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。
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，哪里到處都是雷雨云，哪個(gè)閃電引來了哪個(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。
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而不得不對他們進(jìn)行的戰(zhàn)爭。
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)雨來了。它開始于遼闊的遠(yuǎn)方，幾乎在歷史的敵人秦始皇的長城腳下。
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，他們便向西遷徙，到那里去掠奪。
