英文自修162：宽恕是最强有力的反击
本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站。
转载、翻译、中文标题：武太白
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Thought for the Day 20150430 Angela Tilby
I’ve been thinking about Eva Kor, who was recently interviewed on this programme. Eva Kor is the 81 year old Auschwitz survivor who gave evidence in the trial of 93 year old Oscar Groning – he was the SS guard who took and recorded the money of Jewish prisoners as they arrived at the death camp. When Eva had finished giving evidence against him she went over to where he was sitting and shook hands with him. He responded by pulling her towards him and kissing her. She said that she had spoken out at the trial to give voice to the victims and to help the world never to forget what had happened. But she also said, and this was a surprise, that she had forgiven the Nazis. There’s been much criticism of her for saying that, with people insisting that forgiveness can only be given where there is genuine repentance. I can see why. Forgiveness can sound like weakness as though what has been done doesn’t really matter.
我一直在思考近期刚上过这个节目访谈的伊娃•考尔，这是一位81岁的奥斯威辛幸存者，她在93岁的奥斯卡•格罗宁的审判中出庭作证——此人是在死亡集中营夺走并登记犹太犯人钱财的纳粹党卫军士兵。伊娃作证完毕后走到格罗宁就座之处，跟他握了手。他的反应是，拉住她，亲吻了她。伊娃说她已经在审判中代表受害者发出了自己的声音，帮助世界永远不忘发生过的一切。但令人吃惊的是，她说她已经原谅了纳粹分子。对她的说法，批评的分贝很高，人们坚持认为只有在真正悔罪的情况下，才应该给予宽恕。我明白这是为什么。宽恕听上去可能像是软弱，就好像已经做过的一切并不重要一样。
But that isn’t what Eva Kor was saying. Her most startling remark was that to her, forgiveness is the most formidable form of revenge. Forgiving the perpetrators of Auschwitz meant that they lost the one thing they once had – their power over her life. The fact that she had forgiven Groning neither prevented her from testifying against him, nor stopped him from taking responsibility for his own actions. So repentance and justice are part of the picture, but as a response to forgiveness not as a condition of it.
但伊娃•考尔说的并不是这个意思。她最令人吃惊的话是，对她来说宽恕是最令人生畏的复仇形式。宽恕那些在奥斯威辛犯下罪行的人意味着这些人失去了唯一的所有——他们所为对她生活的威迫。宽恕格罗宁这一事实既不妨碍她出庭作证指控后者有罪，也不会帮后者开脱罪责。所以，悔罪和公正仅仅是事情的一部分，仅仅是对宽恕的反应，而不是宽恕的条件。
What she is insisting on here is that by enacting forgiveness victims can escape from being trapped in a cycle of helplessness. She has found the strength to live freely, not defined by the horrors of her past. I find that astonishing, for not only did she lose the rest of her family to the gas chambers, she also came near to death herself, she and her twin sister were subject to Joseph Menegele’s medical experiments – and her sister never recovered from what had been done to her.
伊娃在这里坚持的一点是，达成宽恕，受害者能够摆脱无助感的恶性循环。她找到了自由地活下去的力量，不再被过去的恐怖所定义。我觉得这令人惊异，因为不但她的家人都死在纳粹的毒气室，而且她本人也几乎被折磨致死，她和双胞胎姐姐是约瑟夫•门格尔人体试验的受害者——她的姐姐再也没能从所受的伤害中恢复过来。
I suppose the difficult question is whether this means that forgiveness is ultimately independent of justice? Most of us would find that hard to take. Yet I am always struck when I read the Gospels how often Jesus forgives people before they show any sign of changing their ways. Of course they usually do repent in response to being forgiven but in theory they could have just shrugged it off.
我觉得问题是，这是否意味着宽恕最终与公正无关？我们绝大部分人会觉得这难以接受。然而我读《福音书》时看到耶稣那么多次在人们还没有表现出任何改变行为方式的迹象前就宽恕了他们，总是感到震撼。当然他们通常都对得到宽恕报以忏悔，但理论上他们完全可以耸耸肩走开。
The forgiveness declared by Eva Kor certainly invites repentance and Oscar Groning has already acknowledged his moral guilt. But perhaps the real significance of what she said was to announce the ultimate impotence of evil. Sin does not have the last word. We can choose to be free. We need that astonishing confidence in a world which would often tell us otherwise. It is the basis of all our faith and all our hope.
伊娃•考尔表示的宽恕当然催人悔罪，奥斯卡•格罗宁也已经承认了自己的道德罪行。但也许她所说的真正含义在于宣告了邪恶终归是无力的。邪恶不能决定什么。我们可以选择自由。我们需要那种令人惊异的信心，在这个经常告诉我们并非如此的世界上。这时我们所有信仰和希望的根基所在。