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?本書簡介:
《沉思錄》是古羅馬皇帝奧勒留寫給自己的書,內容大部分是他在鞍馬勞頓中寫成的。作品來自奧勒留對身羈宮廷的自己和自己所處混亂世界的感受,追求一種冷靜而達觀的生活。這部著作是斯多葛學派的一個里程碑,亦是溫總理放在枕邊,讀了不下百遍的書。
本書原文由古希臘文而作,英文版選擇比較權威的George Long的版本,中文版選擇何懷宏的版本作參考。筆記中的英文釋義摘自《牛津高階英漢雙解詞典》

?作者簡介:
馬可?奧勒留(Marcus Aurelius,公元121—180年),著名的“帝王哲學家”,古羅馬帝國皇帝,在希臘文學和拉丁文學、修辭、哲學、法律、繪畫方面受過很好的教育,晚期斯多葛學派代表人物之一。奧勒留也許是西方歷史上唯一的一位哲學家皇帝。他是一個比他的帝國更加完美的人,他的勤奮工作最終并沒有能夠挽救古羅馬,但是他的《沉思錄》卻成為西方歷史上的偉大名著。

卷五03

5.5?Things are in such a kind of envelopment that they have seemed to philosophers, not a few nor those common philosophers, altogether unintelligible; nay even to the Stoics themselves they seem difficult to understand. And all our assent is changeable; for where is the man who never changes? Carry thy thoughts then to the objects themselves, and consider how short-lived they are and worthless, and that they may be in the possession of a filthy wretch or a whore or a robber. Then turn to the morals of those who live with thee, and it is hardly possible to endure even the most agreeable of them, to say nothing of a man being hardly able to endure himself. In such darkness then and dirt and in so constant a flux both of substance and of time, and of motion and of things moved, what there is worth being highly prized or even an object of serious pursuit, I cannot imagine. But on the contrary it is a man's duty to comfort himself, and to wait for the natural dissolution and not to be vexed at the delay, but to rest in these principles only: the one, that nothing will happen to me which is not conformable to the nature of the universe; and the other, that it is in my power never to act contrary to my god and daemon: for there is no man who will compel me to this.

?Notes:
filthy [adj] 1. very dirty and unpleasant
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 2. very rude and offensive and usually connected with sex.
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 3. (informal) showing anger
? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? 4. cold and wet
flux [n] 1. continuous movement and change
? ? ? ? ? ? 2. a flow; an act of flowing
vex [v]?
to annoy or worry somebody

5.6?About what am I now employing my own soul? On every occasion I must ask myself this question, and inquire, what have I now in this part of me which they call the ruling principle? And whose soul have I now? That of a child, or of a young man, or of a feeble woman, or of a tyrant, or of a domestic animal, or of a wild beast?

?Notes:
tyrant [n] a person who has complete power in a country and uses it in a cruel and unfair way

?先嘗試自己翻譯一下吧,參考譯文見下:

中文翻譯:
5.5?事物是在如此一種包圍之中,以致在哲學家們(不是少數(shù)的也不是那些普通的哲學家)看來是完全不可解的,甚至對斯多亞派哲學家本身來說也是難于理解的。所有我們的同意都在變動不居之中,從不改變的人哪兒有呢?那么把你的思想帶到對象本身,考慮它們的存在是多么短促而無價值吧,它們可能是為一個卑鄙的可憐蟲,或一個娼妓、一個強盜所占有。然后再想想那些和你生活在一起的人們的道德水平,即使容忍他們中最令人愉悅的人也是幾乎不可能的,更不必說容忍一個幾乎不能容忍自己的人了。那么在如此的黑暗和骯臟中,在如此不斷流動的實體和時間、運動和被推動的物體的急流中,有什么值得高度贊揚甚或值得認真追求的對象呢?我想像不出有這樣的對象。反之,順應自身,等待自然的分解,為為延緩而煩惱,卻是一個人的義務,但僅僅使你在這些中得到安寧吧:一是對我發(fā)生的一切事情都是符合宇宙的本性的;二是決不違反我身外和身內的神而行動是在我的力量范圍之內,因為沒有人將迫使我違反。

5.6?我現(xiàn)在要把我自己的靈魂用于什么事情上呢?在任何場合我都必須問自己這個問題,我在我的這一被稱為支配原則的部分中擁有什么呢?我現(xiàn)在擁有誰的靈魂呢?是一個孩子的靈魂?抑或一個年青人、一個軟弱的婦人、一個暴君、一個家畜、一個野獸的靈魂?

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