本文作者是雅各布?布羅諾夫斯基，英國(guó)著名學(xué)者，編寫(xiě)的《人類(lèi)的發(fā)展》是著名的電視系列片。本文選自第八章，由吳千之翻譯。本文是典型的非文學(xué)翻譯，翻譯現(xiàn)象體現(xiàn)得較為明顯。

The country was a place where men worked from dawn to dark, and the labourer lived not in the sun, but in poverty and darkness

在農(nóng)村，人們從早到晚都得干活，勞動(dòng)者并不是沐浴在陽(yáng)光下，而是生活在貧困和黑暗之中。

What aids there were to lighten labour were immemorial, like the mill, which was already ancient in Chaucer's time.

那些幫助減輕勞動(dòng)的機(jī)械都不知從哪個(gè)年代起就有了，比如磨坊，在喬叟的時(shí)代就已經(jīng)是古老的了。

The Industrial Revolution began with such machines; the millwrights were the engineers of the coming age.

而產(chǎn)業(yè)革命就是從這些機(jī)械開(kāi)始的。修造磨坊的匠人就是開(kāi)創(chuàng)新時(shí)代的工程師。

James Brindley of Staffordshire started his self-made career in 1733 by working at mill wheels, at the age of seventeen, having been born poor in a village.

斯塔福郡的詹姆斯?布林德雷，出生于一個(gè)貧苦的農(nóng)村家庭；1733年，他十七歲，就著手改良磨坊的車(chē)輪，從而開(kāi)始了他那自我?jiàn)^斗的生涯。

Brindley's improvements were practical to sharpen and step up the performance of the water wheel as a machine.

布林德雷所做出的改良是很實(shí)際的：改善并加強(qiáng)水車(chē)的機(jī)械功能。

It was the first multi-purpose machine for the new industries.

這是為新工業(yè)提供的第一部多功能機(jī)器。

Brindley worked, for example, to improve the grinding of flints, which were used in the rising pottery industry.

例如，布林德雷努力改進(jìn)燧石的碾磨過(guò)程，燧石是新興的陶瓷工業(yè)有用的材料。

Yet there was a bigger movement in the air by 1750.

而到了1750年，一場(chǎng)更大的運(yùn)動(dòng)已經(jīng)在醞釀之中。

Water had become the engineers’element, and men like Brindley were possessed by it.

水成了工程師們大顯身手的對(duì)象，像布林德雷這樣的人對(duì)它都著了迷。

Water was gushing and fanning out all over the countryside. It was not simply a source of power, it was a new wave of movement.

水在農(nóng)村到處涌流漫溢，它不僅是一種能源，而且?guī)?lái)了一場(chǎng)新的運(yùn)動(dòng)。

James Brindley was a pioneer in the art of building canals or, as it was then called, 'navigation'.

詹姆斯?布林德雷是開(kāi)鑿運(yùn)河的先驅(qū)者，當(dāng)時(shí)人們把開(kāi)鑿運(yùn)河叫做“navigation”。

Brindley had begun on his own account, out of interest, to survey the waterways that he travelled as he went about his engineering projects for mills and mines.

布林德雷在為他的磨坊和礦井建筑工程到處奔走的時(shí)候，出于自愿和興趣。對(duì)沿途經(jīng)過(guò)的河道進(jìn)行了勘察。

The Duke of Bridgewater then got him to build a canal to carry coal from the Duke's pits at Worsley to the rising town of Manchester..

于是布里奇瓦特公爵就讓他開(kāi)一條運(yùn)河，以便把煤從公爵在烏斯利擁有的礦井運(yùn)往新興城市曼徹斯特.....

Brindley went on to connect Manchester with Liverpool in an even bolder manner, and in all laid out almost four hundred miles of canals in a network all over England.

布林德雷還更加大膽地用運(yùn)河把曼徹斯特同利物浦聯(lián)結(jié)起來(lái)，修鑿了總長(zhǎng)度為四百英里的遍布全英國(guó)的運(yùn)河網(wǎng)。

Two things are outstanding in the creation of the English system of canals, and they characterize all the Industrial Revolution.

有兩點(diǎn)在修建英國(guó)運(yùn)河網(wǎng)的過(guò)程中非常突出，而這兩點(diǎn)也正是整個(gè)產(chǎn)業(yè)革命的特點(diǎn)。

One is that the men who made the revolution were practical men.

首先，發(fā)動(dòng)這場(chǎng)革命的都是些實(shí)干家。

Like Brindley, they often had little education, and in fact school education as it then was could only dull an inventive mind.

同布林德雷一樣，他們一般都沒(méi)有受過(guò)什么教育，事實(shí)上，當(dāng)時(shí)那種學(xué)校教育也只能窒息人的創(chuàng)造性。

The grammar schools legally could only teach the classical subjects for which they had been founded.

按規(guī)定，文法學(xué)校只能講授古典學(xué)科，這些學(xué)校的辦學(xué)宗旨本來(lái)就是如此。

The universities also (there were only two, at Oxford and Cambridge) took little interest in modern or scientific studies; and they were closed to those who did not conform to the Church of England.

大學(xué)(當(dāng)時(shí)只有兩所，一所在牛津，一所在劍橋)對(duì)現(xiàn)代的或科學(xué)的學(xué)科也不怎么感興趣，這兩所大學(xué)還把不信奉英國(guó)國(guó)教的人關(guān)在門(mén)外。

The other outstanding feature is that the new inventions were for everyday use.

第二個(gè)突出的特點(diǎn)是：新發(fā)明都是為日常生活服務(wù)的。

The canals were arteries of communication: They were not made to carry pleasure boats, but barges.

運(yùn)河是交通的動(dòng)脈，開(kāi)鑿運(yùn)河不是為了通行游艇，而是為了通行駁船。

And the barges were not made to carry luxuries, but pots and pans and bales of cloth, boxes of ribbon, and all the common things that people buy by the pennyworth.

而駁船也不是為了運(yùn)送奢侈品，而是為了運(yùn)送瓦罐鐵鍋、成包的棉布、成箱的緞帶，以及那些只花個(gè)把便土就能買(mǎi)到的各式日用品。

These things had been manufactured in villages which were growing into towns now, away from London; it was a country-wide trade.

這些物品都是在遠(yuǎn)離倫敦漸漸發(fā)展成為城鎮(zhèn)的農(nóng)村制造的。這是一場(chǎng)全國(guó)范圍的貿(mào)易。

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