论雅典之所以伟大---在阵亡将士葬礼上的演说
[This article was originally written by Thucydides(修昔底德) and translated by Richard Crawley in English. I list the full text here to ensure that anyone who really need it can get it easily from my blog. I think it is valuable to read it, though it may be somewhat difficult to read and understand.]
Pericles' Funeral Oration
In the same winter [of 431 BC] the Athenians gave a funeral at the public cost to tho who had first fallen in this [Peloponessian] war. It was a custom of their ancestors, and the manner of it is as follows.
Three days before the ceremony, the bones of the dead are laid out in a tent which has been erected; and their friends bring to their relatives such offerings as they plea. In the funeral procession cypress coffins are borne in cars, one for each tribe; the bones of the decead being placed in the coffin of their tribe. Among the is carried one empty bier decked for the missing, that is, for tho who bodies could not be recovered. Any citizen or stranger who pleas, joins in the procession: and the female relatives are there to wail at the burial. The dead are laid in the public pulchre in the Beautiful suburb of the city, in which tho who fall in war are always buried; with the exception of tho slain at Marathon, who for their singular and extraordinary valour were interred on the spot where they fell. Afte
r the bodies have been laid in the earth, a man chon by the state, of approved wisdom and eminent reputation, pronounces over them an appropriate panegyric; after which all retire. Such is the manner of the burying; and throughout the whole of the war, whenever the occasion aro, the established custom was obrved. Meanwhile the were the first that had fallen, and Pericles, son of Xanthippus(桑提波斯), was chon to pronounce their eulogium.
When the proper time arrived, he advanced from the pulchre to an elevated platform in order to be heard by as many of the crowd as possible, and spoke as follows:
"Most of my predecessors in this place have commended him who made this speech part of the law, telling us that it is well that it should be delivered at the burial of tho who fall in battle. For mylf, I should
have thought that the worth which had displayed itlf in deeds would be sufficiently rewarded by honours also shown by deeds; such as you now e in this funeral prepared at the people's cost. And I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the t
ruth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been t forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to derve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praid only so long as they can verally persuade themlves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is pasd, envy comes in and with it incredulity. However, since our ancestors have stamped this custom with their approval, it becomes my duty to obey the law and to try to satisfy your veral wishes and opinions as best I may.
"I shall begin with our ancestors: it is both just and proper that they should have the honour of the first mention on an occasion like the prent. They dwelt in the country without break in the succession from generation to generation, and handed it down free to the prent time by their valour. And if our more remote ancestors derve prai, much more do our own fathers, who added to their inheritance the empire which we now posss, and spared no pains to be able to leave their acquisitions to us of the prent generation. Lastly, there are few parts of our dominions that have not been augmented by tho of us here, who are still more or less in the vigour of life; while the mother country has been furnished by us with everything that can enable her to depend on her own r
esources whether for war or for peace. That part of our history which tells of the military achievements which gave us our vera二手房交易合同
l posssions, or of the ready valour with which either we or our fathers stemmed the tide of Hellenic or foreign aggression, is a theme too familiar to my hearers for me to dilate on, and I shall therefore pass it by. But what was the road by which we reached our position, what the form of government under which our greatness grew, what the national habits out of which it sprang; the are questions which I may try to solve before I proceed to my panegyric upon the men; since I think this to be a subject upon which on the prent occasion a speaker may properly dwell, and to which the whole asmblage, whether citizens or foreigners, may listen with advantage.
"Our constitution does not copy the laws of neighbouring states; we are rather a pattern to others than imitators ourlves. Its administration
favours the many instead of the few; this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences; if no social standing, advancement in public life falls to reputation for capacity, class considerations not being allowed to interfere with merit; nor again does poverty bar the way, if a man is able to rve the state, he is not hindered by the obscurity of his condition. The freedom which we enjoy in our government extends also to our ordina
ry life. There, far from exercising a jealous surveillance over each other, we do not feel called upon to be angry with our neighbour for doing what he likes, or even to indulge in tho injurious looks which cannot fail to be offensive, although they inflict no positive penalty. But all this ea in our private relations does not make us lawless as citizens. Against this fear is our chief safeguard, teaching us to obey the magistrates and the laws, particularly such as regard the protection of the injured, whether they are actually on the statute book, or belong to that code which, although unwritten, yet cannot be broken without acknowledged disgrace.
"Further, we provide plenty of means for the mind to refresh itlf fr古代十大名剑
om business. We celebrate games and sacrifices all the year round, and the elegance of our private establishments forms a daily source of pleasure and helps to banish the spleen; while the magnitude of our city draws the produce of the world into our harbour, so that to the Athenian the fruits of other countries are as familiar a luxury as tho of his own.
"If we turn to our military policy, there also we differ from our antagonists. We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or obrving, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than to the native spirit of our citizens;伞英语
while in education, where our rivals from their very crad
les by a painful discipline ek after manliness, at Athens we live exactly as we plea, and yet are just as ready to encounter every legitimate danger. In proof of this it may be noticed that the Lacedaemonians do not invade our country alone, but bring with them all their confederates; while we Athenians advance unsupported into the territory of a neighbour, and fighting upon a foreign soil usually vanquish with ea men who are defending their苹果邮箱注册
homes. Our united force was never yet encountered by any enemy, becau we have at once to attend to our marine and to dispatch our citizens by land upon a hundred different rvices; so that, wherever they engage with some such fraction of our strength, a success against a detachment is magnified into a victory over the nation, and a defeat into a rever suffered at the hands of our entire people. And yet if with
habits not of labour but of ea, and courage not of art but of nature, we are still willing to encou硬笔书法落款
nter danger, we have the double advantage of escaping the experience of hardships in anticipation and of facing them in the hour of need as fearlessly as tho who are never free from them.
"Nor are the the only points in which our city is worthy of admiration. We cultivate refinement without extravagance and knowledge without effeminacy; wealth we employ more for u than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our public men have, besides politics, their private affairs to attend to, and our ordinary citi
zens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters; for, unlike any other nation, regarding him who takes no part in the duties not as unambitious but as uless, we Athenians are able to judge at all events if we cannot originate, and, instead of looking on discussion as a stumbling-block in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any wi action at all.
"Again, in our enterpris we prent the singular spectacle of dari鳑鲏鱼
ng and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, tho, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generos山西娘子关
ity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours. Yet, of cour, the doer of the favour is the firmer friend of the two, in order by continued kindness to keep the recipient in his debt; while the debtor feels less keenly from the very consciousness that the return he makes will be a payment, not a free gift. And it is only the Athenians, who, fearless of conquences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.
"In short, I say that as a city we are the school of Hellas, while I doubt if the world can produce a man who, where he has only himlf to depend upon, is equal to so many emergencies, and graced
by so happy a versatility, as the Athenian. And that this is no mere boast thrown out for the occasion, but plain matter of fact, the power of the state acquired by the habits proves. For Athens alone of her contemporaries is found when tested to be greater than her reputation, and alone gives no occasion to her assailants to blush at the antagonist by whom they have been worsted, or to her subjects to question her title by merit to rule. Rather, the admiration of the prent and succeeding ages will be ours, since we have not left our power without witness, but have shown it by mighty proofs; and far from needing a Homer for our panegyrist, or other of his craft
who vers might charm for the moment only for the impression which they gave to melt at the touch of fact, we have forced every a and land to be the highway of our daring, and everywhere, whether for evil or for good, have left imperishable monuments behind us. Such is the Athens for which the men, in the asrtion of their resolve not to lo her, nobly fought and died; and well may every one of their survivors be ready to suffer in her cau.
"Indeed if I have dwelt at some length upon the character of our country, it has been to show that our stake in the struggle is not the same as theirs who have no such blessings to lo, and also that the panegyric of the men over whom I am now speak土地转让协议书范本
ing might be by definite proofs established. That panegyric is now in a great measure complete; for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the
heroism of the and their like have made her, men who fame, unlike that of most Hellenes, will be found to be only commensurate with their derts. And if a test of worth be wanted, it is to be found in their closing scene, and this not only in cas in which it t the final al upon their merit, but also in tho in which it gave the first intimation of their having any. For there is justice in the claim that steadfastness in his country's battles should be as a cloak to cover a man's other imperfections; since the good action has blotted out the bad, and his merit as a citizen more than outweighed his demerits as an individual. But none of the allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to u不完美的她
nnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger.
"No, holding that vengeance upon their enemies was more to be desired than any personal blessings, and reckoning this to be the most glorious of hazards, they joyfully determined to accept the risk, to make sure of their vengeance, and to let their wishes wait; and while committing to hope the uncertainty of final success, in the business before them they thought fit to act boldly and trust in themlves. Thus choosing to die resisting, rather than to live submitting, they fled only from dishonour, but met danger face to face, and after one brief moment, while at the summit of their fortune, escaped, not from their fear, but from their glory.
"So died the men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue. And not contented with ideas derived only from words of the advantages which are bound up with the defence of your country, though the would furnish a valuable text to a speaker even before an audience so alive to them as the prent, you must yourlves realize the power of Athens, and feed your eyes upon her
