睡与梦
Sleep and Dream
吴祖光
Geremie R. Barmé 译
人活一辈子，睡觉差不多占了半辈子，睡觉对于人生的关系真是够密切的了。我们每一个人到世界上来，来了就睡，一连好几个月地睡下去；而离开世界的时候，也总是睡着去的。
Life is inextricably tied up with sleep, and we sleep about half of our lives away. As soon as we are born into the world, we sleep and spend most of our first months unconscious. When we leave the world, it is also usually in our sleep. The comfort and relaxation that sleep affords us is the highest form of human enjoyment.
睡觉的舒服，安逸，永远占据着人们享乐的最高点。最值得称颂的是它不用金钱，也不讲势力，无论老幼贫富，贤愚智不肖，除掉世界上最可怜的失眠症患者之外，都能得到一个睡眠。
The best thing about sleep is that it is free, and you don't have to be powerful to experience it. Sleep is available to everyone, regardless of age or wealth, one's wisdom or ignorance. It is the property of all except those sorry souls who are afflicted with insomnia.
在睡的世界里，一切都是平等的。在那里，富翁可以变成乞丐，乞丐也可以变成富翁；皇太子可以和平民女儿恋爱成功，穷光蛋也可以笑傲王侯……睡觉是一件大事，同吃饭一样重要，比结婚更为重要。
In sleep there is equality: the prosperous and mighty can be reduced to poverty; and beggars can become rich men. A prince may love and marry a commoner; while even a vagabond dares laugh at the nobles in his dreams. Sleep, along with eating, is one of man's most vital activities. It is of even greater consequence than marriage.
睡觉根本是一种原始的享乐，所以并不十分需要现代化的装置，自然柔软的弹簧床是会使人适意，然而我们用最原始的自然环境也许可以给我们更多的乐趣，像史湘云醉眠芍药裀就是一个最俏皮而又富于诗意的睡觉；这样谁能说这碧绿如茵的草地不比弹簧褥子更温软？醉人的春风不比天鹅绒的被子更轻柔？更何况树枝上的小鸟唱着催眠曲，小河里淙淙的水声送来酒也似浓厚的睡意。
Sleep is a primal luxury, and as such it requires none of the trappings of modern life. Though naturally a bed with soft springs does make for increased comfort, the most primitive and unadorned surroundings can give whimsical joy to our somnolent indulgence. That is why the delightful story of Shi Xiangyun sleeping drunkenly on a mattress of peonies is so charming and evocative of a poetical atmosphere. How could the springs of any bed be more soft or inviting than a lush green lawn? Is not the caressing spring breeze more delicate than the finest down? Add to these are the lullabies of small birds sung from the trees and the babbling of the brook bringing intoxicating sleep.
有一次，我坐在一节三等火车里，开始着一个辽远的程途，天慢慢地黑下去，车里的灯光是惨绿的颜色，每一个旅客都觉得非常疲倦了。那时从深夜的人堆里，忽然传来一声冗长而沉重的呵欠，这一声呵欠影响了全车的旅客，不由得令人想起家中温软的床铺，立刻觉得眼皮发涩，头发重，心发沉。随后鼾声大起，纷纷睡去。张嘴者有之，歪头者有之，咬牙切齿者有之，口角垂涎者有之，光怪陆离，万象毕陈。总而言之，大家都睡着了，虽然车里空气坏，椅子硬，没有床铺。
I once went on a long train journey. My seat was in the third class carriage, and as night fell, the passengers were gradually overcome by drowsiness in the limpid and pale light of the dusk. A long and lazy yawn stretched the length of the carriage in the darkness, rippling through the rows of weary travelers. We were all thinking of home and bed, eyes stinging with sleep and our bodies weighted down heavily with the desire for repose. The sound of snoring was soon heard, and everyone began to drop off to sleep. It was not long before the carriage was filled with a gallery of humanity in all of its variety, sitting prone in the grip of sleep – people with their mouths gaping and their heads cocked to one side; others grinding their teeth or dribbling at the mouth. Despite the stuffy closeness of the carriage and the hard seats, everyone was sleeping contentedly.
人家说：“睡中别有天地，谓之睡乡。”睡乡就是梦境，梦是什么？现代的心理生理学家的解释，说是一种外界的刺激促成身心上的下意识的反应。这个我们且撇开不谈，我只觉得梦是超乎现实的另一个人生，像《仲夏夜之梦》所表现的那么美的大同世界。
“There is another world for the sleeper, it is called the Land of Dreams” or so the saying goes. But what are dreams, really? According to modern psychology, dreams are merely a subconscious response to certain external stimuli. All I can say about dreams for sure is that they open up to all of us a supramundane existence. It is a world not unlike that depicted in A Midsummer Night's Dream.
它比苍蝇的翅还要轻，比空气还要空灵，比月光还要美丽，忽明忽灭，不可捉摸。《金刚般若经》说：“一切有为法，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电，应作如是观。”梦是一个虚无的幻想，一个迎着阳光五彩的水泡，一个阴阴的暗影，一颗侵晓花茎上晶莹的露珠，一道倏然一现随即瞥然而逝的电光。
Dreams are lighter than the gossamer of a fly's wings, more intangible than air. They are more lustrous than the moon, yet they may vanish in an instant, for they are fleeting and beyond our grasp. As the Diamond Sutra says, “One should view all of these things as dream-images, bubbles, for they are like the morning dew or lightning.” Dreams are illusory, like bubbles reflecting the spectrum of light in a sunbeam, a shadowy nothingness, a drop of dew glistening on the stem of a flower, or a flashing streak of lightning.
常言道：“日有所思，晚有所梦。”这种梦多半是最甜蜜的，我们白天得不到的东西，做不到的事情，往往在梦中就得到了，做到了。譬如说：心里想着某人，然而在事实上是可望而不可即的，思之想之，神魂颠倒。
“Something that troubles you in the day will cause a dream at night.” Such dreams are usually the sweetest, since what we fail to achieve during the day can sometimes be realized at night in our dreams. If, for example, you are infatuated with someone you think of nothing but that person. Your every waking moment is a torment of longing, but the one you love cannot be yours.
可是到了夜晚，假如梦神有灵，就把某人送来了。自己不由得有点飘飘然。最煞风景的就是在这恰到好处的时候，不是掉到沟里去了，便是被狗咬了一口。如此一来，“适可而止”。梦尽人渺，依然故我，四大皆空，所谓“不如意事常八九”，连作梦都是如此。
Only at night, if the Lord of Sleep is kind to you, can that loved belong to you. The most frustrating thing about dreams, though, is that just as things reach a climax, you fall into a ditch or get bitten by a dog. The fantasy comes to a sudden end, you wake and your dream-world vanishes, leaving you feeling as empty as you did in your waking hours. People say that “nothing is ever perfect”. Who would have ever thought that this holds true even for dreams?
纵使是如此空虚的梦，都不是我们强求得来的。贾宝玉想梦见林黛玉，不惜卑躬曲节，焚香净手，祷告神灵，冀得梦中一亲颜色；而结果纳头睡去，一觉睡到大天亮，梦边儿也没有沾到一点。这样我们可以体会到“悠悠生死别经年，魂魄不曾来入梦”是何等凄凉的情绪了。
There is no way we can be sure just what we will dream. And not even the most earnest entreaties can ensure you the dreams you want. In A Dream of Red Mansions, Jia Baoyu goes to great lengths so he can meet Lin Daiyu in his sleep. He first burns incense and washes his hands, following which he prays to the deities so that his beloved will visit him in his dreams. Yet, it is all for naught, and he sleeps soundly till the sun is high the next day without having one dream. This incident brings home to us the feeling of forlorn desperation as expressed in the line of poetry that says, “Separated from you in death I have been for so many years, not even a shadow of yourself has entered my dreams.”
虚无的梦有时也会改变了现实的人生，最有名的就是《南柯梦》。《南柯梦》的主人公在黄粱未熟的短短的时间内，竟跑到梦中的南柯国里，去作了几十年的东床驸马；尝尽了悲欢苦乐，享尽了富贵荣华。梦醒时，他起了无限感慨，因此而参透了人生，于是居然青灯一盏，皈依佛门。
Dreams, insubstantial though they may be, can sometimes actually change one's life. The most famous case of this happening is the story of the “dream of Nanke”. In his sleep, a man dreams that he travels to the State of Nanke, marries the princess and lives with her for many years, experiencing all of the twists and turns, pleasures and sorrows of a capricious fate. After a rich and full life, he finally wakes up only to discover that he has not even been asleep long enough for a pot of millet to cook! This shattering experience leads him to retire from the world and end his days as a contemplative Buddhist hermit.
梦真是不可思议，它不分时间，不分地域，相隔千万里的朋友，可以在梦中相处一堂，几十年的光阴可以在梦中一闪而过。梦之于人生，是非莫辨，虚实不分，离奇恍惚，不着边际。
How true bewildering dreams can be. In an instant they can render the barriers of time and place meaningless, and transport a friend from a great distance to join you, while dozens of years can melt away in the twinkling of an eye. In the realm of dreams all things become possible; reality and illusion are at one.
古人有“人生如梦”与“浮生暂寄梦中梦”之类的话。是的，人生本是一个梦。睡乡的梦境不过是梦中之梦，大梦之中的小梦而已。人生下地来就是一个大梦的开始，死去就是梦的终结。世界本就是一个广大的梦境，我们就是这梦中的人物。
“Life is but a dream”; “our floating existence finds temporary repose in the dreams within the greater dream of life”. The Land of Dreams is in reality nothing more than a short dream in the long dream of life, a dream which begins with our birth and ends with our death. We are but characters playing against the chimera of life.
其中的贵贱贫富，喜怒哀乐，不过是这梦境中的遭际；有的做着轰轰烈烈的梦，有的做着庸庸碌碌的梦，有的做着幸福的梦，有的做着可怜的梦；有桃色的梦也有灰色的梦。
Riches and poverty, all the joys and sorrows of the world are nothing more than a part of the dream. Our roles may bring us a life of ceaseless activity and excitement or common insignificance, great happiness or wretched despair. Some dreams may be lustrous and attractive, others grey and dull.
纵然我们在少年时代，被梦境所支配，像真事似的，为梦境所苦，为梦境兴奋，然而到了老年的时候，也就是大梦将醒的时候，哪一个不托着腮帮子，低着头，闭着眼，心里想着那几十年的过眼云烟，有如一梦呢？
We pass our young years in a world of fantasy, suffering and rejoicing in our dream, even so it seems to be very real. Again, in old age we come to a final awakening from the great dream of life. If we shut our eyes and lower our heads in reflection, we can look back over the hazy years of the past: it has all flashed by in an instant, no more than a fleeting vision.
诸葛亮在高卧隆中之时，吟道：“大梦谁先觉，平生我自知。草堂春睡足，窗外日迟迟。”虽然他自命以为自知平生，先觉大梦；以睡觉为惟一的消遣，然而他终于接受了三顾茅庐之请，到茫茫人海之中作了一个角逐者，尽数十年的心力于残酷的争斗，七擒孟获，六出祁山，鞠躬尽瘁，死而后已。诸葛亮是所谓人中之龙，所谓高士，然而他终于逃不脱这梦的支配。啊！这人生如梦！这梦也似的人生！
When the famous general Zhuge Liang was in seclusion, he wrote the lines, “Who wakes first to realize it is a great dream, I know what my life has been. Sleep fills the spring days in a grass hut, the day growing late outside my window.” Despite this realization and his taking refuge in sleep as his only comfort, the general finally let himself be persuaded by the entreaties of Liu Bei, returning to the frantic world of human activity to take a pre-eminent role in the history of his time. After years of fierce and tireless struggle, endless campaigns and victories, he ended his days as a loyal and devoted warrior. Zhuge is praised as a lord among men, a superior being, yet for all of his ability and talent, he could not free himself from the tyranny of the dream of life.
写到这里，我望了望窗外，江南的暮春时节是如此美丽，前面的小河涨得水汪汪的。正是新雨之后，花草是一望皆碧之中夹着几点红白，越显得娇艳欲流，“庭芜上阶绿，草色入帘青”就是这时候的景色。浅草间有一对蝴蝶在翩翩追逐。
Casually looking out of my window, I can see the beauty of the late spring on the land south of the river. Everything shines freshly after the rainfall. A stream rushes past, and a field of soothing green stretches out in front of my eyes flecked with red and white flowers which add an element of fullness to the scene. In the delicate thin grass, a pair of butterflies frolic with each other.
我面对着这暮春天气，听见树枝擦着窗棂簌簌的声音，看见那一对蝴蝶隐没在密叶丛中时，忽然想起了庄周化蝶的故事。我只觉得恍惚，轻纱也似的朦胧，我也分不出究竟是人间还是梦中了。
I hear the branches of the trees scraping against the window frames of my study and my eyes follow the butterflies flitting in and out of sight amidst the vegetation. I am reminded of the story of Zhuang Zi turning into a butterfly. My mind clouds over and I can no longer tell whether all this is real or just a dream.
《饮水词》里有一句说得最好，道是：“还睡！还睡！解道醒来无味。”假如我们真觉得这世界是无味的话，那么大家都睡吧！到睡乡中去找寻更美丽的梦境，因为真正的大同世界只能在梦里去寻求的。
There is a wonderful line in the Yinshuici (Drinking Water), “Sleep on, sleep on; to awaken to the truth is no salvation.” If we feel this way about the world, then we should really sleep on, sleep in the hope of finding a more beautiful existence. For it is only in sleep that we may discover a world of harmony.
1937年3月于南京
March, 1937Nanjing
打开箱子发现了去年春天在南京写的这篇短文，展读一过，百感交萦。一年来的艰苦遭际，让我觉得以往的生活真是一个荒唐梦，大有昨非而今犹不是之感。我发誓不再作梦了。然而我如何忘得了南京？
I came across this article written last spring while looking through my trunk. I thought of many things when I reread it. The sorrow and stress of the last year have made me realize that the past was a nightmare, it was all a waste of time, and today is not much better. I have sworn to myself that I will not dream any more. Even so, how will I ever forget Nanjing?
1938年11月于重庆N
ovember, 1938 Chongqing
,
