🔊 The Emperor, though ill and incommoded on horseback by a local trouble, had never been in a better humour than on that day. His impenetrability had been smiling ever since the morning. On the 18th of June, that profound soul masked by marble beamed blindly. The man who had been gloomy at Austerlitz was gay at Waterloo. The greatest favourites of destiny make mistakes. Our joys are composed of shadow. The supreme smile is God’s alone. Ridet Caesar, Pompeius flebit, said the legionaries of the Fulminatrix Legion. Pompey was not destined to weep on that occasion, but it is certain that Caesar laughed. While exploring on horseback at one o’clock on the preceding night, in storm and rain, in company with Bertrand, the communes in the neighbourhood of Rossomme, satisfied at the sight of the long line of the English campfires illuminating the whole horizon from Frischemont to Braine-l’Alleud, it had seemed to him that fate, to whom he had assigned a day on the field of Waterloo, was exact to the appointment; he stopped his horse, and remained for some time motionless, gazing at the lightning and listening to the thunder; and this fatalist was heard to cast into the darkness this mysterious saying, “We are in accord.” Napoleon was mistaken. They were no longer in accord.

皇帝虽然身患小恙,骑马时因局部不适而行动不便,但那天他的心情从未如此之好。自清晨起,他那深不可测的面容便一直挂着微笑。六月十八日,这张被大理石般面具掩盖的深邃灵魂,盲目地绽放出光芒。曾在奥斯特利茨阴郁的人,在滑铁卢却欢欣起来。命运的宠儿也难免犯错。我们的喜悦由阴影构成。唯有上帝的微笑才是至高无上的。恺撒大笑,庞培必哭--闪电军团的士兵们曾如是说。但庞培当时并非注定要哭泣,不过恺撒确实笑了。前夜一点钟,他骑在马上,冒着雷雨,与贝特朗一同探查了罗索姆附近的村镇,看到英军篝火的长线从弗里舍蒙一直延伸到布赖讷拉勒德,照亮了整个地平线,他感到满意,仿佛命运--他已在滑铁卢战场为它指定了日子--正准时赴约；他勒住马,一动不动地停留了片刻,凝视着闪电,倾听着雷声；这位宿命论者被听到向黑暗抛出了这句神秘的话:“我们达成一致了。”拿破仑错了。他们已不再一致。

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impenetrability /ɪmˌpenɪtrəˈbɪlɪti/

n. 不可测知；难以理解；莫测高深➕

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fatalist /ˈfeɪtəlɪst/

n. 宿命论者➕

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supreme /suːˈpriːm/

adj. 最高的；至高无上的➕

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accord /əˈkɔːrd/

n. 一致；协议➕

🔊 He took not a moment for sleep; every instant of that night was marked by a joy for him. He traversed the line of the principal outposts, halting here and there to talk to the sentinels. At half-past two, near the wood of Hougomont, he heard the tread of a column on the march; he thought at the moment that it was a retreat on the part of Wellington. He said: “It is the rear-guard of the English getting under way for the purpose of decamping. I will take prisoners the six thousand English who have just arrived at Ostend.” He conversed expansively; he regained the animation which he had shown at his landing on the first of March, when he pointed out to the Grand-Marshal the enthusiastic peasant of the Gulf Juan, and cried, “Well, Bertrand, here is a reinforcement already!” On the night of the 17th to the 18th of June he rallied Wellington. “That little Englishman needs a lesson,” said Napoleon. The rain redoubled in violence; the thunder rolled while the Emperor was speaking.

他片刻不曾合眼；那一夜的每一瞬都令他欢欣。他巡视了主要前哨线,不时停下与哨兵交谈。两点半时,在乌古蒙树林附近,他听到了一支行进的纵队脚步声；他当时以为那是威灵顿在撤退。他说:“这是英军后卫正在开拔,准备溜走。我要俘虏那刚抵达奥斯坦德的六千英军。”他侃侃而谈,重现了三月一日登陆时的那种活力--当时他向大元帅指着胡安湾热情奔放的农民,喊道:“喂,贝特朗,这已经是援军了！”在六月十七日到十八日的夜里,他嘲弄了威灵顿。“那个小英国人需要上一课,”拿破仑说。雨势愈发猛烈；皇帝说话时雷声滚滚。

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decamping /dɪˈkæmpɪŋ/

v. 撤营；离开➕

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animation /ˌænɪˈmeɪʃən/

n. 活力；生气；动画➕

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reinforcement /ˌriːɪnˈfɔːrsmənt/

n. 增援；加强➕

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redoubled /riːˈdʌbəld/

v. 加倍；加强➕

🔊 At half-past three o’clock in the morning, he lost one illusion; officers who had been despatched to reconnoitre announced to him that the enemy was not making any movement. Nothing was stirring; not a bivouac-fire had been extinguished; the English army was asleep. The silence on earth was profound; the only noise was in the heavens. At four o’clock, a peasant was brought in to him by the scouts; this peasant had served as guide to a brigade of English cavalry, probably Vivian’s brigade, which was on its way to take up a position in the village of Ohain, at the extreme left. At five o’clock, two Belgian deserters reported to him that they had just quitted their regiment, and that the English army was ready for battle. “So much the better!” exclaimed Napoleon. “I prefer to overthrow them rather than to drive them back.”

凌晨三点半,他失去了一种幻觉:派去侦察的军官报告说敌人没有任何动静。一切静止；没有一处营火被熄灭；英军正在酣睡。大地一片寂静；只有天空中传来声响。四点钟,侦察兵带来一个农民；这个农民曾为英军一个骑兵旅(很可能是维维安旅)充当向导,该旅正前往左端奥安村布防。五点钟,两名比利时逃兵报告说他们刚离开团队,英军已准备好战斗。“那更好！”拿破仑喊道,“我宁愿击溃他们,而不是赶走他们。”

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despatched /dɪˈspætʃt/

v. 派遣；发送➕

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reconnoitre /ˌrekəˈnɔɪtə/

v. 侦察➕

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cavalry /ˈkævəlri/

n. 骑兵（部队）➕

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regiment /ˈredʒɪmənt/

n. 团（军队编制）➕

🔊 In the morning he dismounted in the mud on the slope which forms an angle with the Plancenoit road, had a kitchen table and a peasant’s chair brought to him from the farm of Rossomme, seated himself, with a truss of straw for a carpet, and spread out on the table the chart of the battlefield, saying to Soult as he did so, “A pretty checkerboard.”

早晨,他在与普朗斯努瓦路成角的那片泥泞斜坡上下马,让人从罗索姆农场搬来一张厨房桌子和一把农家椅子,自己坐下,以麦秸为毯,摊开战场地图,同时对苏尔特说道:“好一张棋盘。”

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dismounted /dɪsˈmaʊntɪd/

v. 下马；下车➕

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truss /trʌs/

n. 一捆；束➕

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checkerboard /ˈtʃekərbɔːrd/

n. 棋盘；方格图案➕

🔊 In consequence of the rains during the night, the transports of provisions, embedded in the soft roads, had not been able to arrive by morning; the soldiers had had no sleep; they were wet and fasting. This did not prevent Napoleon from exclaiming cheerfully to Ney, “We have ninety chances out of a hundred.” At eight o’clock the Emperor’s breakfast was brought to him. He invited many generals to it. During breakfast, it was said that Wellington had been to a ball two nights before, in Brussels, at the Duchess of Richmond’s; and Soult, a rough man of war, with a face of an archbishop, said, “The ball takes place today.” The Emperor jested with Ney, who said, “Wellington will not be so simple as to wait for Your Majesty.” That was his way, however. “He was fond of jesting,” says Fleury de Chaboulon. “A merry humor was at the foundation of his character,” says Gourgaud. “He abounded in pleasantries, which were more peculiar than witty,” says Benjamin Constant. These gayeties of a giant are worthy of insistence. It was he who called his grenadiers “his grumblers;” he pinched their ears; he pulled their moustaches. “The Emperor did nothing but play pranks on us,” is the remark of one of them. During the mysterious trip from the island of Elba to France, on the 27th of February, on the open sea, the French brig of war, Le Zéphyr, having encountered the brig L’Inconstant, on which Napoleon was concealed, and having asked the news of Napoleon from L’Inconstant, the Emperor, who still wore in his hat the white and amaranthine cockade sown with bees, which he had adopted at the isle of Elba, laughingly seized the speaking-trumpet, and answered for himself, “The Emperor is well.” A man who laughs like that is on familiar terms with events. Napoleon indulged in many fits of this laughter during the breakfast at Waterloo. After breakfast he meditated for a quarter of an hour; then two generals seated themselves on the truss of straw, pen in hand and their paper on their knees, and the Emperor dictated to them the order of battle.

由于夜间降雨,运粮车陷在泥泞的道路中,到早晨仍未抵达；士兵们一夜未睡,又湿又饿。但这并不妨碍拿破仑兴高采烈地对内伊喊道:“我们有百分之九十的胜算。”八点钟,皇帝的早餐端了上来。他邀请了许多将军共进早餐。席间,据说威灵顿两天前晚上曾在布鲁塞尔里士满公爵夫人府参加舞会；而苏尔特--一位粗犷的军人,长着一副大主教的面孔--说道:“今天才是舞会呢。”皇帝与内伊开玩笑,后者说:“威灵顿不会那么傻,等着陛下您来。”然而,这正是他的作风。“他喜欢开玩笑,”弗勒里·德·沙布隆说。“欢快的性情是他性格的基础,”古尔戈说。“他妙语连珠,但更多是古怪而非机智,”邦雅曼·康斯坦说。巨人的这种欢快值得强调。是他称自己的掷弹兵为“他的抱怨者”；他揪他们的耳朵；他拉他们的胡子。“皇帝净跟我们逗乐,”其中一人说道。在从厄尔巴岛秘密返回法国的途中,二月二十七日,在公海上,法国军舰“西风号”遇到了搭载着拿破仑的“无常号”双桅船,并向“无常号”探问拿破仑的消息。皇帝戴着他在厄尔巴岛时采用的、饰有蜜蜂的白紫相间帽徽,笑着拿起话筒,亲自答道:“皇帝龙体安好。”这样笑的人是与事件亲密无间的。拿破仑在滑铁卢的早餐期间多次这样开怀大笑。早餐后他沉思了一刻钟；然后两位将军坐在麦秸上,手执鹅毛笔,纸放在膝盖上,皇帝向他们口述了作战命令。

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fasting /ˈfæstɪŋ/

adj. 禁食的；空腹的➕

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archbishop /ˌɑːrtʃˈbɪʃəp/

n. 大主教➕

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pleasantries /ˈplezəntriz/

n. 玩笑话；诙谐言辞➕

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amaranthine /ˌæməˈrænθɪn/

adj. 不凋的；深紫色的➕

🔊 At nine o’clock, at the instant when the French army, ranged in echelons and set in motion in five columns, had deployed-the divisions in two lines, the artillery between the brigades, the music at their head; as they beat the march, with rolls on the drums and the blasts of trumpets, mighty, vast, joyous, a sea of casques, of sabres, and of bayonets on the horizon, the Emperor was touched, and twice exclaimed, “Magnificent! Magnificent!”

九点钟,当法军以梯队排列、分五路纵队行进展开--各师排成两线,炮兵在旅之间,军乐队在前；当行军曲响起,鼓声隆隆、号角齐鸣--壮阔、浩大、欢腾,地平线上涌起一片头盔、马刀和刺刀的海洋,皇帝深受感动,两次喊道:“壮观！壮观！”

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echelons /ˈeʃəlɒnz/

n. 梯队；等级➕

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deployed /dɪˈplɔɪd/

v. 部署；展开➕

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casques /kæsks/

n. 头盔（复数）➕

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magnificent /mæɡˈnɪfɪsənt/

adj. 壮丽的；宏伟的➕

🔊 Between nine o’clock and half-past ten the whole army, incredible as it may appear, had taken up its position and ranged itself in six lines, forming, to repeat the Emperor’s expression, “the figure of six V’s.” A few moments after the formation of the battle-array, in the midst of that profound silence, like that which heralds the beginning of a storm, which precedes engagements, the Emperor tapped Haxo on the shoulder, as he beheld the three batteries of twelve-pounders, detached by his orders from the corps of Erlon, Reille, and Lobau, and destined to begin the action by taking Mont-Saint-Jean, which was situated at the intersection of the Nivelles and the Genappe roads, and said to him, “There are four and twenty handsome maids, General.”

从九点到十点半之间,全军--尽管难以置信--已就位并排成六列,用皇帝的话说,形成了“六个V字形”。阵型刚成,在那寂静深沉、如同风暴来临前、大战前夕的寂静中,皇帝看到由他下令从埃隆、雷耶和洛博军团中抽调的十二磅炮连--共三连--准备以攻占位于尼维尔路和热纳普路交叉口处的圣让山来打响战斗,便拍了拍阿克斯奥的肩膀,对他说:“将军,那里有二十四个漂亮姑娘。”

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incredible /ɪnˈkredəbl/

adj. 难以置信的➕

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heralds /ˈherəldz/

v. 预示；宣布➕

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engagements /ɪnˈɡeɪdʒmənts/

n. 交战；约定➕

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twelve-pounders /twɛlv ˈpaʊndərz/

n. 十二磅炮➕

🔊 Sure of the issue, he encouraged with a smile, as they passed before him, the company of sappers of the first corps, which he had appointed to barricade Mont-Saint-Jean as soon as the village should be carried. All this serenity had been traversed by but a single word of haughty pity; perceiving on his left, at a spot where there now stands a large tomb, those admirable Scotch Grays, with their superb horses, massing themselves, he said, “It is a pity.”

他对胜利充满信心,微笑着鼓励第一工兵连从他面前经过--他指定该连在村庄被攻克后立即为圣让山筑起街垒。这所有的安详之中只掠过一句高傲的怜悯之词:他看见左边--那里现在立着一座大墓--那令人赞叹的苏格兰灰骑兵,骑着骏马集结,便说:“真可惜。”

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sappers /ˈsæpərz/

n. 工兵➕

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haughty /ˈhɔːti/

adj. 傲慢的➕

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serenity /səˈrenəti/

n. 宁静；平静➕

🔊 Then he mounted his horse, advanced beyond Rossomme, and selected for his post of observation a contracted elevation of turf to the right of the road from Genappe to Brussels, which was his second station during the battle. The third station, the one adopted at seven o’clock in the evening, between La Belle-Alliance and La Haie-Sainte, is formidable; it is a rather elevated knoll, which still exists, and behind which the guard was massed on a slope of the plain. Around this knoll the balls rebounded from the pavements of the road, up to Napoleon himself. As at Brienne, he had over his head the shriek of the bullets and of the heavy artillery. Mouldy cannonballs, old sword-blades, and shapeless projectiles, eaten up with rust, were picked up at the spot where his horse’s feet stood. Scabra rubigine. A few years ago, a shell of sixty pounds, still charged, and with its fuse broken off level with the bomb, was unearthed. It was at this last post that the Emperor said to his guide, Lacoste, a hostile and terrified peasant, who was attached to the saddle of a hussar, and who turned round at every discharge of canister and tried to hide behind Napoleon: “Fool, it is shameful! You’ll get yourself killed with a ball in the back.” He who writes these lines has himself found, in the friable soil of this knoll, on turning over the sand, the remains of the neck of a bomb, disintegrated, by the oxidization of six and forty years, and old fragments of iron which parted like elder-twigs between the fingers.

随后他翻身上马,前进到罗索姆以外,在热纳普通往布鲁塞尔的路右侧选了一处狭高的草坡作为观察哨--这是他战斗中的第二个据点。第三个据点--晚上七点投入使用的据点--位于美丽的同盟和圣拉埃之间,十分可怕；那是一个仍然存在的较高圆丘,后卫部队在其后方平原的斜坡上集结。围绕这个圆丘,炮弹从路面的石板上反弹回来,一直飞到拿破仑本人身边。就像在布里埃纳时一样,子弹和重炮的呼啸声在他头顶回响。发霉的炮弹、旧剑刃以及锈蚀的无形弹片,在他战马驻足之处被捡起。--“锈迹斑斑”。几年前,一枚六十磅的炮弹被挖出,仍然装满炸药,引信与弹体齐平折断。正是在这最后一个据点,皇帝对他的向导拉科斯特--一个充满敌意、惊恐万分的农民,被绑在一名轻骑兵的马鞍上,每逢霰弹发射便转身试图躲到拿破仑身后--说:“傻瓜,真丢人！你会被子弹从背后打死的。”写下这些文字的人本人就曾在这圆丘松软的土壤中翻沙时,发现了一枚被四十六年锈蚀瓦解的炸弹颈部残骸,以及老旧的铁片,如同接骨木枝条般在指间碎裂。

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formidable /ˈfɔːrmɪdəbl/

adj. 可怕的；令人敬畏的➕

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knoll /nəʊl/

n. 小山丘；土墩➕

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projectiles /prəˈdʒektɪlz/

n. 抛射物；射弹➕

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disintegrated /dɪsˈɪntɪɡreɪtɪd/

adj. 分解的；碎裂的➕

🔊 Everyone is aware that the variously inclined undulations of the plains, where the engagement between Napoleon and Wellington took place, are no longer what they were on June 18, 1815. By taking from this mournful field the wherewithal to make a monument to it, its real relief has been taken away, and history, disconcerted, no longer finds her bearings there. It has been disfigured for the sake of glorifying it. Wellington, when he beheld Waterloo once more, two years later, exclaimed, “They have altered my field of battle!” Where the great pyramid of earth, surmounted by the lion, rises today, there was a hillock which descended in an easy slope towards the Nivelles road, but which was almost an escarpment on the side of the highway to Genappe. The elevation of this escarpment can still be measured by the height of the two knolls of the two great sepulchres which enclose the road from Genappe to Brussels: one, the English tomb, is on the left; the other, the German tomb, is on the right. There is no French tomb. The whole of that plain is a sepulchre for France. Thanks to the thousands upon thousands of cartloads of earth employed in the hillock one hundred and fifty feet in height and half a mile in circumference, the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean is now accessible by an easy slope. On the day of battle, particularly on the side of La Haie-Sainte, it was abrupt and difficult of approach. The slope there is so steep that the English cannon could not see the farm, situated in the bottom of the valley, which was the centre of the combat. On the 18th of June, 1815, the rains had still farther increased this acclivity, the mud complicated the problem of the ascent, and the men not only slipped back, but stuck fast in the mire. Along the crest of the plateau ran a sort of trench whose presence it was impossible for the distant observer to divine.

众所周知,拿破仑与威灵顿交战的那片平原,其起伏不平的坡面已与一八一五年六月十八日时不同。从这片悲伤的战场上取走建造纪念碑的材料,也就取走了它真实的地形起伏,使历史陷入迷茫,再也找不到它的方位。为了荣耀它,反使其变了形。威灵顿两年后再次见到滑铁卢时惊叹:“他们改变我的战场了！”在如今矗立着雄狮的巨大土丘之处,原有一个小丘,向着尼维尔路缓缓倾斜,但面向热纳普大路的一面几乎是峭壁。这峭壁的高度仍可通过封闭热纳普至布鲁塞尔道路的两座大墓的圆丘来测量:左边是英军墓,右边是德军墓。没有法军墓。整片平原都是法国的坟墓。由于成千上万车泥土被用于修筑这座一百五十英尺高、半英里周长的土丘,如今圣让山台地可通过平缓的斜坡抵达。在战役当日,尤其在圣拉埃一侧,它陡峭难行。那里的坡度十分险峻,以至于英军炮台无法看见位于谷底的农庄--那正是战斗的中心。一八一五年六月十八日,雨水进一步增加了这一坡度,泥泞使攀爬问题更加复杂,士兵们不仅向后滑,还深陷泥潭。沿着台地脊线有一条壕沟,远处观察者根本无法察觉它的存在。

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wherewithal /ˈweərwɪðɔːl/

n. 所需资金；手段➕

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escarpment /ɪˈskɑːrpmənt/

n. 陡坡；悬崖➕

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acclivity /əˈklɪvəti/

n. 向上的陡坡➕

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divine /dɪˈvaɪn/

v. 猜测；推断➕

🔊 What was this trench? Let us explain. Braine-l’Alleud is a Belgian village; Ohain is another. These villages, both of them concealed in curves of the landscape, are connected by a road about a league and a half in length, which traverses the plain along its undulating level, and often enters and buries itself in the hills like a furrow, which makes a ravine of this road in some places. In 1815, as at the present day, this road cut the crest of the plateau of Mont-Saint-Jean between the two highways from Genappe and Nivelles; only, it is now on a level with the plain; it was then a hollow way. Its two slopes have been appropriated for the monumental hillock. This road was, and still is, a trench throughout the greater portion of its course; a hollow trench, sometimes a dozen feet in depth, and whose banks, being too steep, crumbled away here and there, particularly in winter, under driving rains. Accidents happened here. The road was so narrow at the Braine-l’Alleud entrance that a passerby was crushed by a cart, as is proved by a stone cross which stands near the cemetery, and which gives the name of the dead, “Monsieur Bernard Debrye, Merchant of Brussels,” and the date of the accident, “February, 1637.” It was so deep on the tableland of Mont-Saint-Jean that a peasant, Mathieu Nicaise, was crushed there, in 1783, by a slide from the slope, as is stated on another stone cross, the top of which has disappeared in the process of clearing the ground, but whose overturned pedestal is still visible on the grassy slope to the left of the highway between La Haie-Sainte and the farm of Mont-Saint-Jean.

那是什么壕沟？让我们解释一下。布赖讷拉勒德是比利时的一个村庄；奥安是另一个。这两个村庄都隐藏在风景的曲线中,由一条约一里半长的道路相连,该道路沿着起伏的平原延伸,常像沟壑般切入山丘,某些地方形成了一条峡谷。一八一五年时,如同今日,这条道路在圣让山台地脊线上切开了热纳普和尼维尔两条大路之间的地带；只是,现在它与平原齐平；那时它是一条凹陷的道路。它的两侧斜坡已被用于建造纪念土丘。这条道路在大部分路段上曾经是、现在仍然是壕沟；一条凹陷的沟,有时深达十二英尺,其岸壁过于陡峭,到处坍塌,尤其在冬天暴雨冲刷之下。这里发生过事故。在布赖讷拉勒德入口处,道路如此狭窄,以至于一名行人被马车碾死,正如墓地附近矗立的一个石十字架所证明的那样--上面刻着死者的名字“贝尔纳·德布里先生,布鲁塞尔商人”以及事故日期“1637年2月”。在圣让山台地上,它深到使一名叫马蒂厄·尼凯斯的农民于1783年被来自坡面的滑坡压死,这由另一个石十字架记录--其顶部已在开垦土地过程中消失,但翻倒的基座仍可见于圣拉埃与圣让山农场之间大路左侧的草坡上。

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furrow /ˈfʌroʊ/

n. 犁沟；沟痕➕

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ravine /rəˈviːn/

n. 沟壑；深谷➕

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appropriated /əˈproʊprieɪtɪd/

v. 占用；挪用➕

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pedestal /ˈpedɪstl/

n. 底座；基座➕

🔊 On the day of battle, this hollow road whose existence was in no way indicated, bordering the crest of Mont-Saint-Jean, a trench at the summit of the escarpment, a rut concealed in the soil, was invisible; that is to say, terrible.

在战斗当日,这条凹陷的道路沿着圣让山脊线延伸,其存在毫无迹象显露,是峭壁顶端的一道沟壑,一条隐藏在泥土中的车辙,它不可见；也就是说,可怕至极。

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bordering /ˈbɔːrdərɪŋ/

v. 邻接；形成边界➕

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summit /ˈsʌmɪt/

n. 顶峰；最高点➕

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rut /rʌt/

n. 车辙；惯例➕

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invisible /ɪnˈvɪzəbl/

adj. 看不见的；无形的➕

Book I. Waterloo – Chapter seven: NAPOLEON IN A GOOD HUMOUR (第七章:拿破仑心情大好)

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