美文朗讀：Measure for Measure

DUKE VINCENTIO

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Be absolute for death; either death or life

Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:

If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,

Servile to all the skyey influences,

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,

Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun

And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;

For all the accommodations that thou bear'st

Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains

That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;

For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,

And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;

For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,

After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;

For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,

Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,

And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;

For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,

The mere effusion of thy proper loins,

Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,

For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,

Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,

To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this

That bears the name of life? Yet in this life

Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,

That makes these odds all even.

一報還一報 第三幕 第一場 文森修公爵： 能夠抱著必死之念，那么活果然好，死也無所惶慮。對于生命應當作這樣的譬解：要是我失去了你，我所失去的，只是一件愚人才會加以愛惜的東西，你不過是一口氣，寄托在一個多災多難的軀殼里，受著一切天時變化的支配。你不過是被死神戲弄的愚人，逃避著死，結(jié)果卻奔進他的懷里，你并不高貴，因為你所有的一切配備，都沾濡著污濁下賤。你并不勇敢，因為你畏懼著微弱的蛆蟲的柔軟的觸角。睡眠是你所渴慕的最好的休息，可是死是永恒的寧靜，你卻對它心驚膽裂。你不是你自己，因為你的生存全賴著泥土中所生的谷粒。你并不快樂，因為你永遠追求著你所沒有的事物，而遺忘了你所已有的事物。你并不固定，因為你的脾氣像月亮一樣隨時變化。你即使富有，也和窮苦無異，因為你正像一頭不勝重負的驢子，背上馱載著金塊在旅途上跋涉，直等死來替你卸下負荷。你沒有朋友，因為即使是你自己的骨血，嘴里稱你為父親尊長，心里也在咒詛著你不早早傷風發(fā)疹而死。你沒有青春也沒有年老，二者都只不過是你在餐后的睡眠中的一場夢景；因為你在年輕的時候，必須像一個衰老無用的人一樣，向你的長者乞討赒濟；到你年老有錢的時候，你的感情已經(jīng)冰冷，你的四肢已經(jīng)麻痹，你的容貌已經(jīng)丑陋，縱有財富，也享不到絲毫樂趣。那么所謂生命這東西，究竟有什么值得寶愛呢？在我們的生命中隱藏著千萬次的死亡，可是我們對于結(jié)束一切痛苦的死亡卻那樣害怕。