2019年翻译资格考试笔译一级模拟题（1）

The Travels of Marco Polo was conceived in a prison cell in Genoa, Italy, in 1298. A few years earlier Polo had returned to the West after an epic journey that lasted some 24 years. He then saw action in a naval battle between the Venetian and Genoese fleets, and was captured. It was in jail that he met and befriended Rustichello of Pisa, a well-known writer and collector of Arthurian romances. Their collaboration yielded a book that would give Europe its first authoritative account of the Middle and Far East, in particular China, and reveal the presence of a vast empire and advanced civilization far greater than anything Europeans could achieve or even imagine.

More than 100 copies of that long-lost original exist, many dating from the 14th and 15th centuries. There is no definitive manuscript, however, and all existing versions have been embellished, doctored or censored by the Christian establishment over the years. Modern editions are thus collations and translations of imperfect copies. This murky history helps explain why the book describes what the Venetian could not possibly have seen, and overlooks sights that any traveler to China must have witnessed — like the Great Wall, foot-binding and chopsticks. Skeptics say that Polo never ventured to China and that he and Rustichello used second-hand information from other travelers, especially Arab traders. Certainly, there is no hard historical evidence that Polo actually visited all the places he describes. But most of the detail has since been corroborated by historians and geographers, confounding critics and confirming the importance of the book as the fullest and most accurate account of Asia in its time.

Originally called Description of the World, Travels aims for geographical completeness, not the immediacy and excitement of personal encounter. It’s not a travelogue. Consistent with the possibility that Polo was not an eyewitness, his book is not “on-the-spot” reporting, and only loosely follows an itinerary. To modern audiences, the book may seem dull and repetitive, to be dipped into, not read cover to cover. Yet Travels was a revolutionary piece of writing. It radically altered European understanding of Asia by forcing the West to recognize a superior culture in the East, and, by describing with such verve the luxuries and sensuousness of Chinese cities, it impressed the idea of an exotic East on the European psyche.

【参考译文】

1298年，《马可·波罗游记》创作于热那亚的一家监狱里。几年前，波罗在结束了长达24年的漫长旅行之后，返回了西方。不久，由于他参加了威尼斯舰队与热那亚舰队之间的海战，因而被捕。正是在监狱里，他结识了比萨的鲁斯提契洛——一位以写作亚瑟王的故事而出名的作家。两人通力合作，完成了欧洲有史以来第一部关于中东及远东(特别是中国)的权威著述，并展现了当时欧洲人根本无法企及和想象的辽阔帝国与先进文明。

虽然该书的原本早已失传，但有100多种刻印本保存了下来，其中许多来自14~15世纪。然而，没有哪一份手稿堪称权威版本，所有现存的版本都受到了基督教会的润色、改动或审查。因此，现代的版本乃是针对原本就不完善的刊印本的校勘和翻译版本。这也解释了为什么该书描述了波罗根本不可能见过的事情，却又漏掉了任何去过中国的旅行者都应见过的景象——例如长城、裹脚和筷子。怀疑者声称波罗从未去过中国，他和鲁斯提契洛只不过是利用了其他旅行者(特别是阿拉伯商人)的二手信息罢了。诚然，对于波罗是否确实去过他所描绘的那些地方并没有切实的史实证明，但是书中的绝大多数细节后来都得到了历史学家和地理学家的证实，这也就反击了批评者，并印证了该书作为当时对亚洲最全面准确的记录所享有的重要性。

该书原本起名为《寰宇记》，旨在追求地理上的完整性，而不是直接描述个人经历。它不是一本写实的旅行见闻录。鉴于波罗有可能并非实际的经历者，因此他的书也就谈不上是一本“现场”记录。对现代读者而言，该书也许显得无聊而啰嗦，随手翻翻尚可，不值得逐页细读。虽然如此，《游记》仍不失为一部革新性的作品。它迫使西方认识到东方存在的超级文明，生动描述了中国城市的奢华，从而彻底改变了欧洲人对亚洲的认识，把东方的奇妙之处深深印入了欧洲人的脑海。