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On arrival, it astounded everybody who saw it, and it began a revolution in how we Europeans view the history of our culture.
甫一運抵，它便震驚世人，引發了歐洲人對自己文化歷史認識的一次革命。之前人們一直以為，偉大的藝術來源希臘，
The Ramesses in the British Museum was one of the first works to challenge long-held assumptions that great art had begun in Greece.
大英博物館的拉美西斯雕像是挑戰這樣觀念的第一件藝術品。
Ramesses'success lay not only in maintaining the supremacy of the Egyptian state, through the smooth running of its trade networks and taxation systems, but in using the rich proceeds towards building numerous temples and monuments.
拉美西斯的成功，不僅體現在維持埃及王權的至高無上、貿易網絡與稅收制度的良好運作，也體現在利用豐富資源修建無數的神廟與紀念物。
His purpose was to create a legacy that would speak to all generations of his eternal greatness.
他想留下一份偉大的遺產，向后世展示他不朽的功績。
Yet by one of the great ironies of history, this statue has come to mean exactly the opposite.
但在大部分諷刺詩中，他的雕像只起到了相反的作用。
Shelley heard reports of the discovery of the bust and of its transport to England. He was inspired by accounts of its colossal scale, but he also knew what had happened to Egypt after Ramesses - with the crown passing to Libyans and Nubians, Persians and Macedonians, and Ramesses'statue itself squabbled over by European intruders.
雪萊聽說了半身像的發現及其運抵英國的新聞。雕像之巨大令他驚訝，但同時他也熟知拉美西斯以后的埃及歷史：王權依次落入利比亞人、 努比亞人、波斯人和馬其頓人手里。拉美西斯的雕像也被近期的歐洲入侵者毀壞。
Shelley's poem 'Ozymandias'is a meditation not on imperial grandeur, but on the transience of earthly power, and in it Ramesses'statue becomes a symbol of the futility of all human achievement.
雪萊的《奧茲曼迪亞斯》一詩不僅表現出對一個偉大帝國的反思，也感慨了俗世權力的稍縱即逝。在詩中，拉美西斯的雕像成為人類所有成就將化為虛無的象征：
"... My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
吾乃奧茲曼迪亞斯，萬王之王
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!
功業蓋世，強者折服！
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
此外空無一物，
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
廢墟四周，黃沙莽莽。
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
寂靜荒涼，伸向遠方。
