The Law of life——Jack London

喜欢杰克伦敦的书是从小学刚刚会识字看书开始了，《野性的呼唤》、《白牙》……白牙更是读了几十遍不止。最近读了The Law of life，Old Koskoosh对生存法则的看透、熟识、臣服和坦然最初令我感到悲伤和心痛。有种“笑得让人心痛”的感觉。但细想之后竟只剩敬佩和学习、理解。生存的法则既是法则便是强者（大自然）所制定，不要狂言“命运就是用来被践踏”不要妄称 “我偏要一条独木桥走到黑”，只有绝对力量能制定游戏规则，其他人必须遵守、只得服从。违反带来的是混乱和自食其果。而这样的服从和释然也并非什么值得心酸的事，而是该有的懂事。以下是我最喜欢的一段，读的英文，不想翻译了，各位自己看看。“he”是Old Koskoosh，“she”是mother nature。我尽量仔细打了，应该没有问题，如果有小问题也不影响阅读。欢迎探讨，推荐阅读。

背景：部落迁徙，老酋长Old Koskoosh的儿子携家庭和部落离开，而Old Koskoosh作为累赘只好被抛弃，部落为他留了一堆柴火，当柴火一根根燃烧，死神的脚步走近，当最后一根柴火燃尽，暴雪和寒风将将他吞没。表达了生命的法则、自然的条约、Old Koskoosh的透彻。

He did not complain. It was the way of life, and it was just. He had been born close to the earth, close to the earth had he lived, and the law thereof was not new to him. It was the law of all flesh. Nature was not kindly to the flesh. She had no concern for that concrete thing called the individual. Her interest lay in the species, the race. This was the deepest abstraction old Koskoosh's barbaric mind was capable of, but he grasped it firmly, He saw it exemplified in all life. The rise of the sap, the bursting greenness of the willow bud, the fall of the yellow leaf -in this alone was told the whole history, but one task did Nature set the individual. Did he not perform it, he died. Did he perform it, it was all the same, he died. Nature did not care; there were plenty who were obedient, and it was only the obedience in this matter, not the obedient, which lived and lived always. The tribe of Koskoosh was very old. The old men he had known when a boy, had known old men before them. Therefor it was true that the tribe lived, that it stood for, the obedience of all its members, way down into the forgotten past, whose very resting-places were unremembered. They did not count; they were episodes. They had passed away like clouds from a summer sky. He also was an episode, and would pass away. Nature did not care. To life she set one task, gave one law. To perpetuate was the task of life, its law was death. A maiden was a good creature to look upon, full-breasted and strong, with spring to her step and light in her eyes. But her task was yet before her. The light in her eyes brightened, her step quickened, she was now bold with the young men, now timid, and she gave them of her own unrest. And ever she grew fairer and yet fairer to look upon, till some hunter, able no longer to withhold himself, took her to his lodge to cook and toil for him and to become the mother of his children. And with the coming of her offspring her looks left her. Her limbs dragged and shuffled, her eyes dimmed and bleared, and only the little children found joy against the withered cheek of the old squaw by the fire. Her task was done. But a little while, on the first pinch of famine or the first long trail, and she would be left, even as he had been left, in the snow. with a little pile of wood. Such was the law.