“从天亮，苏格拉底就一直站在那里默想！"

所以无论是谁，吹笛的名手也好，普通吹笛女子也好，
只要能吹林神的调子，就有力量使人们欢欣鼓舞，
显示出听众中哪些人需要神的保佑或是参与秘密仪式；
只有林神的一些调子有这种力量，因为它们是神性的。
马西亚斯和你只有一个分别，苏格拉底，
你不消用乐器，只用单纯的话语，就能产生同样的效果。
若是旁人在说话，尽管他是第一流辩才，我们丝毫不感兴趣；
但是一且听到你说话，或是听旁人转述你的话，
尽管转述的人口才坏，马上我们无论男女老少就都欢欣鼓舞起来了。 
 Whether they are played by the greatest flautist or the meanest flute-girl, 
his melodies have in themselves the power to possess 
and so reveal those people who are ready for the god and his mysteries. 
That's because his melodies are themselves divine. 
The only difference between you and Marsyas is that you need no instruments; 
you do exactly what he does, but with words alone. 
You know, people hardly ever take a speaker seriously, 
even if he's the greatest orator; 
but let anyone-man, woman, or child-
listen to you or even to a poor account of what you say-
and we are all transported, completely possessed.

就拿我自己来说吧，朋友们，
若是不怕你们说我醉酒说疯话，
我可以向你们发誓来声明他的言辞对我发生过什样稀奇的影响，
这影响就连在现在我还感觉到。
If I were to describe for you 
what an extraordinary effect his words have always had on me 
(I can feel it this moment even as I'm speaking),  
you might actually suspect that I'm drunk! 

我每逢听他就话，心就狂跳起来，
比科里班特们在狂欢时还跳得更厉害；
他的话一进到我的耳里，眼泪就会夺眶而出，
我看见过大群的听众也表现出和我的同样情绪。
Still, I swear to you, the moment he starts to speak, 
I am beside myself: my heart starts leaping in my chest,
the tears come streaming down my face, 
even the frenzied Corybantes seem sane compared to me-
and, let me tell you, I am not alone. 

我也听过伯里克理斯和许多其他大演在家，
他们的辩才固然也使我钦佩，
可是我从来没有遇过听苏格拉底的那样的经验，
从来不觉得神魂颠倒，从来不自恨象奴隶一样屈伏。
I have heard Pericles and many other great orators, 
and I have admired their speeches. 
But nothing like this ever happened to me: 
they never upset me so deeply 
that my very own soul started protesting that my life-my life!
was no better than the most miserable slave's. 

  我生平从来不在人前感到羞愧，
他是唯一的人使我对他感到羞愧，这是出人意料的。
向他领教的时候，我对他劝我怎样立身处世的话一句也不能反驳，
可是一离开了他，我还是不免逢迎世俗 。
我老是逃避他，但是一旦到他的面，想到从前对他的诺言，就感到羞愧。
我有时甚至愿望他不在人世，
可是假如他真正死了，我会感到更大的痛苦。
所以我真不知怎样对付这家伙才好。
Socrates is the only man in the world who has made me feel shame-
ah,you didn't think I had it in me, did you? 
Yes, he makes me feel ashamed:
I know perfectly well that I can't prove he's wrong when he tells me what I should do; 
yet, the moment I leave his side, I go back to myoId ways:
I cave in to my desire to please the crowd. 
My whole life has become one constant effort to escape from him and keep away, 
but when I see him, I feel deeply ashamed, 
because I'm doing nothing about my way of life,
though I have already agreed with him that I should. 
Sometimes, believe me, I think I would be happier if he were dead. 
And yet I know that if he dies I'll be even more miserable. 
I can't live with him, and I can't live without him! What can I do about him? 
 但是你如果把他剖开，看看他的里面，
亲爱的酒友们，你们想不到他里面隐藏着那一大肚子的智慧!
我告前你们，人的美毫不在他眼里，他怎样鄙视它，是你们想象不到的。
他也瞧不起财富，以及一般世俗所欣羡的那些东西。
I wonder, my fellow drinkers, 
if you have any idea what a sober and temperate man he proves to be once you have looked inside. 
Believe me, it couldn't matter less to him whether a boy is beautiful. 
You can't imagine how little he cares 
whether a person is beautiful, or rich, or famous in any other way that most people admire. 
 这一切都不在他眼里，我们这一班人也都不在他眼里，
他一生都在讥嘲世间人。
可是到了他认真的时候，把肚子剖开的时候，
那里面所藏的神象就露出来了，旁人看见过没有，我不知道，
我自己却亲眼见过，
发现它们是那样的神圣，珍贵，优美，奇妙，
使我不由自主地五体投地，一切服从他的意志。
He considers all these possessions beneath contempt,
and that's exactly how he considers all of us as well. 
In public, I tell you, his whole life is one big game-a game of irony. 
I don't know if any of you have seen him when he's really serious. 
But I once caught him when he was open like Silenus' statues, 
and I had a glimpse of the figures he keeps hidden within: 
they were so godlike-so bright and beautiful, so utterly amazing-
that I no longer had a choice-I just had to do whatever he told me.

 
  那也是在军中的事，值得一谈。
一天大清早他遇到一个问题，就在一个地点站着不动，
凝神默想，想不出来，他不肯放手，仍然站着不动去默想。
一直站到正午，人们看到他，都很惊奇，
互相传语说：“从天亮，苏格拉底就一直站在那里默想！"
到了傍晚，旁观者中有几个人吃过晚饭一一当时正是夏天一一
就搬出他俩的铺席，睡在露天里，想看他是否站着过夜。
果然，他站在那里一直站到天亮，
到太阳起来了，向太阳做了祷告，他才扯脚走开。
One day, at dawn, he started thinking about some problem or other; 
he just stood outside, trying to figure it out. 
He couldn't resolve it, but he wouldn't give up. 
He simply stood there, glued to the same spot. 
By midday, many soldiers had seen him, and, quite mystified, 
they told everyone that Socrates had been standing there all day, 
thinking about something.
He was still there when evening came, 
and after dinner some Ionians moved their bedding outside, 
where it was cooler and more comfortable (all this took place in the summer), 
but mainly in order to watch if Socrates was going to stay out there all night. 
And so he did; he stood on the very same spot until dawn! 
He only left next morning, when the sun came out,
and he made his prayers to the new day.

  此外，苏格拉底值得我们颂扬的稀奇事迹还很多，
不过在旁的活动范围里，同样的话也许可以应用到旁人身上。
有一点特别值得赞赏的，就是无论在古人还是在今人之中，
找不到一个可以和他相比的人。
You could say many other marvelous things in praise of Socrates. 
Perhaps he shares some of his specific accomplishments with others. 
But, as a whole, he is unique; 
he is like no one else in the past and no one in the present-
this is by far the most amazing thing about him.  
 如果你要听苏格拉底谈话，开头你会觉得顶可笑。
在表面上他的字句很荒谬，就恰象卤莽的林神所蒙的那张皮。
他谈的尽是扛货的驴子呦，铁匠呦，鞋匠呦，皮匠呦，他好象老是在说重复话，
字句重复，思想也重复，
就连一个无知的或愚笨的人听到，也会传为笑柄。
但是剖开他的言论，往里面看，你就会发见它们骨子里全是道理，而且也只有它们才是道理；
然后你会觉得他的言论真神明，
最富于优美品质的意象，含有 最崇高的意旨，
表达出凡是求美求善的人们都应该知道的道理。
If you were to listen to his arguments, 
at first they'd strike you as totally ridiculous; 
they're clothed in words as coarse as the hides worn by the most vulgar satyrs. 
He's always going on about pack asses, or blacksmiths, or cobblers, or tanners; 
he's always making the same tired old points in the same tired old words. 
If you are foolish, or simply unfamiliar with him, 
you'd find it impossible not to laugh at his arguments. 
But if you see them when they open up like the statues, 
if you go behind their surface,
you'll realize that no other arguments make any sense. 
They're truly worthy of a god, bursting with figures of virtue inside. 
They're of great-no, of the greatest-
importance for anyone who wants to become a truly good man.