"我热爱权力。然而我对权力的喜爱就像一位艺术家那样。如同一位想奏出美妙乐章的音乐家爱他的小提琴一般。"--拿破仑？波拿巴 "

I love power. But it is as an artist that I love it. I love it as a musician loves his violin, to draw out its sounds and chords and harmonies." --Napoleon Bonaparte

权力被形容成很多事物--至高无上的催欲剂、一位彻头彻尾的腐蚀者、一位情妇、一把小提琴。但人们还是无法看清它的真面目。毕竟，国家元首与一位宗教要人手中掌握的权力截然不同。我们真的能把新闻记者与恐怖份子二者的影响力相提并论吗？或者，从根本上讲，权力就是"无为而治"?

Power has been called many things. The ultimate aphrodisiac. An absolute corrupter. A mistress. A violin. But its true nature remains elusive. After all, a head of state wields a very different sort of power than a religious figure. Can one really compare the influence of a journalist to that of a terrorist? And is power unexercised power at all?

在编订"福布斯2009年最有权力人物排行榜"的最初期，在我们决定从四个方面定义"权力"本身之前，我们努力寻求这些问题的答案，甚至试图弄懂更多。首先，我们会探讨，这个人是否对其他民众具有一定的影响力？排在榜单第11位的罗马教皇本笃十六世，他本人是10多亿民众（相当于世界人口总数的1/6）的精神领袖，而排在第8位的沃尔玛首席执行官迈克？杜克是全美最大的私企老板。

In compiling our first ranking of the World's Most Powerful People we wrestled with these questions--and many more--before deciding to define power in four dimensions. First, we asked, does the person have influence over lots of other people? Pope Benedict XVI, ranked 11th on our list, is the spiritual leader of more than a billion souls, or about one-sixth of the world's population, while Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke （No. 8） is the largest private-sector employer in the United States.

然后，我们对这些人手中的经济实力进行评估。与其他候选人相比，他们的经济实力是否更胜一筹？对于国家元首们，我们用国内生产总值来衡量，而对于那些首席执行官们，我们就要借鉴世界2000强公司的年度排名，考察其在市场资本总值、利润、资产、收入方面的综合排名。在特定情况下，比如《纽约时报》执行编辑比尔？凯勒（排名第51位）,我们评估与其他业内人士相比，其手中掌控的经济资源。对于那些富豪们，比如比尔？盖茨（排名第10位）,净资产也是一项评估要素。

Then we assessed the financial resources controlled by these individuals. Are they relatively large compared with their peers? For heads of state we used GDP, while for CEOs, we looked at a composite ranking of market capitalization, profits, assets and revenues as reflected on our annual ranking of the World's 2000 Largest Companies. In certain instances, like New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller （No. 51）, we judged the resources at his disposal compared with others in the industry. For billionaires, like Bill Gates （No. 10）, net worth was also a factor.

接下来，我们评估其权力所影响的领域是否广泛。《福布斯》只选取67人进入排行榜，即相当于从每1亿人中选择1位，因此挑选出的人必须在多个领域都具有广泛的影响力。以头衔众多的意大利总理西尔维奥？贝卢斯科尼（排名第12）为例，他既是一位政治家，又是媒体垄断者和足球劲旅AC米兰的老板。

Next we determined if they are powerful in multiple spheres. There are only 67 slots on our list--one for every 100 million people on the planet--so being powerful in just one area is not enough to guarantee a spot. Our picks project their influence in myriad ways. Take Italy's colorful prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi （No. 12） who is a politician, a media monopolist and owner of soccer powerhouse A.C. Milan.

最后，我们认为他们必须积极运用权力。"宜家"家居创始人英格瓦尔？卡姆普拉德曾为欧洲首富，本来是榜单的不二人选，但由于他"无为而治",又被从榜单中剔除。而另一方面，独断专行的俄罗斯总理弗拉基米尔？普京也因频繁施展权力位列榜单第3位。

Lastly, we insisted that our choices actively use their power. Ingvar Kamprad, the 83-year-old entrepreneur behind Ikea and the richest man in Europe, was an early candidate for this list, but was excluded because he doesn't exercise his power. On the other hand, Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin （No. 3） scored points because he likes to throw his weight around.

在计算最后排名时，《福布斯》的5位资深编辑，首先对所有候选人在以上四个权力领域各自打分，然后用每人的各单项得分相加取平均值作为综合得分，最终用这一综合得分来决定候选人的排名先后次序。

To calculate the final rankings, five Forbes senior editors ranked all of our candidates in each of these four dimensions of power. Those individual rankings were averaged into a composite score, which determined who placed above （or below） whom.

美国总统巴拉克？奥巴马毫无悬念地以巨大优势打败对手，成为世界上最有权力的人物。但也有一些小惊喜。前总统乔治？W?布什惨遭淘汰出局，而他的前辈比尔？ 克林顿却位列第31位，排名遥遥领先一众在任的政府首脑。苹果公司创始人斯蒂夫？乔布斯轻松入选榜单，而加州明星州长阿诺德？施瓦辛格却意外落选。

U.S. President Barack Obama emerged, unanimously, as the world's most powerful person, and by a wide margin. But there were a number of surprises. Former President George W. Bush didn't come close to making the final cut, while his predecessor in the Oval Office, Bill Clinton, ranks 31st, ahead of a number of sitting heads of government. Apple's Steve Jobs easily made the list, while Arnold Schwarzenegger, the movie star governor of California did not.

这个榜单只是引发讨论的开端，而非结论。像墨西哥大毒枭华金？古兹曼（第41位）这样卑劣的罪犯是否该被收入榜单呢？榜单中又遗漏了哪些人？这些问题值得思考。

This ranking is intended to be the beginning of a conversation, not the final word. Do despicable criminals like billionaire Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán （No. 41） belong on this list at all? Who did we overlook? These remain questions.