Chapter 7
孩子的天真
Hear, O God. Alas, for man's sin! So saith man, and Thou pitiest him; for Thou madest him, but sin in him Thou madest not. 
天父，请你俯听我。人们的罪恶真可恨！一个人说了这话，你就怜悯他，因为你造了他，但没有造他身上的罪恶。
Who remindeth me of the sins of my infancy? for in Thy sight none is pure from sin, not even the infant whose life is but a day upon the earth. Who remindeth me? doth not each little infant, in whom I see what of myself I remember not?
谁能告诉我幼时的罪恶，因为在你面前没有一人是纯洁无罪的，即使是出世一天的婴孩亦然如此。谁能向我追述我的往事？不是任何一个小孩都能吗？在他们身上我可以看到记忆所不及的我。
What then was my sin? was it that I hung upon the breast and cried? for should I now so do for food suitable to my age, justly should I be laughed at and reproved. What I then did was worthy reproof; but since I could not understand reproof, custom and reason forbade me to be reproved. For those habits, when grown, we root out and cast away. Now no man, though he prunes, wittingly casts away what is good.  Or was it then good, even for a while, to cry for what, if given, would hurt? bitterly to resent, that persons free, and its own elders, yea, the very authors of its birth, served it not? that many besides, wiser than it, obeyed not the nod of its good pleasure? to do its best to strike and hurt, because commands were not obeyed, which had been obeyed to its hurt? 
但这时我犯什么罪呢？是否因为我哭着要饮乳？如果我现在如此迫不及待地，不是饮乳而是取食合乎我年龄的食物，一定会被人嘲笑，理应受到斥责。于此可见我当时做了应受斥责的事了，但我那时既然不可能明了别人的斥责，准情酌理也不应受此苛责；况且我们长大以后便完全铲除了这些状态，我也从未看到一人不分良莠而一并芟除的。但如哭着要有害的东西，对行动自由的大人们、对我的父母以及一些审慎的人不顺从我有害的要求，我发怒，要打他们、损害他们，责罚他们不屈从我的意志这种种行动在当时能视为是好事情吗？
The weakness then of infant limbs, not its will, is its innocence. Myself have seen and known even a baby envious; it could not speak, yet it turned pale and looked bitterly on its foster-brother. Who knows not this? Mothers and nurses tell you that they allay these things by I know not what remedies. Is that too innocence, when the fountain of milk is flowing in rich abundance, not to endure one to share it, though in extremest need, and whose very life as yet depends there on? We bear gently with all this, not as being no or slight evils, but because they will disappear as years increase; for, though tolerated now, the very same tempers are utterly intolerable when found in riper years.
可见婴儿的纯洁不过是肢体的稚弱，而不是本心的无辜。我见过也体验到孩子的妒忌：还不会说话，就面若死灰，眼光狠狠盯着一同吃奶的孩子。谁不知道这种情况？母亲和乳母自称能用什么方法来加以补救。不让一个极端需要生命粮食的弟兄靠近丰满的乳源，这是无罪的吗？但人们对此都迁就容忍，并非因为这是小事或不以为事，而是因为这一切将随年龄长大而消失。这是唯一的理由，因为如果在年龄较大的孩子身上发现同样的情况，人们决不会熟视无睹的。
Thou, then, O Lord my God, who gavest life to this my infancy, furnishing thus with senses (as we see) the frame Thou gavest, compacting its limbs, ornamenting its proportions, and, for its general good and safety, implanting in it all vital functions, Thou commandest me to praise Thee in these things, to confess unto Thee, and sing unto Thy name, Thou most Highest. For Thou art God, Almighty and Good, even hadst Thou done nought but only this, which none could do but Thou: whose Unity is the mould of all things; who out of Thy own fairness makest all things fair; and orderest all things by Thy law.
主，我的天父，你给孩子生命和肉体，一如我们看见的，你使肉体具有官能、四肢、美丽的容貌，又渗入生命的全部力量，使之保持全身的和谐。你命我在这一切之中歌颂你，“赞美你，歌颂你至高者的圣名”，[20]因为你是全能全善的天父，即使你仅仅创造这一些，也没有一人能够做到：你是万有的唯一真原，化育万类的至美者，你的法则制度一切。 
This age then, Lord, where of I have no remembrance, which I take on others' word, and guess from other infants that I have passed, true though the guess be, I am yet loth to count in this life of mine which I live in this world. For no less than that which I spent in my mother's womb, is it hid from me in the shadows of forgetfulness. But if I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me, where, I beseech Thee, O my God, where, Lord, or when, was I Thy servant guiltless? But, lo! that period I pass by; and what have I now to do with that, of which I can recall no vestige?
主啊，我记不起这个时代的生活，仅能听信别人的话，并从其他孩子身上比较可靠地推测这一段生活，我很惭愧把它列入我生命史的一部分。这个时代和我在胚胎中的生活一样，都已遗忘于幽隐之中。“我是在罪业中生成的，我在胚胎中就有了罪”，[21]我的天父，何时何地你的仆人曾是无罪的？现在我撇开这时期吧；既然我已记不起一些踪影，则我和它还有什么关系？
[20] 见《诗篇》91首2节。
[21] 同上，50首7节。
往期内容链接
Book Ⅰ
有声 | 忏悔录 Confessiones | BookⅠChapter（1）颂扬
【有声】忏悔录 Confessiones | 呼吁 BookⅠChapter（2）
【有声】忏悔录 Confessiones | 呼吁 BookⅠChapter（3）
【有声】忏悔录 Confessiones | 讴歌 BookⅠChapter（4）
忏悔录 Confessiones | BookⅠChapter（5）洁子心灵
继续阅读
阅读原文