by political disasters and afflicted by terrible crises and that the demise of human civilisation

政治災難和可怕危機的折磨，人類文明的消亡。

is surely imminent.

肯定是迫在眉睫。

We are encouraged to view the world - and our own lives - in bleak, apocalyptic terms.

我們被鼓勵用暗淡的世界觀--以及我們自己的生活--來看待世界，用世界末日的術語。

Oddly, history can be powerfully consoling, not because it tells us that our times are

奇怪的是，歷史可以給人以強烈的安慰，不是因為它告訴我們，我們的時代是

great, but because it shows us how normal large societal troubles really are.

偉大的，但因為它向我們展示了大型社會麻煩真的是多麼正常。

The English 18th century historian Edward Gibbon is particularly helpful with this task

英國18世紀的歷史學家愛德華-吉本對這項任務特別有幫助

of bringing us to a less frightened perspective.

把我們帶到一個不那麼害怕的角度。

His massive, elegantly written work covers 1500 years, from the pinnacle of Roman power

他龐大而優雅的著作涵蓋了1500年，從羅馬權力的巔峰開始

around the year 180 AD, through the collapse of the Western Empire to the final fall of

公元180年左右，經歷了西方帝國的崩潰，到最後淪陷。

its last outpost, the city of Constantinople, in 1453.

1453年，它的最後一個前哨--君士坦丁堡城--被摧毀。

Gibbon started work on the series of volumes around 1770 and completed the final volume

吉本在1770年左右開始了該系列卷的工作，並完成了最後一卷

on a summer’s evening in 1787 while he was on holiday in Switzerland.

1787年夏天的一個晚上，他在瑞士度假的時候。

The immense story he tells moves from one disaster to another, century after century.

他所講述的巨大的故事從一個災難到另一個災難，一個世紀又一個世紀。

There are mad, despotic Emperors, the barbarians invade again and again, the plans for reform

有瘋狂、專制的皇帝，野蠻人一次又一次地入侵，改革的計劃

fail, the key institutions become corrupt, the government loses control of the army,

失敗，關鍵機構變得腐敗，政府失去了對軍隊的控制。

there are plagues that last for decades, the harvests decline, there is insane factionalism,

有持續幾十年的瘟疫，收成下降，有瘋狂的派系主義。

the economy collapses, the Roman Forum - once the heart of the Empire - ia abandoned and

經濟崩潰，羅馬廣場--曾經的帝國中心--被遺棄了，而且

sheep graze amongst the ruins.

綿羊在廢墟中吃草。

Only Constantinople holds out, getting weaker and weaker.

只有君士坦丁堡堅持著，變得越來越弱小。

The vastly prolonged decline ends with the fall of the city - where the people still

巨大的長期衰退以城市的淪陷而結束--那裡的人們仍然

called themselves Romans - to Muhammed the Second in the middle of the 15th Century.

在15世紀中葉，自稱為羅馬人的穆罕默德二世。

And yet the world didn’t end.

然而，世界並沒有結束。

The main beneficiaries of the demise of the last fragment of the Empire was the city state

帝國最後一塊碎片的消亡的主要受益者是城市國家

of Venice, which became the most widely loved place on earth; and the exodus of scholars

威尼斯，成為世界上最廣為人知的地方；而學者們的出走

to the West was pivotal in the story of the Renaissance.

在文藝復興的故事中，對西方的影響是至關重要的。

And all the time - in the centuries of decline - new forces had been developing in the background.

而一直以來--在衰落的幾個世紀裡--新的力量一直在背景中發展。

The wild people of the North who the Romans so feared became, eventually, Danish interior

羅馬人所懼怕的北方野人最終成為了丹麥的內地人。

designers and German intellectuals and Parisian socialites.

設計師和德國知識分子以及巴黎的社會名流。

The Picts and Scots who were seen as the least civilised people on earth would, one day,

被視為地球上最不文明的人的皮科特人和蘇格蘭人，有一天會。

renew their capital city, Edinburgh, as an architectural homage to Roman culture.

更新其首都愛丁堡，作為對羅馬文化的建築致敬。

The disasters are always happening on the surface: they are what we hear about.

災難總是發生在表面上：它們是我們所聽到的事情。

The gradual process of renewal and elevation escapes our notice at the time.

更新和提升的漸進過程當時沒有引起我們的注意。

It’s nice to read Gibbon late at night, at the end of a day when the news seems unbearably

在深夜，在一天結束時，在新聞似乎無法忍受的情況下，閱讀吉本的文章是很好的。

grim, and to skim through his placid account of yet another moment of apparent catastrophe

在他平靜的敘述中，我們看到了另一個明顯的災難時刻。

and think of him sitting learnedly in his study reflecting on disaster and yet being

想到他博學地坐在書房裡反思災難，卻又在

himself the obvious heir - with his classical prose, his quiet dignity and his sense of

他自己是明顯的繼承人--以他的古典散文、他的安靜的尊嚴和他的意識

balance - of the very empire he though he was lamenting.

平衡--這正是他所感嘆的帝國的平衡。