世界小史 第188期:雷雨云
The wind buffets you from every angle.
風(fēng)從四面八方刮來(lái)。
And when the storm finally moves away,leaving in its place a clear, still, starlit night,
當(dāng)隨后雷雨逐漸消散，寂靜、明澈的星夜終于來(lái)臨時(shí)，
you can hardly remember where thosethunderclouds were, let alone which thunderclap belonged to which flash oflightning.
你將難以述說(shuō)，哪里到處都是雷雨云，哪個(gè)閃電引來(lái)了哪個(gè)雷聲。
The time I am now going to tell you aboutwas like that.
我現(xiàn)在要講述的時(shí)期與這有極相似之處。
It was then that a storm broke that sweptaway the whole, vast Roman empire.
當(dāng)時(shí)歷史的雷雨爆發(fā)了，它摧毀了羅馬帝國(guó)。
We have already heard its rumblings: theywere the movements of the Germanic tribes at the frontiers, the incursions ofthe Cimbri and the Teutones,
雷聲我們已經(jīng)聽到了：那是邊境地區(qū)日耳曼人的遷徙，西姆布賴人和條頓人(均為古代日耳曼民族之支系)的入侵，
and the campaigns led by Caesar, Augustus,Trajan, Marcus Aurelius and many others in their efforts to keep those tribesout of the empire.
凱撒、奧古斯都、圖拉真、馬庫(kù)斯.奧里利厄斯和許多別的人為了阻止日耳曼部落入侵羅馬帝國(guó)而不得不對(duì)他們進(jìn)行的戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)。
But now the storm had come. It had startedat the other end of the world – almostas far away as the wall built by the Chinese emperor Shih Huang-ti, the enemyof history.
但是現(xiàn)在暴風(fēng)雨來(lái)了。它開始于遼闊的遠(yuǎn)方，幾乎在歷史的敵人秦始皇的長(zhǎng)城腳下。
No longer able to mount their raids onChina, Asiatic hordes from the steppes had turned westwards in search of newlands to plunder.
自從亞洲的草原游牧部落不再能夠掠奪中國(guó)，他們便向西遷徙，到那里去掠奪。
