苏格拉底的申辩
摘自柏拉图《理想国》
Apology, Socrates' Defense
By Plato
严群 /译
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按段落分三个部分：
1. 苏格拉底的申辩 [1]~[24]
[投票有罪]
2. 苏格拉底的发言 [25]~[28]
[法官宣判死罪]
3. 苏格拉底再发言及告别[29]~[33]
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〔一〕雅典人啊，你们如何受我的原告们影响，我不得而知；至于我，也几乎自忘其为我，他们的话说得娓娓动听，只是没有一句真话。他们许多假话中，最离奇的是警告你们要提防，免受我骗，因我是个可怕的雄辩家。无耻之极！他们无耻，因为事实就要证明，我丝毫不显得善辩，除非他们以说真话为善辩。他们若是以真话为善辩，我还自认是演说家——不是他们那种演说家。他们的话全假，我说的句句是真；藉帝士的名义，雅典人啊，不像他们那样雕词琢句、修饰铺张，只是随想随说，未经组织的话。自信我说的全是公道话，你们不必多心，反求节外生枝之意；我这年纪的人绝不至于像小孩那样说谎。可是，雅典人啊，恳切求你们，在我的申辩中，若听到我平素在市场兑换摊旁或其他地方所惯用的言语，你们不要见怪而阻止我。我活了七十岁，这是第一次上法庭，对此地的辞令，我是个门外汉。我若是真是一个外邦人，你们就会原谅我，准我说自幼学会的乡腔；现在我也如此要求，似乎不过分：不论辞令之优劣，只问话本身是否公正。只是审判官应有的品德，献辞者的本分在于说实话。
How you have felt, O men of Athens, at hearing the speeches of my accusers, I cannot tell; but I know that their persuasive words almost made me forget who I was - such was the effect of them; and yet they have hardly spoken a word of truth. But many as their falsehoods were, there was one of them which quite amazed me; - I mean when they told you to be upon your guard, and not to let yourselves be deceived by the force of my eloquence. They ought to have been ashamed of saying this, because they were sure to be detected as soon as I opened my lips and displayed my deficiency; they certainly did appear to be most shameless in saying this, unless by the force of eloquence they mean the force of truth; for then I do indeed admit that I am eloquent. But in how different a way from theirs! Well, as I was saying, they have hardly uttered a word, or not more than
a word, of truth; but you shall hear from me the whole truth: not, however, delivered after their manner, in a set oration duly ornamented with words and phrases. No indeed! but I shall use the words and arguments which occur to me at the moment; for I am certain that this is right, and that at my time of life I ought not to be appearing before you, O men of Athens, in the character of a juvenile orator - let no one expect this of me. And I must beg of you to grant me one favor, which is this - If you hear me using the same words in my defence which I have been in the habit of using, and which most of you may have heard
in the agora, and at the tables of the money-changers, or anywhere else, I would ask you not to be surprised at this, and not to interrupt me. For I am more than seventy years of age, and this is the first time that I have ever appeared in a court of law, and I am quite a stranger to the ways of the place; and therefore I would have you regard me as if I were really a stranger, whom you would excuse if he spoke in his native tongue, and after the fashion of his country; - that I think is not an unfair request. Never mind the manner, which may or may not be good; but think only of the justice of my cause, and give heed to that: let the judge decide justly and the speaker speak truly.
〔二〕第一步，雅典人啊，我应当先对第一批与原告及其伪辞进行答辩，然后再对第二批的。在你们以前，积年累岁，已有许多对我的原告，说些毫无事实根据的假话。安匿托士等固然可怕，这批人更可怕，我怕他们过于安匿托士等，雅典人啊，你们多数人自幼就受他们影响，相信他们对我毫无事实的诬告。他们说：“有一个所谓智者苏格拉底，凡天上地下的一切无不钻研，辩才且能强词夺理。”
And first, I have to reply to the older charges and to my first accusers, and then I will go to the later ones. For I have had many accusers, who accused me of old, and their false charges have continued during many years; and I am more afraid of them than of Anytus and his associates, who are dangerous, too, in their own way. But far more dangerous are these, who began when you were children, and took possession of your minds with their falsehoods, telling of one Socrates, a wise man, who speculated about the heaven above, and searched into the earth beneath, and made the worse appear the better cause.
雅典人啊，他们传播这种无稽之谈，他们是我凶恶的原告，因为听其宣传者往往以为，钻研这类事物的人必也不信神。这批原告人数既多，历时又久，他们早在你们幼年最易听信流言蜚语时向你们注入这种诬告之辞，当时说是尚在孩提，或是方及童年。他们单方挂了案，作为原告从不到案，因为没有被告的另一造出来答辩。最荒唐的是，他们的姓名不可得而知而指，只知其中有一个喜剧作家。凡挟妒与包藏祸心向你们宣传的人，或本身受宣传再去宣传，这些人最难对付。既不可能传他们到此地来对质，我又不得不申辩，只是对影申辩，向无人处问话。请你们记住，如我所说，有两批原告，一批最近的，一批久远的；再请你们了解，我必须先对第一批答辩，因为他们先告我，并且远比第二批强有力。
These are the accusers whom I dread; for they are the circulators of this rumor, and their hearers are too apt to fancy that speculators of this sort do not believe in the gods. And they are many, and their charges against me are of ancient date, and they made them in days when you were impressible - in childhood, or perhaps in youth - and the cause when heard went by default, for there was none to answer. And, hardest of all, their names I do not know and cannot tell; unless in the chance of a comic poet. But the main body of these slanderers who from envy and malice have wrought upon you - and there are some of them who are convinced themselves, and impart their convictions to others - all these, I say, are most difficult to deal with; for I cannot have them up here, and examine them, and therefore I must simply fight with shadows in my own defence, and examine when
there is no one who answers. I will ask you then to assume with me, as I was saying, that my opponents are of two kinds - one recent, the other ancient; and I hope that you will see the propriety of my answering the latter first, for these accusations you heard long before the others, and much oftener.
雅典人啊，我必须申辩，我必须设法以如此短暂的时间消除久居你们胸中的诬告之辞。但愿这做得到，如果对你、我更有利；也希望我的申辩能起更大作用。但我认为这是难得，我并不忽视事体之难易。没有别的，听神的旨意罢，现在我必须依法申辩。
Well, then, I will make my defence, and I will endeavor in the short time which is allowed to do away with this evil opinion of me which you have held for such a long time; and I hope I may succeed, if this be well for you and me, and that my words may
find favor with you. But I know that to accomplish this is not easy - I quite see the nature of the task. Let the event be as God wills: in obedience to the law I make my defence.
〔三〕我们首先提个问题；引起对我攻击、激起迈雷托士对我起诉的诬告之罪是什么？攻击的人说些什么来攻击？他们的话需要重述一边，仿佛原告自读宣誓过的讼辞：“苏格拉底是无事忙得为非作恶的人，凡地下天上的一切无不钻研，能强词夺理，还能把这些伎俩传授他人。”诬告的苏格拉底，自命能排云乘雾，说些我毫不分晓的无稽之谈。我说这话并不是轻蔑那种知识，如有人是那方面的智者；我只是对迈雷托士诬告的如此大罪申辩，因为，我的雅典人啊，我与那种知识毫无干系。请你们之中的多数人为我作证。在座听我谈话的人很多，凡听过我谈话的人，我要求你们互相质问，究竟曾听多少我关于这方面的言论。你们由此可知，众口纷纷关于我的其他罪状大都是同此莫须有的。
I will begin at the beginning, and ask what the accusation is which has given rise to this slander of me, and which has encouraged Meletus to proceed against me. What do the slanderers say? They shall be my prosecutors, and I will sum up their words in an affidavit. "Socrates is an evil-doer, and a curious person, who searches into things under the earth and in heaven, and he makes the worse appear the better cause; and he teaches the aforesaid doctrines to others." That is the nature of the accusation, and that is what you have seen yourselves in the comedy of Aristophanes; who has introduced a man whom he calls Socrates, going about and saying that he can walk in the air, and talking a deal of nonsense concerning matters of which I do not pretend to know either much or little - not that I mean to say anything disparaging of anyone who is a student of natural
philosophy. I should be very sorry if Meletus could lay that to my charge. But the simple truth is, O Athenians, that I have nothing to do with these studies. Very many of those here present are witnesses to the truth of this, and to them I appeal. Speak then, you who have heard me, and tell your neighbors whether any of you have ever known me hold forth in few words or in many upon matters of this sort. ... You hear their answer. And from what they say of this you will be able to judge of the truth of the rest.
〔四〕这些事实无一真实；你们如果听说我教人，并且藉此得钱，这也不是事实。若能救人，对我却是妙事。如赖安庭诺斯的郜吉亚士、凯恶斯的普漏迪恪士、意类恶斯的希皮亚士，他们个个能周游各城，说其青年之能无代价地随意与本城的人同群者，弃其群而追随他们，送他们钱，而且感谢不尽。此地另有一位智者，是巴里安人，听说他还在本城。我偶然遇见一。位在智者们身上花钱比所有人都多得，他是西朋匿苦士的公子卡利亚士。他有两个男儿，我问他：“卡利亚士，你的二子若是驹或犊，你会为他们顾看官人，使他们各尽其性，成有用之材；看管人不外一个马夫或牧人。然而你子是人，你意中想为他们物色一位什么看管人？关于人的本分和公民的天职，谁有这方面的知识？我想你留意物色，因你又二子。已物色一位，或犹未也？”当然有了，他说：“从巴里安来的叶卫诺士，他要五个命那。”叶卫诺士煞有福气，如果真有这种技术，真会教得好。我若会这种技术，该多么自豪呢；可是我不会，雅典人啊。
As little foundation is there for the report that I am a teacher, and take money; that is no more true than the other. Although, if a man is able to teach, I honor him for being paid. There is Gorgias of Leontium, and Prodicus of Ceos, and Hippias of Elis, who go the round of the cities, and are able to persuade the young men to leave their own citizens, by
whom they might be taught for nothing, and come to them, whom they not only pay, but are thankful if they may be allowed to pay them. There is actually a Parian philosopher residing in Athens, of whom I have heard; and I came to hear of him in this way: - I met a man who has spent a world of money on the Sophists, Callias the son of Hipponicus, and knowing that he had sons, I asked him: "Callias," I said, "if your two sons were foals or calves, there would be no difficulty in finding someone to put over them; we should hire a trainer of horses or a farmer probably who would improve and perfect them in their
own proper virtue and excellence; but as they are human beings, whom are you thinking of placing over them? Is there anyone who understands human and political virtue? You must have thought about this as you have sons; is there anyone?" "There is," he said. "Who is he?" said I, "and of what country? and what does he charge?" "Evenus the Parian," he replied; "he is the man, and his charge is five minae." Happy is Evenus, I said to myself, if he really has this wisdom, and teaches at such a modest charge. Had I the same, I should have been very proud and conceited; but the truth is that I have no knowledge of the kind.
〔五〕也许你们有人会问：“你怎么啦，苏格拉底？对你的诬告怎么来的？你如没有哗众骇俗的言行，这类谣传断不至于无端而起。请你源源本本诉说一边，免得我们对你下的卤莽的判断。”我认为提出这个质问的人是说公道话，我要剖白我得此不虞之誉而致谤的缘由。请听。或者有人以为我说笑话，请相信，我对你们全盘托出事实。雅典人啊，我无非由于某种智慧而得此不虞之誉。何种智慧？也许只不过人的智慧。或者我真有这种智慧。方才我所提的那些人也许有过人的智慧。我不知道如何让形容他们的智慧，因我对那种智慧一窍不通。说我有那种智慧的人说谎，是对我伪作飞扬谤讪之语。雅典人啊，那使我对你们显得说大话，也不要高声阻挠我；我说的不是自己的话，是引证你们认为有分量的言语。我如果真有智慧，什么智慧、何种智慧，有帯勒弗伊的神为证。你们认识海勒丰罢，他是我的总角之交，也是你们多数党的同志，和你们同被放逐、同回来得。你们了解他是何如人，对事何等激进热诚。又一次他竟敢去帯勒弗伊求谶；诸位不要截断我的话；他问神，有人智过于我否？辟提亚的谶答曰：“无也。”如今海勒丰已故，他的令弟在此，能对你们作证。
I dare say, Athenians, that someone among you will reply, "Why is this, Socrates, and what is the origin of these accusations of you: for there must have been something strange which you have been doing? All this great fame and talk about you would never have arisen if you had been like other men: tell us, then, why this is, as we should be sorry to judge hastily of you." Now I regard this as a fair challenge, and I will endeavor to explain to you the origin of this name of "wise," and of this evil fame. Please to attend then. And although some of you may think I am joking, I declare that I will tell you the entire truth. Men of Athens, this reputation of mine has come of a certain sort of wisdom which I possess. If you ask me what kind of wisdom, I reply, such wisdom as is attainable by man, for to that extent I am inclined to believe that I am wise; whereas the persons of whom I was speaking have a superhuman wisdom, which I may fail to describe, because I have it not myself; and he who says that I have, speaks falsely, and is taking away my character. And here, O men of Athens, I must beg you not to interrupt me, even if I seem to say something extravagant. For the word which I will speak is not mine. I will refer you to a witness who is worthy of credit, and will tell you about my wisdom - whether I have any, and of what sort - and that witness shall be the god of Delphi. You must have known Chaerephon; he was early a friend of mine, and also a friend of yours, for he shared in the exile of the people, and returned with you. Well, Chaerephon, as you know, was very impetuous in all his doings, and he went to Delphi and boldly asked the oracle to tell him whether - as I was saying, I must beg you not to interrupt - he asked the oracle
to tell him whether there was anyone wiser than I was, and the Pythian prophetess answered that there was no man wiser. Chaerephon is dead himself, but his brother, who is in court, will confirm the truth of this story.
〔六〕你们想，我为什么提起这话，因为要告诉你们，对我的谤讪何从而起。我听了神的话，胸中怀此疑团：“神的话究竟个何所指，他出了何谜？我自信毫无智慧，他说我最有智慧，究竟何所云？按其本性，神决不会说谎。”神的话何所云，好久我的疑团不能解。后来用很大力气去探讨他的真意。
我访了一位以智慧著称的人，想在彼处反驳神谶，覆谶语曰：“此人智过于我，你却说我最智慧。”我见了此人，——不必举其姓名，他是一个政治人物，——我对他的印象如此；和他交谈以后，觉得此人对他人，对许多人，尤其是对自己，显得有智慧，可是不然。于是我设法向他指出，他自以为智，其实不智。结果，我被他恨，被在场的许多人恨。我离开后，自己盘算着：“我是智过此人，我与他3一无所知，可是他以不知为知，我以不知为不知。我想，就在这细节上，我确实比他聪明：我不以所不知为知。”再访比他更以智慧著称的人，也发现了同样情况。于是除他以外，我又结怨于许多人。
Why do I mention this? Because I am going to explain to you why I have such an evil name. When I heard the answer, I said to myself, What can the god mean? and what is the interpretation of this riddle? for I know that I have no wisdom, small or great. What can he mean when he says that I am the wisest of men? And yet he is a god and cannot lie; that would be against his nature. After a long consideration, I at last thought of a method of trying the question. I reflected that if I could only find a man wiser than myself, then I might go to the god with a refutation in my hand. I should say to him, "Here is a man who is wiser than I am; but you said that I was the wisest." Accordingly I went to one who had the reputation of wisdom, and observed to him - his name I need not mention; he was a politician whom I selected for examination - and the result was as follows: When I began to talk with him, I could not help thinking that he was not really wise, although he was thought wise by many, and wiser still by himself; and I went and tried to explain to him that he thought himself wise, but was not really wise; and the
consequence was that he hated me, and his enmity was shared by several who were present and heard me. So I left him, saying to myself, as I went away: Well, although I do not suppose that either of us knows anything really beautiful and good, I am better off than he is - for he knows nothing, and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know. In this latter particular, then, I seem to have slightly the advantage of him. Then I went to another, who had still higher philosophical pretensions, and my conclusion was exactly the same. I made another enemy of him, and of many others besides him.
〔七〕此后，我一一去访，明知会结怨，满腔苦恼、恐惧，可是必须把神的差事放在首要地位。为了探求神谶的真意，我必须出发去访以智慧的著称的人。指犬为誓，雅典人啊，我必须对你们说实话；却是，我所得得经验如此；我秉神谕出访时，发现名最高的人几乎最缺乏智慧，其他名较低的人却较近于有学识。我要对你们叙述我在出访中所做的苦工，以证明谶语之不可反驳。访政客们以后，访了各体——咏史、颂神以及其他——的诗人，想在现场证明我比他们不学无术。以其精心结构的作品质问他们其中的意义，本想同时能得到一些指教。诸位，我感觉难为情对你们说实话，可又不得不说。几乎所有在场的人讲他们的诗都比他们本人讲得好。因此我发现，诗人作诗不是出于智慧，其作品成于天机之灵感，如神诬和预言家之流常作讥讽语而不自知其所云，我想诗人所感受亦复如此。同时我发现，诗人们因其会作诗，其他方面便自以为智在人人之上，成了出类拔萃人物，其实不然。我离开他们，我超过他们，正如我超过政客们。
After this I went to one man after another, being not unconscious of the enmity which I provoked, and I lamented and feared this: but necessity was laid upon me - the word of God, I thought, ought to be considered first. And I said to myself, Go I must to all who appear to know, and find out the meaning of the oracle. And I swear to you, Athenians, by the dog I swear! - for I must tell you the truth - the result of my mission was just this: I found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish; and that some inferior men were really wiser and better. I will tell you the tale of my wanderings and of the
"Herculean" labors, as I may call them, which I endured only to find at last the oracle irrefutable. When I left the politicians, I went to the poets; tragic, dithyrambic, and all sorts. And there, I said to myself, you will be detected; now you will find out that you are more ignorant than they are. Accordingly, I took them some of the most elaborate
passages in their own writings, and asked what was the meaning of them - thinking that they would teach me something. Will you believe me? I am almost ashamed to speak of this, but still I must say that there is hardly a person present who would not have talked better about their poetry than they did themselves. That showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them. And the poets appeared to me to be much in the same case; and I further observed that upon the strength of their poetry they believed themselves to be the wisest of men in other things in which they were not wise. So I departed, conceiving myself to be superior to them for the same reason that I was superior to the politicians.
〔八〕最后去访手工艺人。自知对这方面一无所知，也相信会发现他们这方面的知识很丰富。却是我没有被欺，这方面我所不知的他们尽知，在这方面，他们智过于我。可是，雅典人啊，好艺人竟和诗人犯同样错误，因有一技之长，个个自以为一切都通，在其他绝大事业并居上智。这种错见反而掩盖了他们固有的智慧。因此，关于神的谶语，扪心自问：保持自我的操守，不似彼辈之智，亦不似彼辈之愚呢？或是效他们之亦智亦愚？最终我自答并答谶语；：还是保持故我好。
At last I went to the artisans, for I was conscious that I knew nothing at all, as I may say, and I was sure that they knew many fine things; and in this I was not mistaken, for they did know many things of which I was ignorant, and in this they certainly were wiser than I was. But I observed that even the good artisans fell into the same error as the poets;
because they were good workmen they thought that they also knew all sorts of high matters, and this defect in them overshadowed their wisdom - therefore I asked myself on behalf of the oracle, whether I would like to be as I was, neither having their knowledge nor their ignorance, or like them in both; and I made answer to myself and the oracle that I was better off as I was.
〔九〕由于这样的考察，雅典人啊，许多深仇劲敌指向我，对我散布了许多诬蔑宣传，于是我冒了智者的不虞之誉。在场的人见我揭穿了他人的愚昧，便以为他人所不知我知之；其实，诸君啊，唯有神真有智慧。神的谶语是说，人的智慧渺小，不算什么；并不是说苏格拉底最有智慧，不过藉我的名字，以我为例，提醒世人，仿佛是说：“世人啊，你们之中，惟有苏格拉到底这样的人最有智慧，因他自知其智实在不算什么。”
甚至如今，我仍然遵循神的旨意，到处察访我所认为有智慧的，不论邦人或异邦人；每见以人不智，便为神添个佐证，指出此人不智。为了这宗事业，我不暇顾及国事、家事；因为神服务，我竟至于一贫如洗。
This investigation has led to my having many enemies of the worst and most dangerous kind, and has given occasion also to many calumnies, and I am called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom which I find wanting in others:
but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and in this oracle he means to say that the wisdom of men is little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name as an illustration, as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing. And so I go my way, obedient to the god, and make inquisition into the wisdom of anyone, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to be wise; and if he is not wise, then in vindication of the oracle I show him that he is not wise; and this occupation quite absorbs me, and I have no time to give
either to any public matter of interest or to any concern of my own, but I am in utter poverty by reason of my devotion to the god.
〔十〕非但如此，有闲青年和富家弟子竟自动追随我。喜见许多人被我考问，时常模仿我，也去考问人家，我想，他们也许发现许多人自以为智，其实寡智或不智。结果，被考问的人不恨他们，却埋怨我，骂道：“苏格拉底最可恶，他把青年引诱坏了。”若有人问：“如何引诱青年，做了什么，教了什么？”他们又说不出，他们茫然不知所以，偏要装明白，便信口说些易于中伤所欲爱智求知者的话，如“天上地下无不钻研”啰、“不信神”、“强词夺理”等等。我认为，他们不愿说实话，他们假装有智慧，其实一无所知，——这已成为最明显不过的了。他们野心勃勃，既活跃，人数又多，异口同声协力攻击我，你们两耳久已塞满了对我恶毒诬蔑之辞。他们之中出来了迈雷托士、安匿托士、吕康三个攻击我的人：迈雷托士为使人们出气，安匿托士为艺人和政客们复仇，吕康为说客们打抱不平。我起先说过，我若能在这样短时间内把你们之中如此根深蒂固的广泛的流言蜚语消除干净，那才是奇怪呢。雅典人啊，这就是事实，无论大小巨细，一一托出，对你们不欺不瞒。我知道很清楚，我以如此言语行为，结怨于人；他们的怨是我说实话的证据，他们对我的诬告在此，恨我的原因也在此。你们随时去考察，无论现在将来，都会发现同样事实。
There is another thing: - young men of the richer classes, who have not much to do, come about me of their own accord; they like to hear the pretenders examined, and they often imitate me, and examine others themselves; there are plenty of persons, as they soon enough discover, who think that they know something, but really know little or nothing: and then those who are examined by them instead of being angry with themselves are angry with me: This confounded Socrates, they say; this villainous misleader of youth! - and then if somebody asks them, Why, what evil does he practise or teach? they do not know, and cannot tell; but in order that they may not appear to be at a loss, they repeat the ready-made charges which are used against all philosophers about teaching things up in the clouds and under the earth, and having no gods, and making the worse appear the
better cause; for they do not like to confess that their pretence of knowledge has been detected - which is the truth: and as they are numerous and ambitious and energetic, and are all in battle array and have persuasive tongues, they have filled your ears with their loud and inveterate calumnies. And this is the reason why my three accusers, Meletus and Anytus and Lycon, have set upon me; Meletus, who has a quarrel with me on behalf of the poets; Anytus, on behalf of the craftsmen; Lycon, on behalf of the rhetoricians: and as I said at the beginning, I cannot expect to get rid of this mass of calumny all in a moment.
And this, O men of Athens, is the truth and the whole truth; I have concealed nothing, I have dissembled nothing. And yet I know that this plainness of speech makes them hate me, and what is their hatred but a proof that I am speaking the truth? - this is the occasion and reason of their slander of me, as you will find out either in this or in any future inquiry.
[十一]关于第一批原告对我的诬告，我一向你们提出了充分的申辩，再则，对自命爱国之士的迈雷托士和其他二人，我要继此而提出申辩。这是另一批的原告，我们也要听其宣誓的颂词。他们的讼词大致如此：苏格拉底犯罪，他蛊惑青年，不信国教，崇奉新神。他们告发的罪状如此，我们逐一考察吧。他说我犯罪，蛊惑青年。雅典人啊，我倒说迈雷托士犯罪，把儿戏当正经事，轻易驱人上法庭，伪装关心向不注意的事。这是事实，我要向你们证明。
I have said enough in my defence against the first class of my accusers; I turn to the second class, who are headed by Meletus, that good and patriotic man, as he calls himself. And now I will try to defend myself against them: these new accusers must also have their affidavit read. What do they say? Something of this sort: - That Socrates is a doer of evil, and corrupter of the youth, and he does not believe in the gods of the state, and has other new divinities of his own. That is the sort of charge; and now let us examine the particular counts. He says that I am a doer of evil, who corrupt the youth; but
I say, O men of Athens, that Meletus is a doer of evil, and the evil is that he makes a joke of a serious matter, and is too ready at bringing other men to trial from a pretended zeal and interest about matters in which he really never had the smallest interest. And the truth of this I will endeavor to prove.
[十二]来，迈雷托士，请说，你是否认为使青年尽量学好是首要的事？
“是的。”
现在请问在座的指出谁使青年学好，显然你知道，因为你关心此事。据你说，你发现了蛊惑青年的人，把我带在座的面前控告我；来向在座说，谁使青年学好，指出他们是什么人？瞧，迈雷托士，你倒不做声了，说不出什么了吗？这对你岂不丢脸，岂不是充分证明了我的话：你对此事毫不关心？我的好人，还是请你说吧；谁使青年学好？
“法律。”
这不是我所问的，最好的人；我问的是什么人，什么人首先懂得这一行——法律。
“在座诸公——审判官。”
说什么，迈雷托士？他们能教诲青年，使青年学好？
“当然。”
他们全会，或者又会有不会？
“全会。”
我的哈拉，世上有许多有利于青年的人。听审的人呢，他们也使青年学好吗？
“他们也使青年学好。”
元老院的元老们如何？
“他们也同样使青年学好。”
那么，迈雷托士，议会议员蛊惑青年，或者他们全体使青年学好？
“他们也使青年学好。”
这么说，除了我，全雅典人都使青年学好，唯我一人蛊惑青年。你是这么说的吗？
“对了，我确是这么说的。”
你注定我的悲惨命运呀！我问你一句：关于马，你是否这么想，举世的人对马都有益，唯有一人与马有损？或者相反，对马有益的只是一人或极少数人-马术师，而多数用马的人与马有损？不但马，所有其他畜生是否同此情况，迈雷托士？当然是，不管你和安匿托士承认与否。青年门福气真大，如果损他们的只有一人，益他们的举世皆是！迈雷托士，你已充分表明对青年漠不关心，你显然大意，对控告我的事，自己毫不分晓。
Come hither, Meletus, and let me ask a question of you. You think a great deal about the improvement of youth?
Yes, I do.
Tell the judges, then, who is their improver; for you must know, as you have taken the pains to discover their corrupter, and are citing and accusing me before them. Speak, then, and tell the judges who their improver is. Observe, Meletus, that you are silent, and have nothing to say. But is not this rather disgraceful, and a very considerable proof of what I was saying, that you have no interest in the matter? Speak up, friend, and tell us who their improver is.
The laws.
But that, my good sir, is not my meaning. I want to know who the person is, who, in the first place, knows the laws.
The judges, Socrates, who are present in court.
What do you mean to say, Meletus, that they are able to instruct and improve youth?
Certainly they are.
What, all of them, or some only and not others?
All of them.
By the goddess Here, that is good news! There are plenty of improvers, then. And what do you say of the audience, - do they improve them?
Yes, they do.
And the senators?
Yes, the senators improve them.
But perhaps the members of the citizen assembly corrupt them? - or do they too improve them?
They improve them.
Then every Athenian improves and elevates them; all with the exception of myself; and I alone am their corrupter? Is that what you affirm?
That is what I stoutly affirm.
I am very unfortunate if that is true. But suppose I ask you a question: Would you say
that this also holds true in the case of horses? Does one man do them harm and all the
world good? Is not the exact opposite of this true? One man is able to do them good, or at
least not many; - the trainer of horses, that is to say, does them good, and others who
have to do with them rather injure them? Is not that true, Meletus, of horses, or any other
animals? Yes, certainly. Whether you and Anytus say yes or no, that is no matter. Happy
indeed would be the condition of youth if they had one corrupter only, and all the rest of
the world were their improvers. And you, Meletus, have sufficiently shown that you
never had a thought about the young: your carelessness is seen in your not caring about
matters spoken of in this very indictment.
[十三]再则，迈雷托士，藉帝士的名义，请告诉我们，同好人一起好呢，同坏人在一起好？好朋友，请答复啊，我问的并不是难题。坏人是否总会随时为害与直接进的人，好人是否总会随时是同群者受益？
“当然。”
有人情愿受害于同群者过于受益吗？答复吧，好人，法律要你答复啊。有人宁愿受害吗？
“当然没有。”
好了，你把我拖到此地，因我蛊惑青年、使之堕落。有意的或是无心的？
“我说有心的。”
什么，迈雷托士？你这年纪竟比我这这年纪的人智慧得许多，晓得坏人总是为害于与之接近的人，好人总是使同群者受益；而我竟至于蠢到连这个道理都不明白，不知道把所接近的人引诱坏了，自己也有受害的危险，反而如你所云，有意去引诱他们？这一点，我不信你的，迈雷托士，我想世上没有人会信。那么，我或是没有蛊惑青年，或是蛊惑出于无心；两方面你都是说谎。我若是无心的蛊惑了青年，那么，法律不为无心的罪过拖人来此地，只是把犯者私下告诫一番。显然，倘有人背地警告我，我会停止无心所做的事。可是你躲避我，不肯和我交接教导我，偏要拖我到此地；法律只要应当治罪的，不要应受告诫的人到此地。
And now, Meletus, I must ask you another question: Which is better, to live among bad citizens, or among good ones? Answer, friend, I say; for that is a question which may be easily answered. Do not the good do their neighbors good, and the bad do them evil?
Certainly.
And is there anyone who would rather be injured than benefited by those who live with him? Answer, my good friend; the law requires you to answer - does anyone like to be injured?
Certainly not.
And when you accuse me of corrupting and deteriorating the youth, do you allege that I corrupt them intentionally or unintentionally?
Intentionally, I say.
But you have just admitted that the good do their neighbors good, and the evil do them evil. Now is that a truth which your superior wisdom has recognized thus early in life, and am I, at my age, in such darkness and ignorance as not to know that if a man with whom I have to live is corrupted by me, I am very likely to be harmed by him, and yet I corrupt him, and intentionally, too; - that is what you are saying, and of that you will never persuade me or any other human being. But either I do not corrupt them, or I corrupt them unintentionally, so that on either view of the case you lie. If my offence is
unintentional, the law has no cognizance of unintentional offences: you ought to have taken me privately, and warned and admonished me; for if I had been better advised, I should have left off doing what I only did unintentionally - no doubt I should; whereas you hated to converse with me or teach me, but you indicted me in this court, which is a place not of instruction, but of punishment.
[十四]雅典人啊，我所说的已经明显：迈雷托士对此等事毫不注意。但是，迈雷托士，告诉我们，你说我是如何蛊惑青年的？按你提出的讼词，我教他们不信国教、崇奉新神，你不说这就是我蛊惑青年吗？
“这确是我所说的。”
现在，迈雷托士，为当前辩论所维护的神，请你对我和在座表白更清楚些。我不能了解：到底你是说我主张有神，自己相信有神，不是无神论者，在这一点上可告无罪；而所信是国教以外的神，这一点是你所控告的，或者说我简直不信有神，并且宣传无神论？
“我说你简直不信有神。”
你吓我，迈雷托士，你这话哪里说起？我难道不信日、月是神，如他人所信？
“不，审判官，藉帝士的名义说，他不信，他说日是一块石，月是一团土。”
亲爱的迈雷托士，你认识到你是控告安那克萨哥拉士吧？你如此藐视在座，认为不学到连克拉德衬门耐德的安那克萨哥拉士的书充满着这一类的话也不知道？青年们难道需要跟我学这套话，不会以致多一个拉马的钱去看戏，听到同样的话，笑苏格拉底剽窃前人如此离奇的学说？藉帝士的名义说，你真以为我不信有神吗？
“对着帝士说，你丝毫不信。”
你的话不可信，迈雷托士，我想你自己也信不过。雅典人啊，我觉得此人太轻率，太鲁莽，他的讼词事少年猛闯的表现。他像是造谜来试探我，心想：“且看，智者苏格拉底能否察出我故意开玩笑、说矛盾话呢，或者他和在座的听众都被我瞒过了？”他在讼词中的话显得自相矛盾，就像说：“苏格拉底因不信神、因信神犯罪”，这岂不是开玩笑的口吻。
I have shown, Athenians, as I was saying, that Meletus has no care at all, great or small, about the matter. But still I should like to know, Meletus, in what I am affirmed to corrupt the young. I suppose you mean, as I infer from your indictment, that I teach them not to acknowledge the gods which the state acknowledges, but some other new divinities or spiritual agencies in their stead. These are the lessons which corrupt the youth, as you say.
Yes, that I say emphatically.
Then, by the gods, Meletus, of whom we are speaking, tell me and the court, in somewhat plainer terms, what you mean! for I do not as yet understand whether you affirm that I teach others to acknowledge some gods, and therefore do believe in gods and am not an entire atheist - this you do not lay to my charge; but only that they are not the same gods which the city recognizes - the charge is that they are different gods. Or, do you mean to say that I am an atheist simply, and a teacher of atheism?
I mean the latter - that you are a complete atheist.
That is an extraordinary statement, Meletus. Why do you say that? Do you mean that I do not believe in the godhead of the sun or moon, which is the common creed of all men?
I assure you, judges, that he does not believe in them; for he says that the sun is stone, and the moon earth.
Friend Meletus, you think that you are accusing Anaxagoras; and you have but a bad opinion of the judges, if you fancy them ignorant to such a degree as not to know that those doctrines are found in the books of Anaxagoras the Clazomenian, who is full of them. And these are the doctrines which the youth are said to learn of Socrates, when there are not unfrequently exhibitions of them at the theatre (price of admission one drachma at the most); and they might cheaply purchase them, and laugh at Socrates if he pretends to father such eccentricities. And so, Meletus, you really think that I do not believe in any god?
I swear by Zeus that you believe absolutely in none at all.
You are a liar, Meletus, not believed even by yourself. For I cannot help thinking, O men of Athens, that Meletus is reckless and impudent, and that he has written this indictment in a spirit of mere wantonness and youthful bravado. Has he not compounded a riddle, thinking to try me? He said to himself: - I shall see whether this wise Socrates will discover my ingenious contradiction, or whether I shall be able to deceive him and the rest of them. For he certainly does appear to me to contradict himself in the indictment as much as if he said that Socrates is guilty of not believing in the gods, and yet of believing in them - but this surely is a piece of fun.
[十五]诸位，和我一起研究他如何显得是说矛盾的话，迈雷托士，你答我们的问。诸位，莫忘我起初的恳求：我按平日习惯的态度说话，请你们不要喧哗。迈雷托士，有任何人相信有人的事物，而不相信有人吗？让他答，诸位，不要骚扰。有没有人不信有马，而相信有马具：不信有吹箫的人，而相信有吹箫的用具？没有的，我的好人；你不肯答，我对你和在座诸君答。可是你要答下一个问题：有没有人相信有鬼神的踪迹，而不信有鬼神？
“没有。”
难道你金玉之口被在座勉强逼出片言以答。你说我相信并传授有新或旧之鬼神的踪迹，那么，按你宣誓的讼词，我相信有鬼神的踪迹；我既相信有鬼神的踪迹，就必然相信有鬼神，不是吗？是的；你不答，我假设你同意。我们相信鬼神是神，或神的子女，同意不同意？
“当然是的。”
你原先说我不信有神，现在如你所云，承认我相信有鬼神，相信鬼神是神的一种，-----这就是我所说的你造谜为虐，说我不信有神又信有神。鬼神若是神的私生子，据说是和水仙姑或其他女神所生，世上任何人能信有神的子女而无神吗？其荒谬等于相信有马和驴所生之子--骡--而没有马和驴。迈雷托士，你提这个讼词，不是有意试探我们，便是茫不可得我的其实罪名。然而你想迷惑稍有脑筋的人，相信同一个人会信有鬼神踪迹而不信有神、有鬼、有英灵，世上无此骗人的机关。
I should like you, O men of Athens, to join me in examining what I conceive to be his inconsistency; and do you, Meletus, answer. And I must remind you that you are not to interrupt me if I speak in my accustomed manner.
Did ever man, Meletus, believe in the existence of human things, and not of human beings? ... I wish, men of Athens, that he would answer, and not be always trying to get up an interruption. Did ever any man believe in horsemanship, and not in horses? or in flute-playing, and not in flute-players? No, my friend; I will answer to you and to the court, as you refuse to answer for yourself. There is no man who ever did. But now please to answer the next question: Can a man believe in spiritual and divine agencies, and not in spirits or demigods?
He cannot.
I am glad that I have extracted that answer, by the assistance of the court; nevertheless you swear in the indictment that I teach and believe in divine or spiritual agencies (new or old, no matter for that); at any rate, I believe in spiritual agencies, as you say and swear in the affidavit; but if I believe in divine beings, I must believe in spirits or
demigods; - is not that true? Yes, that is true, for I may assume that your silence gives assent to that. Now what are spirits or demigods? are they not either gods or the sons of gods? Is that true?
Yes, that is true.
But this is just the ingenious riddle of which I was speaking: the demigods or spirits are gods, and you say first that I don't believe in gods, and then again that I do believe in gods; that is, if I believe in demigods. For if the demigods are the illegitimate sons of gods, whether by the Nymphs or by any other mothers, as is thought, that, as all men will allow, necessarily implies the existence of their parents. You might as well affirm the existence of mules, and deny that of horses and asses. Such nonsense, Meletus, could only have been intended by you as a trial of me. You have put this into the indictment because you had nothing real of which to accuse me. But no one who has a particle of understanding will ever be convinced by you that the same man can believe in divine and superhuman things, and yet not believe that there are gods and demigods and heroes.
[十六]雅典人啊，按迈雷托士的讼词，我之无罪，不必多申辩了，这些已经够了。你们尽可相信我前面所说是实话：多数人中对我的深仇大恨，如果定我的罪，这就是定罪的缘因，不是迈雷托士和安匿托士，倒是众人对我的中伤与嫉恨。已经陷害了多数好人，我想将来还要陷害许多，不愁到我为止。
或者有人对我说：“苏格拉底，你因所从事，如今冒着死刑的危险，还不知惭愧吗？”我就答他一句正当的话：“足下说得不巧妙，你以为稍有价值的人只会计较生命的安危，他唯一顾虑的不在于行为之是非，善恶吗？按你的话，图垒阿之役丧生者的英灵皆不足道，尤其是特提士之子之不肯受辱而藐视生命危险的气概也不足贵了。当他迫不及待要杀赫克多拉，他的神母对他说，我记得，大致如下的话：吾儿，你为你友帕徒娄苦洛士之死复仇，杀了赫克多拉，自己也休想活，因为死的命运，赫克多拉死后，接着就到你！’他听了这话，藐视性命危险，只怕偷生而不能为友报仇，直截了当地答道：‘我宁死已惩作恶者，不愿偷生斯世，遗笑柄于满载苦恼的弓状巨舰之旁，为大地之累。’你想，他把性命和冒险放在心吗？雅典人啊，这是实情：凡职位所在，无论出于自愿所择，或由于在上者委派，我想都必须坚守岗位，不辞行险，不顾一切，不计性命安危，宁死勿辱。
I have said enough in answer to the charge of Meletus: any elaborate defence is unnecessary; but as I was saying before, I certainly have many enemies, and this is what will be my destruction if I am destroyed; of that I am certain; - not Meletus, nor yet Anytus, but the envy and detraction of the world, which has been the death of many good men, and will probably be the death of many more; there is no danger of my being the last of them.
Someone will say: And are you not ashamed, Socrates, of a course of life which is likely to bring you to an untimely end? To him I may fairly answer: There you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong - acting the part of a good man or of a bad. Whereas, according to your view, the heroes who fell at Troy were not good for much, and the son of Thetis above all, who altogether despised danger in comparison with disgrace; and when his goddess mother said to him, in his eagerness to slay Hector, that if he avenged his companion Patroclus, and slew Hector, he would die himself - "Fate," as she said, "waits upon you next after Hector"; he, hearing this, utterly despised danger and death, and instead of fearing them, feared rather to live
in dishonor, and not to avenge his friend. "Let me die next," he replies, "and be avenged of my enemy, rather than abide here by the beaked ships, a scorn and a burden of the earth." Had Achilles any thought of death and danger? For wherever a man's place is, whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or of anything, but of disgrace. And this, O men of Athens, is a true saying.
[十七]雅典人啊，你们以前选来指挥我的将官派我去浦提戴亚、安非朴里斯，和戴里恶斯等地，当时我能一如同列，冒死守职；现在，我相信，我了解，神派我一个职务，要我一生从事爱智之学，检察自己，检察他人，我却因怕死而顾虑其他，而擅离职守；这才荒谬，真正堪得抓我到法庭，告我不信有神，因我不遵神谕，怕死，无知而自命有知。诸位，怕死非他，只是不智而自命有智，因其以所不知为知。没有人知道死对人是否是最好境界，而大家却怕死，一若确知死是最坏的境界。以所不知为知，不是最可耻吗？诸位，这也许是我不同于多数人之处，我如自认智过于人，也就在此：不充分了解阴间情形，我不自命知之。然而我知道，行为不轨，不服从胜于己者，无论是人是神，这些都是坏事和可耻的事。我绝不恐怖，避免好坏尚未分晓的境界过于所明知是坏的境界。方才安匿托士说，不抓我来此地也罢，既抓我来此地，就不得不把我处死，如释放我，你们的子弟学会了我--苏格拉底所传授的，会彻底堕落。现在，你们如不听他的话，释放我，对我说：“苏格拉底，这次我们不听安尼托是的话，释放你，可是有个条件：以后不许如此探讨，不得从事爱智之学，如被我们查出依旧从事，你就必须死了”；雅典人啊，我敬爱你们，可是我要服从神过于服从你们，我一息尚存而力所能及，总不会放弃爱智之学，总是劝告你们，向所接触到的你们之中的人，以习惯的口吻说：‘人中最高贵者，雅典人啊，最雄伟、最强大、最以智慧著称城邦的公民，你们专注于尽量积聚钱财、猎获荣誉，而不在意、不想到智慧、真理和性灵的最高修养，你们不觉惭愧吗？如果你们有人反唇相讥，还说注意这些，我不轻易放过他，自己也不离开他，必须对他接二连三盘问，如果发现他自称有德而实无，就指责他把最有价值的当做最轻微的、把微末的视作重要的。我遇人就要这么做，无论对老幼，同胞或异邦人，尤其是对同胞，因为他们和我关系较为切近。你们要明白，这是神命我做的事，我认为，我为神办此差是本邦向所未有的好事。我巡游各处，一无所事，只是谆劝你们老幼不要顾虑身家财产在先而与灵性的最高修养并重；对你们说，德性不出于钱财，钱财以及其他一切公与私的利益却出于德性。说这个道理如果是蛊惑青年，这个道理就是有害的；如有人说我讲的是这个道理以外的什么，他就是说谎。所以，雅典人啊，关于这事，我要声明：你们听或不听安匿托士的话，放我或是不放，我总不会改行易操，即使要死多次。
Strange, indeed, would be my conduct, O men of Athens, if I who, when I was ordered by the generals whom you chose to command me at Potidaea and Amphipolis and Delium, remained where they placed me, like any other man, facing death; if, I say, now, when, as I conceive and imagine, God orders me to fulfil the philosopher's mission of searching into myself and other men, I were to desert my post through fear of death, or any other fear; that would indeed be strange, and I might justly be arraigned in court for denying the existence of the gods, if I disobeyed the oracle because I was afraid of death: then I should be fancying that I was wise when I was not wise. For this fear of death is indeed the pretence of wisdom, and not real wisdom, being the appearance of knowing the unknown; since no one knows whether death, which they in their fear apprehend to be the
greatest evil, may not be the greatest good. Is there not here conceit of knowledge, which is a disgraceful sort of ignorance? And this is the point in which, as I think, I am superior to men in general, and in which I might perhaps fancy myself wiser than other men, - that whereas I know but little of the world below, I do not suppose that I know: but I do know
that injustice and disobedience to a better, whether God or man, is evil and dishonorable, and I will never fear or avoid a possible good rather than a certain evil. And therefore if you let me go now, and reject the counsels of Anytus, who said that if I were not put to death I ought not to have been prosecuted, and that if I escape now, your sons will all be
utterly ruined by listening to my words - if you say to me, Socrates, this time we will not mind Anytus, and will let you off, but upon one condition, that are to inquire and speculate in this way any more, and that if you are caught doing this again you shall die; - if this was the condition on which you let me go, I should reply: Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting anyone whom I meet after my manner, and convincing him, saying: O my friend, why do you who are a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens, care so much about laying up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all? Are you
not ashamed of this? And if the person with whom I am arguing says: Yes, but I do care; I do not depart or let him go at once; I interrogate and examine and cross-examine him, and if I think that he has no virtue, but only says that he has, I reproach him with undervaluing the greater, and overvaluing the less. And this I should say to everyone whom I meet, young and old, citizen and alien, but especially to the citizens, inasmuch as they are my brethren. For this is the command of God, as I would have you know; and I believe that to this day no greater good has ever happened in the state than my service to the God. For I do nothing but go about persuading you all, old and young alike, not to take thought for your persons and your properties, but first and chiefly to care about the greatest improvement of the soul. I tell you that virtue is not given by money, but that
from virtue come money and every other good of man, public as well as private. This is my teaching, and if this is the doctrine which corrupts the youth, my influence is ruinous indeed. But if anyone says that this is not my teaching, he is speaking an untruth. Wherefore, O men of Athens, I say to you, do as Anytus bids or not as Anytus bids, and either acquit me or not; but whatever you do, know that I shall never alter my ways, not even if I have to die many times.
[十八]雅典人啊，不要骚扰，仍旧遵守我对你们的要求，不要扰乱我的话，请听罢；我相信听我的话能得益。我要对你们说一些别的话，你们听了或许会叫起来，可是千万不要叫。
你们要知道，杀我这样的人，你们害我倒不如害自己之甚。万雷托士或安匿托士都不能害我，他们不能害我，我相信，坏人还好人，是神所不许。他也许能杀我、或放逐我，或的公民权，以为这就是对我的大祸害，他人也许同样想，我却不以为然，我想他谋杀无辜的罪孽重于所加害于我的祸害。所以，雅典人啊，我此刻的申辩远不是为我自己，若有人之所想，乃是为你们，使你们不至于因处死我而辜负了神所赠的礼物。因为，你们如果杀了我，不易另找如我之与本帮结不解之缘的人，用粗鄙可笑的话说，象马虻钻在马身上，良种马因肥大而懒惰迟钝，需要马虻刺激；我想神绊我在此邦，也是同此用意，让我到处追随你们，整天不停对你们个个唤醒、劝告、责备。诸位，这样的人不易并遇，你们若听我劝，留下我吧。象睡眠中被人唤醒，你们尽会烦我、打我，听安匿托士的话，轻易杀我，从此你们余生可以过着昏昏沉沉的生活，除非神关切你们，另派一个人给你们。我这样的人是神送给此邦的礼物，在这方面你们可以见得：我自己身家的一切事物，多少年来经常抛之脑后，总是为你们忙，分别个个专访，如父兄之于子弟，劝你们修身进德，——这不象一般人情之所为。我若是有所图于此，或以劝善得钱，这还有可说；现在你们亲见，告我的人无耻地诬告了其他一切罪状，却不能无耻到伪造证据，说我要索报酬。我想，我有充分证据证明我说实话，那就是我的贫穷。
Men of Athens, do not interrupt, but hear me; there was an agreement between us that you should hear me out. And I think that what I am going to say will do you good: for I have something more to say, at which you may be inclined to cry out; but I beg that you will not do this. I would have you know that, if you kill such a one as I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me. Meletus and Anytus will not injure me: they cannot; for it is not in the nature of things that a bad man should injure a better than himself. I do not deny that he may, perhaps, kill him, or drive him into exile, or deprive him of civil rights; and he may imagine, and others may imagine, that he is doing him a great injury: but in that I do not agree with him; for the evil of doing as Anytus is doing - of unjustly taking away another man's life - is greater far. And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin against the God, or lightly reject his boon by condemning me. For if you kill me you will not easily find another like me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by the God; and the state is like a great and noble steed
who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has given the state and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. And as you will not easily find another like me, I would advise you to spare me. I dare say that you may feel irritated at being suddenly awakened when you are caught napping; and you may think that if you were to strike me dead, as Anytus advises, which you easily might, then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives, unless God in his care of you gives you another gadfly. And that I am given to you by God is proved by this: - that if I had been like other men, I should not have neglected all my own concerns, or patiently seen the neglect of them during all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to you
individually, like a father or elder brother, exhorting you to regard virtue; this I say, would not be like human nature. And had I gained anything, or if my exhortations had been paid, there would have been some sense in that: but now, as you will perceive, not even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of anyone; they have no witness of that. And I have a witness of the truth of what I say; my poverty is a sufficient witness.
[十九]我到处巡游，席不暇暖，突不暇黔，私下劝告人家，而不敢上公庭对众讨论国是、发表政见，这也许显得离奇。其原因，你们听我随时随地说过，有神灵降临于我心，就是万雷托士在讼词上所讽刺的。从幼年起，就有一种声音降临，每临必阻止我所想做的事，总是退我从不进我。他反对我从事政治。我想反对得极好；雅典人啊，你们应知，我若从事政治，五之死也久矣，于己于世两无益也。莫怪我说实话。凡真心为国维护法纪、主持公道，而与你们和大众相反对者，曾无一人能保首领。真心为正义而困斗的人，要想苟全性命于须臾，除非在野不可。
Someone may wonder why I go about in private, giving advice and busying myself with the concerns of others, but do not venture to come forward in public and advise the state. I will tell you the reason of this. You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me, and is the divinity which Meletus ridicules in the indictment. This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician. And rightly, as I think. For I am certain, O men of Athens, that if I had engaged in politics, I should have perished long ago and done no good either to you or to myself. And don't be offended at my telling you the truth: for the truth is that no man who goes to war with you or any other multitude, honestly struggling against the commission of unrighteousness and wrong in the state, will save his life; he who will really fight for the right, if he would live even for a little while, must have a private station and not a public one.
[二十]我要向你提供强有力的证据，不是空话，是你们所尊重的实际行为。听我的遭遇，便能见得我不肯背义而屈服任何人，我不怕死，宁死不屈！我要对你们讲一件平凡而有关法律的事，可是真事。雅典人啊，出当过元老院的元老之外，我不曾担任国家的其他官职。当时轮到我族的元老组织理事团董理院务。你们要集体审理十大将海上班师时未收阵亡兵士之尸，——这是不合法的，你们后来都也承认。当时我是理事中唯一的人反对你们违法办事，虽然政论家宣称要弹劾我，拘拿我，你们也喧哗怂恿，我却拿定主意，必须为法律、为公道而冒一切险，不愿因畏缧绁、斧锯而附和你们于不义。这是本邦庶民政治尚存的事。嗣后寡头政体成立，三十巨头召我和其他四人同到圆宫，派去萨冷密斯逮捕当地人赖翁来伏诛；他们还派了多人去执行许多类似的命令，因为他们想加罪于人以多为妙。当时我不徒以言语，以实际行动，如不嫌以粗鄙的话说，表示丝毫不怕死，可是我万分留心，不做任何背义慢神的事。当时的政府，淫威虽盛，却吓我不倒，不能强我作恶，我们离开圆宫，其他四人去萨冷密斯捉赖翁，我直溜回家。拿政府若不是随即倒台，我也许为此事送命了。关于这几件事，有很多能对你们作证的人。
I can give you as proofs of this, not words only, but deeds, which you value more than words. Let me tell you a passage of my own life, which will prove to you that I should never have yielded to injustice from any fear of death, and that if I had not yielded I should have died at once. I will tell you a story - tasteless, perhaps, and commonplace, but nevertheless true. The only office of state which I ever held, O men of Athens, was that of senator; the tribe Antiochis, which is my tribe, had the presidency at the trial of the generals who had not taken up the bodies of the slain after the battle of Arginusae;
and you proposed to try them all together, which was illegal, as you all thought afterwards; but at the time I was the only one of the Prytanes who was opposed to the illegality, and I gave my vote against you; and when the orators threatened to impeach
and arrest me, and have me taken away, and you called and shouted, I made up my mind that I would run the risk, having law and justice with me, rather than take part in your injustice because I feared imprisonment and death. This happened in the days of the democracy. But when the oligarchy of the Thirty was in power, they sent for me and four others into the rotunda, and bade us bring Leon the Salaminian from Salamis, as they wanted to execute him. This was a specimen of the sort of commands which they were always giving with the view of implicating as many as possible in their crimes; and then I showed, not in words only, but in deed, that, if I may be allowed to use such an expression, I cared not a straw for death, and that my only fear was the fear of doing an unrighteous or unholy thing. For the strong arm of that oppressive power did not frighten me into doing wrong; and when we came out of the rotunda the other four went to Salamis and fetched Leon, but I went quietly home. For which I might have lost my life, had not the power of the Thirty shortly afterwards come to an end. And to this many will witness.
[二一]你想我能活到这年纪吗，如果我在朝任职，为正人君子之所应为，维持公道，并如所应为，以此为首要的事。我一生，无论在朝在野，总是这样一个人，不曾背义而对任何人让步，不论诽谤我的人所指为我的弟子或其他人。我不曾为任何人之师；如有人，无论老少，愿听我谈论并执行命令，我不拒绝，我与人接谈不收费、不取酬，不论贫富，一体效劳；我发问，愿者答，听我讲。其中有人变好与否，不应要我负责，因为我不曾应许传授什么东西给任何人。如有人说从我处私下学会或听到他人所不曾学、不曾听的东西，请认清，他不是说实话。
Now do you really imagine that I could have survived all these years, if I had led a public life, supposing that like a good man I had always supported the right and had made justice, as I ought, the first thing? No, indeed, men of Athens, neither I nor any other. But I have been always the same in all my actions, public as well as private, and never have I yielded any base compliance to those who are slanderously termed my disciples or to any other. For the truth is that I have no regular disciples: but if anyone likes to come and hear me while I am pursuing my mission, whether he be young or old, he may freely
come. Nor do I converse with those who pay only, and not with those who do not pay; but anyone, whether he be rich or poor, may ask and answer me and listen to my words; and whether he turns out to be a bad man or a good one, that cannot be justly laid to my charge, as I never taught him anything. And if anyone says that he has ever learned or heard anything from me in private which all the world has not heard, I should like you to know that he is speaking an untruth.
[二二]然则何以有人乐于浪费时间和我相处？雅典人啊，此事的缘起你们早已听见，我把全部事实对你们说过了：他们乐于听我盘问不智而自以为智的人，此事确实有趣。我相信，此事是神之所命，神托梦启示我，用谶语差遣我，以种种神人相感的方式委派我。雅典人啊，此事是真，否则易驳。如果我蛊惑青年，以往受我蛊惑的如今年长了，回忆少年时受我引诱，必然会出来告我，对我报复。若是他们自己不愿出面，他们的父兄和其他亲属，回忆子弟或后辈亲属受我害，也会把真相揭出。他们此刻在场的很多，我所看见的：第一是克里同在此，他与我同年同区，是这位克力透布洛士之父。其次是斯费托斯的吕桑尼亚士，这位埃斯幸内士之父。再次是开非索斯的安提丰在此，埃比更内士之父。此外还有别人，其兄和弟常和我一起消遣，如：匿寇斯徒拉托士（提坞豆托士已故，当然不能乃兄告我）；怕拉洛士，邓漠豆恪士之子，过去的提阿盖士之兄；阿逮满托士，阿力斯同之子，其弟柏拉图在此。我还能对你们举许多人，其中也有迈雷托士最宜引为其讼辞作证的，他若是忘了，现在尚可提出，我避席，让他提，如果他有可提的这类的证人。可是，诸位，你们要发现完全与此相反的情形，他们反而极愿帮我，蛊惑青年者，迈雷托士和安匿托士所告发的，把他们的亲属带坏了的人。受我蛊惑的，本人帮我，犹有可说；至于他们的亲属，既不曾受我蛊惑，有是上了年纪的人，有什么理由帮我，除非那个真确的理由：深知迈雷托士说谎，我说实话？
But I shall be asked, Why do people delight in continually conversing with you? I have told you already, Athenians, the whole truth about this: they like to hear the cross-examination of the pretenders to wisdom; there is amusement in this. And this is a duty which the God has imposed upon me, as I am assured by oracles, visions, and in every sort of way in which the will of divine power was ever signified to anyone. This is true, O Athenians; or, if not true, would be soon refuted. For if I am really corrupting the youth, and have corrupted some of them already, those of them who have grown up and have become sensible that I gave them bad advice in the days of their youth should come forward as accusers and take their revenge; and if they do not like to come themselves, some of their relatives, fathers, brothers, or other kinsmen, should say what evil their
families suffered at my hands. Now is their time. Many of them I see in the court. There is Crito, who is of the same age and of the same deme with myself; and there is Critobulus his son, whom I also see. Then again there is Lysanias of Sphettus, who is the father of Aeschines - he is present; and also there is Antiphon of Cephisus, who is the father of Epignes; and there are the brothers of several who have associated with me. There is Nicostratus the son of Theosdotides, and the brother of Theodotus (now Theodotus himself is dead, and therefore he, at any rate, will not seek to stop him); and there is Paralus the son of Demodocus, who had a brother Theages; and Adeimantus the son of Ariston, whose brother Plato is present; and Aeantodorus, who is the brother of Apollodorus, whom I also see. I might mention a great many others, any of whom Meletus should have produced as witnesses in the course of his speech; and let him still produce them, if he has forgotten - I will make way for him. And let him say, if he has any testimony of the sort which he can produce. Nay, Athenians, the very opposite is the truth. For all these are ready to witness on behalf of the corrupter, of the destroyer of their kindred, as Meletus and Anytus call me; not the corrupted youth only - there might have been a motive for that - but their uncorrupted elder relatives. Why should they too
support me with their testimony? Why, indeed, except for the sake of truth and justice, and because they know that I am speaking the truth, and that Meletus is lying.
[二三]诸位，这些和其他类似的话大致就是我所要申辩的了。或者你们之中有人会恼羞成怒，回忆自己以往为了一场小官司，涕泪满脸哀求审判官，还带了儿女和亲友来乞情；而我不做这种事，虽然明知自己到了极大危险的地步。也许有人怀此恼羞成怒之感，向我发泄，带怒气对我投一票。你们若有人存此心——我估计不会有；如果真有，我想对他这样说不为过分：好朋友，我也有亲属，如贺梅洛士所说的，“我并不是出于木石”，也是人的父母所生；我也有亲属，雅典人啊，我有三个儿子，一个几乎成人了，两个还小，但我不把任何一个带来求你们投票释放我。我为什么不这样做？雅典人啊，我不是有意拗强，也不是藐视你们。我对死有用与否，是另一问题，为你，我和全国的名誉，我认为这样做无耻，我有这么大年纪，这样声望，——不论名与实相称与否，大家已经公认苏格拉底有过人处。你们之中，以智或勇或任何其他德性著称者，如果也这样做，岂不可耻？可是我常见过有声望的人受审时做出这种怪状，他们以为死是可怕的事，若许他们免死，似乎便能长生。我觉得这种人是邦国之耻，外邦人会议论说，雅典之德高望重，国民所称誉，拥戴而居官职的人，真无以异于妇人女子。雅典人啊，这种行为，我们有些声望的人都不宜做，你们也不可允许我们做；你们要明白表示：凡演这种可怜戏剧，贻邦国以笑柄的人，远比持镇定态度者易于判罪。
Well, Athenians, this and the like of this is nearly all the defence which I have to offer. Yet a word more. Perhaps there may be someone who is offended at me, when he calls to mind how he himself, on a similar or even a less serious occasion, had recourse to prayers and supplications with many tears, and how he produced his children in court, which was a moving spectacle, together with a posse of his relations and friends; whereas I, who am probably in danger of my life, will do none of these things. Perhaps this may come into his mind, and he may be set against me, and vote in anger because he is displeased at this.
Now if there be such a person among you, which I am far from affirming, I may fairly reply to him: My friend, I am a man, and like other men, a creature of flesh and blood, and not of wood or stone, as Homer says; and I have a family, yes, and sons. O
Athenians, three in number, one of whom is growing up, and the two others are still young; and yet I will not bring any of them hither in order to petition you for an acquittal. And why not? Not from any self-will or disregard of you. Whether I am or am not afraid of death is another question, of which I will not now speak. But my reason simply is that I feel such conduct to be discreditable to myself, and you, and the whole state. One who has reached my years, and who has a name for wisdom, whether deserved or not, ought not to debase himself. At any rate, the world has decided that Socrates is in some way superior to other men. And if those among you who are said to be superior in wisdom and courage, and any other virtue, demean themselves in this way, how shameful is their conduct! I have seen men of reputation, when they have been condemned, behaving in the strangest manner: they seemed to fancy that they were going to suffer something dreadful if they died, and that they could be immortal if you only allowed them to live; and I think that they were a dishonor to the state, and that any stranger coming in would
say of them that the most eminent men of Athens, to whom the Athenians themselves give honor and command, are no better than women. And I say that these things ought not to be done by those of us who are of reputation; and if they are done, you ought not to permit them; you ought rather to show that you are more inclined to condemn, not the man who is quiet, but the man who gets up a doleful scene, and makes the city ridiculous.
[二四]诸位，不名誉以外，我想，向审判官求情，乞怜释放，总不是正当的事，只可向他剖白，说服他。审判官坐在法庭上是要判断是非曲直，不能枉法徇情；他发誓不凭自己的好恶施恩抱怨，只是依法判断。所以，我们不可使你们背誓成习，你们也不可自己背誓成习，否则你我双方都做了不敬的事。因此，雅典人啊，休想我肯向你们做这种事，我所认为不高尚，不正当，不虔敬的事藉帝士的名义，姑不论他时，尤其当前迈雷托士正在此告我慢神。显然，我若对你们发过誓的人苦诉哀恳强求你们背誓，那就是教你们不信有神，我的申辩成了无神论者的自供。但是这和事实相差甚远；雅典人啊，我信神非任何告我的人所能及，我委托你们和神，在最有利于你我双方的情况下，判断我的案。
But, setting aside the question of dishonor, there seems to be something wrong in petitioning a judge, and thus procuring an acquittal instead of informing and convincing him. For his duty is, not to make a present of justice, but to give judgment; and he has sworn that he will judge according to the laws, and not according to his own good pleasure; and neither he nor we should get into the habit of perjuring ourselves - there can be no piety in that. Do not then require me to do what I consider dishonorable and impious and wrong, especially now, when I am being tried for impiety on the indictment of Meletus. For if, O men of Athens, by force of persuasion and entreaty, I could overpower your oaths, then I should be teaching you to believe that there are no gods, and convict myself, in my own defence, of not believing in them. But that is not the case; for I do believe that there are gods, and in a far higher sense than that in which any of my accusers believe in them. And to you and to God I commit my cause, to be determined by you as is best for you and me.
[ 苏格拉底的申辩至此结束，大家投票。结果以二百八十一对二百二十票宣告有罪。以下他再发言。]
The jury finds Socrates guilty.
Socrates' Proposal for his Sentence
[二五]雅典人啊，对你们投票定我罪，以及其他许多蝉联而发生的事，我并不恼，也不感觉意外；颇感惊异的是正反两方的票数，想不到反对票这么少，我所预料的要多，似乎两方的票数只要对调三十，我就可以释放了。我想，就迈雷托士论，我现在已经释放了；不但释放了。对人人都清楚，如果没有安尼托士和吕康上前告我，他要罚款一千都拉马，因为他没有得到五分之一的票数。
There are many reasons why I am not grieved, O men of Athens, at the vote of condemnation. I expected it, and am only surprised that the votes are so nearly equal; for I had thought that the majority against me would have been far larger; but now, had thirty votes gone over to the other side, I should have been acquitted. And I may say that I have escaped Meletus. And I may say more; for without the assistance of Anytus and Lycon, he would not have had a fifth part of the votes, as the law requires, in which case he would have incurred a fine of a thousand drachmae, as is evident.
[二六]此人提议以死惩罚我，我要承认什么惩罚以代替死刑呢？显然要提我所应得的，是吗？我应受，应偿什么？我一生未尝宁息。不象众人之只顾家人生产、积蓄钱财、不求武职、不发政论，不做官，不参与国内阴谋和党派之争，自知过于刚直，与世征遂难于保全性命，便避开了对自己和你们都做不成有益之事的纷华之城，转去那对每个私人能得到我所认为最大益处的地方。劝你们个个对己应注意德与智之求全先于身外之物，对国当求立国之本先于谋国之利，对其他事要同样先本后末的方法。象我这样的人应何所受、何所得？好处，雅典人啊，我应得好处，如果真正据功求赏，好处应是与我相称的。对你们的穷恩主相宜的是什么？他需要有闲劝导你们。雅典人啊，对此种人相宜的莫过于许他在普吕坦内安就餐。这对我相称远过于对欧令皮亚场上赛马或赛车得胜的人，因为他造福于你们是表面的，我造福于你们是真实的，他生计无所需，我却需要。所以，若须正当依我所应得科罚，就罚我在普吕坦内安就餐吧。
And so he proposes death as the penalty. And what shall I propose on my part, O men of Athens? Clearly that which is my due. And what is that which I ought to pay or to receive? What shall be done to the man who has never had the wit to be idle during his whole life; but has been careless of what the many care about - wealth, and family interests, and military offices, and speaking in the assembly, and magistracies, and plots, and parties. Reflecting that I was really too honest a man to follow in this way and live, I did not go where I could do no good to you or to myself; but where I could do the greatest good privately to everyone of you, thither I went, and sought to persuade every man among you that he must look to himself, and seek virtue and wisdom before he looks to his private interests, and look to the state before he looks to the interests of the state;
and that this should be the order which he observes in all his actions. What shall be done to such a one? Doubtless some good thing, O men of Athens, if he has his reward; and the good should be of a kind suitable to him. What would be a reward suitable to a poor man who is your benefactor, who desires leisure that he may instruct you? There can be no more fitting reward than maintenance in the Prytaneum, O men of Athens, a reward which he deserves far more than the citizen who has won the prize at Olympia in the horse or chariot race, whether the chariots were drawn by two horses or by many. For I am in want, and he has enough; and he only gives you the appearance of happiness, and I give you the reality. And if I am to estimate the penalty justly, I say that maintenance in the Prytaneum is the just return.
[二七]我说这话，正如以前说不肯啼泣哀求的话，或许对你们显得是有意拗强；其实不然，我说这话缺是依我深信自己向不有意害人，可是吧能使你们同样相信，因为说话的时间太短；我想，你们若有一条法律，如他邦的人所有，规定凡死刑案件不得一日里判决，必须经过好几天，那就能使你们相信；现在不易再短时间内肃清偌大诬陷蜚语。因为我深信不曾害人，我也决不肯害己，我不承认应当吃亏、堪得受罪。我何苦来？怕迈雷托士所提我认为所不知吉或凶的吗？监禁吗？何苦坐牢过着在职官吏的奴才生活？提议罚款，监禁以待付吗？这和我方才所说的长期监禁相同，因为我没有钱以付罚款。提议放逐。我可未免过于贪生，甚至迷惑到不能估计：你们，我的邦人，尚且不耐我健谈、多话，厌其烦、恶其冗，要赶我走，异邦人反容易我这一套吗？差得远呢，雅典人。象我这年纪的人离乡背井而投他邦，入复被逐，轮番更迭以延残喘，如此生涯岂不妙哉！我相信每到一处，青年们必如此地之聚聆我谈天。我若赶他们走，他们比央其兄长来赶我；我不赶他们，岂父和亲属们会为他们赶我。
Perhaps you may think that I am braving you in saying this, as in what I said before about the tears and prayers. But that is not the case. I speak rather because I am convinced that I never intentionally wronged anyone, although I cannot convince you of that - for we have had a short conversation only; but if there were a law at Athens, such as there is in other
cities, that a capital cause should not be decided in one day, then I believe that I should have convinced you; but now the time is too short. I cannot in a moment refute great slanders; and, as I am convinced that I never wronged another, I will assuredly not wrong myself. I will not say of myself that I deserve any evil, or propose any penalty. Why should I? Because I am afraid of the penalty of death which Meletus proposes? When I do not know whether death is a good or an evil, why should I propose a penalty which would certainly be an evil? Shall I say imprisonment? And why should I live in prison,
and be the slave of the magistrates of the year - of the Eleven? Or shall the penalty be a fine, and imprisonment until the fine is paid? There is the same objection. I should have to lie in prison, for money I have none, and I cannot pay. And if I say exile (and this may possibly be the penalty which you will affix), I must indeed be blinded by the love of life
if I were to consider that when you, who are my own citizens, cannot endure my discourses and words, and have found them so grievous and odious that you would fain have done with them, others are likely to endure me. No, indeed, men of Athens, that is
not very likely. And what a life should I lead, at my age, wandering from city to city, living in ever-changing exile, and always being driven out! For I am quite sure that into whatever place I go, as here so also there, the young men will come to me; and if I drive them away, their elders will drive me out at their desire: and if I let them come, their fathers and friends will drive me out for their sakes.
[二八]或者有人说：“苏格拉底，你离开我们，不会缄默地过日子吗？”这最难使你们任何人相信：如果说，我不能缄默、缄默就是违背神的旨意，你们不会相信，以为我这机器哦谦虚，如果再说，每日讨论道德与其他问题，你们听我省察自己和别人，是于人最有益的事；未经省察的人生没有价值，这些话你们更不会相信。诸位，我说，事实确实如此，缺不容易是你们相信。此为，我也不惯于设想自己应受任何损害。我偌有钱，就自认所能付的罚款，这于我却无伤。可是我没有钱，除非你们肯按我支付的能力定罚款的数目。或者我付得起一个命那银币，我自认次数。雅典人啊，在座的柏拉图、克力同、克力透布洛士、阿普漏兜洛士，他们都劝我承认三十命那，肯为我担保；我就承认次数罢，他们对此款项担保得起。
Someone will say: Yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue, and then you may go into a foreign city, and no one will interfere with you? Now I have great difficulty in making you understand my answer to this. For if I tell you that this would be a disobedience to a divine command, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, you will not believe that I am serious; and if I say again that the greatest good of man is daily to converse about virtue, and all that concerning which you hear me examining myself and others, and that the life which is unexamined is not worth living - that you are still less
likely to believe. And yet what I say is true, although a thing of which it is hard for me to persuade you. Moreover, I am not accustomed to think that I deserve any punishment. Had I money I might have proposed to give you what I had, and have been none the worse. But you see that I have none, and can only ask you to proportion the fine to my means. However, I think that I could afford a minae, and therefore I propose that penalty; Plato, Crito, Critobulus, and Apollodorus, my friends here, bid me say thirty minae, and they will be the sureties. Well then, say thirty minae, let that be the penalty; for that they
will be ample security to you.
[审判官去判决，结果判他死刑。他再发言]
The jury condemns Socrates to death.
Socrates' Comments on his Sentence
[二九]雅典人啊，过不多时，有意辱国之徒要骂你们，奉送戕杀智者苏格拉底之名；他们存心责难你们，称我智者，其实我并非智者。你们稍等些时，所期望的就会达到，瞧，我的年纪，生命途程已经走多远了，多么接近于死了。我说这话不是你们全体，马上对投票判我死刑的人。我还对同一批人说：诸位，你们或许以为，我被定罪，乃因为我的辞令缺乏对你们的说服力，我若肯无所不说、不为，仅求一赦，那也不至于定罪。不，远非因此。我所缺的不是辞令，缺的是厚颜无耻和不肯说你们最爱听的话。你们或许喜欢我哭哭啼啼，说许多可怜话，做许多可怜状，我所认为不值得我说我做、而在他人却是你们所惯闻、习见的。我当初在危险中决不想做出卑躬屈膝的奴才相，现在也不追悔方才申辩的措辞，我宁愿因那样措辞而死，不愿以失节的言行而苟活。无论在法庭或战场，我或任何人都不应当不择手段以求免死。在战场上，往往弃甲曳兵而走，或向追求哀求，每当危险时，若肯无所不说、无所不为，其他逃死的方法还多着呢。诸位，逃死不难，逃罪恶却难得多，因为罪恶追认比死快。我又钝又老，所以被跑得慢的追上，控我者既敏且捷，所以被跑得快的——罪恶——追上。现在我被你们判处死刑，行将离世，控我者却被事实判明不公不义，欠下罪孽的债；我受我的惩罚，他们受他们的惩罚。或许这是合当如此，我想如此安排倒也妥当。
Not much time will be gained, O Athenians, in return for the evil name which you will get from the detractors of the city, who will say that you killed Socrates, a wise man; for they will call me wise even although I am not wise when they want to reproach you. If you had waited a little while, your desire would have been fulfilled in the course of nature. For I am far advanced in years, as you may perceive, and not far from death. I am speaking now only to those of you who have condemned me to death. And I have another thing to say to them: You think that I was convicted through deficiency of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid, I might have gained an acquittal. Not so; the deficiency which led to my conviction was not of words - certainly not. But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as
you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting, and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others, and which, as I say, are unworthy of me. But I thought that I ought not to do anything common or mean in the hour of danger: nor do I now repent of the manner of my defence, and I would rather die having spoken after my manner, than speak in your manner and live. For neither in war nor yet at law ought any man to use every way of escaping death. For often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything. The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death. I am old and move slowly, and the slower runner has overtaken me, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken them. And now I depart hence condemned by you to suffer the penalty of death, and they, too, go their ways condemned by the truth to suffer the penalty of villainy and wrong; and I must abide by my award - let them abide by theirs. I suppose that these things may be regarded as fated, - and I think that they are well.
[三十]投票判我死刑的人们，我要对你们做预言，人之将死时最会预言，我已到其时了。我对你们说，杀我的人啊，帝士为证，我死之后，惩罚将立即及于你们，其残酷将远于你们之处我死刑。现在你们行此事，以为借此可免暴露生平的隐匿，可是，我说，效果适得其反。将来强迫你们自供的人更要多，目前被我弹压住，你们还不知道呢。他们年轻，更苛刻，更使你们难堪。你们以为杀人能禁人指摘你们生平的过失，可想错了。这种止谤的方法绝不可能，又不光彩；最光彩、最容易的不在于禁止，却在于自己尽量做好人。这就是我临行对你们投票判我死刑者的预言。
And now, O men who have condemned me, I would fain prophesy to you; for I am about to die, and that is the hour in which men are gifted with prophetic power. And I prophesy to you who are my murderers, that immediately after my death punishment far heavier than you have inflicted on me will surely await you. Me you have killed because you wanted to escape the accuser, and not to give an account of your lives. But that will not be as you suppose: far otherwise. For I say that there will be more accusers of you than there are now; accusers whom hitherto I have restrained: and as they are younger they will be more severe with you, and you will be more offended at them. For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and noblest way
is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves. This is the prophecy which I utter before my departure, to the judges who have condemned me.
[三一]趁官吏们正忙着、我尚未赴死所之前，愿和投票赦免我的人们谈谈此事的经过。朋友们，请等我，不会有人禁止，你们不妨尽所有时间彼此谈谈。你们是吾友，我想把此刻所感觉之意义揭示给你们。我的审判官啊，我称你们审判官，你们无愧此称呼；我遇一件灵异的事。经常降临的神的旨意往每对我警告，甚至极小的事如不应做，都要阻止我做。你们眼见，当前发生于我的事，可以认为，任何人都认为最凶的；可是这次，我清晨离家，到法庭来，发誓将要有所诉说，神的朕兆全不反对。可是，在其他场合我说话时，往往中途截断我的话。在当前场合，我的言语、行动，概不干涉；我想这是什么原因呢？告诉你们：神暗示所发生于我的好事，以死为苦境的人想错了。神已给我强有力的证据，我将要去的若不是好境界，经常暗示于我的朕兆必会阻止我。
Friends, who would have acquitted me, I would like also to talk with you about this thing which has happened, while the magistrates are busy, and before I go to the place at which I must die. Stay then awhile, for we may as well talk with one another while there is time. You are my friends, and I should like to show you the meaning of this event which has
happened to me. O my judges - for you I may truly call judges - I should like to tell you of a wonderful circumstance. Hitherto the familiar oracle within me has constantly been in the habit of opposing me even about trifles, if I was going to make a slip or error about anything; and now as you see there has come upon me that which may be thought, and is generally believed to be, the last and worst evil. But the oracle made no sign of opposition, either as I was leaving my house and going out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court, or while I was speaking, at anything which I was going to say;
and yet I have often been stopped in the middle of a speech; but now in nothing I either said or did touching this matter has the oracle opposed me. What do I take to be the explanation of this? I will tell you. I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good, and that those of us who think that death is an evil are in error. This is a great proof to me of what I am saying, for the customary sign would surely have opposed me had I been going to evil and not to good.
[三二]我们可如此着想，大有希望我此去是好境界。死的境界二者必居其一：或是全空，死者毫无知觉；或者，如世俗所云，灵魂由此界迁居彼界。死者若无知觉，如睡眠无梦，死之所得不亦妙哉！我想，任何人若记取酣睡无梦之夜，以与生平其他日、夜比较一番，计算此生有几个日夜比无梦之夜过的痛快，我想非但平民，甚至大王陛下也感易于屈指；为数无几。若死是如此，我认为有所得，因为死后绵绵的岁月不过一夜而已。
另一方面，死若是由此界迁居他界，如果传说可靠，所有亡过者全在彼处，那么何处能胜于彼，审判官啊？到阴间，脱离了此地伪装审判官者，遇见真正的审判官，据说，在彼审理案件，如命诺士、呼拉大蛮叙士、埃阿恪士、徒力普冷莫士，以及其他生前正直、死而神者，——这么这个转界岂同小可？
你们如有人得与欧尔费务士、母赛恶士。赫西欧铎士、贺梅洛士诸公相会，什么价值能过于此？我宁愿死几次；在那里过日子对我绝妙、能遇怕阑昧底士。泰拉孟之子爱伊阿士，以及其他死于不公平之判断的古人，把我的遭遇和他们相比，我想不至于无聊吧。最有趣的是，在那里，如在此处世，消磨光阴省察他人，看谁智。谁不智而自以为智。审判官啊，你们如有人能省察图垒阿之役大军的统帅，或欧迪细务士，或薛叙费恶士，或任何人所能举的无数男男女女，他将愿付出多大代价？和他们相处，和他们交谈，向他们发问题，都是无限幸福。无论如何，那里的人绝不为这种事杀人；所传说的若是实情，那里的人在其他方面福气更大以外，他们岁月无穷，是永生的。
Let us reflect in another way, and we shall see that there is great reason to hope that death is a good, for one of two things: - either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another. Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness, but a sleep like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell us how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, I will not say a private man, but even the great king, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night. But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good, O my friends and judges, can be greater than this? If indeed when the pilgrim arrives in the world below, he is delivered from the professors of justice in this world, and finds the true judges who are said to give judgment there, Minos and Rhadamanthus and Aeacus and Triptolemus, and other sons of God who were righteous in their own life, that pilgrimage will be worth making. What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Musaeus and Hesiod and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die again and again. I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place where I can converse with Palamedes, and Ajax the son of Telamon, and other heroes of old,
who have suffered death through an unjust judgment; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs. Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. What would not a man give, O judges, to be able to examine the leader of the great Trojan expedition; or Odysseus or Sisyphus, or numberless others, men and women too! What infinite delight would there be in conversing with them and asking them questions! For in that world they do not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.
[三三]诸位审判官，你们也要对死抱着乐观的希望，并切记这个道理：好人无论生前死后都不至于受亏，神总士关怀他。所以，我的遭遇绝非偶然，者多我明显得很，此刻死去，摆脱俗累，是较好的事。神没有朕兆阻止我，原因在此。我并不恨告我的和投票我死刑的人。然而他们不是存心加惠于我，只是想害我，因此他们堪称谴责。我却要重托他们一件事：诸位，我子长大时，以我之道还治我子之身，如果发现他们注意钱财或其他东西先于德行，没有出息而自以为有出息，责备他们如我之责备你们，责备他们不注意所当注意的事、不成器儿自以为成器。你们如果这样做，我父子算是得到了你们的公平待遇。
Wherefore, O judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance. But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; they have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this I may gently blame them.
Still I have a favor to ask of them. When my sons are grown up, I would ask you, O my friends, to punish them; and I would have you trouble them, as I have troubled you, if they seem to care about riches, or anything, more than about virtue; or if they pretend to be something when they are really nothing, - then reprove them, as I have reproved you, for not caring about that for which they ought to care, and thinking that they are something when they are really nothing. And if you do this, I and my sons will have received justice at your hands.

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