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写个学生的世界历史:富人、穷人

头条共创 2024-08-12

Whenever I pass a group of children playing ball, I almost always hear someone shout, "That's no fair!"

每当我在打球的孩子们旁边走过,总会听到有人大喊: “这不公平啊!” 。

There always seem to be some players who think the others are not playing fair. Sides are always quarreling.

看起来总有一些打球人员认为其他人打得不公平。负面影响是争吵不断。

They need an umpire.

他们需要一个裁判。

When Athens was young there were two sides among the people -- the rich and the poor, the aristocrats and the common people -- and they were always quarreling. Each side was trying to get more power, and each side said the other wasn't playing fair.

当雅典城还是很年轻的时候,就有两群人 -- 富人和穷人,或者说贵族和普通人 -- 他们之间总是争执不断。每一边儿都想获得更多的权力,每一边儿都抱怨另一群人不按套路出牌。

They needed an umpire.

他们也需要一个裁判。

Athens had had kings, but the kings took the of the rich, and so finally the Athenians had kicked out the last king, and after that they would have no more kings.

雅典有国王,但是国王站在富人这一边, 最后雅典人将最后一任国王赶下台,在那之后他们再也不要国王了。

About the year 600 B.C. things became so very bad that a man named Draco was chosen to make a set of rules for the Athenians to obey. These rules he made were called the Code of Draco.

大约在公元前600年,雅典人公选一个叫德拉科(Draco)的人来制定一系列的规则,人人都遵守,但情况变得更糟了。他制定的这些规则被称为“德拉科法典”。

Draco's Code made terrible punishments for anyone who broke the rules. If a man stole anything even as small a thing as a loaf of bread, he was not just fined or sent to jail; he was put to death! No matter how small the wrong a man had done, he was put to death for it. Draco explained the reason for such a severe law by saying that a thief deserved to be put to death and should be. A man who killed another deserved more than to be put to death, but unfortunately there was no worse punishment to give him.

德拉科法典为违反法律的人制定了非常糟糕的惩罚。如果有人偷东西,即便是像一条面包这样的小东西,他面对的也不仅仅是罚款或被送进监狱,而是被判处死刑! 不管一个人犯了多小的错误,都将会被处死。德拉科解释说,之所以制定这么严苛的法律,是因为小偷该死,应当被处死。一个杀人犯应当受到比死刑更严厉的惩罚,可惜没有比死刑更坏的惩罚给到他了。

You can understand how much trouble the laws of Draco caused. They were so hard that a little later another man was called upon to make a new set of laws. This man was named Solon, and his laws were very just and good. We now call senators and other people who make our laws solons after this man Solon who lived so long ago, even though their laws are not always just and good.

可想而知,德拉科法典会造成多么糟糕的影响。这些法律是如此严苛, 后来他们要求换一个人再制定一部新的法律。 这个人叫做梭伦,他的法律非常公正,非常棒。我们现在的参议员(senators)和那些为我们制定法律的立法人员(solons)都是因为生活在很久很久以前梭伦(Solon)而得名,尽管他们法律不总是公平公正的。

梭伦

Still the people were not satisfied with Solons laws. The upper classes thought the laws gave too much to the lower classes, and the lower classes thought they gave too much to the upper. Both classes, however, obeyed the laws for a while although both classes complained against them.

依然有人不满梭伦指定的法律。上层人员认为法律给了底层人民太多,而底层人认为法律给了上层人太多。 然而有一段时间内,两个阶层都遵从这部法律,尽管都对这些法律条文充满抱怨。

But about 560 B.C. a man named Pisistratus stepped in and took charge of things himself. He was not elected nor chosen by the people. He simply made himself ruler, and he was so powerful that no one could stop him. If was as if a boy made himself captain or umpire without being chosen by those on the team.

大约在公元前560年,一个叫庇西特拉图(Pisistratus)的人走进公众视野,亲自理政。他不是通过选举或者任命的。他自己黄袍加身成为了统治者,他非常有权力,没有人可以阻止他的野心。就像一个孩子站出来说我要做老大或者裁判一样,不需要团队中谁来任命他。

庇西特拉图

There were others from time to time in Greece who did the same thing, and they were called tyrants. So, Pisistratus was tyrant. Nowadays only a ruler who is cruel and unjust is called a tyrant. Pisistratus, however, settled the difficulties of both sides, and though a tyrant in the Greek sense, he was neither cruel nor unjust. In fact, Pisistratus ruled according to the laws of Solon, and he did a great deal to improve Athens and the life of the people. Among other things he did, he had Homer's poems written down, so that people could read them, for before this time people knew them only from hearing them recited. It is remarkable how histories can be passed down orally -- just by telling the story. In cultures without writing, people had to have very good memories.

在希腊历史上,时不时地有人这么做,他们被称为专制君主(tyrant)。因此,庇西特拉图是一个专制君主。现在只有那些残暴的,不公的统治者才被叫做专治。尽管庇西特拉图是希腊历史上的专制统治者,他帮助上层和底层民众解决问题,既不残暴也不有失公正。事实上,庇西特拉图是按照梭伦的法律来治理社会,他为了改善雅典城和人民生活做了很多事。除了这些,他还命人把荷马的诗歌用文字记下来,这样人们就可以读到荷马的诗歌了。在这之前,人们都是听别人朗诵这些诗歌才知道它们的。人们通过口耳相传来传承历史简直是个奇迹!在没有文字的文明里,人们必须有很好的记忆力才行。

The people put up with Pisistratus and also with his son for a while. Finally, the Athenians got tired of the son's rule and drove all the Pisistratus family out of Athens in 510 B.C.

有一段时间人们是支持庇西特拉图和他的儿子的。最后,在公元前510年,雅典人厌倦了他儿子的统治,将庇西特拉图家族驱逐出了雅典。

The next man to try to settle the quarrels of the two sides was named Cleisthenes. It is hard, sometimes, to learn the name of a stranger to whom we have just been introduced unless we hear his name several times. I will say over his name so that you can get used to hearing it: CLESISTHENES; CLEISTHENES; CLEISTHENES.

接下来一个试图解决双方争执的人叫做克里斯提尼(Cleisthenes)。有时候,记住一个陌生人的名字是很困难的,除非我们听过几次才能记住。我将重放说即便这个名字,你就会习惯了: 克里斯提尼! 克里斯提尼! 克里斯提尼!(重要的事情说三遍)。

克里斯提尼

Your parents may be poor, or they may be rich.

你的父母或贫穷,或富有。

If they are poor each has one vote when there is an election.

如果他们贫穷,大选的时候他们手里有一张票。

If they are rich each has one vote but only one vote and no more.

如果他们富有,大选的时候他们手里也只有一张票,不会再多了。

If people break the laws, whether they are rich or whether they are poor, they must go to jail.

不管是穷人还是富人,触犯法律之后,都会进监狱。

It was not always so; it is not always so even now. But long ago it was much worse.

但情况不总是这样;即便是现在,也不总是这样。在古代情况更糟糕。

Cleisthenes gave every man a vote -- rich and poor alike -- but he did not give women a vote. In ancient times, women often were kept out of politics. Still, the people of Athens believed that Cleisthenes ruled wisely and well. Cleisthenes started something called ostracism. If for any reason the people wanted to get rid of a man, all they had to do was to scratch his name on any piece of a broken pot or jar they might find and drop it in a voting-box on a certain day. If there were enough such votes, the man would have to leave the city and stay away for ten years. This was called ostracism, from the Greek name for such a broken piece of pottery, on which the name was written. Even today we use this same word to speak of a person whom no one will have anything to do with, whom no one wants around, saying he had been ostracized.

克里斯提尼给每个人一选票票,不管他贫穷还是富有,但他没有给女人选票。在古代,女人一般是不允许参政的。即便这样,雅典人民认为克里斯提尼的统治很清明,治理得很好。克里斯提尼提出了一种流放(ostracism)制度。不管因为何种原因,如果你想驱赶一个人的话,他们只需要寻找一个水壶或者陶罐的碎片,在上面划出这个人的名字,把它丢进那时候的投票箱就可以了。如果有足够多的投票,这个人就必须离开雅典城,去其他地方待上10年。流放(ostracism)一词是从古希腊写有人名字的碎陶片引申而来的。即使是今天,我们依然用这个词来指代那些没有人和他有往来,没有人原因在他身边的人,说他遭到排斥(ostracized)了。

Have you ever been sent away from the table to the kitchen or to your room for misbehaving?

你曾因为犯错误让你离开饭桌去厨房或自己房间反省过么?

Then you, too, have been ostracized.

那会儿的你也被放逐了。

放逐:苏武牧羊

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