世界小史 第74期:纪念碑

 　　After this the Persians never again dared attack the Greeks.

　　从此波斯人没有再敢涉足希腊。

　　And this is very interesting, because it wasn't as if the Persians were weaker or more stupid than the Greeks – far from it.

　　这意味深长，倒不是说波斯人比希腊人坏或笨——他们肯定不是那样的人。

　　But, as I said before, the Greeks were different.

　　但是我已经讲述过，这些希腊人的情况有些不同。

　　For, whereas the great empires of the East bound themselves so tightly to the traditions and teachings of their ancestors

　　如果说各东方大国一直坚持传统习俗和学说，

　　that they could scarcely move, the Greeks – and the Athenians in particular – did the opposite.

　　直至它们往往完全僵化在这老一套上——那么在希腊——尤其是在雅典则情况恰恰相反。

　　Almost every year they came up with something new.

　　他们几乎每年都想起一些新鲜主意。

　　Everything was always changing. The same went for their leaders.

　　没有哪种惯例经久不变。也没有哪个领导人经久不变。

　　Miltiades and Themistocles, the great heroes of the Persian wars,

　　波斯战争的大英雄，米尔提亚德斯和泰米斯托克利斯想必对此有亲身体会,

　　learnt this to their cost: one moment it was high praise, honors and monuments to their achievements, the next it was accusations¹, slander² and exile.

　　起先人们赞颂他们，尊敬他们并给他们立纪念碑，后来人们控告、诽谤并放逐他们。

　　This was not the best feature of the Athenians, yet it was part of their nature.

　　这无疑不是一种雅典人的好品性，但是这是他们的一种性格。

　　Always trying out new ideas, never satisfied, never at rest.

　　他们总是追求某种新东西，总是作新的尝试，永远不满意，永远不安定。

　　Which explains why, during the hundred years that followed the Persian wars,

　　所以在波斯战争后的几百年里，

　　more went on in the minds of the people of the little city of Athens than in 1,000 years in all the great empires of the East.

　　在小城雅典，人们的精神领域里所发生的事比东方各大王国1000年里发生的事还多。

　　The ideas, the painting, sculpture and architecture, the plays and poetry, the inventions and experiments,

　　当时的思想、油画、雕塑、建筑、戏剧和诗歌、发明和试验，

　　the discussions and arguments which the young brought to the marketplaces and the old to their council chambers³ still continue to concern us today.

　　当时年轻人在市场、老年人在市政府里争吵和谈论的，这些东西其实至今还在滋养着我们。

　　It is strange that it should be so, and yet it's true.

　　很奇怪，情况会是这样，但情况确实是这样。

　　And what would it have been like if the Persians had won at Marathon? Or at Salamis, ten years later? That I cannot say.

　　如果波斯人赢得了马拉松或者十年后在萨拉米斯波斯人打了胜仗的话，我们将会受到什么东西的滋养，这一点我就不知道了。

1 accusations   

n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名

参考例句：

• There were accusations of plagiarism. 曾有过关于剽窃的指控。
• He remained unruffled by their accusations. 对于他们的指控他处之泰然。

2 slander   

n./v.诽谤，污蔑

参考例句：

• The article is a slander on ordinary working people.那篇文章是对普通劳动大众的诋毁。
• He threatened to go public with the slander.他威胁要把丑闻宣扬出去。

3 chambers   

n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅

参考例句：

• The body will be removed into one of the cold storage chambers. 尸体将被移到一个冷冻间里。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Mr Chambers's readable book concentrates on the middle passage: the time Ransome spent in Russia. Chambers先生的这本值得一看的书重点在中间：Ransome在俄国的那几年。 来自互联网