犹太人的故事（2013）

They played chess together,
walked in their gardens,
这两人常在一起，对弈，同游，
Mendelssohn even came round
for dinner,
门德尔松去Lessing家用餐时甚至
bringing his own kosher food.
还会带上自家烹制的犹太菜肴
Lessing honoured their friendship
in his play, Nathan The Wise.
Lessing还创作了剧本《Nathan The Wise》来向这段友情致敬
[《智者纳旦》(1778).莱辛的三大名剧之一. 不明觉历.]
Nathan, a Jew, expresses
in a few resonant words
剧中主角是个叫Nathan的犹太人---
(此角色)用一句简洁且铿锵有力的话来说
the high hopes
of the Enlightenment promise.
--他承载着一份远大期盼，
那是对于启蒙运动向世人承诺过的一切美景的期盼
It is enough to be "ein Mensch",
a man.
(此角色)是个大写的"人" #
[德语'ein Mensch'原意不明.这里只能这样翻译.]
And the man who had been
the inspiration for Nathan
而摩西.门德尔松同志---"Nathan"的原型
wanted other Jews
to share in that promise.
要的是他的犹太同胞们能够在这场启蒙运动中"雨露均沾"
He began to think about the problem,
the issue, of language.
他开始探究源起于语言(差异)的各种问题
You could not be
an aspiring 18th-century philosopher
身为18世纪的有志哲学家，就必须考虑到
and not think about the relationship
between language and identity.
语言与身份之间的关联
That was at the heart of
a great deal of the discussion
在门德尔松所身处其中的大量相关研究与讨论议题中，对于这种
of which he was part.
关联的研究恰是其核心！
And the relationship between
the language of the Torah, Hebrew,
在这种关系中，一边是希伯莱文著就的圣经(犹太人从小耳濡目染)
and the language
of his adopted country,
一边是他现居所在国的语言--德语--
the language he knew his children
would grow up speaking, German.
将在他孩子们的成长过程中无处不在。
Hebrew, he thought, in some way,
while magnificent and noble,
在门德尔松看来，母语--希伯莱语固然是各种高大上
had actually been lost
in esoteric debates in the Talmud.
却已经在Talmud经中那些高深辩论的字里行间逐渐消弭(而难以被后代犹太人所学习与掌握)
And if these young Jews, who were
simultaneously Prussians and Jews,
而如今生长在普鲁士的犹太年轻一代，带着与生俱来双重身份(德皮犹心)
were going to feel the Bible
and the Torah as a living thing,
他们需要的是一种新的语言工具，
they were going to need to read it
in the new language, too.
才能籍以阅读圣经，并且感知其中包含的生活真谛，而不是仅仅把它当作一本书而已。
But, and this is the crucial point,
然而...这时门德尔松才发现问题大条了...
the only translations into German
available at that time
因为彼时的他发现市面上唯一的圣经德文版
were essentially the achievements
of Christian Bible scholars.
几乎全部出自基♥督♥学者之手
So it needed a Jew somehow
to actually translate
看来现在不管怎样都需要一个犹太人出手
that supple Hebrew into a German
which faithfully reflected
站在真正的犹太本宗，来重新翻译德文版圣经
its richness and strength.
务求字句达意的翻译来反映出圣经的奥义与精神力量
And there was only one person
who could do that - himself.
能完成此任务的看来只有门德尔松自己了。
So he gets to work.
他是这么想的，也这么做了。
And here it is,
right from the beginning,
门德尔松从头开始工作，比如我们现在看到的这部，
the Book Of Genesis,
the beginning of the beginning.
《创世纪》. (的确是'从头开始'，因为这是)圣经的最初章
And it is extraordinary to read,
on one side of the page the Hebrew,
这部《创世纪》读起来感觉非常不同。你看在页面的一侧是希伯来文
very familiar to all of us
who went to Hebrew school,
咱上过希伯莱语学校的看一眼都能认出来
and the other side, incredibly
unfamiliar to me, in Hebrew letters,
而页面的另一侧，同样是大把的希伯莱字母，
可我竟然觉得很陌生(看不懂)
[这里指的是 意第绪语'Yiddish' 简单说是德国犹太人用的语言. ]
this is the halfway house,
exactly the same verse.
这就像是半路歇脚点一样(在希伯来文与意第绪文之间穿行)，给你呈现的是两段(原文)完全相同的圣经段落，但是用希伯来文与意第绪文两种不同的记录方式
How does the Bible begin?
比如说： 圣经的开篇是啥样
All of you out there will know this,
won't you?
我想大家都知道对吧？
Possibly not in Hebrew.
Here is how the Hebrew sounds.
当然啦，也许你们读的不是希伯莱语版本
大家来看这里，希伯莱语版本读起来是这样的:
HE READS IN HEBREW, THEN ENGLISH
"In the beginning,
[念一段希伯莱文 而后解一段英文]
"起初..."
"God created
"神创造..."
"the heavens
"天..."
"the earth."
"...与地"
And moving my eye over
to the difficult bit, in German,
现在来看这边的'德语'对照段落, 有点难啊...[画面所见即意第绪语.发音听着是德语 书面却是希伯莱字母.『此为个人理解.这里主持人说的德语，其实指的都是意第绪语』 ]
where it says,
"Im Anfang schuf Gott..."
这里说的是: (西蒙开始朗读意第绪语,说一段意第绪语，解一段英文)
"At the beginning, God created
"起初，神创造了..."
"die Himmel - the heavens,
"天..."
um..." und Erde - and the earth."
"...与地"
And I am stumbling over it,
because it is so difficult for me.
呵呵， 你看我磕磕巴巴的，因为(意第绪语)对我来说实在太难
I can see him really thinking about
exactly how the Hebrew letters
我能明显感觉到门德尔松真真的字斟句酌地在
would perfectly fit the German.
希伯莱文与德文之间为读者沟通架桥
And there is something deeply moving
in its linguistic
他从语言学和文化两方面着手，
and cultural optimism about this,
seeing German alongside Hebrew,
孜孜不倦且乐观向上的态度确令读者动容
而且他对德语和希伯莱语一视同仁
as though they were naturally
kindred spirits to each other.
似乎在他看来，二者根本就是一脉相承
[其实研究证明意第绪语也的确是日耳曼语系]
Mendelssohn's Bible was the bridge
over which generations of Jews
门德尔松的这一版圣经 为后世的犹太人
would cross from the Jewish world
to the German world,
架起了一座桥梁，让他们可以从犹太文化步入日耳曼文化
[这里German应该译为日耳曼 #]
from the religious to the secular.
从宗教世界步入世俗生活中去
They could read Isaiah in the
morning and Goethe in the afternoon.
令他们既可以专注于《以赛亚书》之类的宗教典籍，也可以徜徉在世俗文学如歌♥德的诗歌♥戏剧和散文之中
But Mendelssohn expected them
to cross that bridge as Jews,
不过门德尔松还是企盼着族人不要忘本
and to stay that way.
牢记自己是犹太人这一事实
"Adapt yourselves
to the morals and constitution
他说:"尽力融入尔等之寄居所在国..."
"of the land to which
you've been removed," he advised,
"适应其体制与道德规范"
"but hold fast to the religion
of your fathers."
"不过，也要牢记父辈的信仰！"
To his friend, Gotthold Lessing,
对于门德尔松的好友Gotthold Lessing来说
Moses Mendelssohn was simply
"ein Mensch", a man,
摩西.门德尔松--- 只是友人之一
but growing fame as scholar
and philosopher made him a prize
然而，门德尔松作为学者与哲学家在学界声名日隆
for those who believed intellectual
enlightenment was simply
对于笃信启蒙运动的人来说，这无疑是活生生的明证，
the first step towards the ultimate
enlightenment of Christianity.
证明了知识启蒙只是起步，接下去必将走向最终的基♥督♥教信仰启蒙
Swiss theologian
Johann Kaspar Lavater
瑞士神学家Johann Kaspar Lavater
publicly challenged Mendelssohn,
曾经公开质疑门德尔松
"To do what wisdom, the love of
truth and honesty must bid him."
谓之:"要做个有识之士，那就只能在真理与正直(的宗教信仰)之间做出让步" #
In other words,
to convert to Christianity.
换句话说:"你门德尔松愿意改宗基♥督♥教吗？"
But Mendelssohn replied,
然而门德尔松答曰:
"I declare myself a Jew,
I shall always be a Jew."
"吾生为犹太人，死亦犹太魂！"
The prophet of the Jewish
Enlightenment died in 1786.
门德尔松，这位犹太启蒙运动的先行者，卒于1786年
For Mendelssohn's children
and grandchildren,
对于他的子子孙孙们
things would be very different.
情况就大不相同了。
In 1789, revolution came to France
1789年，法国爆发革命
and, soon after, revolutionary
armies began marching through Europe
继而席卷整个欧洲
tearing down ghetto walls
革命者们高举"自♥由♥平等博爱"的旗帜
in the name of "liberte, egalite
and fraternite".
推倒了各地的隔都之墙
It was assumed that the Jews would
happily shrug off
想来(在这种氛围之下)犹太人必定会很乐意
their separate identity
籍此摆脱这一身与众不同的"犹籍"
in exchange for something
they'd never enjoyed before -
换取他们从未享受过的
equal citizenship.
平等公民权利
Some did, some didn't,
然而，只是部分犹太人这么做了...
but when the Emperor Napoleon
was finally defeated,
等到拿破仑下台
[配合画面 请wiki拿破仑与犹太人]
it was assumed, just as mistakenly,
所有人都认为，也是错误的认为:
that every Jew must have been
a dangerous Bonapartist.
每个犹太人都是危险的波拿巴主义者
So those new-won liberties
were constantly threatened,
所以这些新出现的"自♥由♥人"们，生活总是受到不断的威胁
pushed back, reversed.
被迫退回原来的生活状况 等于一夜回到解放前...
For Moses Mendelssohn's children,