人活一辈子，睡觉差不多占了半辈子，睡觉对于人生的关系真是够密切的了。我们每一个人到世界上来，来了就睡，一连好几个月地睡下去；而离开世界的时候，也总是睡着去的。睡觉的舒服，安逸，永远占据着人们享乐的最高点。最值得称颂的是它不用金钱，也不讲势力，无论老幼贫富，贤愚智不肖，除掉世界上最可怜的失眠症患者之外，都能得到一个睡眠。在睡的世界里，一切都是平等的。在那里，富翁可以变成乞丐，乞丐也可以变成富翁；皇太子可以和平民女儿恋爱成功，穷光蛋也可以笑傲王侯……睡觉是一件大事，同吃饭一样重要，比结婚更为重要。

Life is inextricably tied up with sleep, and we sleep about half of our lives away. As soon as we are born into the world, we sleep and spend most of our first months unconscious. When we leave the world, it is also usually in our sleep. The comfort and relaxation that sleep affords us is the highest form of human enjoyment.

The best thing about sleep is that it is free, and you don’t have to be powerful to experience it. Sleep is available to everyone, regardless of age or wealth, one’s wisdom or ignorance. It is the property of all except those sorry souls who are afflicted with insomnia.

In sleep there is equality: the prosperous and mighty can be reduced to poverty; and beggars can become rich men. A prince may love and marry a commoner; while even a vagabond dares laugh at the nobles in his dreams. Sleep, along with eating, is one of man’s most vital activities. It is of even greater consequence than marriage.



睡觉根本是一种原始的享乐，所以并不十分需要现代化的装置，自然柔软的弹簧床是会使人适意，然而我们用最原始的自然环境也许可以给我们更多的乐趣，像史湘云醉眠芍药裀就是一个最俏皮而又富于诗意的睡觉；这样谁能说这碧绿如茵的草地不比弹簧褥子更温软？醉人的春风不比天鹅绒的被子更轻柔？更何况树枝上的小鸟唱着催眠曲，小河里淙淙的水声送来酒也似浓厚的睡意。

Sleep is a primal luxury, and as such it requires none of the trappings of modern life. Though naturally a bed with soft springs does make for increased comfort, the most primitive and unadorned surroundings can give whimsical joy to our somnolent indulgence. That is why the delightful story of Shi Xiangyun sleeping drunkenly on a mattress of peonies is so charming and evocative of a poetical atmosphere. How could the springs of any bed be more soft or inviting than a lush green lawn? Is not the caressing spring breeze more delicate than the finest down? Add to these are the lullabies of small birds sung from the trees and the babbling of the brook bringing intoxicating sleep.



有一次，我坐在一节三等火车里，开始着一个辽远的程途，天慢慢地黑下去，车里的灯光是惨绿的颜色，每一个旅客都觉得非常疲倦了。那时从深夜的人堆里，忽然传来一声冗长而沉重的呵欠，这一声呵欠影响了全车的旅客，不由得令人想起家中温软的床铺，立刻觉得眼皮发涩，头发重，心发沉。随后鼾声大起，纷纷睡去。张嘴者有之，歪头者有之，咬牙切齿者有之，口角垂涎者有之，光怪陆离，万象毕陈。总而言之，大家都睡着了，虽然车里空气坏，椅子硬，没有床铺。

I once went on a long train journey. My seat was in the third class carriage, and as night fell, the passengers were gradually overcome by drowsiness in the limpid and pale light of the dusk. A long and lazy yawn stretched the length of the carriage in the darkness, rippling through the rows of weary travelers. We were all thinking of home and bed, eyes stinging with sleep and our bodies weighted down heavily with the desire for repose. The sound of snoring was soon heard, and everyone began to drop off to sleep. It was not long before the carriage was filled with a gallery of humanity in all of its variety, sitting prone in the grip of sleep – people with their mouths gaping and their heads cocked to one side; others grinding their teeth or dribbling at the mouth. Despite the stuffy closeness of the carriage and the hard seats, everyone was sleeping contentedly.



人家说：“睡中别有天地，谓之睡乡。”睡乡就是梦境，梦是什么？现代的心理生理学家的解释，说是一种外界的刺激促成身心上的下意识的反应。这个我们且撇开不谈，我只觉得梦是超乎现实的另一个人生，像《仲夏夜之梦》所表现的那么美的大同世界；它比苍蝇的翅还要轻，比空气还要空灵，比月光还要美丽，忽明忽灭，不可捉摸。《金刚般若经》说：“一切有为法，如梦幻泡影，如露亦如电，应作如是观。”梦是一个虚无的幻想，一个迎着阳光五彩的水泡，一个阴阴的暗影，一颗侵晓花茎上晶莹的露珠，一道倏然一现随即瞥然而逝的电光。

“There is another world for the sleeper, it is called the Land of Dreams” or so the saying goes. But what are dreams, really? According to modern psychology, dreams are merely a subconscious response to certain external stimuli. All I can say about dreams for sure is that they open up to all of us a supramundane existence. It is a world not unlike that depicted in A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Dreams are lighter than the gossamer of a fly’s wings, more intangible than air. They are more lustrous than the moon, yet they may vanish in an instant, for they are fleeting and beyond our grasp. As the Diamond Sutra says, “One should view all of these things as dream-images, bubbles, for they are like the morning dew or lightning.” Dreams are illusory, like bubbles reflecting the spectrum of light in a sunbeam, a shadowy nothingness, a drop of dew glistening on the stem of a flower, or a flashing streak of lightning.