2016年6月13日功课

HOW THE GREEKS LIVED

古希腊人怎么生活

BUT how, you will ask, did the ancient Greeks have time to look after their families and their business if they were forever running to the market-place to discuss affairs of state? In this chapter I shall tell you.

但是你会问，如果古希腊人需要不停跑到集市上讨论国家大事，那他们怎么有时间照看自己的家庭和生意呢？在这一章我会告诉你。

In all matters of government, the Greek democracy recognised only one class of citizens–the freemen. Every Greek city was composed of a small number of free born citizens, a large number of slaves and a sprinkling of foreigners.

在所有的政府事物里，古希腊的民主制度只承认唯一的自由市民等级。每一个城市都由一小部分自由公民和绝大多数的奴隶以及少数的外国人组成。

2016年6月14日功课

At rare intervals (usually during a war, when men were needed for the army) the Greeks showed themselves willing to confer the rights of citizenship upon the “barbarians” as they called the foreigners. But this was an exception. Citizenship was a matter of birth. You were an Athenian because your father and your grandfather had been Athenians before you. But however great your merits as a trader or a soldier, if you were born of non-Athenian parents, you remained a “foreigner" until the end of time.

在极少数（通常在战争期间，当军队需要男丁时）的情况下，希腊人才会主动将公民权授给被称为外来户的“野蛮人门”。但这是一个特例。公民权与出身有关。你是一个雅典人那是因为你的父亲和你的祖父是雅典人。作为一个商人或者士兵，无论你多么突出，多么优秀，如果你的父母亲不是雅典人，终其一生你也只能是一个“外来者”。

2016年6月15日功课

The Greek city, therefore, whenever it was not ruled by a king or a tyrant, was run by and for the freemen, and this would not have been possible without a large army of slaves who outnumbered the free citizens at the rate of six or five to one and who performed those tasks to which we modern people must devote most of our time and energy if we wish to provide for our families and pay the rent of our apartments.

无论是在国王统治时期还是暴君时代，古希腊城市都是被自由民控制也为自由民存在，如果不是因为一只奴隶军团的存在，这是不可能实现的。奴隶群体在数量上远远超过自由民，大概五或六比一的样子。我们现代人必须竭尽全力工作以供养家庭和缴纳房租，而这些工作希腊人都让奴隶来做。

2016年6月16日功课

The slaves did all the cooking and baking and candlestick making of the entire city. They were the tailors and the carpenters and the jewelers and the school-teachers and the bookkeepers and they tended the store and looked after the factory while the master went to the public meeting to discuss questions of war and peace or visited the theatre to see the latest play of AEschylus or hear a discussion of the revolutionary ideas of Euripides, who had dared to express certain doubts upon the omnipotence of the great god Zeus.

奴隶们承担了整个城市里所有的烹饪、烘焙和蜡烛制作工作。他们是裁缝、木匠、珠宝匠人、教员、图书管理员。当他们的主人离开去参加公众集会讨论战争与和平时，或者去剧场观看埃斯库罗斯（希腊的诗人及悲剧作家）的最新演出时，或者是去旁听关于欧里庇得斯（希腊的悲剧诗人）的革命性观念的讨论时，他们照管商店和工厂。欧里庇得斯敢于对宙斯大帝的全能性表示明确的怀疑。

Indeed, ancient Athens resembled a modem club. All the freeborn citizens were hereditary members and all the slaves were hereditary servants, and waited upon the needs of their masters, and it was very pleasant to be a member of the organisation.

实际上，古雅典人组成了一个现代式俱乐部。所有的自由出生公民天生就是成员，所有的奴隶天生就是仆人，对他们主人的需求随时待命。成为这个组织的一员是一种极大的乐趣。

2016年6月17日功课

But when we talk about slaves. we do not mean the sort of people about whom you have read in the pages of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” It is true that the position of those slaves who tilled the fields was a very unpleasant one, but the average freeman[ (who had come down in the world and who had been obliged to hire himself out as a farm hand) ]led just as miserable a life. In the cities, furthermore, many of the slaves were more prosperous than the poorer classes of the freemen. For the Greeks, who loved moderation in all things, did not like to treat their slaves after the fashion which afterward was so common in Rome, where a slave had as few rights as an engine in a modern factory and could be thrown to the wild animals upon the smallest pretext.

但是当我们讨论奴隶时，可不是在说你从《汤姆叔叔的小屋》的故事里听说的那些人。的确，那些耕地的奴隶是一个非常不幸的角色，但是当普通的自由民落魄后也不得不自己干农活，（落魄的自由民）生活同样悲。并且在城市里，大多数奴隶的生活比贫困的自由民更富足。对万事讲究适度的希腊人来说，对待他们的奴隶不会像罗马人那样。后来在罗马非常流行的方式——那里的奴隶和工厂里的机器差不多，可能会因为莫须有的罪名被喂了野兽。

The Greeks accepted slavery as a necessary institution, without which no city could possibly become the home of a truly civilised people.

古希腊人将奴隶视为一种必要的制度，离开了奴隶没有城市可以成为适合一个真正文明人居住的地方。

2016年6月18日功课

The slaves also took care of those tasks which nowadays are performed by the business men and the professional men. As for those household duties which take up so much of the time of your mother and which worry your father when he comes home from his office, the Greeks, who understood the value of leisure, had reduced such duties to the smallest possible minimum by living amidst surroundings of extreme simplicity.

奴隶们也承担一些在现代由商人和专业人士做的工作。家务活儿占用了你妈妈太多的时间，也让你爸爸下班后伤透脑筋。但希腊人懂得消遣的意义，为了尽量减少干家务活儿，他们居住在简单到极致的环境里。

To begin with, their homes were very plain. Even the rich nobles spent their lives in a sort of adobe barn, which lacked all the comforts which a modern workman expects as his natural right. A Greek home consisted of four walls and a roof. There was a door which led into the street but there were no windows. The kitchen, the living rooms and the sleeping quarters were built around an open courtyard in which there was a small fountain, or a statue and a few plants to make it look bright. Within this courtyard the family lived when it did not rain or when it was not too cold.

现在我们来看看希腊人的家，他们的住宅非常的简单。甚至富有的贵族都居住在一种类似土坯垒成的谷仓里，哪里还没有现代工人的工作环境舒适。一个希腊人的住宅有四堵墙和一个屋顶组成，有一扇门开到街上，但没有窗户。厨房、起居室和卧室就坐落在一个开放院子的四周。院子里摆放一个喷泉，或者一个雕塑也或者是少许绿植，这样使院子充满生机。当天不下雨或者不是太冷时，一家人就住在这个院子里。

2016年6月19日功课

In one corner of the yard the cook (who was a slave) prepared the meal and in another corner, the teacher (who was also a slave) taught the children the alpha beta gamma and the tables of multiplication and in still another corner the lady of the house, who rarely left her domain (since it was not considered good form for a married woman to be seen on the street too often) was repairing her husband’s coat with her seamstresses (who were slaves,) and in the little office, right off the door, the master was inspecting the accounts which the overseer of his farm (who was a slave) had just brought to him.

厨子（他是一个奴隶）在院子的一个角落里准备饭食，另一个角落里家庭教师（他是一个奴隶）正在教孩子们字母表和乘法口诀，剩下的一个角落里女主人和缝纫女工们（她们都是奴隶）正在准备他丈夫的外套，女主人很少离开家（因为结过婚的女人不能经常到大街上去），在门右侧的小办公室里，男主人正在检查他的农场监工（也是一个奴隶）刚带过来的账本。

When dinner was ready the family came together but the meal was a very simple one and did not take much time. The Greeks seem to have regarded eating as an unavoidable evil and not a pastime, which kills many dreary hours and eventually kills many dreary people. They lived on bread and on wine, with a little meat and some green vegetables. They drank water only when nothing else was available because they did not think it very healthy. They loved to call on each other for dinner, but our idea of a festive meal, where everybody is supposed to eat much more than is good for him, would have disgusted them. They came together at the table for the purpose of a good talk and a good glass of wine and water, but as they were moderate people they despised those who drank too much.

当饭菜就绪，家人们都围在一起吃饭。但饭菜非常简单，要不了一会儿就吃完了。古希腊人将吃饭视为一件无法避免的烦心事，而不是一种消遣。吃饭这件事排解了许多无聊的时光，甚至消遣了许多苦闷的人。他们以面包和葡萄酒为食，也吃一些少量的肉和绿色蔬菜。他们只有在没东西可喝时才喝点水，因为他们认为喝水对健康没什么益处。他们乐于呼朋引伴一起聚餐，每个人都会吃的太多不舒服，在我们看来就是一次节日宴会。他们围坐一起是为了痛快的聊天以及畅饮葡萄酒和水，但因为古希腊人是喜欢中庸的人，他们鄙视那些喝多的人。

2016年6月20日功课

The same simplicity which prevailed in the dining room also dominated their choice of clothes. They liked to be clean and well groomed, to have their hair and beards neatly cut, to feel their bodies strong with the exercise and the swimming of the gymnasium, but they never followed the Asiatic fashion which prescribed loud colours and strange patterns. They wore a long white coat and they managed to look as smart as a modern Italian officer in his long blue cape.

在餐厅起决定作用的极简主义原则同样支配着希腊人在穿衣的选择上。他们喜欢干净整洁的样子，胡子和头发都剪的很整齐，他们通过健身和游泳来保持强壮的身体，但他们从不追随亚洲人的潮流——固定的强烈色彩和奇怪图形。他们穿一个白色长袍，设法使自己看起来像穿着长披肩的现代意大利公务员那样精明。

They loved to see their wives wear ornaments but they thought it very vulgar to display their wealth (or their wives) in public and whenever the women left their home they were as inconspicuous as possible.

希腊人乐意看自己的妻子戴首饰，但是他们认为在公众场合显露财富（或者妻子）非常粗俗。所以，只要希腊人的妻子离开家，她们尽可能地使自己不显眼。

2016年6月21日功课

In short, the story of Greek life is a story not only of moderation but also of simplicity. “Things,” chairs and tables and books and houses and carriages, are apt to take up a great deal of their owner’s time. In the end they invariably make him their slave and his hours are spent looking after their wants, keeping them polished and brushed and painted. The Greeks, before everything else, wanted to be “free,” both in mind and in body. That they might maintain their liberty, and be truly free in spirit, they reduced their daily needs to the lowest possible point.

简单的说，希腊人的生活不仅是一部关于中庸的故事也是关于简单的故事。“万事”都只是浪费光阴，比如椅子、桌子、书籍、房子以及马车。最终这些工作总是推给他们的奴隶来做，他们自己就养尊处优。希腊人什么都可以不要，但想要“自由”，思想和身体都要自由。因此，希腊人可能为了维护他们的自由，精神上真正的自由，他们把每天的需求降低到最可能的低点。