美国学生人类历史第41期:爱琴海(4)

 　　The cellars underneath¹ this palace, where the wine and the grain and the olive-oil were stored, had been so vast and had so greatly impressed the first Greek visitors, that they had given rise to the story of the "labyrinth," the name which we give to a structure with so many complicated passages that it is almost impossible to find our way out, once the front door has closed upon our frightened selves.

　　宫殿下面建有储藏葡萄酒和橄榄油的地窖，每个都硕大无朋，给第一批前来参观的古希腊游客留下过深刻印象。于是，他们据此创造了克里特"迷宫"的故事。迷宫常被我们用来形容一座有着许多复杂通道的建筑物，一旦其前门在我们身后重重地台上时，我们将惊恐地发现自己找不到其它的出口。

　　But what finally became of this great Aegean Empire and what caused its sudden downfall, that I can not tell.

　　然而这个伟大岛国最后究竟发生了什么，是何人何事导致了它突然的衰落？本人对此也一无所知。

　　The Cretans were familiar with the art of writing, but no one has yet been able to decipher their inscriptions². Their history therefore is unknown to us. We have to reconstruct the record of their adventures from the ruins which the Aegeans have left behind. These ruins make it clear that the Aegean world was suddenly conquered by a less civilised race which had recently come from the plains of northern Europe. Unless we are very much mistaken, the savages³ who were responsible for the destruction of the Cretan and the Aegean civilisation⁴ were none other than certain tribes of wandering shepherds who had just taken possession of the rocky peninsula between the Adriatic and the Aegean seas and who are known to us as Greeks.

　　克里特人精通书写术，可迄今为止，还没人能破译他们留下的碑文。因此，我们无法熟悉其历史，只能从爱琴海人存留的遗迹中，推测他们英雄业绩的点点滴滴。那些废墟表明，爱琴海人的世界是一夜 之间被来自欧洲北部平原的野蛮民族攻陷的。如果猜得没错，这个摧毁克里特人和爱琴海文明的野蛮种族就是刚刚占领亚得里亚海与爱琴海之间那个岩石半岛的游牧部族，也即我们称呼的古希腊人。

1 underneath   

adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面

参考例句：

• Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
• She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。

2 inscriptions   

（作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记

参考例句：

• Centuries of wind and rain had worn away the inscriptions on the gravestones. 几个世纪的风雨已磨损了墓碑上的碑文。
• The inscriptions on the stone tablet have become blurred with the passage of time. 年代久了，石碑上的字迹已经模糊了。

3 savages   

未开化的人，野蛮人( savage的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• There're some savages living in the forest. 森林里居住着一些野人。
• That's an island inhabited by savages. 那是一个野蛮人居住的岛屿。

4 civilisation   

n.文明，文化，开化，教化

参考例句：

• Energy and ideas are the twin bases of our civilisation.能源和思想是我们文明的两大基石。
• This opera is one of the cultural totems of Western civilisation.这部歌剧是西方文明的文化标志物之一。