剃刀锋利，渡之不易，古者有云，得道人稀。

一本好书，《刀锋》

在所有大都市里都存在着些独立自主，互不相通的群体，他们是大世界中的小世界，并以此为生，其成员相互依靠，好似栖居于孤岛，被无法通行的海峡一个个分隔开。

In all big cities there are self-contained groups that exist without intercommunication, small worlds within a greater world that lead their lives, their members dependent upon one another for companionship, as though they inhabited islands separated from each other by an unnavigable strait.

 

她曾失去过他，如今重逢之际，她以为无论世态如何变迁，还能见到那个拉里,他还仍然是她的；而此刻，她心下有了些许的失落，仿佛用手去握一缕阳光，后者却从指缝中滑落。

She had lost him before, and on seeing him again, taking him for the old Larry, she had a feeling that, however altered the circumstances, he was still hers; and now, as though she had sought to catch a sunbeam in her hand and it slipped through her fingers as she grasped it, she was a trifle dismayed.

 

我需要体验。每当我在精神上感到很充实，每当我收获了所有能够吸取的东西时，我都会觉得做做这样的体力活是很有用的。

I wanted the experience. Whenever I've got water-logged spiritually, whenever I've absorbed all I can for the time, I've found it useful to do something of that sort.

 

我什么也没说，我说医学生时见过见过死人，战争期间近的就更多了当时让我感到惊讶的是他们显得那么无足轻重，毫无尊严可言，只是些杂耍人敝弃不用的提线木偶。

I didn't say anything. I had seen dead men when I was a medical student and I had seen many more during the war. What had dismayed me was how trifling they looked. There was no dignity in them. Marionettes that the showman had thrown into the discard.

 

在这个大都市里我就像个迷失的幽魂。

I'm like a lost soul in this great city.

 

我不愿意演一个我没有感觉的角色。

I didn't want to act a part I didn't feel.

人在死的时候，真的死得很彻底。

The dead look so terribly dead when they're dead.

 

有时候一件很小的事也会出其不意地对人产生重大影响，这要看当时的情形和情绪。

Sometimes a very small thing will have an effect on you out of all proportion to the event. It depends on the circumstances and your mood at the time.

 

我想弄清楚是否有上帝。我想弄明白为什么有邪恶存在。我想知道我是否有不朽的灵魂，还是死了就一了百了。

I want to make up my mind whether God is or God is not. I want to find out why evil exists. I want to know whether I have an immortal soul or whether when I die it's the end.

 

我的回答是并非所有人都有我这样的感受。或许对他们来说是幸运的，大多数人准备好去走寻常路；可你忘了我是求知若渴的，也许等我学成归来，我给予人们的，正是他们乐意要的东西。

The answer to that is that everyone doesn't feel like me. Fortunately for themselves, perhaps, most people are prepared to follow the normal course; what you forget is that I want to learn as passionately as—Gray, for instance, wants to make pots of money. Am I really a traitor to my country because I want to spend a few years educating myself? It may be that when I'm through I shall have something to give that people will be glad to take.

 

我真的爱你。不幸的是，有时候一个人无法再做自认为正确的事时，不让另一个人难过。

I do love you. Unfortunately sometimes one can't do what one thinks is right without making someone else unhappy.

 

在学习这事儿上，既有奔跑在群体里的狼，也有独狼。

You know, in learning there's the lone wolf as well as the wolf who runs in the pack.

 

“相信我，老弟，”他停顿片刻继续道，“天堂绝不会有该死的平等。”

There’ll be none of this damned equality in heaven.

 

你是一个不信上帝，却有着深刻宗教性的人。

You are a deeply religious man who doesn’t believe in God.

 

你有没有想过，对世上罪孽，轮回既是一种解释，又是一种开释？

 

后世的印度贤士在看到了人性的缺点时，承认一个人能够通过爱以及劳作来赢得拯救，但他们从未否认过，最高贵的，尽管也是最艰难的途径，依然是知识，因其获取的工具正是人最宝贵的能力，即理性。Reason

 

当你得出结论是有些事情是无法避免的，那么你能做的就仅仅是随遇而安了。

 

我不知道你是否明白将会面对什么，拉里。你要知道，市井小人们早已不再动用拷问台和火刑架来镇压他们所恐惧的言论了：他们发现了一样远更致命的杀伤性武器——风凉话。

 

人生的极乐只存于精神，人循着无私与弃绝之念走在自我修行的道路上，便将能善司其职。

Ultimate satisfaction can only be found in the life of the spirit, and that by himself following with selflessness and renunciation the path of perfection.