第四章（第8/11页）

“说得没错，批评和知识根本不是一码事。”哈蒙德说。

"They aren't, of course," chimed in Berry, a brown, shy young man, who had called to see Dukes, and was staying the night.

“当然是两回事。”贝里附和道。这位有着褐色头发的腼腆青年专程来找杜克斯，夜间便留宿拉格比。

They all looked at him as if the ass had spoken.

所有人都将目光转移到他身上，好像听见驴子开口说话了。

"I wasn't talking about knowledge… I was talking about the mental life," laughed Dukes. "Real knowledge comes out of the whole corpus of the consciousness; out of your belly and your penis as much as out of your brain and mind. The mind can only analyse and rationalize. Set the mind and the reason to cock it over the rest, and all they can do is to criticize, and make a deadness. I say ALL they can do. It is vastly important. My God, the world needs criticizing today...criticizing to death. Therefore let's live the mental life, and glory in our spite, and strip the rotten old show. But, mind you, it's like this: while you live your life, you are in some way an Organic whole with all life. But once you start the mental life you pluck the apple. You've severed the connexion between, the apple and the tree: the organic connexion. And if you've got nothing in your life but the mental life, then you yourself are a plucked apple...you've fallen off the tree. And then it is a logical necessity to be spiteful, just as it's a natural necessity for a plucked apple to go bad.” Clifford made big eyes: it was all stuff to him. Connie secretly laughed to herself.

“我说的不是知识……而是精神生活。”杜克斯笑道。“真正的知识来源自意识的整个躯体，不但来自头脑和心灵，而且来自腹部甚至生殖器。借助思维，我们仅能分析和推理。如果让思维和理性占据上风，那么所能做的就只剩下批评，扼杀一切。除此之外，没有其他事可做。批评的作用举足轻重。天呐，当今世界简直太需要批评了……一针见血的批评。那么，就让我们活在自己的精神世界中吧，以被仇视为荣，戳穿那陈腐的老把戏。但是，需要提醒各位的是：当你置身于现实生活，只不过是和其他生命共同组成一个有机的整体。然而一旦开启精神生活，就好比将苹果从树上摘下来。切断了苹果与树之间的联系，那种有机的联系。如果除了精神生活，你一无所有，那么你就成了一颗被摘下来的苹果……已然从树上坠落。这样一来，仇视一切就成为合乎情理的需要，就像被摘下来的苹果必然会慢慢腐烂一样。”克利福德瞪大了眼睛：这席话对于他来说简直毫无意义。康妮不禁暗自发笑。

"Well then we're all plucked apples," said Hammond, rather acidly and petulantly.

“那么，大家都变成摘下来的苹果了。”哈蒙德的语气中包含着嘲讽和愠怒。

"So let's make cider of ourselves," said Charlie.

“倒是可以用自己来酿苹果酒。”查理说。

"But what do you think of Bolshevism?" put in the brown Berry, as if everything had led up to it.

“可你们对布尔什维主义有什么高见呢？”棕发的贝里再度插话道，好像之前所说的一切都是为此做的铺垫。

"Bravo!" roared Charlie. "What do you think of?" "Come on! Let's make hay of Bolshevism!

“妙啊！”查理叫道，“你们对布尔什维主义有什么看法？”“来吧！让布尔什维主义见鬼去吧！”杜克斯说。

"I'm afraid Bolshevism is a large question," said Hammond, shaking his head seriously.

“恐怕这个问题有些复杂。”哈蒙德神情严肃地摇摇头。

"Bolshevism, it seems to me," said Charlie, "is just a superlative hatred of the thing they call the bourgeois; and what the bourgeois is, isn't quite defined. It is Capitalism, among other things. Feelings and emotions are also so decidedly bourgeois that you have to invent a man without them.