海鷗喬納森

海鷗喬納森的傳奇——人類心靈史上最深邃的文字之一 海鷗喬納森認為生活的目的是尋找盡善盡美并使之實現。他盡量發揮自己的本性，竭力地突破自我的極限，要飛到任何想去的地方。最終，它超越了時空，不再有任何局限，終于達到了自由自在的境界。但他的使命并未就此完結，它最大的快樂是把這種真實的境界展現給其他的海鷗。

Chapter 1

It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples of a gentle sea.

早晨,初升的太陽照耀著恬靜的海面,蕩漾的微波閃著金光。

A mile from shore a fishing boat chummed the water and the word for Breakfast Flock flashed through the air, till a crowd of a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.

離岸一英里的海上,一只漁船隨波逐浪地前進,這是吃早飯的信號,近千只海鷗飛來,相互追逐著爭食吃。又一個忙碌的日子開始了。

But way off alone, out by himself beyond boat and shore, Jonathan Livingston Seagull was practicing. A hundred feet in the sky he lowered his webbed feet, lifted his beak, and strained to old a painful hard twisting curve through his wings. The curve meant that he would fly slowly, and now he slowed until the wind was a whisper in his face, until the ocean stood still beneath him. He narrowed his eyes in fierce concentration, held his breath, forced one... single... more... inch... of... curve... Then his featliers ruffled, he stalled and fell.

但在遠離漁船和海岸的地方,海鷗喬納森?利文斯頓獨自在練習飛行。在百英尺的上空,他伸下兩只帶蹼的腳,仰起嘴,使勁兒彎著翅膀。翅膀一彎,就可以放慢速度。而現在,他越飛越慢了,慢得幾乎聽不到耳邊的風聲,慢得連腳下的大海也仿佛靜止不動了。他瞇起眼睛,集中精力,屏住呼吸,使勁兒想再……彎…… 那么一英寸……然后,他渾身的羽毛直堅,失去平衡,摔了下來。

Seagulls, as you know, never falter, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.

要知道,海鷗飛行時決不搖晃,決不失去平衡。在空中失去平衡,對海鷗來說是丟臉的事,是極不光彩的事。

But Jonathan Livingston Seagull, unashamed, stretching his wings again in that trembling hard curve - slowing, slowing, and stalling once more - was no ordinary bird.

但是喬納森并不覺得丟臉,他再一次展開雙翅,依舊顫抖著使勁彎曲——一點、一點地放慢速度,又一次失去平衡一一他不是只平凡的鳥。

Most gulls don’t bother to learn more than the simplest facts of flight - how to get from shore to food and back again. For most gulls, it is not flying that matters, but eating. For this gull, though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else. Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

大多數海鷗只求學會最簡單的飛行本領一一如何從岸上飛出去覓食,再飛回來。對他們來說,重要的不是飛行,而是覓食。但對這只海鷗來說,重要的不是吃而是飛。喬納森喜愛飛行勝于一切。

This kind of thinking, he found, is not the way to make one’s self popular with other birds. Even his parents were dismayed as Jonathan spent whole days alone, making hundreds of low-level glides, experimenting.

他發現,像他這樣的想法,在同類中是吃不開的。他那么整天獨自練習,成百次地作低飛滑翔,連他的雙親都替他擔心呢。

He didn’t know why, for instance, but when he flew at altitudes less than half his wingspan above the water, he could stay in the air longer, with less effort. His glides ended not with the usual feet-down splash into the sea, but with a long flat wake as he touched the surface with his feet tightly streamlined against his body. When he began sliding in to feet-up landings on the beach, then pacing the length of his slide in the sand, his parents were very much dismayed indeed.

他自己也不知道是什么原故,只要他保持離水面不到半翅的高度作低空飛行,他就能在空中停留較久,費勁較小。他滑翔下來并不像一般鳥兒那樣伸下雙足濺落海中，而是蜷起雙足緊貼著身體掠過海面,在水面留下長長一道波紋。他蜷起雙足在沙灘上滑翔著陸,然后步測著沙灘上滑翔的距離,他的父母見了,著實為他擔憂。

“Why, Jon, why?” his mother asked. “Why is it so hard to be like the rest of the flock, Jon? Why can’t you leave low flying to the pelicans, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!”

"怎么啦,喬?怎么啦?"他媽媽問。"難道學其他海鷗的樣兒這么難,喬?低飛是鵜鶘和信天翁的事,你學這干什么?你干嗎不吃點兒?孩子,你都瘦得皮包骨頭了!"

“I don’t mind being bone and feathers mom. I just want to know what I can do in the air and what I can’t, that’s all. I just want to know.”

"我倒不在乎瘦得皮包骨頭,媽媽。我只是想知道我在空中能夠做什么,不能夠做什么。"

“See here Jonathan “ said his father not unkindly. “Winter isn’t far away. Boats will be few and the surface fish will be swimming deep. If you must study, then study food, and how to get it. This flying business is all very well, but you can’t eat a glide, you know. Don’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat.”

"你瞧,喬納森,"他父親溫和地說,"冬天快到了,船只就要少了,海面上的魚也要鉆到海底去了。你要是一定要學習，那就學學怎么覓食吧。飛行當然好，可你總不能拿滑翔當飯吃啊。別忘了，你飛行的目的就是為了吃?！?/p>

Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching and fighting with the flock around the piers and fishing boats, diving on scraps of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work.

喬納森順從地點點頭。以后幾天，他試著學其他海鷗的樣兒;他作了認真的嘗試，與鷗群一道圍繞著碼頭和漁船嘎嘎叫著爭食吃，扎到海里搶點兒面包片和爛魚。但這樣做他受不了。

It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately dropping a hard-won anchovy to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!

“這樣太沒意思了，”他心里想，一邊故意把好不容易弄到的一條鯉魚丟給一只追逐他的饑餓的老海鷗?！拔铱梢园阉羞@些時間都用來學飛行。要學的東西太多啦!”

It wasn’t long before Jonathan Gull was off by himself again, far out at sea, hungry, happy, learning.

不久，喬納森又獨自一個出去了。他飛到海上遠處，餓著肚子學習，很是快樂。

The subject was speed, and in a week’s practice he learned more about speed than the fastest gull alive.

課目是速度。經過一周的練習，他學到的有關速度的知識，超過了任何一只活著的飛得最快的海鷗。

From a thousand feet, flapping his wings as hard as he could, he pushed over into a blazing steep dive toward the waves, and learned why seagulls don’t make blazing steep power-dives. In just six seconds he was moving seventy miles per hour, the speed at which one’s wing goes unstable on the upstroke.

從一千英尺高空，他使勁地拍著翅膀，朝著海浪垂直疾降，于是他懂得了海鷗不作垂直疾降的道理。在六秒鐘內，他以每小時七十英里的速度運動。在這樣的速度下，翅膀向上一舉，就會失去平衡。