Let Beauty awake ( Robert Louis Stevenson ) (1850-1894))
Let Beauty awake
讓美甦醒
Let Beauty awake in the morn from beautiful dreams,
讓美甦醒，於清晨美麗的夢境，
Beauty awake from rest!
美，甦醒於安歇！
Let Beauty awake
讓美甦醒，
For Beauty's sake
以美之名，
In the hour when the birds awake in the brake
當群鳥甦醒於枝椏間，
And the stars are bright in the west!
當群星閃耀於西天！
Let Beauty awake in the eve from the slumber of day,
讓美甦醒，於傍晚白日的昏沉，
Awake in the crimson eve!
甦醒，於酒紅的黃昏！
In the day's dusk end
於將盡的暮色，
When the shades ascend,
當夜影攀昇，
Let her wake to the kiss of a tender friend
讓美甦醒，於溫柔友人之吻，
To render again and receive!
遂得以回報，於那美的收成！
推薦原因
這首是由Robert Louis Stevenson所做。同時「金銀島」亦是其作品之一。透過筆者對美的闡述，在晨曦、在群星閃耀、在暮色暗沉之際，其實就在述說美是無所不在！只要停下腳步仔細感受美為你停留的時刻，都是讓人心靈飽滿如穗的。
作者介紹
羅伯特·路易斯·史蒂文森（1850年11月13日－1894年12月3日）於愛丁堡出生，蘇格蘭小說家、詩人與旅遊作家，也是英國文學新浪漫主義的代表之一。史蒂文森受到了許多作家的讚美，其中包括歐內斯特·海明威、約瑟夫·魯德亞德·吉卜林、豪爾赫·路易斯·博爾赫斯與弗拉基米爾·納博可夫等知名作家。然而許多現代主義的作家並不認同他，因為史蒂文森是大眾化的，而且他的作品並不符合他們所定義的文學。直到最近，評論家開始審視史蒂文森而且將他的作品放入西方經典中。史蒂文森常常到處旅行，部分原因是尋找適合他治療結核病的氣候。
史蒂文森的父親是湯瑪斯·史蒂文森（Thomas Stevenson），祖父則為羅伯特·史蒂文森（Robert Stevenson），就像史蒂文森的曾祖父一樣，都是著名的燈塔設計師與工程師。所以他從他們那裡遺傳到了熱愛冒險、喜愛海洋的性格。因為母親的緣故，所以史蒂文森也是吉爾伯特·艾略特-默里-基寧蒙德，第一代明托伯爵的後裔，並且與美國獨立戰爭時期的將領阿瑟·聖克萊爾（Arthur St. Clair）有血緣關係。史蒂文森的外祖父路易斯·巴爾福（Lewis Balfour）則是一個道德學的教授與牧師，所以史蒂文森在少年時期經常在家中度過假日時光。史蒂文森曾經說過「現在我還經常會感到納悶，我從外祖父那裡遺傳到了什麼？我必須假設，事實上他喜歡講道，而我也是。雖然我不曾聽過它被保存下來，而且我們也不想要去聽到它。」史蒂文森則從母親瑪格麗特·巴爾福（Margaret Balfour）遺傳到了虛弱的肺部（也許是肺結核），所以史蒂文森在冬天時經常待在床上，而他的護士則花很長的時間在床邊閱讀聖經與古老基督教誓約派的一生給年幼的史蒂文森聽。而在夏天，史蒂文森則被鼓勵到戶外遊戲，在這時候他又變成了好動而無憂無慮的孩子。在11歲的時候，史蒂文森的身體已經好轉了，所以父母送他到愛丁堡學校就讀，準備將來進入愛丁堡大學，他們計畫讓史蒂文森成為燈塔工程師。在這段時期，史蒂文森廣泛的閱讀文學書籍，他特別喜歡莎士比亞、沃爾特·司各特、約翰·本仁與《一千零一夜》。
史蒂文森在17歲時進入愛丁堡大學就讀，但是史蒂文森很快的就發現他對於科學或物理並沒有天份，無法成為工程師。而在他與父親經歷一次旅行之後，史蒂文森發現比起建造燈塔，他對這些關於他們所遊歷的島嶼及海岸的奇妙傳奇故事更為著迷。雖然史蒂文森的父親湯瑪斯是嚴厲的，不過最後他還是史蒂文森繼續文學生涯，雖然一開始湯瑪斯認為史蒂文森最好先完成法律學位，為了以後可以去依靠它來生活。史蒂文森遵循著成為律師的步驟，於25歲時通過進入律師界的考試，雖然史蒂文森並直到他的身體狀況因為工作與憂慮而衰弱為止都沒有開業。
Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. Stevenson was greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins"
Stevenson was born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson at 8 Howard Place, Edinburgh, Scotland, on 13 November 1850, to Thomas Stevenson (1818–1887), a leading lighthouse engineer, and his wife Margaret, born Margaret Isabella Balfour (1829–1897).
Lighthouse design was the family profession: Thomas's own father was the famous Robert Stevenson, and his maternal grandfather, Thomas Smith, and brothers Alan and David were also among those in the business. On Margaret's side, the family were gentry, tracing their name back to an Alexander Balfour, who held the lands of Inchrye in Fife in the fifteenth century. Her father, Lewis Balfour (1777–1860), was a minister of the Church of Scotland at nearby Colinton, and Stevenson spent the greater part of his boyhood holidays in his house. "Now I often wonder", says Stevenson, "what I inherited from this old minister. I must suppose, indeed, that he was fond of preaching sermons, and so am I, though I never heard it maintained that either of us loved to hear them."
Both Balfour and his daughter had a "weak chest" and often needed to stay in warmer climates for their health. Stevenson inherited a tendency to coughs and fevers, exacerbated when the family moved to a damp and chilly house at 1 Inverleith Terrace in 1853. The family moved again to the sunnier 17 Heriot Row when Stevenson was six, but the tendency to extreme sickness in winter remained with him until he was eleven. Illness would be a recurrent feature of his adult life, and left him extraordinarily thin. Contemporary views were that he had tuberculosis, but more recent views are that it was bronchiectasis or even sarcoidosis.
Stevenson's parents were both devout and serious Presbyterians, but the household was not incredibly strict. His nurse, Alison Cunningham (known as Cummy), was more fervently religious. Her Calvinism and folk beliefs were an early source of nightmares for the child; and he showed a precocious concern for religion. But she also cared for him tenderly in illness, reading to him from Bunyan and the Bible as he lay sick in bed, and telling tales of the Covenanters. Stevenson recalled this time of sickness in the poem "The Land of Counterpane" in A Child's Garden of Verses (1885) and dedicated the book to his nurse.
An only child, strange-looking and eccentric, Stevenson found it hard to fit in when he was sent to a nearby school at six, a pattern repeated at eleven, when he went on to the Edinburgh Academy; but he mixed well in lively games with his cousins in summer holidays at the Colinton manse. In any case, his frequent illnesses often kept him away from his first school, and he was taught for long stretches by private tutors. He was a late reader, first learning at seven or eight; but even before this he dictated stories to his mother and nurse. Throughout his childhood he was compulsively writing stories. His father was proud of this interest: he had himself written stories in his spare time until his own father found them and told him to "give up such nonsense and mind your business".He paid for the printing of Robert's first publication at sixteen, an account of the covenanters' rebellion, published on its two hundredth anniversary, The Pentland Rising: a Page of History, 1666 (1866).
晚年
史蒂文森在1890年於薩摩亞群島的烏波盧島（Upolu）購買了400英畝（大約1.6平方公里）的土地。在2次返回蘇格蘭的計畫失敗之後，史蒂文森經過了許多努力，在這裡建立了自己的棲身之所，而且將它命名為維利馬（Vailima）。
史蒂文森的影響力因為當地居民向他尋求建議而擴及到當地，因此他很快進入當地的政治圈中。史蒂文森被任命為歐洲官員來裁決當地官員是否是不是適任的，在很多沒有效果解決這個問題的企圖後，史蒂文森出版了《A Footnote to History》。這是一次對於兩位官員被罷免的現況的激烈抗議，史蒂文森這時也害怕會被驅逐出境。
除了建立房子、整理自己的土地與幫助當地居民之外，史蒂文森感覺到應該繼續寫作。他在這段時期創作了《The Beach of Falesa》、《David Balfour》與《Ebb Tide》，還有《Vailima Letters》。
在1894年間，因為史蒂文森想知道是否他已經耗盡了創造才能所以感到意志消沈，而且感到筋疲力盡。他甚至對於再次變成無助的病人感到恐懼。然後史蒂文森突然擁有寫作的動力，開始創作《赫米斯頓的韋爾》（Weir of Hermiston），根據記錄他曾經叫喊著「它是如此出色，甚至令我感到害怕」。他感覺到這是一生中最好的作品。
不知道為甚麼，史蒂文森又充滿了希望。在1894年12月3日早上，史蒂文森一如以往努力從事《赫米斯頓的魏爾》的寫作。但是在晚上，當史蒂文森一面與妻子談話而一面打開一瓶葡萄酒時，他突然倒了下來。史蒂文森在幾個鐘頭後去世，終年44歲，死因可能是中風。夜晚時當地的居民堅持在他的身旁來守衛，並且用他們的肩膀將他們的「圖西塔拉」（薩摩語：Tusitala，意為故事作家）運送上瓦埃阿山（Mt. Vaea），埋葬在一處可以眺望海洋的地方。
In 1890 he purchased four hundred acres (about 1.6 square kilometres) of land in Upolu, one of the Samoan islands. Here, after two aborted attempts to visit Scotland, he established himself, after much work, upon his estate in the village of Vailima. Stevenson himself adopted the native name Tusitala (Samoan for "Teller of Tales", i.e. a storyteller). His influence spread to the natives, who consulted him for advice, and he soon became involved in local politics. He was convinced the European officials appointed to rule the natives were incompetent, and after many futile attempts to resolve the matter, he published A Footnote to History. This was such a stinging protest against existing conditions that it resulted in the recall of two officials, and Stevenson feared for a time it would result in his own deportation. When things had finally blown over he wrote to Colvin, who came from a family of distinguished colonial administrators, "I used to think meanly of the plumber; but how he shines beside the politician!"
He was friends with some of the politicians and their families. At one point he formally donated his birthday to the daughter of Henry Clay Ide, then American Land Commissioner, by deed, an act that led to a strong bond between the Stevenson and Ide families.
In addition to building his house and clearing his land and helping the natives in many ways, he found time to work at his writing. He felt that "there was never any man had so many irons in the fire." He wrote The Beach of Falesa, Catriona (titled David Balfour in the USA), The Ebb-Tide, and the Vailima Letters, during this period.
For a time during 1894 Stevenson felt depressed; he wondered if he had exhausted his creative vein and completely worked himself out. He wrote that he had "overworked bitterly". He felt more clearly that, with each fresh attempt, the best he could write was "ditch-water".He even feared that he might again become a helpless invalid. He rebelled against this idea: "I wish to die in my boots; no more Land of Counterpane for me. To be drowned, to be shot, to be thrown from a horse — ay, to be hanged, rather than pass again through that slow dissolution." He then suddenly had a return of his old energy and he began work on Weir of Hermiston. "It's so good that it frightens me," he is reported to have exclaimed. He felt that this was the best work he had done. He was convinced, "sick and well, I have had splendid life of it, grudge nothing, regret very little ... take it all over, damnation and all, would hardly change with any man of my time."
Without knowing it, he was to have his wish fulfilled. During the morning of 3 December 1894, he had worked hard as usual on Weir of Hermiston. During the evening, while conversing with his wife and straining to open a bottle of wine, he suddenly exclaimed, "What's that!" He then asked his wife, "Does my face look strange?" and collapsed beside her. He died within a few hours, probably of a cerebral haemorrhage, at the age of 44. The natives insisted on surrounding his body with a watch-guard during the night and on bearing their Tusitala upon their shoulders to nearby Mount Vaea, where they buried him on a spot overlooking the sea. Stevenson had always wanted his 'Requiem' inscribed on his tomb.
Under the wide and starry sky,
Dig the grave and let me lie.
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.
This be the verse you grave for me:
Here he lies where he longed to be;
Home is the sailor, home from sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
However, the piece is widely misquoted, including the inscription on his tomb, which closes:
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.
Stevenson was loved by the Samoans and the engraving on his tombstone was translated to a Samoan song of grief which is well known and still sung in Samoa.
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