Lesson 24

Beauty

A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to a world that lies beyond.
一个年轻的男人看到一场日落，由于无法理解或表达它在心中激起的情感，便断定那一定是通往另一个世界的入口。
It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher.
对于我们任何人在强烈的审美体验时刻，都很难抵制这样一种暗示：我们正在捕捉一道从不同存在领域照向我们的光，这道光不仅不同，而且由于这种体验极其动人，在某种程度上显得更高尚。
And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined.
并且，尽管这些微光闪烁且耀眼，但它们确实传达出了一丝比我们所知或想象的更伟大的美与宁静。
Greater too than we can describe; for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
它也比我们所能描述的更为宏大；因为语言，这种被发明用来传达此世意义的工具，无法轻易地适用于彼世的用途。
That all great art has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable.
那所有伟大的艺术都拥有这种暗示一个超越世界的力量，这是不可否认的。
In some moods, Nature shares it.
在某些情绪中，大自然分享它。
There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves an indefinable longing and regret.
六月的天空没有那么蓝，以至于它不指向更蓝的；没有如此美丽的日落，以至于它不唤醒对更伟大美的憧憬——一种在被完全瞥见前就消逝，并在消逝中留下不可名状渴望与遗憾的憧憬。
But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us, if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning.
但是，如果这个世界不仅仅是一个糟糕的玩笑，生命不是星辰清冷光辉中一道粗俗的闪光，存在也不是在奥秘中嘶鸣的空洞笑声；如果这些关于背后与之外某种事物的暗示，并非源于消化不良的邪恶幽默，亦非魔鬼为嘲弄和激怒我们而送来的怪念头，总之，如果美意味着什么，我们却绝不能试图去解读其含义。
If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp.
如果我们瞥见那不可言说的，试图说出它是不明智的，我们也不应该试图去赋予我们无法掌握的东西以意义。
Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.
就我们人类的意义而言，美是无意义的。