海鸥乔纳森

海鸥乔纳森的传奇——人类心灵史上最深邃的文字之一 海鸥乔纳森认为生活的目的是寻找尽善尽美并使之实现。他尽量发挥自己的本性，竭力地突破自我的极限，要飞到任何想去的地方。最终，它超越了时空，不再有任何局限，终于达到了自由自在的境界。但他的使命并未就此完结，它最大的快乐是把这种真实的境界展现给其他的海鸥。

Chapter 1

It was morning, and the new sun sparkled gold across the ripples¹ of a gentle sea.

早晨,初升的太阳照耀着恬静的海面,荡漾的微波闪着金光。

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 dodge⁴ and fight for bits of food. It was another busy day beginning.

离岸一英里的海上,一只渔船随波逐浪地前进,这是吃早饭的信号,近千只海鸥飞来,相互追逐着争食吃。又一个忙碌的日子开始了。

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 beak⁵, 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 ruffled⁶, he stalled and fell.

但在远离渔船和海岸的地方,海鸥乔纳森•利文斯顿独自在练习飞行。在百英尺的上空,他伸下两只带蹼的脚,仰起嘴,使劲儿弯着翅膀。翅膀一弯,就可以放慢速度。而现在,他越飞越慢了,慢得几乎听不到耳边的风声,慢得连脚下的大海也仿佛静止不动了。他眯起眼睛,集中精力,屏住呼吸,使劲儿想再……弯…… 那么一英寸……然后,他浑身的羽毛直坚,失去平衡,摔了下来。

Seagulls, as you know, never falter⁷, never stall. To stall in the air is for them disgrace and it is dishonor.

要知道,海鸥飞行时决不摇晃,决不失去平衡。在空中失去平衡,对海鸥来说是丢脸的事,是极不光彩的事。

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

但是乔纳森并不觉得丢脸,他再一次展开双翅,依旧颤抖着使劲弯曲——一点、一点地放慢速度,又一次失去平衡一一他不是只平凡的鸟。

Most gulls³ 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 gull², though, it was not eating that mattered, but flight. More than anything else. Jonathan Livingston Seagull loved to fly.

大多数海鸥只求学会最简单的飞行本领一一如何从岸上飞出去觅食,再飞回来。对他们来说,重要的不是飞行,而是觅食。但对这只海鸥来说,重要的不是吃而是飞。乔纳森喜爱飞行胜于一切。

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 glides⁹, experimenting.

他发现,像他这样的想法,在同类中是吃不开的。他那么整天独自练习,成百次地作低飞滑翔,连他的双亲都替他担心呢。

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,只要他保持离水面不到半翅的高度作低空飞行,他就能在空中停留较久,费劲较小。他滑翔下来并不像一般鸟儿那样伸下双足溅落海中，而是蜷起双足紧贴着身体掠过海面,在水面留下长长一道波纹。他蜷起双足在沙滩上滑翔着陆,然后步测着沙滩上滑翔的距离,他的父母见了,着实为他担忧。

“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 pelicans¹⁰, the albatross? Why don’t you eat? Son, you’re bone and feathers!”

"怎么啦,乔?怎么啦?"他妈妈问。"难道学其他海鸥的样儿这么难,乔?低飞是鹈鹕和信天翁的事,你学这干什么?你干吗不吃点儿?孩子,你都瘦得皮包骨头了!"

“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头,妈妈。我只是想知道我在空中能够做什么,不能够做什么。"

“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 glide⁸, you know. Don’t you forget that the reason you fly is to eat.”

"你瞧,乔纳森,"他父亲温和地说,"冬天快到了,船只就要少了,海面上的鱼也要钻到海底去了。你要是一定要学习，那就学学怎么觅食吧。飞行当然好，可你总不能拿滑翔当饭吃啊。别忘了，你飞行的目的就是为了吃。”

Jonathan nodded obediently. For the next few days he tried to behave like the other gulls; he really tried, screeching¹¹ and fighting with the flock around the piers¹² and fishing boats, diving on scraps¹³ of fish and bread. But he couldn’t make it work.

乔纳森顺从地点点头。以后几天，他试着学其他海鸥的样儿;他作了认真的尝试，与鸥群一道围绕着码头和渔船嘎嘎叫着争食吃，扎到海里抢点儿面包片和烂鱼。但这样做他受不了。

It’s all so pointless, he thought, deliberately¹⁴ dropping a hard-won anchovy¹⁵ to a hungry old gull chasing him. I could be spending all this time learning to fly. There’s so much to learn!

“这样太没意思了，”他心里想，一边故意把好不容易弄到的一条鲤鱼丢给一只追逐他的饥饿的老海鸥。“我可以把所有这些时间都用来学飞行。要学的东西太多啦!”

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

不久，乔纳森又独自一个出去了。他飞到海上远处，饿着肚子学习，很是快乐。

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

课目是速度。经过一周的练习，他学到的有关速度的知识，超过了任何一只活着的飞得最快的海鸥。

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 unstable¹⁶ on the upstroke.

从一千英尺高空，他使劲地拍着翅膀，朝着海浪垂直疾降，于是他懂得了海鸥不作垂直疾降的道理。在六秒钟内，他以每小时七十英里的速度运动。在这样的速度下，翅膀向上一举，就会失去平衡。