01 Civilization & History
文明与历史
导读
本篇作者乔德（C. E. M. Joad, 1891—1953），英国哲学家、作家和广播界名人。作为20世纪40年代英国最饱受争议的知识分子，乔德既是一个和平主义者，又是一位不可知论者。乔德在1936年西班牙内战时，作为反法西斯联盟“人民阵线”的支持者，积极帮助战乱中无家可归的妇女和儿童。1941年乔德加入BBC广播公司，成为《专家小组》栏目的成员。他以幽默机智的话语一夜成名，其名言“这要看你怎么说”成为英国人的流行用语。1953年乔德病逝于伦敦。在本文中，乔德提出了一个发人深省的问题：“为何世界文明史上最显赫的人物往往是征服者和杀戮者？”细数一下西方文明史，无数的战争和征服，美其名曰是要传播文明，启蒙世界未开化的角落，但其破坏力却是惊人的。唐代大诗人杜甫曾经写道：“杀人亦有限，立国自有疆。苟能制侵陵，岂在多杀伤。”（《前出塞》），但是国际政治的法则始终是“强权即公理”，至少历史上皆是如此。人类的发展之路还很漫长，如何避免过去的历史重演，也成了我们现代人要反思的一个问题。
Most of the people who appear most often and most gloriously in the history books are great conquerors and generals and soldiers, whereas the people who really helped civilization forward are often never mentioned at all. We do not know who first set a broken leg, or launched a seaworthy
boat, or calculated the length of the year, or manured a field; but we know all about the killers and destroyers. People think a great deal of them, so much so that on all the highest pillars in the great cities of the world you will find the figure of a conqueror or a general or a soldier. And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized. Even being good at getting other people to fight for you and telling them how to do it most efficiently—this, after all, is what conquerors and generals have done—is not being civilized. People fight to settle quarrels. Fighting means killing, and civilized peoples ought to be able to find some way of settling their disputes other than by seeing which side can kill off the greater number of the other side, and then saying that the side which has killed most has won. And not only has won, but, because it has won, has been in the right. For that is what going to war means; it means saying that might is right.
That is what the story of mankind has on the whole been like. And while today it is true that people do not fight and kill each other in the streets—while, that is to say, we have got to the stage of keeping the rules and behaving properly to each other in daily life—nations and countries have not learnt to do this yet, and still behave like savages. But we must not expect too much. Suppose that we reckon the whole past of living creatures on the earth as one hundred years;then the whole past of man works out at about one month, and during that month there have been civilization for between seven and eight hours. Thus mankind is only at the beginning of its civilized life, and as I say, we must not expect too much. The past of man has been of the whole a pretty beastly business, a business of fighting and bullying and gorging and grabbing and hurting. We must not expect even civilized peoples not to have done these things. All we can ask is that they will some times have done something else.
在历史书上出现得最为经常和最为显耀的人，大多是一些伟大的征服者、将军和军人，而真正推动文明前进的人，却往往名不见经传。我们不知道是谁最早接上折断的腿骨，是谁最先造出适于航海的船只，是谁最早计算出一年的长度，又是谁最先给田地施肥；但是我们对那些杀人者和破坏者却知之甚详。人们对他们敬重有加，在世界上一些大城市里所有最高的柱石上，你都会发现一位征服者，或一位将军，或一位军人的雕像。我想，大多数人都会认为，最伟大的国家是那些在战斗中打败其他国家最多并作为征服者统治这些国家的国家。他们很可能是伟大的，然而他们并不是最文明的。动物搏斗，野蛮人也搏斗，因而善于搏斗仅是动物或野蛮人择优的标准，而绝非文明的表现。即使善于驱使别人为自己打仗，并且告诉他们怎样打才最有效——这毕竟是征服者和将军们干过的事——也称不上是文明的作为。人们为解决争执而打仗。打仗意味着残杀，文明的民族应当能够找到某种解决争端的办法，而不是看哪一方能消灭另一方更多的人，而后说杀人最多的一方获胜。战胜者不仅胜了，而且还因为胜利带来了“公义”。这就是战争的法则，它意味着强权就是公理。
人类的经历大体上就是如此。尽管今天人们确实不在街上打仗并互相残杀了，也就是说，我们在日常生活中已做到循规蹈矩，举止有礼，然而民族和国家却还没有学会这一点，仍然表现得像野蛮人一样。可是，我们不应期望过高，我们姑且把地球上生物生存的历史算作一百年吧，那我们可以算出人类生存的历史大约为一个月，而在这个月中，文明的历史则为七至八个小时，我们可以由此来预计人类的未来，人类还处于文明生活的开端，像我所说的，我们不应期望过高。人类的过去基本上是一场相当残酷的斗争过程：厮杀角逐，恃强凌弱，吞并掠夺，蹂躪践踏。我们也不必苛求即使是文明的民族不曾干过的那些事情。我们所要求的只是，他们也会在某些时候还做过某些其他的事。
Translation Practices
翻译练习
And I think most people believe that the greatest countries are those that have beaten in battle the greatest number of other countries and ruled over them as conquerors. It is just possible they are, but they are not the most civilized. Animals fight; so do savages; hence to be good at fighting is to be good in the way in which an animal or a savage is good, but it is not to be civilized.
Key
我想，大多数人都会认为，最伟大的国家是那些在战斗中打败其他国家最多并作为征服者统治这些国家的国家。他们很可能是伟大的，然而他们并不是最文明的。动物搏斗，野蛮人也搏斗，因而善于搏斗仅是动物或野蛮人择优的标准，而绝非文明的表现。