◎管淑平
His works have been scrutinised and debated for more than 2,000 years by the greatest minds in history. But it turns out the Greek philosopher Plato still has a few surprises up his sleeve.
他的作品已被史上最偉大的思想家們審視、辯論了2千多年。但結果發現，這名希臘哲學家還隱瞞了一些令人意外的東西。
A British academic claims to have uncovered a series of secret messages hidden in Plato’s writings. The codes suggest that Plato was a secret follower of the philosopher Pythagoras and shared his belief that the secrets to the universe lie in numbers and maths.
一名英國學者宣稱發現了柏拉圖著作中隱藏一系列秘密訊息。這些密碼顯示，柏拉圖是哲學家畢達哥拉斯的秘密追隨者，都相信宇宙奧秘就在數字和數學中。
Claims that an ancient text contains secret messages should normally be taken with a large pinch of salt. But the latest study comes from respected Classical scholar Dr. Jay Kennedy of Manchester University.
有關古老著作中藏有秘密訊息的說法通常應以大幅保留的態度看待，但這份最新研究來自備受敬重的曼徹斯特大學古典學家甘迺迪博士。
Kennedy spent five years studying Plato’s writing and found that in his best-known work the Republic he placed clusters of words related to music after each twelfth of the text. This regular pattern represented the twelve notes of a Greek musical scale. At the locations of the harmonic notes he described sounds associated with love or laughter, while the locations of dissonant notes were marked with screeching sounds or war or death.
甘迺迪花了5年研究柏拉圖著作，在他最知名的著作「理想國」中發現文中與音樂有關的文字依12分之1的規律安排，這種規律代表希臘音樂音階12音符，他在屬於和諧音的位置形容與愛或笑聲有關的聲音，不和諧音就以尖銳聲或戰爭、死亡標示。
The findings overthrow conventional wisdom on Plato. Modern historians have always denied that there were codes; now Dr Kennedy has proved otherwise.
這些發現推翻了對柏拉圖的傳統看法。現代史學家一直否定柏拉圖書中有密碼的說法，現在甘迺迪已證明其實不然。
新聞辭典
have something up one’s sleeve：片語，有還沒派上用場的妙計。例句：He still has some tricks up his sleeve that might work.（他還有一些也許有用的妙計。）
take something with a pinch of salt：片語，對某事半信半疑。例句：You should take his words with a pinch of salt, for he is used to bluffing. （你應該對他說的話持保留態度，因為他習慣唬人。）
conventional wisdom：名詞，一般、傳統看法。例句：The candidate is challenging the conventional wisdom on politics. （這名候選人在挑戰對政治的傳統看法。）
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