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A Diogenes and Alexander
第欧根尼和亚历山大
Gilbert Highet
吉尔伯特·海特
Lying on the bare earth, shoeless, bearded, half-naked, he looked like a beggar or a lunatic. He was one, but not the other. He had opened his eyes with the sun at dawn, scratched, done his business like a dog at the roadside, washed at the public fountain, begged a piece of breakfast bread and a few olives, eaten them squatting on the ground, and washed them down with a few handfuls of water scooped from the spring. (Long ago he had owned a rough wooden cup, but he threw it away when he saw a boy drinking out of his hollowed hands.) Having no work to go to and no family to provide for, he was free. As the market place filled up with shoppers and merchants and slaves and foreigners, he had strolled through it for an hour or two. Everybody knew him, or knew of him. They would throw sharp questions at him and get sharper answers. Sometimes they threw bits of food, and got scant thanks; sometimes a mischievous pebble, and got a shower of stones and abuse. They were not quite sure whether he was mad or not. He knew they were mad, each in a different way; they amused him. Now he was back at his home.
他躺在光溜溜的地上，光着脚，胡子拉碴的，半裸着身子，看起来活像个乞丐或者疯子——他确实是一个乞丐，但不是疯子。伴着黎明的阳光，他睁开了眼睛，搔了搔痒，接着像狗一样在路边撒了泡尿，然后在公共喷泉边抹了把脸，讨了块早餐面包和几颗橄榄，然后蹲在地上吃了起来，又从泉口捧了几把水将食物送入肚中。（很久以前，他曾有过一个粗糙的木杯，但是当他看见一个男孩用空手捧水喝时，他就把杯子扔掉了。）他不用去做工，也没有家庭要养，他是自由的。集市上熙熙攘攘，等到处是店主、商人、奴隶和外国人的时候，他也会在那儿溜达一两个小时。每个人都认识他，或者听说过他。他们会向他提些尖锐的问题，而得到的却是更尖锐的回答。有时，他们给他扔点儿食物，但却很少得到感谢；有时，他们恶作剧地向他扔块鹅卵石，他就还之以无数石块，且破口大骂。他们不太确定他是否疯了。但他却知道他们疯了，各有各的疯法；他们让他觉得很有意思。现在他要回自己家了。
It was not a house, not even a squatter's hut. He thought everybody lived far too elaborately, expensively, anxiously.
他的家不是房子，甚至连个破旧的窝棚也算不上。他认为人们的生活太讲究，过于奢侈、太煞费苦心了。
