社会主义下人的灵魂（一）

/* 翻译自王尔德原文，很多地方译得不好，但鉴于我没在网上找到任何一个中译（呵呵，为什么呢），所以只好自己搞，勉强能看就行了吧。这篇社论不算很长，目前只翻译了这些，以后有空的话也许应该可能大概会接着翻译吧？ */

The chief advantage that would result from the establishment of Socialism is, undoubtedly, the fact that Socialism would relieve us from that sordid necessity of living for others which, in the present condition of things, presses so hardly upon almost everybody. In fact, scarcely anyone at all escapes.

毫无疑问，社会主义最重要的好处在于，它将把我们从一种为了别人而活的肮脏现状中解脱出来。这种现状压迫着我们每一个人，事实上，几乎没有谁可以摆脱。

Now and then, in the course of the century, a great man of science, like Darwin; a great poet, like Keats; a fine critical spirit, like M. Renan; a supreme artist, like Flaubert, has been able to isolate himself, to keep himself out of reach of the clamorous claims of others, to stand ‘under the shelter of the wall,’ as Plato puts it, and so to realise the perfection of what was in him, to his own incomparable gain, and to the incomparable and lasting gain of the whole world. These, however, are exceptions. The majority of people spoil their lives by an unhealthy and exaggerated altruism – are forced, indeed, so to spoil them. They find themselves surrounded by hideous poverty, by hideous ugliness, by hideous starvation. It is inevitable that they should be strongly moved by all this. The emotions of man are stirred more quickly than man’s intelligence; and, as I pointed out some time ago in an article on the function of criticism, it is much more easy to have sympathy with suffering than it is to have sympathy with thought. Accordingly, with admirable, though misdirected intentions, they very seriously and very sentimentally set themselves to the task of remedying the evils that they see. But their remedies do not cure the disease: they merely prolong it. Indeed, their remedies are part of the disease.

在这个世纪的航程中，时不时会出现像达尔文那样伟大的科学家，像济慈一样优秀的诗人，像勒南一样卓越的批判者，像福楼拜一样非凡的艺术家，能够保持自身的独立，能够远离他人的喧嚷，能够像柏拉图所说的那样：站在墙的荫蔽下。只有他们才能理解到内在的完美，理解到自身的无与伦比，理解到这个世界的独一无二和永不停歇。然而像这样的人永远是少数。大部分人都被一种不健康的，甚至是扩大了的利他主义所腐蚀，而这种腐蚀是强迫性的，也确实存在。他们发现自身被骇人听闻的贫穷，丑恶和饥荒所包围。不可避免的，他们本应远离这些罪恶。人类的情感总是比他们的智力苏醒得更快，正如我之前的一篇有关批判主义的文章指出的那样，人们更容易同情苦难，而不是同情思想。因此，他们总是怀着令人钦佩却又毫无作用的理想，非常认真，又非常感情用事的投身于纠正眼前所见邪恶的事业中。但是这种纠正并不能治愈顽疾，反而会使其恶化。事实上，这种纠正本身就是顽疾的一部分。

They try to solve the problem of poverty, for instance, by keeping the poor alive; or, in the case of a very advanced school, by amusing the poor.

他们试着去解决贫困问题，比如让穷人能生存下去，或者让他们进入最优质的学校，让他们在那里娱乐消遣。

But this is not a solution: it is an aggravation of the difficulty. The proper aim is to try and reconstruct society on such a basis that poverty will be impossible. And the altruistic virtues have really prevented the carrying out of this aim. Just as the worst slave-owners were those who were kind to their slaves, and so prevented the horror of the system being realised by those who suffered from it, and understood by those who contemplated it, so, in the present state of things in England, the people who do most harm are the people who try to do most good; and at last we have had the spectacle of men who have really studied the problem and know the life – educated men who live in the East End – coming forward and imploring the community to restrain its altruistic impulses of charity, benevolence, and the like. They do so on the ground that such charity degrades and demoralises. They are perfectly right. Charity creates a multitude of sins.

但这并不有效，相反，它使问题变得更为严重。真正的目标，应该是尝试重建一个没有贫穷的社会。但是“无私”这种美德，却在阻挠这个目标的实现。正如最恶劣的奴隶主是那些对他们的奴隶友善的人一样，阻碍这种现状被人们所知的正是那些深受其折磨的人。只有经过认真思考的智者，才能理解这种现状。因此，在英国当前的社会环境下，想要做好事的人往往危害更大。好在我们中间还有深入研究过这些问题，能够体察生活的人：那些住在伦敦东区，受过教育的人。他们自告奋勇，恳求社会限制那些“无私的”，不经思索的慈善和捐助行为。他们脚踏实地，成功地减少了所谓的“慈善”。他们是对的，慈善滋生罪恶。

There is also this to be said. It is immoral to use private property in order to alleviate the horrible evils that result from the institution of private property. It is both immoral and unfair.

所以也有这样的说法：用私有财产来消除由私有财产制度滋生的罪恶是不道德的，这样不但悖德，而且不公。

Under Socialism all this will, of course, be altered. There will be no people living in fetid dens and fetid rags, and bringing up unhealthy, hunger-pinched children in the midst of impossible and absolutely repulsive surroundings. The security of society will not depend, as it does now, on the state of the weather. If a frost comes we shall not have a hundred thousand men out of work, tramping about the streets in a state of disgusting misery, or whining to their neighbours for alms, or crowding round the doors of loathsome shelters to try and secure a hunch of bread and a night’s unclean lodging. Each member of the society will share in the general prosperity and happiness of the society, and if a frost comes no one will practically be anything the worse.

在社会主义制度下，所有这些愿景，都将被改变。不会再有人住在肮脏的破房子中，穿着破旧的衣服，孩子们不会在饥饿，丑恶，不健康的环境中长大，社会安全也不会再像今天那样，被天气状况左右。如果寒霜降临，不会再有数以万计的人失业，流浪在灰暗的街头，不会再有人为了微薄的救济金，而像他的邻居诉苦，不会再有人拥堵在庇护所，仅仅是为了求得几片面包和一个充满污秽的住所。我们社会中的每一份子，将能共享财富和欢愉，即使严寒霜冻，也不会更糟。