Siddhartha (悉达多)

我读过的写得最美的书 Siddhartha,作者为诺贝尔文学奖获得者Hermann Hesse (赫尔曼·赫塞)。可能许多朋友早已读过了,我是最近读的。实在太喜欢了,尽管时而茅塞顿开,时而是懂非懂。

原书发表于1922年,原文德语。这本书被译成多种语言,仅英译本就有六个。我读的英译本由Hilda Rosner翻译,1951年出版。据说该书在60年代的美国非常流行,当时的大学生几乎人手一册。

这本书的故事情节非常简单,人物也不多,几乎不象小说,而象长篇散文诗,但它的内容深刻,文字优美,象一杯美酒,需要慢慢品味。

没有时间看此书的人可以看看中文简介。http://www.douban.com/group/topic/20359599/#!/i!/ckDefault,

想看此书的人最好不要看这个介绍,要用自己的眼和心去读,去体会,而不是“拾人牙慧”,或被人牵着鼻子走。会德文的朋友最好读德文版,我觉得英文版还是有点以译文的生涩感。

在网上找到一些现成的名句供大家欣赏。

Wisdom cannot be imparted. Wisdom that a wise man attempts to impart always sounds like foolishness to someone else ... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. One can find it, live it, do wonders through it, but one cannot communicate and teach it.

When someone seeks," said Siddhartha, "then it easily happens that his eyes see only the thing that he seeks, and he is able to find nothing, to take in nothing because he always thinks only about the thing he is seeking, because he has one goal, because he is obsessed with his goal. Seeking means: having a goal. But finding means: being free, being open, having no goal.

It is not for me to judge another man's life. I must judge, I must choose, I must spurn, purely for myself. For myself, alone.

What could I say to you that would be of value, except that perhaps you seek too much, that as a result of your seeking you cannot find.

I have always believed, and I still believe, that whatever good or bad fortune may come our way we can always give it meaning and transform it into something of value.

We are not going in circles, we are going upwards. The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.

It may be important to great thinkers to examine the world, to explain and despise it. But I think it is only important to love the world, not to despise it, not for us to hate each other, but to be able to regard the world and ourselves and all beings with love, admiration and respect.

Words do not express thoughts very well. they always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.

Your soul is the whole world.

Gentleness is stronger than severity, water is stronger than rock, love is stronger than force.

And all the voices, all the goals, all the yearnings, all the sorrows, all the pleasures, all the good and evil, all of them together was the world. All of them together was the stream of events, the music of life.

太多了... 我几乎每句都喜欢。如果在高中时读了这样的好书,我估计会抄个手抄本。

(写于4/20/2015)