【正文】 ，我便極為深刻地意識到：文字的力量是多么有限。語言自有其靈動可人之處，可它卻無法傳達(dá)大千世界的絢爛。正如一方相片框不住一只鷹的迅捷，也再現(xiàn)不了一顆超新星毀滅時(shí)的壯麗。伊娃的婚禮相冊僅僅留存了一絲微弱的光芒，以見證婚禮現(xiàn)場的光鮮奪目。相片和文字能夠做到的最多只是描摹那些瞬息即逝的、那些讓我們心潮涌動的光芒。于是，我一直都在努力描摹?！　　癆ll nature is meant to make us think of paradise,” Thomas Merton⑷ observed. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds. Even 15 billion years or so after the Big Bang⑸, echoes of that event still linger in the form of background radiation⑹, only a few degrees above absolute zero⑺. Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments。 to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses. 　　托馬斯梅爾頓說過，“世間造物之神奇無不令人聯(lián)想到天堂樂土”，因?yàn)閯?chuàng)世紀(jì)本身就是一出永不落幕的表演；其間芳華之美悠游自在，無窮無盡。有些美顯而易見，容易為我們所捕捉，但另一些則不然：若要欣賞她們，我們得付出一點(diǎn)努力。宇宙大爆炸在一百五十多億年后的今天仍余波未平，爆炸當(dāng)時(shí)所釋放的能量（即使這些能量看起來似乎微不足道）仍以背景輻射現(xiàn)象的形式存在著。由此，我得出一個(gè)觀點(diǎn)：人類對美的體驗(yàn)中暗含著秩序和力量的影子，而這些秩序和力量充斥著整個(gè)宇宙空間。測量背景輻射，我們需要精密儀器；而衡量美，則需要?jiǎng)佑梦覀兊穆敾酆退忻翡J的感官?！　、?supernova: 超新星，一種罕見的天文現(xiàn)象，表現(xiàn)為一恒星中的絕大部分物質(zhì)爆炸后，產(chǎn)生能放射極大能量的極為明亮而存在時(shí)間極短的物體?！　、?Thomas Merton: 默頓，托馬斯19151968美國天主教教士和作家，其作品主要是關(guān)于當(dāng)代宗教和世俗生活的，包括 《七重山》（1948年）和 《無人為孤島》（1955年）。　?、?the Big Bang: 創(chuàng)世大爆炸按照大爆炸理論，標(biāo)志宇宙形成的宇宙爆炸。　　(6) background radiation: 背景輻射,又名3K宇宙背景輻射，是60年代天文學(xué)上的四大發(fā)現(xiàn)之一，它是由美國射電天文學(xué)家彭齊亞斯和威爾遜發(fā)現(xiàn)的。該學(xué)說認(rèn)為，大爆炸之初，宇宙的溫度高得驚人。隨著宇宙膨脹的進(jìn)行，其溫度不斷降低，到現(xiàn)在平均只有絕對溫度２．７度（相當(dāng)于零下２７０．４６攝氏度）左右。 　　(7) absolute zero: 絕對零度在此溫度下物質(zhì)沒有熱能。Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need training, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird39。s wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, the training has e from elders who taught the young how to pay attention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts of patterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts. This predilection brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone pose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space. 　　任何人都能在一顰一笑，一花一草中體驗(yàn)快樂。但是，發(fā)現(xiàn)數(shù)學(xué)之美、物理之絕、象棋之妙的眼睛并不是與生俱來，而欣賞樹木形態(tài)、鳥翼構(gòu)造、或是悠揚(yáng)笛聲的心靈也非渾然自成。我們需要點(diǎn)撥和引領(lǐng)?？v觀歷史傳承，這樣的點(diǎn)撥和引領(lǐng)往往來自長者，籍此，年輕人學(xué)會專注；因?yàn)閷Ｗⅲ覀冾I(lǐng)略到萬千形態(tài)的美，無論是量子力學(xué)中精妙的理論，還是棉被上漂亮的拼花圖案。正是出于對美的強(qiáng)烈偏愛，才使得人類在物種進(jìn)化的追逐比拼中處于上風(fēng)。因?yàn)槿祟惸軌虮孀R出美的事物，而我們的祖先則因循這一標(biāo)準(zhǔn)選擇伴侶，尋找食物，躲避敵人。如果自然界中所有的物種都擁有發(fā)現(xiàn)美的能力，那么它們都將在進(jìn)化過程中稱霸一方。然而，惟獨(dú)人類在演變中獨(dú)占鰲頭：我們譜寫交響曲，創(chuàng)造字謎游戲；在我們的手中，頑石誕生為雕像，時(shí)空歸依為坐標(biāo)。Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe? 這一切究竟來源于何？僅僅是我們將本能的敏銳感知力推向了荒謬的極致，還是我們不經(jīng)意間摸索到了扎根于人類思想和蒼茫萬物間那深刻的一致性？ I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there39。s more to beauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need. Which is not to say that beauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to do with survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us.　　我相信后者是正確的。我堅(jiān)信美不僅僅存在于生物學(xué)和文化習(xí)俗中。美我們身邊流淌，充盈、潤澤著我們的心田；而其量之充沛，形態(tài)之多變已經(jīng)遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)超越了進(jìn)化本身的需要。我這樣說并不意味著美和生存毫無干系；恰恰相反，我相信美和生存之間有著千絲萬縷的聯(lián)系。如果說是自然造就了我們，那么，是美通過自然滋養(yǎng)了我們。　　It reminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stem and through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity of nature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small minds and the great Mind of the Cosmos, beauty reassures us that we are exactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in this magnificent universe. I find in that affinity a profound source of meaning and hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation.　　無論是一朵花或是一雙手，都讓我們聯(lián)想到美的創(chuàng)造力量。美讓我們重拾信念相信自然對于我們的無私恩惠與慷慨。美在人類渺小的心靈和宇宙?zhèn)ゴ蟮木曛g，化身為一座溝通的橋梁，并以此讓我們不再懷疑：在這片恢宏的宇宙中，在這顆璀璨的星球上，人類的存在實(shí)為天工之作，神明之意。宇宙和人類對于美的共識，給予我生存的意義與希望。我們的宇宙中，美無處不在；她等待著我們敏銳的眼睛、充實(shí)的心靈，和泉涌般的智慧，去發(fā)現(xiàn)美，去回應(yīng)美，由此成全造物的圓滿?！　∽g者注：　　本文為美國當(dāng)代作家司各特羅素桑達(dá)（Scott Russell Sander，1945）所寫。桑達(dá)出生于美國田納西州(Tennessee)的孟菲斯(Memphis)。1963年，他就讀于布朗大學(xué)(Brown University), 其后，又就讀于劍橋大學(xué)（Cambridge University）并獲得文學(xué)博士。1971年，他攜妻子(就是本文一開始提到的Ruth，而Eva則是作者的女兒)遷往印地安那州(Indiana)的布魯明頓(Bloomington), 并在那里的印地安那大學(xué)(Indiana University)任教至今。印地安那的自然風(fēng)光給予他創(chuàng)作的靈感，他在作品中對于自然的生動細(xì)致描寫充分體現(xiàn)出他對環(huán)境的關(guān)注。本文選自他新近出版的作品《尋找希望》（Hunting for Hope）。（編輯：李吉琴）The Literature of Knowledge and the Literature of Power byThomas De Quincey知識文學(xué)與力量文學(xué)托 馬斯昆西What is it that we mean by literature? Popularly, and amongst the thoughtless, it is held to include everything that is printed in a book. Little logic is required to disturb that definition. The most thoughtless person is easily made aware that in the idea of literature one essential element is some relation to a general and mon interest of man—so that what applies only to a local, or professional, or merely personal interest, even though presenting itself in the shape of a book, will not belong to Literature. So far the definition is easily narrowed。 and it is as easily expanded. For not only is much that takes a station in books not literature。 but inversely, much that really is literature never reaches a station in books. The weekly sermons of Christendom, that vast pulpit literature which acts so extensively upon the popular mind—to warn, to uphold, to renew, to fort, to alarm—does not attain the sanctuary of libraries in the tenthousandth part of its extent. The Drama again—as, for instance, the finest of Shakespeare39。s plays in England, and all leading Athenian plays in the noontide of the Attic stage—operated as a literature on the public mind, and were (according to the strictest letter of that term) published throu