悲剧的诞生The Birth Of Tragedy 第131 德国音乐

Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which, having nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, can neither be explained nor excused by it, but which is rather felt by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelmingly hostile--

从德意志精神的醉境根基，有一种力量兴起来，这力量既然与苏格拉底文化的古代条件毫无共同之处，所以既不能用它来说明，也不能以它为借口；反之，这力量对于苏格拉底文化似乎是莫明其妙甚或极端敌对的东西。

German music as we must understand it, particularly in its vast solar orbit from Bach to Beethoven, from Beethoven to Wagner.

当然，我是指德国音乐，如众所周知，主要是从巴赫到贝多芬，从贝多芬到瓦格纳等音乐泰斗。

Even under the most favorable circumstances what can the knowledge-craving Socratism of our days do with this demon rising from unfathomable depths?

即使在最有利的环境中，今日的苏格拉底求知主义将如何对付这个来自无底深渊的魔灵呢？

Neither by means of the flourishes and arabesques of operatic melody, nor with the aid of the arithmetical counting board of fugue and contrapuntal dialectic is the formula to be found by whose thrice-powerful light one might subdue this demon and compel it to speak.

不论以歌剧旋律的乐谱灵符，或者凭追逸曲和对位辩证法的如意算盘，都不能找到一个咒语，用它的三倍强光使这魔灵就范，强迫它说话。

What a spectacle, when our latter-day aestheticians, with a net of "beauty" peculiar to themselves, pursue and clutch at the genius of music whirling before display activities which are not to be judged by the standard of eternal beauty any more than by the standard of the sublime.

试看今日的美学家，带着特制的“美”之网罗，去驱散或者捕捉在眼前转动、飘忽莫测的音乐天才，在激动之下，要用“永恒美”或者“崇高”等概念予以判断：——这是多可伶的景象啊！

Let us but observe these patrons of music at close range, as they really are, indefatigably crying: "Beauty! beauty!" Do they really bear the stamp of nature's darling children who are fostered and nourished at the breast of the beautiful, or are they not rather seeking a mendacious cloak for their own coarseness, an aesthetical pretext for their insensitive sobriety;

我们只须亲眼在近处看看这些所谓音乐赞助者，他们不厌其烦地赞叹：“美哉！美哉！”我们不难看出：他们是真的像在美之怀抱中抚育的自然宠儿呢，抑或不过是以骗人的外衣来掩饰自己的粗野不文，或者以审美的借口来维护自己的感情贫乏。

here I am thinking of Otto Jahn, for example. But let the liar and the hypocrite beware of German music:

我想到奥托·扬（OttoJahn）可以为例。然而，让这个伪善撒谎者当心德国音乐吧！

for amid all our culture it is really the only genuine, pure, and purifying fire-spirit from which and toward which, as in the teaching of the great Heraclitus of Ephesus, all things move in a double orbit:

因为音乐确实是在我们全部文化中唯一纯粹、清洁、净化的火之精灵，伟大的以弗所哲学家赫拉克里图曾说火是万物所从出，万物所回归，循环往复的根源。

all that we now call culture, education, civilization, must some day appear before the unerring judge, Dionysus.

今日我们所称为文化、教育、文明的一切，终有一天必将站在正确的审判官酒神的面前！