評論
打印
The alms of the settlement of Madras, in this dreadful exigency, were certainly liberal,
在這種可怕的危急情況下，馬德拉斯定居點的施舍當然是慷慨的，
and all was done by charity that private charity could do; but it was a people in beggary;
這些所有施舍都是私人慈善機構所能做的；但這是一個窮苦的民族；
it was a nation which stretched out its hands for food. For months together these creatures of sufferance,
這是一個伸手要食物的國家。接下來的幾個月里，這些忍耐力很強的人，
whose very excess and luxury in their most plenteous days had fallen short of the allowance of our austerest fasts, silent, patient, resigned,
這些在物質最充足的日子里過度消耗和奢靡的人，如今陷入連我們最簡單的果腹之物也匱乏的境地，他們依然平靜有耐心，放棄最基本的欲念，
without sedition or disturbance, almost without complaint, perished by a hundred a day in the streets of Madras;
沒有群起叛亂和騷動，幾乎沒有抱怨，在馬德拉斯的大街上就這樣過了一百天，然后自消自亡。
every day seventy at least laid their bodies in the streets, or on the glacis of Tanjore, and expired of famine in the granary of India.
每天至少有七十人陳尸街頭，抑或在南印度丹柔里的緩沖地帶，在這個號稱印度糧倉的地方活活餓死。
I was going to wake your justice toward this unhappy part of our fellow-citizens,
我之所以將這個陷于饑餓瘟疫的情境呈給你們，
by bringing before you some of the circumstances of this plague of hunger.
意在喚醒你對與我們同為英王子民的這些生活得不快樂的人公正對待。
Of all the calamities which beset and waylay the life of man, this comes the nearest to our heart,
困擾和攔截人們生活之路的所有災難，正在迫近我們內心，
and is that wherein the proudest of us all feels himself to be nothing more than he is.
我們最引以為傲的就是感同身受。
But I find myself unable to manage it with decorum. These details are of a species of horror so nauseous and disgusting;
但是，我發現自己無法從容得體地應付。這些都是令人作嘔和厭惡的恐怖物種的細節；
they are so degrading to the sufferers and to the hearers; they are so humiliating to human nature itself, that, on better thoughts,
對遭受苦難的人和聽者而言，這些細節如此令人不堪，對人類本性而言又是如此令人蒙羞。往好處想，
I find it more advisable to throw a pall over this hideous object, and to leave it to your general conceptions.
對這個隱蔽的目標心生厭倦，將其劃歸到一般的觀念更為明智。
