《朱自清·论自己》原文英译

原文

翻开辞典，“自”字下排列着数目可观的成语，这些“自”字多指自己而言。这中间包括着一大堆哲学，一大堆道德，一大堆诗文和废话，一大堆人，一大堆我，一大堆悲喜剧。自己“真乃天下第一英雄好汉”，有这么些可说的，值得说值不得说的！难怪纽约电话公司研究电话里最常用的字，在五百次通话中会发现三千九百九十次的“我”。这“我”字便是自己称自己的声音，自己给自己的名儿。

自爱自怜！真是天下第一英雄好汉也难免的，何况区区寻常人！冷眼看去，也许只觉得那枉自尊大狂妄得可笑；可是这只见了真理的一半儿。掉过脸儿来，自爱自怜确也有不得不自爱自怜的。幼小时候有父母爱怜你，特别是有母亲爱怜你。到了长大成人，“娶了媳妇儿忘了娘”，娘这样看时就不必再爱怜你，至少不必再像当年那样爱怜你。——女的呢，“嫁出门的女儿，泼出门的水”；做母亲的虽然未必这样看，可是形格势禁而且鞭长莫及，就是爱怜得着，也只算找补点罢了。爱人该爱怜你？然而爱人们的嘴一例是甜蜜的，谁能说“你泥中有我，我泥中有你！”真有那么回事儿？赶到爱人变了太太，再生了孩子，你算成了家，太太得管家管孩子，更不能一心儿爱怜你。你有时候会病，“久病床前无孝子”，太太怕也够倦的，够烦的。住医院？好，假如有运气住到像当年北平协和医院样的医院里去，倒是比家里强得多。但是护士们看护你，是服务，是工作；也许夹上点儿爱怜在里头，那是“好生之德”，不是爱怜你，是爱怜“人类”。——你又不能老呆在家里，一离开家，怎么着也算“作客”；那时候更没有爱怜你的。可以有朋友招呼你；但朋友也有朋友的事儿，那能教他将心常放在你身上？可以有属员或仆役伺候你，那——说得上是爱怜么？总而言之，天下第一爱怜自己的，只有自己；自爱自怜的道理就在这儿。

再说，“大丈夫不受人怜。”穷有穷干，苦有苦干；世界那么大，凭自己的身手，哪儿就打不开一条路？何必老是向人愁眉苦脸唉声叹气的！愁眉苦脸不顺耳，别人会来爱怜你？自己免不了伤心的事儿，咬紧牙关忍着，等些日子，等些年月，会平静下去的。说说也无妨，只别不拣时候不看地方老是向人叨叨，叨叨得谁也不耐烦的岔开你或者躲开你。也别怨天怨地将一大堆感叹的句子向人身上扔过去。你怨的是天地，倒碍不着别人，只怕别人奇怪你的火气怎么这样大。——自己也免不了吃别人的亏。值不得计较的，不做声吞下肚去。出入大的想法子复仇，力量不够，卧薪尝胆地准备着。可别这儿那儿尽嚷嚷——嚷嚷完了一扔开，倒便宜了那欺负你的人。“好汉胳膊折了往袖子里藏”，为的是不在人面前露怯相，要人爱怜这“苦人儿”似的，这是要强，不是装。说也怪，不受人怜的人倒是能得人怜的人；要强的人总是最能自爱自怜的人。

大丈夫也罢，小丈夫也罢，自己其实是渺乎其小的，整个儿人类只是一个小圆球上一些碳水化合物，像现代一位哲学家说的，别提一个人的自己了。庄子所谓马体一毛，其实还是放大了看的。英国有一家报纸登过一幅漫画，画着一个人，仿佛在一间铺子里，周遭陈列着从他身体里分析出来的各种元素，每种表明分量和价目，总数是五先令——那时合七元钱。现在物价涨了，怕要合国币一千元了罢？然而，个人的自己也就值区区这一千元儿！自己这般渺小，不自爱自怜着点又怎么着！然而，“顶天立地”的是自己，“天地与我并生，万物与我为一”的也是自己；有你说这些大处只是好听的话语，好看的文句？你能愣说这样的自己没有！有这么的自己，岂不更值得自爱自怜的？再说自己的扩大，在一个寻常人的生活里也可见出。且先从小处看。小孩子就爱搜集各国的邮票，正是在扩大自己的世界。从前有人劝学世界语，说是可以和各国人通信。你觉得这话幼稚可笑？可是这未尝不是扩大自己的一个方向。再说这回抗战，许多人都走过了若干地方，增长了若干阅历。特别是青年人身上，你一眼就看出来，他们是和抗战前不同了，他们的自己扩大了。——这样看，自己的小，自己的大，自己的由小而大。在自己都是好的。

自己都觉得自己好，不错；可是自己的确也都爱好。做官的都爱做好官，不过往往只知道爱做自己家里人的好官，自己亲戚朋友的好官；这种好官往往是自己国家的贪官污吏。做盗贼的也都爱做好盗贼——好喽啰，好伙伴，好头儿，可都只在贼窝里。有大好，有小好，有好得这样坏。自己关闭在自己的丁点大的世界里，往往越爱好越坏。所以非扩大自己不可。但是扩大自己得一圈儿一圈儿的，得充实，得踏实。别像肥皂泡儿，一大就裂。“大丈夫能屈能伸”，该屈的得屈点儿，别只顾伸出自己去。也得估计自己的力量。力量不够的话，“人一能之，己百之，人十能之，己千之”；得寸是寸，得尺是尺。总之路是有的。看得远，想得开，把得稳；自己是世界的时代的一环，别脱了节才真算好。力量怎样微弱，可是是自己的。相信自己，靠自己，随时随地尽自己的一份儿往最好里做去，让自己活得有意思，一时一刻一分一秒都有意思。这么着，自爱自怜才真是有道理的。

英译

Searching in the dictionary, we will find a significant amount of idioms following the Chinese word“zi”, and the word“zi”in these Chinese idioms often means self. These idioms describe many philosophies and morals, numerous poetic prose and nonsense, heaps of people and selves, and a great number of tragedies and comedies. Since so many things meaningful or meaningless that we can say when speaking of ourselves; we, ourselves are truly the greatest heroes in the world. NYNEX carried out a research on the most popular word on the phone, and they found the word“I”emerged 3990 times in 500 phone calls. The word“I”is the sound we call ourselves, and it.s the name we give to ourselves.

Even the greatest hero in the world will love himself, let alone our ordinary people. Without much thinking, you may hold the view that the person who is self-regarding and self-pitying is unscrupulous and ridiculous, but you.re wrong. Thinking it over, you.ll know the reason why we.re self-regarding and self-pitying. When you are a child, your parents, especially your mother dote on you. When you grow up and marry a girl, you.ll escape from your mother; at this time, your mother thinks she doesn.t need to care about you anymore or at least care about so much. As for girls, just as the Chinese saying goes,“A daughter married is like the water poured”, you don.t belong to your parents anymore. Though the mother doesn.t think so, both the situation and distance are not favorable for her to make a difference. Even if your mother manages to give you love, it is very limited. Should your lover love and care about you? Lovers always speak sweet words,“I.m a part of you and you.re a part of me”, but who can tell me this is believable? Once your lover turns to be your wife and has a child, it means you have a family; at that time, your wife has to take care of the whole family and little time will be left for you. Sometimes you.ll fall ill, but just as the saying goes“the filial son will also lose his patience after having cared for his sick parents for a long time”, your wife will also get fed up with you. You.d like to go to hospital? Well, if you.re lucky enough to live in a hospital such as Peking Union Medical College Hospital (PUMCH), it.ll be fine. However, the nurse.s care and nursing for you are just her work, maybe a little love and pity are involved, but it.s her virtue in sparing life, not for you, but for humanity. And it.s impossible for you to stay at home all the time. Once you leave home, you are a guest for others; at that time, no one will love and pity on you. Of course, your friend will take care of you, but your friend has his own business to do, so he can not give his whole heart to you. Also subordinates or servants will wait on you, but do you think they love and pity on you from the heart? In a word, the one who cares for you the most in the world is yourself, and this is the reason why we.re self-regarding and self-pitying.

What.s more,“a real man will refuse what is offered”. Poor life can live in a poor way while bitter life lives in a bitter way. The world is so big, and we can blaze a trail relying on ourselves. There is no need for us to pull a long face, sigh and groan all the time. Would someone pity on you for your doleful face and distraught expression? Life is full of grief, and you should bite the bullet; some days later, you will find everything has cooled down. It.s just as well to talk about your trouble, but you should pay attention to the occasion. Because people may become impatient and avoid you. Moreover, you.d better not complain and throw a heap of exclamatory words to others. Of course, it.s none of others.business as you blame heaven and earth, but I.m afraid, people can.t tolerate your hot temper. Unavoidably, you will also suffer from this. Things that are unworthy of haggling over should be swallowed silently. But if things are in violation of your own principle, you should undergo self-imposed hardships to gather strength and nurse vengeance.Don.t be silly and yell around.After yelling you throw it behind, which just satisfies the one who bullies you.A man who breaks his arm hides it into his sleeve, for he doesn.t want others to discover his fear and throw pity on him. This shows his strong character rather than affectation. Oddly enough, the people who aren.t willing to accept others.pity can always get others.care and love.

No matter if you are a great man or an ordinary, we are very tiny, and the entire human race is just some carbohydrates on a small ball.One current philosopher once said,“don.t mention one human being”, which means the individual is nothing and negligible. Zhuangzi, a prime representative of Taoism in the 4th century B.C., thinks that human are just one hair of a horse, but in fact it is still amplified. A British newspaper once ran a cartoon: one person was in a pawnshop, and around him there are a variety of elements extracted from his body. With the volume and price of each element marked, the total value is five shillings, equaling seven RMB at that time. Prices have gone up, it probably equals one thousand RMB now. Since we are so tiny and insignificant, why don.t we love and care about ourselves? Besides, both“we of indomitable spirit stand upright between heaven and earth”and“heaven, Earth and I come into being together, and all things and I are one”describe our humankind; will you say those are just good words or beautiful diction for admiring our important role? Will you ignore our existence? Since we are so great and important, we deserve love and care. Then comes our growth. We can see improvement even in the daily lives of ordinary people. In the small aspect, children like collecting nations.stamps, which shows that they are enlarging their own fields. Formerly we were encouraged to learn Esperanto in order to communicate with others around the world. You may think it.s childish and ignorant, but it.s indeed a way to improve ourselves. Moreover, through this war of resistance against aggression, people have been to many places and attained some sophistication. Especially for the teenagers, before and after the war, the differences in them are very easy to see—they get improved. Small as we are, big as we are, we grow up from small to big, which in our own view are all gratifying.

It.s fine that we think ourselves good, and in fact we each intend to become a good person. Officials are all supposed to be good leaders, however, they only try to be good officials to their families, relatives and friends. Such officials are evils for their countries. Robbers intend to be good, such as good mobs, partners or leaders, but they must stay in their own circle. Great people want to be good; ordinary people want to be good, even bad people want to be good. If we just limit ourselves in a small circle, things will always go wrong when we try our best. Therefore, we must develop ourselves, ensure that we.re substantial and surefooted, and develop ourselves one circle by one circle. Don.t learn from soap bubble, it will burst once it becomes bigger. As the saying goes“the purest gold is the most ductile”, it.s necessary for us to learn to shrink rather than just stretch out. At the same time, we should take our strength into account. If we don.t have enough strength, we must try harder than others and accumulate strength one step at a time. Anyway, there.s always a road. We should look forward, be positive and steadfast. As we play an important role in the world, we.d better not detach from the world. No matter how weak our strength is, it still belongs to ourselves. We should believe in ourselves, depend on ourselves and try our best to do it well. Last but not the least, have fun each second. Only in this way, can self-regard and self-pity make sense.