True Nobility
真实的高贵

True Nobility is a short essay written by Ernest Hemingway. Just as Hemingway's usual succinct writing style, this short essay contains no more than two hundred words. Sea is always a favored image in Hemingway's writings, so it is no exception that he starts the first line with a metaphor, comparing human being to a sea pilot.
《真实的高贵》是海明威写的短篇随笔。和其简洁明快的其他作品一样，这篇小品文不足200字。大海是海明威作品中常见的意象，在这篇文章中便出现在了第一行。他将人类比作大海的领航员。

In a calm sea every man is a pilot. But all sunshine without shade, all pleasure without pain, is not life at all. Take the lot of the happiest — it is a tangled yarn. Bereavements and blessings, one following anther, make us sad and blessed by turns. Even death itself makes life more loving. Men come closer to their true selves in the sober moment of life, under the shadows of sorrow and loss. In the affairs of life or of business, it is not intellect that tells so much as character, not brains so much as heart, not genius so much as self-control, patience, and discipline, regulate by judgment. I have always believed that the man who has begun to live more seriously within begins to live more simply without. In an age of extravagance and waste, I wish I could show to the world how few the real wants of humanity are. To regret one's errors to the pain of not repeating them is true repentance. There is nothing noble in being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self.
风平浪静的大海上，每个人都是领航员。但是，只有阳光而无阴影，只有欢乐而无痛苦，那就不是人生。以最幸福的人生为例——它是一团纠缠的麻线。丧亲之痛和祝福之乐，彼此相接，使我们一会儿伤心，一会儿高兴。甚至死亡本身也会使生命更加可亲。在人生的清醒时刻，在哀痛和伤心的阴影之下，人们与真实的自我最亲近。在生活或者职场的各种事务中，智力的作用不如性格，头脑的作用不如心灵，天资的作用不如由判断力掌控的自制、耐心和规律。我始终相信，在内心活得更严肃的人，也会在外表上活得更朴素。在一个奢华、挥霍的年代，我希望能向世界表明，人类真正需要的东西其实非常少。悔恨自己的错误，力求不再重蹈覆辙，这才是真正的悔悟。优于别人并不高贵，真正的高贵应是优于过去的自己。