The Bet ( 1 )

學生時代最怕讀原文書了，遇到英文課或是原文教材，第一件事一定是去找翻譯本。可是拿到了翻譯本卻又如何，依舊是有看沒有懂，比原文還艱澀。離開學校後我就不再看翻譯本了，讀英文我就捧著字典一字一字、一句一句、一段一段艱苦的的往前推進，久而久之竟然發現不同的語言蘊藏著不同的感觸，於是就蠻喜歡在英文的世界裡摸索了。常常把大學英文選放在身邊，有空時就拿起來啃一啃，每次在讀這些文章時除了被文章的內涵感動外，還覺得蠻充實的。
　　The Bet 是我非常喜歡的一篇短文，它讓我嘗試著去體會孤寂的心情；想像一下書中自有顏如玉、書中自有黃金屋的境界；思考宇宙生命的哲理，萬物皆空，真正存在的只是我們有意識的瞬間。而記憶把這些瞬間連結起來我們才有美好的回憶與燦爛的未來可以期待，人生也才變的有意義。我也曾設想自己是書中人，假如有人願意給我200萬，不，那太少了，改成2000萬，但我必需孤獨的過15年，我願不願意？假如是現在的我，我願意，因為為了生活我工作了大半生，多麼希望有悠閒的時間可以盡情的讀讀書，去追逐那年輕時沒有勇敢去追求的夢想。要是換成年輕的我，我就不會同意的，因為那個代價實在太大了，把人生最精華的歲月壓在那一間小房間內與世隔絕，出來後白髮蒼蒼瘦骨嶙峋與社會脫節，縱然有萬貫家財也只能說窮的只剩下錢了。茲將該文抄錄於後。
　　It was a dark autumn night. The old banker was pacing from corner to corner of his study, recalling to his mind the party he gave in the autumn fifteen years before. There were many clever people at the party and much interesting conversation. They talked among other things of capital punishment. The guests, among them not a few scholars and journalists, for the most part disapproved of capital punishment. They found it obsolete as a means of punishment, unfitted to a Christian State, and immoral. Some of them thought that capital punishment should be replaced by life-imprisonment.
　“I don’t agree with you,” said the host. “I myself have experienced neither capital punishment nor life-imprisonment, but if one may judge a priori, then in my opinion capital punishment is more moral and more humane than imprisonment. 　　　　　Execution kills instantly; life-imprisonment kills by degrees. Who is the more humane executioner, one who kills you in a few seconds or one who draws the life out of you incessantly, for yeas?”
“They’re both equally immoral,” remarked one of the guests, ”because their purpose is the same, to take away life. The State is not God. It has no right to take away that which it cannot give back, if it should so desire.”
Among the company was a lawyer, a young man of about twenty-five. On being asked his opinion, he said:
“Capital punishment and life-imprisonment are equally immoral; but if I were offered the choice between them, I would certainly choose the second. It’s better to live somehow than not to live at all.”