英语名篇诵读 怀旧（在线收听）

Nostalgia

怀旧

Ben Macintyre(本·麦金太尔)

There is a vital distinction between memory and nostalgia . Memory is the link between

past and present, but nostalgia, by definition, disparages the present; it evokes a time no

longer attainable, an idealised , romanticised past that was better, and now irretrievably

gone. Nostalgia therefore comes freighted with disappointment. It is no longer the vice of the

aged, but a national pastime . It was almost as if we looked backward with nostalgia because we

could not look forward with hope.

Nostalgia is, in the end, a seductive and sentimental fib . As an idealised picture, it

exists outside memory, and often in opposition to it; it is not history, but a deliberate, self-

comforting distortion . In a globalised , fast-moving world, much modern nostalgia evokes

an anti-technological arcadia , a longing for simplicity and community.

Nostalgia is an emotional comfort blanket, but it is also an illusion. It is the self-inflicted

sadness caused by revisiting a bright imagined past that makes the present seem all the duller.

History tells us how life was; nostalgia merely reflects how we wish it had been. The two aspects

of the past should not be confused.

回忆与怀旧截然不同。回忆联结着过去和现在，而怀旧则意味着鄙视现在。怀旧让人

想念无法挽回的过去，一个理想化、浪漫化、优于现在、一去不复返的年代。因此怀旧总

是伴随着失望。怀旧不再是老年人的恶癖，而是大众普遍的消遣。我们留恋地回望过去，

好像是因为我们不能怀着希望展望未来。

说到底，怀旧是诱人而多愁善感的无害小谎。作为一种理想化的图景，怀旧存在于回

忆之外，常与回忆相抵触。怀旧不是历史，而是一种有意的自我慰藉式的歪曲。在全球化

快节奏的世界上，许多现代人的怀旧唤起了一种反技术的对世外桃源的向往，对淳朴生活

的渴望。

怀旧是一种情感的安慰罩，但也是一种幻觉。怀旧是一种强加给自己的悲伤，因重游

想象中的美好过去，使现在的生活黯然失色。历史告诉我们生活的真实面目；怀旧表现的

只是我们希望生活呈现的样子。过去的这两种面貌不应混淆。