COC 日本秘史(2)

Today’s Japan

現今的日本

. . . And castles made of sand, fill in the sea, eventually

-Jimi Hendrix, from the song “Castles Made of Sand.”

…和沙作的城堡，填滿海洋，終就

Jimi Hendrix，出自歌曲” Castles Made of Sand.”

Welcome to modern Japan, a country with an identity crisis. Japan, a place where millennia-old traditions clash with the eagerly adopted consumer culture of the West. Japan, where ancient shamanistic Shinto religion blends with modern Buddhism. Japan, an ancient land, which holds many forgotten secrets and treasures. Japan, a land nurturing a people who are spiritually closer to the One than any other, if they could just open their eyes. Japan, repository for some of the world’s most powerful archaic artifacts. Japan, where East meets West in a way like in no other Asian country.

歡迎來到現代日本，這是一個有著明確危機的國家；一個千年傳統和渴望採用西方的消費者文化衝突交鋒；一個古老的薩滿神道教與現代佛教搓揉混合；一個擁有著古代大地上各種被遺忘的秘密和寶藏；一個與人們心靈相通的豐饒的土地，假如他們能夠睜開眼睛仔細觀察，這裡是個充滿著這世上最強力古代神器的寶庫。日本，唯一一個在亞洲讓東西方擦出與眾不同火花的國家。

This land bristles with contrasts and paradoxes caused by superimposing an alien society, that of the Western World, over a culture that, less than 150 years ago, was steeped in ancient imperial and feudal traditions for over three thousand years. In the push to advance, Japan has incorporated Western ethics and heritage over the framework of a much older cultural model that had worked perfectly for hundreds of generations. But as a result, today’s children do not know the social foundations and history of their country.

這塊土地建立出一個被對比和矛盾所重疊的外來社會，一邊是有著一百五十年歷史的西方世界文化的強勢掩蓋；另一邊則是浸淫於長達三百年古老的封建帝王傳統，這兩股力量推動著日本的成長，最終日本成功的將這些西方思想和遺產融入了舊式傳統思維的框架中，持續了近百年的時間，然而今日的小孩子終究不知道他們國家的社會架構和歷史。

Today’s Japan is a shiny high-tech building erected over a skeleton not of steel and concrete, but of old and rotting timbers of ages past. Japan has tried very hard to catch up with the Western world. In the process of Westernization, it has discarded many old and valued traditions, viewed as so much dead wood blocking progress. With the adoption of Western scientific thought at the turn of the twentieth century, many Japanese believe Japan firmly left the traditional world of superstition and the supernatural behind. So hard have the Japanese worked at modernization that a collective amnesia concerning native cultural heritage has developed.

今日的日本那些閃耀著的現代建築覆蓋著它們的骨幹並非鋼鐵或水泥，而是古老、腐朽且上了年紀的木材，日本嚐試著追上西方世界，在現代化的過程中，他們拋棄很多古老的傳統價值，遇上很多死木塊的阻礙進步，隨著二十世紀的來到，很多日本人選擇相信西方的科學思想，將傳統的日本迷信和超自然棄之不顧，繁重的現代工作讓日本人集體忘記關注他們原生文化遺產的發展。

An old Japanese proverb goes, “the nail that sticks up gets hammered down.” Due to poor craftsmanship in building a modern nation, far too many nails stick up from the timbers of today’s social institutions. This Yin and Yang of old and new has created a generation ignorant of its past and ambivalent about its future. All of this selective renovation can only create unnecessary hammering. Where the hammer flies, conflicts within erode group harmony without something vital to the Japanese mind.

有句日本諺語是這麼說：「凸出的釘子會被敲回去(槍打出頭鳥)。」，有鑑於現今國家的建築技巧衰弱，很多社會公共建築木材上的釘子都凸了出來，陰與陽、古與新造就這個無知時代，過去與未來的矛盾，這個選擇性的革新只能造成不必要的打擊，當鐵槌飛翔，衝擊著這腐朽團體的和諧，除去一些日本人腦中重要的事物。

Buddhism also has a proverb that can be applied to the state of modern Japan: it is the concept of karma, which compares life to a burning house with no exits except enlightenment. Many Japanese have become content to stay within a home full of smoke and flames rather than risk growth possible outside their common experience. But still, the Wheel of Karma slowly turns, never forgetting, always taking account of the deeds of the suffocating masses.

佛教徒也有句諺語很符合當今的日本：「將生命比作燃燒中的房子，除非得到啟蒙否則無從逃出，這就是因果率的架構。」很多日本人滿足於充滿著煙與閃焰的房子中勝過讓他們危機感成長，有機會讓他們逃出自身常理框架，然而，因果慢慢輪迴，不曾遺忘，種下甚麼因，就會得甚麼果。