Lesson Nine 译文

2021年1月22日发(作者：骆玉笙)
Pompeii
(By
Robert
Silverberg)

Not very
far
from Naples, a strange city sleeps
under the
hot Italian sun. It
is the
city of Pompeii, and there
is
no other city quite
like
it
in all the
world. Nothing
lives
in Pompeii except crickets and beetles and lizards, yet every year thousands of people
travel from distant countries to visit it.

在离那不勒斯不 远的地方，
一座奇特的小城寂静的沉睡在意大利炙热的骄阳
之下。那就是庞培城。全世界再没有 任何一个城市和庞培城相像。在庞培城中，
除了蟋蟀、
甲虫和蜥蜴之外，
别无其他生物 ，
然而每年都有成千上万的人从不同
国度不远万里前来参观。

Pompeii
is
a
dead
city.
No
one
has
lived
there
for
nearly
two
thousand
years----not since the summer of the year A.D. 79, to be exact.
庞培是一座死城。确切的说自从公元
79
年的那个夏天开始，两千年来没有
人 在这里生活过。

Until that
year Pompeii
was a prosperous city of 25,000 people. Nearby was the
Bay of Naples, an arm of the blue Mediterranean. Rich men came down from wealthy
Rome to build seaside
villas. Farmlands surrounded Pompeii. Rising behind the city
was
the
4000-foot
Mount
Vesuvius,
a
grass-covered
slope
where
the
shepherds
of
Pompeii took their goats to graze. Pompeii was a busy city and a happy one.

直到那年夏天庞培成还是一座拥有
25000
人 的繁荣城市，
离那不远就是蓝色
地中海之臂的那不勒斯湾。一些有钱人从富有的罗马城来到这里 建造海边别墅。
庞培城的周围有农田环绕。
在这座城市的背后矗立着
4000
英尺高的维苏威火山。
绿草覆盖的山坡上，
牧羊人赶着他们的羊群在吃草。
庞培城是一 座繁忙而又充满
幸福感的城市。



It died suddenly, in a terrible rain of fire and ash. The tragedy struck on the 24
th

of
August,
A.D.79.
Mount
Vesuvius,
which
had
slept
quietly
for
centuries,
erupted
with savage
violence. Tons of hot ash
fell on Pompeii,
hiding
it
from sight. For three
days the sun did not break through the clouds of
volcanic ash that
filled the sky. And
when the eruption ended, Pompeii was buried deep. A city had perished.


1
可是，< br>在一阵可怕的火与灰的袭击中，
这座城市灭亡了。
这个悲剧发生在公
元
79
年的
8
月
24
日。
维苏威火山。
这座沉睡了几 世纪的山脉，
突然剧烈的爆发
了。数以吨计滚烫的火山灰落到了庞培城遮住了人们的视线。3
天以来阳光都无
法穿过被火山灰充斥的云层。
当喷发结束的时候，
庞培 城被深深的掩埋了。
这座
城市也就消失了。


Centuries passed, Pompeii was
forgotten. Then, seventeen
hundred
years
later,
it
was
discovered
again.
Beneath
the
protecting
shroud
of
ash,
the
city
lay
intact.
Everything
was
as
it
had
been
the
day
Vesuvius
erupted.
There
were
still
loaves
of
bread in the ovens of the bakeries. In the wine shops, the wine jars were in place, and
on one counter could be seen a stain where a customer had thrown down his glass and
fled.

几个世纪过去了，庞培城几乎被遗忘了。不过，
170 0
年后，人们又重新发
现了它。
在火山灰的保护下，
这座城市完好无损的躺在 那里。
一切都是维苏威火
山喷发那天的样子。
面包店烤箱里依然有尚未出炉的面包，< br>在卖红酒的店里，
酒
坛子依然放在原处，在柜台前，人们扔下酒杯逃命的痕迹清晰可见。


To
go to Pompeii
today
is
to take a
trip backward
in time.
The old city comes
to
life all around you.
You can almost
hear
the clatter of
horses’
hoofs on the
narrow
streets,
the
cries
of
children
and
the
laughter
of
the
shopkeepers.
The
sky
is
cloudlessly
blue,
with
the
summer
sun
high
in
the
sky.
The
grassy
slopes
of
great
Vesuvius rise to the
heavens behind
the city, and sunlight
shimmers on the
waters of
the bay a thousand
yards
from the city
walls. Ships
from every
nation are
in port and
strange languages can be heard in the streets.

今天，
去庞培可以称得上是一次体验时光倒流的旅行，
古老的城市在你的周
围仿佛又重新充满 了活力。
你几乎能听到狭窄街道上的马蹄声，
孩子们的哭闹声
和店主们的笑声。
蔚蓝的天空万里无云，
盛夏的烈日在空中高悬。
城市的背后维
苏威火山长满青草的山 坡伸向天空，阳光在城墙外
1000
多码的海湾水面上闪烁
发光。从世界各国驶来的船 只停在港内，大街上还能听到各种不同的语言。

Such
was Pompeii on
its
last day.
And so
it
is today,
now
that
the
volcanic ash
has been cleared away. A good imagination is all you need to restore it to activity.

这就 是庞培的最后一天。
也就是今天，
火山灰已经清理完毕，
你需要一个很
丰富的 想象力来把它恢复到现实当中。


2

At
dawn
on
August
24,
in
the
year
A.D.
79,
Pompeii’s
25,000
people
awakened
to another
hot day
in
that
hot summer.
There
was
going to be a contest
in
the arena that
night and
the
whole
town was
looking
forward to the bloody
fights of
the
gladiators.
The
children
headed
toward
school,
carrying
slates
and
followed
by
their dogs. In the forum t
he town’s important men had gathered after breakfast to read
the political signs that
had been posted during
the
night.
Elsewhere
in
the
forum
the
wool merchants talked business. The banker was going over his account books. At the
inn
later-rising
travellers
from
the
East
awakened
and
yawned
and
called
for
breakfast.

在公元
79
年
8
月
24
日黎明，
庞培城的人们在炎热的夏天中迎来了新的一天，
原本 在那天晚上竞技场有一场竞赛，
全城百姓都期待着角斗士们的血腥搏斗，
孩
子们提着石 板跟在狗的后面去上学，
在城镇广场上全城的重要人士在早饭后都聚
集起来看张贴好的政治公告 。
在广场的其他地方，
羊毛商正在谈生意；
旅馆里刚
刚起床的游客还在打着哈 欠叫早餐。

The quiet
morning
moved slowly along.
There was
nothing
very
unusual
about
Pompeii.
But
tragedy
was
on
its
way.
Beneath
Vesuvius’
vine
-covered
slopes
a
mighty
force
was
about
to
break
loose.
At
one
o’clock
in
the
afternoon
the
critical
point
was
reached.
The
mountain
blew
up,
raining
death
on
thousands.
Down
in
Pompeii, four miles from the summit, a tremendous explosion was heard.

安静的早上，
时间慢慢过去。
庞培城没有什么异常。
但是一场悲剧正在逼近，
在维苏威火山藤蔓覆盖的山坡下一股巨大的力量即将爆发。
在下午一点钟，
这股
力量到 达了临界点。火山爆发了，死亡向成千上万的人们降临。山下的庞贝城，
距离山顶有四英里，巨大的爆炸 声清晰可闻。

“What
was that?” people cried
from one
end of town
to another.
They stared
at
each other, puzzled, troubled. Were the gods fighting in heaven?

“那是什么？”
人们哭喊着从一座城跑到应一座城，
他们互相瞪着眼睛看

在
猜测，在忧虑。难道是众神在天堂里打架么？


“Look!” somebody shouted. “Look at Vesuvius!”

“看
!
”一些人喊道，“看维苏威火山！”


3