米兰·昆德拉(Milan Kundera),捷克著名作家。代表作品有:《玩笑》、《笑忘录》、《不能承受的生命之轻》和《不朽》等。
昆德拉的作品充满了哲理性,他的小说多是理性大于感性,在人物的塑造和情节的推动下并不耗费过多精力,他追求的更多是对人物内心的剖析,对生命轮回的思考。他的作品反映了自己在不同阶段的哲理感悟,将自己的亲身经历写进作品,带领读者不断进行思考和探索,从而引起读者的共鸣。
以下句子摘自米兰·昆德拉的作品:
The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but... that this humiliation is seen by everyone.
羞耻的根本并不是我们个人的一些错误,而是……这耻辱被他人看到。
Human time does not turn in a circle; it runs ahead in a straight line. That is why man cannot be happy: happiness is the longing for repetition.
人类的时间并不是循环运动的,而是线性前进的。这就是人类为什么不会幸福的原因:因为幸福是渴望重复。
Joking is a barrier between man and the world. Joking is the enemy of love and poetry.
笑话是人与世界之间的屏障,笑话是爱与诗的敌人。
Before we are forgotten, we will be turned into kitsch. Kitsch is the stopover between being and oblivion.
在被遗忘之前,我们会变得媚俗。媚俗是存在和遗忘之间的中转站。
A person who longs to leave the place where he lives is an unhappy person.
渴望离开自己居住地的人是不快乐的。
The heavier the burden, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
负担越沉重,我们的生命就越贴近大地,就越变得越真实。
There is no means of testing which decision is better, because there is no basis for comparison. We live everything as it comes, without warning, like an actor going on cold. And what can life be worth if the first rehearsal for life is life itself?
没有任何办法可以检验哪种决定更好,因为没有任何比较的基础。我们所经历的一切都是顺其自然,没有预警,就像一个演员没有彩排就上舞台。如果生命的首次彩排就是生命的本身,那么生命的价值是什么?
The goals we pursue are always veiled. A girl who longs for marriage longs for something she knows nothing about. The boy who hankers after fame has no idea what fame is. The thing that gives our every move its meaning is always totally unknown to us.
我们所追求的目标总是不为人知的,一个渴望婚姻的姑娘却对婚姻一无所知。一个渴望功名的小伙子却不知道功名为何物。推动我们一切行动的总是我们一无所知的东西。
I was not a hypocrite, with one real face and several false ones. I had several faces because I was young and didn't know who I was or wanted to be.
我不是一个伪君子,只有一副真面目和几副假面目。我之所以有多幅面孔是因为我还年轻,我还不知道自己到底是什么人,也不知道自己想成为什么人。
A man is responsible for his ignorance.
一个人要为自己的无知负责。
Human life occurs only once, and the reason we cannot determine which of our decisions are good and which bad is that in a given situation we can make only one decision; we are not granted a second, third, or fourth life in which to compare various decisions.
人的一生只有一次,我们无法确定自己的决定是好是坏,这是因为在特定的情况下,我们只能做一次决定,我们没有第二次、第三次或第四次机会来对比不同的决定。
On the surface, an intelligible lie; underneath, the unintelligible truth.
表面上,是清晰明了的谎言;背地里,是难以捉摸的真相。
The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people.
人的价值在于拓展自我、走出自我、以及理解和帮助他人的能力。
Jealousy isn't a pleasant quality, but if it isn't overdone (and if it's combined with modesty), apart from its inconvenience there's even something touching about it.
嫉妒并不是一种好的品质,但是如果没有过度(如果嫉妒和谦虚相结合),除了造成的不便,甚至还有了一丝说不出的动人。
I cannot hate them because nothing binds me to them; I have nothing in common with them.
我不能恨他们,因为我和他们之间没有联系,我和他们之间毫无共同点。