2017年翻譯考試catti高級(jí)口譯模擬題（3）

　　【英譯中】

　　The task of writing a history of our nation from Rome's earliest days fills me, I confess, with some misgiving, and even were I confident in the value of my work, I should hesitate to say so. I am aware that for historians to make extravagant claims is, and always has been, all too common: every writer on history tends to look down his nose at his less cultivated predecessors, happily persuaded that he will better them in points of style, or bring new facts to light. Countless others have written on this theme and it may be that I shall pass unnoticed amongst them; if so, I must comfort myself with the greatness and splendor of my rivals, whose work will rob my own of recognition.

　　My task, moreover, is an immensely laborious one. I shall have to go back more than seven hundred years, and trace my story from its small beginnings up to these recent times when its ramifications are so vast that any adequate treatment is hardly possible. I shall find antiquity a rewarding study, if only because, while I am absorbed in it, I shall be able to turn my eyes from the troubles which for so long have tormented the modern world, and to write without any of that over-anxious consideration which may well plague a writer on contemporary life, even if it does not lead him to conceal the truth.

　　【參考譯文】

　　我忙著寫一段從羅馬建立伊始我們國(guó)家的歷史，我承認(rèn)，而且還有點(diǎn)擔(dān)憂，即使我對(duì)我工作的價(jià)值充滿信心，我仍然不敢這么說。我覺得，歷史學(xué)家言過其實(shí)，是司空見慣的現(xiàn)象，而且一直如此：每一個(gè)寫歷史的人往往對(duì)他素養(yǎng)稍低的前輩們嗤之以鼻，還喜滋滋地聲稱要在風(fēng)格上超越他們，或者要挖掘更多的事實(shí)。關(guān)于這一主題的作品汗牛充棟，我自己的可能會(huì)湮沒其間。如果是這樣，我只能想想對(duì)手的偉大和才華，以求自慰，因?yàn)樗麄冏屛业淖髌废嘈问�色�?/P>

　　而且，我的任務(wù)相當(dāng)艱辛。我得回顧700多年的歷史來寫我的故事，一直追溯到紛繁蕪雜的近代，幾乎再難有所作為。我發(fā)現(xiàn)研究古代是頗有收獲的。因?yàn)椋��?dāng)我沉浸其中的時(shí)候，我就能把目光從折磨了現(xiàn)代社會(huì)太長(zhǎng)的時(shí)間的困擾中移開，就敢于放開手腳，信筆由韁，不再使一個(gè)現(xiàn)代社會(huì)的作者備受煎熬，即使不能引領(lǐng)他發(fā)現(xiàn)真相。