英语听书《海底两万里》第352期 第23章 珊瑚王国(49)

 Surely, but of great use to the world at large, Captain Nemo said.  不错，不过对全世界很有用。船长回答，

The ancients well understood the usefulness to commerce of connecting the Red Sea with the Mediterranean¹, but they never dreamed of cutting a canal between the two, and instead they picked the Nile as their link.  古时的人很明白，在红海与地中海之间建立交通，对于他们的商业有很大的好处，可是他们没有想到发掘一条直通的运河，他们是利用尼罗河来作居间。

If we can trust tradition, it was probably Egypt's King Sesostris who started digging the canal needed to join the Nile with the Red Sea.  按照传说，这条连接尼罗河和红海的运河，很可能在薛索斯土利斯王朝就开始有了。

What's certain is that in 615 B.C. King Necho II was hard at work on a canal that was fed by Nile water and ran through the Egyptian plains opposite Arabia.  其中确定的事实是，纪元前615年，尼哥斯进行了一条运河的工程，引尼罗河水，穿过与阿拉伯相望的埃及平原。

This canal could be traveled in four days, and it was so wide, two triple-tiered galleys² could pass through it abreast³. Its construction was continued by Darius the Great, son of Hystaspes, and probably completed by King Ptolemy II. Strabo saw it used for shipping;  这条运河上溯航行需要四天的时间，河宽是两艘有三排桨的船可以并行无阻。运河工程由伊他斯比的儿子大流士继续进行，大约在蒲图连美二世时代完工，史杜拉宾看见了这河作航行使用。

but the weakness of its slope between its starting point, near Bubastis, and the Red Sea left it navigable only a few months out of the year.  不过在运河近布巴斯提地方的起点和红海之间的何床坡度大小，一年中只有几个月可以行船。

This canal served commerce until the century of Rome's Antonine emperors;  直到安敦难时代，这运河一直是商业贸易的途径：

it was then abandoned and covered with sand, subsequently⁴ reinstated by Arabia's Caliph Omar I, and finally filled in for good in 761 or 762 A.D. by Caliph Al-Mansur, in an effort to prevent supplies from reaching Mohammed ibn Abdullah, who had rebelled against him.  后来，由于哈利发峨默尔命令把运河放弃，就淤塞了，随后又修复起来； 761年或762年，哈利发阿利·蒙索尔要阻止粮食运到反抗他的穆罕默德·宾·阿比多拉那里，这运河便完全被：填平了。

1 Mediterranean   

adj.地中海的；地中海沿岸的

参考例句：

• The houses are Mediterranean in character.这些房子都属地中海风格。
• Gibraltar is the key to the Mediterranean.直布罗陀是地中海的要冲。

2 galleys   

n.平底大船，战舰( galley的名词复数 )；（船上或航空器上的）厨房

参考例句：

• Other people had drowned at sea since galleys swarmed with painted sails. 自从布满彩帆的大船下海以来，别的人曾淹死在海里。 来自辞典例句
• He sighed for the galleys, with their infamous costume. 他羡慕那些穿着囚衣的苦工。 来自辞典例句

3 abreast   

adv.并排地；跟上(时代)的步伐，与…并进地

参考例句：

• She kept abreast with the flood of communications that had poured in.她及时回复如雪片般飞来的大批信件。
• We can't keep abreast of the developing situation unless we study harder.我们如果不加强学习，就会跟不上形势。

4 subsequently   

ad.后来，接着

参考例句：

• The original interview notes were subsequently lost. 采访记录原稿后来丢失了。
• Brooke was arrested and subsequently sentenced to five years' imprisonment. 布鲁克被逮捕，其后被判五年监禁。