世界小史 第43期:尼布甲尼撒

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 The last great Babylonian king was Nebuchadnezzar.

最后一個偉大的巴比倫國王是尼布甲尼撒。

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)績并不是他的戰(zhàn)績，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，

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)該花些時間想想那個炎熱的沼澤地里的那些廢墟，想到那些蓄著長長的黑胡子的國王。

For now we know how it all fits together.

因為我們現(xiàn)在知道，這一切與我們現(xiàn)在有著某種關(guān)聯(lián)。