初識海明威，心有戚戚然

I was not a big fan of Hemingway. I read in my early 20s, and was not thrilled. Recently, however I came across a vignette which changed my mind. I can now appreciate the beauty of his writing and echo his thinking. I would like to translate and share it with you. Hopefully you will feel the vibration too.

 

《The true nobility》 -by Ernest Hemingway

 

In a calm sea every man is a pilot.

 

But all sunshine without shades, pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest – it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following another, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closet to their true selves in the sober moment of life, under the shadows of sorry and loss。

 

In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulated by judgment.

 

I have always believed that the man who begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are.

 

To regret one’s errors to the point of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other men. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.

 

《高貴的真諦》海明威

 

風平浪靜時，誰都能成為舵手。

 

沒有陰翳的陽光燦爛， 沒有苦痛的歡欣愉悅都不是生活的本質。即使在人生極樂之時，生活仍是一團亂麻。福禍如影相隨，總是苦痛感恩交織不斷。死讓生更顯珍貴，隻有在悲傷痛失的陰霾籠罩下，人們才能更清醒的接近本真。

 

一生凡塵俗事，紛紛擾擾。 品質重於智商；胸懷勝於頭腦；自製，耐心，自律遠甚於天賦；當然還有正確的是非觀。人心勝兵甲，大抵如此。

 

我相信，內心愈虔誠，活得愈簡單。在這個浮誇奢糜的時代，我願向世人證明人心可以多簡素。

 

知錯能改，永不再犯才是徹底的悔改。真正的高貴並不來自優於他人而源於不斷超越自我。