THIS EARTH THE ONLY HEAVEN--塵世是惟一的天堂 
                                      《The Importance of Living》--《生活的藝術(shù)》 
                                                                      By Lin Yutang （Selections from Lin Yutang's English works）
A sad, poetic touch is added to this intense love of life by the realization that this life we have is essentially mortal.
我們的生命總有一日會滅絕的，這種省悟，使那些深愛人生的人，在感覺上增添了悲哀的詩意情調(diào)。
Strange to say, this sad awareness of our mortality makes the Chinese scholar's enjoyment of life all the more keen and intense.
然而這種悲感卻反使中國的學(xué)者更熱切深刻地要去領(lǐng)略人生的樂趣。這看來是很奇怪的。
For if this earthly existence is all we have, we must try the harder to enjoy it while it lasts. A vague hope of immortality detracts from our wholehearted enjoyment of this earthly existence.
我們的塵世人生因?yàn)橹挥幸粋€，所以我們必須趁人生還未消逝的時候，盡情地把它享受。如果我們有了一種永生的渺茫希望，那么我們對于這塵世生活的樂趣便不能盡情地領(lǐng)略了。
As Sir Arthur Keith puts it with a typically Chinese feeling, "For if men believe, as I do, that this present earth is the only heaven, they will strive all the more to make heaven of it."
基士爵士（Sir Arthur Keith）曾說過一句和中國人的感想不謀而合的話：“如果人們的信念跟我的一樣，認(rèn)塵世是惟一的天堂，那么他們必將更竭盡全力把這個世界造成天堂。”
Su Tungp'o says, "Life passes like a spring dream without a trace," and that is why he clung to it so fondly and tenaciously.
蘇東坡的詩中有“事如春夢了無痕”之句，因?yàn)槿绱耍运敲瓷羁虉?jiān)決地愛好人生。
It is this sentiment of our mortal existence that we run across again and again in Chinese literature. It is this feeling of the imper-manence of existence and the evanescence of life, this touch of sadness, which overtakes the Chinese poet and scholar always at the moment of his greatest feasting and merrymaking, a sadness that is expressed in the regret that "the moon cannot always be so round and the flowers cannot forever look so fair" when we are watching the full moon in the company of beautiful flowers.
在中國的文學(xué)作品中，常常可以看到這種“人生不再”的感覺。中國的詩人和學(xué)者在歡娛宴樂的時候，常被這種“人生不再” “生命易逝”的悲哀感覺所煩擾，在花前月下，常有“花不常好，月不常圓”的傷悼。
It was in that poem commemorating a gorgeous feast on "A Spring Night amidst Peach Blossoms" that Li Po penned the favorite line: "
Our floating life is like a dream; how many times can one enjoy one's self?"
李白在《春夜宴桃李園序》一篇賦里，有著兩句名言：“浮生若夢，為歡幾何？”
And it was in the midst of a gay reunion of his happy and illustrious friends that Wang Hsichih wrote that immortal little essay, "The Orchid Pavilion", which gives, better than anything else, this typical feeling about the evanescence of life:
王羲之在和他的一些朋友歡宴的時候，曾寫下《蘭亭集序》這篇不朽的文章，它把“人生不再”的感覺表現(xiàn)得最為親切：
In the ninth year of the reign Yungho in the beginning of late spring we met at the Orchid Pavilion in Shanyin of Kweich'i for the Water Festival, to wash away the evil spirits. Here are gathered all the illustrious persons and assembled both the old and the young.
永和九年，歲在癸丑，暮春之初，會于會稽山陰之蘭亭，修禊事也。群賢畢至，少長咸集。
Here are tall mountains and majestic peaks, trees with thick foliage and tall bamboos. Here are also clear streams and gurgling rapids, catching one's eye from the right and left. We group ourselves in order, sitting by the waterside, and drink in succession from a cup floating down the curving stream; and although there is no music from string and wood-wind instruments, yet with alternate singing and drinking, we are well disposed to thoroughly enjoy a quiet intimate conversation.
此地有崇山峻嶺，茂林修竹，又有清流激湍，映帶左右，引以為流觴曲水，列坐其次，雖無絲竹管弦之盛，一觴一詠，亦足以暢敘幽情。
Today the sky is clear, the air is fresh and the kind breeze is mild. Truly enjoyable it is to watch the immense universe above and the myriad things below, traveling over the entire landscape with our eyes and allowing our sentiments to roam about at will, thus exhausting the pleasures of the eye and the ear.
是日也，天朗氣清，惠風(fēng)和暢，仰觀宇宙之大，俯察品類之盛，所以游目騁懷，足以極視聽之娛，信可樂也。
Now when people gather together to surmise life itself, some sit and talk and unburden their thoughts in the intimacy of a room, and some, overcome by a sentiment, soar forth into a world beyond bodily realities.
夫人之相與，俯仰一世，或取諸懷抱，晤言一室之內(nèi)；或因寄所托，放浪形骸之外；
Although we select our pleasures according to our inclinations some noisy and rowdy, and others quiet and sedate yet when we have found that which pleases us, we are all happy and contented, to the extent of forgetting that we are growing old.
雖取舍萬殊，靜躁不同，當(dāng)其欣于所遇，暫得于已，快然自足，不知老之將至；
And then, when satiety follows satisfaction, and with the change of circumstances, change also our whims and desires, there then arises a feeling of poignant regret. In the twinkling of an eye, the objects of our former pleasures have become things of the past, still compelling in us moods of regretful memory.
及其所之既倦，情隨事遷，感慨系之矣！向之所欣，俯仰之間，已為陳跡，猶不能不以之興懷；
Furthermore, although our lives may be long or short, eventually we all end in nothingness. " Great indeed are life and death" said the ancients. Ah ! what sadness!
況修短隨化，終期于盡。古人云：“死生亦大矣”，豈不痛哉！
I often study the joys and regrets of the ancient people, and as I lean over their writings and see that they were moved exactly as ourselves, I am often overcome by a feeling of sadness and compassion, and would like to make those things clear to myself.
每覽昔人興感之由，若合一契，未嘗不臨文嗟悼，不能喻之于懷。
Well I know it is a lie to say that life and death are the same thing, and that longevity and early death make no difference! Alas! as we of the present look upon those of the past, so will posterity look upon our present selves.
固知一死生為虛誕，齊彭殤為妄作，后之視今，亦猶今之視昔，悲夫！
Therefore, have I put down a sketch of these contemporaries and their sayings at this feast, and although time and circumstances may change, the way they will evoke our moods of happiness and regret will remain the same. What will future readers feel when they cast their eyes upon this writing!
故列敘時人，錄其所述，雖世殊事異，所以興懷，其致一也。后之覽者，亦將有感于斯文。

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