被遮掩住，从眼前隐退了。

In order to live at all the Greeks had to construct these deities.

为了能生活下去，由于这个迫切的要求，希腊人必须创造这些神灵；

The Apollinian need for beauty had to develop the Olympian hierarchy of joy by slow degrees from the original titanic hierarchy of terror, as roses are seen to break from a thorny thicket.

我们不妨设想这创造的过程大致如下，快乐的奥林匹斯神统，是通过梦神的爱美冲动，慢慢地从原来的恐怖的铁旦神统演变而成的，正如蔷薇的蓓蕾从多刺的丛林葩发那样。

How else could life have been borne by a race so hypersensitive, so emotionally intense, so equipped for suffering?

假如希腊人不是从荣光高照的希腊神灵得到生存意义的启示，试问这个如此敏感，如此热衷于欲望，而独能担当大难的民族怎样能够忍受人生呢？

The same drive which called art into being as a completion and consummation of existence, and as a guarantee of further existence, gave rise also to that Olympian realm which acted as a transfiguring mirror to the Hellenic will.

正是这种产生艺术，使得生活丰富多彩，引诱人活下去的艺术冲动，促使奥林匹斯神界诞生，希腊的“意志”就以这神界为明镜，照见自己容光焕发。

The gods justified human life by living it themselves,the only satisfactory theodicy ever invented.

所以，神是人生的印证，因为神本身也过着人类的生活，这是唯一令人满意的神正论。

To exist in the clear sunlight of such deities was now felt to be the highest good, and the only real grief suffered by Homeric man was inspired by the thought of leaving that sunlight, especially when the departure seemed imminent.

生存在这样的神灵之煦光下，才使人感到生存本身值得追求。对于荷马的英雄，真正的悲哀莫大于身死，尤其是早死。

Now it became possible to stand the wisdom of Silenus on its head and proclaim that it was the worst evil for man to die soon, and second worst for him to die at all.

所以现在我们不妨把西列诺斯的警句颠倒过来，以论希腊人：“对于他们。最坏的是早死，其次是终有一天会死。”

Such laments as arise now arise over short-lived Achilles, over the generations ephemeral as leaves, the decline of the heroic age.

这种哀鸣一旦发出之后，便再度听到短命的阿客琉斯的响应，他就抱怨秋叶飘零似的人生变幻，和英雄时代的日益衰微。

It is not unbecoming to even the greatest hero to yearn for an afterlife, though it be as a day laborer.

旷世英雄本不该眷恋人生，何况他宁可生而为奴隶。

So impetuously, during the Apollinian phase, does man's will desire to remain on earth, so identified does he become with existence, that even his lament turns to a song of praise.

然而，希腊的“意志”，到了梦神出现的阶段，这样热切地渴望现世生活，这位荷马英雄又觉得自己与生存意志吻合为一，所以生的哀歌也就成为生的礼赞。