雙語 ● Peeling Away Artifice for the Pure Original 回歸童真
Peeling Away Artifice for the Pure Original 回歸童真
◎ Roy H. Barnacle
Sarah came running in. “Look what I found.” Over the top of the paper I was reading came a crispy, crumbling long object that caused me to jump. It was a snake skin that had been shed by one of our many garden snakes.
莎拉興沖沖地跑了進(jìn)來，“看我找到什么了?！蹦菚r我正在看書。突然，一個卷卷的、皺皺的、長長的東西出現(xiàn)在書上。我嚇得跳了起來。定睛一看，原來是蛇皮，想必是花園中的哪條蛇蛻皮留下來的。
“Isn’t it beautiful?” said my wide-eyed seven-year-old.
“是不是很漂亮呀？”7歲的小莎拉問道，兩只眼睛睜得大大的。
I stared at the organic wrapper and thought to myself that it really wasn’t that beautiful, but I have learned never to appear nonchalant or jaded with children. Everything they see for the first time is elementary to their sense of beauty and creativity; they see only merit and excellence in the world until educated otherwise.
我盯著那塊自然脫落的蛇皮，心想：“它真的沒那么漂亮?！比欢?，我早就學(xué)會了不在孩子面前表現(xiàn)出冷漠和膩煩。因?yàn)閷⒆佣裕c世間萬物的第一次親密接觸會影響他們的審美觀和創(chuàng)造性。未被教導(dǎo)如何辨認(rèn)世間丑惡之前，他們眼中的世界只有美德和功績。
“Why does it do this?” Sarah asked.
“蛇為什么要蛻皮呢？”莎拉問道。
Robert, ever the innocent comedian, said, “We have a naked snake in our garden!”
羅伯特，這個曾經(jīng)做過天真喜劇演員的人答道，“這樣我們的花園里就有了一條沒穿衣服的蛇啦！”
I also try to customize every opportunity to teach my children that there is almost always something beyond the obvious; that there is something else going on besides what they see in front of them. “Snakes shed their skin because they need to renew themselves.” I explained. As it’s so often the case in my family, the original subject leads to another and another, until we are discussing something quite different.
我也會抓住每一次機(jī)會告訴我的孩子：有些事情他們可能常常無法理解；除了呈現(xiàn)在他們眼前的東西，另外一些事情也正在悄然發(fā)生?！吧咄懫な菫榱颂孀约簱Q上一套新衣服呀！”我這樣解釋道。在我們家，這樣的情況時常發(fā)生：最初的話題卻能引出許許多多各不相同的話題。直到最后，我們討論的居然是一個截然不同的新話題。
“Why do they need to renew themselves?” Sarah asked.
“為什么它們要換上新衣服呢？”莎拉問道。
Robert quipped, “Cos they don’t like who they are and they want to be someone else.”
“因?yàn)樗鼈儾幌矚g自己的樣子，它們想要變成別人唄！”羅伯特很不屑地答道。
Sarah and I politely ignored her brother. I suddenly remembered an article on this page many years ago where the writer was expressing her concept of renewal. She used layers of paper over a wall to describe how we hide our original selves, and said that by peeling away those layers one by one; we see the underlying original beneath.
我和莎拉很委婉地就把她的哥哥晾在一旁。突然間，我想起多年前在這本書上看到的一篇文章。文章的作者十分巧妙地表達(dá)了自己對于“更新”的理解。她用一層層墻紙來描述我們是如何隱藏最真實(shí)的自我。用她的話說，將這些墻紙一層層撕下時，我們看到的就是深埋其中的純真自我。
“We often need to shed our skins, those coatings and facades that we cover ourselves with.” I said to my now absorbed daughter. “We outgrow some things and find other stuff unwanted or unnecessary. This snake no longer needs this skin. It is probably too stiff and crinkly for him, and he probably doesn’t think he looks as smart in it as he once did. Like buying a new suit.”
“我們常常需要脫去那些用來自我掩飾的外在的東西。”我這樣向我那個全神貫注的女兒解釋?！拔覀儠L出一些新的東西。這樣，我們就會覺得其他一些東西是無用的，多余的。這條蛇就是不再需要這身皮了。也許是因?yàn)檫@身皮太硬太皺?；蛘撸X得自己穿上這身衣服時不再像以前那樣英俊瀟灑。總之啊，它就像是給自己買了一套新衣服！”
Of course, I’m sure this explanation won’t sit well with bona fide naturalists. But Sarah was getting the point. As we talked, I knew that she began to comprehend, albeit slightly, that renewal is part of progress; that we need to take a good look at ourselves, and our rooms and schoolwork and creativity and spirituality, and see what we need to keep and what we need to cast off. I was careful to point out that this is a natural process, not one to be forced.
當(dāng)然，我深知這樣的解釋無法讓真正的自然主義者滿意。但莎拉明白了。談話過程中，我意識到她已然開始淺淺地領(lǐng)悟著：“更新”意味著進(jìn)步；我們必須仔細(xì)審視自己、房間、家庭作業(yè)、創(chuàng)造性和靈魂?？纯茨男┲档帽Ａ?，而哪些應(yīng)該摒棄。我小心翼翼地告訴她，這是一種自然的過程，而不是被迫的結(jié)果。
“Snakes don’t peel off their skin when they feel like it.” I explained. “It happens as a natural consequence of their growth.”
“如果蛇喜歡它的皮，它就不會蛻皮的。”我解釋道?！巴懫な巧叱砷L過程中自然而然產(chǎn)生的結(jié)果?！?
“I see, Dad.” said Sarah and jumped off my lap, grabbed the snakeskin, and ran off.
“爸爸，我明白啦！”莎拉一邊說一邊從我的膝上跳下。她抓起那塊蛇皮，跑開了。
I hoped she would remember this. That often, in order to find our real selves underneath the layers of community and culture with which we cloak ourselves year after year, we need to start examining these layers. We need to gently peel some away, as we recognize them to be worthless, unnecessary, or flawed, or at best, store the discarded ones as mementoes of our promotion to a better vitality or spirit.
我希望她能記住我說過的這些話。通常，為了找尋深埋于社會和文化里的純真自我，我們必須開始審視這些外在的東西。當(dāng)我們意識到它們已然毫無價值，不再有用，不再完美時，我們就該將其輕輕地脫去?；蛘撸詈脤⑦@些逝去的美好封存起來，找到純真的自我供我們回味！
