Of Physiognomy
Socrates was a perfect exemplar in all great qualities, and I am vexed that he had so deformed a face and body as is said, and so unsuitable to the beauty of his soul, himself being so amorous and such an admirer of beauty: Nature did him wrong. There is nothing more probable than the conformity and relation of the body to the soul:
It is of great consequence in vhat bodies minds are placed, for many things spring from the body that may sharpen the mind,and many that may blunt it.
---Cicero
论相貌
无论谈及人类哪方面的优秀品质,苏格拉底都堪称完美的典范,但令我感到沮丧的是,他的相貌和身形却相当丑陋。正如人们所说,他的容貌和体态与他美丽的心灵简直大相径庭,但他本人却对美情有独钟、赞赏有加——大自然对他实在是太不公平了。身体与灵魂的水乳交融、协调一致本应是最有可能发生的事。
对灵魂来说,被放置于什么样的身体里面意义重大,因为身体的许多机能都可使心灵敏感,但也有许多机能会使心灵迟钝。
——西塞罗
This refers to an unnatural ugliness and deformity of limbs; but we call ugliness also an unseemliness at first sight, which is principally lodged in the face, and disgusts us on very slight grounds: by the complexion, a spot, a rugged countenance, for some reasons often wholly inexplicable, in members nevertheless of good symmetry and perfect. The deformity, that clothed a very beautiful soul in La Boetie, was of this predicament: that superficial ugliness, which nevertheless is always the most imperious, is of least prejudice to the state of the mind, and of little certainty in the opinion of men. The other, which is never properly called deformity, being more substantial, strikes deeper in. Not every shoe of smooth shining leather, but every shoe well-made, shews the shape of the foot within. As Socrates said of his, it betrayed equal ugliness in his soul, had he not corrected it by education; but in saying so, I hold he was in jest, as his custom was; never so excellent a soul formed itself.
西塞罗在这里指的是反常的丑陋和四肢的畸形,而我们却把主要表现在外观上的、第一眼不能使人赏心悦目的东西也称为丑陋,而且这些令我们心生反感的事物通常都是不足挂齿的，诸如脸色、雀斑、皱纹等。由于某些难以解释的原因,这些情况有时还会出现在一些体形对称、完美的人身上,外表丑陋但心灵极美的拉波埃提就是最好的例子。这种外在的丑陋虽然看起来极为严重,却丝毫影响不到人的心灵,也几乎不能作为衡量一个人的标准。另外一种丑陋更更怡当的名称应是畸形,是更为实质性的丑陋,对人的打击也更为深重。所谓的好鞋,指的并不是光滑闪亮的皮鞋,而是那些能使鞋里面的脚感到舒适,并显得美观的鞋。苏格拉底在谈到自己的丑陋时说过,如果他没有通过教育来对他的丑陋进行纠正的话,他的灵魂肯定也会表现出丑陋来。话虽如此,但根据他的习惯，我认为这是一句玩笑话,因为美好的心灵并不是与生俱来的。
I cannot often enough repeat how great an esteem I have for beauty, that potent and advantageous quality; he (La Boetie) called it "a short tyranny," and Plato, "the privilege of nature." We have nothing that excels it in reputation; it has the first place in the commerce of men; it presents itself in the front; seduces and prepossesses our judgments with great authority and wonderful impression. Phryne had lost her cause in the hands of an excellent advocate, if, opening her robe, she had not corrupted her judges by the lustre of her beauty. And I find that Cyrus, Alexander, and Caesar, the three masters of the world, never neglected beauty in their greatest affairs; no more did the first Scipio. The same word in Greek signifies both fair and good; and the Holy Word often says good when it means fair: I should willingly maintain the priority in good things, according to the song that Plato calls an idle thing, taken out of some ancient poet: "health, beauty, riches." Aristotle says that the right of command appertains to the beautiful; and that, when there is a person whose beauty comes near the images of the gods, veneration is equally due to him. To him who asked why people oftener and longer frequent the company of handsome persons: "That question," said he, "is only to be asked by the blind." Most of the philosophers, and the greatest, paid for their schooling, and acquired wisdom by the favour and mediation of their beauty.
我不可能总是喋喋不休地说我如何重视美这种既重要又有益的特性。拉波埃提说美是“一种短期的专制”,柏拉图称其为“大自然的特权”。美的声望超越一切,它在人们的交往活动中处于首要地位,总是能先声夺人，以无上的威力和惊人的面貌诱惑着我们，并左右着我们的判断。弗瑞妮如果没有解开她的裙袍,用她娇艳的美丽腐蚀法官的话，她的案子就会在一位优秀律师手里败诉。我发现,居鲁士、亚历山大和恺撒这三位世界的主宰者在开创自己的伟大事业的时候,从未对“美”漠然置之过;大西庇阿也是如此。在希腊文里，“美”这个词包含美好和善良的意思;在圣言中,善良的人常常也被称为美丽的人。古代流传下来的一首歌谣，将美好的事物依次列为:“健康、美丽、财富”,柏拉图认为这不能代表什么意义,但我却非常费同这样的顺序。亚里士多德说,指挥的权利属于美丽的人，当一个人的美丽程度已接近众神之像时，他自然有权享有人们对他的崇敬。有人问,为什么人们总是与美丽的人交往得更频繁、更长久,他说:“只有目光短浅者才会提出这样的问题。”大多数哲人及伟人,都凭借他们的美好所产生的亲切感和影响力来得到锻炼、获得智慧。
上一篇：没有了
下一篇：散文翻译示例——Of Experience/论经验（蒙田随笔）
微信公众号搜索“译员”关注我们，每天为您推送翻译理论和技巧，外语学习及翻译招聘信息。