A young man sees a sunset and, unable to understand or to express the emotion that it rouses in him, concludes that it must be the gateway to world that lies beyond. It is difficult for any of us in moments of intense aesthetic experience to resist the suggestion that we are catching a glimpse of a light that shines down to us from a different realm of existence, different and, because the experience is intensely moving, in some way higher. And, though the gleams blind and dazzle, yet do they convey a hint of beauty and serenity greater than we have known or imagined. Greater too than we can describe; for language, which was invented to convey the meanings of this world, cannot readily be fitted to the uses of another.
That all great has this power of suggesting a world beyond is undeniable. In some moods, Nature shares it. There is no sky in June so blue that it does not point forward to a bluer, no sunset so beautiful that it does not waken the vision of a greater beauty, a vision which passes before it is fully glimpsed, and in passing leaves and indefinable longing and regret. But, if this world is not merely a bad joke, life a vulgar flare amid the cool radiance of the stars, and existence an empty laugh braying across the mysteries; if these intimations of a something behind and beyond are not evil humour born of indigestion, or whimsies sent by the devil to mock and madden us. if, in a word, beauty means something, yet we must not seek to interpret the meaning. If we glimpse the unutterable, it is unwise to try to utter it, nor should we seek to invest with significance that which we cannot grasp. Beauty in terms of our human meanings is meaningless.
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參考譯文
一個年輕人看到日落，由于無法理解和表達日落在他心中喚起的激情，便得出結論：日落處想必是通往遙遠世界的大門。無論是誰，在強烈感受到美的時刻，心中都不禁油生一種遐想：我們似乎瞥見從另一個世界射向我們的一線光芒，那個世界不僅不同于我們這個世界，而且由于美感的強烈感染，在某些方面比我們這個世界更美好。雖然這光芒令人眼花繚亂，但它確實給予我們一種不曾經歷和無法想象的美感和靜謐的啟示。這種美感和靜謐是我們無法描述的，因為我們發明的語言是用來描述這個世界的含義，不能隨便拿來去描述另一個世界。
不可否認，一切偉大的藝術都具有使人遐想到進入天外世界的
魅力。在某種狀態下，大自然也有這種魅力。六月蔚藍的天空總使人遙想一個更加蔚藍的蒼穹；美麗的落日總會引起一個更加絢麗的景象未及飽覽便一閃即逝，并在消逝中給人留下不可名狀的渴望和惆悵。如果這個世界不只是一個拙劣的惡作劇，如果人生不只是群星寒光中平凡的一閃，如果存在不只是對神秘事物的一種空虛的笑聲，如果某種玄妙事物的暗示不是消化不良引起的邪惡情緒，也不是魔鬼為了捉弄我們，使我們發狂而送給我們的邪念，一句話，如果美有某種意義的話，我閃千萬不要去闡明它的意義。如果我瞥見了只可意會不可言傳的事物，企圖把它說出來，那上不明智的；對于我們不理解的事物，我們也不應該去賦予它某種意義。用對我們人類有意義的詞解釋美是沒有意義的。
