悠游度過(guò)一天的24小時(shí)：第一章 每日奇跡

CHAPTER I The Daily Miracle

第一章 每日奇跡

"Yes, he's one of those men that don't know how to manage. Good situation. Regular income. Quite enough for luxuries as well as needs. Not really extravagant. And yet the fellow's always in difficulties. Somehow he gets nothing out of his money. Excellent f lat—half empty! Always looks as if he'd had the brokers in. New suit—old hat! Magnificent necktie—baggy trousers! Asks you to dinner: cut glass—bad mutton, or Turkish coffee—cracked cup! He can't understand it. Explanation simply is that he fritters his income away. Wish I had the half of it! I'd show him—” “對(duì)，他就是那種不知怎樣妥善安排的人。條件優(yōu)越，收入穩(wěn)定，完全夠買(mǎi)各種必需品和奢侈品，不過(guò)也不是那么奢華。但這家伙卻經(jīng)常陷入窘境，不知為何花錢(qián)買(mǎi)不到什么。上好的寓所——空了一半！看起來(lái)似乎總有中介光顧。新套裝——配頂舊帽子！漂亮的領(lǐng)帶——配條寬松下垂的燈籠褲！邀你進(jìn)餐：用雕花玻璃碗——裝糟羊肉或土耳其咖啡——杯子是裂的！他搞不明白為什么。原因很簡(jiǎn)單，他的收入花得都不是地方。要是我有他一半的收入就好了！我會(huì)教他——” So we have most of us criticised, at one time or another, in our superior way. We are nearly all chancellors of the exchequer: it is the pride of the moment. Newspapers are full of articles explaining how to live on suchand-such a sum, and these articles provoke a correspondence whose violence proves the interest they excite. Recently, in a daily organ, a battle raged round the question whether a woman can exist nicely in the country on £85 a year. I have seen an essay, How to Live on Eight Shillings a Week."" But I have never seen an essay, ""How to Live on Twenty-four Hours a Day."" Yet it has been said that time is money. That proverb understates the case. Time is a great deal more than money. If you have time you can obtain money—usually. But though you have the wealth of a cloak-room attendant at the Carlton Hotel, you cannot buy yourself a minute more time than I have, or the cat by the fire has."

我們大多數(shù)人時(shí)不時(shí)地、不無(wú)優(yōu)越地批評(píng)別人。我們幾乎都是財(cái)政大臣，那不過(guò)是一時(shí)的驕傲罷了。報(bào)紙上充斥著教人如何靠一定量的錢(qián)過(guò)日子的文章，這些文章引起的反響特別熱烈，人們對(duì)這個(gè)問(wèn)題的興趣可見(jiàn)一斑。最近，某日?qǐng)?bào)談?wù)摰脑掝}為一個(gè)女人是否一年只需85英鎊就能在這個(gè)國(guó)家過(guò)得舒適，由此引發(fā)了激烈論戰(zhàn)。我曾見(jiàn)過(guò)一篇文章，名為《如何靠8先令過(guò)一星期》，但我還從沒(méi)見(jiàn)過(guò)名為《怎樣度過(guò)一天24小時(shí)》的文章。然而，早就有人說(shuō)過(guò)時(shí)間就是金錢(qián)。該諺語(yǔ)低估了時(shí)間的重要性，時(shí)間比金錢(qián)寶貴得多。如果你有時(shí)間，你就會(huì)有金錢(qián)——通常如此。然而，即使你和卡爾頓飯店寄存間的服務(wù)員一樣富有，你也不能用金錢(qián)換來(lái)比我或火爐邊的貓多哪怕一分鐘的時(shí)間。

Philosophers have explained space. They have not explained time. It is the inexplicable raw material of everything. With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is truly a daily miracle, an affair genuinely astonishing when one examines it. You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions. A highly singular commodity, showered upon you in a manner as singular as the commodity itself!

哲學(xué)家闡釋了空間，但沒(méi)有闡明過(guò)時(shí)間。時(shí)間是萬(wàn)物難以言喻的原材料。擁有時(shí)間，一切皆有可能；沒(méi)有時(shí)間，萬(wàn)事皆空。時(shí)間的供給，的確是每天發(fā)生的奇跡，仔細(xì)想想，這著實(shí)令人驚詫。早晨醒來(lái)，瞧！你的錢(qián)包里神奇地裝上了24小時(shí)，這是你整個(gè)生命世界里未嘗加工的一部分。這24小時(shí)是屬于你的最寶貴的財(cái)富。時(shí)間是相當(dāng)特殊的商品，總是以一種和這商品本身一樣特殊的方式大量地贈(zèng)予你！

For remark! No one can take it from you. It is unstealable. And no one receives either more or less than you receive.

注意！沒(méi)人可以?shī)Z走你的時(shí)間。時(shí)間是偷不走的。別人得到的時(shí)間不會(huì)比你多，也不會(huì)比你少。

Talk about an ideal democracy! In the realm of time there is no aristocracy of wealth, and no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld from you. No mysterious power will say:—"This man is a fool, if not a knave. He does not deserve time; he shall be cut off at the meter." It is more certain than consols, and payment of income is not affected by Sundays. Moreover, you cannot draw on the future. Impossible to get into debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept for you.

說(shuō)說(shuō)理想的民主吧！在時(shí)間的領(lǐng)域里，財(cái)富沒(méi)有特權(quán)，知識(shí)也沒(méi)有特權(quán)。即便是天才，每天也不可能比別人多擁有哪怕一小時(shí)。同樣，也沒(méi)有時(shí)間上的懲罰。即使你肆意浪費(fèi)這無(wú)比貴重的商品，你的時(shí)間之源也并不會(huì)喪失。沒(méi)有某種神秘的力量會(huì)說(shuō)：“這人如果不是無(wú)賴，一定是傻瓜。他不配擁有時(shí)間；應(yīng)將他的時(shí)間供應(yīng)從計(jì)量表中切斷。”時(shí)間比長(zhǎng)期債券更可靠，時(shí)間的支付不受是不是禮拜天的影響。再者，你不能預(yù)支未來(lái)，因此不會(huì)欠下時(shí)間債！浪費(fèi)的只可能是過(guò)去那一刻，而不可能浪費(fèi)明天，明天給你預(yù)留著呢；你也不能浪費(fèi)接下來(lái)的一小時(shí)，它也為你保留著。

I said the affair was a miracle. Is it not?

我說(shuō)過(guò)這就是奇跡，難道不是嗎？

You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin health, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of the highest urgency and of the most thrilling actuality. All depends on that. Your happiness—the elusive prize that you are all clutching for, my friends!—depends on that. Strange that the newspapers, so enterprising and up-to-date as they are, are not full of "How to Live on a Given Income of Time," instead of "How to Live on a Given Income of Money"! Money is far commoner than time. When one reflects, one perceives that money is just about the commonest thing there is. It encumbers the earth in gross heaps.

每天你得靠這24小時(shí)生活。從這每天的24小時(shí)里，你要擁有健康、獲取快樂(lè)、掙得財(cái)富、獲得滿足和尊重以及你不朽靈魂的升華。怎樣恰當(dāng)、有效地利用時(shí)間是一個(gè)最急迫、最令人振奮的實(shí)際問(wèn)題。一切都取決于怎樣利用時(shí)間。你的快樂(lè)——你們都竭力追求卻難得擁有的歡樂(lè)——都取決于對(duì)時(shí)間的利用，我的朋友們！奇怪的是，各報(bào)載文盡管看上去頗有創(chuàng)意又新潮，卻鮮有文章談?wù)?ldquo;怎樣用固定的時(shí)間收入過(guò)活”，而更多的是“怎樣靠固定的金錢(qián)收入過(guò)日子”！金錢(qián)遠(yuǎn)比時(shí)間平常。細(xì)想一下，就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)金錢(qián)是世界上最普通的東西。累累金錢(qián)，觸目皆是。

If one can't contrive to live on a certain income of money, one earns a little more—or steals it, or advertises for it. One doesn't necessarily muddle one's life because one can't quite manage on a thousand pounds a year; one braces the muscles and makes it guineas1, and balances the budget. But if one cannot arrange that an income of twenty-four hours a day shall exactly cover all proper items of expenditure, one does muddle one's life definitely. The supply of time, though gloriously regular, is cruelly restricted.

如果一個(gè)人不能靠一定的收入過(guò)活，那么他要么去多掙錢(qián)，要么去偷盜，要么就登廣告去討錢(qián)。一個(gè)人一年一千英鎊都不夠花，并不意味著他一定會(huì)把生活搞糟；他鼓足干勁多賺錢(qián)，把一千英磅變成一千幾尼，就能平衡收支。但是如果一個(gè)人不能妥善利用一天得到的這24小時(shí)來(lái)支付所有時(shí)間開(kāi)銷，他的生活絕對(duì)是一團(tuán)糟。盡管時(shí)間的供應(yīng)固定，讓人欣慰，可同時(shí)時(shí)間有限得近乎殘酷。

Which of us lives on twenty-four hours a day? And when I say lives, I do not mean exists, nor "muddles through." Which of us is free from that uneasy feeling that the "great spending departments" of his daily life are not managed as they ought to be? Which of us is quite sure that his fine suit is not surmounted by a shameful hat, or that in attending to the crockery he has forgotten the quality of the food? Which of us is not saying to himself—which of us has not been saying to himself all his life: "I shall alter that when I have a little more time"?

我們中有誰(shuí)過(guò)好了一天的24小時(shí)？我說(shuō)的過(guò)好意思不是活著或“渾渾噩噩地活著”。日常生活的“重大消耗部”沒(méi)掌管好，誰(shuí)不曾有過(guò)這樣的不安？誰(shuí)能肯定自己筆挺的西裝搭上寒酸的帽子，風(fēng)度不會(huì)減損？誰(shuí)又能肯定自己因?qū)Ｐ挠^賞盛裝食物的陶器而忽略了食物本身的品質(zhì)？我們誰(shuí)不正在乃至一生都在對(duì)自己說(shuō)：“等我有多一點(diǎn)時(shí)間了，將會(huì)有所改變”？

We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is. It is the realisation of this profound and neglected truth (which, by the way, I have not discovered) that has led me to the minute practical examination of daily time-expenditure.

我們永遠(yuǎn)不會(huì)有更多的時(shí)間。我們現(xiàn)在跟以往一樣，所有的時(shí)間也就這么多。正是意識(shí)到這一深刻而又往往被人忽略的真理（順便說(shuō)一句，這并非是我的發(fā)現(xiàn)），我才來(lái)仔細(xì)研究實(shí)際生活中我們每天是如何花費(fèi)時(shí)間的。

(1)幾尼，1663年英國(guó)發(fā)行的一種金幣，1813年停止流通，后僅指等于1.05英磅的幣值單位。