新概念英语4册第24课

Beauty

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.

That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods Nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret. But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us, if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp. Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.

一个年轻人看到日落，无法表达他被激起的情感。因此在远方一定有一条通向世界的道路。对于我们任何人来说，在这种强烈的艺术体验时刻，很难抵挡这样的一种暗示：我们正获得来自另外一个空间的一缕光亮。因为这种感觉使人受到强烈地震动，甚至从某种程度上来说更高。而且，尽管这光亮黯淡，令人目眩，却已经传递了我们已知或曾想象的关于美与平静祥和的暗示。这暗示强烈的无法言表。语言，被用来传递这个世界上的消息，不能很轻易地适用于另一个世界。

不可否认，所有伟大的艺术都拥有超越世界的努力。有时大自然也会一起分享。没有比六月的天空更加蔚蓝，没有如此美丽的日落，而它并没有刺激更美丽的景色。任何经过这里的视线都被完全照亮了。而且顺便留下了一种不确定的渴望和遗憾。但如果世界不仅仅是一个恶作剧，如果普通的火苗夹杂在星星冰冷的光辉中，如果圣餐中充斥着空虚的玩笑，如果这些暗示一些事情的前前后后不是源于消化不良的恶作剧，或者是恶魔放出来的怪念头用来嘲笑和激怒我们，总而言之，尽管我们不应该探索去解释，美意味着某些东西。如果我们看到非言语所能表达的，尝试去表达出来是不明智的。而且我们也不应该尝试去寻找一些我们无法掌握的东西的意义。美，对于我们人类来说是没有意义的。