悲劇的誕生The Birth Of Tragedy 第131 德國音樂

Out of the Dionysian root of the German spirit a power has arisen which, having nothing in common with the primitive conditions of Socratic culture, can neither be explained nor excused by it, but which is rather felt by this culture as something terribly inexplicable and overwhelmingly hostile--

從德意志精神的醉境根基，有一種力量興起來，這力量既然與蘇格拉底文化的古代條件毫無共同之處，所以既不能用它來說明，也不能以它爲藉口；反之，這力量對於蘇格拉底文化似乎是莫明其妙甚或極端敵對的東西。

German music as we must understand it, particularly in its vast solar orbit from Bach to Beethoven, from Beethoven to Wagner.

當然，我是指德國音樂，如衆所周知，主要是從巴赫到貝多芬，從貝多芬到瓦格納等音樂泰斗。

Even under the most favorable circumstances what can the knowledge-craving Socratism of our days do with this demon rising from unfathomable depths?

即使在最有利的環境中，今日的蘇格拉底求知主義將如何對付這個來自無底深淵的魔靈呢？

Neither by means of the flourishes and arabesques of operatic melody, nor with the aid of the arithmetical counting board of fugue and contrapuntal dialectic is the formula to be found by whose thrice-powerful light one might subdue this demon and compel it to speak.

不論以歌劇旋律的樂譜靈符，或者憑追逸曲和對位辯證法的如意算盤，都不能找到一個咒語，用它的三倍強光使這魔靈就範，強迫它說話。

What a spectacle, when our latter-day aestheticians, with a net of "beauty" peculiar to themselves, pursue and clutch at the genius of music whirling before display activities which are not to be judged by the standard of eternal beauty any more than by the standard of the sublime.

試看今日的美學家，帶着特製的“美”之網羅，去驅散或者捕捉在眼前轉動、飄忽莫測的音樂天才，在激動之下，要用“永恆美”或者“崇高”等概念予以判斷：——這是多可伶的景象啊！

Let us but observe these patrons of music at close range, as they really are, indefatigably crying: "Beauty! beauty!" Do they really bear the stamp of nature's darling children who are fostered and nourished at the breast of the beautiful, or are they not rather seeking a mendacious cloak for their own coarseness, an aesthetical pretext for their insensitive sobriety;

我們只須親眼在近處看看這些所謂音樂贊助者，他們不厭其煩地讚歎：“美哉！美哉！”我們不難看出：他們是真的像在美之懷抱中撫育的自然寵兒呢，抑或不過是以騙人的外衣來掩飾自己的粗野不文，或者以審美的藉口來維護自己的感情貧乏。

here I am thinking of Otto Jahn, for example. But let the liar and the hypocrite beware of German music:

我想到奧托·揚（OttoJahn）可以爲例。然而，讓這個僞善撒謊者當心德國音樂吧！

for amid all our culture it is really the only genuine, pure, and purifying fire-spirit from which and toward which, as in the teaching of the great Heraclitus of Ephesus, all things move in a double orbit:

因爲音樂確實是在我們全部文化中唯一純粹、清潔、淨化的火之精靈，偉大的以弗所哲學家赫拉克里圖曾說火是萬物所從出，萬物所迴歸，循環往復的根源。

all that we now call culture, education, civilization, must some day appear before the unerring judge, Dionysus.

今日我們所稱爲文化、教育、文明的一切，終有一天必將站在正確的審判官酒神的面前！