第57章：Of Anger 论愤怒（中英对照）

培根散文随笔集中英对照，通过阅读文学名著学语言，是掌握英语的绝佳方法。既可接触原汁原味的英语，又能享受文学之美，一举两得，何乐不为？
对于喜欢阅读名著的读者，这是一个最好的时代，因为有成千上万的书可以选择；这又是一个不好的时代，因为在浩繁的卷帙中，很难找到适合自己的好书。而培根的散文随笔，浓缩的不仅仅是文学，还是智慧。相信对阅读和写作都有很好的帮助。
of anger 论愤怒
to seek to extinguish anger utterly, is but a bravery of the stoics. we have better oracles: be angry, but sin not. let not the sun go down upon your anger. anger must be limited, and confined, both in race, and in time. we will first speak, how the natural inclination, and habit, to be angry, may be attempered, and calmed.
secondly, how the particular motions of anger may be repressed, or at least refrained from doing mischief.
thirdly, how to raise anger, or appease anger, in another.
人要彻底杜绝发怒 — 这只有斯多葛派哲学家才敢如此说。我们有一句更好的神谕：“生气却不要犯罪，不可含怒到日落。”对怒气必须从程度和时间两方面加以控制。我们来讨论其中三点：1）怎样克制和平息发怒的天性和习惯；2）怎样抑制发怒的具体行为，或尽量有所约束，以免造成恶果；3）怎样使别人发怒或息怒。

for the first; there is no other way, but to meditate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger, how it troubles man’s life. and the best time to do this, is to look back upon anger, when the fit is thoroughly over. seneca saith well; that anger is like ruin, which forsakes itself upon that it falls. the scripture exhorteth us; to possess our souls in patience. whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his soul. men must not turn bees;
anunasque in vidnereponunt.
针对第一点，最好反复想想发怒的后果，它是怎样扰乱了人们的生活。反思的最佳时机，是在怒气彻底消失之后。萨涅卡说得好：“愤怒犹如堕物，它将自碎于摔落之处。”《圣经》劝导我们“要常存忍耐，就必保全灵魂”。谁丧失了忍耐，谁就丧失了灵魂。人切不可学那蜜蜂：在蜇伤人的同时丢掉了自己的性命。

anger is certainly a kind of baseness: as it appears well, in the weakness of those subjects, in whom it reigns; children, women, old folks, sick folks. only men must beware, that they carry their anger rather with scorn, than with fear: so that they may seem rather to be above the injury, than below it: which is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to himself in it.
发怒无疑是一种低贱的德性，因为像妇女儿童、老头病夫之类的人最容易受它摆布，而且它也最容易在他们处于脆弱的时候出现。特别要注意的是，发怒之时，最好带点嘲弄的意味，千万别夹杂着恐惧；这往往可以让自己免受伤害。这做起来并不难，只需在发怒时让自己按上述原则行事即可。
for the second point; the causes and motives of anger, are chiefly three. first, to be too sensible of hurt: for no man is angry, that feels not himself hurt: and therefore tender and delicate persons must needs be oft angry: they have so many things to trouble them; which more robust natures have little sense of. the next is, the apprehension and construction of the injury offered, to be, in the circumstances thereof, full of contempt. for contempt is that which putteth an edge upon anger, as much, or more, than the hurt itself. and therefore, when men are ingenious in picking out circumstances of contempt, they do kindle their anger much. lastly, opinion of the touch of a man’s reputation doth multiply and sharpen anger.
关于第二点，发怒的原因和动机主要有三种。首先，对伤害过于敏感：凡发怒的人无不觉得自己受到了伤害；所以，那些脆弱而敏感的人，肯定经常生气；在性格豪爽的人看来毫无感觉的事，却会使他们大为烦恼。其次，把受到的伤害想像成是他人对自己的极端轻蔑；轻蔑会使人怒火中烧，其效果跟伤害本身一样，甚至有过之而无不及；因此，对轻蔑过于敏感的人，肯定会经常怒火万丈。最后，涉及个人名誉的非议，也着实使人怒不可遏。

wherein the remedy is, that a man should have, as consalvo was wont to say, tekan bomnscmsaarem. but in all refrainings of anger, it is the best remedy to win time; and to make a man’s self believe, that the opportunity of his revenge is not yet come: but that he foresees a time for it; and so to still himself in the mean time, and reserve it. to continue anger from mischief, though it take hold of a man, there be two things whereof you must have special caution. the one, of extreme bitterness of words; especially, if they be accurate, and proper: for communia maledicta are nothing so much: and again, that in anger, a man reveal no secrets: for that makes him not fit for society. the other, that you do not peremptorily break off, in any business, in a fit of anger: but howsoever you show bitterness, do not act anything that is not revocable.
这里有一个补救方法，就像贡萨洛过去经常说的——人应当有一张“用粗绳编制的名誉保护网”。不过，在所有制怒之术中，赢得时间是最好的补救办法。要使自己相信：报仇的时机虽未到来，但已指日可待。这样，遇怒时你就能平心静气，忍而不发，等待时机。人在激愤时若想忍住怒火，以免惹祸，有两点务必特别注意：第一，语言切忌尖刻，特别是针对具体的某人某事时，因为宽而泛之的谩骂，不会有伤大雅；再者，愤怒时不可揭人疮疤，那样的话，会让人无地自容。第二，正在气头上时，切不可撇开一切不管不顾；你随便怎么大发雷霆都行，就是别做出什么不可挽回的事来。

for raising and appeasing anger in another, it is done chiefly by choosing of times. when men are frowardest and worst disposed, to incense them. again, by gathering (as was touched before) all that you can find out, to aggravate the contempt and the two remedies are by the contraries. the former, to take good times, when first to relate to a man an angry business: for the first impression is much. and the other is, to sever, as much as may be, me construction of the injury from the point of contempt: imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, passion, or what you will.
至于怎样使人发怒或息怒，这主要在于选准时机；乘人心浮气躁和情绪失控之时，就容易激怒他。再者，像上面谈过的，把你所能翻出来的有关他的陈谷子烂芝麻都收集起来，就可使他恼羞成怒。反之，使人心平气和也有两种方法：第一种，当要提到的是一件令人发火的事，就要选他心情好的时候再开口，因为一开始的印象至关重要；第二种是，尽可能的解开他的心结，消除他所受伤害中的羞辱感，而将之归咎为误解、恐慌、一时激动，或你能找出的其他什么原因。