英文自修47：观天象易，观时代不易
本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。
本篇译者：王宥轩，沪上某名牌大学英语专业毕业生
审读、定稿、图片、背景图文：武太白
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So President Putin has signed a treaty to annex the Crimea. And now the world's attention is turning to the towns of eastern Ukraine - with some commentators predicting that Russia will set its sights on absorbing territory there as well. How are we to understand what's happening?
普京总统已签订了吞并克里米亚的条约。现在世界的目光转向了乌克兰东部小镇——一些评论员推测俄罗斯会把吞并视野扩大到这些领土。对此，我们该如何看待呢？
There's a story in the gospels 福音书in which Jesus told his critics that while they knew how to interpret the appearance of the sky – red sky at night, shepherd's delight – they couldn't interpret what he called 'the signs of the times'. They couldn't read the significance of events in the way they read the weather. There's a hint of irritation. It's not that they don't know how to, they haven't taken sufficient trouble. Reading the sky requires little more than an upward glance; reading the signs of the times requires effort.
福音书里面有这么一个故事，耶稣告诉他的批评家，尽管他们会解读天象——傍晚红霞，牧羊人喜上眉梢——他们却不会解读他所说的“时代的标识”。他们不会像看天象那样看出事件的重要性。这里流露出耶稣的一丝愠怒。原因不在于他们不懂如何看，而是他们的努力不够。观天象只需抬头仰望；而解读时代的标志则需要努力。
There was a time in the 1980s when people in my city, Sheffield设菲尔德(英国英格兰北部城市), were in regular contact with the citizens of the east Ukrainian town of Donetsk顿涅茨克（苏联顿涅茨煤田区城市）– at that time part of the soviet empire. The cities were twinned. There were sporting, cultural and civic exchanges. Inevitably we who participated got to know families and civic leaders, and found ourselves absorbing something of the history and culture; something of what made the people of eastern, mainly Russian-speaking Ukraine tick. This was the point of town-twinning.
上个世纪八十年代，我们设菲尔德人曾一度与乌克兰东部的顿涅茨克镇人保持联系——当时他们还属于苏维埃帝国。我们两个城市是姐妹城。两城间有运动、文化和民间交流。不可避免地，我们参与其中的人认识了这里的家庭和民间领袖，并吸收了他们的历史和文化；那些是东部人的独特之处，他们主要是说俄语的乌克兰人。这就是姐妹城的意义。
My interests were partly religious. On one exchange I asked a member of the city soviet – the local council - where the churches were. 'We have no churches in Donetsk', he said. He was a communist.But later our interpreter came to my hotel room, nervously took a crucifix from his pocket – a gift from his mother - and asked me to bless it. In return he explained the complex religious landscape of his country.
我的兴趣一部分来自于宗教。在一次交流中，我问了城市苏维埃的一个会员——当地的顾问——教堂都在哪里。‘我们顿涅茨克没有教堂，’他说。他是一名共产党员。但是后来，我们的翻译来到我的旅馆房间，谨慎地从口袋里拿出一个十字架——他母亲给他的礼物——要我祝福它。作为回报，他解释了他祖国的复杂宗教风貌。
In the east, Christians were members of an Orthodox Church that looked to Moscow. Towards the capital other Orthodox congregations owed allegiance to the church leadership in Kiev 基辅（乌克兰共和国首都）.But in the west, although the clergy looked Orthodox with beards and black cassocks, they were Roman Catholic. And behind this religious diversity lay histories, the most serious being the division in the second world war between those mainly in the catholic west whose fear of communism led to Nazi sympathies, and those in places like Donetsk who resisted the Nazis and paid the price. The story my hosts told about themselves invariably began with the remembrance of this war-time betrayal, suffering and eventual liberation by the Red Army. Recalling all this makes me anxious about some readings of what is happening in the Ukraine now.
在东部，基督教徒都是臣服于莫斯科的东正教成员。而莫斯科的其他东正教会众则拥护在基辅的宗教领袖。但在西部，尽管牧师的胡子和黑色教士袍看起来像东正教的，（其实）他们是罗马天主教的。宗教多样化背后是有历史原因的，最严重的就是二战期间的分裂，那些西部的天主教派害怕共产主义而支持纳粹，而那些在顿涅茨克等地的人反对纳粹，并付出了代价。招待者们说的故事总是从二战时期的那次背叛开始，到遭遇不幸，到最终被苏联红军解放。回想这一切，我很担忧一些报道中提到的乌克兰正在发生的事情。
Almost all the conflicts of recent years–from Iraq to Syria and now the Ukraine - have involved populations with similar complex religious and political histories. Interpreting the signs of the times requires the effort of learning them. It's not like reading the sky at night.
近年来几乎所有冲突——从伊拉克到叙利亚，及现在的乌克兰——（这些地方的）民众都有着复杂的宗教和政治历史。解读时代的标识需要努力去研究它们。这并不像晚上观天象那么简单。