What Does God Say to Me?
by Dame Edith Evans
I believe that good is stronger than evil. I have found that if applied with complete faith, it can obliterate evil.
Knowledge like this gives one great strength in time of oppression or tyranny. I believe that hatred is destructive. It is not always easy or possible to love people, nations, or ideas, but at least, I say to myself, Do not hate them: try to turn thoughts toward God. Someone once said, “It is better to love the good than hate the bad.”
I have all of my share of the artist’s temperament, and one of our faults is that we think people are being unfair to us, or that we are suffering from other people’s jealousy — the persecution complex, in fact. The one and only way in which I have been able to clear this away is to turn my mind and thoughts to good and to God. I say, Never mind what he or she or they say, what does God say to me? Where does my life come from? Who is the source of all my qualities, and can anything prevent those qualities from being used?
I believe, today, that a great flood of good would be released in the world if all of us concentrated upon following the simple commands of Christ: “Love God first, and your neighbor as yourself.” As “yourself,” I try to remember. So if I think kindly of myself, then I think kindly of my neighbor. When Christ was asked, “Who is my neighbor?” what did He say? He told the story of the Samaritan.
People are always demanding of us British, “Don’t you dislike Americans?” And conversely to you Americans, “Don’t you dislike the British?” I can’t bear classing people together nationally, and liking or disliking them. People are people wherever you meet them. They are all the children of the one God.
I have been asked how I felt in the Blitz. Most of the time, I was in London, terribly excited by fear. But the only way I could keep going about my work at all was by constantly assuring myself that the all-powerful God would take care of me.
On looking round the world today, one is impressed by the amount of fear that is expressed by everybody: fear of war, fear of ill health, fear of not being able to hold a job, fear of people getting ahead of you, fear of losing opportunity; fear of losing friends, lovers, advantages; fear of death.
We are constantly reading articles, and hearing speeches, where the writers and the speakers tell us that we must cease being so material. But what most of us want to know is how? If a busy man at his office is faced with a seemingly insuperable problem, how is he to solve this problem by other than material means?
But, of course, the answer is so simple. Like Naaman, who said, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel?” we tend to disregard it.
It is always to turn our thoughts immediately, and with absolute confidence, away from the difficulty, and if, as I said at the beginning, one believes in the power of good, one must quietly know that the power of good will give all the right answers to the problem, even if the answer is required within a few minutes or half an hour.
And when I say these things, I say them because I have proved them. In fact, throughout the ups and downs of my theatrical life, if I had not had some simple code — because I am not a highly intellectual woman — I should not be doing happily and successfully the work that I love
参考译文
上帝对我说了什么
伊迪丝.埃文斯夫人
我相信善可以压倒恶，并发现如果我们完全相信善的力量，便能以善除恶。
这样的认识在压迫和暴政时期给人巨大的力量。我相信仇恨有毁灭性的力量，热爱人民、民族或思想总是不容易或不可能，但至少我劝诫自己：“别恨他们，努力把思绪转向上帝。”有人曾说：“与其憎恶，不如扬善。”
我拥有艺术家的禀赋，而艺术家的缺点之一是认为自己受的待遇不公，或者苦于遭受他人嫉妒。这实际上是一种受迫害情结。而我能摆脱这种情结困扰的一种也是唯一的一种方法是将心灵和思想转向从善和信仰上帝。我告诫自己：“别介意他人说什么，上帝对我说了什么？我的生命从何而来？谁赐予我所有的优点——有什么能阻挡我发挥那些优点？”
今天我相信，如果我们所有人都一心一意遵循耶稣质朴的教导——“首先爱上帝，然后像爱自己一样爱你的邻居”，世界便会善举如潮。我努力记住“像爱你自己一样”。所以，如果我好好为自己着想，就会好好为邻里着想。有人问耶稣：“谁是我的邻居”时，他怎么回答呢？他讲述了撒马利亚人救助落难的陌生人的故事。
人们总是要求我们英国人回答：“难道你们不喜欢美国人吗？”反过来问美国人：“难道你们不喜欢英国人吗？”我无法接受按国籍划分人，然后决定喜欢还是厌恶他们。不管你身在何处，遇见的人都是一样的，都是同一个上帝的孩子。
有人问我闪击战期间的感受。大多数时候我在伦敦，由于恐惧而特别激动，但让我能继续工作的唯一办法根本上说就是不断让自己确信，全能的上帝会眷顾我。
环顾当今的现实世界，我们深感每一个人受着许多恐惧的折磨；害怕战争，害怕疾病，害怕失业，害怕落后，害怕丧失机会，害怕失去朋友、心上人、优势，害怕死亡。
我们经常读文章、听演讲，那些作者和演讲者提醒我们必须停止如此沉湎于物质追求。但我们大多数人想知道的是该怎么停止。如果一个在办公室忙碌的人碰到一个似乎无法克服的困难，该如何通过非物质手段解决呢？当然答案很简单，正如乃缦所言：“大马士革的河亚罢拿和法珥法，岂不比以色列的一切水更好吗？”我们常常忽略了这一点，常常把思绪万分自信地立即从困难转移开。倘若如我在开始所说，人们相信善的力量，就必须明白，善的力量会恰当地解决这个问题，即使需要在几分钟或半小时之内解决它。
我谈论这些事情，是因为我已见证过这些事。实际上，我并非一个智商很高的女人，我的戏剧生涯充满了挫折，要不是我相信一种简单的信条，我决不会如此快乐地从事自己热爱的工作并获得成功。
附注：
伊迪丝·埃文斯夫人：获伦敦大学和剑桥大学荣誉学位，是首位在世界名校获此殊荣的女演员。
