You are quite right – I am not moved by any ‘love’ of this sort, and for two reasons: I have never in my life ‘loved’ any people or collective – neither the German people, nor the French, nor the American, nor the working class or anything of that sort. I indeed love ‘only’ my friends and the only kind of love I know of and believe in is the love of persons. Secondly, this ‘love of the Jews’ would appear to me, since I am myself Jewish, as something rather suspect. I cannot love myself or anything which I know is part and parcel of my own person. To clarify this, let me tell you of a conversation I had in Israel with a prominent political personality who was defending the – in my opinion disastrous – non-separation of religion and state in Israel. What [she] said – I am not sure of the exact words any more – ran something like this: ‘You will understand that, as a socialist, I, of course, do not believe in God; I believe in the Jewish people.’ I found this a shocking statement and, being too shocked, I did not reply at the time. But I could have answered: the greatness of this people was once that it believed in God, and believed in Him in such a way that its trust and love towards Him was greater than its fear. And now this people believes only in itself? What good can come out of that? Well, in this sense I do not ‘love’ the Jews, nor do I ‘believe’ in them; I merely belong to them as a matter of course, beyond dispute or argument.
你完全正確 - 我沒有被這種“愛”所感動,原因有兩個:我這輩子從未“愛過”任何民族或集體 - 無論是德國人、法國人、美國人、工人階級還是其他任何類似的東西。我確實‘只’愛我的朋友,我所知道和相信的唯一一種愛就是對個人的愛。其次,這種“猶太人的愛”對我來說,既然我自己是猶太人,似乎有些可疑。我不能愛我自己或任何我知道是我自身一部分的東西。為了澄清這一點,讓我告訴你我在以色列與一位傑出的政治人物的一次談話,她當時正在為以色列的宗教和國家的非分離(在我看來是災難性的)辯護。她說(我不再確定確切的話語)大致是這樣的:“你會明白,作為一個社會主義者,我當然不相信上帝;我相信猶太人民。”我發現這是一種令人震驚的陳述,震驚得我當時沒有回應。但我本可以回答:這個民族的偉大之處曾經是它相信上帝,而且以一種信任和對他的愛大於害怕的方式相信他。而現在這個民族只相信它自己嗎?這樣能有什麼好結果嗎?好吧,就這個意義而言,我不“愛”猶太人,也不“相信”他們;我只是理所當然地屬於他們,無可爭議或爭論。
顯然,如下人類的譯文更好:
“我這一生中從來沒有愛過任何一個民族、任何一個集體——不愛德意志,不愛法蘭西,不愛美利堅,不愛工人階級,不愛這一切。我‘只’愛我的朋友,我所知道、所信仰的惟一一種愛,就是愛人。“
但其實,結合下更好:
“我這一生中從來沒有愛過任何一個民族、任何一個集體——不愛德意志,不愛法蘭西,不愛美利堅,不愛工人階級,不愛這一切。我‘只’愛我的朋友,我所知道、所信仰的惟一一種愛,就是對個人的愛。“
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