图书序言
死亡是一段
精神与尘土间的对话
—艾蜜莉.狄金生〈死亡是一段对话〉
Death is a Dialogue between
The Spirit and the Dust
—Emily Dickinson 1830-1886 : 'Death is a Dialogue'
你无法借由逃避生命寻得平静。
—吴尔芙
You cannot find peace by avoiding life.
—Virginia Woolf 1882-1941
不要活得好似有万年时光可虚掷。死亡近在咫尺。只要你活着、而且还能掌握事态,随时准备好应对任何事。
—奥里略《沉思录》
Do not act as if you had ten thousand years to throw away. Death stands at your elbow. Be good for something while you live and it is in your power.
—Marcus Aurelius 121-180 : Meditations
至于畏惧死亡,我的朋友啊,那只是我们在自作聪明,因为那是我们自以为懂得了我们并不了解的事物。没人知道死亡是否是能发生在人类身上最美善的一件事。
—柏拉图《申辩篇》
For to fear death, my friends, is only to think ourselves wise without really being wise, for it is to think that we know what we do not know. For no one knows whether death may not be the greatest good that can happen to man.
—Plato 427-347 BC : Apology
我们畏惧死亡,我们因生命无常而颤抖,我们为眼见花凋叶落次次复次次而哀伤,我们深知己寿同样短暂无常,转瞬即逝。艺术家创造图像、思想家探求思想的原理与公式,都是为了从死亡宏大的舞姿底下挽救某些事物,让它们持存得比我们更长久。
—赫塞《知识与爱情》
We fear death, we shudder at life's instability, we grieve to see the flowers wilt again and again, and the leaves fall, and in our hearts we know that we, too, are transitory and will soon disappear. When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something last longer than we do.
—Hermann Hesse 1877-1962 : Narcissus and Goldmund