विल ड्युरंट

   विल ड्युरंट हे एक अमेरिकन इतिहासकार आणि तत्वज्ञ होते. त्यांच्याशी म्हणजे त्याच्या पुस्तकांशी, थोड्याफार विचारांशी ओळख कशी झाली? ते आता सांगत नाही. पुढच्या नोंदीत बघू.

   तर विल ड्युरंट हे त्यांच्या 'द स्टोरी ऑफ सिव्हिलायझेशन' या अकरा खंडी ग्रंथासाठी प्रसिद्ध आहेत. ही त्यांची ग्रंथमालिका अतिशय गाजली. थोडीफार कल्पना येण्यासाठी त्यांनी लिहलेला, त्यांच्या संकेतस्थळावर उपलब्ध असलेला हा नमुन्यादाखल एक परिच्छेद बघा.

   It is a mistake to think that the past is dead. Nothing that has ever happened is quite without influence at this moment. The present is merely the past rolled up and concentrated in this second of time. You, too, are your past; often your face is your autobiography; you are what you are because of what you have been; because of your heredity stretching back into forgotten generations; because of every element of environment that has affected you, every man or woman that has met you, every book that you have read, every experience that you have had; all these are accumulated in your memory, your body, your character, your soul. So with a city, a country, and a race; it is its past, and cannot be understood without it.

   पुढे ते म्हणतात - Perhaps the cause of our contemporary pessimism is our tendency to view history as a turbulent stream of conflicts - between individuals in economic life, between groups in politics, between creeds in religion, between states in war. This is the more dramatic side of history; it captures the eye of the historian and the interest of the reader. But if we turn from that Mississippi of strife, hot with hate and dark with blood, to look upon the banks of the stream, we find quieter but more inspiring scenes: women rearing children, men building homes, peasants drawing food from the soil, artisans making the conveniences of life, statesmen sometimes organizing peace instead of war, teachers forming savages into citizens, musicians taming our hearts with harmony and rhythm, scientists patiently accumulating knowledge, philosophers groping for truth, saints suggesting the wisdom of love. History has been too often a picture of the bloody stream. The history of civilization is a record of what happened on the banks.

   शेवटची दोन वाक्यं थक्क, नि:शब्द करणारी आहेत. एवढे दिवस आपण कोणता इतिहास शिकत आहोत मग? जे शिकवायला पाहिजे, शिकायलं हवं होतं ते राहूनच गेलं वाटतं.

   असो. तर पुढच्या नोंदीत या खालच्या परिच्छेदाचा साधा सोपा मराठी अनुवाद बघूयात. सुरेख आहे तो.

-सौरभ