An Excerpt from Hamlet

An Excerpt from Hamlet

ACT THREE

SCENE I.Elsinore.The Castle.

[Enter HAMLET.]

Ham. 
  To be,or not to be--that is the question;

 Wheather'tis nobler in the mind to suffer.

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them?To die,to sleep--

No more;and by a sleep to say we end  

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to,'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd.To die,to sleep;

To sleep,perchance to dream.Ay,there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause.There's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

Th's oppressor's wrong,the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despis'd love,the law's delay,

The insolence of office,and the spurns

That patient merit of th' unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin?who would these fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death--

The undicover'd country,from whose bourn

No traveler returns--puzzles the will,

And makes us rather bear those ills we have 

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment,

With this regard,their currents turn away

And lose the name of action.

选读：《哈姆雷特》第三幕第一场选段
哈姆雷特：生存，还是毁灭，这是个问题;
怎样做才能更加高尚：是默默忍受
残暴命运的明枪暗箭，
还是拿起武器面对苦海，
用抗争结束苦难?死去，长眠--
一切终了；在长眠中我们结束了
心灵的创伤，和肉体注定要承受的
自然降临的千般磨难；这是忠心盼望的结局。
死去，长眠-
也许会做梦。哎，这就是障碍；
因为，当我们摆脱掉这肉体的羁绊，
在这死亡的睡眠中，会有怎样的梦境降临？
这使我们踌躇不前。就是这种疑虑，
使漫长的生命变成了灾难；
因为谁愿忍受人世间的鞭挞和嘲笑，
压迫者的欺凌，贵人的傲慢，
被轻蔑的爱情的痛苦，法律的延误，
官吏的骄横，卑劣小人
对正人君子的侮辱，
如果就凭一把出鞘的钢刀
就能一了百了，谁愿忍受重负
在疲惫的生命中呻吟，苦苦煎熬？
但死亡是个神秘莫测的国度，从它的疆土，
从没有一位旅人踏上归途--
对死后的莫名的恐惧迷惑了意志，
使我们宁愿忍受我们眼前的苦难
而不愿投身于我们尚一无所知的痛苦。
就这样，重重疑虑使我们人人都成了懦夫，
就这样，决心的本色，
蒙上了忧虑的苍白的病态，
伟大时刻的巨大勇气，由于疑虑而偏离方向，
失去了行动的荣耀。