第六章
第8段
The strange truth about the matter is told in the very word "holiday." A bank holiday means presumably a day which bankers regard as holy. A half-holiday means, I suppose, a day on which a schoolboy is only partially holy. It is hard to see at first sight why so human a thing as leisure and larkiness should always have a religious origin. Rationally there appears no reason why we should not sing and give each other presents in honour of anything—the birth of Michael Angelo or the opening of Euston Station. But it does not work. As a fact, men only become greedily and gloriously material about something spiritualistic. Take away the Nicene Creed and similar things, and you do some strange wrong to the sellers of sausages. Take away the strange beauty of the saints, and what has remained to us is the far stranger ugliness of Wandsworth. Take away the supernatural, and what remains is the unnatural.
「節日」（譯註：原文holiday，猜想GK應該是看到了holi+day）這詞恰好顯明這弔詭的現實。銀行休假日（譯註：原文為bank holiday，此節日相當於台灣的國定假日）意味著該日被銀行員視為獨特神聖的日子。而我想，期中假期（half-holiday）應該是暗示，在這假日學生只會「半」聖潔。乍看之下，實在很難明白，為何這麼以人為本的休閒與玩樂會有宗教典故。理性想來，沒有任何理由，可阻止我們以高歌歡唱或送彼此禮物來紀念任何事物，從紀念米開朗基羅的生日，到慶祝倫敦尤士頓車站啟用，當然都可以。但是，這沒有發生。事實是，人只有在面對攸關靈性的事物時，才會變得超乎想像、出乎意料的物質化。若你奪走尼西雅信經或具有類似靈性意涵的東西，那烤香腸攤的老闆不知會有多痛苦。若你遮起聖像那美得詭譎的外在形象，那倫敦旺茲沃斯（Wandsworth）將只剩下更詭譎的醜陋。若你將超自然移除，那剩下的只有不自然。
第9段
And now I have to touch upon a very sad matter. There are in the modern world an admirable class of persons who really make protest on behalf of that antiqua pulchritudo of which Augustine spoke, who do long for the old feasts and formalities of the childhood of the world. William Morris and his followers showed how much brighter were the dark ages than the age of Manchester. Mr. W. B. Yeats frames his steps in prehistoric dances, but no man knows and joins his voice to forgotten choruses that no one but he can hear. Mr. George Moore collects every fragment of Irish paganism that the forgetfulness of the Catholic Church has left or possibly her wisdom preserved. There are innumerable persons with eyeglasses and green garments who pray for the return of the maypole or the Olympian games. But there is about these people a haunting and alarming something which suggests that it is just possible that they do not keep Christmas. It is painful to regard human nature in such a light, but it seems somehow possible that Mr. George Moore does not wave his spoon and shout when the pudding is set alight. It is even possible that Mr. W. B. Yeats never pulls crackers. If so, where is the sense of all their dreams of festive traditions? Here is a solid and ancient festive tradition still plying a roaring trade in the streets, and they think it vulgar. if this is so, let them be very certain of this, that they are the kind of people who in the time of the maypole would have thought the maypole vulgar; who in the time of the Canterbury pilgrimage would have thought the Canterbury pilgrimage vulgar; who in the time of the Olympian games would have thought the Olympian games vulgar. Nor can there be any reasonable doubt that they were vulgar. Let no man deceive himself; if by vulgarity we mean coarseness of speech, rowdiness of behaviour, gossip, horseplay, and some heavy drinking, vulgarity there always was wherever there was joy, wherever there was faith in the gods. Wherever you have belief you will have hilarity, wherever you have hilarity you will have some dangers. And as creed and mythology produce this gross and vigorous life, so in its turn this gross and vigorous life will always produce creed and mythology. If we ever get the English back on to the English land they will become again a religious people, if all goes well, a superstitious people. The absence from modern life of both the higher and lower forms of faith is largely due to a divorce from nature and the trees and clouds. If we have no more turnip ghosts it is chiefly from the lack of turnips.
現在我得提一件十分悲哀的事情。今日有一群令人景仰的人，他們發自真心為奧古斯丁筆下那萬古常新的美（antiqua pulchiritudo / 出自懺悔錄）辯護，他們真誠渴望那遠古質樸的老舊節慶與形式。威廉莫里斯（William Morris）與其跟隨者認為，中古黑暗時代要比工業時代（譯註：原文age of Manchester /不確定翻法 ）明亮許多。葉慈（W. B. Yeats）以史前舞蹈來踏步前行，但沒人理解，沒人參與跟他一起吟誦那久被遺忘的副歌，只剩下他能聽見喬治摩爾（George Moore）在收集那因天主教會遺忘，或因天主教會刻意保留，而僅剩的愛爾蘭異教殘簡。有無數戴著眼鏡、穿著綠袍的人，祈禱著五月柱（仲夏節）或奧林匹亞競賽能夠重返人間。但在這些人身上，一揮之不去、令人擔憂的氣質，暗示著這群人也可能以同樣的熱忱，不願慶祝聖誕節。以此檢視人性，實在是令人感到痛苦，但喬治摩爾的確有可能呆望著桌上甜點著火，也不會動手中的湯匙。葉慈也可能從未玩過聖誕拉炮。倘若這是真的，那他們對遠古傳統的夢想到底所在為何？眼前就有一個行之有年、充塞大街小巷的遠古慶典，但他們卻覺得這節日粗俗、無意義。若真是如此，他們真該明白，在還有五月柱的年代，他們就是會認為五月柱庸俗的那種人；在坎特伯里朝聖者的時代，他們就是會認為朝聖者庸俗的那種人；在奧林匹亞的時代，他們就是會認為奧林匹亞庸俗的那種人。別自己騙自己，若我們所謂的庸俗是指言語粗鄙、行為莽撞、愛說八卦、愛胡鬧、沈迷飲酒，那只要是歡樂的場合、只要是有神明信仰的地方，就會出現這類的庸俗。只要是有宗教信仰，就一定會有歡鬧，只要有歡鬧，就會有危險。而正如信條與神話會產生這類粗鄙與庸俗的生活現實，相反的，這類粗鄙與庸俗的生活現實也總是會帶來信條與神話。倘若我們讓英格蘭人回到英格蘭故土，他們會再次成為具有宗教信仰的民族，若一切順利，還會成為迷信的民族。現代生活中，高階與低階宗教形式的消失，主要是因為人們脫離了自然，脫離了樹林與天空。倘若我們不再聽說有蘿蔔神，那是因為我們不再有蘿蔔。
＝＝
留言
張貼留言