雅典人啊，你們沒能贏得更多時間；相反，因為將蘇格拉底置之死地，你們將惡名遠揚。你們若是足夠耐心等久一些，老天自會滿足你們的心願，讓你們真正擺脫我；只因我年事已高，時日無多。
You think that I was convicted through deficiency of words - I mean, that if I had thought fit to leave nothing undone, nothing unsaid. I might have gained an acquittal. But I had not the boldness or impudence or inclination to address you as you would have liked me to address you, weeping and wailing and lamenting and saying and doing many things which you have been accustomed to hear from others and which, are unworthy of me.
你們無疑認為，我是因為申辯不夠充分而被處以極刑，要是我按你們認為合適的方式，以行為和言辭打動陪審團以求或赦，或許我會被無罪開釋。可我無法做到以取悅的方式向你們諂媚，肆意妄為、恬不知恥、卑躬屈膝、痛哭流涕、抱怨哀嚎、悔恨悲嘆，這些奴顏婢膝的說辭和行徑，你們道聽途說早已對此習以為常，但這一切，根本配不上我的名號。
But I don't regret my defence. I would rather die having spoken after my manner than speak in your manner and live. But often in battle there is no doubt that if a man will throw away his arms, and fall on his knees before his pursuers, he may escape death; and in other dangers there are other ways of escaping death, if a man is willing to say and do anything.
我並不後悔進行申辯。我寧願死於自己所信仰的辯護方式，也不願按你們的方式繼續苟活。法庭如同戰場。戰鬥中常有此事發生，一個人只要扔掉武器，向追捕他的敵人乞憐求饒，便可避免一死。在危險面前，總有各種逃避死亡的辦法，只要你寡廉鮮恥不惜代價，便可死裡逃生。
The difficulty, my friends, is not in avoiding death, but in avoiding unrighteousness; for that runs faster than death, I am old and move slowly, and my accusers are keen and quick, and the faster runner, who is unrighteousness, has overtaken me.
朋友們，真正的困難並不是逃避死亡，而是避免做出不義之事；因為不義之事，比死亡更難逃避。我已是年老體衰、行動遲緩，而指控我的人年輕堅毅而敏捷，他們步伐迅速讓我望塵莫及，可惜卻行為不義。
Me, you have killed, because you wanted to escape the accuser and not to give an account of yourlives. If you think that by killing men, you can avoid the accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape which is either possible or honourable; the easiest and noblest way is not to be crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.
我，將被你們奪去生命，你們指望以此來逃避世人的譴責，且不用以失掉自己的性命為代價。假如你們想用置他人於死地的方式，來規避世人對自己生平過失的譴責，那實在大錯特錯；以此種方式來逃避譴責，既不可行又極為可恥；最易行且最高尚的方式，並非摧毀他人，而是改變自己，成為善人。
Til now, the oracle within me has constantly been in the habit of warning me. Was I going to make a slip or error? But now there has come upon me that which is generally believed to be, the last and worst evil. But the oracle made no sign of opposition. Either as I was leaving my house and going out in the morning, or when I was going up into this court, or while I was speaking.
迄今，有某種神諭伴隨著我。我若是犯錯，哪怕所犯之事無足掛齒，神諭便會顯現 示以警醒。可現在即將降臨於我身的，是世人普遍觀念中最最終極的災難——死亡。然而，神諭卻未曾降下徵兆阻止我，無論是當我早晨離家之時，或是在我抵達庭之時，又或是在我申辯立論之時。
What do I take to be the explanation of this? I will tell you. I regard this as a proof that what has happened to me is a good and that those of us who think that death is an evil... are in error. Either death is a state of nothingness and utter unconsciousness, or, as men say, there is a change and migration of the soul from this world to another.
這該讓我作何解釋？我想告訴你們，在我看來這恰恰證實了，死亡的降臨於我是福氣。要是我們把死亡設想為最大的不幸，才是大錯特錯。死亡，要麼是靈魂和肉體俱滅，進入一種虛無完全無意識狀態，要麼如世俗所說，死亡就是靈魂從這個世界到另一個世界的變化和遷移。
Now if you suppose that there is no consciousness but a sleep, like the sleep of him who is undisturbed even by the sight of dreams, death will be an unspeakable gain. For if a person were to select the night in which his sleep was undisturbed even by dreams, and were to compare with this the other days and nights of his life, and then were to tell how many days and nights he had passed in the course of his life better and more pleasantly than this one, I think that any man, will not find many such days or nights, when compared with the others. Now if death is like this, I say that to die is gain; for eternity is then only a single night.
既然你們認為死後無意識無知覺，進入沉睡狀態，進入一種甚至不會被夢境所打攪的沉睡狀態，那麼死亡真是一種難以言表的獲益啊。要是讓一個人選擇某個夜晚，將這個沉睡無夢的夜晚與他一生中度過的日日夜夜進行比較，並告訴我們他這一生中有多少日日夜夜要比這個無夢的夜晚過得更快樂更美好，我相信任何人在進行對比之時都會發現，這樣的日子屈指可數。如果死亡正是如此，我便將死亡當作一種收穫；來世的永恆也不過是一場沉睡。
But if death is the journey to another place, and there, as men say, all the dead are, what good can be greater than this? What would not a man give if he might converse with Orpheus and Homer? Nay, if this be true, let me die, again and again. I, too, shall have a wonderful interest in a place, where I can converse with Ajax and other heroes of old, who have suffered death through an unjust judgement; and there will be no small pleasure, as I think, in comparing my own sufferings with theirs.
另一種觀點，假如死亡是靈魂從此處移居至彼處，正如世人所言，所有死人都在另一個世界，還有什麼事情比去那個世界更幸福呢？可以和俄耳甫斯、荷馬交流思想，那還有什麼不可捨棄的呢？如果死後真是這樣，我願意一次又一次死去。我當然對這樣的地方饒有興趣，在那裡我會碰到大埃阿斯，還有含冤而死的古代英雄，與他們交流思想。在我看來，跟他們曾經的遭遇相比，我所承受的苦痛可以稱得上快樂了。
Above all, I shall be able to continue my search into true and false knowledge; as in this world, so also in that; I shall find out who is wise, and who pretends to be wise, and is not. For in that world, they do not put a man to death for this; certainly not. For besides being happier in that world than in this, they will be immortal, if what is said is true.
更重要的是，我可以在另一個世界裡繼續進行真偽知識的研究，就如同在這個世界一樣。我要辨別出誰擁有真智慧，誰假裝自己智慧過人，以及誰毫無智慧；在那裡，人們不會因為我的行為便將我置之死地，絕對不會；那個世界的人們除了比我們更幸福更快樂，他們還不死永生，如果傳說屬實的話。
Wherefore, judges, be of good cheer about death, and know this of a truth - that no evil can happen to a good man, either in life or after death. He and his are not neglected by the gods; nor has my own approaching end happened by mere chance.
裁決者們啊，為死亡而歡呼雀躍吧！毫無疑問，善良的人是不會遭逢惡果的，無論生前或是死後。諸神不會對他的命運充耳不聞；即將降臨於我的死亡之結局，也絕非偶然。
But I see clearly that to die and be released was better for me; and therefore the oracle gave no sign. For which reason also, I am not angry with my accusers, or my condemners; they have done me no harm, although neither of them meant to do me any good; and for this, I may gently blame them.
但我看得清楚，對我來說死亡比在世為佳，最終獲得解脫；因此，未有神諭顯現來阻止我。出於同樣的理由，對於那些指控和將我置罪的人，我並非心懷怨恨；他們對我並未造成傷害，儘管他們此舉並非出於善意；於此，我要對他們進行稍稍譴責。
The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways - I to die, and you to live. Which is better, God only knows.
離別的時刻已至，我們要各自上路：我去赴死，你們繼續活著。生與死，孰優孰劣，唯有神明方才知道。
Friends, followers and students of Socrates bribe the prison guards. They urge Socrates to flee. He refuses and carries out his death-sentence by drinking hemlock.
蘇格拉底的朋友、信徒和學生賄賂監獄守衛，他們懇請蘇格拉底選擇逃亡。蘇格拉底斷然拒絕，遵照死刑判決將毒鳩一飲而盡，仰面躺下靜待死亡。
