第91章 光榮的荊棘路 The Thorny Road of Honor(第4/9 頁)

那個非洲人，五官粗鈍、嘴唇厚實、頭髮捲曲，坐在葡萄牙首都宮殿的大理石臺階上乞討。

the African, with blunt features, thick lips, and woolly hair, sits on the marble steps of the palace in the capital of portugal, and begs.

他是卡蒙斯溫順的奴隸，要不是他，要不是路人扔給他的銅幣，他的主人 ——《盧濟塔尼亞人之歌》的詩人 —— 就要餓死了。現在，一座昂貴的紀念碑標誌著卡蒙斯的墳墓。

he is the submissive slave of camoens, and but for him, and for the copper coins thrown to him by the passers - by, his master, the poet of the “Lusiad,” would die of hunger. Now, a costly monument marks the grave of camoens.

又有一幅新畫面。

there is a new picture.

在鐵柵欄後面出現了一個人，臉色像死人一樣蒼白，鬍鬚又長又亂。

behind the iron grating a man appears, pale as death, with long unkempt beard.

“我有一個發現，” 他說，“是幾個世紀以來最偉大的發現；而他們卻把我關在這裡二十多年了！”

“I have made a discovery,” he says, “the greatest that has been made for centuries; and they have kept me locked up here for more than twenty years!”

這個人是誰？

who is the man?

“一個瘋子，” 瘋人院的看守回答道。

“A madman,” replies the keeper of the madhouse.

“這些瘋子的想法真是稀奇古怪！他居然想象能用蒸汽推動東西。”

“what whimsical ideas these lunatics have! he imagines that one can propel things by means of steam.”

這人是所羅門?德?卡雷斯，蒸汽動力的發現者，他用晦澀的話語表述的理論，黎塞留都沒能理解；他死在了瘋人院裡。

It is Solomon de cares, the discoverer of the power of steam, whose theory, expressed in dark words, is not understood by Richelieu; and he dies in the madhouse.

這裡站著哥倫布，以前街頭的孩子們常常跟著他嘲笑他，因為他想發現一個新世界；而他已經發現了。

here stands columbus, whom the street boys used once