"To be , or not to be: that is the question."
众所周知，这是莎士比亚的《哈姆雷特》第三幕第一场，哈姆雷特王子的第一句句白。中文翻作"生存还是死亡, 这是个问题" 也有翻成"生存还是毁灭"的.
某君是位戏剧爱好者，能整段地用中文默颂莎翁的这段台词， 一日， 此君一时兴起，居然飙起了英语，“To live, or to die, that is the question ” 语调抑扬顿挫甚是好听，只是在坐的一时都笑出了声。
虽然是一则笑话，心中却也颇为此君不平，没有读过原著，按中文字面再翻译回去确实应该是“to live, or to die ”，没错啊，那到底是哪儿出的错呢？
于是到ＷＩＫＴＩＯＮＡＲＹ上去认真查了一下，结果如下:
Verb[edit]
be (highly irregular)
(intransitive, now literary) To exist; to have real existence. [quotations ▲]
1526, Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew 2:
Rachel wepynge ffor her chyldren, and wolde nott be comforted because they were not.
c. 1600, William Shakespeare, Hamlet:
To be, or not to be, that is the Question […].
1603, John Florio, translating Michel de Montaigne, Essays, II.12:
it were great sottishnesse, and apparent false-hood, to say, that that is which is not yet in being, or that already hath ceased from being.
1643, Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, II.2:
There is surely a peece of Divinity in us, something that was before the Elements, and owes no homage unto the Sun.
ＢＥ 作为动词第一个解释是存在， 真实的存在。例句中便有莎翁的这句名言，那么这样看来，这句话翻译作“存在还是消亡” 是不是更正确呢？
生存和存在，死亡和消亡， 区别在于生存和死亡只用于有生命的事和物，而存在和消亡可以用在任何有生命或没生命的事或物上，举个例子，一个人出生，然后Ｎ十年以后死亡，这是他的生存与死亡，他曾在这世间这件事却是一种存在，他一生中所有过的经历，情感或精神则是一种存在，这些存在不会因为他的死亡而消失，只因为时间久了而令人遗忘。
那么我们再来看看莎文名言中到底指的是生存呢还存在。《哈姆雷特》的中文译本我是读过的，英语原文我确是没有读过，起先我是有些偏向莎翁这处所指是生存和死亡，因为《哈姆雷特》本是戏剧，哈姆雷特又是王子，用To live, or to die会显得有些过于直白，而To be , or not to be则显得更诗意更有内涵。
因为有了疑问，回过头去再搬来原文阅读，反复阅读，反复推敲，终还是不敢妄下结论，据说国外也有好多人质疑过“to be, or not to be ”究竟指的是哪个，终也没有讨论出个是非屈直，恐怕也只有莎翁自己才知。
只是下一次再听到有人说“to live, or to die ”的时候，我可能不会再笑话他了，五十步笑百步，谁又比谁更懂，谁又比谁更可笑呢。
附:莎翁的原文和朱生豪 的中文译文
To be, or not to be: that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,
Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep:
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life;
For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,
The insolence of office and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveller returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action.--Soft you now!
The fair Ophelia! Nymph, in thy orisons
Be all my sins remember'd".
生存还是毁灭，这是一个值得考虑的问题；
默然忍受命运的暴虐的毒箭，或是挺身反抗人世的无涯的苦难，通过斗争把它们扫清，这两种行为，哪一种更高贵？
死了；睡着了；什么都完了；
要是在这一种睡眠之中，我们心头的创痛，以及其他无数血肉之躯所不能避免的打击，都可以从此消失，那正是我们求之不得的结局。
死了；睡着了；睡着了也许还会做梦；嗯，阻碍就在这儿：因为当我们摆脱了这一具朽腐的皮囊以后，在那死的睡眠里，究竟将要做些什么梦，那不能不使我们踌躇顾虑。
人們甘心久困于患难之中，也就是为了这个缘故；
谁愿意忍受人世的鞭挞和讥嘲、压迫者的凌辱、傲慢者的冷眼、被轻蔑的爱情的惨痛、法律的迁延、官吏的横暴和费尽辛勤所换来的小人的鄙视，要是他只要用一柄小小的刀子，就可以清算他自己的一生？谁愿意负着这样的重担，在烦劳的生命的压迫下呻吟流汗，倘不是因为害怕不可知的死後，害怕那从来不曾有一个旅人回来过的神秘之國，是它迷惑了我们的意志，使我们寧愿忍受目前的折磨，不敢向我们所不知道的痛苦飞去？
这样，重重的顾虑使我们全变成了懦夫，决心的赤热的光彩，被审慎的思维盖上了一层灰色，伟大的事业在这一种考虑之下，也会逆流而退，失去了行动的意义。
且慢！美丽的奥菲利娅！——女神，在你的祈祷之中，不要忘记替我忏悔我的罪孽。
