THIS EARTH THE ONLY HEAVEN----尘世是惟一的天堂

                                      THIS EARTH THE ONLY HEAVEN--尘世是惟一的天堂 
                                      《The Importance of Living》--《生活的艺术》 
                                                                      By Lin Yutang （Selections from Lin Yutang's English works）
A sad, poetic touch is added to this intense love of life by the realization that this life we have is essentially mortal.
我们的生命总有一日会灭绝的，这种省悟，使那些深爱人生的人，在感觉上增添了悲哀的诗意情调。
Strange to say, this sad awareness of our mortality makes the Chinese scholar's enjoyment of life all the more keen and intense.
然而这种悲感却反使中国的学者更热切深刻地要去领略人生的乐趣。这看来是很奇怪的。
For if this earthly existence is all we have, we must try the harder to enjoy it while it lasts. A vague hope of immortality detracts from our wholehearted enjoyment of this earthly existence.
我们的尘世人生因为只有一个，所以我们必须趁人生还未消逝的时候，尽情地把它享受。如果我们有了一种永生的渺茫希望，那么我们对于这尘世生活的乐趣便不能尽情地领略了。
As Sir Arthur Keith puts it with a typically Chinese feeling, "For if men believe, as I do, that this present earth is the only heaven, they will strive all the more to make heaven of it."
基士爵士（Sir Arthur Keith）曾说过一句和中国人的感想不谋而合的话：“如果人们的信念跟我的一样，认尘世是惟一的天堂，那么他们必将更竭尽全力把这个世界造成天堂。”
Su Tungp'o says, "Life passes like a spring dream without a trace," and that is why he clung to it so fondly and tenaciously.
苏东坡的诗中有“事如春梦了无痕”之句，因为如此，所以他那么深刻坚决地爱好人生。
It is this sentiment of our mortal existence that we run across again and again in Chinese literature. It is this feeling of the imper-manence of existence and the evanescence of life, this touch of sadness, which overtakes the Chinese poet and scholar always at the moment of his greatest feasting and merrymaking, a sadness that is expressed in the regret that "the moon cannot always be so round and the flowers cannot forever look so fair" when we are watching the full moon in the company of beautiful flowers.
在中国的文学作品中，常常可以看到这种“人生不再”的感觉。中国的诗人和学者在欢娱宴乐的时候，常被这种“人生不再” “生命易逝”的悲哀感觉所烦扰，在花前月下，常有“花不常好，月不常圆”的伤悼。
It was in that poem commemorating a gorgeous feast on "A Spring Night amidst Peach Blossoms" that Li Po penned the favorite line: "
Our floating life is like a dream; how many times can one enjoy one's self?"
李白在《春夜宴桃李园序》一篇赋里，有着两句名言：“浮生若梦，为欢几何？”
And it was in the midst of a gay reunion of his happy and illustrious friends that Wang Hsichih wrote that immortal little essay, "The Orchid Pavilion", which gives, better than anything else, this typical feeling about the evanescence of life:
王羲之在和他的一些朋友欢宴的时候，曾写下《兰亭集序》这篇不朽的文章，它把“人生不再”的感觉表现得最为亲切：
In the ninth year of the reign Yungho in the beginning of late spring we met at the Orchid Pavilion in Shanyin of Kweich'i for the Water Festival, to wash away the evil spirits. Here are gathered all the illustrious persons and assembled both the old and the young.
永和九年，岁在癸丑，暮春之初，会于会稽山阴之兰亭，修禊事也。群贤毕至，少长咸集。
Here are tall mountains and majestic peaks, trees with thick foliage and tall bamboos. Here are also clear streams and gurgling rapids, catching one's eye from the right and left. We group ourselves in order, sitting by the waterside, and drink in succession from a cup floating down the curving stream; and although there is no music from string and wood-wind instruments, yet with alternate singing and drinking, we are well disposed to thoroughly enjoy a quiet intimate conversation.
此地有崇山峻岭，茂林修竹，又有清流激湍，映带左右，引以为流觞曲水，列坐其次，虽无丝竹管弦之盛，一觞一咏，亦足以畅叙幽情。
Today the sky is clear, the air is fresh and the kind breeze is mild. Truly enjoyable it is to watch the immense universe above and the myriad things below, traveling over the entire landscape with our eyes and allowing our sentiments to roam about at will, thus exhausting the pleasures of the eye and the ear.
是日也，天朗气清，惠风和畅，仰观宇宙之大，俯察品类之盛，所以游目骋怀，足以极视听之娱，信可乐也。
Now when people gather together to surmise life itself, some sit and talk and unburden their thoughts in the intimacy of a room, and some, overcome by a sentiment, soar forth into a world beyond bodily realities.
夫人之相与，俯仰一世，或取诸怀抱，晤言一室之内；或因寄所托，放浪形骸之外；
Although we select our pleasures according to our inclinations some noisy and rowdy, and others quiet and sedate yet when we have found that which pleases us, we are all happy and contented, to the extent of forgetting that we are growing old.
虽取舍万殊，静躁不同，当其欣于所遇，暂得于已，快然自足，不知老之将至；
And then, when satiety follows satisfaction, and with the change of circumstances, change also our whims and desires, there then arises a feeling of poignant regret. In the twinkling of an eye, the objects of our former pleasures have become things of the past, still compelling in us moods of regretful memory.
及其所之既倦，情随事迁，感慨系之矣！向之所欣，俯仰之间，已为陈迹，犹不能不以之兴怀；
Furthermore, although our lives may be long or short, eventually we all end in nothingness. " Great indeed are life and death" said the ancients. Ah ! what sadness!
况修短随化，终期于尽。古人云：“死生亦大矣”，岂不痛哉！
I often study the joys and regrets of the ancient people, and as I lean over their writings and see that they were moved exactly as ourselves, I am often overcome by a feeling of sadness and compassion, and would like to make those things clear to myself.
每览昔人兴感之由，若合一契，未尝不临文嗟悼，不能喻之于怀。
Well I know it is a lie to say that life and death are the same thing, and that longevity and early death make no difference! Alas! as we of the present look upon those of the past, so will posterity look upon our present selves.
固知一死生为虚诞，齐彭殇为妄作，后之视今，亦犹今之视昔，悲夫！
Therefore, have I put down a sketch of these contemporaries and their sayings at this feast, and although time and circumstances may change, the way they will evoke our moods of happiness and regret will remain the same. What will future readers feel when they cast their eyes upon this writing!
故列叙时人，录其所述，虽世殊事异，所以兴怀，其致一也。后之览者，亦将有感于斯文。