旅行的藝術(shù):Ⅳ 好奇心-6

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我坐在普羅文西亞廣場(chǎng)的咖啡廳，承認(rèn)自己不可能再有什么新的發(fā)現(xiàn)。我的旅游指南上的一段文字更加強(qiáng)了這一點(diǎn)：

Sitting in a café on the Plaza Provincia, I acknowledged the impossibility of new factual discoveries. My guidebook enforced the point with a lecture:

圣弗朗西斯科大公教堂的新古典式格局為莎巴提尼 [13] 所規(guī)劃，但該建筑物本身，包括一個(gè)圓形主教堂和銜接的6個(gè)小禮拜堂，則是由卡貝薩斯所設(shè)計(jì)。該座建筑有一個(gè)寬33米或108英尺的圓形蓋頂。

The neo-classical fa?ade of the Iglesia de San Francisco El Grande is by Sabatini but the building itself, a circular edifice with six radial chapels and a large dome 33m/108ft wide, is by Francisco Cabezas.

評(píng)判我所學(xué)的任何東西，都應(yīng)以它是否讓我受益為準(zhǔn)則，而不是考慮它是否滿足他人的利益。我對(duì)事物的發(fā)現(xiàn)應(yīng)該讓我更具活力：它們必須以某種方式使我“生命升華”。

Anything I learnt would have to be justified by private benefit rather than by the interest of others. My discoveries would have to enliven me: they would have in some way to prove 'lifeenhancing'.

這個(gè)術(shù)語(yǔ)是尼采[14] 所提出的。他在1873年的秋季寫了一篇文章，他對(duì)探險(xiǎn)家或?qū)W者們的論據(jù)收集以及運(yùn)用已知論據(jù)豐富內(nèi)在精神這二者進(jìn)行辨析。和一般大學(xué)教授不同的是，他對(duì)前一項(xiàng)活動(dòng)不屑一顧，對(duì)后者卻褒贊有加。在這篇名為《歷史對(duì)于生命的用途和損害》的文章中，尼采一開始便非同凡響地聲明：以類似科學(xué)的方法收集論據(jù)是徒勞無(wú)功的。真正的挑戰(zhàn)在于運(yùn)用這些數(shù)據(jù)來(lái)升華我們的“生活”。他引用歌德的一句話說(shuō)：“我厭惡所有那些只提供指示，卻未能豐富或鼓動(dòng)我活動(dòng)的東西?！?

The term was Nietzsche's. In the autumn of 1873, Friedrich Nietzsche composed an essay in which he distinguished between collecting facts like an explorer or academic and using already well-known facts for the sake of inner, psychological enrichment. Unusually for a university professor, he denigrated the former activity and praised the latter. Entitling his essay On the Uses and Disadvantages of History for Life , Nietzsche began with the extraordinary assertion that collecting facts in a quasiscientific way was a sterile pursuit. The real challenge was to use facts to enhance 'life'. He quoted a sentence from Goethe: 'I hate everything that merely instructs me without augmenting or directly invigorating my activity.'

“為了豐富生命”而從旅行中獲取知識(shí)意味著什么？尼采提供了一些建議。他想象有這么一個(gè)人，對(duì)德國(guó)文化的現(xiàn)狀和任何嘗試改善它的辦法皆感到沮喪。這個(gè)人到了意大利的一座城市，比如錫耶納或佛羅倫薩，竟發(fā)現(xiàn)廣為人知的“意大利文藝復(fù)興”，只不過(guò)肇因于幾個(gè)意大利人之努力。他們憑著運(yùn)氣、毅力和恰當(dāng)?shù)馁澲?，使整個(gè)社會(huì)風(fēng)尚和價(jià)值取向得以變更。這位德國(guó)旅客學(xué)會(huì)從他人的文化中尋找“曾經(jīng)在過(guò)去充實(shí)‘人’的概念并使它更完善的東西”。尼采還說(shuō)道：“歷史中總是一次又一次地出現(xiàn)一些對(duì)過(guò)往的偉大事物進(jìn)行反思的人，他們從中獲取力量，深深感受到人類生命的輝煌燦爛。”

What would it mean to seek knowledge 'for life' from one's travels? Nietzsche offered suggestions. He imagined a person depressed about the state of German culture and the lack of any attempt to improve it, going to an Italian city, Siena or Florence, and there discovering that the phenomenon broadly known as 'the Italian Renaissance' had in fact been the work of only a few individuals who, with luck, perseverance and the right patrons, had been able to shift the mood and values of a whole society. This tourist would learn to seek in other cultures 'that which in the past was able to expand the concept “man” and make it more beautiful'. 'Again and again there awaken some who, gaining strength through reflecting on past greatness, are inspired by the feeling that the life of man is a glorious thing.'

尼采提供了第二種旅行方式的建議：通過(guò)歷史了解我們的社會(huì)和身份認(rèn)同如何形成，從而得到一份延續(xù)性和歸屬感。進(jìn)行此類旅行的人“超越了個(gè)人的短暫生命并感覺到自己是他寓所、種族和城市的靈魂”。他能夠凝視著古老的建筑并體驗(yàn)到“一份快樂，即他知道自己的存在并非完全偶然或任意的，而是過(guò)去的繼承者和成果。因此，一個(gè)人的存在是合理的，且確有其存在的意義”。

Nietzsche suggested a second kind of tourism, whereby we may learn how our societies and identities have been formed by the past and so acquire a sense of continuity and belonging. The person practising this kind of tourism 'looks beyond his own individual transitory existence and feels himself to be the spirit of his house, his race, his city'. He can gaze at old buildings and feel 'the happiness of knowing that one is not wholly accidental and arbitrary but grown out of a past as its heir, flower and fruit, and that one's existence is thus excused and, indeed, justified'.

按尼采的說(shuō)法，觀察一棟古建筑的意義不過(guò)在于思考到這一點(diǎn)：“建筑物的風(fēng)格比原本以為的更加靈活?！蔽覀兛赡苣タ唆斔箤m（“它建于1629至1643年間，為哈普斯堡式建筑風(fēng)格的珍品”），心中想：“如果當(dāng)時(shí)能夠把它建出，為何現(xiàn)在不能？”這樣，我們從旅行中帶回來(lái)的，或許就不是1600種新植物，而是一系列細(xì)微、不顯著但卻能豐富人生的想法。

To follow the Nietzschean line, the point of looking at an old building might be nothing more, but then again nothing less, than recognizing that 'architectural styles are more flexible than they seem, as are the uses for which buildings are made'. We might look at the Palacio de Santa Cruz ('constructed between 1629 and 1643, this building is one of the jewels of Habsburg architecture' ) and think, 'If it was possible then, why not something similar now?' Instead of bringing back 1,600 plants, we might return from our journeys with a collection of small, unfêted but life-enhancing thoughts.