《列子 华子病忘》英译

宋阳里华子中年病忘，朝取而夕忘，夕与而朝忘；在涂则忘行，在室则忘坐；今不识先，后不识今①。阖室毒之②。谒史而卜之，弗占③；谒巫而祷之，弗禁；谒医而攻之，弗已。鲁有儒生自媒能治之，华子之妻子以后产之半请其方④。儒生曰：“此固非卦兆之所占，非祈请之所祷，非药石之所攻。吾试化其心，变其虑，庶几其廖乎！”于是试露之，而求衣；饥之，而求食；幽之，而求明。儒生欣然告其子曰：“疾可已也。然吾之方密，传世不以告人。试屏左右⑤，独与居室七日。”从之。莫知其所施为也，而积年之疾一朝都除。华子既悟，乃大怒，黜妻罚子，操戈逐儒生⑥。宋人执而问其以。华子曰：“曩吾忘也，荡荡然不觉天地之有无。今顿识既往，数十年来存亡、得失、哀乐、好恶，扰扰万绪起矣。吾恐将来之存忘、得夫、哀乐、好恶之乱吾心如此也，须臾之忘，可复得乎？”

【注释】

①今不识先，后不识今——王重民：“‘今不识先，后不识今’二句有误。《御览》七三八引作‘不识先后，不识今古’，近是。”

②阖室毒之——阖，全。毒，《释文》：“毒，苦也。”

③占——验。杨伯峻：“《荀子·赋篇》‘请占以五泰’，杨倞注：‘占，验也。”

④居——陶鸿庆：“居犹蓄也，谓其素所蓄积也。《天瑞篇》‘没其先居之财’，义与此同。”

⑤屏——音 bìng（饼），退避。

⑥戈——古代主要兵器。横刃，装有木长柄。

（注释转自鑫淼的博客http://blog.sina.com.cn/lh1855）

林语堂  译：

The Man Who Forgot

Liehtse

There was a man in Yang Li of the country of Sung by the name of Huatse, who developed in his middle age a peculiar malady of forgetting everything. He would take a thing in the morning and forget about it at night, and receive a thing at night and forget about it in the morning. While in the streets he forgot to walk, and while standing in the house, he forgot to sit down. He could not remember the past in the present, and could not remember the present in the future. And the whole family were greatly annoyed by it. They consulted the soothsayer and they could not divine it, and they consulted the witch and prayers could not cure it, and they consulted the physician and the physician was helpless. But there was a Confucian scholar in the country of Lu who said he could cure him. So Huatse’s wife offered him half of their property if he could cure him of this strange malady.

And the Confucian scholar said: “His malady is not something which can be cured by soothsaying or prayer or medicine. I shall try to cure his mind and change the objects of his thought, and maybe he’ll be cured.”

So he exposed Huatse to cold and Huatse asked for clothing, exposed Huatse to hunger, and Huatse asked for food and shut Huatse up in a dark room, and Huatse asked for light.

The Confucian scholar elatedly told Huatse’s son, “Your father’s malady can be cured, but my method is a secret and I do not want others to know. Please ask every one to go away and I alone shall stay with him in his room for seven days.”

The family followed the instructions. They had no inkling of what the Confucian scholar did but Huatse’s illness of years was suddenly cured.

When Huatse was cured he was furious. He scolded his wife and punished his children and drove away the Confucian scholar from his house with a spear. The people of the country stopped him and asked for his reasons.

Huatse replied: “When I was submerged in the sea of forgetfulness, I did not know whether the heaven and earth existed or not. Now I can suddenly recall all the gains and losses and successes and disappointments and joys and sorrows and loves and hatreds of the past decades and thousands of matters start to worry me. I am afraid that in the future, the gains and losses and successes and disappointments and joys and sorrows and loves and hatreds will continue to oppress my mind as they are oppressing me now. Can I ever recover a moment of forgetfulness?”