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Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
菲利普親王，愛丁堡公爵
Pledge of a lifetime
一生的誓言
Prince Philip, husband of Queen Elizabeth II, died on April 9th, aged 99
菲利普親王，女王伊麗莎白二世的丈夫，于4月9日去世，享年99歲
His huge, red hands were what you noticed first.
首先讓人注意到的是他那雙紅彤彤的大手。
On his wrist the plain watch with its brown leather strap, and the copper bracelet he wore to ease the rheumatism that so plagued his later years.
他的手腕上戴著一塊棕色皮帶的普通手表，還有一只銅手鐲，以緩解讓他晚年飽受折磨的風濕病。
Moulded by his genes and by life, those hands, big as lion paws, in turn moulded those around him: his wife, their children, her subjects.
這雙被基因定型、被生活打磨過的手，像獅爪般碩大，這雙手反過來又塑造了周圍的人:他的妻子，孩子，以及女王的臣民。
Had Philip been the soft-skinned English aristocrat that the king and queen would have preferred for their elder daughter, Elizabeth,
如果菲利普親王符合國王和王后為大女兒伊麗莎白選定的擇偶標準——一個養尊處優的英國貴族青年，
it would have been different. But he was an outsider.
那么情況可能會有所不同。但他是個局外人。
By the age of 26, when he married his second cousin once removed, he had lost virtually all his early roots.
26歲時，當他迎娶自己的遠房表妹時，他幾乎是失去了早期的所有血脈。
His father was dead; his mother, having suffered a mental breakdown, had withdrawn into a religious order.
他的父親去世了；母親因精神崩潰而皈依宗教團體。
She wore a grey habit to the end of her life.
一生都以一件灰色衣服示人，直至終老。
Three of his four sisters married Nazis; none was welcome at the royal wedding in Westminster Abbey just after the end of the war.
四個姐妹中有三個嫁給了納粹；因此，戰爭剛剛結束，在威斯敏斯特大教堂舉行的皇室婚禮上，沒有一位姐妹受邀前來參加。
By then, Philip had also lost his birthright, his home, his name, nationality and church.
這場婚姻，也讓菲利普已經失去了與生俱來的王位繼承權，他的家族，他的姓名，國籍以及宗教信仰。
Even his birthday—fixed first in the Julian calendar and then in the Gregorian—was no longer the same.
甚至他的生日也從最初的羅馬儒略歷日期改為了公里。
The 20th century would test Britain’s monarchy with divorce, democracy and disdain.
20世紀英國皇室受到了婚姻失敗、民主政治和蔑視的考驗。
But the man who held its future in those hands had an immigrant’s hunger for tradition and hard work.
但將未來掌握在手中的菲利普親王保有著移民對傳統和努力的渴望。
He came to Britain by accident. He was born in 1921 on the island of Corfu.
他是偶然來到英國的。1921年，他出生在科孚島。
His father, son of the king of Greece, was of Danish and Russian origin mainly;
他的父親是希臘國王的兒子，主要是丹麥和俄羅斯血統；
his maternal grandfather grew up in Austria and Germany, and became British.
他的外祖父在奧地利和德國長大，后來加入了英國國籍。
As a toddler, Philip was carried aboard ship in a cot made from an orange crate when his family was banished from Greece.
在菲利普親王幼兒時期，他們全家被驅逐出希臘，當時的他被裝在一個橘子板條箱做成的小床里被抬上船。
Until he was ten they lived in exile in St Cloud, a leafy Paris suburb.
在他十歲之前，他們一直流亡在巴黎綠樹成蔭的郊區圣克勞德。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
