On the Fear of Death
談怕死

by William Hazlitt
威廉·赫茲里特

Perhaps the best cure for the fear of death is to reflect that life has a beginning as well as an end. There was a time when we were not: this gives me no concern- why then should it trouble us that a time will come when we shall cease to be?
克服怕死心理的最好辦法，也許是要想到人生不僅有終結(jié)，也有開端。本來我們并未生存于世間，這個(gè)事實(shí)并不使我們憂慮，那么，我們?yōu)槭裁匆獮榱藢碛幸惶熳约簳?huì)停止生存而煩惱呢？

I have no wish to have been alive a hundred years ago, or in the reign of Queen Anne? Why should I regret and lay it so much to heart that I shall not be alive a hundred years hence, in the reign of I cannot tell whom?
我既然不希望自己在一百年前，或在安女王的朝代活在世上，為什么就要為了自己在一百年后不知哪位皇帝在位的朝代，不能仍然活在世上而抱憾，而耿耿于懷呢？

To die is only to be as we were born; yet no one feels any remorse, or regret, or repugnance, in contemplating this last idea.
死亡只是恢復(fù)誕生前的原狀而已；在想到誕生前的情形時(shí)，我們都毫無悔恨、遺憾、或厭惡之感.

It is rather a relief and disburdening of the mind: it seems to have been a holiday time with us then: we were not called to appear upon the stage of life, to wear robes or tatters, to laugh or cry, be hooted or applauded; we had lain perdus all this while, snug out of harm’s way; and had slept out our thousands of centuries without wanting to be waked up; at peace and free from care, in a long nonage, in a sleep deeper and calmer than that of infancy, wrapped in the softest and finest dust.
我們反而會(huì)覺得輕松解脫：那個(gè)時(shí)候彷佛是我們所度過的一段假期，我們還沒有被召出現(xiàn)在人生舞臺(tái)之上，或身著華服，或衣衫襤褸，或笑，或哭，或遭叫囂反對(duì)，或受喝采贊揚(yáng)；在那個(gè)時(shí)候，我們一直高臥在虛無之境，無人聞問，舒適而又安全；我們?cè)陂L眠中度過了千百世紀(jì)，不希望被人喚醒，一直逍遙于一個(gè)漫長的渾渾噩噩的時(shí)期之中，享受著一場比嬰兒時(shí)代的更為深沉而平靜的睡眠，覆蔽在最輕柔最微小的塵之中，安安靜靜，無憂無慮。

And the worst that we dread is, after a short fretful , feverish being, after vain hopes, and idle fears, to sink to final repose again, and forget the trouble dream of life!
然后，我們?cè)谌耸蓝冗^了一段短暫、煩躁、而狂熱的生活，曾經(jīng)抱著種種虛空的希望，懷著種種無意的恐懼，現(xiàn)在所最怕的事情，卻是再度沉入那種最后的安息，和忘記人生的煩惱的夢(mèng)境！