美国学生人类历史第15期:象形文字(3)

 　　But this particular slab¹ of black basalt was different from anything that had ever been discovered.

　　与此前发现的别的物件不同的是，这块特别的黑玄武岩石板

　　It carried three inscriptions². One of these was in Greek. The Greek language was known.

　　上面刻有三种文字的碑文，其中之一是人们知道的希腊文。

　　"All that is necessary," so he reasoned, "is to compare the Greek text with the Egyptian figures, and they will at once tell their secrets."

　　“只要把希腊文的意思和埃及图像加以比较，””他推论道，“马上就能揭开这些埃及小图像的秘密。”

　　The plan sounded simple enough but it took more than twenty years to solve the riddle³.

　　这办祛听起来简单，可要完全揭开这个谜底，是20年过后的事情。

　　In the year 1802 a French professor by the name of Champollion began to compare the Greek and the Egyptian texts of the famous Rosetta stone.

　　1802年，一位叫商博良的法国教授开始对著名的罗塞塔石碑上的希腊和埃及文字进行比较。

　　In the year 1823 he announced that he had discovered the meaning of fourteen little figures.

　　到 1823年，他宣布自己破译了石碑上14个小图像的含义。

　　A short time later he died from overwork, but the main principles of Egyptian writing had become known.

　　不久，商搏良因为劳累过度而死，可埃及文字的主要法则此时已大白于天下了。

　　Today the story of the valley of the Nile is better known to us than the story of the Mississippi River.

　　今天，我们了解的尼罗河流域的历史要比密西西比河的清楚得多，

　　We possess a written record which covers four thousand years of chronicled history.

　　因为我们拥有了整整4000年的文字记录。

　　As the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics⁴ (the word means "sacred writing") have played such a very great role in history,

　　古埃及的象形文字（这个字眼的原义为“神圣的书写”）在历史上扮演了一个异常重要的角色，

　　a few of them in modified⁵ form have even found their way into our own alphabet,

　　其中几个字历经变动还融入了我们现代的字母中。

　　you ought to know something about the ingenious⁶ system which was used fifty centuries ago to preserve the spoken word for the benefit of the coming generations.

　　所以，你应该稍微了解一下这个5000年前使用的极富天才的文字体系，

　　Of course, you know what a sign language is.

　　要知道，是它首次为后人保留了前人说过的口语。

　　Every Indian story of our western plains has a chapter devoted⁷ to strange messages written in the form of little pictures

　　当然，你是知道图像语言的。我们西方流传的每一个印地安故事都有专门的一章，用以介绍印地安人使用的奇怪小图案。

　　which tell how many buffaloes⁸ were killed and how many hunters there were in a certain party.

　　它们传递着诸如有多少野牛被杀或者有多少猎手参加某一次围猎之类的信息。

　　As a rule it is not difficult to understand the meaning of such messages.

　　一般来说，理解这些信息是不难的。

　　Ancient Egyptian, however, was not a sign language.

　　不过，古埃及文字可不是简单的图像语言。

　　The clever people of the Nile had passed beyond that stage long before.

　　尼罗河畔的人民早就聪明地跨越了这一原始的阶段。

　　Their pictures meant a great deal more than the object which they represented, as I shall try to explain to you now.

　　他们的小图像代表着比图案本身更多的意思。现在，我将试着给你们解释一下。

1 slab   

n.平板，厚的切片；v.切成厚板，以平板盖上

参考例句：

• This heavy slab of oak now stood between the bomb and Hitler.这时笨重的橡木厚板就横在炸弹和希特勒之间了。
• The monument consists of two vertical pillars supporting a horizontal slab.这座纪念碑由两根垂直的柱体构成，它们共同支撑着一块平板。

2 inscriptions   

（作者）题词( inscription的名词复数 )； 献词； 碑文； 证劵持有人的登记

参考例句：

• Centuries of wind and rain had worn away the inscriptions on the gravestones. 几个世纪的风雨已磨损了墓碑上的碑文。
• The inscriptions on the stone tablet have become blurred with the passage of time. 年代久了，石碑上的字迹已经模糊了。

3 riddle   

n.谜，谜语，粗筛；vt.解谜，给…出谜，筛，检查，鉴定，非难，充满于；vi.出谜

参考例句：

• The riddle couldn't be solved by the child.这个谜语孩子猜不出来。
• Her disappearance is a complete riddle.她的失踪完全是一个谜。

4 hieroglyphics   

n.pl.象形文字

参考例句：

• Hieroglyphics are carved into the walls of the temple. 寺庙的墙壁上刻着象形文字。
• His writing is so bad it just looks like hieroglyphics to me. 他写的糟透了，对我来说就像天书一样。

5 modified   

adj.改良的，改进的，修正的vt.修饰v.修改，更改( modify的过去式和过去分词 )；改变；修饰；缓和

参考例句：

• The software we use has been modified for us. 我们使用的软件已按我们的需要作过修改。
• The heating system has recently been modified to make it more efficient. 暖气设备最近已进行了改造，使其效率得到提高。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 ingenious   

adj.设计独特的，巧妙的，善于创造发明的

参考例句：

• Try to think of unusual and ingenious solutions.尽量想想不同寻常的、巧妙的解决方法。
• The director used ingenious devices to keep the audience in suspense.导演用巧妙手法引起观众的悬念。

7 devoted   

adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的

参考例句：

• He devoted his life to the educational cause of the motherland.他为祖国的教育事业贡献了一生。
• We devoted a lengthy and full discussion to this topic.我们对这个题目进行了长时间的充分讨论。

8 buffaloes   

n.水牛（分非洲水牛和亚洲水牛两种）( buffalo的名词复数 )；（南非或北美的）野牛；威胁；恐吓

参考例句：

• Some medieval towns raced donkeys or buffaloes. 有些中世纪的城市用驴子或水牛竞赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Water buffaloes supply Egypt with more meat than any other domestic animal. 水牛提供给埃及的肉比任何其它动物都要多。 来自辞典例句