第 17 节
作者:不受约束      更新:2021-02-25 00:19      字数:9322
  And ere; in pounding with such gaps between;
  They clash; combine and leap apart in turn。
  But mind is more the keeper of the gates;
  Hath more dominion over life than soul。
  For without intellect and mind there's not
  One part of soul can rest within our frame
  Least part of time; companioning; it goes
  With mind into the winds away; and leaves
  The icy members in the cold of death。
  But he whose mind and intellect abide
  Himself abides in life。 However much
  The trunk be mangled; with the limbs lopped off;
  The soul withdrawn and taken from the limbs;
  Still lives the trunk and draws the vital air。
  Even when deprived of all but all the soul;
  Yet will it linger on and cleave to life;…
  Just as the power of vision still is strong;
  If but the pupil shall abide unharmed;
  Even when the eye around it's sorely rent…
  Provided only thou destroyest not
  Wholly the ball; but; cutting round the pupil;
  Leavest that pupil by itself behind…
  For more would ruin sight。 But if that centre;
  That tiny part of eye; be eaten through;
  Forthwith the vision fails and darkness comes;
  Though in all else the unblemished ball be clear。
  'Tis by like compact that the soul and mind
  Are each to other bound forevermore。
  THE SOUL IS MORTAL
  Now come: that thou mayst able be to know
  That minds and the light souls of all that live
  Have mortal birth and death; I will go on
  Verses to build meet for thy rule of life;
  Sought after long; discovered with sweet toil。
  But under one name I'd have thee yoke them both;
  And when; for instance; I shall speak of soul;
  Teaching the same to be but mortal; think
  Thereby I'm speaking also of the mind…
  Since both are one; a substance inter…joined。
  First; then; since I have taught how soul exists
  A subtle fabric; of particles minute;
  Made up from atoms smaller much than those
  Of water's liquid damp; or fog; or smoke;
  So in mobility it far excels;
  More prone to move; though strook by lighter cause
  Even moved by images of smoke or fog…
  As where we view; when in our sleeps we're lulled;
  The altars exhaling steam and smoke aloft…
  For; beyond doubt; these apparitions come
  To us from outward。 Now; then; since thou seest;
  Their liquids depart; their waters flow away;
  When jars are shivered; and since fog and smoke
  Depart into the winds away; believe
  The soul no less is shed abroad and dies
  More quickly far; more quickly is dissolved
  Back to its primal bodies; when withdrawn
  From out man's members it has gone away。
  For; sure; if body (container of the same
  Like as a jar); when shivered from some cause;
  And rarefied by loss of blood from veins;
  Cannot for longer hold the soul; how then
  Thinkst thou it can be held by any air…
  A stuff much rarer than our bodies be?
  Besides we feel that mind to being comes
  Along with body; with body grows and ages。
  For just as children totter round about
  With frames infirm and tender; so there follows
  A weakling wisdom in their minds; and then;
  Where years have ripened into robust powers;
  Counsel is also greater; more increased
  The power of mind; thereafter; where already
  The body's shattered by master…powers of eld;
  And fallen the frame with its enfeebled powers;
  Thought hobbles; tongue wanders; and the mind gives way;
  All fails; all's lacking at the selfsame time。
  Therefore it suits that even the soul's dissolved;
  Like smoke; into the lofty winds of air;
  Since we behold the same to being come
  Along with body and grow; and; as I've taught;
  Crumble and crack; therewith outworn by eld。
  Then; too; we see; that; just as body takes
  Monstrous diseases and the dreadful pain;
  So mind its bitter cares; the grief; the fear;
  Wherefore it tallies that the mind no less
  Partaker is of death; for pain and disease
  Are both artificers of death;… as well
  We've learned by the passing of many a man ere now。
  Nay; too; in diseases of body; often the mind
  Wanders afield; for 'tis beside itself;
  And crazed it speaks; or many a time it sinks;
  With eyelids closing and a drooping nod;
  In heavy drowse; on to eternal sleep;
  From whence nor hears it any voices more;
  Nor able is to know the faces here
  Of those about him standing with wet cheeks
  Who vainly call him back to light and life。
  Wherefore mind too; confess we must; dissolves;
  Seeing; indeed; contagions of disease
  Enter into the same。 Again; O why;
  When the strong wine has entered into man;
  And its diffused fire gone round the veins;
  Why follows then a heaviness of limbs;
  A tangle of the legs as round he reels;
  A stuttering tongue; an intellect besoaked;
  Eyes all aswim; and hiccups; shouts; and brawls;
  And whatso else is of that ilk?… Why this?…
  If not that violent and impetuous wine
  Is wont to confound the soul within the body?
  But whatso can confounded be and balked;
  Gives proof; that if a hardier cause got in;
  'Twould hap that it would perish then; bereaved
  Of any life thereafter。 And; moreover;
  Often will some one in a sudden fit;
  As if by stroke of lightning; tumble down
  Before our eyes; and sputter foam; and grunt;
  Blither; and twist about with sinews taut;
  Gasp up in starts; and weary out his limbs
  With tossing round。 No marvel; since distract
  Through frame by violence of disease。
  。     。     。     。     。     。
  Confounds; he foams; as if to vomit soul;
  As on the salt sea boil the billows round
  Under the master might of winds。 And now
  A groan's forced out; because his limbs are griped;
  But; in the main; because the seeds of voice
  Are driven forth and carried in a mass
  Outwards by mouth; where they are wont to go;
  And have a builded highway。 He becomes
  Mere fool; since energy of mind and soul
  Confounded is; and; as I've shown; to…riven;
  Asunder thrown; and torn to pieces all
  By the same venom。 But; again; where cause
  Of that disease has faced about; and back
  Retreats sharp poison of corrupted frame
  Into its shadowy lairs; the man at first
  Arises reeling; and gradually comes back
  To all his senses and recovers soul。
  Thus; since within the body itself of man
  The mind and soul are by such great diseases
  Shaken; so miserably in labour distraught;
  Why; then; believe that in the open air;
  Without a body; they can pass their life;
  Immortal; battling with the master winds?
  And; since we mark the mind itself is cured;
  Like the sick body; and restored can be
  By medicine; this is forewarning too
  That mortal lives the mind。 For proper it is
  That whosoe'er begins and undertakes
  To alter the mind; or meditates to change
  Any another nature soever; should add
  New parts; or readjust the order given;
  Or from the sum remove at least a bit。
  But what's immortal willeth for itself
  Its parts be nor increased; nor rearranged;
  Nor any bit soever flow away:
  For change of anything from out its bounds
  Means instant death of that which was before。
  Ergo; the mind; whether in sickness fallen;
  Or by the medicine restored; gives signs;
  As I have taught; of its mortality。
  So surely will a fact of truth make head
  'Gainst errors' theories all; and so shut off
  All refuge from the adversary; and rout
  Error by two…edged confutation。
  And since the mind is of a man one part;
  Which in one fixed place remains; like ears;
  And eyes; and every sense which pilots life;
  And just as hand; or eye; or nose; apart;
  Severed from us; can neither feel nor be;
  But in the least of time is left to rot;
  Thus mind alone can never be; without
  The body and the man himself; which seems;
  As 'twere the vessel of the same… or aught
  Whate'er thou'lt feign as yet more closely joined:
  Since body cleaves to mind by surest bonds。
  Again; the body's and the mind's live powers
  Only in union prosper and enjoy;
  For neither can nature of mind; alone of self
  Sans body; give the vital motions forth;
  Nor; then; can body; wanting soul; endure
  And use the senses。 Verily; as the eye;
  Alone; up…rended from its roots; apart
  From all the body; can peer about at naught;
  So soul and mind it seems are nothing able;
  When by themselves。 No marvel; because; commixed
  Through veins and inwards; and through bones and thews;
  Their elements primordial are confined
  By all the body; and own no power free
  To bound around through interspaces big;
  Thus; shut within these confines; they take on
  Motions of sense; which; after death; thrown out
  Beyond the body to the winds of air;
  Take on they cannot… and on this account;
  Because no more in such a way confined。
  For air will be a body; be alive;
  If in that air the soul can keep itself;
  And in that air enclose those motions all
  Which in the thews and in the body itself
  A while ago 'twas making。 So for this;
  Again; again; I say confess we must;
  That; when the body's wrappings are unwound;
  And when the vital breath is forced without;
  The soul; the senses of the mind dissolve;…
  Since for the twain the cause and ground of life
  Is in the fact of their conjoined estate。
  Once more; since body's unable to sustain
  Division from the soul; without decay
  And obscene stench; how canst thou doubt but that
  The soul; uprisen from the body's deeps;
  Has filtered away; wide…drifted like a smoke;
  Or that the changed body crumbling fell
  With ruin so entire; because; indeed;
  Its deep foundations have been moved from place;
  The soul out…filtering