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12
 小编语:那许多事情,归根结底都是出于对死亡的恐惧罢了。

4.26 If any god told thee that thou shalt die to-morrow, or certainly on the day after to-morrow, thou wouldst not care much whether it was on the third day or on the morrow, unless thou wast in the highest degree mean-spirited- for how small is the difference?- So think it no great thing to die after as many years as thou canst name rather than to-morrow.

4.26 Think continually how many physicians are dead after often contracting their eyebrows over the sick; and how many astrologers after predicting with great pretensions the deaths of others; and how many philosophers after endless discourses on death or immortality; how many heroes after killing thousands; and how many tyrants who have used their power over men's lives with terrible insolence as if they were immortal; and how many cities are entirely dead, so to speak, Helice and Pompeii and Herculaneum, and others innumerable. Add to the reckoning all whom thou hast known, one after another. One man after burying another has been laid out dead, and another buries him: and all this in a short time. To conclude, always observe how ephemeral and worthless human things are, and what was yesterday a little mucus to-morrow will be a mummy or ashes. Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.

 Notes:
这段话说得多么坚定有力!
ephemeral [adj] lasting or used for only a short period of time.

 先尝试自己翻译一下吧,参考译文见下:

中文翻译:
4.26 如果有神告诉你,你将明天死去,或肯定在后天死去,你将不会太关心是否是明天还是后天,除非你确实是精神极其贫乏,因为这差别是多么微小啊!所以,不要把按你能提出的许多年时间后死去而非明天死去看成什么大事。

4.27 不断地想这些事:有多少医生在频繁地对病人皱拢眉头之后死去;有多少占星家在提前很久预告了别人的死亡之后也已死去;又有多少哲学家在不断地讨论死亡或不朽之后死去;多少英雄在杀了成千上万人之后死去;多少暴君,仿佛他们是不死的一样,在以可怕的蛮横手段使用他们对于人们生命的权力之后死去;又有多少城市,比如赫利斯、庞培、赫库莱尼恩以及别的不可计数的城市被完全毁灭。再把你知道的所有人一个接一个地加在这上面,一个人在埋葬了别人之后死了,另一个人又埋葬了他:所有这些都是发生在一段不长的时间里。总之,要始终注意属人的事物是多么短暂易逝和没有价值,昨天是一点点黏液的东西,明天就将成为木乃伊或灰尘。那么就请自然地通过这一小段时间,满意地结束你的旅行,就像一棵橄榄成熟时掉落一样,感激产生它的自然,谢谢它生于其上的树木。

回顾:《沉思录》读书笔记系列>>