《经济学家》读译参考：咸话地中海(1)

Salty tales

　　Nov 16th 2006
　　From The Economist print edition

　　JOHN JULIUS NORWICH is the author of more than a dozen books on Norman Sicily①, the Sahara, Mount Athos② and the Venetian and Byzantine empires. Yet even his immense knowledge is not enough to keep his latest chronicle-of 5,000 years of Mediterranean history-from appearing somewhat lopsided[1].

　　Lord Norwich's first test, he notes in his introduction to "The Middle Sea", was to compensate for an ignorance of Spain. He records that he was fortuitously invited to dinner by "my dear friend" the Spanish ambassador to London and "a few weeks later there came an invitation for my wife and me to spend ten days in Spain." It is hard to believe that was all the effort he made, for he acquits himself well, even in the convoluted[2] diplomacy that ended in the war of the Spanish succession.

　　Lord Norwich's second task was to strike a balance over time. "The Middle Sea" reaches from ancient Egypt to the first world war. Like many long, chronological narratives, it becomes progressively more detailed, though it is debatable whether this is a good thing. Few people have changed the region as much as the Romans, yet their republic's five centuries get only a page more than the great siege of Gibraltar which began in 1779.

　　Lord Norwich's final, and arguably most important, challenge is the area that is most likely to engage modern readers: the intermittent, but frequently savage, conflict between Muslims and Christians. Impatient with the notion, echoed most recently and disastrously by Pope Benedict, that the Koran sanctions the spreading of Islam by the sword, Lord Norwich is no Islamophobe. He is hostile to the Crusades and fulsome[3] in his praise of that traditional Western schoolbook villain, Saladin③.

　　Yet his account remains disappointingly focused from Christendom[4] outwards. It is true that Muslims do appear in his book-usually in battle-but they rarely speak. Only two items in the 170-volume bibliography are by Arab scholars and only one is by a Turk. This is unabashedly history of the old school: Eurocentric （Octavian④, the author declares without irony, was the "undisputed master of the known world"） and largely uninterested in what other economic, social and technological changes may have shaped events.

　　What fires Lord Norwich is recounting the doings of princes and preachers, warriors, courtiers and courtesans[5]. And he does it with consummate[6] skill. He spices his narrative liberally with entertaining anecdotes, deft portraits and brisk judgments. Aristotle, for example, is given short shrift[7] as "one of the most reactionary intellectuals that ever lived". Lord Norwich's control of his vast and complex subject matter is masterly. And the subject matter itself is as colourful as history can get. No sooner have readers bidden farewell to a short, fat, dissolute sultan, Selim the Sot, than they encounter the "piratical Uskoks, a heterogeneous, but exceedingly troublesome community". Although few will resist the temptation to keep turning the pages, readers will close this monumental work exhilarated and informed, but with plenty of questions still unanswered.

　　[NOTES]（LONGMAN）

　　1. lopsided adj. 倾向一方的
　　2. convolute v. 旋转，盘旋
　　3. fulsome adj. 过分的，令人生厌的
　　4. Christendom n. 基督教（总称）
　　5. courtesan n. 官妓，情妇
　　6. consummate adj. 完美的，圆满的，绝顶的；老练的
　　7. give short shrift to 对……漠不关心

　　背景知识：

　　①Sicily西西里：意大利南部一岛屿，位于意大利半岛南端以西的地中海。从公元前 8世纪起成为希腊殖民地，希腊人赶走了早期定居在此的腓尼基人。迦太基人成为下一个征服者，他们在 公元前 3世纪又被罗马人所征服。在经过其他人相继统治之后， 公元 11世纪该岛被置于诺曼人管辖之下，并形成了两西西里王国的核心部分，由西西里和意大利南部组成。该岛继续多次易手，直到1860年朱森珀
　　·加里波第征服了最后一个王国为止，它成为统一后的意大利的一部分

　　②Mount Athos阿陀斯山：位于希腊东北部的一座山峰，海拔约2,034米（6,670英尺），它是实际上独立的阿陀斯山 修道院社区所在地，该修道院最初建于10世纪

　　③Saladin萨拉丁：埃及和叙利亚的苏丹，1187年占领耶路撒冷，抗击第三次十字军东征期间（1189-1192年）保卫此城

　　④Octavian渥大维，即奥古斯都：罗马帝国第一任皇帝（公元前 27年─ 公元 14年）
　　·尤利斯，凯撒的侄孙。他于公元前31年打败马克安东尼及克娄巴特拉，然后得到了整个帝国的统治权，于公元前29年称皇帝，并于公元前27年被授予奥古斯都荣誉称号

　　⑤Uskok流亡于达尔马提亚地区的一支克罗地亚人,常参与对土作战。