Discovery in a Thunderstorm

 

雷雨中的醒悟

Many years ago I was on a bicycle trip through some exceedingly picturesque countryside. Suddenly, dark clouds piled up overhead and rain began to fall, but strange to relate, several hundred yards ahead of me the sun shone brilliantly. Pedaling, however, as rapidly as I could, I found it impossible to get into the clear. The clouds with their rain kept advancing faster than I could race forward. I continued this unequal contest for an exhausting half hour, before realizing that I could not win my way to the bright area ahead of me.

 

多年前，我曾骑着自行车从一片风景如画的郊野中穿过。突然，乌云密布，大雨滂沱，然而令人惊奇的是，在前方几百码的地方却是阳光灿烂。我蹬着车使劲往前冲，却发现怎么也到不了那片阳光普照之地。乌云夹着大雨比我冲得还快。半小时后，精疲力尽的我停止了这场不公平的抗争，意识到自己根本无法到达那片晴朗的天地。

Then it dawned upon me that I was wasting my strength in unimportant hurry, while paying no attention whatsoever to the landscape for the sake of which I was making the trip. The storm could not last forever and the discomfort was not unendurable. Indeed, there was much to look at which might otherwise have escaped me. As I gazed about with sharpened appreciation, I saw colors and lines and contours that would have appeared differently under brilliant light. The rain mists which now crowned the wooded hills and the fresh clearness of the different greens were entrancing. My annoyance at the rain was gone and my eagerness to escape it vanished. It had provided me with a new view and helped me understand that the sources of beauty and satisfaction may be found close at hand within the range of one’s own sensibilities.

 

顿时，我豁然开朗，我在毫不重要的事情上疲于奔波，却不曾欣赏途中的景致，忘记了自己旅行的目的。暴风雨不会永不停息，任何不适也并非难以容忍。的确，我差点错过了途中许多美好的景致。我满怀感激地凝望着眼前的景色，此刻所见的色彩、线条和轮廓比起阳光下别有一番风味。树木繁茂的山上，烟雨朦胧；别样的绿树清新明朗，令人神迷。大雨带给我的烦恼顿时消散，想要逃离的欲望也不复存在。相反，它带给我一种全新的视觉景观，让我懂得美与满足就源自于我们身边，只要细心发现便能唾手可得。

It made me think, then and later, about other matters to which this incident was related. It helped me realize that there is no sense in my attempting ever to flee from circumstances and conditions which cannot be avoided but which I might bravely meet and frequently mend and often turn to good account. I know that half the battle is won if I can face trouble with courage, disappointment with spirit, and triumph with humility. It has become ever clearer to me that danger is far from disaster, that defeat may be the forerunner of final victory, and that, in the last analysis, all achievement is perilously fragile unless based on enduring principles of moral conduct.

 

这次经历从此也引导着我去思考相关的事物。它让我明白，对于无法避免的环境与条件，企图逃避毫无意义，但我可以勇敢面对它们，并常常对其进行修整与改善。我知道，只要勇敢地面对困难、失望而不沮丧，成功而不骄傲，那我们的人生之战便取得了一半的胜利。我也更清楚地意识到，危险远非灾难，而失败也许就是最终胜利的先行者。因此，归根结底，一切成就如果不经受道德准则的考验，就会脆弱不堪，危机重重。

I have learned that trying to find a carefree world somewhere far off involves me in an endless chase in the course of which the opportunity for happiness and the happiness of attainment are all too I often lost in the chase itself. It has become apparent to me that I cannot wipe out the pains of existence by denying them, blaming them largely or completely on others, or running away from them.

 

我已经明白，当自己无休止地追寻，试图在遥远之地寻找一个无忧无虑的世界时，也常常会在追寻中错过获得幸福与成就的机会。显然，拒绝承认生存的痛苦，将它们多数或全部归咎于他人，或者逃避，都无法将它消除。

The elements of weakness which mark every person cannot absolve me from the burdens and blessings of responsibility for myself and to others. I can magnify but never lessen my problems by ignoring, evading or exorcising them. I believe that my perplexities and difficulties can be considerably resolved, if not completely overcome, by my own attitudes and actions. I am convinced that there can be no guarantee of my happiness except that I help evoke and enhance it by the work of my hands and the dictates of my heart and the direction of my striving. I believe that deep faith in God is necessary to keep me and hold mankind uncowed and confident under the vagaries and ordeals of mortal experience, and particularly so in this period of revolutionary storm and travail. If my values receive their sanction and strength from relationship to divine law and acceptance of its ethical imperatives, then nothing can really harm me. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.”

 

每个人都有不足之处，但我为自己与他人排忧解难和祈求祝福的责任并不能因此免除。我可以将问题放大，却绝不会为缩小问题而忽视、逃避或求助神灵。我相信，通过自己的态度与行为就可解决我的疑惑与难题，即使无法克服全部。我确信，要想使幸福有所保障，接受心灵的指引，就必须靠自己的双手，朝着目标努力奋斗，去创造并积累幸福。我相信，若想在人世间的变幻莫测与严酷考验中，特别是当今革命风暴的艰难时刻，保持无所畏惧与信心十足，就必须对上帝保持虔诚的信仰。如果我的价值观能从其与神律的联系和伦理要求的承诺中获得支持与力量，那任何事物都无法给我造成真正的伤害。“耶和华是我的牧者，我将一无所求。”