愛默生的論友誼

I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the solidest thing we know. For now, after so many ages of experience, what do we know of nature, or of ourselves? Not one step has man taken toward the solution of the problem of his destiny. In one condemnation of folly stand the whole universe of men. But the sweet sincerity of joy and peace, which I draw from this alliance with my brother’s soul, is the nut itself, whereof all nature and all thought is but the husk and shell. Happy is the house that shelters a friend! It might well be built, like a festal bower or arch, to entertain him a single day. Happier, if he know the solemnity of that relation, and honor its law! He who offers himself a candidate for that covenant comes up, like an Olympian, to the great games, where the first-born of the world are the competitors. He proposes himself for contests where Time, Want, Danger, are in the lists, and he alone is victor who has truth enough in his constitution to preserve the delicacy of his beauty from the wear and tear of all these. The gifts of fortune may be present or absent, but all the speed in that contest depends on intrinsic nobleness, and the contempt of trifles. There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship, each so sovereign that I can detect no superiority in either, no reason why either should be first named. One is Truth. A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another. Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like diadems and authority, only to the highest rank, that being permitted to speak truth, as having none above it to court or conform unto. Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins. We parry and fend the approach of our fellow-man by compliments, by gossip, by amusements, by affairs. We cover up our thought from him under a hundred folds. I knew a man, who, under a certain religious frenzy, cast off this drapery, and, omitting all compliment and commonplace, spoke to the conscience of every person he encountered, and that with great insight and beauty. At first he was resisted, and all men agreed he was mad. But persisting, as indeed he could not help doing, for some time in this course, he attained to the advantage of bringing every man of his acquaintance into true relations with him. No man would think of speaking falsely with him, or of putting him off with any chat of markets or reading-rooms. But every man was constrained by so much sincerity to the like plaindealing, and what love of nature, what poetry, what symbol of truth he had, he did certainly show him. But to most of us society shows not its face and eye, but its side and its back. To stand in true relations with men in a false age is worth a fit of insanity, is it not? We can seldom go erect. Almost every man we meet requires some civility,--requires to be humored; he has some fame, some talent, some whim of religion or philanthropy in his head that is not to be questioned, and which spoils all conversation with him. But a friend is a sane man who exercises not my ingenuity, but me. My friend gives me entertainment without requiring any stipulation on my part. A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
    譯文：
    我不想用輕巧的方式對待友情，我愿以最狂熱的勇氣去對待它。如果友誼是真的，它就不會(huì)是玻璃絲或者霜花，而是我們所知最堅(jiān)固的東西。今天，在我們已經(jīng)有了這么多世代的經(jīng)驗(yàn)積累之后，我們對自然，或者對自己了解了多少呢？在對人的命運(yùn)問題的解答上，人類從未前進(jìn)過一步。整個(gè)人類都因?yàn)橛廾炼蛔l。然而，那種喜悅與寧靜中甜美的真摯，——我從與兄弟的靈魂聯(lián)合中得到了它，本身就是關(guān)于整個(gè)自然的核心認(rèn)識(shí)，而人類的種種思想只不過是果皮和果殼罷了。幸福是一所為朋友遮風(fēng)擋雨的房屋。也有人將它建造得像一間節(jié)日的涼亭或拱門，只能享用一天。如果他懂得友誼的莊嚴(yán)，并且尊敬它的法則，他將會(huì)更幸福。誰主動(dòng)獻(xiàn)出自己，希望與人締造友誼的盟約，誰就如同走入賽場的奧林匹克運(yùn)動(dòng)員，去參加一場偉大的運(yùn)動(dòng)會(huì)。在那里面，世界首先產(chǎn)生的就是競賽者。他推舉自己為參賽者，他的對手包括時(shí)間、私欲和危險(xiǎn)。在這場競賽中，誰的精神中具備足夠的忠誠，以護(hù)衛(wèi)心中易碎的美好，戰(zhàn)勝疲憊和淚水，誰就會(huì)成為的勝利者。幸運(yùn)女神也許眷顧你，也許忘記你，但你取勝的所有機(jī)會(huì)都依賴內(nèi)心的崇高以及對瑣屑之物的蔑視。
    朋友就是我可以與之坦誠相待的人。在朋友面前，我可以出聲地思想。我終于到達(dá)這樣一個(gè)人面前：他如此真實(shí)、平等，以至于我可以脫下最里層的防護(hù)衣：裝假、禮貌、謹(jǐn)慎，這些人們從未脫去的東西。我可以直率、全心身地對待他，就像一個(gè)原子和另一個(gè)原子相遇。真誠是一件貴重之物，就像皇冠和權(quán)力，它只授予階層的人。他們被準(zhǔn)許說真話，如同這是他們的追求和服從。
    每個(gè)人獨(dú)處的時(shí)候都是真誠的。一旦有另一個(gè)人走近，偽裝就開始了。我們用恭維、閑談、消遣，或者用事務(wù)，來逃避或擋開同伴的接近。我們用一百層折疊來掩蓋我們的思想。我認(rèn)識(shí)一個(gè)人，他在一種宗教迷狂的情緒下，撕下了這幅帷幔，對每個(gè)他所遇到的人都略去所有的恭維和平常話，直接對他們的是非之心說話，并說得極其深刻而優(yōu)美。最初，他遭到拒絕，所有人都認(rèn)為他瘋了。經(jīng)過一段時(shí)間的堅(jiān)持之后，——因?yàn)閷?shí)際上他不能不堅(jiān)持，他與每一個(gè)他所認(rèn)識(shí)的人都建立了真實(shí)的關(guān)系。沒有人想在他面前說謊，也沒有人想用任何集市中或者閱覽室里的那種閑談來疏遠(yuǎn)他。他們當(dāng)然也會(huì)同他談對大自然的愛、詩歌、真理的象征等等。在這樣的真誠面前，每個(gè)人都不得不采取類似的坦誠態(tài)度。但是對我們大多數(shù)人來說，我們看不到別人的臉和眼睛，看到的是人們的側(cè)影和背面。在一個(gè)虛假的時(shí)代，為了與人們建立真實(shí)的關(guān)系而瘋狂一下是值得的，不是嗎？我們很少能直來直去。幾乎每一個(gè)我們碰到的人都要求禮貌，要求別人的迎合；他有一些名聲、一些才干、一些不容質(zhì)疑的關(guān)于宗教或慈善事業(yè)的興致，這些往往弄糟了談話。朋友應(yīng)該是一個(gè)通情達(dá)理的人，他要求的不是我的聰明才智，而是我這個(gè)人。
    我的朋友給我款待，不附帶任何相應(yīng)約束。因此，朋友本質(zhì)上是一種悖論。我孤獨(dú)地存在，原本看不到任何我能夠以相同的證據(jù)證明其存在的其他事物，現(xiàn)在卻看到了一個(gè)在高貴、豐富和求知欲上與我相同的另一個(gè)人。所以，有充分的理由認(rèn)為：朋友是大自然的一個(gè)杰作。