"I have hardly had time yet to enjoy a sense of tranquillity, much less to grow impatient under one of loneliness."
“我几乎还没有时间来欣赏一种宁静感,更没有时间为孤独感而显得不耐烦了。”
"Very well; I hope you feel the content you express:
“很好。我希望你体会到了你自己所说的满足,
at any rate, your good sense will tell you that it is too soon yet to yield to the vacillating fears of Lot's wife.
不管怎么说,你健全的理智会告诉你,像罗得的妻子那样犹犹豫豫,畏首畏尾,还为时过早。
What you had left before I saw you, of course I do not know;
我见到你之前你遇到了什么,我无从知道,
but I counsel you to resist firmly every temptation which would incline you to look back:
但我劝你要坚决抵制回头看的诱惑,
pursue your present career steadily, for some months at least."
坚守你现在的事业,至少干它几个月。”
"It is what I mean to do," I answered.
“那正是我想做的,”我回答。
St. John continued --"It is hard work to control the workings of inclination and turn the bent of nature;
圣·约翰继续说:“要控制意愿,改变天性并不容易,
but that it may be done, I know from experience.
但从经验来看是可以做到的。
God has given us, in a measure, the power to make our own fate;
上帝给了我们一定力量来创造自己的命运。
and when our energies seem to demand a sustenance they cannot get --
我们的精力需要补充而又难以如愿的时候——
when our will strains after a path we may not follow --
我们的意志一意孤行,要走不该走的路的时候一
we need neither starve from inanition, nor stand still in despair:
我们不必因食物不足而挨饿,或者因为绝望而止步。
we have but to seek another nourishment for the mind, as strong as the forbidden food it longed to taste -- and perhaps purer;
我们只要为心灵寻找另一种养料,它像渴望一尝的禁果那样滋养,也许还更为清醇。
and to hew out for the adventurous foot a road as direct and broad as the one Fortune has blocked up against us, if rougher than it.
要为敢于冒险的双脚开辟出一条路来,虽然更加坎坷,却同命运将我们堵塞的路一样直,一样宽。”