The Birth of Tragedy
《悲剧的诞生》
Preface to Richard Wagner(1871)

献给理查．瓦格纳
To keep at a distance all the possible scruples, excitements, and misunderstandings that the thoughts united in this essay will occasion, in view of the peculiar character of our aesthetic public, and to be able to write these introductory remarks, too, with the same contemplative delight whose reflection--the distillation of good and elevating hours--is evident on every page, I picture the moment when you, my highly respected friend, will receive this essay.
为了，鉴于我们审美大众的特殊性质，我对集中在这篇论文里的思想会引起的种种可能的怀疑、兴奋和误解，要敬而远之；而且，为了我能够怀着同样静观的快感——这种快感像我兴高采烈的时光之化石似的在每一页上都留下标志——来写此文的前言；因此，我设想您，我最敬爱的朋友，接受这篇论文的那一刹间。
Perhaps after an evening walk in the winter snow, you will behold Prometheus unbound on the title page, read my name, and be convinced at once that, whatever this essay should contain, the author certainly has something serious and urgent to say; also that, as he hatched these ideas, he was communicating with you as if you were present, and hence could write down only what was in keeping with that presence.
您，也许是在冬雪的黄昏散步之后，在书名页上见到那被幽囚的普罗密修斯，读到我的名字，便立刻相信；无论此文的内容是甚么，作者总有一些重要而动人的话要说，况且他把他的一切感想对您诉说，好象是当面倾谈那样，他也只能写下适合于当面倾谈的话。
You will recall that it was during the same period when your splendid Festschrift on Beethoven came into being, amid the terrors and sublimities of the war that had just broken out, that I collected myself for these reflections.
于此，您将记得，当您酝酿您那篇辉煌的贝多芬纪念文时，也就是说，在战争爆发时的恐怖和激昂情绪中，我同时正专心致力这篇论文。
Yet anyone would be mistaken if he associated my reflections with the contrast between patriotic excitement and aesthetic enthusiasm, of courageous seriousness and a cheerful game: if he really read this essay, it would dawn on him, to his surprise, what a seriously German problem is faced here and placed right in the center of German hopes, as a vortex and turning point.
但是，如果有人以为我的专心是审美的陶醉而非爱国的热情，是怡情的游戏而非英勇的挚诚，那就错了；这种读者，在认真地读完这篇论文之后，将会愕然发现；我们要讨论的是多么重要的德国问题，我们把这问题恰好正确地放在德国的希望之中心地位。
But perhaps such readers will find it offensive that an aesthetic problem should be taken so seriously--assuming they are unable to consider art more than a pleasant sideline, a readily dispensable tinkling of bells that accompanies the "seriousness of life," just as if nobody knew what was involved in such a contrast with the "seriousness of life."
然而，或许这种读者见到一个审美问题被这样严肃地处理，毕竟会觉得欠妥，尤其是如果他们认为艺术不过是一种娱乐的闲事，不过是系在“生活的庄严”上可有可无的风铃；仿佛无人能体会到所谓“生活的庄严”之对立面有什么意义。
Let such "serious" readers learn something from the fact that I am convinced that art represents the highest task and the truly metaphysical activity of this life, in the sense of that man to whom, as my sublime predecessor on this path, I wish to dedicate this essay.
我应该告诉诚恳的读者，我相信艺术乃是人类所了解的人生底最高使命及其正确的超脱活动，现在我将这篇论文摘给他们——我在这条路上的崇高的战友们。
Basel, end of the year 1871.
一八七一年岁末．于巴塞尔。