英文自修121：一次大战百年祭·智慧

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

译者：Young

审读：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20140628 Rev Rob Marshall

Today is the 100th anniversary of the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand 斐迪南大公 and his wife in Sarajevo 萨拉热窝 . Naftali Bendavid, writing this week in the Wall Street Journal, refers to the “lethal torrent” of events which “those bullets” unleashed as empires toppled; Virginia Woolf observed: “Then suddenly, like a chasm in a smooth road, the war came”.
今天是奥匈帝国斐迪南大公夫妇在萨拉热窝遇刺100周年纪念日。纳夫塔利·本大卫在这周的《华尔街日报》撰文，称之为诸事件的“致命急流”，帝国在子弹声中走向灭亡。弗吉尼娅·伍尔夫说：“就像平路上突然出现裂口一般，战争迅速来临。”

The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 维也纳爱乐乐团 will play in what's billed as a concert for peace in the newly restored Sarajevo Town Hall. There will, of course, be many more moments of reflection and commemoration during this centenary year leading up to the commencement of hostilities in 1914.
维也纳爱乐乐团将在新修复的萨拉热窝市政厅举办音乐会，也就是对外宣传的和平音乐会。正值1914年一战爆发一百周年，在此期间还会有更多的反思和纪念活动。

Whilst the reasons and causes for this conflict are many and complex, few would doubt that the assassination remembered today, prefigured 预示 the dawn of a shocking conflict which left irrevocable scars on future generations.
虽然那场战争的起因错综复杂，但是很少有人怀疑我们今天所纪念的那场暗杀预示着一场令人震惊的争端的到来，这场战争给后代留下了不可挽回的创伤。

I’ve just reread Canon Alan Wilkinson’s book The Church of England and the First World War, updated and republished to mark the centenary, in which he describes a failure on the part of community leaders, philosophers and theologians to be able to deal adequately with the ferocity 暴行 of what was to unfold.
我刚刚重读了艾伦·威尔金森教士的《英国国教与第一次世界大战》一书，为纪念一战爆发一百周年，这本书修订并再次出版。他在书中指出，社会活动家、哲学家和神学家并没能充分应对接下来发生的这场暴行。

The spiritual effect, Wilkinson puts forward, reflected the experience of the people of Israel whilst in exile in Babylon 巴比伦. The experience led to them to ask penetrating spiritual questions about what they believed about life as well as being a catalyst to reconsidering their own interpretation of history. The spiritual effects of the coming of World War One on the people produced similar questions, according to Wilkinson.
威尔金森指出，当时流亡在巴比伦的以色列人的经历体现了战争的精神影响。这些经历使他们对生活中所相信的东西提出尖锐的问题，同时也促使他们重新思考对历史的解读。按照威尔金森的说法，一战的爆发对人们造成的精神影响也催生了类似的问题。

There’s a lot in the Old Testament about the consequences of violence on nations and individuals. The Wisdom Literature is wonderfully basic in its depth. Much of it is rooted in notions of shared responsibility combined with the quest for a dignified and peaceful life, whatever befalls us. The unity is rooted in a sense of belonging to a wider community where wisdom prevails.
关于暴力对国家和个人造成的后果，《圣经》旧约中谈过很多。“智慧与文学”五书实在是深入浅出，甚是奇妙。其大多植根于共同责任观和不管遭遇什么，始终心怀对庄严和安宁生活的追求。这种团结植根于对更大共同体的归属感，在那里智慧盛行。

But, perhaps above all, such wisdom also urges the leaving of a better and more secure civilisation for future generations so that they may not curse those who went before. This is a repetitive refrain 重复 in the Book of Proverbs. Act wisely now so that goodness might prevail.
然而，或许最重要的是，这样的智慧敦促人类为后代留下一个更加优越和安全的文明以免遭后代的谴责。这一点在《圣经·箴言篇》中反复出现。现在采取明智的行动，善良就会盛行。

What happened one hundred years ago today in Sarajevo, was in many ways a curse to future generations. Terrible suffering ensued. But a century on our task during this special year is surely to remember the great lessons of history so that wisdom might prevail.
在很多方面，一百年前的今天发生在萨拉热窝的一切，都是对后代的诅咒。随之而来的是可怕的苦难。但是一百年后，在这个特别的年份，我们的任务无疑是要铭记历史的伟大教导，以使智慧盛行。