第十五章：其中阐释前述诗节的其余几行。
Chapter XV: Wherein are expounded the remaining lines of the aforementioned stanza.
……哦，幸福的机缘！——
. . . oh, happy chance! –
我无人察觉地出去了，我的房屋如今已安息。
I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.
这些诗行以被囚的悲惨状态为比喻；一个人从中获释时，若没有一个狱卒妨碍他的释放，他就把这看作「幸福的机缘」。因为灵魂由于〔直译：「在……之后」。〕原罪，实在仿佛被囚在这必死的身体中，受制于本性的情绪和欲望；它认为自己「无人察觉地出去」乃是「幸福的机缘」——也就是说，出去而未被其中任何一种阻碍或吞没〔直译：「理解」。〕，从它们的奴役和辖制中出来。
These lines take as a metaphor the miserable estate of captivity, a man’s deliverance from which, when none of the gaolers’ hinder his release, he considers a happy chance.’ For the soul, on account of [Lit., after.‘] original sin, is truly as it were a captive in this mortal body, subject to the passions and desires of nature, from bondage and subjection to which it considers its having gone forth without being observed as a happy chance’ – having gone forth, that is, without being impeded or engulfed [Lit., comprehended.’] by any of them.
2. 因为为此目的，灵魂借着「在黑夜中」出去而获益——也就是说，按照我们所说的方式，在一切快乐的剥夺和一切欲望的克制中出去。「我的房屋如今已安息」所指的是感性部分，它是一切欲望的房屋；如今它已安息，因为一切欲望都已被胜过并被安抚入睡。因为，直到这些欲望借感性本性的克制而被安抚入睡，并且直到感性本性本身最终从它们那里得安息，以致它们不再攻击灵，灵魂才会出去，达到真正的自由，并享受与其爱人的联合。
2. For to this end the soul profited by going forth upon a dark night’ – that is, in the privation of all pleasures and mortification of all desires, after the manner whereof we have spoken. And by its house being now at rest’ is meant the sensual part, which is the house of all the desires, and is now at rest because they have all been overcome and lulled to sleep. For until the desires are lulled to sleep through the mortification of the sensual nature, and until at last the sensual nature itself is at rest from them, so that they make not war upon the spirit, the soul goes not forth to true liberty and to the fruition of union with its Beloved.
第一卷终
End Of The First Book