【英语美文-英语文章-英文短文-英语短文带翻译】:proclaiming a rejection of all the oppressors who misrule the world, all the superstitions that cripple man’s mind and prevent his going straight as the crow flies towards perfection.它宣称反对一切造成世界混乱的压迫者，反对一切削弱人的斗志并阻碍勇往直前、完善自我的迷信思想。
英语短文:The Greeks Had an Answer 希腊人的回答
In trying to say what I really believe, I cannot recite one of the traditional creeds, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or the like. Most of us are born into one of them, and which it is depends simply on what country and what parents we come from. A great mystery surrounds us, in which the human mind can at best catch glimpses and express itself in metaphors.
要我说出自己真正的信仰，我背不出基督教、犹太教、伊斯兰教和佛教等宗教的任何一条传统的教义。我们大多数人生来就属于其中的一种宗教，这仅仅取决于我们所在的国家和我们父母的信仰。我们就生活在伟大的真谛之中，我们人至多只能对它略知一二，用隐喻表达出来。
For myself, I come on my mother’s side from a family of teachers, almost of schoolmarms, and grew up occasionally—accordingly—a good, obedient little boy who kept all the rules. On my father’s side, however, I came of a line of Irish rebels, always suspicious of authorities and deeply prejudiced in favor of the underdog.
就我而言，我的母亲来自于一个教师家庭，她家几乎都是女教师，在我的成长过程中，我偶尔会是——应该成为——一个听话又循规蹈矩的好孩子。然而，从父亲那里我却继承了爱尔兰人的叛逆精神，总是怀疑权威论，并偏爱下层民众。
I loved new ideas and poetry; so naturally in my teens, I fell deeply under the influence of Shelley. “Prometheus Unbound” was for some years to me almost a sacred book. Such poetry and such a religion, proclaiming a rejection of all the oppressors who misrule the world, all the superstitions that cripple man’s mind and prevent his going straight as the crow flies towards perfection. An illusion, of course. Perhaps I was rather slow in growing out of it.
我热爱新思想和诗歌，十几岁时自然深受雪莱的影响。在那些日子里，《解放了的普罗米修斯》对我来说简直就是一本圣书。这是怎样的诗歌!怎样的宗教!它宣称反对一切造成世界混乱的压迫者，反对一切削弱人的斗志并阻碍勇往直前、完善自我的迷信思想。当然，这只是幻想。或许过了很长时间我才放弃这种幻想。
The other main influence that has gone to forming my beliefs was that of ancient Greece. I could hardly have escaped it, having been a professor of Greek most of my life, from twenty-three to seventy. It got hold of me first, I suppose, by the charm of its poetry.
另一个影响我信仰的重要力量来自古希腊。我无法回避它，因为我是一名希腊语教授，我的大半生，从二十三岁到七十岁，都在研究希腊。我想，最初吸引我的是它诗歌的魅力。
Then, it seemed to me that the great Greek thinkers were mostly facing the same problems as ourselves, but facing them more freely and frankly, not hampered by all the complexities and inherited conventions that confuse us today. They did sincerely and simply try to understand truth and justice and the good life.
然后，我开始意识到许多伟大的希腊思想家面临着和我们同样的问题，但他们在面对这些问题时更自由更坦率，不像今天的我们，因为受到复杂的处境和世袭传统习俗的牵制而困惑不已。他们的确是诚恳地想要理解真理、正义和美好的生活。
Then, at last, in 1914 came the shock of the Great War, bringing for me, as for so many people, not any change of belief but a great change of focus.
紧接着，1914年第一次世界大战突然爆发了。它并未改变我和许多人的信仰，只是转移了我们生活的重心。
The prevention of war became the thing that mattered most in the world. I took part in the founding of the League of Nations, and for thirty years now, I have been working in that cause, learning, I think, a good deal by the way.
如何阻止战争成为世界上最重要的问题。我参加了国际联盟的成立，三十多年来，我一直为这一事业而工作，而且我想自己从中也学到了很多东西。
It needed more than enthusiasm. It needed patience and experience and commonsense. It needed day by day far more knowledge than I possessed. But I found good guides and companions. I learned to think less of abstract principles and less still of party catchwords and slogans.
它需要的不只是热情，而是耐心、经验和常识。它需要的知识与日俱增。但我找到了很好的导师和同伴。我学会了较少思考抽象的原则，更不要常把政党的口号和标语挂在嘴边。
I have found among all parties, and all religions, men inspired by the great movement that leads toward peace, outward and inward. And I feel much truth in an old Greek philosopher’s saying: “The helping of man by man is God.”
我发现无论一个人参加了何种党派或信仰何种宗教，激励他的是带来世界和平与内心平和的伟大运动。我觉得一位古希腊哲学家的话闪烁着真理的光芒，“藉着人帮助人的是上帝”。
by Gilbert Murray
吉尔伯特·默里
附注：
吉尔伯特·默里：是世界闻名的希腊学者、诗人和剧作家。
