名人小故事哲学思想家12：Ralph Waldo Emerson 拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生

Ralph Waldo Emerson

拉尔夫·沃尔多·爱默生

The United States had won its independence from Britain just twenty-two years before Ralph Waldo Emerson was born. But it had yet to win its cultural independence. It still took its traditions from other countries, mostly from western Europe. What the American Revolution did for the nation’s politics, Emerson did for its culture.

当美国从英国手里赢得独立的22年后，爱默生出生了。但是当时的美国还需要赢得文化上的独立。它的传统仍然来自其他国家，主要是来自西欧。美国革命在政治上为美国赢得独立，而爱默生在文化上为美国独立做出了贡献。

When he began writing and speaking in the eighteen thirties, conservatives saw him as radical — wild and dangerous. But to the young, he spoke words of self-dependence 一 a new language of freedom. He was the first to bring them a truly American spirit. He told America to demand its own laws and churches and works. It is through his own works that we shall look at Ralph Waldo Emerson.

19世纪30年代，当爱默生开始写作和演讲时，保守派认为他太激进，野蛮而且危险。但是对于年轻人来说，爱默生宣扬自立——自由的新形式。他是为他们带来真正美国精神的第一人。他号召美国人民要有自己的法律、教堂和著作。正是通过他自己的作品，我们才了解了爱默生。

Ralph Waldo Emerson’s life was not as exciting as the lives of some other American writers — Herman Melville, Mark Twain or Ernest Hemingway. Emerson traveled to Europe several times. And he made speeches at a number of places in the United States. But, except for those trips, he lived all his life in the small town of Concord, Massachusetts. Emerson’s father, like many of the men in his family, was a minister of a Christian church. When Emerson was eight years old, his father died. His mother was left with very little money to raise her five sons.

爱默生的一生波澜不惊，并不像赫尔曼·梅尔维尔、马克·吐温和海明威等其他作家。爱默生曾几次到欧洲旅行，他还在美国数个地方演讲。但是除了以上这些旅行外，他一生都住在马萨诸塞州的小镇康科德。他的父亲，像家族中的许多男人一样，是基督教的牧师。爱默生8岁时，父亲去世了，给母亲留下了少得可怜的钱养育五个儿子。

After several more years in Boston, the family moved to the nearby town of Concord. There they joined Emerson’s aunt, Mary Moody Emerson. Emerson seemed to accept the life his mother and aunt wanted for him. As a boy, he attended Boston Latin School. Then he studied at Harvard University.

在波士顿住了几年之后，爱默生一家搬到了附近的康科德镇，和爱默生的姑姑玛丽·穆迪·爱默生住在一 起。爱默生似乎接受了他母亲和姑姑为他安排的生活。 他在波士顿拉丁语学校就读，然后进入哈佛大学。

For a few years, he taught in a girls’ school started by one of his brothers. But he did not enjoy this kind of teaching. For a time, he wondered what he should do with his life. Finally, like his father, he became a religious minister. But he had questions about his beliefs and the purpose of his life.

有几年，他在他兄弟开办的一家女子学校任职，但是他并不喜欢那样教书。他曾一度思考一生应该做什么。最后，他像父亲一样成了一名牧师。但是他仍对其信仰以及生活的目的抱有疑问。

Later, his speech, “The American Scholar,” created great excitement among the students in Harvard. They
heard his words as a new declaration of independence — a declaration of the independence of the mind. Young people agreed with Emerson that a person had the power within himself to succeed at whatever he tried. The important truth seemed to be not what had been done, but what might be done. 
 

后来，他的演讲“论美国学者”在哈佛大学中引起了轰动。学子们把他的演讲看作是一种新的独立宣言——思想的独立宣言。年轻人拥护爱默生，因为爱默生认为一个人只要努力就可以实现梦想。事实不在于已经做了多少，而在于还能够做多少。