評(píng)論
打印
A Diogenes and Alexander
第歐根尼和亞歷山大
Gilbert Highet
吉爾伯特·海特
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 squatting on the ground, and washed them down with a few handfuls of water scooped 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 scant thanks; sometimes a mischievous pebble, 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.
他躺在光溜溜的地上，光著腳，胡子拉碴的，半裸著身子，看起來活像個(gè)乞丐或者瘋子——他確實(shí)是一個(gè)乞丐，但不是瘋子。伴著黎明的陽光，他睜開了眼睛，搔了搔癢，接著像狗一樣在路邊撒了泡尿，然后在公共噴泉邊抹了把臉，討了塊早餐面包和幾顆橄欖，然后蹲在地上吃了起來，又從泉口捧了幾把水將食物送入肚中。（很久以前，他曾有過一個(gè)粗糙的木杯，但是當(dāng)他看見一個(gè)男孩用空手捧水喝時(shí)，他就把杯子扔掉了。）他不用去做工，也沒有家庭要養(yǎng)，他是自由的。集市上熙熙攘攘，等到處是店主、商人、奴隸和外國人的時(shí)候，他也會(huì)在那兒溜達(dá)一兩個(gè)小時(shí)。每個(gè)人都認(rèn)識(shí)他，或者聽說過他。他們會(huì)向他提些尖銳的問題，而得到的卻是更尖銳的回答。有時(shí)，他們給他扔點(diǎn)兒食物，但卻很少得到感謝；有時(shí)，他們惡作劇地向他扔塊鵝卵石，他就還之以無數(shù)石塊，且破口大罵。他們不太確定他是否瘋了。但他卻知道他們瘋了，各有各的瘋法；他們讓他覺得很有意思。現(xiàn)在他要回自己家了。
It was not a house, not even a squatter's hut. He thought everybody lived far too elaborately, expensively, anxiously.
他的家不是房子，甚至連個(gè)破舊的窩棚也算不上。他認(rèn)為人們的生活太講究，過于奢侈、太煞費(fèi)苦心了。
