世界小史 第43期:尼布甲尼撒
The last great Babylonian king was Nebuchadnezzar.
最后一個(gè)偉大的巴比倫國(guó)王是尼布甲尼撒。
He lived around 600 BC and is remembered for his feats1 of war.
他生活在公元前600年左右，他的幾次戰(zhàn)績(jī)使他出了名。
He fought against Egypt and brought a vast number of foreign captives home to Babylon as slaves.
他曾與埃及人作戰(zhàn)并把大批外族俘虜帶到巴比倫當(dāng)奴隸。
And yet his truly greatest deeds were not his wars: he had huge canals and water cisterns2 dug in order to retain the water and irrigate3 the land,
但是他真正最偉大的業(yè)績(jī)并不是他的戰(zhàn)績(jī)，而是他為澆灌土地而修建的水渠和蓄水池，
so that it became rich and fertile.
因而這塊土地變得富饒肥沃。
Only when those canals became blocked with silt4 and the cisterns filled with mud did the land become what it is today:
自從這些水渠被掩埋，蓄水池被淤塞，這地方才變成今天這樣：
a desert wasteland and marshy5 plain with, here and there, one of those hills I mentioned.
到處都是荒漠或像沼澤似的平原，也就是我提到過的那些山。
So, whenever we are glad that the week is nearly over, and Sunday is coming round again,
當(dāng)我們?yōu)橐恢芫鸵Y(jié)束、星期日就要來臨而感到高興時(shí)，
we must spare a thought for those hills of rubble6 in that hot and marshy plain, and for those fierce kings with their long, black beards.
我們應(yīng)該花些時(shí)間想想那個(gè)炎熱的沼澤地里的那些廢墟，想到那些蓄著長(zhǎng)長(zhǎng)的黑胡子的國(guó)王。
For now we know how it all fits together.
因?yàn)槲覀儸F(xiàn)在知道，這一切與我們現(xiàn)在有著某種關(guān)聯(lián)。
