这一次的旅行使我更了解一个名词的意义，这个名词就是：朋友。
On my recent travels, I came to
realize still more fully the
significance of the word
"friend".
七八天以前我曾对一个初次见面的朋友说：“在朋友们面前我只感到惭愧。你们待我太好了，我简直没法报答你们。”这并不是谦虚的客气话，这是真的事实。说过这些话，我第二天就离开了那个朋友，并不知道以后还有没有机会再看见他。但是他给我的那一点点温暖至今还使我的心颤动。
Seven or eight days ago, I said to a friend whom I had just
come to know, "I
can't help feeling embarrassed before
my friends. You're all so nice to me. I simply don't know how to
repay your
kindness." I did not make this remark out of mere
modesty and courtesy. I truly meant what I said. The next day,
I said goodbye to this friend, not knowing if I could ever see him
again. But the little warmth that he gave me has been keeping my
heart throbbing with gratitude.
我的生命大概不会很长久罢。然而在短促的过去的回顾中却有一盏明灯，照彻了我的灵魂的黑暗，使我的生存有一点光彩。这盏灯就是友情。我应该感谢它，因为靠了它我才能够活到现在；而且把旧家庭给我留下的阴影扫除了的也正是它。
The length of my days will not be unlimited. However, whenever I
look back on my
brief past life, I find a beacon
illuminating my soul and thereby
lending a little brightness to my being. That beacon is friendship.
I should be grateful to it because it has helped me keep alive up
to now and clear away the shadow left on me by my old
family.
世间有不少的人为了家庭抛弃朋友，至少也会在家庭和朋友之间划一个界限，把家庭看得比朋友重过若干倍。这似乎是很自然的事情。我也曾亲眼看见一些人结婚以后就离开朋友，离开事业。……
Many people forsake their friends
in favour of their
own families, or at least draw a line of demarcation between families and friends,
considering the former to be many times more important than the
latter. That seems to be a
matter of course. I have also seen with my own eyes how some
people abandon their friends as well
as their careers soon after they get married...
朋友是暂时的，家庭是永久的。在好些人的行为里我发见了这个信条。这个信条在我实在是不可理解的。对于我，要是没有朋友，我现在会变成怎样可怜的东西，我自己也不知道。
Friends are transient whereas families
are lasting---that is the tenet, as I know, guiding the behaviour of many
people. To me, that is utterly
inconceivable. Without friends, I
would have been reduced
to I don't know what a miserable creature.
然而朋友们把我救了。他们给了我家庭所不能给的东西。他们的友爱，他们的帮助，他们的鼓励，几次把我从深渊的边沿救回来。他们对我表示了无限的慷慨。
Friends are my saviours. They give me things which it is beyond my
family to give. Thanks to their fraternal love, assistance and
encouragement, I have time
and again been saved from falling into an abyss while on its verge. They have been
enormously generous towards
me.
我的生活曾经是悲苦的，黑暗的。然而朋友们把多量的同情，多量的爱，多量的欢乐，多量的眼泪分了给我，这些东西都是生存所必需的。这些不要报答的慷慨的施舍，使我的生活里也有了温暖，有了幸福。我默默地接受了它们。我并不曾说过一句感激的话，我也没有做过一件报答的行为。但是朋友们却不把自私的形容词加到我的身上。对于我，它们太慷慨了。
There was a time
when my life was miserable and gloomy. My friends then gave
me in large
quantities sympathy, love, joy and tears---things essential
for existence. It is due to their bountiful free gifts
that I also have my share
of warmth and happiness in my life. I accepted their
kindness quietly without ever saying a word of thanks and without
ever doing anything in
return. In spite of that, my friends never used the
epithet "self-centered" when
referring to me.
They are only too
generous towards me.
这一次我走了许多新地方，看见了许多新朋友。我的生活是忙碌的：忙着看，忙着听，忙着说，忙着走。但是我不曾遇到一点困难，朋友们给我准备好了一切，使我不会缺少什么。我每走到一个新地方，我就像回到我那个在上海被日本兵毁掉的旧居一样。
I visited many new places and met many new friends on my recent
trip. My time was
mostly taken up by
looking around, listening, talking and walking. But I never
ran into any trouble
because my friends had done
their utmost to make sure that I would be short of nothing. Whatever
new places I called
at, I always felt at home as if I were back in my old
residence in Shanghai which had already been raged to the ground by Japanese
troops.
每一个朋友，不管他自己的生活是怎样苦，怎样简单，也要慷慨地分一些东西给我，虽然明知道我不能够报答他。有些朋友，连他们的名字我以前也不知道，他们却关心我的健康，处处打听我的“病况”，知道他们看见了我那被日光晒黑了的脸和膀子，他们才放心地微笑了。这些情形的确值得人掉眼泪。
No matter how hard
up and frugal my friends
themselves were, they would unstintingly share with me whatever they had,
although they knew I would not be able to repay them for their kindness. Some, whom I did
not even know by name, showed concern over my health
and went about
inquiring after me.
It was not until they saw my suntanned
face and arms that they began to smile a smile of relief. All that
was enough to move one to
tears.
有人相信我不写文章就不能够生活。两个月以前，一个同情我的上海朋友寄稿到《广州民国日报》的副刊，说了许多关于我的生活的话。他也说我一天不写文章第二天就没有饭吃。这是不确实的。这次旅行就给我证明：即使我不再写一个字，朋友们也不肯让我冻馁。世间还有许多慷慨的人，他们并不把自己个人和家庭看得异常重要，超过一切。靠了他们我才能够活到现在，而且靠了他们我还要活下去。
Some people believe that, without writing, I would lose my livelihood. One of my
sympathizers, in an article published two months ago in the
Guangzhou Republic Daily supplement, gives a full account of the conditions
of my life. He also says that I would have nothing to live on
once I should
lay down my pen.
That is not true at all. It has already been proved by my recent
travels that my friends would never let me suffer from cold and
hunger even if I should go without writing a single word. There are
a great many kind-hearted people in the world who never
attach undue importance
to themselves and their own families and who never
place themselves and
their families above
anything else. It is
owing to them that I still survive and shall continue to
survive for a long time to come.
朋友们给我的东西是太多、太多了。我将怎样报答他们呢？但是我知道他们是不需要报答的。
I owe my friends many, many kindnesses. How can I repay them? But,
I understand, they don't need me to do
that.
最近我在一个法国哲学家的书里读到了这样的话：“生命的一个条件就是消费……世间有一种不能跟生存分开的慷慨，要是没有了它，我们就会死，就会从内部干枯。我们必须开花。道德，无私心就是人生的花。
Recently I came across the following words in a book by a French
philosopher:
One condition of life is consumption...Survival in this world is
inseparable from generosity, without which we would perish and
become dried-up from
within. We must put
forth flowers. Moral integrity and unselfishness are the
flowers of life.
在我的眼前开放着这么多的人生的花朵了。我的生命要到什么时候才会开花？难道我已经是”内部干枯”了么？
Now so many flowers of life are in full bloom before my
eyes. When can my life put forth flowers? Am I already dried-up
from within?
一个朋友说过：“我若是灯，我就要用我的光明来照彻黑暗。”
A friend of mine says, "If I were a lamp, I would illuminate
darkness with my light."
我不配做一盏明灯。那么就让我做一块木柴罢。我愿意把我从太阳那里受到的热放散出来，我愿意把自己烧得粉身碎骨给人间添一点点温暖。
I, however, don't qualify for a bright
lamp. Let me be a piece of firewood
instead. I'll radiate the heat that I
have absorbed from the sun. I'll burn myself to ahes to
provide this human world with a little
warmth.
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