The Fragments of Heraclitus

(1) It is wise to hearken, not to me, but to my Word, and to confess that all things are one.

(1) 明智的做法，是不听我，而听我的“道”（Word），并承认万物是一。

(2) Though this Word is true evermore, yet men are as unable to understand it when they hear it for the first time as before they have heard it at all. For, though all things come to pass in accordance with this Word, men seem as if they had no experience of them, when they make trial of words and deeds such as I set forth, dividing each thing according to its kind and showing how it truly is. But other men know not what they are doing when awake, even as they forget what they do in sleep.

(2) 这“道”虽然永远为真，人们第一次听到它时，却和从未听到时一样不能理解。因为虽然万物都按照这“道”发生，当他们试一试我所提出的言与行，按照每样东西的类别加以区分、说明它真正是什么样子时，他们却好像对这些毫无经验。别的人不知道自己醒着时在做什么，正如他们忘记了自己睡梦中所做的。

(3) Fools when they do hear are like the deaf: of them does the saying bear witness that they are absent when present.

(3) 愚人听了也像聋子：俗话为他们作证，说他们人在心不在。

(4) Eyes and ears are bad witnesses to men if they have souls that understand not their language.

(4) 如果人的灵魂不懂得眼睛和耳朵的语言，眼睛和耳朵就是糟糕的证人。

(5) The many do not take heed of such things as those they meet with, nor do they mark them when they are taught, though they think they do.

(5) 大多数人对他们遇见的那类事情不加留意，有人教他们，他们也不去注意，虽然他们以为自己注意了。

(6) Knowing not how to listen nor how to speak.

(6) 既不懂得怎样听，也不懂得怎样说。

(7) If you do not expect the unexpected, you will not find it; for it is hard to be sought out and difficult.

(7) 如果你不期待意料之外的东西，你就找不到它；因为它难以寻求，也难以得到。

(8) Those who seek for gold dig up much earth and find a little.

(8) 寻找金子的人挖了许多土，只找到一点点。

(10) Nature loves to hide.

(10) 自然喜欢隐藏。

(11) The lord whose is the oracle at Delphoi neither utters nor hides his meaning, but shows it by a sign.

(11) 那位在德尔斐拥有神谕的主，既不说出也不隐藏他的意思，而是用征兆来显示。

(12) And the Sibyl, with raving lips uttering things mirthless, unbedizened, and unperfumed, reaches over a thousand years with her voice, thanks to the god in her.

(12) 那西比尔用狂乱的嘴唇说出不带笑意、不加修饰、不施香料的话，她的声音凭着她身上的神，传过了一千年。

(13) The things that can be seen, heard, and learned are what I prize the most.

(13) 能看见、能听见、能学到的东西，是我最看重的。

(14) . . . bringing untrustworthy witnesses in support of disputed points.

(14) ……为有争议的论点搬出不可靠的证人。

(15) The eyes are more exact witnesses than the ears.

(15) 眼睛是比耳朵更准确的证人。

(16) The learning of many things teacheth not understanding, else would it have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and again Xenophanes and Hekataios.

(16) 博学并不能教人理解，否则它早就教会了赫西俄德和毕达哥拉斯，还有色诺芬尼和赫卡泰俄斯。

(17) Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchos, practised scientific inquiry beyond all other men, and making a selection of these writings, claimed for his own wisdom what was but a knowledge of many things and an imposture.

(17) 涅萨尔科斯之子毕达哥拉斯，比所有其他人都更热衷于科学探究，他从这些著作中挑选了一些，便把那不过是博闻和欺骗的东西，冒称为他自己的智慧。

(18) Of all whose discourses I have heard, there is not one who attains to understanding that wisdom is apart from all.

(18) 我听过许多人的言论，其中没有一个人达到这样的理解：智慧是与一切分离的。

(19) Wisdom is one thing. It is to know the thought by which all things are steered through all things.

(19) 智慧只是一件事。那就是认识那使万物通过万物而被驾驭的思想。

(20) This world, which is the same for all, no one of gods or men has made; but it was ever, is now, and ever shall be an ever-living Fire, with measures of it kindling, and measures going out.

(20) 这个世界，对一切都是同一个，它不是任何神或任何人造的；它过去、现在、将来永远是一团永生的火，按一定分寸燃烧，按一定分寸熄灭。

(21) The transformations of Fire are, first of all, sea; and half of the sea is earth, half whirlwind. . . .

(21) 火的转化，首先是海；海的一半是土，一半是旋风……

(22) All things are an exchange for Fire, and Fire for all things, even as wares for gold and gold for wares.

(22) 万物换成火，火换成万物，正如货物换成金子，金子换成货物。

(23) It becomes liquid sea, and is measured by the same tale as before it became earth.

(23) 它变成流动的海，并且按照它变成土之前的同一比例来计量。

(24) Fire is want and surfeit.

(24) 火是匮乏与饱足。

(25) Fire lives the death of air, and air lives the death of fire; water lives the death of earth, earth that of water.

(25) 火活于气之死，气活于火之死；水活于土之死，土活于水之死。

(26) Fire in its advance will judge and convict all things.

(26) 火在前进中将审判、定罪万物。

(27) How can one hide from that which never sets?

(27) 一个人怎能躲开那永不落下的东西？

(28) It is the thunderbolt that steers the course of all things.

(28) 驾驭万物进程的，是雷霆。

(29) The sun will not overstep his measures; if he does, the Erinyes, the handmaids of Justice, will find him out.

(29) 太阳不会越过它的分寸；如果它越过了，正义的侍女厄里倪厄斯就会把它找出来。

(30) The limit of dawn and evening is the Bear; and opposite the Bear is the boundary of bright Zeus.

(30) 黎明与黄昏的界限是大熊星；与大熊星相对的，是明亮的宙斯的边界。

(31) If there were no sun it would be night, for all the other stars could do.

(31) 如果没有太阳，即使有其他所有的星星，也是黑夜。

(32) The sun is new every day.

(32) 太阳每天都是新的。

(33) (Thales foretold an eclipse.)

(33) （泰勒斯预言了一次日食。）

(34) . . . the seasons that bring all things.

(34) ……带来万物的季节。

(35) Hesiod is most men's teacher. Men are sure he knew very many things, a man who did not know day or night! They are one.

(35) 赫西俄德是大多数人的老师。人们确信他懂得很多东西，可他连白天和黑夜都不认识！它们是一回事。

(36) God is day and night, winter and summer, war and peace, surfeit and hunger; but he takes various shapes, just as fire, when it is mingled with spices, is named according to the savour of each.

(36) 神是白天与黑夜，冬天与夏天，战争与和平，饱足与饥饿；但他变换着各种形状，就像火与香料混在一起时，按照每一种的气味来命名。

(37) If all things were turned to smoke, the nostrils would distinguish them.

(37) 如果万物都变成了烟，鼻子就能把它们分辨出来。

(38) Souls smell in Hades.

(38) 灵魂在冥府里靠嗅觉。

(39) Cold things become warm, and what is warm cools; what is wet dries, and the parched is moistened.

(39) 冷的东西变暖，暖的东西变冷；湿的变干，干的变湿。

(40) It scatters and it gathers; it advances and retires.

(40) 它散开又聚拢；它前进又后退。

(41, 42) You cannot step twice into the same rivers; for fresh waters are ever flowing in upon you.

(41, 42) 你不能两次踏进同一条河流；因为新的水不断地向你流来。

(43) Homer was wrong in saying: "Would that strife might perish from among gods and men!" He did not see that he was praying for the destruction of the universe; for, if his prayer were heard, all things would pass away. . . .

(43) 荷马说“愿争斗从神与人之间消失！”他错了。他没有看到，他是在祈求宇宙的毁灭；因为如果他的祈祷被听到，万物都将消亡……

(44) War is the father of all and the king of all; and some he has made gods and some men, some bond and some free.

(44) 战争是万物之父，也是万物之王；它使一些成为神，一些成为人，使一些成为奴隶，一些成为自由人。

(45) Men do not know how what is at variance agrees with itself. It is an attunement of opposite tensions, like that of the bow and the lyre.

(45) 人们不懂得，相互冲突的东西怎样与自身相合。那是相反张力的和谐，就像弓与琴。

(46) It is the opposite which is good for us.

(46) 对我们有益的，是对立的东西。

(47) The hidden attunement is better than the open.

(47) 隐藏的和谐胜过显露的和谐。

(48) Let us not conjecture at random about the greatest things.

(48) 关于最重大的事情，我们不要随意猜测。

(49) Men that love wisdom must be acquainted with very many things indeed.

(49) 爱智慧的人必须熟悉非常多的事物。

(50) The straight and the crooked path of the fuller's comb is one and the same.

(50) 漂洗工梳子的直路与弯路，是同一条路。

(51) Asses would rather have straw than gold.

(51) 驴宁要草料，不要金子。

(51a) Oxen are happy when they find bitter vetches to eat.

(51a) 牛找到苦野豌豆吃就快乐了。

(52) The sea is the purest and the impurest water. Fish can drink it, and it is good for them; to men it is undrinkable and destructive.

(52) 海水是最纯净的水，也是最不洁的水。鱼能喝它，它对鱼有益；对人却不能喝，而且有害。

(53) Swine wash in the mire, and barnyard fowls in dust.

(53) 猪在泥里洗澡，家禽在尘土里洗澡。

(54) . . . to delight in the mire.

(54) ……喜欢泥污。

(55) Every beast is driven to pasture with blows.

(55) 每一头牲畜都是被鞭子赶去吃草的。

(56) Same as 45.

(56) 同第 45 条。

(57) Good and ill are one.

(57) 善与恶是一回事。

(58) Physicians who cut, burn, stab, and rack the sick, demand a fee for it which they do not deserve to get.

(58) 医生们割、烧、刺、折磨病人，却还要索取他们不配得到的报酬。

(59) Couples are things whole and things not whole, what is drawn together and what is drawn asunder, the harmonious and the discordant. The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one.

(59) 结合之物，是整体也不是整体，是聚合的也是分离的，是和谐的也是不和谐的。一出自万物，万物出自一。

(60) Men would not have known the name of justice if these things were not.

(60) 如果没有这些事，人们就不会知道正义的名字。

(61) To God all things are fair and good and right, but men hold some things wrong and some right.

(61) 在神看来，万物都是美的、善的、正当的，人却认为有些事是错的，有些事是对的。

(62) We must know that war is common to all and strife is justice, and that all things come into being and pass away (?) through strife.

(62) 我们必须知道，战争对一切是共同的，争斗就是正义，万物都经由争斗而产生、消逝（？）。

(64) All the things we see when awake are death, even as all we see in slumber are sleep.

(64) 我们醒着时看见的一切都是死，正如我们睡着时看见的一切都是睡眠。

(65) The wise is one only. It is unwilling and willing to be called by the name of Zeus.

(65) 智慧只是一。它不愿意又愿意被称为宙斯的名字。

(66) The bow (βιός) is called life (βίος) but its work is death.

(66) 弓（βιός）叫作生命（βίος），它的功用却是死亡。

(67) Mortals are immortals and immortals are mortals, the one living the others' death and dying the others' life.

(67) 有死者是不死者，不死者是有死者，一方活于另一方的死，死于另一方的生。

(68) For it is death to souls to become water, and death to water to become earth. But water comes from earth; and from water, soul.

(68) 对灵魂来说，变成水就是死；对水来说，变成土就是死。但水出于土，灵魂出于水。

(69) The way up and the way down is one and the same.

(69) 上升的路和下降的路是同一条路。

(70) In the circumference of a circle the beginning and end are common.

(70) 在圆周上，起点和终点是共同的。

(71) You will not find the boundaries of soul by travelling in any direction, so deep is the measure of it.

(71) 你走遍每一条路，也找不到灵魂的边界，它的尺度是如此之深。

(72) It is pleasure to souls to become moist.

(72) 对灵魂来说，变得潮湿是一种快乐。

(73) A man, when he gets drunk, is led by a beardless lad, tripping, knowing not where he steps, having his soul moist.

(73) 一个人喝醉了，就被一个没长胡子的少年领着走，跌跌撞撞，不知道自己往哪里迈步，因为他的灵魂是湿的。

(74-76) The dry soul is the wisest and best.

(74-76) 干燥的灵魂是最智慧、最好的。

(77) Man kindles a light for himself in the night-time, when he has died but is alive. The sleeper, whose vision has been put out, lights up from the dead; he that is awake lights up from the sleeping.

(77) 人在夜里为自己点亮一盏灯，那时他已死去却还活着。睡着的人，视觉已经熄灭，从死者那里点亮自己；醒着的人，从睡着的人那里点亮自己。

(78) And it is the same thing in us that is quick and dead, awake and asleep, young and old; the former are shifted and become the latter, and the latter in turn are shifted and become the former.

(78) 在我们身上，生与死、醒与睡、少与老，都是同一个东西；前者转化为后者，后者又转化为前者。

(79) Time is a child playing draughts, the kingly power is a child's.

(79) 时间是一个下跳棋的孩子，王权是一个孩子的。

(80) I have sought for myself.

(80) 我寻找过我自己。

(81) We step and do not step into the same rivers; we are and are not.

(81) 我们踏进又不踏进同一条河流；我们存在又不存在。

(82) It is a weariness to labour for the same masters and be ruled by them.

(82) 为同样的主人劳作、受他们统治，是一件疲累的事。

(83) It rests by changing.

(83) 它在变化中得到休息。

(84) Even the posset separates if it is not stirred.

(84) 甚至大麦饮料不搅动也会分离。

(85) Corpses are more fit to be cast out than dung.

(85) 尸体比粪便更应该被抛弃。

(86) When they are born, they wish to live and to meet with their dooms—or rather to rest—and they leave children behind them to meet with their dooms in turn.

(86) 他们一出生，就想活下去，想去迎接他们的命运，或者不如说是想去安息，他们又留下孩子，让孩子也去迎接他们的命运。

(87-89) A man may be a grandfather in thirty years.

(87-89) 一个人三十年就可以做祖父。

(90) Those who are asleep are fellow-workers (in what goes on in the world).

(90) 睡着的人也是（世界上所发生之事的）同工。

(91a) Thought is common to all.

(91a) 思想是一切人共有的。

(91b) Those who speak with understanding must hold fast to what is common to all as a city holds fast to its law, and even more strongly. For all human laws are fed by the one divine law. It prevails as much as it will, and suffices for all things with something to spare.

(91b) 有理解地说话的人，必须牢牢把握一切人所共有的东西，就像一座城邦牢牢把握它的法律，甚至更加牢固。因为一切人间的法律都由一条神圣的法律滋养。它想要多大威力就有多大威力，足以应付一切，而且绰绰有余。

(92) So we must follow the common, yet though my Word is common, the many live as if they had a wisdom of their own.

(92) 所以我们必须遵循共同的东西；可是我的“道”虽然是共同的，大多数人却活得好像他们各有一种自己的智慧。

(93) They are estranged from that with which they have most constant intercourse.

(93) 他们与他们最经常交往的东西疏远了。

(94) It is not meet to act and speak like men asleep.

(94) 像睡着的人那样行事和说话，是不恰当的。

(95) The waking have one common world, but the sleeping turn aside each into a world of his own.

(95) 醒着的人有一个共同的世界，睡着的人却各自转入他自己的世界。

(96) The way of man has no wisdom, but that of God has.

(96) 人的道路没有智慧，神的道路才有。

(97) Man is called a baby by God, even as a child by a man.

(97) 在神看来，人是婴孩，正如在人看来，孩子是婴孩。

(98, 99) The wisest man is an ape compared to God, just as the most beautiful ape is ugly compared to man.

(98, 99) 最智慧的人与神相比是一只猿，正如最美的猿与人相比是丑的。

(100) The people must fight for its law as for its walls.

(100) 人民必须为他们的法律而战，就像为他们的城墙而战。

(101) Greater deaths win greater portions.

(101) 更伟大的死赢得更伟大的份额。

(102) Gods and men honour those who are slain in battle.

(102) 神和人都尊敬在战斗中阵亡的人。

(103) Wantonness needs putting out, even more than a house on fire.

(103) 放纵比房屋失火更需要扑灭。

(104) It is not good for men to get all they wish to get. It is sickness that makes health pleasant; evil, good; hunger, plenty; weariness, rest.

(104) 人得到他们想得到的一切，并不是好事。是疾病使健康愉快，是恶使善愉快，是饥饿使饱足愉快，是疲倦使休息愉快。

(105–107) It is hard to fight with one's heart's desire. Whatever it wishes to get, it purchases at the cost of soul.

(105–107) 与自己心中的欲望作战是困难的。它想得到什么，都要以灵魂为代价去购买。

(108, 109) It is best to hide folly; but it is hard in times of relaxation, over our cups.

(108, 109) 最好把愚蠢藏起来；但在放松的时候、在酒杯之间，这很难。

(110) And it is law, too, to obey the counsel of one.

(110) 服从一个人的劝告，这也是法律。

(111) For what thought or wisdom have they? They follow the poets and take the crowd as their teacher, knowing not that there are many bad and few good. For even the best of them choose one thing above all others, immortal glory among mortals, while most of them are glutted like beasts.

(111) 他们有什么思想、什么智慧呢？他们追随诗人，把众人当作老师，不知道坏人多、好人少。因为即使他们当中最好的人，也只选择一样东西胜过一切，那就是在有死者中间的不朽荣耀，而他们中的大多数，却像牲畜一样吃饱了事。

(112) In Priene lived Bias, son of Teutamas, who is of more account than the rest. (He said, "Most men are bad.")

(112) 在普里耶涅住着透塔麦斯之子比亚斯，他比其余的人更有分量。（他说：“大多数人是坏的。”）

(113) One is ten thousand to me, if he be the best.

(113) 对我来说，一个人如果是最好的，就抵得上一万人。

(114) The Ephesians would do well to hang themselves, every grown man of them, and leave the city to beardless lads; for they have cast out Hermodoros, the best man among them, saying, "We will have none who is best among us; if there be any such, let him be so elsewhere and among others."

(114) 以弗所人最好每个成年人都去上吊，把城邦留给没长胡子的少年；因为他们驱逐了他们中间最好的人赫谟多洛斯，说：“我们中间不要有最好的人；如果有，就让他到别处、在别人中间去做最好的吧。”

(115) Dogs bark at every one they do not know.

(115) 狗对着每一个它们不认识的人叫。

(116) . . . (The wise man) is not known because of men's want of belief.

(116) ……（智慧的人）不为人所知，是因为人们缺乏信心。

(117) The fool is fluttered at every word.

(117) 愚人听到每一句话都慌乱不安。

(118) The most esteemed of them knows but fancies, and holds fast to them, yet of a truth justice shall overtake the artificers of lies and the false witnesses.

(118) 他们当中最受尊敬的人，所知道的只是幻想，并且牢牢抓住它们，可是正义必将追上那些制造谎言的人和作伪证的人。

(119) Homer should be turned out of the lists and whipped, and Archilochos likewise.

(119) 荷马应当被赶出竞赛场，挨一顿鞭子，阿尔基洛科斯也一样。

(120) One day is like any other.

(120) 每一天都与别的任何一天一样。

(121) Man's character is his fate.

(121) 人的性格就是他的命运。

(122) There awaits men when they die such things as they look not for nor dream of.

(122) 人死后，等待他们的，是他们既没有料到、也没有梦到的事情。

(123) . . . that they rise up and become the wakeful guardians of the quick and dead.

(123) ……他们起来，成为生者与死者的警醒的守护者。

(124) Night-walkers, Magians, Bakchoi, Lenai, and the initiated . . .

(124) 夜游者、术士、酒神的信徒、酒神的女祭司，还有入会者……

(125) The mysteries practised among men are unholy mysteries.

(125) 人们所举行的秘仪，是不神圣的秘仪。

(126) And they pray to these images, as if one were to talk with a man's house, knowing not what gods or heroes are.

(126) 他们向这些神像祈祷，就好像一个人对着一所房子说话，不知道神或英雄是什么。

(127) For if it were not to Dionysos that they made a procession and sang the shameful phallic hymn, they would be acting most shamelessly. But Hades is the same as Dionysos in whose honour they go mad and rave.

(127) 因为如果他们不是为狄奥尼索斯游行、唱那可耻的阳具颂歌，他们的行为就是最无耻的了。但冥王哈得斯与他们为之疯狂作乐的狄奥尼索斯是同一个。

(129, 130) They vainly purify themselves by defiling themselves with blood, just as if one who had stepped into the mud were to wash his feet in mud. Any man who marked him doing thus, would deem him mad.

(129, 130) 他们用血玷污自己来净化自己，徒劳无益，就好像一个踩进了泥里的人想用泥来洗脚。任何人看见他这样做，都会认为他疯了。