世界小史 第74期:紀念碑

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 　　After this the Persians never again dared attack the Greeks.

　　從此波斯人沒有再敢涉足希臘。

　　And this is very interesting, because it wasn't as if the Persians were weaker or more stupid than the Greeks – far from it.

　　這意味深長，倒不是說波斯人比希臘人壞或笨——他們肯定不是那樣的人。

　　But, as I said before, the Greeks were different.

　　但是我已經講述過，這些希臘人的情況有些不同。

　　For, whereas the great empires of the East bound themselves so tightly to the traditions and teachings of their ancestors

　　如果說各東方大國一直堅持傳統(tǒng)習俗和學說，

　　that they could scarcely move, the Greeks – and the Athenians in particular – did the opposite.

　　直至它們往往完全僵化在這老一套上——那么在希臘——尤其是在雅典則情況恰恰相反。

　　Almost every year they came up with something new.

　　他們幾乎每年都想起一些新鮮主意。

　　Everything was always changing. The same went for their leaders.

　　沒有哪種慣例經久不變。也沒有哪個領導人經久不變。

　　Miltiades and Themistocles, the great heroes of the Persian wars,

　　波斯戰(zhàn)爭的大英雄，米爾提亞德斯和泰米斯托克利斯想必對此有親身體會,

　　learnt this to their cost: one moment it was high praise, honors and monuments to their achievements, the next it was accusations1, slander2 and exile.

　　起先人們贊頌他們，尊敬他們并給他們立紀念碑，后來人們控告、誹謗并放逐他們。

　　This was not the best feature of the Athenians, yet it was part of their nature.

　　這無疑不是一種雅典人的好品性，但是這是他們的一種性格。

　　Always trying out new ideas, never satisfied, never at rest.

　　他們總是追求某種新東西，總是作新的嘗試，永遠不滿意，永遠不安定。

　　Which explains why, during the hundred years that followed the Persian wars,

　　所以在波斯戰(zhàn)爭后的幾百年里，

　　more went on in the minds of the people of the little city of Athens than in 1,000 years in all the great empires of the East.

　　在小城雅典，人們的精神領域里所發(fā)生的事比東方各大王國1000年里發(fā)生的事還多。

　　The ideas, the painting, sculpture and architecture, the plays and poetry, the inventions and experiments,

　　當時的思想、油畫、雕塑、建筑、戲劇和詩歌、發(fā)明和試驗，

　　the discussions and arguments which the young brought to the marketplaces and the old to their council chambers3 still continue to concern us today.

　　當時年輕人在市場、老年人在市政府里爭吵和談論的，這些東西其實至今還在滋養(yǎng)著我們。

　　It is strange that it should be so, and yet it's true.

　　很奇怪，情況會是這樣，但情況確實是這樣。

　　And what would it have been like if the Persians had won at Marathon? Or at Salamis, ten years later? That I cannot say.

　　如果波斯人贏得了馬拉松或者十年后在薩拉米斯波斯人打了勝仗的話，我們將會受到什么東西的滋養(yǎng)，這一點我就不知道了。