西南联大英文课之七

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西南联大英文课之七

Liberty

何为自由？

作者提出疑问？I have long had an image in my mind of what constitutes liberty. 作者紧接着设置了一个场景，Suppose that I were building a great piece of powerful machinery, and suppose that I should so awkwardly and unskilfully assemble the parts of it that every time one part tried to move it would buckle up and be checked.装配一台复杂的机器，每一次都要将每一部分精心组装。每一个部分只有完美合作，整部机器才能有效运转，否则就只能被迫停下来，进行检查了。所以所谓的自由只能是在一定范围内的自由，也就是要有一定规矩。Liberty for the several parts would consist in the best possible assembling and adjustment of them all, would it not?自由的完美是合作的完美，而不是绝对的孤立。It is free, not because it is let alone or isolated, but because it has been associated most skilfully and carefully with the other parts of the great structure. 没有任何人是一块孤岛，人与人之间必须互相支持，抱团取暖，人类的未来才会充满希望。作者又做了一个比喻，We say of a boat skimming the water with light foot, “How free she runs,” when we mean, how perfectly she is adjusted to the force of the wind.风行水上，自然成文。小船在水上自由航行，也是要靠船和水的美妙搭配。如果遭遇暴风，船就会处于艰难的处境，甚至会有倾覆的风险，这时就要看它努力挣扎求生的样子了，Throw her head up into the wind and see how she will halt and stagger, how every sheet will shiver and her whole frame will be shaken, how instantly she is “ in irons,”in the expressive phrase of the sea. 只有当它再次顺应风势，再次与外力协调，它才算是真正自由了。She is free only when you have let her fall off again and have recovered once more her nice adjustment to the forces she must obey and cannot defy.最后作者总结，人类的自由体现为兴趣、活动、精神三者的完美协调，Human freedom consists in perfect adjustments of human interests and human activities and human energies.