悲劇的誕生The Birth Of Tragedy 第91期:用鳩酒解脫小人之心
In the spirit of these last suggestive questions it must now be said how the influence of Socrates, down to the present moment and even into all future time, has spread over posterity like a shadow that keeps growing in the evening sun,
and how it again and again prompts a regeneration of art--of art in the metaphysical, broadest and profoundest sense--and how its own infinity also guarantees the infinity of art.
這影響怎樣促成藝術的推陳出新，最抽象、最廣泛、最深刻意義的藝術創作；——這影響之恆久也正是藝術之恆久的保證。Before this could be recognized, before the innermost dependence of every art on the Greeks, from Homer to Socrates, was demonstrated conclusively, we had to feel about these Greeks as the Athenians felt about Socrates.
在能理解這個道理之前，在確實證明一切藝術在本質上是依賴從荷馬到蘇格拉底那些古希臘人之前，我們必須考察一個古希臘人，正如雅典人考察蘇格拉底那樣。
Nearly every age and stage of culture has at some time or other sought with profound irritation to free itself from the Greeks, because in their presence everything one has achieved oneself, though apparently quite original and sincerely admired, suddenly seemed to lose life and color and shriveled into a poor copy, even a caricature. And so time after time cordial anger erupts against this presumptuous little people that made bold for all time to designate everything not native as "barbaric."
幾乎每個時代和文明階段都也曾一度憤憤不平地竭力搖脫古希臘人的束縛。因爲，後世一切獨創的，顯然獨豎一幟的，人所真誠讚美的作品，在希臘作品相形之下，彷彿突然喪失了色彩和生氣，萎縮到失敗的仿作甚或歪曲的模擬之地步。所以，人們那由衷的憤恨，時不時發泄出來，反對向來膽敢把一切非本國東西都稱爲“野蠻”的那個傲慢的小民族。Who are they, one asks, who, though they display only an ephemeral historical splendor, ridiculously restricted institutions, dubious excellence in their mores, and are marked by ugly vices, yet lay claim to that dignity and pre-eminence among peoples which characterize genius among the masses?
我們要追問：希臘人是甚麼人物呢？——他們雖則是沒有甚麼可以誇耀。只有曇花一現的歷史光榮，只有貧弱可憐的政治制度，只有實屬可疑的風俗優點，甚至還有穢德醜行的污名；可是他們竟敢在其他諸民族中要求才華出衆的榮譽和優越地位。Unfortunately, no one was lucky enough to find the cup of hemlock with which one could simply dispose of such a character; for all the poison that envy, calumny, and rancor created did not suffice to destroy that self-sufficient splendor.
可惜我們不幸而不能找到一杯鳩酒，毅然解脫這樣的小人之心：因爲嫉妒、誹謗、仇恨在我們心中釀成的一切毒液，都不足以消滅他們可以自負的威信：And so one feels ashamed and afraid in the presence of the Greeks, unless one prizes truth above all things and dares acknowledge even this truth:
所以，我們在古希臘人面前不免自漸形穢，肅然起敬。除非我們重視一個真理高於一切，而且我們敢於對自己承認這一真理：that the Greeks, as charioteers, hold in their hands the reins of our own and every other culture, but that almost always chariot and horses are of inferior quality and not up to the glory of their leaders, who consider it sport to run such a team into an abyss which they themselves clear with the leap of Achilles.
即，古希臘人象一個御者那樣，在手中執着我們的和其它民族的文化之繮索，但是破車駑馬畢竟是劣質，而且不配這御者的光榮；——除非我們承認這點，否則誰敢驅破車而臨深淵，並以此爲樂呢？須知希臘人象阿喀琉斯那樣善跳，所以能夠一躍而跳過這深淵。
