从莎士比亚到美丽英文！
---一段脍炙人口的独白
阿杰按：
《新概念四册》第五课Youth第一段末尾有这么一句话：“There is only one difference between an old man and a young one: the young man has a glorious future before him and the old one has a splendid future behind him: and maybe that is where the rub is.”
在这个地方，rub 是个生单词，一查The Oxford Pocket English Dictionary, 第二个定义为：impediment or difficulty. 后面的括号里面举了一个例子: there’s the rub.
如果不读英文原著，没有看过莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》 Hamlet（旧译《王子复仇记》）, 肯定就没法体会第五课这个地方写作的妙处和英语字典中的这个例子的！
下面我们来看看原文，尤其注意哪些标为蓝色的地方！如果朋友们觉得妙，我们把它选入半期的补充讲解资料，好好体会一下哈！
To be, or not to be- that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them. To die- to sleep-
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to. 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die- to sleep.
To sleep- perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub!
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life.
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
Th' oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office, and the spurns
That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death-
The undiscover'd country, from whose bourn
No traveller returns- puzzles the will,
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.
这是哈姆雷特王子发现母亲和叔叔勾搭成奸，害死了自己父亲后的一段独白！。此时的他痛苦、疑惑，对人生充满怀疑，很想一死了之， 可又对死亡充满恐惧，不知人死后会不会下地狱。所以在这段独白里，他非常犹豫，思考着是该“生存还是毁灭”（To be, or not to be），是应该“默然忍受命运暴虐的毒箭" ( suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune), 也就是活着，忍受生老病死和人世的不公；还是"挺身反抗人世无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们清扫" (to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them?），也就是自杀，一了百了？ 。。。。
下面是
生存还是毁灭？这是个问题。
究竟哪样更高贵，
去忍受那狂暴的命运无情的摧残,还是挺身去反抗那无边的烦恼，
把它扫一个干净。
去死，去睡就结束了，
如果睡眠能结束我们心灵的创伤和肉体所承受的千百种痛苦，
那真是生存求之不得的天大的好事。
去死，去睡，去睡，也许会做梦！
唉，这就麻烦了，
即使摆脱了这 尘世可在这死的睡眠里又会做些什么梦呢？
真得想一想，就这点顾虑使人受着终身的折磨,
谁甘心忍受那鞭打和嘲弄，
受人压迫，受尽侮蔑和轻视，
受那失恋的痛 苦，法庭的拖延，衙门的横征暴敛，
默默无闻的劳碌却只换来多少凌辱。但他自己只要用把尖刀就能解脱了。
谁也不甘心，呻吟、流汗拖着这残生，
可是对死后又感 觉到恐惧，
又从来没有任何人从死亡的国土里回来，因此动摇了
，宁愿忍受着目前的苦难而不愿投奔向另一种苦难。
顾虑就使我们都变成了懦夫，使得那果断的本色
蒙上了一层思虑的惨白的容颜，
本来可以做出伟大的事业，
由于思虑就化为乌有了，丧失了行动的能力。
