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
People have argued over the authenticity of them,

即使现在这些书信我认为已经被确认是他的了
although I think by now it is established that they are his.

但是人们还是在争论它们的真实性
In the most famous of these letters, the lengthy seventh one,

在这些书信中最著名的是这冗长的第七封