評論
打印
Chapter 11
第十一章
The Indo-Europeans
印歐人
The Indo-Europeans Persians conquer The Semitic and the Egyptian world
印歐語族的波斯人征服了閃米特人與埃及人
The world of Egypt and Babylon and Assyria and Phoenicia had existed almost thirty centuries and the venerable races of the Fertile Valley were getting old and tired. Their doom was sealed when a new and more energetic race appeared upon the horizon. We call this race the Indo-European race, because it conquered not only Europe but also made itself the ruling class in the country which is now known as British India.
古埃及人、巴比倫人、亞述人及腓尼基人的世界已存在了將近3000年。這些河谷地帶的古老民族日漸變得衰朽而疲憊。當一支精力煥發(fā)的新興民族出現(xiàn)在地平線時，他們便注定了覆滅的命運。我們稱這個新民族為'印歐種族"，因為它不僅征服了歐洲，還使自己成為印度的統(tǒng)治者。
These Indo-Europeans were white men like the Semites but they spoke a different language which is regarded as the common ancestor of all European tongues with the exception of Hungarian and Finnish and the Basque dialects of Northern Spain. When we first hear of them, they had been living along the shores of the Caspian Sea for many centuries. But one day they had packed their tents and they had wandered forth in search of a new home. Some of them had moved into the mountains of Central Asia and for many centuries they had lived among the peaks which surround the plateau of Iran and that is why we call them Aryans. Others had followed the setting sun and they had taken possession of the plains of Europe as I shall tell you when I give you the story of Greece and Rome.
和閃米特人一樣，這些印歐人屬于白種人，但他們說一種全然不同的語言。這種語言被視為所有歐洲語言的共同起源，只有匈牙利語、芬蘭語及西班牙北部的巴斯克方言例外。當我們最早聽說他們時，他們已經(jīng)在里海沿岸居住了許多世紀。但有一天，他們突然收拾好帳篷，開始向北遷移，尋找新的家園。其中的一些人進入了中亞的群山；在環(huán)繞伊朗高地的山峰間居住了多個世紀。這也是印歐人被稱為亞利安人的原因。其他人則朝著日落的方向前進，最終占據(jù)了整個歐洲平原。在講到希臘和羅馬時，我將告訴你這段故事。
For the moment we must follow the Aryans. Under the leadership of Zarathustra (or Zoroaster) who was their great teacher many of them had left their mountain homes to follow the swiftly flowing Indus river on its way to the sea.
現(xiàn)在，我們到了該追隨亞利安人的時候了。在他們的偉大導師查拉斯圖特拉（又名瑣羅亞斯德）的帶領下，許多亞利安人離開了山中的家園，沿湍急的印度河而下，一直來到海邊。
