Of Idleness

As we see some grounds that have long lain idle and untilled, when grown rich and fertile by rest, to abound with and spend their virtue in the product of innumerable sorts of weeds and wild herbs that are unprofitable, and that to make them perform their true office, we are to cultivate and prepare them for such seeds as are proper for our service; and as we see women that, without knowledge of man, do sometimes of themselves bring forth inanimate and formless lumps of flesh, but that to cause a natural and perfect generation they are to be husbanded with another kind of seed: even so it is with minds, which if not applied to some certain study that may fix and restrain them, run into a thousand extravagances, eternally roving here and there in the vague expanse of the imagination—

我们看到，有些土地长久闲置、无人耕种，因休养而变得肥沃，便把力气耗在生长无数无用的杂草野菜上；要让它们尽其本分，就得加以耕作，为合用的种子做好准备；我们又看到，有些女子不经男人，有时会自己生出无生命、无形状的肉团，要有自然完满的生育，就须用另一种种子来播种：心灵也正是这样，若不专注于某种确定的学问，用它来固定、约束自己，就会陷入千百种狂想，在想象的茫茫空间里永无休止地东游西荡——

“Sicut aqua tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis, / Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine lunae, / Omnia pervolitat late loca; jamque sub auras / Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti.”

“Sicut aqua tremulum labris ubi lumen ahenis, / Sole repercussum, aut radiantis imagine lunae, / Omnia pervolitat late loca; jamque sub auras / Erigitur, summique ferit laquearia tecti.”

(“As when in brazen vats of water the trembling beams of light, reflected from the sun, or from the image of the radiant moon, swiftly float over every place around, and now are darted up on high, and strike the ceilings of the upmost roof.”— AEneid, viii. 22.)

（“就像铜盆里的水，映着太阳或明亮月影的颤动光斑，迅速掠过周围的每一处，时而又跃上高处，打在最高的屋顶天花板上。”——维吉尔《埃涅阿斯纪》第八卷第 22 行）

—in which wild agitation there is no folly, nor idle fancy they do not light upon:—

——在这种狂乱的激荡里，没有什么愚蠢、没有什么无稽的幻想是它碰不上的：——

“Velut aegri somnia, vanae / Finguntur species.”

“Velut aegri somnia, vanae / Finguntur species.”

(“As a sick man’s dreams, creating vain phantasms.”— Hor., De Arte Poetica, 7.)

（“如同病人的梦，造出虚妄的幻象。”——贺拉斯《诗艺》第 7 行）

The soul that has no established aim loses itself, for, as it is said—

灵魂若没有确定的目标，就会迷失自己；因为正如俗话所说——

“Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat.”

“Quisquis ubique habitat, Maxime, nusquam habitat.”

(“He who lives everywhere, lives nowhere.”—Martial, vii. 73.)

（“马克西穆斯啊，处处为家的人，无处为家。”——马提亚尔，第七卷第 73 首）

When I lately retired to my own house, with a resolution, as much as possibly I could, to avoid all manner of concern in affairs, and to spend in privacy and repose the little remainder of time I have to live, I fancied I could not more oblige my mind than to suffer it at full leisure to entertain and divert itself, which I now hoped it might henceforth do, as being by time become more settled and mature; but I find—

不久前我退居到自己家里，决心尽可能不再过问任何事务，在清静安闲中度过我余下不多的时光。我以为，最能善待我的心灵的，莫过于让它在充分的闲暇中自娱自遣；我希望它从此能够如此，因为它随着年岁已经变得更沉稳、更成熟了。可是我发现——

“Variam semper dant otia mentem,”

“Variam semper dant otia mentem,”

(“Leisure ever creates varied thought.”—Lucan, iv. 704)

（“闲暇总使心思纷纭。”——卢坎，第四卷第 704 行）

that, quite contrary, it is like a horse that has broke from his rider, who voluntarily runs into a much more violent career than any horseman would put him to, and creates me so many chimaeras and fantastic monsters, one upon another, without order or design, that, the better at leisure to contemplate their strangeness and absurdity, I have begun to commit them to writing, hoping in time to make it ashamed of itself.

恰恰相反，它像一匹挣脱了骑手的马，自顾自地狂奔，比任何骑手驱策它跑得都猛烈；它给我造出那么多妄想和怪诞的怪物，一个接一个，毫无秩序，毫无章法，为了在闲暇中更好地端详它们的古怪与荒唐，我已开始把它们一一写下来，希望日后能让它对自己感到羞愧。