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I hope to be at least a month with my friends, and to gain, in their healthful and affectionate company, peace, and balance, and a less troubled heart, and a sweeter mood[166a]. I have a strange longing for the great simple primeval things, such as the Sea, to me no less of a mother than the Earth. It seems to me that we all look at Nature too much, and live with her too little. I discern great sanity in the Greek attitude. They never chattered about sunsets, or discussed whether the shadows on the grass were really mauve or not. But they saw that the sea was for the swimmer, and the sand for the feet of the runner. They loved the trees for the shadow that they cast, and the forest for its silence at noon[166b]. The vineyard-dresser wreathed his hair with ivy that he might keep off the rays of the sun as he stooped over the young shoots[166c], and for the artist and the athlete, the two types that Greece gave us, they plaited into garlands the leaves of the bitter laurel[166.1] and of the wild parsley which else had been of no service to man.
我希望至少同朋友们呆上一个月，在他们有益于身心和充满关爱的陪伴下，重获安宁与平和，去掉一些烦恼，让心情变得更舒畅[166a]。我有一种奇怪的向往，要接近伟大的、单纯的、远古的东西，比如大海，跟大地一样，这些同是我的母亲。对自然，我觉得我们似乎都远观过甚，而与之相处又太少。 我从希腊人的态度中悟出了大智大慧。他们从来不为夕阳西下而喋喋不休，也不讨论草上的影子是否真是紫红色的。但他们看到了，大海是给人游泳的，沙地是给人奔跑的。他们喜欢树因为它撒下了绿荫，他们喜欢树林因为它午间的幽静[166b]。剪修葡萄园的人用长春藤编成发冠，好在他弓身照料幼苗时遮挡日晒[166c]，而艺术家和运动员，对这两类我们得之于希腊的人，他们献上用苦涩的桂叶和野欧芹编成的桂冠，要不这两样东西对人类就没别的用处了。
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