宁静的心灵

 　　On peace of mind 宁静的心灵

　　约书亚.罗斯.李普曼

　　约书亚.罗斯.李普曼(1883-1946)，犹太哲学家，文学家，擅长写作隽永清新的小品文。

　　"On my head pour only the sweet waters of serenity¹. Give me the gift of the Untroubled Mind."

　　Once, as a young man full of exuberant² fancy, I undertook to draw up a catalogue of the acknowledged "goods" of life. As other men sometimes tabulate³ lists of properties they own or would like to own, I set down my inventory⁴ of earthly desirables: health, love, beauty, talent, power,riches,and fame.

　　When my inventory was completed I proudly showed it to a wise elder who had been the mentor⁵ and spiritual model of my youth. Perhaps I was trying to impress him with my precocious⁶ wisdom. Anyway, I handed him the list. "This", I told him confidently, "is the sum of mortal goods. Could a man possess them all, he would be as a god."

　　At the corners of my friend's old eyes, I saw wrinkles of amusement gathering⁷ in a patient net. "An excellent list," he said, pondering it thoughtfully, "well digested in contented⁸ and set down in not-unresonable order. But it appears, my young friend, that you have omitted the most important element of all. You have forgotten the one ingredient, lacking which each possession becomes a hideous⁹ torment¹⁰."

　　"And what." I asked, peppering my voice with truculence¹¹, "is that missing ingredient?"

　　With a pencil stub he crossed out my entire schedule. Then, haveing demolished¹² my adolscent dream structure at a single stroke, he wrote down three syllables¹³: peace of mind.

　　"This is the gift that God reserves for His special Proteges." he said.

　　"Talent and beauty He gives to many. Wealth is commonplace, fame not rare. But peace of mind - that is His final guerdon of approval, the fondest insignia of His love, He bestows¹⁴ it charily¹⁵. Most men are never blessed with it; others wait all their lives- yes, far into advanced age - for this gift to descend¹⁶ upon them."

　　只在我头上灌注宁静的蜜露，赋予我一片不受干扰的心境。

　　曾经,当我还是一个充满丰富幻想的年轻人时,着手起草了一份被公认为人生"幸福"的目录：健康、爱情、美丽、才智、权利、财富和名誉。

　　当我完成清单后，我自豪地将它交给一位睿智的长者，他曾是我少年时代的良师和精神楷模。或许我是想借用此来加深我早熟智慧的印象。无论如何，我把单子递给了他。我充满自信的对他说“这是人类幸福的总合。一个人若能拥有这些，就和神差不多了。”

　　在我朋友老迈的眼角处，我看到了感兴趣的皱纹，汇聚成一张耐心的网。他深思熟虑地说：“是一张出色的表单，内容整理详细，记录顺序也合理。但是，我的年轻朋友，好像你忽略了最重要的一个要素。你忘了那个要素。如果缺少了它，每项财产都会变成可怕的折磨。”

　　我立即暴躁地逼问：“那么，我遗漏的这个要素是什么？”

　　他用一小段铅笔划掉我的整张表格。在一拳击碎我的少年美梦之后，他写下三个单词：心之静，“这是上帝为他特别的子民保留的礼物。”他说道。

　　他赐予许多人才能和美丽。财富是平凡的，名望也不稀有，但心灵的宁静才是他允诺的最终赏赐，是他爱的最佳象征。他施与它的时候很谨慎。多数人从未享受过，有些人则等待了一生——是的，一直到高龄，才等到赏赐降临到他们身上。

1 serenity   

n.宁静，沉着，晴朗

参考例句：

• Her face,though sad,still evoked a feeling of serenity.她的脸色虽然悲伤，但仍使人感觉安详。
• She escaped to the comparative serenity of the kitchen.她逃到相对安静的厨房里。

2 exuberant   

adj.充满活力的；（植物）繁茂的

参考例句：

• Hothouse plants do not possess exuberant vitality.在温室里培养出来的东西，不会有强大的生命力。
• All those mother trees in the garden are exuberant.果园里的那些母树都长得十分茂盛。

3 tabulate   

v.列表，排成表格式

参考例句：

• It took me ten hours to tabulate the results.我花了十个小时把结果制成表格。
• Let me tabulate the results as follows.让我将结果列表如下。

4 inventory   

n.详细目录，存货清单

参考例句：

• Some stores inventory their stock once a week.有些商店每周清点存货一次。
• We will need to call on our supplier to get more inventory.我们必须请供应商送来更多存货。

5 mentor   

n.指导者，良师益友；v.指导

参考例句：

• He fed on the great ideas of his mentor.他以他导师的伟大思想为支撑。
• He had mentored scores of younger doctors.他指导过许多更年轻的医生。

6 precocious   

adj.早熟的；较早显出的

参考例句：

• They become precocious experts in tragedy.他们成了一批思想早熟、善写悲剧的能手。
• Margaret was always a precocious child.玛格丽特一直是个早熟的孩子。

7 gathering   

n.集会，聚会，聚集

参考例句：

• He called on Mr. White to speak at the gathering.他请怀特先生在集会上讲话。
• He is on the wing gathering material for his novels.他正忙于为他的小说收集资料。

8 contented   

adj.满意的，安心的，知足的

参考例句：

• He won't be contented until he's upset everyone in the office.不把办公室里的每个人弄得心烦意乱他就不会满足。
• The people are making a good living and are contented,each in his station.人民安居乐业。

9 hideous   

adj.丑陋的，可憎的，可怕的，恐怖的

参考例句：

• The whole experience had been like some hideous nightmare.整个经历就像一场可怕的噩梦。
• They're not like dogs,they're hideous brutes.它们不像狗，是丑陋的畜牲。

10 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

11 truculence   

n.凶猛，粗暴

参考例句：

• One day, it might even suit the Kremlin to encourage this truculence. 总有一天可能更适于克里姆宁宫去鼓励这种好战。
• Examples of China's truculence as viewed from Washington – abound. 在华盛顿方面看来，中国好斗的例子比比皆是。

12 demolished   

v.摧毁( demolish的过去式和过去分词 )；推翻；拆毁（尤指大建筑物）；吃光

参考例句：

• The factory is due to be demolished next year. 这个工厂定于明年拆除。
• They have been fighting a rearguard action for two years to stop their house being demolished. 两年来，为了不让拆除他们的房子，他们一直在进行最后的努力。

13 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

14 bestows   

赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Second, Xie Lingyun bestows on basic subject and emotion connotation. 谢灵运赋的基本主题及情感内涵。
• And the frigid climate bestows Heilongjiang rich resources of ice and snow. 寒冷的气候赋予了其得天独厚的冰雪资源。

15 charily   

小心谨慎地，节俭地，俭省地

参考例句：

16 descend   

vt./vi.传下来，下来，下降

参考例句：

• I hope the grace of God would descend on me.我期望上帝的恩惠。
• We're not going to descend to such methods.我们不会沦落到使用这种手段。