美國語文第六冊 第114期:皮特先生的品格(2)
一種如此高不可攀，如此令人茫然無措，如此易變，如此彰顯權(quán)威的性格，
astonished a corrupt age, and the treasury trembled at the name of Pitt, through all classes of venality.
令一個貪腐橫行的時代驚愕莫名，通過腐敗的各個階層，國庫的情況動搖了皮特的聲譽。
Corruption imagined, indeed, that she had found defects in this statesman,
的確，貪污腐敗者以為，在這個政治家身上必定存在缺點，
and talked much of the inconsistency of his glory, and much of the ruin of his victories;
談?wù)摳嗟氖撬臉s譽有矛盾之處，他的勝利必定瓦解;
but the history of his country, and the calamities of the enemy, answered and refuted her.
但是，他的國家的歷史和這個敵人的災(zāi)難，回答和駁斥了貪污腐敗者的斷言。
Nor were his political his only talents.
從事政治并非他唯一的才能。
His eloquence was an era in the senate; peculiar and spontaneous;
他的雄辯在議院堪稱一個紀元，獨有的風(fēng)格和機智;
familiarly expressing gigantic sentiments and instructive wisdom;
熟悉的表達方式孕育著巨大的情感力量和有益的智慧;
not like the torrent of Demosthenes, or the splendid conflagration of Tully;
既不像德摩斯梯尼式的湍急洪流，也不似西塞羅式的熊熊烈火;
it resembled sometimes the thunder, and sometimes the music of the spheres.
有時像隆隆雷聲，有時又像舒緩的音樂。
He did not conduct the understanding through the painful subtilty of argumentation, nor was he ever on the rack of exertion;
他不會通過論證那種令人傷腦筋的狡猾來讓聽眾理解，也不會始終費力地絞盡腦汁，
but rather lightened upon the subject, and reached the point by the flashings of the mind,
而是直入主題，通過思想的閃光來切入重點。
which, like those of the eye, were felt, but could not be followed.
恰似眼睛觀察到的那一切，只能感知但無法效法。
Upon the whole, there was in this man something that could create, subvert, or reform;
總的來說，在這個男人身上存在能夠創(chuàng)造，顛覆和或者改頭換面的東西;
an understanding, a spirit, and an eloquence, to summon mankind to society, or to break the bonds of slavery asunder,
一種知性，一種精神和一種雄辯，召喚人類去交流思想或者打破奴隸制枷鎖，
and to rule the wildness of free minds with unbounded authority;
通過沒有束縛的權(quán)威來釋放內(nèi)心的狂野;
something that could establish or overwhelm empires, and strike a blow in the world that should resound through the universe.
那種能建立或推翻帝國，朝這個能聽到宇宙回音的世界給予有力一擊的氣質(zhì)。
