印度，探想 隨筆及短篇小說

by Hermann Hesse, 赫曼·赫塞, 張芸 (Translator)

自1911年至亞洲旅行數月之後，赫塞對於東方、印度、中國的懷想，仍未停止，內在的追尋仍一直持續。他對於歐洲在精神靈性上的逐漸空洞化感到不滿，深信靈魂的答案就在東方。然而實際體驗了東方生活之後，他自承：

印度精神還不屬於我，我還沒有找到它，我還在尋找。當時我也正是為此離開了歐洲，因為我的旅行是一種逃避。我逃離歐洲，幾近憎惡，我討厭它毫無品味的審美，喧囂嘈雜的集市，倉促匆忙的焦躁不安，還有粗魯愚蠢的追求享樂。

我通往印度和中國的道路並非要搭乘郵輪和火車，我必須獨自找到所有那些神祕的橋梁。我必須停止在那裡尋求救贖、擺脫歐洲，必須停止在心中仇視歐洲，必須在感情和精神上擁有真正的歐洲和真正的東方，這條路持續了一年又一年，歷經多年的痛苦、不安、戰爭和絕望。

本書收錄這段期間的多篇隨筆，可以窺得赫塞一直以來對印度及中國文化的熱愛。赫塞嚴厲批判歐洲社會腐蝕人心的戰爭意識，也以慈悲之心看待受到西方國家侵入而使文化蒙塵的亞洲諸國，同時卻也在百年之前就已預見了中國這一民族在未來世界舞台上的捲土重來。

雖投入的是文學創作，赫塞也從未停止靈性的追尋，冀望從形上的心靈層次為人類尋得出路。本書收錄五篇短篇小說，其中〈新娘〉及〈羅伯特．阿吉翁〉是得自這段旅行中親身見聞，生動地描繪出因應當時愈來愈多歐洲人移居亞洲，生活及工作型態的大幅變化也碰撞出更多的文化磨擦。〈一位印度王的傳奇〉、〈森林人〉及〈印度式生命軌跡〉則像是《浪流者之歌》的前奏小品，赫塞透過小說型式將印度思想普遍的棄世修行、瑜伽靜心、輪迴等觀點融入故事之中，藉以探入源自印度的吠檀多哲學及之後對世界影響更大的佛教思想。

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Many works, including Siddhartha (1922) and Steppenwolf (1927), of German-born Swiss writer Hermann Hesse concern the struggle of the individual to find wholeness and meaning in life; he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1946.

Other best-known works of this poet, novelist, and painter include The Glass Bead Game , which, also known as Magister Ludi, explore a search of an individual for spirituality outside society.

In his time, Hesse was a popular and influential author in the German-speaking world; worldwide fame only came later. Young Germans desiring a different and more "natural" way of life at the time of great economic and technological progress in the country, received enthusiastically Peter Camenzind , first great novel of Hesse.

Throughout Germany, people named many schools. In 1964, people founded the Calwer Hermann-Hesse-Preis, awarded biennially, alternately to a German-language literary journal or to the translator of work of Hesse to a foreign language. The city of Karlsruhe, Germany, also associates a Hermann Hesse prize.