名著精讀:《悉達多》 船伕(4)

Siddhartha stayed with the ferryman and learned to operate the boat, and when there was nothing to do at the ferry, he worked with Vasudeva in the rice-field, gathered wood, plucked the fruit off the banana-trees. He learned to build an oar, and learned to mend the boat, and to weave baskets, and was joyful because of everything he learned, and the days and Months passed quickly. But more than Vasudeva could teach him, he was taught by the river. Incessantly, he learned from it. Most of all, he learned from it to listen, to pay close attention with a quiet heart, with a waiting, opened soul, without passion, without a wish, without judgement, without an opinion.
In a friendly manner, he lived side by side with Vasudeva, and occasionally they exchanged some words, few and at length thought about words. Vasudeva was no friend of words; rarely, Siddhartha succeeded in persuading him to speak.
"Did you," so he asked him at one time, "did you too learn that secret from the river: that there is no time?"
Vasudeva's face was filled with a bright smile.
"Yes, Siddhartha," he spoke. "It is this what you mean, isn't it: that the river is everywhere at once, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the rapids, in the sea, in the mountains, everywhere at once, and that there is only the present time for it, not the shadow of the past, not the shadow of the future?"

席特哈爾塔留在了船伕身邊，跟他學習撐船。如果渡口沒事可做，他就和瓦蘇代瓦下稻田幹活，拾柴禾，摘芭蕉。他學習製作船槳，學習修補渡船和編籃子，對所學的一切都興致勃勃。日月如梭，光陰似箭。而河水教給他的東西比瓦蘇代瓦教的更多。他不斷地向河水學習，首先是學習傾聽，以平靜的心境傾聽，以期盼和坦誠的心靈傾聽，沒有激情，沒有熱望，沒有判斷，也沒有見解。
他在瓦蘇代瓦身邊愉快地生活。兩人偶爾交談，只說數量不多的深思熟慮過的話。瓦蘇代瓦並不健談，席特哈爾塔很少能激起他的談話興致。
有一次他問瓦蘇代瓦：“你是否向河水學到了這個祕密：時間並不存在？”
瓦蘇代瓦臉上露出了爽朗的笑容。
“是的，席特哈爾塔。”他說，“你的意思是不是說：河水到處都是一樣的，在源泉頭，在河口，在瀑布，在渡口，在急流，在大海，在山區，到處都一樣，對於它只有現在，而沒有將來的陰影？”