IT IS not quite clear whether it was Henry IV of France or—more likely—his chief minister, the Duc de Sully, who described James I (of England, VI of Scotland) as “the wisest fool in Christendom”. It is not even clear what prompted the coining of the epithet, though James (above) was certainly a mixture of opposites of every kind. In the words of Sir Walter Scott, 

目前我们尚不完全清楚把英格兰詹姆士1世（或可称为苏格兰詹姆士6世）形容成“基督教王国中最聪明的笨伯”（见译注1） 的人，到底是法国国王亨利4世，还是他的财政大臣德•苏利。我们甚至不知道什么导致了这个称呼的出现，尽管（上面提到的）詹姆士是一个个性矛盾的集合体。用沃尔特•斯科特（Walter Scott）的话来说，

He was deeply learned, without possessing useful knowledge; sagacious in many individual cases, without having real wisdom...He was fond of his dignity, while he was perpetually degrading it by undue familiarity; capable of much public labour, yet often neglecting it for the meanest amusement; a wit, though a pedant; and a scholar, though fond of the conversation of the ignorant and uneducated...He was laborious in trifles, and a trifler where serious labour was required; devout in his sentiments, and yet too often profane in his language...

他学识极为渊博，掌握的却是没用的知识；洞察许多个人事理，却缺乏大智慧……他看重自己的身份，却又随和过度，失了体面；他有能力处理国务，却又时常玩物丧志；他风趣却又刻板；他是个学者，却又喜欢谈论愚昧无礼的话题……他费心于琐事，却又动辄耗费大批劳力；他笃信自己的情感，却又经常对此出言不逊……   

In short, he was a fool. Yet he was also wise.

简言之，他既是愚夫，也是才子。

That made him a much rarer bird than the foolish brainbox—the egg-head who, as a child, takes every prize for scholastic achievement but cannot be trusted to tie his shoelaces, or cross a road, let alone take charge of anything. Such people are indubitably clever. They are the ones who, later on in life, may work out in their heads every kind of intellectual puzzle and show off every arcane piece of knowledge. They may shine at mental long division and be able to expatiate upon the workings of machines or the writings of scholars. But of judgment—everyday, practical judgment of men and human affairs—they have none.

这样的性格使得亨利4世在那些傻瓜学究面前显得更加非同寻常。这些学究在他们的幼年时代学习成绩优异，可是却不会系鞋带，过马路，更别说看管什么东西了。毫无疑问，这类人很聪明。他们会在日后用自己的头脑解开各种智力难题，揭开知识领域各个神秘的部分。他们可能擅长于智力长除法，能够详述机器设备的运作方式，或者阐述学术论文。但是出于判断，出于人及人类事务的日常实际判断，他们一点也不聪明。

It is not difficult to think of such people in public life. Bertrand Russell was certainly one, a brilliant philosopher who could, and did, advocate the pre-emptive bombing of the Soviet Union in the 1940s to prevent it acquiring atomic weapons. Enoch Powell, a British politician, was another. He had been a formidable scholar of ancient Greek, yet advocated immigration policies that were downright foolish, as well as nasty. 

我们不难想到公众人物中也有这类人。才华横溢的哲学家罗素（Bertrand Russell）（见译注2）是其中之一，他在20世纪40年代主张对苏联进行先发制人的打击以防止他们获得核武器。英国政治家鲍威尔（Enoch Powell）也是这类人中的一个。他是令人敬畏的古希腊语学者，然而他却主张极其愚蠢，且相当危险的移民政策。

In politics, at least, intellect alone is never enough. Machiavelli argued that the ability to recognise cleverness in others may be as important to a ruler as to be clever himself. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the great American jurist, was getting at something similar when he spoke, admiringly, of Franklin Roosevelt as a man with “a second-class intellect, but a first-class temperament”. The fifth Marquess of Salisbury was certainly not being complimentary, even to his duller-witted colleagues, when he described his fellow-Tory, Iain Macleod, as “too clever by half”. He meant too liberal, but even so the barb hit a nerve. And Quinapalus, that all-purpose authority invented by Feste in Shakespeare's “Twelfth Night”, was offering a variation on the theme when he averred, “Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.”

至少，在政治领域，光有才智是远远不够的。马基雅维利（Machiavelli）认为对于统治者来说，认识到他人的智慧与自己成为智者同等重要。美国法学家霍姆斯（Oliver Wendell Holmes）谈到富兰克林•罗斯福时也有类似的说法，他用欣赏的语气说其“性情，才气第二”。第五代索尔兹伯里侯爵在形容其同乡麦克劳德（Iain Macleod）“聪明过头”的时候，肯定没有赞赏的意思，甚至对他大智若愚的同事来说也如此。那个形容的意义太过宽泛，尽管如此，挖苦人的话也会触痛神经。莎士比亚《第十二夜》里小丑费斯特（Feste）编造的者昆那柏勒斯（Quinapalus）就斩钉截铁地说过“宁为聪明的愚夫,不作愚蠢的才子”。

Today we are after that rarer oxymoron: the wisest fool. He or she must be fundamentally an idiot, but a shrewd or cunning one. Candidates need not inhabit Christendom, but they must be alive, or have been in the past 50 years. They may come from the world of politics, or academia or business—or perhaps the church, the stage or journalism. Or somewhere else: on the Titanic, one of them was seen heading for the bar when everyone else was taking to the boats.

今天我们便要仿照那个罕见的矛盾修辞法，寻找最聪明的愚夫。他或她完全是白痴，却又是精明狡猾之人。报名者不必是基督教国家居民，但必须健在或者必须是过去半个世纪里的人。他可以是政治家，学者，商人，可以是牧师，演员或者媒体人。也可以是其他人：例如泰坦尼克号沉没时，在人们朝着救生船方向逃时他却而跳向木板的那个人。

Evolution suggests that the man or woman we seek, though unusual, is more common than you may suppose: were it otherwise, the breed would have disappeared. Nominate your contender, explaining why he or she deserves the title in no more than 100 words, to reach us by January 17th. The three best entries will be published in our issue of January 29th, libel laws permitting, and will receive a copy of the King James Bible, in memory of the first wisest fool. Entries, please, to Competition, The Economist, 25 St James's Street, London SW1A 1HG, or by e-mail to competition@economist.com. 

人类进化显示，尽管我们寻找的他或她与众不同，但他们比你想象中的还要普通：否则，这类人早就灭绝了。推荐你心中的这个人吧，并给出不超过100字的推荐理由（诽谤法允许），于1月17日前联系我们。前三名将在1月29日一期公布，并获钦定版圣经一本，以此纪念世界上位最聪明的笨伯。参赛信息请寄往伦敦SW1A 1HG圣詹姆斯街25号《经济学人》，或者将电子邮件发至competition@economist.com。