李维：《自建城以来》（前言）读书笔记

1 FACTURUSNE operae pretium sim, si a primordio urbis res populi Romani perscripserim, nec satis scio, nec, si sciam, dicere ausim,

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 Whether I am going to receive any return for the effort if I record the history (res) of the Roman people from the foundation of the city, I do not really know. Nor, if I did know, would I dare to say so.

【穆启乐中译本】倘若我详述自城开创以来罗马人民的业绩，我能否算是完成了一件值得做的事，我不太清楚，即使清楚，也不敢肯定；

【王焕生节译本】我并不充分地清楚，要是我对自城创建以来罗马人民的业绩进行详细的叙述，我所从事的是否是一件值得的劳作，而且即使我清楚地知道这一点，大概我也会不敢妄言，

2 quippe qui cum veterem tum volgatam esse rem videam, dum novi semper scriptores aut in rebus certius aliquid allaturos se aut scribendi arte rudem vetustatem superaturos credunt.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 Indeed I see that the subject is both old (vetus) and generally known, because new writers always believe either that they are going to bring some greater authenticity to the subject matter or that they will surpass the unpolished attempts of antiquity (vetustas) in literary style.

【穆启乐中译本】因为我觉察到，这一主题不仅陈旧，而且变得寻常了；新史家总是相信，他们或者在这一方面要提供更为确凿的东西，或者在写作技巧上会超过文风朴实的前辈。

3 Utcumque erit, iuvabit tamen rerum gestarum memoriae principis terrarum populi pro virili parte et ipsum consuluisse; et si in tanta scriptorium turba mea fama in obscuro sit, nobilitate ac magnitudine eorum me qui nomini officient meo consoler.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 However that will be, it nevertheless will be a pleasure to have celebrated, to the best of my ability, the memory of the past achievements of the greatest people on earth. If my own reputation should remain obscure amid such a crowd of writers, I would console myself with the renown and greatness of those who stand in the way of my fame.

【穆启乐中译本】然而，无论如何，我也尽我个人之能置身于世界上最优秀民族业绩的记述，那将是一种乐趣；而且即使我的声誉在这么大的史家群体中默默无闻，我也会以湮没我名声的那些人的卓越和伟大慰藉自己。

【王焕生节译本】不过不管怎么样，我仍然会为能尽自己所能地记述世界上最杰出的民族的业绩而欣悦；……

4 Res est praeterea et immensi operis, ut quae supra septingentesimum annum repetatur, et quae ab exiguis profecta initiis eo creverit ut iam magnitudine laboret sua; et legentium plerisque haud dubito quin primae origines proximaque originibus minus praebitura voluptatis sint, festinantibus ad haec nova, quibus iam pridem praevalentis populi vires se ipsae conficiunt:

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 The subject, moreover, is an immense undertaking, since it goes back more than 700 years and, having started from small beginnings, has so increased that it is now laboring under its own size. I have no doubt that the earliest origins and the immediately succeeding period will give less delight to the majority of readers who are hurrying to these recent times in which the might of a most powerful people has long been destroying itself.

【穆启乐中译本】况且，这一主题需要浩繁之功，因为要追溯700多年以前，还因为始于蕞尔的罗马，如今竟已发展到苦于自身宏大的程度；同时，我也不怀疑起源前后的情形将给大多数读者提供较少的乐趣，因为他们急于接触的是一个异常强大民族的威力长期以来自行毁灭的新事物。

【王焕生节译本】而且这件事情本身需要无可估量的辛劳，因为不仅对象本身需要上溯到七百多年以前，而且还由于它由狭小的发端开始，完成时会扩展得甚至苦于自身的庞大；……

5 ego contra hoc quoque laboris praemium petam, ut me a conspectus malorum quae nostra tot per annos vidit aetas, tantisper certe dum Prisca ilia tota mente repeto, avertam, omnis expers curae quae scribentis animum, etsi non flectere a vero, sollicitum tamen efficere posset.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 But, on the contrary, I shall seek this additional reward for my labor so that I may turn away from the contemplation of the evils that our age has seen for so many years and, for the short time that I am absorbed in retracing those early days, be wholly free from the concern, which, even though it could not divert the writer’s mind from the truth, might nonetheless cause anxiety.

【穆启乐中译本】与此相反，我还对我的工作寻求这样一种酬劳：至少在我一心一意地追溯往事时，我可以避而不见我们时代多年来目睹的弊端，并免去即使不能使史家离开真实，也会使他心绪不宁的忧虑。

6 Quae ante conditam condendamve urbem poeticis magis decora fabulis quam incorruptis rerum gestarum monumentis traduntur, ea nec adfirmare nec refellere in animo est.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】 The intent is neither to affirm nor refute the traditions that belong to the period before the foundation of the city or the anticipation of its foundation, for these are embellished with poetic tales rather than based on uncorrupted records of historical events

【穆启乐中译本】那些建城前或即将建城时所流传下来的，与其说适合于纯粹的史记，还不如说适合于富有诗意的故事，对此，我既不想肯定，也不想驳斥。

7 Datur haec venia antiquitati, ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora faciat; et si cui populo licere oportet consecrare origines suas et ad deos referre auctores, ea belli gloria est populo Romano ut cum suum conditorisque sui parentem Martem potissimum ferat tam et hoc gentes humanae patiantur aequo animo quam imperium patiuntur.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】To antiquity is granted the indulgence of making the beginnings of cities more impressive by mingling human affairs with the divine. And if any people should be allowed to sanctify their origins and reckon their founders as gods, surely the military glory of the Roman people is such that, when they claim that their father and the father of their founder was none other than Mars, the nations of the world tolerate this claim with the same equanimity with which they tolerate our dominion.

【穆启乐中译本】我们允许先人通过神人结合以使城的开创更具威严；而且，如果可以允许哪个民族把自己的起源神圣化，并称他们的缔造者与神有关，罗马人民就有着如此大的军事声威——与其宣称他们和他们的缔造者之父是马尔斯时——以至于世上各民族以忍受罗马帝国的同样耐心来忍受这一点。

【王焕生节译本】人们容许古代把人间事情与神明活动相混，以使城的起源变得更加神圣，并且如若可以允许某个民族把自己的起源神圣化，尊奉它们的缔造者为神灵，那么罗马人民的战争荣威更是如此巨大，以至于当罗马人民称无比强大的马尔斯是他们自己和他们的奠基者的父亲时，各个民族也都怀着与承认罗马统治同样顺从的心境承认它。

8 Sed haec et his similia, utcumque animadversa aut existimata erunt, haud in magno equidem ponam discrimine:

【Valerie Warrior英译本】But these and similar things, however they will be regarded and judged, I shall not for my own part regard as of great importance.

【穆启乐中译本】但是，对于这些事物和与之相似的事物，无论怎样看待或评价它们，我个人并不予以特别的重视。

9 ad illa mihi pro se quisque acriter intendat animum, quae vita, qui mores fuerint, per quos viros quibusque artibus domi militiaeque et partum et auctum imperium sit; labente deinde paulatim disciplina velut desidentis primo mores sequatur animo, deinde ut magis magisque lapsi sint, turn ire coeperint praecipites, donec ad haec tempora quibus nec vitia nostra nec remedia pati possumus perventum est.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】The following are questions to which I would have every reader direct close attention: the kind of lives men lived; what their moral principles were; by what individuals and by what skills, both at home and in the field, our dominion was born and grew. Then let him follow how at first, as discipline gradually collapsed, there was, as it were, a disintegration of morals; then note how more and more they slipped and finally began to fall headlong until we have reached the present times in which we can tolerate neither our own vices nor their remedies.

【穆启乐中译本】在我看来，每个人都应当密切地注意这些问题：曾有过什么样的生活，什么样的道德；在和平与战争时期，通过哪些人以及运用哪些才能建立和扩大帝国；然后应注意到，随着纲纪逐渐废弛，道德可以说先是倾斜，继而愈加下滑，最后开始倾覆，直至我们既不能忍受我们的罪过，亦不能忍受补救措施的今日。

【王焕生节译本】对于我来说，但愿每位读者都能认真注意这样一些问题：当时有过怎样的生活，怎样的风尚，不管是在和平时期还是在战争时期，国家是依靠哪些人和以怎样的方式产生和变强大的，然后随着国家纲纪的逐渐下滑，社会风尚首先是可以说逐渐败坏，然后是愈来愈衰微，终于开始倾覆，而后到了我们这个时代，我们既忍受不了我们自己的过失，也忍受不了所采取的救治措施。

10 Hoc illud est praecipue in cognitione rerum salubre ac frugiferum, omnis te exempli documenta in inlustri posita monumento intueri; inde tibi tuaeque rei publicae quod imitere capias, inde foedum inceptu, foedum exitu, quod vites.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】This is the particularly healthy and productive element of history: to behold object lessons of every kind of model as though they were displayed on a conspicuous monument. From this, you should choose for yourself and for your state what to imitate and what to avoid as abominable in its origin or as abominable in its outcome.

【穆启乐中译本】在认识往事时，尤其有利而有益的在于：你可以注意到载于昭昭史册中各种例子的教训，从中为你和你的国家吸取你所应当仿效的东西，从中吸取你所应当避免的开端恶劣与结局不光彩的东西。

11 Ceterum aut me amor negotii suscepti fallit, aut nulla umquam res publica nec maior nec sanctior nec bonis exemplis ditior fuit, nec in quam civitatem tam serae avaritia luxuriaque inmigraverint, nec ubi tantus ac tam diu paupertati ac parsimoniae honos fuerit.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】But either the love of the task I have undertaken deceives me, or there has never been a state that is greater, or more righteous, or richer in good examples. Nor has there been one where greed and luxury migrated so late into the citizenry, nor where there has been such great respect for small means and thrift.

【穆启乐中译本】此外，没有哪个国家这样晚地受到贪婪和奢侈的侵袭，没有哪个国家的清贫和节俭在那里如此持久地受到如此大的推崇，而这或许是对所承担工作的热爱蒙蔽了我，或许是从来没有哪个国家更伟大、更富有好的例证。

【王焕生节译本】不过不管怎么说，或者是对所从事的事情的热情蒙蔽了我，或者是确实从未有过哪个国家更伟大，更虔诚，更富有良好的范例，以至于贪婪和奢靡才如此晚地一直未能渗入那个社会，清贫和节俭在那里能如此长久地才不再受到那么巨大的推崇。

12 Adeo quanto rerum minus, tanto minus cupiditatis erat; nuper divitiae avaritiam et abundantes voluptates desiderium per luxum atque libidinem pereundi perdendique omnia invexere.

Sed querellae, ne tum quidem gratae futurae cum forsitan necessariae erunt, ab initio certe tantae ordiendae rei absint;

【Valerie Warrior英译本】The less men had, the less was their greed. Recently riches have brought in avarice, and excessive pleasures have led to a desire to ruin ourselves and destroy everything through excess and self-indulgence.

But complaints are bound to be disagreeable, even when they will perhaps be necessary; so at least let them be absent from the beginning of this great enterprise.

【穆启乐中译本】的确，财产越少，贪欲越小。晚近，财富带来了贪婪，泛滥的逸乐带来了因奢靡、纵欲而毁灭自身与毁坏一切的欲望。

但是，怨言即使在所难免，也不令人愉快，它们从这样大的事业伊始就不应存在。

【王焕生节译本】确实是财富愈少，贪欲愈少：只是不久前财富才带来贪婪，泛滥的逸乐带来欲望，为了奢靡和纵欲而不惜损害和毁灭一切。……

13 cum bonis potius ominibus votisque et precationibus deorum dearumque, si, ut poetis, nobis quoque mos esset, libentius inciperemus, ut orsis tantum operis successus prosperos darent.

【Valerie Warrior英译本】Rather we would begin with good omens and, if we had the same custom as the poets, with prayers and entreaties to the gods and goddesses to grant us the blessing of success as we start this great undertaking.

【穆启乐中译本】假如我们也有诗人的习惯，我们会更情愿带着美好的希冀、许愿以及对神明的祈祷开始，以便他们赐予承担如此伟大工作的人们所期望的成功。