【翻译练习】勇者打倒权威，弱者被权威打倒

        Once when the world-known conductor Seiji Ozawa was in the final of an Europe Conducting Competition, he found some of the music dissonant as he was conducting according to the score given by the jury. He believed the orchestra had played wrong, stopped and played it again, but felt it still less than satisfactory. By then, all the composers and authorities at the scene announced that it is rather Seiji Ozawa's illusion than the problem of the score. Faced with a bunch of virtuoso and authorities, he roared out the words after much deliberation: "No, the score is wrong!" Voice faded, there was an enthusiastic round of applause from the jury.

        世界著名交响乐指挥家小泽征尔在一次欧洲指挥大赛的决赛中，按照评委会给他的乐谱在指挥演奏时，发现有不和谐的地方。他认为是乐队演奏错了，就停下来重新演奏，但仍不如意。这时，在场的作曲家和评委会的权威人士都郑重地说明乐谱没有问题，而是小泽征尔的错觉。面对着一批音乐大师和权威人士，他思考再三，突然大吼一声：“不，一定是乐谱错了！”话音刚落，评判台上立刻报以热烈的掌声。

        It turned out to be a well-designed trap to examine whether the conductor could stand his ground or not when he found the mistake and was denied by authorities. The first two competitors, though they discovered something wrong as well, were finally knocked out because they were too timid to challenge the authority, while Seiji Ozawa was crowned the winner of this World Conductor's Competition as a result of his defiance.

        原来，这是评委们精心设计的圈套，以此来检验指挥家们在发现乐谱错误并遭到权威人士“否定”的情况下，能否坚持自己的正确判断。前两位参赛者虽然也发现了问题，但终因趋同权威而遭淘汰。小泽征尔则不然，因此，他在这次世界音乐指挥家大赛中摘取了桂冠。

        You will get nowhere without wisdom, you will get nowhere without courage either. No one is sure that a wise man is bound to be courageous, but an unwise man is very likely short of courage, or you can say he has not enough courage.

        没有智慧不行，没有勇气也不行。谁也不敢说有智慧的人一定有勇气；但缺少智慧的人，大约也没有勇气，或者其勇气亦是不足取的。

        What is courage? Never be scared by external forces and turn a blind eye to them. Undertake formidable tasks without fear. Take warlord problem as an example: only a precious few have a mind to overthrow them out of indignation, while the vast majority regard it as a helpless situation, they have no other choice but to bend towards them and swim with the current. How can we deal with them when we are just unarmed civilians? That is cowardice. A man without courage is prone to yield to the accomplished situation and regard it as immutable. All that said, we have to admire Mr. Sun Yat-sen for him a man of great courage. It's a miracle he overthrew the Qin Dynasty reigned for two hundred years by himself. It is hard to imagine that he finished all this without an insane ambition. However, without wisdom he would not have achieved this either. Haven't he ever been scared by the mighty Qin Dynasty? He was not unaware of the strength of it, but simultaneously he was conscious that it was changeable. Haven't he ever felt a tiny human being he is? But he knew he would grow stronger, and that is wisdom. It needs more courage to see through all these things. It is just because of his courage that he had got a lot of brains. Wisdom and courage, one and the same rather than irrelevant two, are nothing more than a sign of one's life on the high ground. In contrast, one looks stupid when he is frightened.

        怎样是有勇气？不为外面威力所慑，视任何强大势力若无物，担负任何艰巨工作而无所怯。譬如：军阀问题，有的人激于义愤要打倒他；但同时更有许多人看成是无可奈何的局面，只有迁就他，只有随顺而利用他，自觉我们无拳无勇的人，对他有什么办法呢？此即没有勇气。没勇气的人，容易看重既成的局面，往往把既成的局面看成是不可改的。说到这里，我们不得不佩服孙中山先生，他真是一个有大勇的人。他以一个匹夫之身，竟然想推翻二百多年大清帝国的统治。没有疯狂似的野心，是不能作此想的。然而没有智慧，则此想亦不能发生。他何以不为强大无比的清朝所慑服呢？他并非不知其强大，但同时他知此原非定局，而是可以变的。他何以不自看渺小？他晓得是可以增长起来的。这便是他的智慧。有此观察理解，则其勇气更大。而正惟其有勇气，心思乃益活泼敏妙。智也，勇也，都不外其生命之伟大高强处，原是一回事而非二。反之，一般人气慑，则思呆也。

        Courage is very important. Whatever you do, you need to look upon it as workable. Whatever formidable task you have to undertake, you need to rise to the challenge rather than be scared by difficulties.

        没有勇气不行。无论什么事，你总要看他是可能的，不是不可能的。无论任何艰难巨大的工程，你总要“气吞事”，而不是被事慑着你。

        When you develop a "good" habit of sucking up to authorities, you will not only stay in the shadows of them, but raise a question whether they think much of you or not.

        在权威面前一旦养成屈膝哈腰的“好”习惯，不但自己只能生活在人家的影子中，而且人家也未必瞧得上你。