Belief And Unbelief 相信与怀疑

There are some doubters even in the western villages. One woman told me last Christmas that she did not believe either in hell or in ghosts. Hell she thought was merely an invention got up by the priest to keep people good; and ghosts would not be permitted, she held, to go "trapsin about the earth" at their own free will; "but there are faeries," she added, "and little leprechauns1, and water-horses and fallen angels." I have met also a man with a mohawk2 Indian tattooed upon his arm, who held exactly similar beliefs and unbeliefs. No matter what one doubts one never doubts the faeries, for, as the man with the mohawk Indian on his arm said to me, "they stand to reason." Even the official mind does not escape this faith.

即便是在西部村庄，也有不少怀疑论者。上次过圣诞，有个女人对我说她不相信地狱和鬼魂。她觉得地狱不过是牧师希望人心向善而编造出来的，鬼魂也不可能被允许随意“在人间到处旅行”。“但是，精灵是有的，”她又说，“小矮人啊，水马啦，还有坠落人间的天使都是存在的。”我还遇到一个胳膊上刺有莫霍克印第安人图案的男人，他的想法与那个女人惊人地相似。不管人们怀疑什么，却从不怀疑精灵的存在，因为，就像那个胳膊上刺有莫霍克印第安人图案的男人对我说的：“它们的存在合情合理嘛。”即使官方也对此深信不疑。

A little girl who was at service in the village of Grange, close under the seaward slopes of Ben Bulben3, suddenly disappeared one night about three years ago. There was at once great excitement in the neighbourhood, because it was rumoured that the faeries had taken her. A villager was said to have long struggled to hold her from them, but at last they prevailed, and he found nothing in his hands but a broomstick4. The local constable was applied to, and he at once instituted a houseto-house search, and at the same time advised the people to burn all the bucalauns (ragweed) on the field she vanished from, because bucalauns are sacred to the faeries. They spent the whole night burning them, the constable repeating spells the while. In the morning the little girl was found, the story goes, wandering in the field. She said the faeries had taken her away a great distance, riding on a faery horse. At last she saw a big river, and the man who had tried to keep her from being carried off was drifting down it—such are the topsy-turvydoms of faery glamour— in a cockleshell. On the way her companions had mentioned the names of several people who were about to die shortly in the village.

大概三年前，在本布尔本山朝海山坡附近的格兰奇村里，有个做佣人的小女孩，一天晚上突然失踪了。附近地区顿时骚动起来，因为据传这个小女孩是被精灵们掳走的。听说，当时有个村民拼命想保住这个女孩子，但最终没能斗过它们，手中只捞到一根扫帚柄。当地治安官参与调查此事，立即下令挨家挨户进行搜查，与此同时，奉劝人们烧掉女孩失踪的那片地里的全部豚草，因为精灵们视豚草为神物。人们花了一个通宵烧掉所有的豚草，治安官也彻夜不停地念着咒语。故事还说，这个小女孩是在第二天的早晨被找到的，她当时正在田地里游荡。女孩说，精灵们带她骑着仙马走了很远，后来，她看到一条大河，那个拼命想救她的人在一只小船上，正顺流而下——精灵们的魔力总是令人异想天开。一路上，精灵们还提到了村子里几个不久将去世的人的名字。

Perhaps the constable was right. It is better doubtless to believe much unreason and a little truth than to deny for denial's sake truth and unreason alike, for when we do this we have not even a rush candle to guide our steps, not even a poor sowlth to dance before us on the marsh, and must needs fumble our way into the great emptiness where dwell the mis-shapen dhouls. And after all, can we come to so great evil if we keep a little fire on our hearths and in our souls, and welcome with open hand whatever of excellent come to warm itself, whether it be man or phantom, and do not say too fiercely, even to the dhouls themselves, "Be ye gone"? When all is said and done, how do we not know but that our own unreason may be better than another's truth? For it has been warmed on our hearths and in our souls, and is ready for the wild bees of truth to hive in it, and make their sweet honey. Come into the world again, wild bees, wild bees!

也许治安官是对的。宁可信其有，不可信其无。对于那些非理性的事物或者具有一点真实性的事物，最好还是持相信的态度吧，这要比为了否定而去将真理和谬误一并否定要好；因为当我们这样做时，我们没有灯芯草烛光引路，甚至没有微弱的鬼火在沼泽之地迎面起舞，我们只能在居住着形形色色鬼魂的荒芜之地摸索前行。此外，如果我们在壁炉中和灵魂里燃起长明之火，张开双臂欢迎所有前来取暖的美好生灵，无论对人或幽灵，甚至魔鬼本身，也不忍心呵斥“你走开”，我们真会因此而招致莫大的不幸吗？到头来，我们怎么会知道自己所相信的非理性的事物就不比别人所相信的真理更好呢？毕竟，这些生灵已经在我们的壁炉前与灵魂中取暖了，且随时准备迎接真理的野蜂前来筑巢，酿蜜。野蜂啊，野蜂，请再度临驾我们的世界吧！

(1) 妖精，爱尔兰神话中的男性精灵，个子矮小，常化身为喜欢搞恶作剧的老年男子。

(2) 莫霍克，北美印第安人的一个分支。

(3) 本布尔本山，爱尔兰有名的石山，位于斯莱戈郡。

(4) 扫帚柄，传说中女巫乘之飞行于空中。