In fact, we have-- and I want to read to you in just a moment--

事实上我们有一份柏拉图关于自己
a lengthy transcript of Plato's own account of

为什么写下《理想国》这个问题的冗长的解说
why he came to write the Republic.

而且待会儿我也想给你们读一下
One thing, of course, you note in the Republic,

当然在《理想国》中你会注意到
is that Plato is nowhere present.

柏拉图在书中并不存在
He is not a participant in his own dialogue.

他并不是自己这部对话的参与者
He is the author, but not the participant.

他是作者但不是参与者
We don't know precisely what Plato thought, but we are helped,

我们无法明确地知道柏拉图在想什么但至少
at least, by a kind of intellectual autobiography

我们可以通过他写下的而且我们拥有的
that he wrote and that we still have,

理智的书信而得到帮助
in what is conventionally referred to as The Seventh Letter.

即一般所说的《第七封信》
Plato wrote a series of letters that we have.

我们有柏拉图写下的一系列书信