選譯：This is water. by David Foster Wallace

In the day-to-day trenches of adult life, there is actually no such 
thing as atheism. There is no such thing as not worshipping. Everybody
worships. The only choice we get is _what_ to worship. And an
outstanding reason for choosing some sort of God or spiritual-type thing
to worship----be it J.C. or Allah, be it Yahweh or the Wiccan
mother-goddess or the Four Noble Truths or some infrangible set of
ethical principles----is that pretty much anything else you worship will
eat you alive. If you worship money and things----if they are where you
tap real meaning in life----then you will never have enough. Never feel
you have enough. It's the truth.  Worship your own body and beauty and
sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start
showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. On                                     
one level, we all know this stuff already----it's been codified as myths,
proverbs, cliches, bromides, epigrams, parables: the skeleton of every
great story. The trick is keeping the truth up-front in daily
consciousness. Worship power----you will feel weak and afraid, and you
will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay.  Worship                                      
your intellect, being seen as smart----you will end up feeling stupid, a
fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.

    

 

在每天成人們的戰壕中，實際上沒有什麽無神論。每個人都在崇拜。我們唯一的選擇是崇拜什麽。

選擇崇拜某個神或精神----無論是耶穌還是阿拉，猶太的上帝，Wicca女神，佛家四大真理，

或是某一套不可褻瀆的倫理原則----的一個首要的原因就是崇拜其他任何東西都會把你活活吞噬。

如果你崇拜金錢和物質----你從中獲得生命的意義----那麽你將永遠得不到滿足。這是實際情況。

崇拜你自己的身體，美麗和性感，你將總是感覺醜陋。當時間流逝，年齡開始顯現，你會經曆百萬次死亡直到最後入土。

在某一層次上，我們都知道這件事----它存在於神話，格言，寓言，和陳詞濫調之中，

它是每一個偉大故事的骨架。難的是把真理擺在每天意識的首位。

崇拜權力----你將感覺軟弱和恐懼，你永遠需要更多統治他人的權力來壓製你自己的恐懼。

崇拜你自己的才智，顯示你的聰明----你終將感到愚蠢，一個騙子，總是活在被揭穿的邊緣。

如此這般。

 

 

But of course there are all different kinds of freedom, and the kind 
that is most precious you will not hear much talked about in the great 
outside world of winning and achieving and displaying. The really
important kind of freedom involves attention, and awareness, and
discipline, and effort, and being able truly to care about other 
people and to sacrifice for them, over and over, in myriad petty 
little unsexy ways, every day.  That is real freedom. That is being educated, and understanding how to think. The alternative
is unconsciousness, the default-setting, the "rat race"----the constant
gnawing sense of having had and lost some infinite thing.

 

 

當然自由有多種。最珍貴的那種在這個進取，得勝，和炫耀的世界裏是聽不到的。

最重要的那種自由需要關注，覺醒，和自律。真正關心他人並為他們做出犧牲，

一次又一次，日複一日，無數微小的毫不性感的犧牲。這才是真正的自由。這才是受過教育，知道怎麽思考。

除此之外就是渾然不覺，缺省設置，老鼠賽----總是在得到和失去某種無限的東西中掙紮的撓心的感覺。

[7grizzly]

Changed "--" to "----" in the text and translation to avoid misunderstanding.

[7grizzly]

回複 '暖冬cool夏' 的評論 : Thanks 暖冬 for reading and your comments.

> So worship nothing, not God(s),
God(s) are what we _can_ worship, according to DFW.

> Money can buy the freedom people want.
The more limited the "want," the less we need money, labor, or in many cases suffering. That's why the Tao said "是以聖人欲不欲，不貴難得之貨。"

> Let's be healthy.:)
I wish it's that easy :-) Instead, it is hard in a different way than, say running 100 miles.

[暖冬cool夏]

And so on.=如此這般。 Good translation!

So worship nothing, not God(s), not the money, power or beauty, but freedom. But in this mercenary world, without money, freedom will not be real either.:) Money can buy the freedom people want. The topic is too big to debate on. But of course you are right that "with health, I don’t need much else, without it, nothing helps much either.?" Let's be healthy.:)