书城外语双语学习丛书-生命之歌
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第2章 The Truth of Life生命真谛(1)

She found beauty and grace and they befriended her, and showed her what is real.

The Truth of Life

There were a sensitivity and a beauty to her that have nothing to do with looks. She was one to be listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart.

It is said that the true nature of being is veiled. The labor of words, the expression of art, the seemingly ceaseless buzz that is human thought all have in common the need to get at what really is so.

她发现了美和恩惠,而美和恩惠也待她如友,呈现给了她生命的真谛。

生命真谛

在她身上,透着一种与外表无关的灵性和美丽。她的话语是如此深入人心,她就是我们要倾听的声音。

有人说人生的真谛是未知的。辞藻的匠心独用、艺术的倾心表现以及人类似乎永不休止的纷繁思考,它们都在寻求人生真谛的答案。

The hope to draw close to and possess the truth of being can be a feverishfeverish adj.发烧的, 热病的, 狂热, 兴奋的 one. In some cases it can even be fatal, if pleasure is ones truth and its attainment more important than life itself. In other lives, though, the search for what is truthful gives life.

I used to find notes left in the collection basket, beautiful notes about my homilieshomily n.(尤指讲解《圣经》的)布道, (冗长乏味的)说教 and about the writers thoughts on the daily scripturalscriptural adj.手稿的, 圣经的, 依据圣经的 readings. The person who penned the notes would add reflections to my thoughts and would always include some quotes from poets and mysticsmystic n.神秘家, 神秘主义的鼓吹者 he or she had read and remembered and loved. The notes fascinatedfascinate vt.使着迷, 使神魂颠倒 me.

接近和把握人生真谛的希望是令人兴奋的。有时候,如果志趣是人生的真谛,追寻真理比生命本身更重要,此为舍生取义之举。然而,另外一种人生则是,用寻求真谛来馈赠生命。

我过去常会在教堂征集篮里发现一些优美的短文,有关于我的布道,也有关于作者平日读《圣经》的感想。这些短文的作者不仅反思我的一些观点,同时还引用一些他/她曾经阅读过的,让他/她记忆深刻而深深喜爱的诗人或者神秘主义者的话。这些短文让我着迷。

Here was someone immersedimmerse vt.沉浸, 使陷入 in a search for truth and beauty. Words had been treasured, words that were beautiful. And I felt as if the words somehow delighted in being discovered, for they were obviously very generous to the as yet anonymousanonymous adj.匿名的 writer of the notes. And now this person was in turn learning the secret of sharing them. Beauty so shines when given away. The only truth that exists is, in that sense, free.

It was a long time before I met the author of the notes.

One Sunday morning, I was told that someone was waiting for me in the office. The young person who answered the rectoryrectory n.教区长的管区 door said that it was “the woman who said she left all the notes”. When I saw her I was shocked, since I immediately recognized her from church but had no idea that it was she who wrote the notes.

这里有一个执著追求真与美的人。其字字珠玑,文笔优美。我还感觉到仿佛那些言语也喜于让我们发现,它们在这位匿名作者的笔下运用得那般自如和慷慨,而现在该是这位作者来学习与人分享这些美文奥秘的时候。在美得到分享时愈加熠熠生辉,从这个意义上说,世上惟一的真谛是自由的。

很久之后,我才见到这些短文的作者。

一个周日的早上,有人告诉我某人在办公室正等着我。替我开门的年轻人“是个女人,她说那些短文是她的。”当我看到她的时候,我很吃惊,因为我一下子就认出她是我教区的信徒,只是我从不知道那些短文是出自她之手。

She was sitting in a chair in the office with her hands folded in her lap. Her head was bowed and when she raised it to look at me, she could barelybarely adv.仅仅, 刚刚, 几乎不能 smile without pain.

Her face was disfigureddisfigure v.损伤外貌, 使变丑 , and the skin so tight from surgicalsurgical adj.外科的, 外科医生的, 手术上的 procedures that smiling or laughing was very difficult for her. She had suffered terribly from treatment to remove the growths that had so marred her face.