英文自修133：同情苦难，寄望未来

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Thought for the Day 20140731 Rt Rev Nick Baines

Way back in 1978 Boney M did a terrible thing: they took a song of desperate lament 绝望的伤痛 and turned it into a disco dance hit. ‘By the rivers of Babylon’ was a boppy 极小的（？） little number with a very catchy tune, but the music bore 承载 no relation to the content or the meaning of the words.

“By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept 痛哭… How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” This song – which is taken from Psalm 137 – is wrenched 扭出 out of the guts of a people whose world has been lost – possibly forever. Here they sit in exile, expelled from their homeland, being mocked by their captors 抓获者 while they weep in humiliation 羞辱. After all, how can they sing songs of praise to their God when the evidence of their desperate experience tells them it has all been a big mistake?

Well, Boney M aren’t the only culprits 罪犯 when it comes to putting words to inappropriate music. But, this is the song that comes to my mind when I see the images brought to us from just about every corner of the globe by hugely brave journalists and film crews. Attempts to rationalize 合理化，寻找理据 the immensity 巨大性 of human suffering in the world today must surely come second to some attempt at empathy 移情. Our brains might be engaged, but our first response must be the surge 猛然上升 of emotional horror and lament that is dragged from deep within us as we see the human suffering laid bare before us.

Now, Psalm 137 is not a comfortable song; nor is it a song for the comfortable. It ends with a shrill cry of pain and hatred: “God, I wish you’d take the children of my enemies and smash their heads against the rocks.” But, it isn’t there to justify an ethic. It isn’t there to suggest it is right to think such awful things of other people’s children. It is there for two reasons: first, to confront 对抗 us with the reality of how deep our own human hatred can go, and, secondly, to tell us not to lie to God (thinking he can’t handle that reality or the depths of human despair).

If we thought the twentieth century of bloodshed and slaughter was bad enough, the twenty first is already proving pretty grim. Like everybody else, I have views on what is happening in the Middle East and closer to home in Ukraine – including the persecution of Christians in Iraq and elsewhere. And, having grown up in Liverpool in the aftermath of the Second World War with grandparents who well remembered the First, I am haunted 挥之不去，袭扰 by the human propensity 倾向性 for what historian Christopher Clark has called the “sleepwalking” into global conflict. Where does all this leave the myth of human progress?

“By the rivers of Babylon” perhaps gives us a vocabulary for times such as this – admitting the horror and the helplessness, but surrounded by other songs that compel compassionate response and action that is rooted in hope of a better future.

早在1978年，邦尼•姆做了件极坏的事：他们拿了一首绝望哀痛的歌，却谱出了迪斯科舞蹈的旋律。“巴比伦河畔”这首小曲旋律动听，但音乐跟歌词的内容、含义都没有关系。

“我们坐在巴比伦河畔，苦泪涟涟……上帝之歌，我们怎能唱响，在这异国他乡？”这首歌——取自诗篇137——表达的是一种百结愁肠，这是一个（可能永远）失去了故土的民族。他们被放逐到异乡，遭到征服者辱骂嘲弄，灰头土脸，以泪洗面。他们绝望的经历表明这一切只是个巨大的错误，他们又怎能高唱歌颂上帝的曲词？

说起配曲不当、错解歌词，不独邦尼·姆犯此恶行。不过，当我看到大智大勇的记者和电影摄制组从全球各地传来的图片时，我想起的就是这首歌。最重要的是同情今日世界无边的人类苦难，而为这种苦难寻理求据，总不是第一位的。我们的大脑可能别有他务，但看到人类苦难赤裸裸地摆在面前，我们的第一反应必须是情感上发自深心的恐怖与哀痛。

诗篇137不是一首让人舒服的歌；它也不是唱给生活顺意的人听的。诗篇结尾含恨，尖声痛哭：“上帝，愿你夺走我敌人的孩子，把他们的头在岩石上撞碎。”但是，这样唱不是为了释罪，不是为了说明对别人的孩子有这样可怕的想法是什么好事。这样唱有两个原因：一，让我们直面人类仇恨在现实中能深刻到何等地步；二，让我们不要对上帝说谎（认为他无法应对人类绝望的现实与深度）。

如果我们觉得20世纪的流血与杀戮已经足够糟糕，那么21世纪已经实在不容乐观了。跟大家一样，我对当前在中东和离英国稍近的乌克兰所发生的，包括伊拉克等地对基督徒的迫害，都有自己的看法。我在二战之后成长于利物浦，我的祖父母对一战记忆犹新，我对人类“梦游”进入全球冲突（历史学家克里斯托夫·克拉克语）的阴暗倾向感到担心，挥之难去。这一切将人类进步的神话置于何地？

“巴比伦河畔”也许就是此类时代的一个代名词——承认所面临的恐怖和无助，但周围也有其他歌曲要求我们拿出同情心的反应和行动，希望更好的未来能够牢牢扎根。