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。