以下是昂山素姬當年在獲得諾貝爾和平獎時由其兒子代讀的演說的節選，我試譯了一下，供大家分享：

Freedom from Fear

by Aung San Suu Kyi, 1990

It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. Most Burmese are familiar with the four a-gati, the four kinds of corruption. Chanda-gati, corruption induced by desire, is deviation from the right path in pursuit of bribes or for the sake of those one loves. Dosa-gati is taking the wrong path to spite those against whom one bears ill will, and moga-gati is aberration due to ignorance. But perhaps the worst of the four is bhaya-gati, for not only does bhaya, fear, stifle and slowly destroy all sense of right and wrong, it so often lies at the root of the other three kinds of corruption. Just as chanda-gati, when not the result of sheer avarice, can be caused by fear of want or fear of losing the goodwill of those one loves, so fear of being surpassed, humiliated or injured in some way can provide the impetus for ill will. And it would be difficult to dispel ignorance unless there is freedom to pursue the truth unfettered by fear. With so close a relationship between fear and corruption it is little wonder that in any society where fear is rife corruption in all forms becomes deeply entrenched.

導致腐敗的不是權力，而是恐懼。懷喪權之憂令掌權者腐敗，懼濫權之害使無權者腐敗。大多數緬甸人者知道四種邪行，即四種腐敗。其一為貪，貪慾引發的腐敗，是為索賄或取悅所戀者而離道。其二為嗔，為對仇人泄憤而入邪道。其三為痴，因愚昧而脫正軌。其四為懼，或為腐敗中最惡者，源於恐懼。恐懼不僅窒息並漸漸摧毀一切正覺，還是另三種腐敗的根源。如同貪腐一樣，即使腐敗非由純粹貪婪所致，也可以是諸等恐懼的結果：懼怕清貧、懼怕失寵，因此，懼怕攀比不及，懼怕遭受某種羞辱或傷害也能帶來惡意的衝動。倘若求真理之自由為恐懼所羈，則愚昧難除。既然恐懼和腐敗的關係如此密切，難怪在充滿恐懼的社會中，形形色色的腐敗根深蒂固。

Public dissatisfaction with economic hardships has been seen as the chief cause of the movement for democracy in Burma, sparked off by the student demonstrations 1988. It is true that years of incoherent policies, inept official measures, burgeoning inflation and falling real income had turned the country into an economic shambles. But it was more than the difficulties of eking out a barely acceptable standard of living that had eroded the patience of a traditionally good-natured, quiescent people - it was also the humiliation of a way of life disfigured by corruption and fear.

一九八八年，學生抗議引發了緬甸民主運動。人們總認為其起因是經濟困難引發的公眾不滿。的確，多年政策朝令夕改，官方措施無能，物價高漲和實際收入的下降把這個國家變成了一片經濟廢墟。緬甸民眾本性善良文靜，然而，業已耗盡了他們的耐心遠不止家徒四壁聊以為生的困苦，還因來自遭受腐敗和恐懼所扭曲的生活之屈辱。

The students were protesting not just against the death of their comrades but also against the denial of their right to life by a totalitarian regime which deprived the present of meaningfulness and held out no hope for the future. And because the students' protests articulated the frustrations of the people at large, the demonstrations quickly grew into a nationwide movement. Some of its keenest supporters were businessmen who had developed the skills and the contacts necessary not only to survive but to prosper within the system. But their affluence offered them no genuine sense of security or fulfilment, and they could not but see that if they and their fellow citizens, regardless of economic status, were to achieve a worthwhile existence, an accountable administration was at least a necessary if not a sufficient condition. The people of Burma had wearied of a precarious state of passive apprehension where they were 'as water in the cupped hands' of the powers that be.

當年學生所抗議的，不僅是因為他們的同學遇害，也是因為一個極權政府對其生命權之否決，這政權既剝奪了當下的生活意義，又給不出未來之希望。因為學生的抗議道出了民眾的憤懣，隨即在全國成燎原之勢。這場運動的最積極之支持者中有商人，他們已經在這個體制中培養出了必要的技巧和關係網，使之不僅能生存，還能繁榮起來。然而，財富不能給他們任何真正的安全感和成就感，所以他們只能這樣認為，他們自己及其同胞，不論經濟地位，若活有所值，一個負責政府即使不是充足條件，至少也是一個必要條件。緬甸人民如同捧在強權者手中任其擺布的水，已經厭倦了這種前途未卜，擔驚受怕的日子。

The effort necessary to remain uncorrupted in an environment where fear is an integral part of everyday existence is not immediately apparent to those fortunate enough to live in states governed by the rule of law. Just laws do not merely prevent corruption by meting out impartial punishment to offenders. They also help to create a society in which people can fulfil the basic requirements necessary for the preservation of human dignity without recourse to corrupt practices. Where there are no such laws, the burden of upholding the principles of justice and common decency falls on the ordinary people. It is the cumulative effect of their sustained effort and steady endurance which will change a nation where reason and conscience are warped by fear into one where legal rules exist to promote man's desire for harmony and justice while restraining the less desirable destructive traits in his nature.

在恐怖是日常生活固有部分的環境中，保持潔身自好的必要努力，對於那些足以幸運生活在法制國家中的人而言，難以理解。公正的法律不僅對違法者實施適當的懲罰以避免腐敗，這些法律還有助於創造出這樣一種社會，在這一社會中，人們無需腐敗，就可滿足必要的，維護其人類尊嚴的基本需求。在沒有這些法律的地方，維護公正原則和正直德行的重任就落在了大眾身上。在一個理性和良知被恐懼所扭曲的國家裡，只有大眾堅持不懈的努力和堅定的毅力所造成的日積月累的影響會將這樣的國家變成一個法制的國家，而這些法律一面激發人們渴望合諧和正義的願望，一面遏止人性中不良的消極特性。

The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear.

完全徹底的革命是靈魂的革命，這種革命產生於一種智識上信念，即堅信需要變革那決定一個民族發展進程的精神態度和價值觀。僅僅試圖改變官方政策和政府機構以便改善物質條件的革命幾乎沒有真正成功的機會。沒有靈魂的革命，那些滋生舊制度之罪惡的力量依然繼續做祟，對改革和重生的進程造成不斷地威脅。僅僅為自由、民主和人權呼籲是不夠的。一定要有一個團結一致的決心，堅持鬥爭，為歷久常新之真理而犧牲，抵制物慾、惡意、愚昧和恐懼的腐敗影響。

Saints, it has been said, are the sinners who go on trying. So free men are the oppressed who go on trying and who in the process make themselves fit to bear the responsibilities and to uphold the disciplines which will maintain a free society. Among the basic freedoms to which men aspire that their lives might be full and uncramped, freedom from fear stands out as both a means and an end. A people who would build a nation in which strong, democratic institutions are firmly established as a guarantee against state-induced power must first learn to liberate their own minds from apathy and fear.

常言道，聖者即不懈努力的罪人。同樣，自由人是那受壓迫卻不懈努力的人，在這努力過程中使自己有承當責任的資格，有捍衛維護自由社會原則之能力。在人所渴望的、希望自己生命充實而不受壓迫的各種基本自由中，從恐懼中解放出來的自由既是獲得自由的手段，也是獲得自由的目的，是自由的中流砥柱。一個民族，要建立一個具有堅強民主機制以保障抵抗政府強權的國家，必須首先學會將自己的思想從冷漠和恐懼中解放出來。

Within a system which denies the existence of basic human rights, fear tends to be the order of the day. Fear of imprisonment, fear of torture, fear of death, fear of losing friends, family, property or means of livelihood, fear of poverty, fear of isolation, fear of failure. A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity. It is not easy for a people conditioned by fear under the iron rule of the principle that might is right to free themselves from the enervating miasma of fear. Yet even under the most crushing state machinery courage rises up again and again, for fear is not the natural state of civilized man.

在一個否認基本人權之存在的制度里，恐懼往往無所不在。怕囚禁，怕酷刑，怕喪命，怕失去友人、家庭、財產或生計，怕窮困，怕孤獨，怕失敗。最陰險的一種恐懼是那種偽裝成常識甚至智慧恐懼，把那些日常不起眼的勇敢行為，那些有助於維護人的自尊和固有尊嚴的勇敢行為誣衊成愚蠢、草率、微不足道或無濟於事之舉。“有權即有理”的鐵腕教條統治製造恐懼，對於已經習慣生活其中的民眾，要將自己從窒息人性的恐懼瘴氣中解放出來並非易事。然而，就是在最殘暴的國家機器下，勇氣仍舊一次再一次地挺身而出，因為恐懼不是文明人的自然狀態。

The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute. At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man's vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power.

面對無法無天的權勢，勇氣和耐力的源泉大抵是堅信道德原則之神聖性的信仰，以及這樣一種歷史感，即，任有無窮挫敗，人生之路註定是精神與物質之最終的進步。正是人這種自我改善拯救的力量使之有別於獸。為人之責，植於盡善之意念，盡善之渴求，求其道之明智，循其道之毅力，道途雖不能窮盡亦要跋涉有程，足以超越自身局限與環境阻礙。正是人對一個適合於理性文明人類生存的世界的憧憬賦予人勇氣，使之忍受苦難，以便建成沒有貧困和恐懼的社會。人斷不可視真理、正義和慈悲等理念陳腐過時之物，因為此等理念，正是抵抗殘酷權勢的唯一壁壘。

（生菜先生譯）