He Zi 于 1999/12/01 17:57:14 发表在 汉英
THE ANCIENT COFFER OF NURI BEY
Nuri Bey was a reflective and respected Albanian, who had married a wife much younger than himself.
One evening when he had returned home earlier than usual, a faithful servant came to him and said:
'Your wife, our mistress, is acting suspiciously.
'She is in her apartments with a huge chest, large enough to hold a man, which belonged to your grandmother.
'It should contain only a few ancient embroideries.
'I believe that there may now be much more in it.
'She will not let me, your oldest retainer, to look inside.'
Nuri went to his wife's room, and found her sitting disconsolately beside the massive wooden box.
'Will you show me what is in the chest?' he asked.
'Because of the suspicion of a servant, or because you do not trust me?'
'Would it not be easier just to open it, without thinking about the undertones?' asked Nuri.
'I do not think it possible.'
'Is it locked?'
'Yes.'
'Where is the key?'
She held it up, 'Dismiss the servant and I will give it to you.'
The servant was dismissed. The woman handed over the key and herself withdrew, obviously troubled in mind.
Nuri Bey thought for a long time. Then he called four gardeners from his estate. Together they carried the chest by night unopened to a distant part of the grounds, and buried it.
The matter was never referred to again.
(Source: Tales of the Dervishes)
[ 回应主贴 ]
[ 返回论坛 ]
跟贴目录:
"How" :(
作者：:-) - 1999/12/01 18:05:18
***
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Too good to be true!
作者：Idealist - 1999/12/01 18:30:21
***
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Really?
作者：He Zi - 1999/12/03 03:15:49
***
Could be more idealistic :))
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Life is a mystery and has to handled delicately
作者：tian xin - 1999/12/02 00:22:58
***
This is one of those stories in which you are given the bare bones and you can watch your mind's need to flesh them out, deciding whether the husband is cruel or merciful, wise or foolish; or whether the wife is faithful or disloyal, handing the key to the life of her suspected lover or to the mystery of being. It is a situation where we need to have what Keats calls "negative capability"-capable of having uncertainties and doubts without irritably striving to have convictions about the unknowable. The power of a story can lie just as much in its lack of closure as it does in a moral or a hidden meaning.
On the other hand, the mind always tries to find an explanation for the unexplainable. And I shall share with you the one level of interpretation that my reflective mind conceives. I noticed first of all that Nuri Bey is a reflective man, thus is subject to the deceptions of the workings of the mind, the faithful servant is no more than the attendent thoughts of the suspicious mind. Of course once the mind is intrigued by its own preconceptions, it gets worked up. The fact that Nuri finds his wife sitting disconsolately beside the wooden chest may only be his seeing through the glass of his own darkened mind. However, the mind that started all the suspicion-as is embodied in the faithful servant-has to be dismissed before the key to the mystery can be handed over. Only then can the mind really look unobtructedly into its own natural state. After thinking for a long time, Nuri Bey decides not to open the wooden chest. This suggests that perhaps he sees the futility of attempting to fathom the unfathomable, the secret of life is not to be opened, but to be accepted and buried where it belongs-a distant part of the grounds. Thus by giving up, in this case, that part of the mind that doubts as symbolized in the suspicious servant, he gains the trust of the heart-his young wife, which leads to the regaining the real mind of intuition and faith. What is hiddened in the chest of mystery is buried as the past of the mind's conceptions, life is to go on with a new light dawned through such sacrifice.
This is however just an interpretation, far from THE interpretation. And I suspect it is not all that a faithful translation of the original. In translation, sometimes points that are vital to the key meaning of a story are lost, and the subtleties may not be fully conveyed. Because I have never read a different version of the story, I have no idea what has been lost or preserved or misrepresented in the process. That is a mystery, too.
Thanks for sharing this whodunit of the whodunits!
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Trust and Belief
作者：He Zi - 1999/12/03 02:51:45
***
Thank you very much Tian Xin! I just like your inspiring interpretation as always!
Shah actually said this was a 'tantalizing' story. I guess that's why it may not be easily forgotten. It leaves so many things for a reader to think about, yet one would feel he can never reach a satisfactory answer either to the question posed by the situation in the story or the one by the story itself. When I was posting that story, I didn't really have clear ideas on what messages the story was trying to convey. But your posting has helped make some vague ideas more clear.
Two things in the story that most attract my attentions are, when Nuri Bey said something to his wife that most people would say in the same situation, 'Would it not be easier just to open it, without thinking about the undertones?' she said it was just 'impossible'; and afterwards, he 'thought for a long time' before he made a decision what to do (What was really going on in this reflective person's mind? It's completely a blackbox for us readers!)
The first thing just reminded me of a very common phenomenon concerned of religious believes, that is, people always say 'why doesn't God just show me a sign and I will believe.' Isn't it a lot easier? But look at Nuri. If the chest had been opened, something thousands times more valuable than what he wanted to find out would have been lost. That's trust. Trust is not where proof is needed, the same with belief. But on the other hand, an interesting quotation from Qur'an, '"Why does God not speak or show us a sign?" The same question had been asked by men before them, ... But to those who are firm in their faith, we have shown Our signs already.' I guess a true believer is the one who doesn't ask why or how while a lot of other people do and who does while the others don't. But it's really difficult to stand firmly in that position. Nuri might have trusted his young wife for years, but once the suspicion arose, the trust of years could have seemed like a complete illusion due to lack of any concrete proof! Really, I'm more and more convinced that being able to believe-just like being able to love or trust-is truly a rare and invaluble talent. It doesn't matter so much whether the believed or trusted is worth that, as whether the believer is capable of believing. I remembered a film I had seen a few years ago, 'breaking the waves'. I couldn't help weeping over the death of the girl in the film, who was considered crazy and stupid by almost everybody around, and who, when asked what talent God had given her, answered that 'I can believe'.
Of Nuri's inner activity, your interpretation was really wonderful and convincing. I never thought of that myself. However, just like what you said, I also feel there are so many things that we don't know. For instance, on the moral level, how to understand the output of his mind 'blackbox'-to bury the chest? And what was really going on in his wife's mind all along? Maybe we will never know. It's just such a tantalizing story!
I'm glad you like it and thanks a lot for your sharing!
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
汉英请谅! The subject tonight is--
作者：tian xin - 1999/12/03 16:21:16
***
Faith and Love
What is faith? True faith is not something that can be imposed by others or by one's own will. Faith dawns spontaneously when the heart opens to the mystery of being, to the unbearable tenderness of life, when in the midst of mental agony, one cries out from the depth of the soul, "Who am I?" and when He Zi weeps over the fate of the "crazy and stupid" girl who "can believe".
And when one falls in love. One does not rationalize, one does not calculate, one does not follow the eyes or mind or ears, one does not care if the rest the world believes in such love, one just loves and loves to the extent of leaving security and reputation and all other attachments behind, to follow the beloved to the end of earth, to die like Romeo and Juliet to meet one's love.
Human love is a form of faith, it reflects to some degree divine love in its spontaniety, intensity and purifying effect. Love is grace from above, it is a rare blessing to be loved, and an even rarer blessing to be able to love. True faith is a form of sight not blindness. It is a child's natural faith in the elders that makes a childhood a garden of paradise; it is faith in the other that facilitates a free-and-take of love; it is faith in others that makes possible cooperative and social life; and it is faith in oneself that sustains the superstructure of one's character under all kinds of trying circumstances, and invites and fosters faith from others.
Faith in God (or the All-mighty or Truth or Happiness or Heaven or whatever you call it) does not mean to blindly follow a religion. Faith is a genuine, joyful appreciation of the boundless qualities of the enlightened being as the Buddha, and of the personification of love as Jesus. It is the seeing in those beings manifestation of the innermost unexpressed and hindered qualities in ourselves; it is the recognition of the difference between a fully awakened flawless selfless being and an ordinary troubled imperfect egocentric human, the difference between a mind free of illusion and an obscured mind of suffering. To have complete certainty in this difference, and to deeply yearn to acquire the Buddha's awareness wisdom and Jesus' selfless love, is what we call Faith.
Why do we need signs to believe? Asking for signs is a form of materialism, on a supernatural level, and those who ask for signs want only signs, not faith, nor love. Why do we need signs to believe? When we love, the divine presence is already there; when we respond to the beauty around, it is Beauty in our being that responds. Why do we need external convictions when we are already in possession of the key to mystery-love and faith?
However, to resist the temptation to ask his young wife for the key, Nuri needs unshakable faith in himself, which alone leads to implicit faith in the other. Implicit faith is grounded in the deeper experience of the spirit and unobstructed intuition. It is not the antithesis of critical reason, but the unfailing guide of critical reason. When rational intellect is implemented by a living faith based on pure intuition, its free working can break through many forms of naïve credulity, and gives one the self-confidence in one's own perception of what is right in the midst of external confusion and seeming injustice.
Have you read the Algonquin Cinderella (the title may not be accurate) in "World Tales"? It is a fine example of having inner faith and seeing the divine in the ordinary, therefore making the invisible come down in his full glory. Her faith is a direct perception not a construct. There is also a wonderful chapter on faith in the Discourses by Meher Baba called "Qualifications of the Aspirant" from which I drew my inspiration for this response.
Thanks for your response which confirms my faith:-)
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
一切都是神秘却又明白无误的
作者：He Zi - 1999/12/05 01:37:54
***
When I saw you had posted another response and started reading it, I almost wished it had been endless! I think I understand what you mean (maybe not ture :-) and can't agree more. But even though this might be true, still it's such a great enjoyment to read your beautifully written essay. My gratitude is boundless (borrowing your words)!
Thanks for recommending the readings. Meher Baba is still on his way coming-I'll see him on Monday, most probably. Will say hello for you :) The Algonquin Cinderella (this is exactly the name), not yet :(, but will by the time I fall asleep :)
You can't imagine how much I love what you said about love! Well, I don't mean to start another discussion which is not related to the topic of translation and make Hy00 mad at us. Just wanted to mention that I thought of Milan Kundra's 'Unbearable Lightness of Being' as I read your response and one of your previous postings. Although the novel is not a love story basically, I was deeply moved by the love between Thomas and Tracia (sorry if I didn't write the name correctly. I never read the English translation). Interestingly, Kundra sees love as poeticizing the beloved instead of idealizing him/her, and love meaning compassion (not sympathy) more than passion. Years after I first read the novel did I start to realize the beauty of his understanding of love.
So long. My best wishes! And my appreciation more than I can say
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
The simpleton, the lover, and the poet/Are of imagination all compact;-)
作者：tian xin - 1999/12/05 16:59:57
***
In faith we trust, be loving we must;
In compassion we speak, let's give Hy00 no break;-)
Thanks for the sharing, and the feeling is mutual (to quote a mutual friend:)
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
I trust you unconditionally! Never ask for the key:-)
作者：wind - 1999/12/02 03:18:14
***
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
That's really a talent :-)
作者：He Zi - 1999/12/03 02:58:52
***
I sincerely hope that you have found or will find the one who truly deserves such beautiful trust! Cheers!
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Woman faithful, man suspicious; man faithful, woman nowhere
作者：同病相怜 - 1999/12/02 22:05:32
***
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
Everywhere ;-)
作者：He Zi - 1999/12/03 03:11:14
***
[ 回应此贴 |
查看原贴 ]
[ 跟贴目录 ] [ 返回论坛 ]