本书简介:
《沉思录》是古罗马皇帝奥勒留写给自己的书,内容大部分是他在鞍马劳顿中写成的。作品来自奥勒留对身羁宫廷的自己和自己所处混乱世界的感受,追求一种冷静而达观的生活。这部著作是斯多葛学派的一个里程碑,亦是温总理放在枕边,读了不下百遍的书。
本书原文由古希腊文而作,英文版选择比较权威的George Long的版本,中文版选择何怀宏的版本作参考。笔记中的英文释义摘自《牛津高阶英汉双解词典》

 作者简介:
马可•奥勒留(Marcus Aurelius,公元121—180年),著名的“帝王哲学家”,古罗马帝国皇帝,在希腊文学和拉丁文学、修辞、哲学、法律、绘画方面受过很好的教育,晚期斯多葛学派代表人物之一。奥勒留也许是西方历史上唯一的一位哲学家皇帝。他是一个比他的帝国更加完美的人,他的勤奋工作最终并没有能够挽救古罗马,但是他的《沉思录》却成为西方历史上的伟大名著。

卷四:任何行为都不要无目的的做出03
 小编语:第四卷,继续我们的沉思之旅~

4.5 This then remains: Remember to retire into this little territory of thy own, and above all do not distract or strain thyself, but be free, and look at things as a man, as a human being, as a citizen, as a mortal. But among the things readiest to thy hand to which thou shalt turn, let there be these, which are two. One is that things do not touch the soul, for they are external and remain immovable; but our perturbations come only from the opinion which is within. The other is that all these things, which thou seest, change immediately and will no longer be; and constantly bear in mind how many of these changes thou hast already witnessed. The universe is transformation: life is opinion.

 Notes:
immovable [adj]
      1. that cannot be moved
      2. impossible to change or persuade
perturbation [n]
      1. the state of feeling anxious about something that has happened
      2. a small change in the quality, behaviour or movement of something

4.6 Death is such as generation is, a mystery of nature; a composition out of the same elements, and a decomposition into the same; and altogether not a thing of which any man should be ashamed, for it is not contrary to the nature of a reasonable animal, and not contrary to the reason of our constitution.

 看了笔记注释之后,先尝试自己翻译一下吧,参考译文见下:

中文翻译:
4.5 那么仍旧把这牢记在心:记住退入你自身的小小疆域,尤其不要使你分心或紧张,而是保持自由,像一个人,一个人的存在,一个公民,一个有死者一样去看待事物。在你手边你容易碰到并注意的事物,让它们存在吧,那无非是这两种事物:一种是不接触心灵的事物,它们是外在的,不可改变的,但我们的烦仅来自内心的意见;另一种是所有这些事物,你看到它们是很快改变和消失的;始终牢记你已经目击过多少这样的变化。宇宙是流变,生活是意见。

4.6 死亡像生殖一样是自然的一个秘密,是同一些元素的组合与分解,而全然不是人应当羞愧的事情,因为它并不违反一个理性动物的本性,不违反我们的结构之理。

回顾:《沉思录》读书笔记系列>>