智者与圣人的宝岛乔伊斯意大利演讲.docx

Ting Bao was revised on January 6, 20021
智者与圣人的宝岛乔伊斯意大利演讲
Ireland, Island of Saints and Sages
James Joyce
Nations have their ego, just like individuals. The case of a
people who like to attribute to themselves qualities and glories
foreign to other people has not been entirely unknown in history,
from the time of our ancestors, who called themselves Aryans and
nobles, or that of the Greeks, w ho called all those who lived
outside the sacrosanct land of Hellas barbarians. The Irish, with
a pride that is perhaps less easy to explain, love to refer to
their country as the island of saints and sages.
This exalted title was not invented yesterday or the day
before. It goes back to the most ancient times, when the island
was a true focus cf sanctity and intellect, spreading throughout
the continent a culture and a vitalizing energy. It would be easy
to make a list of the Irishmen who carried the torch of knowledge
from country to country as pilgrims and hermits, as scholars and
wisemen. Their traces are still seen today in abandoned altars,
in traditions and legends where even the name of the hero is
scarcely recognizable, or in poetic allusions, such as the
passage in Dante's <Inferno> where his mentor points to one of
the Celtic magicians tormented by infernal pains and says:
Quel'altro, che ne' fianchi e cosi poco,
Michele Scotto fu, che veramente
Delle magiche frode seppe il gioco.
In truth, it would take the learning and patience of a
leisurely Bollandist to relate the acts of these saints and
sages. We at least remember the notorious opponent of St. Thomas,
John Duns Scotus (called the Subtle Doctor to distinguish him
from St. Thomas, the Angelic Doctor, and from Bonaventura, the
Seraphic Doctor) who was the militant champion of the doctrine of
the Immaculate Conception, and, as the chronicles of that period
tell us, an unbeatable dialectician. It seems undeniable that
Ireland at