Walter Benjamin, the Beauty of Jewishness, and Ancient Chinese Sagehood/ 犹太之美与中国的圣贤

犹太民族有一种深邃而忧伤的美。它来自久远的东方。犹太的先知在沙漠仰望星空的时候获取了这份美丽，并世代传承了下去。犹太的精神与我们圣贤的教诲“为天地立心，为生民立命，为往圣继绝学，为万世开太平”相通。否则，数千年的离乱如何挺得住？喝牛乳的与食粟麦的同为“三才”之首，“虽与日月争光可也”。家园和邦国破碎了可以重建。凯撒、成吉思汗与帝国主义是过眼云烟。

本雅明（1892-1940）的文章里充满了这种美，深邃而忧伤。

Walter Benjamin, Illuminations (New York: Schocken Books, 1969).

"The Task of the Translator"

In the individual, unsupplemented languages, meaning is never found in relative independence, as in individual words or sentences; rather, it is in a constant state of flux—until it is able to emerge as pure language from the harmony of all the various modes of intention. Until then, it remains hidden in the languages. If, however, these languages continue to grow in this manner until the end of their time, it is translation which catches fire on the eternal life of the works and the perpetual renewal of language. Translation keeps putting the hallowed growth of languages to the test: How far removed is their hidden meaning from revelation, how close can it be brought by the knowledge of this remoteness? (74-75)

A real translation is transparent; it does not cover the original, does not block its light, but allows the pure language, as though reinforced by its own medium, to shine upon the original all the more fully. This may be achieved, above all, by a literal rendering of the syntax which proves words rather than sentences to be the primary element of the translator. For if the sentence is the wall before the language of the original, literalness is the arcade. (79)

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"

The concept of aura which was proposed above with reference to historical objects may usefully be illustrated with reference to the aura of natural ones. We define the aura of the latter as the unique phenomenon of a distance, however close it may be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you experience the aura of those mountains, of that branch. (223)

[按：这里关于 aura 的神思接近于陶渊明的“山气日夕佳，飞鸟相与还”。“真意”就在这里，然而“欲辩已忘言”。]

The cult of remembrance of loved ones, absent or dead, offers a last refuge for the cult value of the picture. For the last time the aura emanates from the early photographs in the fleeting expression of a human face. This is what constitutes their melancholy, incomparable beauty. (226)

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