It is impossible to love and be wise. ― Francis Bacon
不可能在陷入愛情的同時,又能保有智慧。—培根
Get to work at sunrise and retire at sunset. Wander freely between heaven and earth and feel at ease at all times. — Chuang Tzu
日出而作,日入而息,逍遙於天地之間,而心意自得。—莊子
哲學可以讓人變得更有智慧,但相關書籍常常比較難懂,所以不少人因而卻步。我們選了一些經典的哲學名句,讓讀者在最短的時間內得到最大的收穫,不但英文有所長進,也增長一些智慧。這本書比較特別之處是除了西方哲學名句外,也介紹一些中國哲學名句,像是老子和莊子哲學,還有孔子和孟子學說。以老子為例,所談的道理雖然很簡單,卻蘊藏著很大的智慧。譬如:在「以其終不自為大,故能成其大」這句話中,老子教導我們不自以為偉大才能變得偉大的道理,翻成英文則是”Making
no claim to greatness leads to greatness.”英文翻譯以動名詞作為主詞,除了帶出該單元所要介紹的文法概念外,也用最簡潔的方式來表達一個哲學概念。本書的目的就是藉由哲學名句來讓讀者輕鬆地學英文,「名句故事」是根據哲學名句所做的解釋或闡釋,文法概念則在介紹哲學名句所牽涉到的句型、字詞、或文法,例句部分是用比較長的句子來說明如何活用。
Get to work at sunrise and retire at sunset. Wander freely between heaven and earth and feel at ease at all times. —Chuang Tzu
日出而作,日入而息,逍遙於天地之間,而心意自得。 —莊子
名句故事
In ancient China, farmers got to work at sunrise and rested at sunset. So were other people, who didn’t have the night life as we do now. At night, they gazed at stars feeling their connection
with the sky.
Without having so many distractions as we do now, ancient people spent much more time on gazing at the sky and contemplating the universe and the meaning of life.
In doing so, a philosopher like Chuang Tzu began to feel that he was wandering freely between heaven and earth without any sort of uneasiness in the mind. It was like being at one with the
universe.
前一個單元提到for fear that子句句型可以用來替代lest + S + (should) + 原形動詞句型,所以哲學名句衍生出這樣的句子:To wake up at sunrise and get off work at sunset, Tom keeps the habit of constantly looking at his watch and checking
the time for fear that he might lose track of time.(為了日出就起床日落就下班,湯姆習慣於經常看自己的手錶,唯恐忘了時間)。
for fear後面的that子句,可以用should / might / may這幾個助動詞,不會只用should,意思都是「可能」。相較之下,lest後面的句子卻只能用should來表達「可能」之意。
除了that字句外,for fear後面也可以接介系詞of,of後面再接名詞或動名詞,如果覺得用that子句太麻煩或容易因要考慮用那個助動詞而出錯,不妨改用for fear of比較保險。