世界小史 第43期:尼布甲尼撒

 The last great Babylonian king was Nebuchadnezzar.

最后一个伟大的巴比伦国王是尼布甲尼撒。

He lived around 600 BC and is remembered for his feats¹ of war.

他生活在公元前600年左右，他的几次战绩使他出了名。

He fought against Egypt and brought a vast number of foreign captives home to Babylon as slaves.

他曾与埃及人作战并把大批外族俘虏带到巴比伦当奴隶。

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,

但是他真正最伟大的业绩并不是他的战绩，而是他为浇灌土地而修建的水渠和蓄水池，

so that it became rich and fertile.

因而这块土地变得富饶肥沃。

Only when those canals became blocked with silt⁴ and the cisterns filled with mud did the land become what it is today:

自从这些水渠被掩埋，蓄水池被淤塞，这地方才变成今天这样：

a desert wasteland and marshy⁵ plain with, here and there, one of those hills I mentioned.

到处都是荒漠或像沼泽似的平原，也就是我提到过的那些山。

So, whenever we are glad that the week is nearly over, and Sunday is coming round again,

当我们为一周就要结束、星期日就要来临而感到高兴时，

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.

我们应该花些时间想想那个炎热的沼泽地里的那些废墟，想到那些蓄着长长的黑胡子的国王。

For now we know how it all fits together.

因为我们现在知道，这一切与我们现在有着某种关联。

1 feats   

功绩，伟业，技艺( feat的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He used to astound his friends with feats of physical endurance. 过去，他表现出来的惊人耐力常让朋友们大吃一惊。
• His heroic feats made him a legend in his own time. 他的英雄业绩使他成了他那个时代的传奇人物。

2 cisterns   

n.蓄水池，储水箱( cistern的名词复数 )；地下储水池

参考例句：

• Continental production and flower pots, cisterns, nursery toys, chemical preservative products. 兼产欧式花盆、水箱、幼儿园玩具、化工防腐产品。 来自互联网
• And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells. 还有声音在空的水池、干的井里歌唱。 来自互联网

3 irrigate   

vt.灌溉，修水利，冲洗伤口，使潮湿

参考例句：

• The farmer dug several trenches to irrigate the rice fields.这个农民挖了好几条沟以灌溉稻田。
• They have built canals to irrigate the desert.他们建造成水渠以灌溉沙漠。

4 silt   

n.淤泥，淤沙，粉砂层，泥沙层；vt.使淤塞；vi.被淤塞

参考例句：

• The lake was almost solid with silt and vegetation.湖里几乎快被淤泥和植物填满了。
• During the annual floods the river deposits its silt on the fields.每年河水泛滥时都会在田野上沉积一层淤泥。

5 marshy   

adj.沼泽的

参考例句：

• In August 1935,we began our march across the marshy grassland. 1935年8月，我们开始过草地。
• The surrounding land is low and marshy. 周围的地低洼而多沼泽。

6 rubble   

n.（一堆）碎石，瓦砾

参考例句：

• After the earthquake,it took months to clean up the rubble.地震后，花了数月才清理完瓦砾。
• After the war many cities were full of rubble.战后许多城市到处可见颓垣残壁。