“You who govern public affairs, what need have you to be employ punishments? Love virtue, and the people will be virtuous. The virtues of a superior man are like the wind; the virtues of a common man are like the grass - I the grass, when the wind passes over it, bends.”
此段出自论语.季康子: 子为政,焉用杀?子欲善而民善矣。君子之德风,小人之德草。草上之风,必偃。
梭罗引用此句是想要影射自己因为政府把其管辖的人当成奴隶来买卖,所以梭罗拒绝向政府缴税而被捕入狱这件事。梭罗认为如果一个政府有德行,那么老百姓自然依法行事(如果政府有仁德,梭罗自己自然悉数缴税)。如果把当权者的德行比做风,老百姓的德行比做草,当权者仁德,那么民必从之。
这里我们暂不谈国家,就谈谈我们的社区,我们周围的人,我们周围所处的环境。如果周围环境是民风淳朴,睦邻友好的环境,那么人们就会去顺应环境而调整自己的行为成为一个有德行,热爱生活的人;同时如果我们自己成为一个有德之人,热爱生活,用心工作,努力成为一个值得托付的人,那么周围的环境因为个体的变化也会变成我们自己理想的栖身之所。
The Pond中遇到的一段自己比较喜欢的一段,读第一句:温暖的傍晚里,我常常,吹长笛,泛舟于湖滨之上。读此句,就有一种中国古风味。
原文 In warm evenings I frequently sat in the boat playing the flute, and saw the perch, which I seem to have charmed, hovering around me, and the moon travelling over the ribbed bottom, which was strewed with the wrecks of forest. Formerly I had come to this pond adventuously, from time to time, in dark summer nights, with a companion, and, making a fire close to the water's edge, which we thought attracked the fishes, we caught pouts with a bunch of worms strung on a thread, and when we had done, far in the night, threw the buring brands high into the air like skyrockets, which coming down into the pond, were quenched with a loud hissing, and we were suddenly groping in total darkness. Through this, whistling a tune, we took our way to the haunts of men again. But now I had made my home by the shore.
词汇
1. hover: tostay very
closeto apersonorplace
2. ribbed: Something that is ribbed has raised lines on it.
3. adventuously: exciting or unusual
4. quench: to put out a fire
5. grope: to try to find sth that you can not see by feeling with your hands.
Reading: 温暖的傍晚,我常常吹着长笛,泛舟于湖滨之上,观鲈鱼在湖里游来游去。月亮在波光粼粼的湖底游弋。这里特别有意思,鲈鱼在水里游来游去,一动,而月亮本是一静,鲈鱼游来游去带动静止的月光也灵动起来,散开。此前,在夏夜里,时不时与朋友结伴来到湖边,生火于湖畔,引来鱼儿。钓到一些大头鱼后,已是深夜,几个人将烧剩的柴火扔向空中,柴火恰似流星划过天空,伴随着斯斯的声音,落入湖中。火光一灭,我们在黑夜里,吹着口哨,摸索着回到了人群中。
谁没有这样一些没心没肺,只是静静地呆在时光记忆里的日子呢。可能我们每个人心里都住着这样一个“湖畔”吧,简单干净到每每回忆起来都畅快淋漓。
Love life and read to inspire