“湧動的海水，就像是牧師在為地球上人類的海岸進行聖潔的洗禮。” ——濟慈
無論開心還是悲傷，我都常會想到這兩行詩。悲傷的時候我想到它，是因為根據詩中所描寫的海水節奏可以得知，上帝永恒的耐心將通過大海這麵鏡子反射出來。無論城市或會議室裏的人們多麼愚昧無知，海浪依然歌唱，唱著讚美詩。在成吉思汗之前他們就開始歌唱了，在原子彈時代之後，它們還會繼續歌唱。這些想法使我高興，所以我又低誦這兩行詩，因為我心中充滿了感激之情。
心靈小語
無論何時，心中都要充滿讚美與感激。這樣，陽光才會到達你靈魂的最深處。
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rhythm ['rie.m] n. 節奏；韻律例 His speech has a flowing rhythm. 他的講話有一種流動的節奏感。
patience ['pei??s] n. 耐心；忍耐；容忍例 Thank you for your patience! 感謝您的耐心等待！
choir [kwai? n. 唱詩班；唱詩班的席位例 The choir sang the 23rd Psalm. 唱詩班唱《舊約·詩篇》的第23篇。
psalm [sɑ:m] n. 聖詩；聖歌；詩篇例 This Psalm is helping us define happiness. 這篇詩幫助我們了解什麼是快樂。
湧動的海水，就像是牧師在為地球上人類的海岸進行聖潔的洗禮。
無論城市或會議室裏的人們多麼愚昧無知，海浪依然歌唱，唱著讚美詩。
這些想法使我高興，所以我又低誦這兩行詩，因為我心中充滿了感激之情。
Whatever the stupidities of men in cities or council chambers... council chamber：會議室；議會廳
I think of them when I am sad... think of：想念；想起；考慮
月亮的智慧
Lesson from the Moon
佚名 / Anonymous
“When the moon is fullest it begins to wane, when it is darkest it begins to grow.”
——Chinese Proverb
There is a calm wisdom in this old saying that impressed me
when I heard it first from a monk of a Buddhist monastery in China.
It has often helped me to retain a good measure of equanimity under stress and hardship as well as when some unexpected success or good luck might have made me too exuberant. There is hope and consolationin the sure knowledge that even the darkest hours of pains and troubles won’t last, but also a warning against overrating the passing gloriesof wealth, power and great good fortune. A warning and a hope, not only for the individual, but also for governments, nations and their leaders, a brief summing up of all that history and human experience can tell us. And beyond all that we might hear in it an echo of the law and order that holds our universe in safe balance.
“月盈則虧，晦則明。” ——中國古諺
這句中國的古語裏有種平靜的智慧，它最初是一個中國佛教寺院中的一位和尚告訴我的，這句話給我的印象很深刻。從那時起，每當我遭遇困難阻礙，或者遇到可能使我過於興奮的成功或好運的時候，這句話總能幫我保持鎮定。這句話啟示我們，不論痛苦或困難的時刻有多麼暗淡，它們不會長久持續下去，我們因此會感到希望和寬慰；這句話同時也警示我們，財富、權力或鴻運當頭的榮耀，都不過是過眼雲煙，我們不必太放在心上。無論對於個人還是對於國家，民族乃至其領袖，這則諺語都是警示和希望，而且它還是曆史與人類發展所給予我們的簡要總結。除此之外，我們從這句話裏麵還可以聆聽到使宇宙保持平衡狀態的法則與秩序的回聲。
exuberant [ig'zju:b??t] adj. 繁茂的；感情充溢的；極度的例An exuberant man came into the studio one day with his wife. 一天，一位喜氣洋洋的男人攜他的妻子走進了錄音棚。
consolation [??ns?lei??] n. 安慰；慰問例 The child became her only consolation. 孩子成了她唯一的安慰。
glory ['gl?:ri] n. 光榮；榮譽例 Share the burdens and the glory! 與別人分享負擔與榮譽！
individual [?indi'vidju?] n. 個人；個體例 You have society on one hand and the individual on the other. 你一方麵是社會一員，而另一方麵又是一個人。
月盈則虧，晦則明。
這句話啟示我們，不論痛苦或困難的時刻有多麼暗淡，它們不會長久持續下去，我們因此會感到希望和寬慰。
財富、權力或鴻運當頭的榮耀，都不過是過眼雲煙，我們不必太放在心上。
...a brief summing up of all that history and human experience can tell us. sum up：總結；概括；總計
And beyond all that we might hear in it an echo of the law and order that holds our universe in safe balance. beyond all：首先；首要地
富有生命的一棵樹
The Lesson of a Tree
沃爾特·惠特曼 / Walter Whitman
I should not take either the biggest or the most picturesque tree to illustrateit. Here is one of my favorites now before me, a fine yellow poplar, quite straight, perhaps 90 feet high, and four feet thick at the butt. How strong, vital enduring! How dumbly eloquent! What suggestions of imperturbabilityand being, as against the human trait of mere seeming. Then the qualities, almost emotional, palpably artistic, heroic, of a tree; so innocentand harmless, yet so savage. It is, yet says nothing. How it rebukes by its tough and equable serenity as weathers, this gusty-temper’d little whiffet, man that runs indoors at a mite of rain or snow. Science (or rather half-way science) scoffs at reminiscence of dryad and hamadryad, and of trees speaking. But, if they don’t, they do as well as most speaking, writing, poetry, sermons or rather they do a great deal better. I should say indeed that those old dryad reminiscences are quit as true as any, and profounder than most reminiscences we get. (“Cut this out,” as the quack mediciners say, and keep by you.) Go and sit in a grove or woods, with one or more of those voiceless companions, and read the fore-going, and think.
One lesson from affiliating a tree perhaps the greatest moral lesson anyhow from earth, rock, animals, is that same lesson of inherency, of what is, without the least regard to what the looker or (the critic) supposes or says, or whether he likes or dislikes. What worse what more general malady pervades each and all of us, our literature, education, attitude toward each other, (even toward ourselves,) than a morbid trouble about seems, and no trouble at all, or hardly any, about the sane, slow-growing perennial, real parts of character, books, friendship, marriage humanity’s invisible foundations and hold together.
我不會選那棵最大或最獨特的樹來描繪。在我麵前，有我最喜歡的一棵樹，那是一棵美麗的黃楊樹，它很直，可能有九十英尺那麼高，最粗的地方直徑達四英尺。它是如此強壯！如此富有生命力！如此地挺立在風雨中！又是如此無言而善諭！它所啟示的泰然自若、生存的本質與人生浮華的表象形成了如此鮮明的對比。可以說，一棵樹也是有情感的，它富有生動的藝術性質，它也是英勇無畏的。它是如此天真，不會傷害任何東西，它又是那麼原始粗野。它無言地存在著，用自己的堅強、平和、寧靜有力地斥責了風雨雷電以及人類——這個一碰到風吹草動就躲進房子裏的沒用的小東西。科學（或者更準確地說是不徹底的科學）對有關樹精、樹仙和會說話的樹等想象嗤之以鼻。然而，即使樹木不會說話，它們卻與大多數的語言、文字、詩歌與訓誡一樣善諭，甚至比它們有過之而無不及。我認為那些關於樹精的古老傳說是非常真實的，甚至比我們大多數人的聯想都更為深刻（“把它砍下來”，騙人的遊醫這麼說，然後留在你身邊）。請到樹叢中或林地間坐下來，與無言的樹木做伴，然後再把前麵的那些話讀一讀、想一想。
人們從一棵樹那裏得到的啟示——或者說大地、岩石以及動物賦予人們的最大道德教義，就是它們對於生存的內在本質的提示與觀望者（或批評者）的推測和述說完全無關、與他的喜好與憎惡完全無關。一種疾患在我們每個人和我們大家的心間充斥著，滲透於我們的文學、教育以及對待彼此（甚至自我對待）的態度之中，這便是對表麵現象的喋喋不休，而對於人物、書籍、友誼、婚姻中合理的、逐漸增強的、經常存在的真實，亦即人類無形的本質和基礎不予過問或幾乎不加過問。還有什麼疾患比這更糟糕、更普遍嗎？