個人譯作分享：不列顛悲泣之時

原文鏈接：http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18159752

譯文鏈接：視角：不列顛悲泣之時 - 網帖翻譯 - 龍騰網

本譯文由本人於2012年5月27日首發於龍騰網，謹以此紀念在龍騰網無私奉獻的崢嶸歲月！

The social unrest, economic gloom and austerity in Europe today mirrors one of the greatest crises in British history, says the historian Michael Wood.

英國歷史學家邁克爾·伍德認為，當下歐洲社會動蕩，經濟蕭條，財政緊縮的境遇與英國歷史上最為嚴重的一次社會危機頗為相似。

The news from Europe is getting worseby the day. Economic gloom across the continent and multiple crises in thecurrency zone.

目前歐洲的局勢每況愈下。經濟低迷籠罩在整個歐洲大陸上空，而多重危機正羈絆著歐元區前進的步伐。

With rising unemployment and inflation there are riots in the streetswith forecasts of anarchy in some parts of Western Europe.

在西歐的一些地區伴隨著失業率的居高不下以及通貨膨脹，街頭暴亂以及無政府狀態接踵而至。

And along with the simmering discontent there is a worrying rise ofradical groups and populist right wing movements. In the fringes, secessionistsare pushing for independence, indeed for the break up of the whole Europeanorder under which we have all lived secure and comfortable for so long.

而隨著民眾的怨聲載道，激進組織和右翼民粹主義勢力的抬頭使得各國政府憂心忡忡。在一些邊遠地區，分裂勢力也在蠢蠢欲動，的確，長久以來保障我們平安舒適生活的整個歐洲秩序即將分崩離析。

At home in Britainthere are worrying signs in every town - cuts in public services have led toclosures of public baths and libraries, the failure of road maintenance,breakdowns in the food supply and civic order.

而在英國國內的每座城鎮里也都呈現出一種令人擔憂的跡象——削減公共開支已導致公共浴室和圖書館倒閉，道路維護終止，食物供給與居民秩序受到嚴重影響。

While political commentators and church leaders talk about a"general decline in morality" and "public apathy", the richretreat to their mansions and country estates and hoard their cash.

政論家和宗教領袖常談及「道德的普遍下降」以及「公眾冷漠」，富人則選擇躲進他們的豪宅和鄉村別墅中並囤積資產。

It all sounds eerily familiar doesnt it? But this is not AngelaMerkels eurozone - it is Roman Britannia towards the year 400, the period ofthe fall of the Roman Empire.

這一切聽起來似曾相識吧？不過那不是發生在默克爾的歐元區——而是公元400年羅馬人統治下的大不列顛，羅馬帝國行將滅亡之時。

In some places the fall seems to have been especially hard.

一些地區的秋天似乎已變得格外艱難。

In Long Melford in Suffolkfor example, in a communal dig for our new BBC Two series, the incrediblerichness of Roman finds in almost every test pit becomes a total blank from the5th Century.

以薩福克的朗梅爾福特地區為例，在一項我們BBC追蹤的公開挖掘中，原本在那裡的每個探坑地層中都會找到玲琅滿目的羅馬文物，可到了公元五世紀的地層時居然連一件都找不到了。

If people were still there they werent using coins, or wheel-made pottery, and they certainly werent shoppingfor luxuries. As Dr Carenza Lewis of Cambridge University puts it:"Its almost wiped out - as far as the pottery goes you could holdpost-Roman Long Melford in your hand - with a bag of chips!"

如果人們依舊住在那裡的話只能說他們不再使用硬幣和陶器了，他們也不再購買奢侈品了。根據劍橋大學卡蘭扎·劉易斯給出的解釋：「這幾乎是毀滅性的——陶器的消失可以告訴你一切——羅馬治下的朗梅爾福德絕對處於民不聊生的境地。」

By the early 5th Century in Britain, currency stopped beingused altogether.

公元五世紀初，不列顛貨幣流通完全停止。

"It became a century of make do and mend," says archaeologistPeter Liddle on Burrough Hill in Leicestershire.

「那是一個縫縫補補的世紀，」考古學家皮特·里德爾在萊切斯特郡的伯勒山上接受採訪時說道。

Some towns survived - Carlisle for example still had a town council anda working aqueduct in the 7th Century - but in most of them, with the rubbishpiled up in the streets and the civic buildings left to decay, eventually thepeople left.

一些城鎮幸免於難——例如卡萊爾，直到公元七世紀那裡依然保留有鎮議會以及可以正常運作的引水渠——但這些城鎮中的大多數垃圾撲街，民宅也得不到維護，最終人們選擇了離開。

The British went back to an Iron Age rural farming economy. Thepopulation declined from its four million peak to maybe only a million,devastated by the great plagues, famines and climate crises of the 500s.

不列顛社會倒退回了鐵器時代的鄉村農業經濟體制。人口也從鼎盛時期的四百萬銳減到只剩一百萬，公元六世紀的英倫大地飽受瘟疫，饑荒和氣候危機的蹂躪。

In the countryside life went on, but with barter and self-sufficiency,out of which, building from the bottom, our medieval and modern societieseventually emerged.

鄉下，人們還在通過以物易物和自給自足苦苦掙扎，除此之外，中世紀和現代社會結構終於自下而上地浮現出來。

So is there anything to be learned now from Britains experience then?

如今我們可以從不列顛的經驗中吸取怎樣的教訓呢？

Of course it was a long time ago, and conditions were very different.Modern mass democracies are much more complex than the Roman world.

當然不列顛的悲劇已經是許多個世紀以前的事情了，而且時代的大背景也發生了天翻地覆的變化。現代大眾民主國家的各個方面也要比羅馬帝國時期複雜得多。

But history tells us that complex societies do collapse. And the greatconstant, along with climate and economic forces, is human nature. Societies,then and now, are made by people, and they are often brought down by people.

但是歷史告訴我們，複雜的社會結構終將崩潰。而與氣候以及經濟等外力相比，亘古不變的是人的本性。古今中外，社會都是由人來構建起的，也是由人來摧毀的。

Rome in the 4th Century had been a great power defended by a huge army. Acentury later the power and the army had gone.

公元四世紀的羅馬國力強盛並擁有一支規模龐大的軍隊。而僅僅一個世紀後這一切都灰飛煙滅了。

Instead the West was ruled by new barbarian elites, Angles and Saxons,Visigoths and Franks. And nowhere were these changes more dramatic than on thevery fringe of the Roman world in Britain.

與此同時歐洲西部地區的蠻族精英統治者開始迅速崛起：盎格魯人，薩克森人，西哥特人以及法蘭克人。而將這一劇烈的變化體現的最為淋漓盡致的地區，莫過於羅馬帝國的邊陲——不列顛了。

Edward Gibbon, in his great book Decline and Fall, famously blamed thecollapse not only on the barbarians, but on Christianity. He thought it hadundermined society with its focus on another, better world.

愛德華·吉本在他的著作《羅馬帝國衰亡史》中曾極為經典地指出羅馬帝國的崩潰不僅僅是由於蠻族入侵，更要歸罪於基督教的傳播。他認為基督教出於建立一個全新的美好世界的目的蓄意破壞了舊有的社會體制。

Modern historians, though, see it differently, and some of their ideasseem startlingly relevant to us now.

不過現代歷史學家對此持有不同的觀點，而且其中某些觀點似乎與當今我們面臨的困境有著驚人的聯繫。

First was the widening gulf between the social classes, rich and poor.When rich and poor start to live completely different lives this leads (then asnow) to the poor opting out of the state. All studies today show that societyis happier when the gap between rich and poor is reduced.

首先是社會各階層貧富差距的不斷拉大。當富人和窮人的生活開始變得截然不同時（從古至今一直如此）就會導致窮人對於國家喪失認同感。當今所有的研究都表明當貧富差距縮小時社會的幸福感會得到顯著提升。

Widen it and you affect the group ethos of society, and also the abilityto get things done through tax.

通過影響社會風氣以及稅收調節都可以達到扭轉社會貧富差距的目的。

In the Roman West realwealth lay more in land and property than in finance (though there were banks)- but in the 300s the big land-owning aristocrats who often had fantasticwealth, contributed much less money than they had in the past to defence andgovernment.

而在西羅馬，社會的真實財富更多的是集中在了道路及物權上而非金融業（儘管也有銀行）——但在公元四世紀的時候擁有土地和極大物質財富的大貴族階級為國家和政府所繳納的貢獻已遠遠低於過去的水平。

That in turn led as it has today to a "credibility gap"between ordinary people and the bureaucrats and rich people at the top.

反觀今日，普羅大眾與位居社會頂層的達官貴人之間也存在有一條「信用鴻溝」。

Not surprisingly then, many people - especially religious groups - triedto opt out altogether.

這並不奇怪，許多人——特別是宗教團體——正試圖完全退出社會舞台。

Other strands in the collapse of the Roman West are more difficult toquantify, but they centre on "group feeling", the glue that keepssociety working together towards common goals. Lose that and you get a kind ofnervous breakdown in the social order, which leads to what archaeologists call"systems collapse".

其他導致西羅馬崩潰的因素就更難量化了，但它們均集中於破壞「團隊意識」這一維繫社會為共同目標前進的凝聚力上。這就是考古學家所說的「系統崩潰」。

The British historian Gildas (c 500-570) in his diatribe againstcontemporary rulers in the early 500s, looking back over the story of the Fallof Roman Britain, lists the military failures, but behind them he speaksbitterly of a loss of nerve and direction, a failure of "groupfeeling".

英國歷史學家吉爾達斯（公元500—570）在他於六世紀初創作的對當時統治者的諷刺文學中回顧了羅馬統治下不列顛的崩潰，他列舉了羅馬的軍事失敗，並指出喪失勇氣和內心茫然是導致這些失敗的主要原因，而這一切都要歸罪於「團隊精神」的喪失。

Gildas talks about right-wing politicians advocating glibly attractivesolutions that appealed to the populace while "any leader who seemed moresoft, or who was more inclined to actually tell things as they are, was paintedas ruinous to the country and everyone directed their contempt towardshim".

吉爾達斯提到那時「任何一位看似軟弱或更傾向於實事求是的領導都會被污衊成國家的罪人，並飽受大眾歧視」，而右翼政客巧舌如簧並善於用極具吸引力的施政主張煽動民眾情緒。

Gildas also singles out his leaders sheer ineptitude and bad judgement,recalling some governments and financiers in todays banking crisis.

吉爾達斯也特別指出了他們當時領導人的施政無能以及誤判形勢，這不禁讓我們聯想到當下銀行危機中一些國家政府以及金融家們的所作所為。

"Everything our leaders did to try to save the situation ended uphaving the opposite effect. Society became prey to corrosive quarrels anddissensions, anger towards the rich, and political opportunism was rife thatmade no distinction between right and wrong."

「我們領導人所做出的一切旨在挽狂瀾於既倒的努力只會加劇局勢的惡化。社會成為了腐蝕性爭吵和糾紛的犧牲品，仇富心理和投機主義盛行，這使得民眾的是非觀變得模糊起來。」

Another element Gildas saw as being crucial was the major influx ofnewcomers from the continent - Angles, Saxons and Jutes who had already beenemployed in the country as security guards, mercenaries, field workers andstreet cleaners.

吉爾達斯指出的另一個至關重要的因素是來自歐陸新移民的大量湧入——那些早已被羅馬當局僱傭擔任警衛，僱傭兵，農夫和保潔員的的盎格魯人，薩克森人和朱特人。

These people now took advantage of the lack of central order to createsmall regional sub-Roman kingdoms in eastern Britain. Only ever a minority, nonethelessthey would have a tremendous effect on our culture as they were the ancestorsof the English and most of us in Britain speak their language today.

這些人此時借羅馬帝國中央政權鞭長莫及之機在不列顛東部建立起了幾個羅馬式的小王國。雖然為數不多，但對我們文化卻產生了一個巨大影響，那就是他們把英語帶到了不列顛，時至今日大多數英國人還在說著他們的語言。

A very interesting development at the end of Rome was the gradual emergence of thedistinctive regional identities, which still underlie our modern Britishsociety.

在羅馬統治的末期還出現了一個有意思的變化——獨特區域認同感的逐漸形成的，而且直到今天它依然是英國社會的構成元素之一。

This kind of thing often happens in history in times of crisis, as inthe Balkans in the 1990s. Walesin particular is a very interesting case where Roman culture continued longafter the conventional end of Rome.

歷史上這種事情常常伴隨著嚴重的社會危機發生，例如二十世紀九十年代的巴爾幹半島。值得一提的是威爾士，即便是羅馬統治時期早已結束，威爾士依然長期保留著羅馬文化傳統。

The south Welsh heartland of Glamorgan and Gwent had been heavily Romanizedand there in the 500s sub-Roman Christian Welsh kingdoms emerged which stillused Latin and which like many areas in western Britain continued to see themselvesas Roman long after the end of empire.

威爾士南部腹地格拉摩根郡和格溫特郡都打有深深的羅馬烙印，而公元六世紀威爾士建立起許多羅馬式基督教王國後那裡的官方語言仍然是拉丁語，而且在羅馬統治結束後很長一段時間裡不列顛西部的好多地區的人民依舊把自己看做是羅馬人。

Go into the fabulous church of Llantwit Major and in its carved stoneswith their Latin script you can see that Romanitas, "Roman-ness", wascultivated by their rulers and churchmen long into the Dark Ages.

走進傳說中的蘭特里森特大教堂，看著那些雕刻有拉丁字母的石板你就會感受到那份古羅馬精神，在漫長的黑暗年代中「羅馬化」為這個國家培養出一代又一代的統治者和神職人員。

Their kingdoms were the direct successors of the south Welsh provincesof the Roman Empire.

這些王國是羅馬帝國南威爾士省份的直系繼承者。

So, the Roman Empire didnt falleverywhere or all at one time. Indeed you could argue that the last part of theRoman Empire to fall anywhere was Gwynedd inthe English conquest of 1282.

所以說，羅馬帝國並沒有一次性完全覆滅。事實上你可以認為羅馬帝國的最後一塊版圖是在1282年被英國吞併的（1282年英國佔領格溫內思）。

Standing in Llantwit, the Dark Age stones testify to the long, slow,almost imperceptible process of change in history, by which one world becomesanother.

蘭特里森特大教堂中的石塊見證了黑暗時期那漫長得幾乎無法察覺的歷史變遷，歲月荏苒，滄海桑田。

Rome wasnt built in a day and it didnt fall in a day either. Its shadowstill falls on us, a memory imprinted almost like genetic information, a memoryto which we all belong.

羅馬不是一天建成的，也不是一天就覆滅的。時至今日它依然影響著我們，這種記憶就像是蘊含在基因中的遺傳信息，這是屬於我們共同的記憶。

And is its fall also a distant mirror of our present crises?

那麼羅馬的覆滅是否會給如今身處危機中的我們帶來一絲啟示呢？

Well, the fall of Romeserves to remind us that complex societies can, and do, break down. There israrely one reason. Rather, there are multiple causes that come together in aperfect storm, as they did around 400AD.

噫吁戲，羅馬帝國的毀滅提醒我們複雜社會有可能，也的確崩潰過。這並非是由單一因素造成的，相反，它是多種因素共同作用下產生的一個完美風暴，就像我們在公元400年曾遇到過的那樣。

But in time society recovers, for societies after all are made bypeople, and one guesses that the ones that recover quickest are the ones whichare most adaptive, and perhaps too the ones with the strongest sense ofidentity and history - the strongest sense of "group feeling".

隨著時間的推移，社會會逐漸復甦，畢竟社會是由人創建起來的，而一種推測認為那些最適應變化的民族將最先走向復甦的光明，或許還有那些擁有強烈認同感和悠久歷史——最強烈的「團隊意識」的民族。