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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Diogenes and Alexander
Lying on the bare earth, shoeless, bearded, half-naked, he looked like a beggar or a lunatic.He was one, but not the other. He had opened his eyes with the sun at dawn, scratched,done his business like a dog at the roadside, washed at the public fountain, begged a piece of breakfast bread and a few olives, eaten them squatting1 on the ground, and washed them down with a few handfuls of water scooped2 from the spring. (Long ago he had owned a rough wooden cup, but he threw it away when he saw a boy drinking out of his hollowed hands.)
Having no work to go to and no family to provide for, he was free. As the market place filled up with shoppers and merchants and slaves and foreigners, he had strolled through it for an hour or two.
Everybody knew him, or knew of him. They would throw sharp questions at him and get sharper answers. Sometimes they threw bits of food, and got scant3 thanks; sometimes a mischievous4 pebble5, and got a shower of stones and abuse. They were not quite sure whether he was mad or not. He knew they were mad, each in a different way; they amused him. Now he was back at his home.
It was not a house, not even a squatter's hut. He thought everybody lived far too elaborately, expensively, anxiously. What good is a house? No one needs privacy; natural acts are not shameful6; we all do the same things, and we need not hide them. No one needs beds and chairs and such furniture: the animals live healthy lives and sleep on the ground. All we require, since nature did not dress us properly, is one garment to keep us warm, and some shelter from rain and wind. So he had one blanket—to dress him in the daytime and cover him at night—and he slept in a cask. His name was Diogenes. He was the founder7 of the creed8 called Cynicism “doggishness”; he spent much of his life in the rich, lazy, corrupt9 Greek city of Corinth, mocking and satirizing10 its people, and occasionally converting one of them.
His home was not a barrel made of wood: too expensive. It was a storage jar made of
earthenware11, no doubt discarded because a break had made it useless. He was not the first to inhabit such a thing. But he was the first who ever did so by choice, out of
principle. Diogenes was not a lunatic. He was a philosopher who wrote plays and
poems and essays expounding12 his doctrine13; he talked to those who cared to listen; he had pupils who admired him. But he taught chiefly by example. All should live naturally, he said, for what is natural is normal and cannot possibly be evil or shameful. Live without conventions, which are artificial and false; escape complexities14 and extravagances: only so can you live a free life. The rich man believes he possesses his big house with its many rooms and its elaborate furniture, his expensive clothes, his horses and his servants and his bank accounts. He does not. He depends on them, he worries about them, he spends most of his life's energy looking after them; the thought of losing them makes him sick with anxiety. They possess him. He is their slave. In order to procure15 a quantity of false, perishable16 goods he has sold the only true, lasting17 good, his own independence.
There have been many men who grew tired of human society with its complications, and went away to live simply—on a small farm, in a quiet village, or in a hermit’s cave. Not so Diogenes. He was a missionary18. His life's aim was clear to him: it was “to restamp the currency.” to take the clean metal of human life, to erase19 the old false conventional markings, and to imprint20 it with its true values.
The other great philosophers of the fourth century before Christ such as Plato and Aristotle taught mainly their own private pupils. But for Diogenes, laboratory and specimens21 and lecture halls and pupils were all to be found in a crowd of ordinary people. Therefore he chose to live in Athens or in the rich city of Corinth, where travelers from all over the Mediterranean22 world constantly came and went. And, by design, he publicly behaved in such ways as to show people what real life was. He thought most people were only half-alive, most men only half-men. At bright noonday he walked through the market place carrying a lighted lamp and inspecting the face of everyone he met.
They asked him why. Diogenes answered, “I am trying to find a man.”
To a gentleman whose servant was putting on his shoes for him, Diogenes said, “You won’t be really happy until he wipes your nose for you: that will come after you lose the use of your hands.”
Once there was a war scare so serious that it stirred even the lazy, profit-happy Corinthians. They began to drill, clean their weapons, and rebuild their neglected fortifications. Diogenes took his old cask and began to roll it up and down. “When you are all so busy,” he said, “I felt I ought to do something!”
And so he lived—like a dog, some said, because he cared nothing for the conventions of society, and because he showed his teeth and barked at those whom he disliked. Now he was lying in the sunlight, contented23 and happy, happier (he himself used to boast) than the Shah of Persia. Although he knew he was going to have an important visitor, he would not move.
The little square began to fill with people. Page boys , soldiers, secretaries, officers, diplomats24, they all gradually formed a circle around Diogenes. He looked them over, as a sober man looks at a crowd of tottering25 drunks, and shook his head. He knew who they were. They were the servants of Alexander, the conqueror26 of Greece,the Macedonian king, who was visiting his newly subdued27 realm.
Only twenty, Alexander was far older and wiser than his years. Like all Macedonians he loved drinking, but he could usually handle it; and toward women he was nobly restrained and chivalrous28.
Like all Macedonians he loved fighting; he was a magnificent commander, but he was not merely a military automaton29. He could think. At thirteen he had become a pupil of the greatest mind in Greece, Aristotle who gave him the best of Greek culture. He taught Alexander poetry: the young prince slept with the Iliad under his pillow and longed to emulate30 Achilles, who brought the mighty31 power of Asia to ruin. He taught him philosophy, in particular the shapes and uses of political powerand he taught him the principles of scientific research: during his invasion of the Persian domains32 Alexander took with him a large corps33 of scientists, and shipped hundreds of zoological specimens back to Greece for study. Indeed, it was from Aristotle that Alexander learned to seek out everything strange which might be instructive.
Now, Alexander was in Corinth to take command of the League of Greek States which, his father Philip had created as a disguise for the New Macedonian Order. He was
welcomed and honored and flattered. He was the man of the hour, of the century: he was unanimously appointed commander-in-chief of a new expedition against old, rich, corrupt Asia. Nearly everyone crowded to Corinth in order to congratulate him, to seek employment with him, even simply to see him. Only Diogenes, although he lived in Corinth, did not visit the new monarch34. With that generosity35 which Aristotle had taught him , Alexander determined36 to call upon Diogenes. With his handsome face, his fiery37 glance, his strong supple38 body, his purple and gold cloak, and his air of destiny, he moved through the parting crowd, toward the Dog’s kennel39. When a king
approaches, all rise in respect. Diogenes merely sat up on one elbow. When a monarch
enters a precinct, all greet him with a bow or an acclamation. Diogenes said nothing.
There was a silence. Alexander spoke40 first, with a kindly41 greeting. Looking at the poor broken cask, the single ragged42 garment, and the rough figure lying on the ground, he said: “Is there anything I can do for you, Diogenes?”
“Yes,” said the Dog, “Stand to one side. You’re blocking the sunlight.”
There was amazed silence, slowly, Alexander turned away. A titter broke out from the elegant Greeks, the Macedonian officers, after deciding that Diogenes was not worth the trouble of kicking, were starting to guffaw43 and nudge one another. Alexander was still silent. To those nearest him he said quietly, “If I were not Alexander, I should be Diogenes.” They took it as a paradox44, but Alexander meant it. He understood Cynicism as the others could not. He was what Diogenes called himself, a cosmopolites, “citizen of the world.”
Like Diogenes, he admired the heroic figure of Hercules, who labors45 to help
mankind while all others toiled46 and sweated only for themselves. He knew that of all man that lived the world, only Alexander the conqueror and Diogenes the beggar, were free.
1 squatting | |
v.像动物一样蹲下( squat的现在分词 );非法擅自占用(土地或房屋);为获得其所有权;而占用某片公共用地。 | |
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2 scooped | |
v.抢先报道( scoop的过去式和过去分词 );(敏捷地)抱起;抢先获得;用铲[勺]等挖(洞等) | |
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3 scant | |
adj.不充分的,不足的;v.减缩,限制,忽略 | |
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4 mischievous | |
adj.调皮的,恶作剧的,有害的,伤人的 | |
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5 pebble | |
n.卵石,小圆石 | |
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6 shameful | |
adj.可耻的,不道德的 | |
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7 Founder | |
n.创始者,缔造者 | |
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8 creed | |
n.信条;信念,纲领 | |
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9 corrupt | |
v.贿赂,收买;adj.腐败的,贪污的 | |
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10 satirizing | |
v.讽刺,讥讽( satirize的现在分词 ) | |
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11 earthenware | |
n.土器,陶器 | |
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12 expounding | |
论述,详细讲解( expound的现在分词 ) | |
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13 doctrine | |
n.教义;主义;学说 | |
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14 complexities | |
复杂性(complexity的名词复数); 复杂的事物 | |
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15 procure | |
vt.获得,取得,促成;vi.拉皮条 | |
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16 perishable | |
adj.(尤指食物)易腐的,易坏的 | |
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17 lasting | |
adj.永久的,永恒的;vbl.持续,维持 | |
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18 missionary | |
adj.教会的,传教(士)的;n.传教士 | |
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19 erase | |
v.擦掉;消除某事物的痕迹 | |
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20 imprint | |
n.印痕,痕迹;深刻的印象;vt.压印,牢记 | |
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21 specimens | |
n.样品( specimen的名词复数 );范例;(化验的)抽样;某种类型的人 | |
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22 Mediterranean | |
adj.地中海的;地中海沿岸的 | |
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23 contented | |
adj.满意的,安心的,知足的 | |
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24 diplomats | |
n.外交官( diplomat的名词复数 );有手腕的人,善于交际的人 | |
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25 tottering | |
adj.蹒跚的,动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 );踉跄;蹒跚;摇摇欲坠 | |
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26 conqueror | |
n.征服者,胜利者 | |
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27 subdued | |
adj. 屈服的,柔和的,减弱的 动词subdue的过去式和过去分词 | |
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28 chivalrous | |
adj.武士精神的;对女人彬彬有礼的 | |
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29 automaton | |
n.自动机器,机器人 | |
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30 emulate | |
v.努力赶上或超越,与…竞争;效仿 | |
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31 mighty | |
adj.强有力的;巨大的 | |
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32 domains | |
n.范围( domain的名词复数 );领域;版图;地产 | |
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33 corps | |
n.(通信等兵种的)部队;(同类作的)一组 | |
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34 monarch | |
n.帝王,君主,最高统治者 | |
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35 generosity | |
n.大度,慷慨,慷慨的行为 | |
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36 determined | |
adj.坚定的;有决心的 | |
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37 fiery | |
adj.燃烧着的,火红的;暴躁的;激烈的 | |
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38 supple | |
adj.柔软的,易弯的,逢迎的,顺从的,灵活的;vt.使柔软,使柔顺,使顺从;vi.变柔软,变柔顺 | |
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39 kennel | |
n.狗舍,狗窝 | |
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40 spoke | |
n.(车轮的)辐条;轮辐;破坏某人的计划;阻挠某人的行动 v.讲,谈(speak的过去式);说;演说;从某种观点来说 | |
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41 kindly | |
adj.和蔼的,温和的,爽快的;adv.温和地,亲切地 | |
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42 ragged | |
adj.衣衫褴褛的,粗糙的,刺耳的 | |
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43 guffaw | |
n.哄笑;突然的大笑 | |
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44 paradox | |
n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法;自相矛盾的人(物) | |
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45 labors | |
v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 );苦干;详细分析;(指引擎)缓慢而困难地运转 | |
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46 toiled | |
长时间或辛苦地工作( toil的过去式和过去分词 ); 艰难缓慢地移动,跋涉 | |
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