圣诞特辑 | 你相信圣诞老人的存在吗？· 严喆

为你读英语美文 · 第393期 圣诞特辑 |你相信圣诞老人的存在吗？ 主播：严喆 地点：德国 同行的朋友你好，我是严喆，好久不见，你们都还好吗？ 谢谢你一如既往收听本期的节目，为你读英语美文的圣诞特辑。像往年一样，我依然用声音和故事为你在这个寒冬送上一份和圣诞有关的温暖，无论你所处何方，愿我们都可以坦然面对生活，收获最平凡的感动。 马上2020年就将过去，回顾这一年，想必我们都感触良多，不妨停下我们一直匆忙的脚步，静下心想想那些容易被我们忽视的人和事。那些最最平凡的，才值得我们去记得，去感恩。这一年，谢谢有你我的陪伴。 本期节目背景是在小女孩写给报社编辑询问圣诞老人是否存在时编辑的回信，编辑用简约但唯美的语言向小读者解释到，不要怀疑圣诞老人是否真的存在，只要心中有爱和信仰，圣诞老人的温暖就一直都在。 A little over 120 years ago, in 1897 a young girl from the upper west side of Manhattan wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Sun, one of New York City’s newspapers at the time. She wrote: 120多年前，1897年，曼哈顿上西区的一个小女孩给当时纽约市报之一的《纽约太阳报》的编辑写了一封信。 她写道： Dear Editor— 亲爱的主编— I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus? 我8岁了。我的一些小朋友说没有圣诞老人。但我爸爸说，"如果《太阳报》说有的话，那就有。”请告诉我，真的有圣诞老人吗？ Virginia O’Hanlon 115, west ninety fifth street, New York 弗吉尼亚·奥汉隆 纽约市西九十五街115号 Now that letter wound up on the desk of a newspaper man named Frank Church. This is what he replied and printed in the paper that year: 现在，这封信躺在一为叫弗兰克·丘奇的报社编辑桌子上。以下是他的回复，刊在了当年的报纸上： Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except that which they see. They think nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge. 维吉尼亚，你的小朋友们都错了。他们正处在怀疑万物的年纪。除非亲眼所见，否则他们不会相信。他们认为没什么是他们的小脑袋理解不了的。所有的思想，弗吉尼亚，无论是大人还是孩子，都很小。在我们浩瀚的宇宙中，和无边无际的世界相比，用掌握宇宙真理的智慧来衡量的话，我们仅仅是一只昆虫，一只蚂蚁。 Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would the world be if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no child-like faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished. 是的，维吉尼亚，有圣诞老人。只要爱、慷慨和奉献存在，他就存在。你要知道爱，慷慨和奉献比比皆是，它们给你生活带来最动人的美丽和快乐。唉！如果没有圣诞老人， 世界会有多沉闷呀！就像如果没有弗吉尼亚，世界会多么沉闷一样。没有孩子般的信仰，没有诗歌，没有浪漫，也就没有圣诞老人存在的空间了。除了意义和目之所及，我们连快乐都没有了。童年让这个世界充满的永恒之光，也将熄灭。 Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see him coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world. 若不相信圣诞老人，那你还不如也不相信精灵。你可能会让你爸爸在圣诞节前夕雇人到所有的烟囱里去抓圣诞老人，但即使你没有看到他下来，那又证明了什么呢？没有人见过圣诞老人，但这不代表他不存在啊！世界上最真实的东西往往是那些孩子和大人们都看不见的东西。你见过精灵在草坪上跳舞吗？当然没有， 但这不能证明他们不存在。没有人能看到或想象世上所有看不见的奇迹。 You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding. 你撕开宝宝的咯咯声，看看是什么让里面发出声音，但有一个面纱覆盖着看不见的世界，这个世界连最强壮的人，甚至连所有曾经活着的最强壮的人的力量都无法撕裂。只有信仰、诗歌、爱情、浪漫，才能掀开这道帘布，欣赏和想象到至美和无上的荣光。这些都是真的吗？啊，维吉尼亚，在这个世界里，没有什么比这些更真实和持久。 No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood. 没有圣诞老人！谢天谢地！他永远存在。一千年后，弗吉尼亚，不，10倍，一万年后，他仍将使我们童心荡漾。 翻译：永清，严喆 ▎主播介绍 严喆：现居德国进修博士学位 后期，编辑：永清