试译 1066 and All That:第六章

2023.01.09

Exgalahad and the British Navy

埃克斯加拉哈德1和英国海军

ARTHUR invented Conferences because he was secretly a Weak King and liked to know what his memorable thousand and one Knights wanted to do next. As they were all parfitly jealous Knights he had to have the Memorable Round Table made to have the Conferences at, so that it was impossible to say which was top knight. He had a miraculous sword called Exgalahad wi which he defeated the Danes in numerous battles. In this he was also much assisted by his marine inventions, including the water-dock and the British Navy. The latter invention occurred as follows.

亚瑟王发明了会议,因为他暗地里是一个脆弱的国王,想掌握他那著名的一千零一个骑士的一举一动。这些骑士们的嫉妒心十分旺盛,亚瑟不得不制作了一张著名的圆桌来举行会议,这样骑士们就无法辨别哪个座次最为尊贵了。亚瑟王有一把神奇的宝剑,叫做埃克斯加拉哈德(Exgalahad),他用这把剑在无数场战役中击败丹麦人。在战争中,他的一些海洋发明同样也帮了忙,包括码头和英国海军。后者的发明情况如下。

Alfred noticed that the Danes had very long ships, so he built a great many more much longer ones, thus cleverly founding the British Navy. From that time onwards foreigners, who, unlike the English, do not prefer to fight against long odds, seldom attacked the British Navy. Hence the important International Law called the Rule Britannia, technically known as the Freedom of the Seas.

阿尔弗雷德意识到丹麦人的船非常长,便建造了一大批更加长的船,从而巧妙地组建了英国海军。从那以后,国内的外国人,跟他们的英国邻居不同,他们不喜欢打没有胜算的战,便很少去袭击英国海军。因此,著名的国际法又被称为不列颠规则(the Rule Britannia),即海上自由的意思(the Freedom of the Seas)。

Humiliation of the Danes

丹麦人之耻

The English resisted the Danes heroically under Alfred, never fighting except against heavy odds, till at the memorable Peace of Wedmore Alfred compelled the Danes, who were now (of course) beaten, to stop being Danes and become English and therefore C. of E. and get properly married.

英国人在阿尔弗雷德的领导下,英勇地抵御丹麦人。他们除非有十足的获胜把握,否则不轻易出击,最后阿尔弗雷德迫使丹麦人达成了韦德莫尔图和平(Peace of Wedmore)。丹麦人(当然)被打败了,他们抛弃了丹麦人的身份,归化成了英国人,并且加入英国教会,按照教会的规矩缔结婚姻。

For this purpose they were made to go back and start again at Thanet, after which they were called in future Thanes instead of Danes and were on our side and in the right and very romantic.

为了维持和平,丹麦人被迫返回塞内特,重新开始生活,他们变成了未来的塞内特人。站在我们的角度上看,这么做既正确,也十分浪漫。


  1. 亚瑟王传说中的一名骑士, ↩︎