2.Roll Away the Stone 推开石头
I enjoy life because I am endlessly interested in people and their growth. My interest leads me to widen my knowledge of people, and this in turn compels me to believe in the common goodness of mankind. I believe that the normal human heart is born good. That is, it’s born sensitive and feeling, eager to be approved and to approve, hungry for simple happiness and the chance to live. It neither wishes to be killed, nor to kill. If through circumstances, it is overcome by evil, it never becomes entirely evil. There remain in it elements of good, however recessive, which continue to hold the possibility ofrestoration.
生活让我感到快乐,因为我对人、对人类的发展有无穷无尽的兴趣。这一兴趣使我不停地了解更多的人,而对人的深入了解则促使我相信人之初,性本善。也就是说人生来就善解人意,有同情心,热望被人认同,也认同他人,渴望单纯的幸福和生存的机会。人不希望被人杀害也不希望去杀害被人。即使邪念因境而生,人也不会完全被邪念所左右。人总有其美好的一面,无论如何退化变质,总有弃恶从善的可能。
I believe in human beings, but my faith is without sentimentality. I know that in environments of uncertainty, fear, and hunger, the human being is dwarfed and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up freely into the light. But the power to spring up is inherent, and only death puts an end to it. I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in human beings.
我相信人类,但我的信念绝非是滥施情感。我知道,处于饥饿、恐惧、无法预测未来的环境中,人类没有意识到他们的发展遇到了很大的阻力,正如石头下的植物挣扎着生长却不知道自己被石头压住了一样。只有推开了石头,植物才能自由地、蓬勃地在阳光下生长。但是,蓬勃生长的力量是植物固有的,只有死亡才能夺去它们的这种力量。
Life Confucius of old, I am absorbed in the wonder of earth, and the life upon it, and I cannot think of heaven and the angels. I have enough for this life. If there is no other life, than this one has been enough to make it worth being born, myself a human being. With so profound a faith in the human heart and its power to grow toward the light, I find here reason and cause enough for hope and confidence in the future of mankind. The common sense of people will surely prove to them someday that mutual support and cooperation are only sensible for the security and happiness of all. Such faith keeps me continually ready and purposeful with energy to do what one person can towards shaping the environment in which the human being can grow with freedom. This environment, I believe, is based upon the necessity for security and friendship.