It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way—in short, the period was so.
那是最好的时代，也是最糟糕的时代，那是智慧的时代，也是愚蠢的时代，那是信仰的纪元，也是怀疑的纪元，那是光明的季节，也是黑暗的季节，那是希望的春天，也是绝望的冬天。我们拥有一切，我们一无所有，我们都直接前往天堂，我们都直接走向另一边-总之，那个时期是如此。 —-

far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
与现在这个时期非常相似，以致其中一些最喧嚣的权威坚持认为，它应该以最高级的程度来评价，无论是好还是坏。 —-

There were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a plain face, on the throne of England;
在英格兰的王位上坐着一位下巴宽阔的国王和一位相貌平平的皇后； —-

there were a king with a large jaw and a queen with a fair face, on the throne of France.
在法国的王位上坐着一位下巴宽阔的国王和一位相貌美丽的皇后。在这两个国家， —-

In both countries it was clearer than crystal to the lords of the State preserves of loaves and fishes, that things in general were settled for ever.
对两国支配着国家全部财富的老爷来说，国家大局足以万岁千秋乃是比水晶还清楚的事，事情总体上已经安定下来。 —-

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.
那是公元一千七百七十五年，在这个幸运的时期， —-

Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, a sat this.
灵性的启示授予了英格兰，就像这个时期。 —-

Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster.
南科特夫人最近刚刚度过了她的二十五岁生日，一个在近卫军队中预言家式的自称，宣布已经安排了吞噬伦敦和威斯敏斯特的壮丽景象。 —-

Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past (supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs.
即使是那只Cock-lane的鬼魂也只是在十几年前被驱散，在敲响了它的信息之后，正如这一年的灵魂（在原创性方面超自然地不够）敲响了它们的信息一样。 —-

Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.
最近，从一个英国人在美洲的代表大会上，英国的国王和人民收到了些许信息，奇怪的是，这些信息对人类比起任何通过Cock-lane卜筮鸡得到的信息更为重要。

France, less favoured on the whole as to matters spiritual than her sister of the shield and trident, rolled with exceeding smoothness down hill, making paper money and spending it.
法国整体上在灵性事务上不及她那个有着盾牌和三叉戟的姐妹受到青睐，但她却非常顺利地滚下山坡，制造纸币并花费它。 —-

Under the guidance of her Christian pastors, she entertained herself besides, with such humane achievements as sentencing a youth to have his hands cut off, his tongue torn out with pincers, and his body burned alive, because he had not kneeled down in the rain to do honour to a dirty procession of monks which passed within his view, at a distance of some fifty or sixty yards.
在基督教牧师的指导下，她还进行了一些人道的壮举，比如判决一个年轻人被砍掉双手，用镊子撕掉舌头，然后在火中活活烧死，因为他在雨中没有跪下来向他视野中经过的一队肮脏的修道士行礼，尽管他们与他相距大约五六十码。 —-

It is likely enough that, rooted in the woods of France and Norway, there were growing trees, when that sufferer was put to death, already marked by the Woodman, Fate, to comedown and be sawn into boards, to make a certain movable framework with a sack and a knife in it, terrible in history.
很有可能，在法国和挪威的森林里已经有一些树木在那名受难者被处死时被伐木工标记，并准备将它们锯成木板，用来制作某个可移动的架构，里面装有一个袋子和一把刀，这在历史上是可怕的。 —-

It is likely enough that in the rough outhouses old some tillers of the heavy lands adjacent to Paris, there were sheltered from the weather that very day, rude carts, be spattered with rustic mire, snuffed about by pigs, and roosted in by poultry, which the Farmer, Death, had already set apart to be his tumbrils of the Revolution.
很有可能，在巴黎附近的沉重土地的一些简陋的农舍中，那天正好有些被田地附近耕种者遮风蔽雨的粗糙的推车，上面沾满了乡村的泥巴，被猪嗅闻着，被家禽所栖息，这些农夫，死神，已经准备好将它们列为革命中的运转车辆。 —-

But that Woodman and that Farmer, though they work unceasingly, work silently, and no one heard them as they went about with muffled tread:
但是那位伐木工和那位农夫，虽然工作不断，但却默默无声，而且没有人听到他们悄悄行动的声音： —-

the rather, for as much as to entertain any suspicion that they were awake, was to be atheistical and traitorous.
更不用说，有人怀疑他们是否醒着，那将是不信神和叛国的行径。

In England, there was scarcely an amount of order and protection to justify much national boasting.
在英格兰，几乎没有足以让人引以为傲的秩序和保护。 —-

Daring burglaries by armed men, and highway robberies, took place in the capital itself every night;
武装人员胆大的入室抢劫和公开的高速公路抢劫每晚都在首都发生； —-

families were publicly cautioned not to go out of town without removing their furniture to upholsterers’ warehouses for security;
城市里家庭公开受到提醒，不要离开城镇而不将家具搬到装饰商的仓库以确保安全； —-

the highwayman in the dark was a City tradesman in the light, and, being recognised and challenged by his fellow-tradesman whom he stopped in his character of ‘the Captain, ‘gallantly shot him through the head and rode away;
在黑暗中的高路盗贼在光亮中是个城市商人，而且，被他认出并挑战的同行们阻止了他，他壮举地朝他头上开了一枪，然后骑着马逃走了； —-

the mail was waylaid by seven robbers, and the guard shot three dead, and then got shot dead himself by the other four, ‘in consequence of the failure of his ammunition:
邮件被七个强盗埋伏了，保镖开枪打死了三个，然后他自己被另外四个击毙了，因为他的弹药用尽了：此后， —-

after which the mail was robbed in Peace;
邮件在和平中被抢劫； —-

that magnificent potentate, the Lord Mayor of London, was made to stand and deliver on Turnham Green, by one highwayman, who despoiled the illustrious creature insight of all his retinue;
那个宏伟的大人物，伦敦市长，被一个强盗逼停并发掘在特恩哈姆绿地上，掠夺了这位显赫人物的全部随从和财产； —-

prisoners in London gaols fought battles with their turnkeys, and the majesty of the law fired blunderbusses in among them, loaded with rounds of shot and ball;
在伦敦监狱里，囚犯与狱卒战斗，法律的威严也向他们开火，满膛的炮弹和子弹在他们之间飞舞： —-

thieves snipped off diamond crosses from the necks of noble lords at Court drawing-rooms;
窃贼们从贵族大臣在宫廷招待会上的颈项上剪下钻石十字架； —-

musketeers went into St. Giles’s, to search for contraband goods, and the mob fired on the musketeers, and the musketeers fired on the mob, and nobody thought any of these occurrences much out of the common way.
火铳兵走进圣吉尔斯教堂，搜查走私品，暴民朝火铳兵开火，火铳兵朝暴民开火，没有人认为这些事件有多么特殊； —-

In the midst of them, the hangman, ever busy and ever worse than useless, was in constant requisition; now, stringing up long rows of miscellaneous criminals; now, hanging a house-breaker on Saturday who had been taken on Tuesday;
在这一切的中心，绞刑手忙碌而又无用，不断被征用；有时候，绞死一长排犯人；有时候，在周六绞死一个周二被抓住的入室盗窃者； —-

now, burning people in the hand at Newgate by the dozen, and now burning pamphlets at the door of Westminster Hall;
有时候，一下子在纽盖特给人们手上点火；有时候，在威斯敏斯特宫门口烧毁小册子； —-

to-day, taking the life of an atrocious murderer, and to-morrow of a wretched pilferer who had robbed a farmer’s boy of sixpence.
有时，处死一个凶残的杀人犯，明天又处死一个偷走一个农夫孩子六便士的可怜小偷；

All these things, and a thousand like them, came to pass in and close upon the dear old year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five.
所有这些事情以及千千万万类似的事情都发生在并且紧随亲爱的一千七百七十五年。在这些事件包围下， —-

Environed by them, while the Woodman and the Farmer worked unheeded, those two of the large jaws, and those other two of the plain and the fair laces, trod with stir enough, and carried their divine rights with a high hand.
木匠和农民工作着，没有人注意到他们，而那两个巨口的人，以及另外那两个面容普通和漂亮的人。他们傲慢地行走，昂首示众他们的神圣权利。 —-

Thus did the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five conduct their Greatnesses, and myriads of small creatures—the creatures of this chronicle among the rest—along the roads that lay before them.
这样，一七七五年为他们的伟大服务，以及成千上万的小生物——本编年史中的众生之一——沿着眼前的道路前行。