2016年5月30日功课
THE GREEK CITIES
古希腊城邦
THE GREEK CITIES THAT WERE REALLY STATES
古希腊城邦才是真正的城市。
WE modern people love the sound of the word ``big. '' We pride ourselves upon the fact that we belong to the ``biggest'' country in the world and possess the ``biggest'' navy and grow the ``biggest'' oranges and potatoes, and we love to live in cities of ``millions'' of inhabitants and when we are dead we are buried in the ``biggest cemetery of the whole state. ''
我们现代人喜欢听到“大”这个词。我们因为自己属于世界上“最大的”国家，拥有“最大的”海军，种植“最大的”橙子和马铃薯而洋洋得意。我们喜欢生活在有“成百上千万”居民生活的城市，即使死后也希望以全国最大的坟墓埋葬。
2016年5月31日功课
A citizen of ancient Greece, could he have heard us talk, would not have known what we meant. ``Moderation in all things'' was the ideal of his life and mere bulk did not impress him at all. And this love of moderation was not merely a hollow phrase used upon special occasions: it influenced the life of the Greeks from the day of their birth to the hour of their death. It was part of their literature and it made them build small but perfect temples. It found expression in the clothes which the men wore and in the rings and the bracelets of their wives. It followed the crowds that went to the theatre and made them hoot down any playwright who dared to sin against the iron law of good taste or good sense.
如果一个古希腊人能听到我们的谈话，他不会理解我们在说什么。“所有东西都有节制”是他生活的理想状态，纯粹的大块头对他一点吸引都没有。他们对这种“有节制”的钟爱可不仅仅是在特殊场合使用的一个空洞说辞：希腊人从出生那刻起一直到死去，生活都受它的影响。“有节制”是他们文化中的一部分，这使他们建造小巧而精致的庙宇。你可以在希腊男人们穿的衣服上以及他们妻子戴的戒指和手链上发现它的踪迹。（这种观念）跟随着进入剧院的人群，他们把胆敢违背这个金科玉律下的好品味与好意境的剧作家哄下台去。
2016年6月1日功课
The Greeks even insisted upon this quality in their politicians and in their most popular athletes.When a powerful runner came to Sparta and boasted that he could stand longer on one foot than any other man in Hellas the people drove him from the city because he prided himself upon an accomplishment at which he could be beaten by any common goose.``That is all very well,'' you will say, ``and no doubt it is a great virtue to care so much for moderation and perfection, but why should the Greeks have been the only people to develop this quality in olden times?'' For an answer I shall point to the way in which the Greeks lived.
古希腊人甚至用这种品质要求他们的政客与著名的运动员们。如果一个强健的运动员来到斯巴达吹嘘说他可以用一只脚独立比任何一个希腊人时间都长。人们会将他从这个城市赶跑，因为他引以为傲的那项成就可以随便被一只普通的鹅击败。“那都是很好的，”你会说，“并且对于节制和完美考虑这么多无疑是一种善行，但为什么希腊人是唯一在古代发展出这种品质的人？”为了寻找答案，我将转向古希腊人的生活方式。
2016年6月2日功课
The people of Egypt or Mesopotamia had been the ``subjects'' of a mysterious Supreme Ruler who lived miles and miles away in a dark palace and who was rarely seen by the masses of the population. The Greeks on the other hand, were ``free citizens'' of a hundred independent little ``cities'' the largest of which counted fewer inhabitants than a large modern village. When a peasant who lived in Ur said that he was a Babylonian he meant that he was one of millions of other people who paid tribute to the king who at that particular moment happened to be master of western Asia. But when a Greek said proudly that he was an Athenian or a Theban he spoke of a small town, which was both his home and his country and which recognised no master but the will of the people in the market-place.
埃及人或者美索不达米亚人是至高无上统治者的“附属品”，那些统治者很少被普通大众看到，远离人们居住在黑暗的宫殿里。希腊人却截然相反，是成百上千个独立“小城”的“自由公民”，那些“小城”最大的也不及我们现在一个大的村镇人口多。如果一个住在乌尔（古代美索不达亚南部苏美尔的重要城市）的农民说他是一个巴比伦人，那他的意思是他是像其它几百万人一样是在像那个时候恰好统治西亚的那个国王表示尊敬。但是当一个古希腊人说他是一个雅典人或者是一个底比斯人，他是在说一个小镇。那既是他的国家，也是他的家乡。这些小镇不被权威承认，但是这是市场中的人们的意志。
2016年6月3日功课
To the Greek, his fatherland was the place where he was born; where he had spent his earliest years playing hide and seek amidst the forbidden rocks of the Acropolis; where he had grown into manhood with a thousand other boys and girls, whose nicknames were as familiar to him as those of your own schoolmates. His Fatherland was the holy soil where his father and mother lay buried. It was the small house within the high city-walls where his wife and children lived in safety. It was a complete world which covered no more than four or five acres of rocky land. Don't you see how these surroundings must have influenced a man in everything he did and said and thought? The people of Babylon and Assyria and Egypt had been part of a vast mob. They had been lost in the multitude. The Greek on the other hand had never lost touch with his immediate surroundings. He never ceased to be part of a little town where everybody knew every one else. He felt that his intelligent neighbours were watching him. Whatever he did, whether he wrote plays or made statues out of marble or composed songs, he remembered that his efforts were going to be judged by all the free-born citizens of his home-town who knew about such things. This knowledge forced him to strive after perfection, and perfection, as he had been taught from childhood, was not possible without moderation.
对于一个古希腊人来说，他的祖国就是他出生的地方；是他小时候在卫城的禁岩里玩捉迷藏的地方；是他和其他千百个男孩女孩曾经长大成人的地方，他们都有相似的绰号，就像你和你的同学们那样。他的祖国是他的父母安息的圣土。那是高高的城墙内妻子孩子安心居住的一座小房子。那是一个纯粹的地方，只是一块不超过四五英亩的岩石之地。难道你没有看出来周围环境是如何必定的影响一个人的所思，所说，所做的一切吗？巴比伦人，亚述人和埃及人就是一群乌合之众。他们在人群中迷失。古希腊人恰恰相反，不会脱离他直接的环境。他从不否认自己是那个人人都相互熟识的小镇的一份子。他认为他那有智慧的邻居在时刻关注着他。无论他在做什么，不论是在写剧本，或者雕刻大理石塑像，或者是在创作歌曲，他都会想到他的心血会被家乡那些熟悉这些事物并且生来自由的市民评判。这种观念驱使他努力追求完美，不过这种完美正如他从小所受的教导那样，离开了适度是不可能达到的。
2016年6月4日功课
In this hard school, the Greeks learned to excel in many things. They created new forms of government and new forms of literature and new ideals in art which we have never been able to surpass. They performed these miracles in little villages that covered less ground than four or five modern city blocks.
在这所严酷的学校里，古希腊人在许多方面都学习的非常优秀。他们创造了新的政府形式，新的文学形式，以及我们从未超越过的新的艺术典范。他们在还不及我们现代城市四五个街区大的小镇里创造出那些奇迹。
And look, what finally happened!
接着看，最后又发生了什么！
2016年6月5日功课
In the fourth century before our era, Alexander of Macedonia conquered the world. As soon as he had done with fighting, Alexander decided that he must bestow the benefits of the true Greek genius upon all mankind. He took it away from the little cities and the little villages and tried to make it blossom and bear fruit amidst the vast royal residences of his newly acquired Empire. But the Greeks, removed from the familiar sight of their own temples, removed from the well-known sounds and smells of their own crooked streets, at once lost the cheerful joy and the marvellous sense of moderation which had inspired the work of their hands and brains while they laboured for the glory of their old city-states. They became cheap artisans, content with second-rate work. The day the little city-states of old Hellas lost their independence and were forced to become part of a big nation, the old Greek spirit died. And it has been dead ever since.
公元前400年，马其顿帝国的亚历山大大帝征服了这个世界。战争已结束，亚历山大就决定将古希腊这些真正天才的优点向全人类展示。他把这些希腊天才们从小城镇里带走，想让他们在他刚获得的欧洲豪宅里开花结果。但是希腊人离开了他们熟悉的神庙，离开了他们熟悉的曲折街道上声音和气味，同时也失去了鼓舞他们的双手和大脑创作的喜悦和适度的感觉。他们勉强维持古老城邦的荣誉。他们沦落为便宜的艺术家，创作二流作品。当古希腊的小城邦失去独立性，被迫成为一个大国的一部分时，古希腊精神逝去了。并且永远的逝去了。