翻譯：梁實秋《怒》

怒

anger

梁實秋

liang shih-chiu

一個人在發怒的時候，最難看。縱然他平素面似蓮花，一旦怒而變青變白，甚至面色如土，再加上滿臉的筋肉扭曲，眦裂發指，那副面目實在不僅是可憎而已。俗語說，“怒從心上起，惡向膽邊生”，怒是心理的也是生理的一種變化。人逢不如意事，很少不勃然變色的。年少氣盛，一言不合，怒氣相加，但是許多年事已長的人，往往一樣的火發暴躁。我有一位姻長，已到杖朝之年，并且半身癱瘓，每晨必閱報紙，戴上老花鏡，打開報紙，不久就要把桌子拍得山響，吹胡瞪眼，破口大罵。報上的記載，他看不順眼。不看不行，看了嘔氣。這時候大家躲他遠遠的，誰也不願逢彼之怒。過一陣雨過天晴，他的怒氣消了。

a person looks his ugliest when angry. in anger, a face that is normally as beautiful as a lotus blossom will tun livid and pale, even ashen. this, plus the contorted muscles on his face, his staring eyes and bristling hair, will indeed make a person’s countenance more than repulsive. as the saying goes, “when anger rises in the heart, evil intent is bound to start.” anger brings about a change that is both psychological and physiological. very few people can control their tempers when their purposes are crossed. young people are prone to anger and one cross word is enough to start a quarrel. however, many elderly people are just as irascible and touchy. i had an older relative by marriage who was over eighty and hemiplegic. he had the habit of reading newspapers in the morning. each day he would put on his glasses and lay out the newspapers before him. moments later, he would be pounding the table, fuming with rage and letting loose a torrent of abuse. he did not like what he read in the newspapers. he could not do without the newspapers, but they only made him angry. at such an hour, everyone in his family would stay out of his sight and nobody wanted to be caught by his rage which, like a thunderstorm, would go as quickly as it had come.

詩雲：“君子如怒，亂庶遄沮；君子如祉，亂庶遄已。”這是說有地位的人，赫然震怒，就可以收撥亂反正之效。一般人還是以少發脾氣少惹麻煩為上。盛怒之下，體内血球不知道要傷損多少，血壓不知道要升高幾許，總之是不衛生。而且血氣沸騰之際，理智不大清醒，言行容易逾分，于人于己都不相宜。希臘哲學家哀皮克蒂特斯說：“計算一下你有多少天不曾生氣。在從前，我每天生氣；有時每隔一天生氣一次；後來每隔三四天生氣一次；如果你一連三十天沒有生氣，就應該向上帝獻祭表示感謝。”減少生氣的次數便是修養的結果。修養的方法，說起來好難。另一位同屬于斯多亞派的哲學家羅馬的瑪可斯·奧瑞利阿斯這樣說：“你因為一個人的無恥而憤怒的時候，要這樣地問你自己：‘那個無恥的人能不在這世界存在麼？那是不能的。不可能的事不必要求。’”壞人不是不需要制裁，隻是我們不必憤怒。如果非憤怒不可，也要控制那憤怒，使發而中節。佛家把“嗔”列為三毒之一，“嗔心甚于猛火”，克服嗔恚是修持的基本功夫之一。燕丹子說：“血勇之人，怒而面赤；脈勇之人，怒而面青；骨勇之人，怒而面白；神勇之人，怒而色不變。”我想那神勇是從苦行修煉中得來的。生而喜怒不形于色，那天賦實在太厚了。

according to the book of poems,1 “when the ruler shows his anger, the rebellion of his subjects will quickly stop; when the ruler creates public well-being, the rebellion of his subjects will quickly end.” this means that, in a fit of anger, a person in power can crush a rebellion and cause things to return to normal. for ordinary people, however, it will be better if they keep their temper under control and avoid getting into trouble. a person in a fury loses countless blood cells in his body and causes a sharp rise in his blood pressure. in short, anger is bad for a person’s health. worse still, when his blood boils with rage, his mind becomes muddled, and he is likely to speak or act out of line, causing injury to himself as well as others. “count the number of days in which you did not get angry,” says epictetus, the greek philosopher. “in the past, i used to get angry every day; sometimes i got angry every other day; later on, i got angry once every three or four days. if you have not been angry for thirty days at a stretch, you should make offerings to the gods to express your gratitude.” a decrease in the number of such outbreaks is a result of self-discipline. the method of self-discipline is very hard to explain. “when you are angry at someone else’s shamelessness,” says marcus aurelius of rome, another stoic philosopher, “you should ask yourself, ‘can that shameless person not exist in this world?’ that is impossible. do not demand what is impossible.” this does not mean that we need not impose sanctions on a bad person; it only means that we need not get angry. if anger cannot be avoided, it should at least be controlled so as not to become excessive. the buddhists list krodha (anger) as one of the three poisons2. they believe that “a heart full of anger causes greater destruction than a conflagration” and that controlling anger is one of the basic requirements of self-cultivation. according to the book of yandan zi,3 “the face of a blood-brave person turns red in anger; the face of a vein-brave person turns purple in anger; the face of a bone-brave person turns pale in anger; the face of a mind-brave person does not change color in anger.” i think that a person can become “mind-brave” only through extreme austerity and self-cultivation. a person born with a face that will betray no emotions is, indeed, exceptionally endowed.

清朝初葉有一位李绂，著《穆堂類稿》，内有一篇《無怒軒記》，他說：“吾年逾四十，無涵養性情之學，無變化氣質之功，因怒得過，旋悔旋犯，懼終于忿戾而已，因以‘無怒’名軒。”是一篇好文章，而其戒謹恐懼之情溢于言表，不失讀書人的本色。

in the early years of the qing dynasty, a writer named li fu published a collection of his essays under the general title of mutang leigao. in one of the essays, entitled “the story of the house without anger”, he said, “though i am over forty, i have not yet learned to control my emotions, nor have i succeeded in changing my temperament. i made mistakes due to anger and, despite my repentance, i soon became angry again. for fear that i will remain an irascible person to the end, i have named my home the ‘house without anger’.” it is an excellent essay and, true to his character as a scholar, it clearly expresses the author’s fear of and vigilance against anger.

notes:

1. chinese title shi jing. it is the first anthology of chinese poetry and was compiled by confucius.

2. the other two poisons are raga (cupidity) and moha (ignorance).

3. this book, whose authorship is unknown, contains stories about prince dan of the state of yan who lived in the third century b.c. during the period of the warring states.

（ta-tsun chen 譯）