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Lucius Annaeus Seneca

鲁齐乌斯.安奈乌斯.塞内加

作者简介

鲁齐乌斯.安奈乌斯.塞内加（Lucius Annaeus Seneca，约前4—65），古罗马政治家、哲学家、悲剧作家、雄辩家、新斯多葛主义代表，主张无条件屈从神意和不可避免的命运。他曾任罗马帝国会计官和元老院元老以及古罗马暴君尼禄（Nero）的家庭教师和顾问。

塞内加在仕途上几经大起大落，一生漫游各地，勤于思考，能从平常小事中挖掘出深邃的思想。他著作颇丰，著有11部戏剧、14部问答体作品、一部书信集，其思想对后世产生了不可磨灭的影响。

本文选自塞内加的代表作《道德书简》（Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium）。该书是世人公认的必读书，书中信件多以作者本人或他人经历开头，然后从哲理的角度进行严肃的反思和深入的分析。本篇是塞内加写给友人的“书评”，这位哲人读到佳作后的欣喜之情跃然纸上。

The book you promised me has come. I was intending to read it at my convenience and I opened it on arrival without meaning to do any more than just get an idea of its contents. The next thing I knew the book itself had charmed me into a deeper reading of it there and then. How lucid its style is you may gather from the fact that I found the work light reading, although a first glance might well convey the impression that the writer was someone like Livy or Epicurus, its bulk being rather unlike you or me! It was so enjoyable, though, that I found myself held and drawn on until I ended up having read it right through to the end without a break. All the time the sunshine was inviting me out, hunger prompting me to eat, the weather threatening to break, but I gulped it all down in one sitting.

It was a joy, not just a pleasure, to read it. There was so much talent and spirit about it—I’d have said “forcefulness”, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style. The writing was pure and virile—and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment. The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing.

你答应给我的书，我已收到。我本打算闲下来再读，拿到书时只想翻开了解一下内容。不料这本书把我迷住了，让我当时就沉浸其中。第一眼看去，我觉得作者是李维[1]或伊壁鸠鲁[2]这样的人，但我发现这本书读来相当轻松，可见它的文风多么清晰晓畅。这样的巨著真不像是你我能够写出的！但它十分有趣。我一口气从头读到尾，才发现自己被它深深吸引了。阳光邀我外出，饥饿催我就餐，天气逼我休息，我却一口气就吞下了整本书。

读这本书不是一般地快乐，而是非常快乐。书里有如此多的才气和灵气——如果此书能在平缓的基调上时不时有些高潮，我还会用“有力”来形容它；但它的文风始终平缓，缺乏这种“有力”。这本书行文纯朴而有男子气概，时不时还带点趣味性，能让人适时得到些许放松。希望你能保持这种高贵、高尚的品质，再接再厉。

It was a joy, not just a pleasure, to read it. There was so much talent and spirit about it—I’d have said “forcefulness”, too, if it had been written on a quieter plane now and then and periodically raised on to a higher one; as it was there was no such forcefulness, but instead there was a sustained evenness of style. The writing was pure and virile—and yet not lacking in that occasional entertaining touch, that bit of light relief at the appropriate moment. The quality of nobility, of sublimity, you have; I want you to keep it, and to carry on just the way you’re doing.

Your subject, also, contributed to the result—which is a reason why you should always select a fertile one, one that will engage the mind’s attention and stimulate it. But I’ll write and say more about the book when I’ve gone over it again. At the moment my judgment isn’t really a sufficiently settled one—it’s as if I’d heard it all rather than read it. You must let me go into it thoroughly, too. You needn’t be apprehensive; you’ll hear nothing but the truth. How fortunate you are in possessing nothing capable of inducing anyone to tell you a lie over a distance as great as the one that separates us—except that even in these circumstances when all reason for it is removed, we still find habit a reason for telling lies!

读这本书不是一般地快乐，而是非常快乐。书里有如此多的才气和灵气——如果此书能在平缓的基调上时不时有些高潮，我还会用“有力”来形容它；但它的文风始终平缓，缺乏这种“有力”。这本书行文纯朴而有男子气概，时不时还带点趣味性，能让人适时得到些许放松。希望你能保持这种高贵、高尚的品质，再接再厉。

本书有如此成果，你选择的主题也有所贡献——这就是为什么你应该总是选择可供挖掘的主题，选择能让你精神集中、激发灵感的主题。不过我重读此书之后，还会写信多谈些体会。此刻，我的判断还不成熟，更像道听途说，而非读后感。你还得让我通篇细读一下。你不必担心，我不会对你说谎。你多幸运啊！即使距离像你我这般遥远，你身上也没有任何东西导致别人对你说谎，除非那个人是毫无理由地习惯性说谎！

阳光邀我外出，饥饿催我就餐，天气逼我休息，我却一口气就吞下了整本书。

Lucius Annaeus Seneca 鲁齐乌斯•安奈乌斯•塞内加

[1] 蒂托.李维（Titus Livius，前59—17），古罗马著名历史学家，写过多部哲学和诗歌作品。

[2] 伊壁鸠鲁（Epicurus，前341—270），古希腊著名哲学家，快乐主义伦理学的代表人物，于公元前307年建立了自己的学派。