試譯：〈原子時代的生活〉【On Living in an Atomic Age－C.S. Lewis】 淺白

〈原子時代的生活〉－C‧S‧路易斯　　（中文節譯：淺白）

在某程度上，我們對原子彈這回事總是思慮太過。「要如何活在一個原子彈的時代？」我很想回答說：「為甚麼要這樣問？就像你若是生在十六世紀時代，不是也得活過那年年肆虐倫敦的瘟疫嗎？又或是生在維京時代，不是也得面對那些來自斯堪地那維亞半島的海盜的搶掠，以及在夜裏隨時被人割喉的危險嗎？而事實上，你如今早已是生活在癌症的時代、梅毒的時代、癱瘓的時代、空襲的時代、鐵路意外的時代，和車禍的時代了。」
 
換句話說，不要從一開始就將情況誇大成史無前例似的樣子。親愛的先生或女士，請相信我：我們，和所有我們愛的人，也早在原子彈發明之前就已被宣判死刑了——而且有相當大部分的我們將會以不太愉快的方式死去。
 
這是要說的第一點。而我們目前首先要做的，是先冷靜下來。假若我們都注定是要被原子彈毀滅的，那麼當它來臨時，請讓它發現我們都在做着理性的和合乎人性的事：祈禱、工作、教書、閱讀、聽音樂、給孩子洗澡、打網球、又或是邊和朋友聊天邊玩著啤酒飛鏢——而不是像一群被嚇破膽的綿羊般縮在一起，腦裏除了原子彈外就甚麼也想不到。它或者可以摧毀我們的身軀（事實上一丁點兒就夠了），但是沒必要也讓它主宰我們的心靈。

8/4/2020

原文：
On Living in an Atomic Age by C.S. Lewis
 
In one way we think a great deal too much of the atomic bomb. "How are we to live in an atomic age?" I am tempted to reply: "Why, as you would have lived in the sixteenth century when the plague visited London almost every year, or as you would have lived in a Viking age when raiders from Scandinavia might land and cut your throat any night; or indeed, as you are already living in an age of cancer, an age of syphilis, an age of paralysis, an age of air raids, an age of railway accidents, an age of motor accidents."
 
In other words, do not let us begin by exaggerating the novelty of our situation. Believe me, dear sir or madam, you and all whom you love were already sentenced to death before the atomic bomb was invented: and quite a high percentage of us were going to die in unpleasant ways.
 
This is the first point to be made: and the first action to be taken is to pull ourselves together. If we are all going to be destroyed by an atomic bomb, let that bomb when it comes find us doing sensible and human things – praying, working, teaching, reading, listening to music, bathing the children, playing tennis, chatting to our friends over a pint and a game of darts – not huddled together like frightened sheep and thinking about bombs. They may break our bodies (a microbe can do that) but they need not dominate our mind.

1948

Full article: (http://www.andybannister.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/cslewis-living-in-an-atomic-age.pdf)