Passion: 慕容理深のblog

Increscunt animi, virescit volnere virtus.
(The spirits increase, vigor grows through a wound.)

Aulus Gellius,
Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights), ca. 177

Die Musik spricht nicht bloß durch Töne, sie spricht auch nur Töne.
(The music speaks not only by means of sounds, it speaks nothing but sound.)

Eduard Hanslick,
Vom Musikalisch-Schönen, Leipzig, 1854.

Wie wenig gehört zum Glücke! Der Ton eines Dudelsacks. - Ohne Musik wäre das Leben ein Irrthum. Der Deutsche denkt sich selbst Gott liedersingend.
(How little is required for pleasure! The sound of a bagpipe. - Without music, life would be an error. The German imagines even God singing songs.)

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche,
Götzen-Dämmerung
(Twilight of the Idols), 1888

He who really uses his brain for thinking can only be possessed of one desire: to resolve his task. He cannot let external conditions exert influence upon the results of his thinking. Two times two is four - whether one likes it or not.
One thinks only for the sake of one's idea.

Arnold Schoenberg,
"New Music, Outmoded Music,
Style and Idea", 1946

半個多世紀前的現場錄音重錄成CD，而能讓全球樂迷奔相走告的音樂家並不多，佛特萬格勒是其中一位。是的，沒錯，就是Wilhelm Furtwängler (1886-1954)，許多古典音樂愛好者心目中的神。

Der sportliche ritterliche Kampf weckt beste menschliche Eigenschaften. Er trennt nicht, sondern eint die Gegner in gegenseitigem Verstehen und beiderseitiger Hochachtung. Auch hilft er mit, zwischen den Völkern Bande des Friedens zu knüpfen. Darum möge die Olympische Flamme nie verlöschen.
(The sportive, knightly battle awakens the best human characteristics. It doesn't separate, but unites the combatants in understanding and respect. It also helps to connect the peoples in the spirit of peace. That's why the Olympic Flame should never die.)
~Adolf Hitler
at the first Olympic torchlighting ceremony,
Berlin, 1936-08-01

I'm afraid the Nazis have succeeded with their propaganda. First, the Nazis have run the Games on a lavish scale never before experienced, and this has appealed to the athletes. Second, the Nazis have put up a very good front for the general visitors, especially the big businessmen.
 ~ William L. Shirer,
Berlin, 1936-08-16

不少口號標語離現實甚遠，甚至在其反面，或根本是用來欺矇世人的。北京奧運的「同一個世界，同一個夢想（One World, One Dream）」即是一例。

「輿地總圖」（《廣輿圖》，1579）

雞籠山在哪裡？

喔，我並非要去「雞籠山」遊玩；事實上，我就在那兒，在《明史》所謂的「雞籠山」。

「被虐者的解放，沈淪者的上升，自主獨立者的和平結合；
人類昔時希望之，現在希望之，將來亦會希望之。 」
~ 矢內原忠雄，《殖民及殖民政策》，1926

2008年7月11日，長毛象特展在台北揭幕，許世楷正式卸去駐日代表一職。巧合，但相關的兩件事。

阿根廷總統 Leopoldo F. Galtieri 於正式出兵福克蘭群島後發表公開演說。
1982年4月2日。
Photo: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 5 April 1982/Wikimedia Commons

To proportion the eagerness of contest to its importance seems too hard a task for human wisdom. The pride of wit has kept ages busy in the discussion of useless questions, and the pride of power has destroyed armies, to gain or to keep unprofitable possessions.
~ Samuel Johnson,
"Thoughts on the Late Transactions Respecting Falkland's Islands", 1771

上週六，也就是六月十四日，台北某些人因釣魚台問題而引發的「不惜一戰」情緒飆到新高點，連政府也急急召回了駐日代表。台日兩國既無正式邦交，連如此重大外交手段都祭出來了，剩下來的只有取消免簽證措施、經濟抵制、宣戰這幾招可用。由於當局者對日本向無好感，主戰派的聲音也就特別大聲。針對此事，已有許多值得一讀的評論與警語，不待我來續貂。我只想簡單就我粗淺所知，談談發生於1982年的英阿福克蘭戰爭（Falklands War/Guerra de las Malvinas）。當年，那場戰爭的爆發令我頗感訝異；戰爭爆發後不久，看到國際反應與英軍擺出的態勢，我開始認為開戰者真是莫名其妙。如今事隔四分之一個世紀，相信有不少人與我有相同的想法：那真是場愚蠢的戰爭。

Michelangelo, The Last Judgement,
Sistine Chapel, 1535-1541. (Detail)
Photo from Wikimedia Commons

Lacrimosa dies illa,
qua resurget ex favilla
judicandus homo reus.
(Tearful that day,
on which will rise from ashes
guilty man for judgement.)
~ Dies Irae

在莫札特的《安魂曲》中，這一段「Lacrimosa... 」悠然又幽然地緩緩帶入末日審判的序幕景象，悲壯的合唱宛如遠方滾滾海浪逐漸逼近，在觀海者心中掀起陣陣顫慄。只見此生種種的人必須身臨岸邊，面對生命的盡頭，才會思及那超越生與死的終極檢驗，那超越世榮辱臧匹的最後判決。

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times,
it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,
it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity,
it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness,
it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair,
we had everything before us, we had nothing before us,
we were all going direct to Heaven,
we were all going direct the other way
- in short, the period was so far like the present period,
that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received,
for good or for evil,
in the superlative degree of comparison only.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities

Political economy confuses on principle
two very different kinds of private property,
of which one rests on the producers' own labor,
the other on the employment of the labor of others.
It forgets that the latter
not only is the direct antithesis of the former,
but absolutely grows on its tomb only.
Karl Marx, Capital

維多利亞時代（Victorian era）一詞源自於英國維多利亞女王（Queen Victoria, 1819-1901）之名。她統治英國長達六十四年半之久（1837-1901），此時期大致與英國工業革命、大英帝國、以及歐洲三者的全盛時期相符。

最近看到黨國遺老遺少們竭力護衛那個據說是個「古蹟」上的「大中至正」四字，覺得實在有趣。

趣味之一來自手書那四個字的楊老先生的這段回憶：

專擅歐陽詢體及魏碑龍門二十品的楊家麟說，要寫「大中至正」四字，是由秦孝儀定下的，出處是王陽明的傳習錄，「粹然大中至正之歸矣。」

「當時好多書法家都要來寫，先宣布要寫歐陽體，就走了一批人，後來說不能署名，又走了一批人，最後說，配合八卦時辰，得當場就寫，只剩下三個人，就是我和故宮前副院長江兆申及書法家丁翼。」楊家麟回憶道。（《聯合報》，2007/12/04）

世上不只一人名喚林火旺，本文所指的是現任台大哲學系教授的那一位。至於「軼事」，乃其親自筆述所提及。既然是當事人自己將之形諸文字，已難以盡謂之「軼」。這是加上括號的原因之一。另項原因則是：此「事」讓我覺得難以置信。

Drancy internment camp (France)
created by the Vichy government
in 1941.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Those who cannot remember the past
are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

解嚴滿二十年前夕，有人說，與其講過去的事不如拼經濟，有人說，檢討過去沒出息。依照這些人的想法，歷史書、歷史課、歷史系就可以全廢掉了。